In this podcast, Winkler talks about security and intelligence vulnerabilities companies and public utilities face, and security problems with social networking and how to avoid them. He also comments on Homeland Security's direction to provide all federal employees and federal contractors with a universal personal IT card. Finally, he provides three takeaway CIOs can use for improving their corporate security.

If you think your organization's security measures are bulletproof, then think again. Give Ira Winkler, along with his team of security expert from Internet Security Advisors, a few hours to simulate what it would take insurgents to bring down critical systems, or to electronically pilfer millions of dollars. A former intelligence and security analyst with the National Security Agency, Winkler's security consulting firm, Internet Security Advisors, acts as a trusted partner in helping Fortune 500, public utilities, and government agencies conduct penetration tests. His firm also mitigates the problems found in the simulation, and carries out awareness training.

Winkler's penetration tests run the gamut from breaking into some of the world's largest corporations to breaking into the nation's largest power grid. As a result, the media has given Winkler the title of Modern James Bond. He has put his experience to work in his three books: Spies Among US, Zen and the Art of Information Security, and Corporate Espionage.

Winkler says that he would give a poor rating to the security infrastructure of most Fortune 1000 companies. "Of course, the strength of security varies from company to company. In many cases, the security is so poor that I can walk out of the company with their crown jewels within a few hours. CIOs of these companies have something to worry about, especially now with the economic downturn with most companies."

Bio
Ira Winkler is the founder and president of the Internet Security Advisors Group. Before starting his own security consulting firm, Winkler was director of technology of the National Computer Security Association. He also worked as an intelligence and computer systems analyst at the National Security Agency. He holds two security certifications: CISSP and CISM. Winkler is the author of Spies Among Us, the Art of Information Security, and Corporate Espionage. He also has taught at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland. His security articles frequently appear in magazines and major metropolitan newspapers.

Resources
ResourcesOpinion: Why NSA Spying Puts the U.S. in Danger - Computerworld
The Grill: Security Maven Ira Winkler Takes the Hot Seat - Computerworld

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer
Audio Editing by Doug Marcis

PeopleSoft. Brocade. and Forte. All of these IT companies got their start with funding from Norwest Venture Partners. Since its inception more than 45 years ago, Norwest has funded more than 400 IT companies in areas ranging from infrastructure to security. Today, the $2.5 billion fund concentrates on early-stage IT companies in areas such as semiconductors and components. enterprise software and service, communications systems and Internet infrastructure.

So what technologies does a VC firm like Norwest find particularly attractive these days? Robert Abbott, general partner at Norwest, says, "CIOs want to buy things that are easy to deploy and to manage over time. To this end, we like managed infrastructure services, such as outsourced security, and enterprise applications based on software as a service. We also like enterprise applications based on an appliance model. With so much emphasis on virtualization, we're looking for things that will take the challenge out of managing all those virtual machines. We still continue to fund things that make it easier to manage all the systems in a data center.

Like many venture capital firms, Norwest values its strong relationships with CIOs and other people in the IT industry. Abbott says, "We're always looking to expand our network of CIOs. We like hearing about the IT problems they're trying to solve. Likewise, we like to show CIOs portfolio companies with solutions that could potentially help them. If any CIO is interested in networking with Norwest Venture Partners, please contact Elizabeth Ferrarini at elizabethferrarini@yahoo.com.

Bio
Since joining Norwest Venture Partners in 1998, Robert Abbott has focused primarily on infrastructure, systems and components. He sits on the board of ClariPhy, KACE, mBlox, Mozes, Occam Networks, Stream Processors and Xilient. He has also worked with such companies as Embark, Escalate (acquired by GERS), mPower (acquired by Morningstar), Quantum Effect Devices (acquired by PMC-Sierra), and Summit Microelectronics.

Abbott has nine years of operational experience in various roles, from engineering to marketing and product management. Before joining Norwest, Abbott was at Silicon Graphics. Prior to Silicon Graphics, he worked at IBM-ROLM Systems. He holds a bachelor of science and a master of science in electrical engineering and an MBA, all from Stanford University.

