Billionaires, Icons and Movie Stars – Why Geek Is Now Chic
Over the past few years we’ve seen the unstoppable rise of the geek. From popular culture to big business,the geeks have inherited the earth. They’re the billionaires, the modern day rock stars, and their many achievements have resulted in a significant change to their status in popular society. They are now often championed, given the limelight or even imitated- geek is now chic! So let’s take some time out to look how the geek – and our perception of the geek – has evolved… The Geek Revolution Before the dawn of the information age, being an IT expert was associated with social ineptitude, a stereotype amplified by films such as 'Revenge of the Nerds.’ Although this negative stigma has not quite been completely reversed, the rise of the geek has been prolific, driven by the mainstream rise of tech and the acute relevance of previously niche skills. Whether consumers or enterprises, society relies heavily on certain technologies, making IT experts and their knowledge indispensable. Employment of ‘Genius’ assistants in Apple stores show the change in status and dependence of society on the geek, as customers compete for the attention of who can fix their gadgets. The behaviour of geek idols such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates also helped make geeks cool, by having the audacity to drop out of (a Harvard) education to follow their dreams. The relevance of geek knowledge to businesses has been demonstrated by the scramble to fill the tech skills gap, but it spreads beyond classic computing know-how. Political forecaster Nate Silver received attention after mathematically predicting an Obama victory in 2012, resulting in a call to ‘hire geeks not pundits’ if you want to win a presidential election. The government introduction of compulsory IT-based aspects to school curriculums also shows the value attributed to IT know-how. The Omni-Present Geek Popular culture too is now exploring the techie as an unorthodox hero. This is perhaps most evident on the screen, demonstrated recently through television shows such as 'The Big Bang Theory' and 'The IT Crowd,' which explicitly focus their stories around stereotypical geeks. 'The Social Network' saw an entire film made about the rise of the IT genius. Characters are by no means portrayed with model good looks and bulging muscles, but the idea that the geek can 'win' is becoming more prevalent. In fashion, thick-rimmed, non-prescriptive glasses have become popular as an optional accessory rather than an optical necessity and been embraced by stars and school children alike. T-shirts sold by 'Topshop' emblazoned with the word 'NERD' or 'GEEK' were hugely successful when launched in 2013; it seems the implication of intellect, whether genuine or ironic, is now considered fashionable. Geek Power If society has progressed through the Iron Age and the Industrial Age, we are undoubtedly in the Tech Age. IT geeks have done amazing things with their inventions and innovations: Sir Tim Berners-Lee revolutionised global society by giving life to the World Wide Web; the inventions of Steve Jobs and Apple are omnipresent and envelop popular society and business; Mark Zuckerberg has helped shape a generation through social media – just try to escape social networks today! Despite geeks hitting the headlines for all the right reasons, there remains a significant gap between the level of demand for staff with specialist knowledge and the number of prospective employees who possess it. A number of recent high-profile hacking scandals show that IT experts have the potential to mould the business landscape in a variety of ways and have catapulted the cyber-security skills shortage to up the national agenda. These achievements have not gone unnoticed by businesses or the government, who have increased IT spending budgets and launched recruitment drives. The success of tech companies and individuals has seen expert knowledge come to be associated with entrepreneurial flair, with the stories of innovators like Zuckerberg carrying the geek into the unchartered realms of, dare we say it, coolness. Now that geek is chic, how about meeting some of the F5 geeks keeping businesses current in the age of tech? Why not join us at F5 Agility in Scotland in May? There will be F5 experts on hand to discuss your ideas and answer questions, as well as a host of sessions from a range of executives, from our CTO to our field engineers.
Access Control in the New Mobile, Hybrid World
There is a brave new world dawning for the corporate world. There are many “new norms” – and a gold rush of new opportunities, but also new challenges with which they come – streaking like lightning throughout organizations. The workforce of today and into the future is, and will continue to be mobile. Consider that according to analyst IDC, 37 percent of the worldwide workforce will be mobile by the end of 2015. That’s about 1.3 billion mobile workers, worldwide – not to mention there will be two or more times as many mobile devices as mobile workers! – by the end of this calendar year! Then, consider this: According to Orange Business Services, 55 percent of worldwide business IP traffic will be mobile business Internet traffic by 2018. Mobility is here, and it’s here to stay. (In the Asia Pacific region, IDC anticipates the bring your own device (BYOD) market will continue its robust growth. There were an estimated 155 million smartphones and over 4 million tablets in use supporting BYOD initiatives across the region last year (2014), with year-on-year growth of 40.4 percent and 62.7 percent, respectively. And, that’s not even considering the burgeoning area of wearable devices, either.) As the mobile workforce accelerates like a rocket into the stratosphere, cascading torrents of smartphones, tablets, and wearables across organizations in its wake, the number of cloud- and SaaS-based applications used within organizations is also skyrocketing at a breakneck pace. According to a recent study sponsored by SkyHigh Networks, there are on average 759 cloud services in use by today’s organizations. The most puzzling piece isn’t the magnitude of in use cloud apps and services. Instead, its that, according to a Cloud Security Alliance study, most organization IT teams believe they have fewer than 50 cloud-based apps in use. That means that over 700 cloud apps and services on average are in use within enterprises – but no one (but the user) has control over those apps and services, and any corporate information shared with them! The problem is, you cannot defend what you don’t know about! Finally, the last piece of the “new norm” puzzle for organizations is the hybrid network, an eclectic mix of data center and cloud-based apps and data, with a stew of hosted private, public and cloud infrastructures. According to analyst Gartner, “while actual hybrid cloud computing deployments are rare, nearly