Author: Ben Debski

There is one point that often makes interested enterprises hesitant about relocating their infrastructure and applications to the cloud: requirements on their data’s security and related compliance issues. Not all data and documents are business- critical per se. Although some are very much in that category, a company will have different requirements on information they want to share with business partners, and still others for generally available data. Because the requirements demanded of cloud services vary so greatly, Siemens IT Solutions and Services has developed a new cloud computing approach: “Siemens Bright IT Services”.

Online services for employees, on-demand archive management or a collaboration solution: The best-suited cloud depends on what service a company wants. The “Bright IT Services” approach takes into account these different requirements and offers the right solution for everyone – in the public, the private or the community cloud. Its focus is not on the technology itself, but rather the smartest way for a company to leverage the new opportunities offered by IT. The key question is: How can cloud services be integrated securely in the existing landscape so that they offer the best-possible support for business processes?

Many current cloud service providers are either too small, don’t have the necessary experience in the industry or, like Google or Amazon, offer pure commodity services such as storage space or computing power. In contrast, Siemens IT Solutions and Services focuses on a strategic consulting approach coupled with sector-specific know-how. It analyses security aspects and potentials, always from the specific perspective of the company’s requirements: What processes and data are highly sensitive? Are there applications that are less critical and so suitable for the public cloud? What data protection and legal aspects does the company have to consider? What infrastructure already exists and how can it be connected to cloud services?

Integrated IT clouds
More companies are already using cloud services than is generally known. It is often the case that even management or the people in charge of IT don’t know where data is located in the clouds within their own organisation. The reason for this: In many cases, the business departments are themselves buying in IT systems and applications that they need and which offer fast technological support for their own processes. The cloud is usually an obvious resort since budgets for smaller on-demand IT services can be approved quickly without signatures from bosses. However, the upshot is frequently a jumbled assortment of different technologies that creates more security gaps instead of plugging them.

It’s therefore advisable to consider an end-to-end, transparent concept sooner rather than later. After all, these diffuse security risks have to be curbed. But the departments still have to be provided with fast and flexible solutions for their day-to-day work. One of the main challenges is therefore to integrate existing IT systems and cloud services into a single overall concept. To name just one example: Email services can be implemented quickly and cheaply in the public cloud as a mass application with data that requires a normal level of security. But that may not apply to emails from the managing board or research department. Administrators would then have to manage some of the mailboxes internally and others externally – which involves additional time and effort. An integrated cloud approach from a provider like Siemens IT Solutions and Services means it will become easy to choose how many mailboxes are to be obtained from a public and how many from a private cloud. The user interface and configuration remain the same.

So that IT service providers can recommend the right mix for their customers, it is crucial for them to maintain multiple partnerships – for example what Siemens IT Solutions and Services does with Microsoft, VMware or Oracle. That means they are vendor-independent and can evaluate which solutions are best suited for which demands. The solutions can then be integrated simultaneously with both the relevant cloud models and the existing infrastructure.

A service that delivers a business advantage
Cloud computing is not just a means of cutting costs, but also opens up new business models and ways of cooperating with strategic partners. Community clouds are intended to facilitate such collaboration. The focus is on workflows – not just those of one company, but of several, or even an entire industry. The common goal is for the different organisations to be able to work together more agilely and flexibly.

For instance, Siemens IT Solutions and Services has developed such a community cloud for the media and entertainment industry, where work is typically split over several different locations. Media companies frequently outsource particular work steps to external service providers or use offshore capacities. At the same time, the various parties are integrated in the individual processes and must always be able to access up-to-date content promptly. Up to now, such activities were coordinated mainly by material being sent back and forth by tape and courier. Community cloud services now aim to simplify, speed up and improve the quality of specific production and broadcasting processes in the media business. They cut costs and make it easier to meet compliance requirements. Thanks to cloud computing, any authorised person can now access digitised media content quickly and easily from anywhere in the world using a Web browser and so speed up the approval process.

The cloud – yes please, as long as it’s secure
Before venturing into cloud computing, more than 80 percent of companies want guarantees that their data will be protected. These were the findings of a recent survey by analysts from Information Technology Intelligence Corporation (ITIC) among 300 companies with up to 100,000 employees worldwide. Compliance is also a question on managers’ minds: Where is my data stored and who can access it? How can user identities be controlled and protected and access verified in an auditable way?

A private cloud is suitable for especially security-critical company data and applications, since customers know precisely in which country – and even which data centre – their data is stored. It can also be encrypted and transferred or encoded and stored in secure databases. As a result, demarcated parts of the cloud can be specifically assigned to a customer and even managed by specially selected system administrators. The drawback: The higher the cloud service’s security level, the less flexible it is because it’s not possible for multiple resources to be used dynamically. In addition, at least some of the economies of scale, and so cost advantages, are lost.

Authorisation to access the clouds
So as to protect cloud services for its customers, Siemens IT Solutions and Services uses its own identity-based solutions for Identity and Access Management (IAM), such as its flagship DirX. It administers the roles and rights of employees and external partners and so protects resources and systems against unauthorised access. That is particularly important in community clouds, where a large number of people across different organisations use data from the cloud. Thanks to their authorisations, employees or business partners can also identify each other in the cloud and set up and collaborate in secure networks across departments and companies. Single sign-on means that users have to log on only once to gain access to all cloud services they are allowed to use. In this way, important compliance guidelines, such as EuroSOX or Basel 2, are easy to observe. That’s because it is always possible to track who accessed what data.

Siemens’ internal Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) also ensures the necessary security in the Web by keeping all worldwide threats on the Web on its radar, analysing them and taking prompt and appropriate protective measures. Since a secure Internet connection is a vital part of cloud computing, repulsing such attacks is crucial. Data protection is also ensured by using certified data centres and, where necessary, anonymising information processing.

