Most Questionable: We'll be watching the ascendance of Tom Hudson, former CNT CEO, to the leadership of Capital Growth Systems, a virtual network operator (VNO) that rebrands and augments services from facilities providers like AT&T. (See CentrePath's Fate May Be Sealed.) Hudson earned notoriety with the size of his payout after McData bought CNT in 2005. (See CNT CEO Eyes $3M Payout.) At least one storage firm may fall under his axe as he pursues fresh riches.
Partnerships
Most Dazzling: NASA and Google. (See NASA.) This just might turn awesome. NASA, which has data of interest to Googlers but no extra dough to fund its projects, will benefit from the exposure Google offers. Google in turn will get a development partner extraordinaire for its ever-expanding network. While pitfalls loom (the government is notorious for shooting itself in the foot), the possibilities are intriguing, to say the least.
Most Disappointing: Key management partnerships. (See Multivendor Management Locked Up.) Folk applauded in March 2006, when encryption appliance maker NeoScale opened its key management APIs to third parties. Archrival Decru (now part of NetApp) followed suit four months later with a similar initiative. (See Decru Picks Key Partners and File Security Gets All Cryptic.) But the hoped-for results have yet to materialize. The promise of multivendor encryption key management is still a pipe dream, held back by lack of cooperation from vendors.
The Editors, Byte and Switch
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
