Many companies are concentrating on mobile apps and it apprears HTML 5 will be a major player. For example, Facebook is making HTML 5 games a priority this year. Since the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has already indirectly blessed HTML 5 by moving it to last call status later this year more and more companies should be embracing it too. Would like to hear thoughts on how this technology is evolving and gaining traction especially in the mobile arena.
Bill Delinsky
Executive VP
A number of companies including IBM, Intel, and Luxtera are making significant progress in developing optical chips from silicon. The importance of silicon is that it’s much less expensive than the more commonly optical materials used today such as gallium arsenide. What does this mean to the average computer user? Well much faster computers at an economically palatable price is one of them. IBM for instance has developed a prototype of a silicon transceiver with four data channels that each transmit at 12.5 gigabits a second. Luxtera has announced recent advances doubling IBM prototype claims to 25 G/sec that would be available in one to two years. IBM says their recent breakthroughs paves the way for future chips that can send more than a trillion bits per second, 25 times the current capacity of optical components used in high performance computers today. IBM won’t give a timetable for bringing their products to market but the next few years should show some interesting advances with the three companies battling it out to get to higher speeds at lower prices.
Bill Delinsky, Exec VP
Red Hat this month has announced a new certification with the release of Enterprise Linux 6 that replaces the popular Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT) certification. The new certification is named Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA). It’s a change I like since the name is more in sync with the actual positions that the certification is geared towards. Besides the use of the “System Administrator” instead of “Technician” title, the reason Red Hat gives behind the change is that it will now contain the core skills every system administrator should hold. For those who have earned a RHCT on Enterprise Linux 5 there’s good news that the certifications will be earned retroactively. For senior system administrators the RHCE is still the next step. However with Enterprise Linux 6 if you want to obtain the RHCE you will have to pass the RHCSA first since it’s no longer embedded in the RHCE exam like the RHCT had been. Change is always difficult but I feel these changes are a move in the right direction; however, I’m interested in hearing from those in the trenches who work with it on a daily basis.
Bill Delinsky, Exec VP
This summer the Pangia team jumped in with both feet in helping construct homes for those in need with the folks from Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake. We had a great turnout with close to 30 Pangia personnel who lent a helping hand on two different days on multiple homes in Baltimore. To say it was simply a positive experience is an understatement. The entire team felt truly rewarded by the fact that our collective efforts will eventually benefit not only individuals but a community as well. Just recently the Baltimore Sun had a front page picture of former President Jimmy Carter (a major advocate for Habitat for Humanity) using a handsaw in the same homes we worked on in Baltimore. It’s worth noting we actually used power tools – always nice to one up a former President.
Bill Delinsky, Exec VP
Many companies strive to develop new ideas that will be the catalyst for new business growth. However developing innovative ideas is easier said than done and the hard part is how best to establish an environment that will cultivate them in a productive way?
Most companies leverage upper management and members of the senior technical pool such as PhD’s and then hope they develop the type of “right brain” ideas that will solve customer issues and generate revenue. It’s not surprising that this strategy doesn’t typically work and that in our engineering service based industry the most productive ideas come from the people who are in the trenches working with customers daily.
It’s also no great revelation that most companies do not leverage the collective knowledge and innovative mindsets of all of their personnel well. Why is this so? Well first it simply is not an easy task – it truly takes a well thought out plan to make it happen. To create the right environment you need to get employees energized to participate and not feel like they are being arm twisted into it.
Creating the right atmosphere for intellectual discussions is crucial too. It’s hard for employees to handle their operational duties and try to come up with new ideas too. Typically you need to give employees some time to think outside the box. Getting senior management engaged in the process and making sure communication flows between groups is important so the corporate “big picture” goals are factored into the process. This also shows the employees this is a corporate priority and drives home the importance of the initiative.
One of the most important factors I see is that high energy from senior leadership typically will energize the rest of the team as well. We are doing many of the above mentioned ideas in developing new technical ideas but realize we can always improve – would like to hear your thoughts.
Bill Delinsky, Exec VP
Lost internet connectivity, no electricity, phone signals are down, financial data is lost, electronic medical data is lost, and on and on – so now what? How do we function? How to we regain the vital lost data? And most importantly – who did this, why did they do it and how do we stop this from happening again?
This could be an all too real scenario that we may face in our lifetimes in the midst of the Cyber threats faced by today’s society. The Government is focused on our adversaries regarding Cyberwarfare, but what about the CyberCrime that we face by hackers on our own soil? Acts such as the ones described above may not be the cause of the Chinese or Russians but could have everything to do with American hackers who are motivated to do so for monetary gain or merely because they can.
The US Defense Department’s Quadrennial Defense Review, highlighted in February of 2010 that “On any given day, there are as many as 7 million DoD (Department of Defense) computers and telecommunications tools in use in 88 countries using thousands of war-fighting and support applications. The number of potential vulnerabilities, therefore, is staggering.” Government computer systems are not the only ones at risk, the Civilian sector is a highly sought after target as well.
