July 2008

CONTENTS

INDUSTRY NEWS

SIDE TRAQS

EVENTS

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

Win CASH!
Play the COLOTRAQ Referral Program Game at the Fall 2008 Channel Partners Conference Expo, Booth 1030, August 18–20 in Boston, Massachusetts. MORE

INDUSTRY NEWS

Data Breaches Are Up 69% this Year, Nonprofit Says New Laws May Have Increased Reporting
Businesses, governments and universities reported a 69 percent increase in data breaches in the first half of 2008 compared with a similar period in 2007, according to a study by a nonprofit group that works to prevent fraud. MORE

10 Largest Data Breaches Since 2000 — Millions Affected
In light of the MySpace photo breach (due to their negligence) a couple of months ago, I got to wondering about other recent data breaches. It turns out Attrition.org keeps a Data Loss Archive and Database that contains known data breaches since 2000. Records include date, number affected, groups involved, summaries, and links to reported stories and updates. It’s surprisingly detailed and even better, it’s all available for download. MORE

215 Data Centers to Participate in EPA Study
At least 215 data centers have volunteered to provide data on their energy usage to the Environmental Protection Agency, which hopes to use the information to develop an Energy Star certification for data center facilities. That’s a huge improvement from mid-May, when just 54 facilities had agreed to participate, well below the agency's goal of 100. The EPA extended its original deadline of June 1 by a month, and will get underway this week with more than twice as many facilities as initially hoped. MORE

Study: US Broadband Access Up Overall, but Down Among the Poor
When it comes to broadband Internet access in America, the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” is widening, suggests a Pew Research report released on Wednesday called, “Home Broadband Adoption 2008.” On the whole, about 55% of all Americans today have a high-speed Internet connection, up from only 47% in 2007, according to results released this week by the Pew Internet American Life Project. MORE

Good Incentives Boost Data-Center Energy Efficiency
A Microsoft executive shared techniques the company has used, including new kinds of employee incentive programs and internally created automation tools, to reduce the energy consumption of its growing data centers. MORE

Data Center Dirty Secrets
Google and Microsoft are changing the economics of running a data center. They are confidently making multibillion-dollar commitments aimed at offering ubiquitous, low-cost computing, where cycles will be 30 times cheaper than today. MORE

SIDE TRAQS

Networked Percolators at Risk of Distributed Denial-of-Coffee Attack
Internet-connected espresso machine vulnerable to hackers. MORE

Fewer Pursuing Tech Degrees
Fewer college students are pursuing computer-related degrees at a time when demand is increasing and thousands of baby boomers are retiring from technical jobs. MORE

Low Cost Gas Engine Innovation Doubles Fuel Economy
Revetec, a little known company from the Gold Coast region of Australia, may be on to something huge: they’ve created an engine that is 50% smaller, 50% lighter, has 50% lower emissions and is cheaper to manufacture than a conventional internal combustion engine of the same horsepower. Oh yeah, did I mention that it doubles the fuel economy too. MORE

‘Snail Mail’ Blazes Slow e-Trail
Muriel, Austin and Cecil are snails for the electronic age. The gastropods have been fitted with equipment to allow them to send e-mails on behalf of visitors to a website. MORE

Children Concerned by Parents’ Web Habits
Children in Sweden are becoming increasingly concerned by their parents' internet habits, according to a new report from Children's Rights in Society (Barnens R�tt i Samh�llet — BRIS). Last year the organization dealt with 1,895 IT-related cases, up sharply on figures from the previous year. Further investigation revealed that more than 100 of the children who made contact with BRIS did so because they were in some way worried about their parent’s behaviour on the internet. MORE

diversITy: The Lack of Women in the IT Industry
Over the last few days, I�ve been in touch with some widely influential people involved in leading organisations, from Google to Microsoft (for once they agree on something), the National Center for Women in Information Technology, and getting the perspective to understand this problem from other prominent figures in the IT and technology industry. MORE

EVENTS CALENDAR

JULY

HostingCon 2008 Find the products and services, information, and connections you need to grow your hosted services business at HostingCon 2008.
July 28–30, 2008 | Chicago, IL MORE

AUGUST

Channel Partners Conference & Expo is the only event devoted exclusively to The Channel — agents, VARs, systems integrators, interconnects, wireless dealers and consultants — selling communications products and services. The biannual trade show is celebrating its 11th year by achieving milestones in the variety and number of attendees, exhibitors and sponsors. The Channel Partners Conference & Expo is a one-of-a-kind networking and educational event that is earning praise from carriers, resellers, manufacturers, managed services providers, software vendors and their indirect sales partners.
August 18–20, 2008 | Boston, MA MORE
 

SEPTEMBER

Interop New York IT Exhibition and Conference gives you all the information you need to improve business agility.
September 15–19, 2008 | New York, NY MORE
 

Mobile Business Expo (colocated with Interop New York) — Unleash The Way You Work. Mobile devices are shifting from an executive accessory to a primary business communication device for a much broader group of users.
September 16–19, 2008 | New York, NY MORE
 

OCTOBER

SATCON — For seven years, has been on the leading edge of video, voice, data and IP communications solutions media, military, government, telco and enterprise firms. No other conference features over 75 end-user speakers who discuss real-world issues and solutions for a variety of markets.
October 15–16, 2008 | New York, NY MORE
 

Conference on Information Technology (CIT) — The League for Innovation’s annual Conference on Information Technology (CIT) is the premier showcase of the use of information technology to improve teaching and learning student services and institutional management in community and two-year colleges.
October 19–22, 2008 | Salt Lake City, UT MORE
 

Mobile Internet World showcases the successful mobile internet technologies and business trends of the future, delivered by the innovative pioneers of today. Attended by all the major leading companies and industry experts, it's the best place to learn directly from the application developers, service providers, device manufacturers, content providers and entrepreneurs behind the future of the mobile Internet in a relaxed and fun environment.
October 21–23, 2008 | Boston, MA MORE

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