Further information: www.siemens.com

Ken Olson, founder of DEC, famously said in 1977 that there is “no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” We have come a long way since Olson made that statement. Hundreds of millions of people around the globe now use a computer in the workplace as well as at home for a multitude of tasks, ranging from banking and entertainment to keeping in touch with friends and family. The basis for the personal computing phenomenon we take for granted today was the launch of Windows 95.

But the possibilities Windows 95 offered to developers also inspired a generation of hackers and virus writers. Whilst the skinhead yob was spray painting walls, his geeky counterpart was programming viruses. And he was good at his hobby – in 1996, the number of computers infected with a virus was 10 per 1,000, but by 2000  the number had risen to 91 per 1,000 computers. The virus writer of the late 90s caused more damage than physical graffiti ever did. Businesses suffered financial losses and damaged corporate images whenever IT systems had to be repaired, and lost or corrupted data recovered. Not that the antivirus companies minded. The virus explosion was good business. Leading consumer antivirus company Symantec saw its revenue almost double from $578.4m to $1.071bn  between 1998 and 2002.

Soon, viruses like ‘Melissa’, ‘I love you’, and ‘Kournakova’ were making headlines around the world and consumers flocked to the shops to buy antivirus software. Microsoft and the innovative Windows 95 platform was now perceived by many as the root cause of what was termed the ‘Internet security issue.’ Windows 95 was superseded by Windows 98, then Windows 2000, but the virus phenomenon showed no sign of stopping. Any hopes that the problem would simply disappear like any other fad or anti∞establishment protest were short-lived and Microsoft continued to be the scapegoat. In January 2002, a memo from Bill Gates announced the formation of the Trustworthy Computing (TwC) division, a group charged with ensuring that all Microsoft products, not just Windows, would be developed with security as a paramount requirement. Gates was making a statement. He saw that security and Microsoft’s connection with the issue, be it real or perceived, was a major threat to the company’s future success. He wanted to get serious and he wanted employees, and the outside world, to know. Driving almost instant cultural change across a 60,000-plus company was a huge challenge for the company’s leadership and began with a decision to suspend work on all products, including the already delayed Windows Vista, whilst developers and engineers underwent extensive training on how to develop more secure code. Today, ensuring secure engineering practices company∞wide remains a core responsibility for TwC.

The result of training its engineers was the creation of the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL), an engineering process which all Microsoft products go through and is still the foundation of the company’s security strategy. The SDL system demands regular security reviews throughout the development process and a final assessment that determines whether a product can ship or not. Windows Vista was the first operating system to go through SDL from day one, and since then, every internet∞facing or enterprise∞class product must do the same. In 2008 Microsoft shared the SDL process with developers outside the company so they could also develop more secure code.

Graham Titterington, principal analyst at Ovum agrees with the practice. “Microsoft’s approach to the problem of producing secure IT systems is a good model that shows the necessity to build in security across every activity,” he says. However, despite Microsoft’s decision to re∞train its developers and implement processes such as the SDL, critics initially dismissed TwC as Microsoft’s attempt to deflect blame. Seven years on and many of those critics now acknowledge the impact of Microsoft’s efforts through TwC and agree with the company’s assertion that security is an industry issue and not the exclusive preserve of Microsoft. Eric Domage, research manager, Security Products & Services at IDC EMEA Software Group, says: “It is amazing how much Microsoft has changed.In the early 90s, it was a world-first class provider of vulnerabilities and software breaches. Today, Microsoft has become a major IT safety player, from threat and vulnerability detection to investing its own money in educating local law enforcement agencies.

“Whatever your opinion of Microsoft, and mine is not always positive, you must think about the global effort made by the company and look at the effects. Because of Microsoft, antivirus and advanced security tools (MSRT, Windows Defender.) are almost free in the home. Browsers are safer, browsing is safer, operating systems are robust, spammers are sued and sentenced and global security on internet has got better. “A lot more has to be done. The pervasive nature of IT in the world makes hacking really attractive for many criminals as well as non-criminals looking for revenge on something important. Microsoft will never solve the deep issues of IT weaknesses on its own. But its contribution to a safer Internet is real.”

The report shows that in the second half of 2008, nearly 90 percent of disclosed vulnerabilities affected applications – those software programmes that sit on the operating system – which suggests that as Microsoft makes Windows more secure, hackers are shifting their focus to attack third∞party software vendors, Web services providers and original equipment manufacturers. Figures like these point to the way that security has evolved and is a bigger issue today than ever – despite Microsoft putting its own house in order. Developing more secure software is only part of the answer and Microsoft has expanded the focus of Trustworthy Computing. One example is the creation of the Microsoft Security Research and Response Centre, a global security response team created to protect against vulnerabilities discovered in Microsoft products. Once a vulnerability is identified, the Centre assesses its impact and develops and delivers software security updates on a regular, predictable monthly schedule to deal with them. The updates are tested with the different operating systems and applications it affects, then localised for markets and languages across the globe. “Researching vulnerabilities, engineering and testing resolutions for them and distributing them to a regular and predictable calendar is a huge undertaking,” says Roger Halbheer, Microsoft’s chief security advisor, EMEA. “Despite the industry’s best efforts, vulnerabilities in software code will always exist and, unfortunately, so will criminals looking to exploit them.

All major software companies produce and distribute security updates. We have chosen to be very transparent, predictable and open about our process. We tell our customers that every second Tuesday in the month they can expect to receive security updates from us so they can plan ahead to implement them.” He adds: “I can understand why some people think ‘here we go again, another Microsoft security problem’ but the reality is that all companies are distributing security updates. Our approach is to actively promote the update process and make it predictable so that our customers can plan to install them and ensure their networks or home PCs are secure. The important element to focus on is whether companies are investing in identifying vulnerabilities and being proactive and effective in dealing with them.”