Resources
Spectator  Business - Brits Go to Silicon Valley

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive  Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio  Producer
AlarmMusic.com Production Music  Library for Broadcast, Film, Video & Post Production

Thanks for listening - if you have any questions, ideas or insights you want  to share with us feel free to send an email at feedback@enterpriseleadership.org - we look forward to hearing from you.

If you ask Paul Heller, the CIO of Vanguard, to describe his IT organization, most likely he'll say one word: "Awesome!"

One might say that Vanguard, a mutual fund company that manages more than $900 billion in assets for 19 million customers, has created its own IT vanguard. The 2,600-person, in-house IT team, supplemented by 300 contractors and 500 business-unit professionals involved in IT, built 70 percent of the applications, and purchased the remainder of them from large software suppliers. The highly centralized IT organization aligns functionally and strategically, not physically, with each of the major business units.

During his 23-year career with Vanguard, Heller, who became CIO in 2006, has held many leadership positions which have included driving revenue and managing technology. But, Heller says, he loves being at the intersection of technology and business. "To lead a business, you need to understand and appreciate the value of the technology being used." And, given the mere four-percent employee turnover rate that IT enjoys, it's obvious that his organization appreciates his leadership.

Join us for a conversation with Vanguard CIO Paul Heller, about the strategies and issues at work 24/7 in a company where IT is at the core of business success.

Resources

The Vanguard Group| Paul Heller: "Simplifying the Mutual Fund Maze with Technology"

Techniques for Measuring IT's Effectiveness

Bio

Paul A. Heller is Vanguard's chief information officer, responsible for overseeing all aspects of Vanguard's use of technology to provide high-quality, cost-effective services for Vanguard shareholders. Mr. Heller joined Vanguard in October 1984 and has held leadership positions in the company's corporate, institutional, and retail divisions. Prior to becoming CIO, he was responsible for overseeing Vanguard's core retail business that provides service to approximately four million clients with over $150 billion in assets. Mr. Heller earned a bachelor's degree in engineering and economics from Tufts University and is a graduate of Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program.

Production Credits

Elizabeth Ferrarini, Producer
Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show Host

Airport Terminal. High Rise Office Building. Hotel Room. As more and more mobile devices enable people to work efficiently wherever they are, companies of all sizes have started to rethink their need for pricey office space, or even if they need it. However, many companies do need to maintain some sort of a physical office for customer visits or to attract venture capital. Employees, such as auditors working out of state, might need fully equipped, temporary office space for several weeks.

Enter instant office space brought to you by Mark Dixon, one of Europe's best-known innovative entrepreneurs.  He has a knack for combining technology, people, and physical office space to give customers flexible options for working in the virtual world. In 1989, Dixon started The Regus Group in Belgium to offer customers fully staffed contractual office space, as well as contractual meeting space, and virtual offices. Today Regus operates more than 950 business centers in 400 cities in 70 countries, making it the largest provider of outsourced workspace.  Regus has partnerships with Air France, American Airlines, Nokia, and American Express. The Regus brands include HQ, Laptop Lane, Stratis, and Business Meeting Places.

During his 19 years at the Regus helm, Dixon, who once sold hot dogs, has learned to steer his course through some turbulent waters, including bankruptcy. His expansion in the U.S. market in 2001 came when the country's economy was in a downtown and there was an overabundance of office space.  In 2004, Regus successfully entered the U.S. market by acquiring HQ.

In this podcast, Mark Dixon, founder and CEO of The Regus Group, talks about how he drives leadership and innovation at Regus, what technology his instant office space offers customers, and what lessons he learned after spending time with Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric.

Bio

Mark Dixon is the founder and chief executive office of the The Regus Group, which provides professional workplaces and meeting rooms. Before founding The Regus Group in 1989, he had been owner and managing director of several British firms. He has received the Entrepreneur of the Year award from Ernst & Young and Enterprise magazine, and the UK Property Entrepreneur of the Year award from Property Week magazine.

