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FOSE 2009 Report
Offerings Add New Capabilities to Existing Public Sector IT
Innovations Promise to Extend Life, Improve Service Delivery
By
Steve Lee
Managing Editor
BizTechReports.Com
The most exciting new ideas at FOSE 2009 were small, modest new
products and services that promise to make dramatic improvements in
federal, state, and local government IT by leveraging existing IT
investments.
Wandering around the FOSE 2009 show exhibition hall, it wasn’t hard
to overhear veteran exhibitors and visitors remark that the FOSE
2009 show at the Washington Convention Center was smaller than in
years past.
Indeed, several powerhouse industry integrators and manufacturers
were conspicuous by their absence. Microsoft’s Public Sector unit, for
example, which has been successfully deploying its SharePoint, Office,
and other enterprise products across the public sector market space,
did not have a presence on the show floor. Several major IT
integrators with significant stakes in the public sector market,
including Computer Sciences Corporation and Northrop Grumman,
also sat out FOSE 2009.
But the absence of household names from FOSE 2009 did not mean
that public sector CIOs are saddled with more of the same old
technology. Neither will government IT professionals have to wait for
a return to fat budgets in order to meet increased expectations for
security, user experience, and responsiveness to citizen concerns.
For example, several inexpensive new solutions shown by FOSE 2009
exhibitors promise to meet the challenge of mobile security—a
constant source of IT management and public relations anguish for
public sector CIOs.
MXI Security and IronKey displayed competing USB dongle solutions
that use combinations of multi-factor authentication, powerful remote
management tools, strong encryption, and virtual machine
technology. These small but powerful devices will help agencies
secure sensitive government and citizen data, while accommodating
the reality of an increasingly mobile public sector workforce. Instead
of an expensive and lengthy deployment of exotic purpose-built
secure laptops, government CIOs should be able to deploy effective,
secure mobile solutions at a cost of few hundred dollars per machine—
or less.
Another security product shown at FOSE 2009 offers enterprises with
remote or mobile users the added security of token-based
authentication, without the high capitalization and administrative
costs associated with token infrastructure. PhoneFactor’s security
authentication service delivers token-like user identification using
existing mobile telephone technology. With PhoneFactor’s
authentication, remote users receive an authenticating telephone call
when they log in to their enterprise’s network, to which the user must
correctly respond. Initial user setup is accomplished via a simple
telephone-based dialogue. And instead of burdening CIO staff and
enterprise users with expensive token infrastructure and accountable
equipment, PhoneFactor’s system uses existing infrastructure.
Security isn’t the only subset of CIO concerns benefitting from
innovation that expands on existing, installed IT infrastructure—or
from the expanding capabilities of mobile telephone handsets.
Turning Technology has developed a small, but mightily
consequential, enhancement for Microsoft PowerPoint that enables
seamless audience interactivity. Conventional audience response
systems rely on specialized or proprietary software interfaces and
hardware, which are expensive and cumbersome. Trainers and
presenters using audience response technology might be confined to
a specific site, or required to use additional hardware. Moreover, the
transition from PowerPoint or other presentation media to an
interactive session is often jarring. However, Turning’s solution works
within PowerPoint, so trainers and presenters can segue effortlessly
between conventional presentation and audience participation or
interaction with polls and multiple-choice questions, with results on
display in real time. Turning offers software, handheld response
devices, and a USB dongle that can turn any Windows or Apple
computer running PowerPoint into a sophisticated training and
presenting tool for hundreds, or at least a few thousand, dollars. A
few short years ago, such an interactive presentation capability
would have cost in the tens of thousands of dollars—well out of the
price range of many public sector IT or training budgets. Turning is
already working to lower the price point even more by offering
applications that enable Web-enabled mobile phones to act as hand-
held response devices.
The big players at FOSE 2009 were also showcasing technology and
services that maximize re-use and optimization of existing IT
investments. Conference attendees who went to listen to Charles
Lee of Verizon Business talk about IPv6 were probably expecting to
hear that Federal agencies and other large public sector enterprises
ought to scrap their old IPv4 installations and start building brand
new IPv6 infrastructure.
But Lee had a different message for Federal CIOs: keep your IPv4
infrastructure—it will continue to be an excellent foundation for public
sector networks, where there is still ample allocation of IPv4
resources. Lee instead emphasized that accommodation or
intermediation between the two protocols will result in significant
savings and extended life for existing investments.
Major new technology and its makers may have taken a back seat at
FOSE 2009—but in this time of mature technology, reduced spending,
and a wary eye on public sector procurement, the time has come for
low-cost, high-impact innovation.