Through Trustworthy Computing, Microsoft’s efforts deserve to be acknowledged. And yet, despite all this, the security issue persists. Microsoft is no longer the soft target for hackers and virus writes. However,  perhaps as a consequence of the company’s secure engineering efforts cybercriminals have shifted focus instead to exploiting weaknesses in human nature, using scams and other crimes of deception that have nothing to do with flaws in technology. Fifteen or 20 years ago misguided computer enthusiasts were the source of the problem, but today’s cybercriminal has no interest in technology at all. The Internet is simply a tool to be used for committing fraud and identity theft.

With such a complex, ever-evolving landscape of online threats, it is clear that one organisation, even one as big as Microsoft, cannot have all the answers and solutions. Microsoft has made progress in addressing security since Bill Gates’ TwC Memo in 2002, and the approach has undoubtedly been successful. However, to ensure a safer online experience for all, both the private and public sectors must continue working together, whether by sharing technological innovations, entering partnerships, educating consumers or a combination of all three.

Ask C.T. Liu about future growth engines for his company, LCD maker AU Optronics, and he whips out his Kindle e-book in lieu of an answer.

Sony Corp has joined the paperless wave with its own e-readers, partnering with Google to offer public domain books that are no longer protected by copyright.

Other believers in the dawn of a paperless age include Taiwan’s Netronix, which is making similar models with touchscreens, and Dutch Polymer Vision, set to soon introduce a pocket e-reader with rollable displays.

“We see it as a new industry,” said Liu, a senior vice president at AU, the world’s No.3 LCD maker whose panels are part of Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Apple PCs, as well as Sony LCD TVs.

“It replaces paper, printing, publishing, text books, and so on,” said Liu, in charge of AU’s consumer display business.

The growing number of models could help to bring down prices and boost sales, making these portable readers the next breed of must-have gadgets.

Weighing less than a typical paperback, e-books use a new generation of light, flexible and interactive display, or e-paper. Once the power is off, its images remain unchanged on the screen as it needs no added light source to read.

Because they require no backlighting like traditional LCDs, e-books consume far less power and are also much lighter. A typical Kindle can be read for days without recharging.

The bright future of e-books is particularly attractive to major LCD makers in Asia, including AU and hometown rival Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp, at a time when they are struggling with sluggish sales of PCs and flat-screen TVs.

AU, which booked a record loss in the October-December quarter, is branching out to the new display sector by buying a 21 percent stake in e-paper specialist SiPix Imaging Inc.

The End of Paper?
Amazon.com Inc’s Kindles have proved a hit since their launch in 2007. Citigroup estimated the US online retailer sold a half-million Kindles in 2008, about one-third more than the number of iPods sold by Apple in its first year.

Some critics argue that e-books could become the victim of their own success if cellphone makers take notice and start to incorporate the newer LCD technology into their own models and include similar reading applications.

Other kinds of devices could also try to incorporate ebook-like applications.

“There will be more low-cost digital reading platforms coming out. Netbook PCs, for example, are much cheaper,” said Jeremy Huang, who tracks the e∞book market for the Market Intelligence Centre, a private industry researcher in Taiwan.

Netbooks, low-cost mini-notebook computers, sell for as little as $299, while a Kindle retails for $359 and the latest model of the Sony Reader is priced at about $349.

Market research firm iSuppli Corp forecasts global e-book display revenue will rise to $291m by 2012, representing an annual growth rate of 143 percent from 2007. That is still much smaller than about $72bn for large LCDs last year.

To help drive the e-reader market, some analysts say book publishers could subsidise a low-cost e-reader, or even give one away, with a multi-year subscription, similar to how telecom operators subsidise cellphones in return for service contracts.

The use of e-paper displays in other devices, such as signs, could also help to build economies of scale, bringing down costs.

Supporters imagine a day when e-paper versions of portable newspaper and magazine readers might be rolled up or folded, and carried to the beach or read on the train by commuters.

The timing of e-readers seems particularly good as the ink-stained newspaper market is struggling and some papers are cutting their print editions due to the recession and as more people go online to get news for free.

In February, US-based Plastic Logic signed strategic deals with media partners, including the Financial Times, USA Today and Zinio, for its first e-readers to target business users. The devices boast a large display and weigh less than many printed magazines.

In South Korea, LG Display Co Ltd has been developing A4-size color flexible e-paper among other potential products for the e-reader market.

“Screens will replace papers, that’s given. But I doubt whether e-books will make a sizeable market in the next two years,” said Park Hyun, an analyst at Prudential Investment & Securities.

“They are preparing for the new business, but it won’t mean much for their business or earnings until the market grows in size.”

A myriad array of new services have been developed so that a user is “always on” (e.g. Facebook and Twitter for mobile, Instant Messaging, presence etc.). These new mobile services, operating via the Internet Protocol (IP), have been made feasible through exploiting the huge data networks that the mobile operators have deployed over the last few years. What is effectively the “Mobile IP Space” has been created as a result of the voracious demand by consumers for IP services.  

An important criterion here is the quality and price of the new services on offer. Data flat rates offered by operators have emerged as a low-cost means for consumers to explore and enjoy any new service as it becomes available. This is an important point because as increasingly stable mobile voice services over IP emerge (offered by private third parties like Skype), operators are faced with the conflict of permitting these new services to occur on their network which eat into their established, lucrative GSM voice revenue.