three-fourths of large enterprises expect to have hybrid deployments by 2015.” Consider that a mobile workforce will drive infrastructure changes, needed to address a more diverse device ecosystem. Then consider that infrastructure addressing mobility requires greater investment in cloud-based apps and services to support that expanding device ecosystem. So, as you can see, the future of the network fabric for the foreseeable future will be hybrid. So, with a “new norm” of mobility, cloud, and hybrid networks, how can organizations address network, application, and data accessibility? With so many new devices that are mobile and are under limited corporate control, and applications and data scattered about the network and in various clouds and SaaS deployments, how can an enterprise be assured of fast, appropriate, authenticated and authorized access? With so many variables, there is one constant that remains: Identity. The user – and their identity – is, arguably, the “new perimeter” for the enterprise, today and onward. As the traditional network perimeter has been broken, fragmented, and in many instances shattered into many pieces, identity has become the new perimeter. As applications, data, and even networks move faster toward the cloud, and the user-controlled, BYOD-driven mobile ecosystem expands exponentially, corporate control has become more difficult, dispersed, and dependent on others – and many times, that’s the security uninformed and apathetic user. User identity, though, never changes. And, backed by authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA), identity is now the first line of defense for secure corporate access. But, identity is just the tip of the spear for controlling the new parameters of access. The context of a user’s access request, and their environment at the time of access request, follow identity; inarguably, they have as much to do with securing appropriate access as identity. The ability to address the 5 w’s and 1 h (who, what, when, where, why, and how) assures, enhances, and differentiates secure access to networks, clouds, applications and data – wherever they may reside and however they are comprised. Insuring user identity is efficiently, securely shared between networks, clouds, applications, and data – wherever they live – is now a necessity. Yet, there are challenges: Identity silos, on-premise identity with cloud- and SaaS-based apps and data, and user password fatigue leading to weak user names and passwords – which are easily compromised. That’s where building an identity bridge comes in. Federation builds a trusted chain of user identity between two entities – networks, clouds, applications, etc. – through industry standards, such as SAML. The cumbersome duplication and insertion of identity directories becomes unnecessary. Identity and access is controlled by an enterprise, with authentication occurring between the enterprise, and cloud and SaaS providers. Instant user authentication and its termination is centralized and under enterprise control. Identity federation delivers access visibility and control together. Leveraging identity for access control, and building identity bridges are now imperative for organizations, as applications move outside the enterprise domain, the workforce and their devices are more mobile and leave the enterprises in droves, and the enterprise domain, too, has moved. It’s the “new norm”.Gone in 5 seconds! Online shoppers will wait just 5 seconds before switching brand
As the dust settled following our Christmas shopping extravaganza, 2014 was declared by many as a record breaking year digitally, with UK online retail sales exceeding £100bn for first time. However, despite the influx of more and more of our pounds online, for a lot of retailers, 2014 (and in particular, the run up to Christmas) wasn’t always successful. Major brands experienced online outages, succumbing to the sheer quantity of customers logging on to splurge their festive millions. Some sites took up to an hour to respond, at great cost in terms of revenue lost, as well as damaged customer loyalty. Unfortunately for retailers, while digital struggles and website crashes have become the norm, customer attitudes are changing fast. We recently surveyed 2,000 UK consumers, revealing that retailers and online services need to get it right, quickly, with more than a fifth of consumers (22%) claiming that they would switch to an alternative brand if a website or service doesn't work within just five seconds. In line with this, a massive 82 per cent say a fast website or mobile app is important to them when they engage with brands - so much so that a significant 31 per cent of shoppers would not complete a purchase if the online experience was poor. Meanwhile, a third of consumers (32%) report that slow website speeds, irrelevant online content and security concerns will negatively affect their perception of a brand. Nearly a quarter (24%) would go on to tell others about a negative experience should they have one – further impacting on loyalty and future custom. With social media usage ever rising, the ripple effects of negative experiences are hard to measure, but are sure to be getting ever more damaging and harder to reverse. Acclimatising to the digital era The easiest way forward for retailers is to get their online offerings right consistently. Demanding consumers expect a consistent experience whatever the digital channel; brands only have to get it wrong once and customers will go elsewhere. Understanding how, when and where consumers are interacting with brands and each other – and where this places strain on a company’s digital infrastructure - is now a crucial component for any customer facing business. Brands shouldn’t treat online as a single area. They must deliver the right type of content, optimising it for different audiences and devices. Location and context must also be taken in to account. For example, someone accessing their online banking from home, using a brand new iPad, will experience a different website or application than someone trying to do the same with an old mobile from a beach in Thailand during their gap year travels. In both cases the provider must ensure that the required information is delivered in the appropriate format. Behavioural patterns also vary greatly and are changing over time. For example, the UK is way ahead of Europe in terms of using smartphones for online shopping, with 32 per cent using it for purchases compared to just eight per cent in France and 15 per cent in Germany. Whether it's simply delivering an app in a fast and sleek manner, ensuring your data centre can cope with a rise in visitors during peak trading seasons, or using customer insights to refine the service you provide them with, brands must take responsibility. Consumers are no longer willing to wait for the right service. They’ll simply hop online and find a rival able to offer it here and now.