Resources

Office of the Future

Elizabeth M. Ferrarini,  Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and  Audio Producer
5AlarmMusic.com, Music

In the 1997 Sci-Fi thriller “Contact,” Jody Foster played a research scientist at work on a project called “SETI” — the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The “search,” as it turns out, did not involve death-defying space voyages into unknown galaxies (well, not initially, anyway), but the slow, methodical crunching of data gathered from hundreds of radiotelescopes, turned to the sky like giant ears, listening for ... something.

As it turns out, “Contact,” is based on a real project involving signals gathered with radiotelescopes and analyzed at the SETI Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to exploring, understanding, and explaining the origin, nature, and prevalence of life in the universe. But unlike the movie, which only references in passing the essential work of gathering and analyzing all that data, geeks among us might be interested in how a nonprofit institute based at a publicly-funded university could afford the kind of megacomputing power necessary to coax even the weakest of signals from the sky.

A top-secret government supercomputer?

No. The SETI@Home project has found a way to create the worlds largest and most powerful supercomputer, by tapping into something called Volunteer Computing — breaking up all that data into small chunks that are downloaded by home computer users around the world. These chunks are crunched by the volunteers’ CPUs when they are not in use; next, the SETI program notifies the user, who uploads the analyzed data chunk and downloads another from the site. Thousands of hours of CPU time, 24/7, are donated free of charge to the project, and thousands of home computer users become members of a community of ever-widening citizen scientists.

In this interview, meet the project’s director, David Anderson, who talks about SETI@home and other projects that now reside under the umbrella of the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (yep, BOINC). Learn how Anderson, with just one other staff member, navigate issues like security and project management, to push the limits of both distributed computing and Open Source computing to intergalactic heights.

Bio

David Anderson is a research scientist, principal investigator, and director of the University of California at Berkeley’s BOINC project and SETI@home project. His research interests include distributed systems, realtime and multimedia systems, graphics, computer music, communication protocols, and psychometrics applied to learning and aesthetic preference.

Resources

SETI@home

BOINC

Production Credits

Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities  Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show  Host
Kimberly Stone, Web Development  Manager
Scott Ebner, Web Developer

Sometimes, control can be beautiful ... especially in the complex (and expensive) arena of IT governance. And that is when CobiT -- the Control objects for IT -- can be beautiful, too, helping you to streamline and improve your processes for managing IT service delivery. And not many people understand this better than Gary Hardy, IT consultant and contributor to the original initiative that created CobiT.

CobiT was established by the nonprofit IT  Governance Institute (ITGI), formed to help business leaders "ensure that IT is aligned with the business and delivers value, its performance is measured, its resources properly allocated, and its risks mitigated." Although CobiT predated it, interest in CobiT grew considerably after the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted in 2002, following the very-public reality checks involving Enron, MCI, and others. CobiT is often used as a framework in which corporations can address the demands of SOX, and the processes it introduces include how enterprises:
- acquire or develop application software
- acquire  technology Infrastructure
- develop and maintain policies and procedures 
- install and test application software and technology infrastructure, and  more.

Want to know more about CobiT? Tune in to this educational podcast, and spend a little time getting to know how control can be beautiful for your enterprise.

Bio

Gary Hardy is a Computer Science graduate with 30 years experience in the IT industry, originally as a systems developer and project manager, and for the past 24 years as a specialist in IT audit, risk management, and performance improvement. He has been an Internal Computer Audit Manager, and has held Director positions with Deloitte & Touche and Arthur Andersen and also with one of the UK's leading IT security companies Zergo, now Baltimore. He has consulted with a wide range of companies in the UK and overseas, and led several major IT security projects for the European Commission. He has also acted as Project Monitor to the UK Department of Energy. Gary coordinates the IT Governance Special Interest Group for the Impact Programme, one of the UK's leading forums for IT Directors and CIOs. He has been an active member for 25 years with ISACA, the world's leading organization focused on Information Systems Control. He has been a board member and has held several leadership positions within Europe. In particular, he helped initiate and has been a major contributor throughout ISACA's CobiT® initiative, and serves as advisor to the IT Governance Institute. He helps companies use the CobiT materials to implement an IT Governance framework and improved IT Management processes, and as a tool for identifying performance improvements. He is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars, and runs training courses on IT Governance.