With the emergence of “Smartphones” over the last few years, these high-tech handsets are increasingly becoming mobile entertainment centres. Users can read the latest news, download music, take photos, send and view video clips etc. Equipment manufacturers are releasing new hardware all the time and mobile operators are increasingly focusing their resources on marketing IP data services (iPhone Apps etc.). In spite of this, voice traffic still accounts for the majority of operator sales with 80 percent of their top line still being generated by voice services. Taking this into consideration, it is not surprising that operators have been reluctant to move rapidly to deploying voice services over IP; however, it is only a matter of time until they can no longer ignore the consumer requirement for such a service.

The innovative Swiss start-up, Qnective AG, offers mobile VoIP and other IP solutions for operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and social networking companies. The solutions stand out because of their technical quality and ease of integration. The company has developed platforms which combine the entrenched GSM world with the advantages of IP-based communications. The development challenge was by no means straightforward when one considers the numerous manufacturers of mobile handsets with different operating systems (Symbian, RIM, Apple, Android etc.) all operating on various mobile operator network technologies (GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA etc.).   

The dynamic world of mobile comms
Third party service providers have been pioneers in the field of new mobile voice services via IP.  Major technology players such as Google and Microsoft have also pinpointed this field as a key strategic focus for their future development.  Consumers have been able to access the array of new, low-cost IP services offered by these companies and, now that bandwidth in mobile network technology is stabilising, they are becoming genuine competitors to the incumbent mobile operators. Additionally, national regulators are putting pressure on operators such as Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2 to manage their overall network structure to full IP over the next few years.

A summary of the market trends forcing the incumbents to evolve would look as follows:
• GSM predominantly limited to SMS and voice and consumers are demanding additional services only mobile IP can
support, e.g. internet, presence, video streaming, “apps”, social networks, etc.
• Smartphones are the highest growth area in handset penetration which facilitates the offering of “enhanced communication services” to mobile consumers which are “always on”.
• Technology companies like Google/Apple/Microsoft etc. are steadily moving into voice services and encroaching on the markets of traditional Telco operators forcing them to react and evolve towards IP.
• Consumer-focused IP businesses like Skype are gaining traction as users become more accustomed to using mobile IP (not just desktop) – their success has not gone unnoticed by operators.
• IP communication uses network infrastructure in a more cost-efficient manner making it cost-effective for operators to provide consumers with more attractive offers, e.g. genuine flat rates.

Qnective AG predicted these trends and market developments and provides operator platforms for mobile voice and multimedia over network data channels. Qnective’s technology is an advanced hybrid GSM/IP solution, enabling operators to execute a smooth transition to full IP. Qnective achieved its first full integration with the Dutch operator 6GMobile, formerly the mobile unit of British Telecom. With regard to his company’s strategic objectives, Oswald Ortiz, CEO of Qnective AG, says: “The overall goal is to establish Qnective as the preferred provider of IP-based, hybrid mobile voice and multimedia services to the leading telecommunication players and to achieve a meaningful portion of the global GSM subscriber base within five years.”

What makes Qnective’s solutions unique?
Firstly, the company has succeeded in implementing GSM-quality voice services via IP data connections. Crucially their IP-based communication can be fully integrated into the GSM network environment. The result is a hybrid solution, which brings together the advantages of the IP world with those of traditional telephony. This software-based solution does not need any new hardware infrastructure.

Non-traditional telecommunications companies could therefore enter the field of mobile communications or extend their existing IP services with a manageable financial outlay. Low-cost data channels, which are still somewhat underused, can be deployed for mobile IP communications. The interfaces are designed in such a way that the solution is suitable for universal use and is compatible with different set-ups.  

Qnective’s unique differentiating technology
• Highest quality IP applications for mobile telephony (carrier grade status voice clarity etc.).
• Clients for many operating systems and end devices like Symbian, Blackberry, Android & Windows Mobile (including Windows PCs).
• Innovative social services for interacting with Facebook, chats and other similar platforms and people-to-people networks.
• Fully integratable into GSM world (HLR integration, CLI display, Business rules etc.).
• Seamless antenna handover to avoid call drops.
• Lowest data usage amongst competing offerings.
• One single number for Desktop/Cell phone, online on multiple devices.
• Optional highly secure solution (encrypted IP telephony), deployable autonomously.<

Further information: www.qnective.com

Making sense of the media content available on the internet is a daunting task. It would take 24 hours just to watch the videos that are added to YouTube every sixty seconds.

For organisations that need to keep track of what is being said about them and about their products, this is a big headache.

Among those working on a potential solution are researchers at the Boemie project. The name is an acronym for the not-snappily-titled Bootstrapping Ontology Evolution with Multimedia Information Extraction.

Turning the “ore” available on the internet into “gold” is how they describe their aim.

The Boemie team are building highly structured “knowledge bases” that can automatically – or, for now, semi-automatically – identify, analyse and index almost any multimedia content.

Video, text and audio content from a multitude of sources can be categorised, labelled, indexed, searched and retrieved as needed.

The system needs a bit of human intervention to get started. Someone with knowledge of a particular topic – sport is the one they’ve been experimenting with – defines a few key concepts. They might define “tennis match” as a type of sporting event, and the concept “Wimbledon finals” as an example of a tennis match.

The computer then takes over. It builds an ontology – a formal way of linking concepts together – and uses it to extract useful information from a variety of multimedia sources.

As it learns more about tennis, the computer suggests new concepts to add to the ontology, which an operator who knows about sport can accept, reject or modify.

What makes Boemie special is that once it’s built some knowledge about tennis, it goes back and analyses all of its information again, reviewing it in the light of what it has learned.

It can repeat this process again and again.

The Boemie project has significant commercial potential, says George Paliouras, its technical manager.

“Without semantic indexing, it’s very difficult to retrieve multimedia content,” he says.

“Boemie offers a new approach to do this at a large scale and with high precision. It can speed and improve the analysis, categorisation, indexing and retrieval of almost any kind of multimedia content.”

