Setting Security Priorities

When it comes to security, technology is seldom the most important factor. If you’ve ever struggled to find a balance between passwords too difficult to remember and passwords too easy to guess, you know that getting people to use security is a big part of the challenge. It’s not surprising, therefore, that 52 percent of IT professionals are more concerned about internal security threats—both intentional and accidental—than external threats. The number one item on survey respondents security wish list was “smarter end users who understand security risks.” While security budgets are mostly (54 percent) expected to remain static this year, 35 percent of respondents expect their security budgets to grow at least slightly for 2009. How will they spend those budgets? The top security-related priority for senior management is regulatory compliance, closely followed by “protecting company data from unauthorized access by outsiders and malicious hackers.”

• Information Week summarizes a survey in which IT professionals were asked about security priorities.

Saving Money, Time, and the Environment

Are your bank, utility company, and business vendors constantly suggesting you switch to e-bills? Have your company’s business partners suggested there might be an alternative to paper invoices? Do employees ask for reports in PDF files rather than on paper? All of these questions are examples of e-document delivery. Initially, especially for documents such as internal reports, you might simply email the relevant electronic documents. However, when you find that sorting out the different choices—some customers want e-bills, some want emailed PDFs, some want paper invoices—becomes overwhelming, you may want to investigate the rapidly growing e-document software genre. Companies that offer e-document software range from service providers that will mail paper invoices when necessary to completely electronic solutions that streamline packaging of reports and then email the consolidated reports to the correct recipients.

• Computerworld shares three e-document success stories.

Leveraging LinkedIn

The idea of a book to help people use an online networking tool more effectively is ironic, and yet such a book exists: How to REALLY Use LinkedIn by Jan Vermeiren. (Softening the irony somewhat, a condensed version of the book is available online at no charge.) While the medium may be ironic, the message is very timely as people look for ways to network with former and potential colleagues. While LinkedIn has some things in common with social networking sites such as Facebook, it’s much more focused on professional connections and career building. According to Vermeiren, using LinkedIn effectively starts with a few basic steps: fill in your profile completely, connect with people you already know, identify other people you’d like to connect with, and ask for introductions.

• Forbes interviews Jan Vermeiren about LinkedIn and how it can help you find a job.

Related Links

• You can download the condensed version of Vermeiren’s book from his website.
• According to Information Week, programmers are avid participants in social networking sites and often rely on community-moderated (as opposed to vendor-moderated) forums and blogs for technical information.
• An O’Reilly column opines that Facebook has an important role in business communications.

MySQL for IBM i

IBM i developers already have a great database—DB2 for i. So, why should you care about MySQL on i? Several years ago, when MySQL for i was just a twinkle in IBM’s eye, Scott Klement (one of my fellow System iNetwork technical editors) explained why MySQL matters (or should matter) to IBM i developers. MySQL is important, because PHP is important, and in the PHP world, MySQL is the de facto database standard. The opportunity to run PHP applications unchanged on IBM i gives us access to a much broader range of prebuilt, often open source, applications than would otherwise be available for the IBM i.

• IBM’s new redbook, Using IBM DB2 for i as a Storage Engine of MySQL, explains how to set up and configure MySQL, how to access MySQL data using native interfaces, and explores system management considerations such as security, backup and recovery, and performance.

Sharon L. Hoffman (shoffman@techreflections.com) is a System iNEWS senior technical editor. She began working with IBM midrange systems in 1981, and her background includes extensive application development as well as creation and delivery of technical education.