Resources

Information Systems Audit and Control  Association (ISACA)

IT Governance Institute  (ITGI)

http://www.itwinners.com/Home.htm

Production Credits

Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities  Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show  Host
Kimberly Stone, Web Development  Manager
Scott Ebner, Web Developer

There is a tribe of people in the world today who are, well, a different  breed of cat, shall we say. They commit passages of Stranger in a Strange  Land to memory. They carry on a love affair with coffee, not only for its rich flavor, but for the opportunity to experience nearly infinite durations of caffeine-generated consciousness. They are not particularly WOWed when inventions like cellphones emerge, because chances are, they've already thought of them ... or envisioned them. They are the techies who work all day in front of a computer, then go home at night and, well, turn on a computer. And always, always, they are thinking, dreaming, about what will be The Next Cool Thing.

Recently, Enterpriseleadership.org had the opportunity to sit down with BMC Software's chief techie, CTO Tom Bishop, and to ask him a range of questions all around the idea of The Next Cool Thing. From what will Oracle CEO Larry Ellison do next, to how will the video iPod change the world, to what is the hype behind the recent GOOGLE/Sun Microsystems announcement (and what he'd hoped they'd say), Tom is not without opinions, visions, and creative thinking about some of the hottest topics in tech today. This visionary CTO even wonders aloud about the Disneyworld, or Brave New World, that the present Internet infrastructure will usher in ... and he invites the listener to think, and to dream, along with him.

Bio

Tom Bishop was named one of the top 25 CTOs by InfoWorld  Magazine in 2004 and is a well-known industry innovator who holds nine patents in fault tolerant computing and in leading the development of industry standards such as the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) and POSIX.

Production Credits

Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities  Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show  Host
Kimberly Stone, Web Development  Manager
Scott Ebner, Web Developer

Here is a short list of complaints about the IT organization in business  today; do any of these sound familiar?

• IT spends all of its time in the reactive mode, fighting fires rather than  proactively solving problems
• IT is not aligned with the company's business goals
• No matter how much money is spent on technology and software, the situation  in IT does not seem to get better
• IT perennially costs major dollars, but company executives still don't see  it as central to the success of the business

Now, say a consultant listens to this list, and tells you that it doesn't matter how much money is spent on new hardware and software, it doesn't matter how many consultants you call in to fix the problems, because in the end, you must focus on the people within IT to heal the IT department. And, oh, yes, using this approach will not cost a lot of money. Sounds too good (or too scarey) to be true? Harris Kern, an IT industry veteran, proposes these and more in an energetic conversation with Tom Parish, discussing topics from why implementing ITIL can be a great idea on paper, but can do little to improve your organization; to how important it is that IT executives get away from their desks, no matter how busy they are, and do lunch with other executives. It's all about people, organizational structure, and processes, says Kern, who clarifies and builds on ideas he proposes in his article, "Building a Competitive IT Organization." Tune in to this refreshingly unconventional wisdom about some of the most commonly cited problems in the industry, and see if you agree.

Bio

Harris Kern is an author, publisher, lecturer, and IT consultant, specializing in IT simplification. Through the Harris Kern Enterprise Computing Institute (www.harriskern.com), he has developed a powerful resource for building competitive IT organizations. Under the umbrella of the Institute, IT professionals from many of the world's leading companies come together to take advantage of leading edge disciplines and strategies for improving the IT industry.

Resources

Enterprise Computing  Institute

Production Credits

Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities  Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show  Host
Kimberly Stone, Web Development  Manager
Scott Ebner, Web Developer