We might finally be able to untangle the web.

Experienced system integrators like Siemens IT Solutions and Services are needed to analyse which applications are suitable for cloud computing and to integrate them into existing infrastructures. Cloud computing is driven by cost pressure and the need for increasing flexibility in a fast-changing business environment.

In uncertain times like these, why would a CIO be keen to make significant investments in server parks and hardware that are not utilised to their full capacity? But to maximise both security and cost∞effectiveness, companies need to carry out a detailed analysis of which applications and data are critical to security and which ones are not. They can then run non-critical applications in a cost-efficient public cloud, while sensitive workflows and data remain in the company’s own data centres. To ensure smooth workflows, both are interlinked using a common platform.

Reaching the full potential of the cloud
Siemens IT Solutions and Services not only offers industry-specific consulting and security assessments on cloud strategies and solutions; this provider also carries out the transformation and integration of the systems. Siemens is one of only a few providers that cover the entire spectrum from software as a service (SaaS) over infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to platform as a service (PaaS).

Boasting a broad vendor ecosystem, Siemens is able to deliver the solution that works best in almost any given environment. Combining their integration experience, architecture know-how and security knowledge, Siemens delivers hybrid models that provide cloud flexibility in a controllable and measurable setting.

Software as a service
The advantage of software as a service lies in the fact that highly standardised applications are available on a pay∞per∞use basis, making SaaS both highly affordable and flexible. Providers can smoothly install upgrades in the background ensuring that users always have the latest software version, which at the same time guarantees that the same software version is immediately available to all parts of the organisation across the globe.

Infrastructure as a service
With IaaS, companies can purchase infrastructure services such as computing power, storage, or archiving space within minutes over a web browser portal. Users also benefit from easily adaptable and very flexible computing and storage services to meet dynamically changing requirements. In such an on-demand model, users can cancel services they no longer need at any time. For companies that wish to take advantage of multiple IaaS providers, Siemens offers services based on their hybrid architecture,  an architecture which can maximise the potential of using several on-demand environments.

Platform as a service
PaaS goes beyond IaaS by also providing development tools for applications that run in the cloud. These tools can be used to develop new applications or adapt existing applications to run on the cloud-based platform. There are two ways for customers to enjoy the benefits that PaaS can offer. Either they set up and maintain their own application, or they choose a partner which aggregates and/or integrates many applications on the same platform into a complete solution. In both cases, an on-demand business model means that a vendor, such as Siemens, provides a secure and stable application platform.

Further information: Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Anne Beck, Otto-Hahn-Ring 6, 81739 Munich, Tel. 089-636 47982, Fax: 089-636 42162, E-Mail: anne.beck@siemens.com, www.siemens.com/it-solutions

Jobs was making his first public comments about apparent employees’ suicides at a complex operated by the unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry, which also counts Hewlett-Packard and Dell among its clients.

At this year’s All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of A-list technology and media executives in California, Jobs sniped at Adobe Systems Inc’s “waning” Flash technology, vowed not to get into a search battle with Google, and waxed lyrical about the future of tablet PCs.

Jobs also talked about how he conceived the iPad even before the iPhone. Apple released the iPad in April and it has quickly defined the tablet computer market, selling more than two million units in the first 60 days.

But a string of deaths at Foxconn’s base in southern China, which critics blame on stressful working conditions, threatens to cast a shadow over the device’s success.

“It’s a difficult situation,” Jobs, dressed in his customary black turtleneck and jeans, said on stage. “We’re trying to understand right now, before we go in and say we know the solution.”

The iPad’s momentum has helped drive share gains.

Apple recently overtook long-time nemesis Microsoft to become the world’s largest technology company by market value – an event unthinkable a decade ago – and Apple’s shares have spent much of 2010 hitting new highs.

“For those of us that have been in the industry a long time, it’s surreal. But it doesn’t matter very much, it’s not what’s important,” Jobs said. “It’s not what makes you come to work every morning.”

Top dog
Jobs has appeared at the event in previous years, but not since 2007. Much has changed for Apple – and its helmsman – in that period. A pancreatic cancer survivor, the company’s founder underwent a liver transplant a year ago.

The company’s growing clout and business ambitions have also increasingly put it at the centre of several high-profile disputes and in the regulatory spotlight.

The US Justice Department is making preliminary inquiries into whether Apple unfairly dominates the digital music market through its iTunes store, sources say.

Hostility between Apple and Adobe has been brewing for months. Apple has criticised Flash as a buggy battery hog, while Adobe has accused Apple of exerting tyrannical control over developers creating programmes for the iPhone and iPad.

“We didn’t start off to have a war with Flash or anything else. We just made a technical decision,” he said.

Jobs also addressed criticisms about Apple’s decision to only offer the iPhone in the US on the AT&T wireless network, which is often faulted for sluggish performance.

Without explicitly naming AT&T, Jobs acknowledged in response to a question that the network was having “troubles,” but said he believed quality would improve.

“I’m convinced that any other network had you put this many iPhones on it would have had the same problems,” he said.

Asked if there might be advantages to offering the iPhone in the US on more than a single wireless carrier, Jobs said that there might be, but declined to provide further details.

Some tech blogs have speculated Verizon Wireless could soon offer the iPhone, which continues to be the standard-bearer in the smartphone market amid growing competition from handsets running Google’s Android platform.

Tech-savvy Chinese in their 20s and 30s grew up in far greater affluence and openness than their parents. Many are pulled between patriotic pride and a yearning for more say over their own lives, even if they accept Communist Party control.

The Google dispute may become a telling test of how they balance loyalties to their country with their desire for unfettered expression and access to information, and this response could shape how Beijing handles the dispute.