Offerings Add New Capabilities to Existing Public Sector IT
Innovations Promise to Extend Life, Improve Service Delivery
By
Steve Lee
Managing Editor
BizTechReports.Com
The most exciting new ideas at FOSE 2009 were small, modest new
products and services that promise to make dramatic improvements in
federal, state, and local government IT by leveraging existing IT
investments.
Wandering around the FOSE 2009 show exhibition hall, it wasn’t hard
to overhear veteran exhibitors and visitors remark that the FOSE
2009 show at the Washington Convention Center was smaller than in
years past.
Indeed, several powerhouse industry integrators and manufacturers
were conspicuous by their absence. Microsoft’s Public Sector unit, for
example, which has been successfully deploying its SharePoint, Office,
and other enterprise products across the public sector market space,
did not have a presence on the show floor. Several major IT
integrators with significant stakes in the public sector market,
including Computer Sciences Corporation and Northrop Grumman,
also sat out FOSE 2009.
But the absence of household names from FOSE 2009 did not mean
that public sector CIOs are saddled with more of the same old
technology. Neither will government IT professionals have to wait for
a return to fat budgets in order to meet increased expectations for
security, user experience, and responsiveness to citizen concerns.
For example, several inexpensive new solutions shown by FOSE 2009
exhibitors promise to meet the challenge of mobile security—a
constant source of IT management and public relations anguish for
public sector CIOs.
MXI Security and IronKey displayed competing USB dongle solutions
that use combinations of multi-factor authentication, powerful remote
management tools, strong encryption, and virtual machine
technology. These small but powerful devices will help agencies
secure sensitive government and citizen data, while accommodating
the reality of an increasingly mobile public sector workforce. Instead
of an expensive and lengthy deployment of exotic purpose-built
secure laptops, government CIOs should be able to deploy effective,
secure mobile solutions at a cost of few hundred dollars per machine—
or less.
Another security product shown at FOSE 2009 offers enterprises with
remote or mobile users the added security of token-based
authentication, without the high capitalization and administrative
costs associated with token infrastructure. PhoneFactor’s security
authentication service delivers token-like user identification using
existing mobile telephone technology. With PhoneFactor’s
authentication, remote users receive an authenticating telephone call
when they log in to their enterprise’s network, to which the user must
correctly respond. Initial user setup is accomplished via a simple
telephone-based dialogue. And instead of burdening CIO staff and
enterprise users with expensive token infrastructure and accountable
equipment, PhoneFactor’s system uses existing infrastructure.
Security isn’t the only subset of CIO concerns benefitting from
innovation that expands on existing, installed IT infrastructure—or
from the expanding capabilities of mobile telephone handsets.
Turning Technology has developed a small, but mightily
consequential, enhancement for Microsoft PowerPoint that enables
seamless audience interactivity. Conventional audience response
systems rely on specialized or proprietary software interfaces and
hardware, which are expensive and cumbersome. Trainers and
presenters using audience response technology might be confined to
a specific site, or required to use additional hardware. Moreover, the
transition from PowerPoint or other presentation media to an
interactive session is often jarring. However, Turning’s solution works
within PowerPoint, so trainers and presenters can segue effortlessly
between conventional presentation and audience participation or
interaction with polls and multiple-choice questions, with results on
display in real time. Turning offers software, handheld response
devices, and a USB dongle that can turn any Windows or Apple
computer running PowerPoint into a sophisticated training and
presenting tool for hundreds, or at least a few thousand, dollars. A
few short years ago, such an interactive presentation capability
would have cost in the tens of thousands of dollars—well out of the
price range of many public sector IT or training budgets. Turning is
already working to lower the price point even more by offering
applications that enable Web-enabled mobile phones to act as hand-
held response devices.
The big players at FOSE 2009 were also showcasing technology and
services that maximize re-use and optimization of existing IT
investments. Conference attendees who went to listen to Charles
Lee of Verizon Business talk about IPv6 were probably expecting to
hear that Federal agencies and other large public sector enterprises
ought to scrap their old IPv4 installations and start building brand
new IPv6 infrastructure.
But Lee had a different message for Federal CIOs: keep your IPv4
infrastructure—it will continue to be an excellent foundation for public
sector networks, where there is still ample allocation of IPv4
resources. Lee instead emphasized that accommodation or
intermediation between the two protocols will result in significant
savings and extended life for existing investments.
Major new technology and its makers may have taken a back seat at
FOSE 2009—but in this time of mature technology, reduced spending,
and a wary eye on public sector procurement, the time has come for
low-cost, high-impact innovation.
| BizTechReports.Com Lane F. Cooper Editorial Director 415.646.6592 lcooper@biztechreports.com |
BizTechReports.Com