Anonymity of cyberspace and the ability for accurate attribution of attacks makes Cyber attacks that much more appealing. What can we do as a nation to protect ourselves from acts of Cyber Crime, Cyber Warfare and Cyber Terror attacks? And when does the Government step in and get involved protecting Civilian assets? The stand up of the new Cyber Command located at Fort Meade, MD is a great start to help unify the war on Cyber attacks. However, the threat mounts daily and our reliance on technology and its advances only continues to complicate the solution.
Jennifer Walker/Vice President
When most people think of IT security concerns they commonly consider cyber threats to their desktop and laptop computers. However the system that is becoming more of target is the one that you have with you most of the time – your mobile device! . The recent attack on iPad’s email addresses and device IDs highlights this risk.
As mobile phone technology is rapidly advancing and the devices are evolving into more of a multi-tasking sophisticated computer with multi-party apps it is opening up the door to more and more vulnerabilities The pressure to get to market before the competition also drives the potential for more risks.
Apple which has a great reputation when it comes to security has had their share of problems too. Last year 22 vulnerabilities were identified on the mobile version of Apple’s Safari browser according to the National Vulnerability Database. One example was that iPhone messages to websites still contained usernames and passwords with phones that had operating systems older then Version 3.1.
The exponential increase in third-party applications also creates vulnerabilities. Apple tries to combat this potential risk by a method called sandboxing which prevents third-party apps from accessing restricted data. However that has shown to be anything but perfect when earlier this year an application called SpyPhone was created by a Swiss software engineer that allows access to restricted private data on the iPhone.
What do you think about this threat – we would love to hear your take.
Bill Delinsky, Exec VP
In the Wall Street Journal recently there was a review on a new book on the online shoe retailer Zappos called “Delivering Happiness” . What I found most interesting was the tidbits on what made Zappos successful? Their founder and CEO, Tony Hsieh, had a successful background in web advertising before starting Zappos but shoe sales was definitely a new road for him when he started it in 1999. The company struggled initially but the turning point was his decision to focus on “achieving the world’s best customer service”. His sales representatives only had one directive – “wow customers”. He took the handcuffs off from working from scripts and having calls timed and let his people use a more personal touch and their own creativity to make sales. He also got them to use “passion and positivity” in completing sales – core values that Mr. Hsieh ingrained into the company as a whole. His strategy paid off as Zappos hit over $1 billion in sales a few years ago (now that’s a lot of shoes!).
Here at Pangia we are not delivering product like Zappos but we can still learn a valuable lesson. When you boil it down it really is about the customer and “wowing” them is essential if you want to become a top tier company. As an engineer professional it’s the same deal – if you want to be the ”top dog” then start with wowing the customer with your committment to solving their problems. This wow factor will not happen without enormous passion and a positive attitude which definitely has to start at the top.
Bill Delinsky/ Executive VP
On May 5th 2010, the BWCC Government Contracting Council and BWCC Women In Business (WIB) Council co sponsored an event entitled “Women in Government Contracting” held at the BWI Sheraton. I not only attended this event but had the honor to also be a member of their panel of speakers.
The event focused on providing guidance to the attendees regarding how to lay the foundation to be a successful Government Contractor. Topics such as the outlook of Government contracting, small business set aside goals, and how to break into Government contracting where addressed. The Keynote Address was provided by Bridget Bean, SBA Regional Director followed by a presentation by Gloria Berthold Larkin of Target Gov where the latter addressed the fact that 5% (or $20 BILLION Dollars) of the $400 Billion Federal Contracting Budget is targeted to go to small businesses owned by women. Based on that figure, it is clear that women business owners have an abundance of opportunities in the Government contracting arena.
The panel discussion that I participated in focused mostly on the experiences the panel members had while getting their start in Government contracting. However, the main questions posed by the attendees seemed to revolve around the GSA schedule: What is it? Who uses it? Why do they use it? Should my company get one? It is apparent that the majority of the attendees were interested in utilizing the GSA as a vehicle to enable the Government to easily reach their companies for the purchase of their goods and services. One quick piece of advice I can add to help solve the mystery of “to use, or not to use” the GSA: It really depends on the Government customer that you are focusing on. Some customers heavily rely on the GSA while others in this community rarely utilize it. How does your customer prefer to issue contracts? What is their preferred method to reach contractors? And if they use the GSA schedule, which one/s out of the 40+ GSA schedules make sense for you to obtain to sell your goods/services? Simply put, doing your homework on your target customer will go a long way to help you decide how to proceed with the GSA schedule for your company.
Jennifer Walker/Vice President
Yes the Defense Department wants to integrate its cyberspace operations under a new Cyber Command at Ft. Meade, MD but everyone is wondering about its true role in cyber defense. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander who is likely to be confirmed as the head of this new Cyber Command, was recently asked by the Senate Armed Services Committee about potential scenarios that he might face and how the Cyber Command would tackle them. These scenarios ranged from a war time scenario with an attack on our military computer systems originate from systems in a neutral country to an attack on the computer systems that manage the distribution of our electrical power grid in a peace time environment. But the real obstacles arise from privacy and civil liberty issues that stem from this new command center along with the political maneuvering and posturing that’s inevitable with standing up a new government organization this size. On top of that is the extreme challenge in obtaining the number of quality resources that will be needed to make this a truly effective organization. It should be interesting how it evolves … more to come.
Bill Delinsky / Exec VP