 “The special feature of the Internet is that companies like Google see that expanding their profits is tied to expanding their freedom,” said Chen Yongmiao, a Chinese activist whose own website has been restricted by authorities.

“It’s a test. How much you support Google in China shows how much you want more freedom in China, even if you know Google is ultimately about profits.”

The world’s biggest search engine has pulled back from China and shut its Chinese Google.cn website over complaints of hacking and censorship.
Chinese officials have avoided directly taking on Google, but made plain they expect Internet companies in the country to enforce the laws, including censorship.

The centre of the resulting tug-of-war in attitudes is the Zhongguancun area in northwest Beijing, an area dense with university campuses, malls of high∞tech goods and computer labs, and also home to Google’s China headquarters.

Students, job-seekers and high-tech professionals in Zhongguancun saw Google’s stance through a prism of admiration and wariness that has echoed in online forums.
“I think it’s admirable for a company to sacrifice profits for the sake of an idea,” said Liu Wei, a 29-year-old accountant with heavy Clark Kent-style spectacles and neatly cropped hair.

“Why can’t we criticise our own government if we want to? Why can’t we choose what we read on the Internet?”

“That’s because China’s different!” interrupted his girlfriend Sun Jingying, a slight 26-year-old studying to become a chartered accountant.

“There are some things about this country we just have to accept,” she added, nonetheless stressing she would be sad if Google quit China. “I’d love to work for them,” she said.

The Obama administration has shown it wants to court this emerging generation of connected Chinese. China’s latest survey of Internet use found 60.4 percent of the nation’s online population of 384 million was aged 10 to 29.

During his visit to China last November, President Barack Obama used a webcast meeting with Chinese youth to amplify that message, telling them he was a “big supporter of not restricting Internet use”.

Despite censorship, China’s Internet can be a potent public forum, with bloggers and amorphous online groups hectoring the government over pollution and corruption.

Last year, the government abruptly abandoned a plan to force all new personal computers to come with a copy of “Green Dam” Internet-filtering software that had been derided by online critics as intrusive and ineffective.

But China’s youth can also bristle at what they see as Western bullying. The ruling Communist Party could seek to channel that volatile sentiment to blunt foreign pressure over control of the Internet.

“There are some who feel increasingly restricted and unfree, the ones who tend to support Google. But there are also many who have been heavily shaped by the official media and see the US government behind Google’s actions,” Li Yonggang, an expert on society and the Internet at Nanjing University in east China, said of the nation’s “post-80” generation.

 “If this becomes a more open fight between the Chinese and US governments, this nationalism could come to dominate if the government turns harder line.”

From Backlot to High-Tech Hub
Chengfu Street in Zhongguancun, where Google has its China headquarters, is testament to the country’s economic upheaval.

A little over a decade ago, this was a gritty neighbourhood of low brick homes and cheap restaurants near retreating farmland.

Now it bristles with high-tech offices and cafes and restaurants catering to office workers and students. Google’s office sits in steel and glass towers that also house a Deutsche Bank office, a gym and “Wall Street English” classrooms.

The students on nearby campuses who fill many high∞tech jobs in this area, however, are also products of an education that prizes pride in the nation’s achievements, obedience to the Communist Party, and vigilance against foreign pressure.

Many of them had scant understanding that Google has said China was the source of sophisticated hacking – China’s state-run media has reported little on that complaint – and others scoffed that Google would leave the country over the issue.
“If they can’t handle hackers and censorship, that’s their own problem,” said one Chinese computer hardware technician heading for a gym workout near the Google office. He gave his English name, Derek Huang.

“Each country has its own Internet restrictions, so it’s natural for us to have our own, and if we want to change them, that’s our own business,” he said.

Recent opinion surveys show that while Chinese in their 20s and 30s are more critical of their government than older cohorts and want more freedom, they tend to be strongly patriotic and cautious about political change. The United States attracts both admiration and disdain.

The Internet was crucial in spreading Chinese anger about Western protests over Tibet before the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. In past years, too, the Internet has been a conduit of nationalist Chinese ire over Japan.

“Google was just acting out of commercial interests,” said Su Xin, a 25-year-old graduate student of aeronautic engineering. “I think we’ve got to accept some restrictions [on the Internet] for the sake of stability.”

But even some students who said they had little interest in politics said they felt jolted by the idea that Google could quit China over censorship complaints.

“If it leaves, I’ll feel it’s a big loss,” said Guo Xin, a 19-year-old student with a spike of hair dyed neon-orange. He said he used the Internet, and Google, to hunt down information about online games and movies.

“It’s not good restricting us too much. It cuts us off from the information you need in modern life,” he said.

The market for software platforms on cellphones is led by Nokia’s Symbian operating system, but it has lost much ground over the last year to Apple Inc and Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry.

Computer operating system Linux is starting to win traction, with Google Inc using Linux to build its Android platform, and Nokia rolling out its top-of-the-range model N900 using Linux Maemo.

“There has been a step change for Linux in mobile,” Morgan Gillis, head of LiMo, said in an interview. “No other operating system now matches the vendor coverage of Linux – it is being commercially deployed by virtually all leading mobile device vendors from the largest downwards.”

LiMo, a non-profit foundation, hopes to benefit from its focus on giving greater say over software development to telecoms operators.

The role of top operators in the platform – Vodafone uses it in its 360 offering – is a key attraction for Adobe, whose Flash is among the world’s most widely used web-based computer programmes, and it has some 1.6 million developers.

Vodafone and other operators have strongly pledged for a smaller number of operating systems, as supporting them is a timely and costly exercise.

However, the number of large operating systems has in recent years increased, with new players like Apple and Google entering the mobile market.

In a latest twist Samsung Electronics – the world’s second largest handset maker and one of the key members of LiMo – unveiled in late 2009 its own smartphone platform.

Linux is the most popular type of free or so-called open source computer operating system which is available to the public to be used, revised and shared.

Linux suppliers earn money selling improvements and technical services, and Linux competes directly with Microsoft, which charges for its Windows software and opposes freely sharing its code.

Japanese electronics firms NEC and Panasonic, and Israeli firm Else have unveiled a total of seven new phones running on LiMo software.

How am I driving?

It’s a question you’ll often see on the back of a commercial vehicle, with a free∞phone number inviting other motorists to provide feedback.

Soon that phone call might not be necessary – an onboard computer will be monitoring the driver’s performance, and teaching the vehicle itself when to issue warning alerts.

Driver assistance technology has been around for a while, but a project developed by scientists from six European countries claims to move the field on significantly.

Rather than giving the driver information about how well he or she is doing, their computer system, called Drivsco, sends its information straight to the vehicle.

By monitoring how the driver performs in normal conditions – such as when going round bends or stopping for pedestrians – the computer models their normal behaviour.

Then if the same person is driving at night, for example, and deviates from the normal pattern, perhaps by taking an unusual line around a bend, the computer concludes that this is due to a lack of visibility and warns the driver that he or she is behaving unusually, or that there could be hazards ahead.
With some 42 percent of fatal traffic accidents occurring at night, the potential for this kind of technology to make the roads safer is clear.

Much of the technology used in the system has been developed by the Department of Computer Architecture and Technology of the University of Granada.

This includes an artificial vision system that receives input pictures and produces a first “interpretation of the scenario” in terms of depth, local movement, and image lines – all on one electronic chip.

The idea is that the system can be assembled in different types of vehicle in future.

The first tests have been promising and have proved the usefulness of the Drivsco concept, said professor Eduardo Ros Vidal, who leads the team at Granada.

“We do not intend to develop automatic driving systems, as it would be very difficult for insurance agencies and car companies to come to an agreement in the event of a crash,”

Advanced driving assistance systems could have clear safety benefits.

But will long-haul truckers listen to what the computer tells them? That remains to be seen.

India’s poultry market might sound like a niche investment market. Think again. India’s bird industry itself is massive: an industry estimated to be worth around $3.1bn. Put it another way, that’s 30,000 million eggs and 1,000 million broilers. Food for thought indeed. This sector is also, more significantly for investors, poised for take-off.

Hester Biosciences boss Rajiv Gandhi started his poultry vaccination company back in the late 1980s in Mumbai. “Business was good. It quickly made sense to have my own proprietary company and then use distributors.” The business has grown fast since that time. The ex-Mumbai university graduate now employs more than 450 from his new base in Ahmedabad, 500km north of Mumbai. And impressively, his business has grabbed a massive 30 percent of the Indian market. Yet the potential for more growth is still massive.

Why the need to vaccinate? Simple. Vaccination prevents or reduces the effects of disease in poultry (and, of course, in other animals). Disease-causing organisms can be classified as viruses, mycoplasma, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and parasites. Commercial poultry are usually vaccinated to protect them against a variety of these diseases.

In other words it’s a business that has sound long-term legs. Once largely a back-yard activity, India’s poultry sector is now a major commercial concern and quality has soared as a consequence. The vaccination industry is also a money-saver for the industry, protecting it from the unexpected – not to mention making a significant contribution to animal welfare itself.

Quality up to scratch
Gandhi predicts his own industry could grow by 15 to 20 percent during the next few years. Additionally, Hester Biosciences can leverage off that growth by expanding into the manufacture of animal diagnostic reagents. “Registrations for our poultry vaccines is on-going in over 10 countries,” which when completed, should convert into business he thinks.

India’s economy too is growing at a staggering pace that dwarfs all Western growth hopes in comparison. Recently it expanded at its fastest clip for more than two years: GDP soared by almost nine percent in the second quarter of 2010. Not chicken feed.

Meanwhile India’s own domestic population is increasingly buying white goods, specifically fridges and freezers. That means the chilled food market is also expanding quickly.

As any entrepreneur will tell you, keep your business model simple; make sure you and your investors understand it. It’s glaringly obvious advice but it’s also often ignored or lost on aspiring businessmen. But Rajiv Gandhi learnt the lessons early on.

International diversification
 “Our strategy of providing good quality at a reasonable price has been very successful. We pitch our products against all the competition, including international ones. It’s then up to us to prove that our products are technically superior. Then we negotiate on price and try to get the business.”

In fact, India’s poultry market has generally been very small-scale on the international stage, despite its huge potential. But strong bioscience and export-driven infrastructures are key to change here – and this change is what Gandhi is after.

Prudently, he is now diversifying the business into other livestock. The poultry industry has been hit periodically by bird flu worries. So it makes sound business sense to diversify. It also gives Hester Biosciences more opportunity to expand internationally.

This means, increasingly, strong links and partnerships with both Nepal and Africa. “Africa, in particular, is a very big market and has much potential for us,” he says.

Nepal on the other hand is also highly interesting for Hester – but not for its home market. Nepal is an increasingly useful conduit to China. “We want to exploit this link, definitely,” says Gandhi. “Currently we do not have enough leads with China, but that will change in future.”

He goes on: “Currently almost 100 percent of our sales are from inside India. We want to change this, obviously. Having a broader client base is also a hedge against the volatility of international markets.”

For now, the company is looking closely at cattle and sheep vaccines. This kind of diversification is also being backed strongly by the Indian government, which increasingly wants to encourage a high value, high∞tech bioscience industry – a fit for Hester.

Sound strategy
Gandhi has always made it a priority to keep overheads low – and to always improve the quality of Hester’s products.  “We’ve relocated to Ahmedabad where the costs are lower, particularly for real estate. It’s not too far from Mumbai,” Gandhi explains.

He has also been able to improve the quality of his products. “Our quality is just as good as any international company you care to name. It’s also a lot more cost-effective.” That’s because the poultry vaccination industry is devoid of all emotional ties. “All poultry vaccinations,” Gandhi goes on, “are basically a service or raw material to the poultry industry. The poultry farmer wants more eggs out of the bird. He wants a better yield. It’s a very simple business objective for us and the client: excellent quality at a reasonable price.”

Current unutilised excess capacity is also an unused – and large – strength for Hester in this growing market. “Discussions with international companies are on-going to manufacture animal vaccines for them for their own markets. There’s a lot of opportunity.”

Gandhi’s achievements are recognised by India’s premier ratings agency, CRISIL which ranks Hester Biosciences as ‘Stable’ B+ on three crucial points: Cash Credit Limits, Proposed long-term bank facility and Term Loan facilities. An impressive achievement.

Lean but not mean
“We’re a very lean company, says Gandhi. “We’re efficient, well-run and we make decisions fast. Our corporate governance is also of a very high order. We do a lot of training programmers around our workers.”

He goes on: “We go well beyond normal practices, such as conducting classes for families of our workers. The idea is to enhance the quality of life for our employees and also take Hester to a higher base.”

That’s also good news for the increasingly large ethical investment market – particularly in the West – whose investors entrust them to place their resources only in companies which operate to high ethical standards.

Gandhi remains confident that his business approach is focused squarely on the key growth drivers. Looking at the evidence, you would be hard-pressed not to disagree.

Company timeline
1983    
Started proprietary company Rajiv & Associates with the main business objective to distribute poultry health products around Mumbai

1986
Grew the company into a distribution house for poultry health products covering whole of India

1987
Became the number∞ one distributor for poultry vaccines in India

1994    
Setup a joint venture with MBL, USA to manufacture poultry vaccines in India

2007
Expanded Hester Biosciences’ manufacturing capacity to four times

Further information: www.hesterbiosciences.co.in

With its biofuels business increasingly dominated by giant corporations, Brazil is seeking to extend its biofuels sector to include farmers like Lucas Scariot, who makes around $10,000 per year from selling grain.

For the past three years, Scariot has sold soy beans at a premium over market prices to a biofuels company under a government programme aimed at supporting small farms and creating jobs in the countryside while cutting fuel imports.

This year Scariot planted canola for the first time in a field he usually leaves fallow during the winter, diversifying the region’s soy-dependent agricultural base and providing a new raw material for local biodiesel production.

“It’s good for the farmer because it gives us additional value for our crops,” said Scariot, a 22-year-old farmer and agronomy student who along with his father works 20 hectares – equal to about nine Manhattan city blocks – of verdant and hilly land in Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.

“And now we have incentives for new crops, because people are always talking about soy, soy, soy. We can’t just depend on that,” said Scariot, who also raises pigs and chickens at his farm house.

The programme is meant to boost production of biodiesel, which can be used in heavy vehicles like trucks, and reduce diesel imports the way the 30-year sugar cane ethanol programme has cut the use of motor gasoline.

But efforts to use new raw materials, including untested crops such as castor bean plants, have sparked criticism that it is sinking millions of dollars into inefficient biofuels production that mostly benefits the politically well-connected.

The programme offers tax breaks to 30 participating biofuels producers and helps them get better financing arrangements. Those companies in 2009 purchased raw materials from around 51,000 small farmers, a figure slated to reach 100,000 by the end of this year.

Those benefits attracted Oleoplan, a biodiesel producer with close to $450m in annual sales, that now buys more than a third of its raw materials from small farmers like Scariot.

“The results have been fantastic,” Oleoplan’s director Domingos Costella said at the company’s headquarters, where a maze of machinery – clouded in the overpowering smell of soy – grinds up hundreds of tonnes of the crop, extracts its oils and mixes it with other chemicals to create fuel.

“This is a way for us to secure more raw material while still keeping the small farmer in mind.” The company plans to nearly double fuel production by next year in part because of the additional supply. As part of the arrangement, Oleoplan provides technical assistance to farmers or farming cooperatives to help them boost crop yields and make more efficient use of fertiliser.

Brazil began biodiesel production in 2005 and in 2010 is expected to produce 2.4 billion litres. This year it began requiring all fossil diesel to be sold with a minimum five percent biodiesel mix.

Biodiesel backers say hiking that rate would cut carbon emissions and reduce state oil company Petrobras’s imports of diesel and distillate fuels, which last year reached 78,000 barrels per day – more than 10 percent of its diesel output.

Petrobras has found new ways to refine vegetable-based oils together with diesel in its petroleum refineries. While the country’s ethanol programme has won praise, it is also targeted by critics who say it contributes to rising food prices and makes use of quasi-slave labour. Authorities hotly deny the first accusation but have acknowledged the second.

The government last year put Cosan, the world’s largest sugar and ethanol group, on a list of companies that put workers in slave-like conditions, though it was quickly removed.

“We can create better jobs than the ones in the ethanol sector, and with biodiesel those jobs can go to family farmers,” said Arnoldo de Campos, coordinator of the programme for the ministry of agricultural development. The effort has faced furious criticism for falling into a common trap of biofuels innovation – betting on crops with hyped-up energy promises that ultimately fall short.

The programme recruited thousands of family farmers to grow castor bean plants, which sprout spiky green seeds that advocates insisted could produce large amounts of oil and grow on degraded soil with little water. But no producer participating in the programme has been able to commercially produce biofuels from the crop. Critics say this is because production costs and yields are too high to justify using it for fuel.

As a result, Brazil’s largest biodiesel maker had to shut two plants in the poor northeast after months of supporting castor bean cultivation, sparking outrage among farmers.