As far as decision makers are concerned, information technology’s real value is to be found in the information that the technology yields –information that is relevant, accessible, and actionable. Historically, managers have had to extract and recompile data manually and then make sense of the data, convert it into useful information, and ultimately take action – often a laborious and tedious process.

It was almost like staring at one of those autostereograms so popular in the 1990’s. These pictures contained innumerable dots and patterns of color. And if you stared long enough and REALLY concentrated, you could eventually see a larger 3-D image that made sense. (http://www-ai.ijs.si/sirds/horse.jpg) Fortunately, today’s data mining technologies can automatically extract, compile, transform, and present pixels of data into useful information. It’s called Business Intelligence (BI). With BI, decision makers can see a larger, simplified picture of their operations yet give them the ability to drill down to the core of the opportunity or problem.

Data mining lets executives delve as deeply as the available data allows for the BI they need; and not only data existing within their own data libraries, but also available data which resides in others. BI can be an extremely vital source of useful financial, operational, and marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

A common requirement of BI is digital dashboards which can display KPIs in real time; as soon as the data is available, the dashboard is updated. Some times referred to as EIS (Executive Information Systems), real-time dashboards offer granularity - a view into the operation from the corporate “30,000-foot” level down to the individual employee or customer. For example, granularity lets health care providers view trends in care at a corporate level with the ability to drill down to a specific patient or resident.

Flexibility and responsiveness are also critical components of effective dashboards. Executives can select how they view the information using charts, graphs, and tables. Also, dashboards can generate real-time automated alerts via email or texting when specified KPIs exceed or descend below acceptable performance thresholds. Ultimately, BI enables managers to respond effectively to emerging performance trends as well as regulatory and competitive pressures. 

The process of data mining can readily uncover hidden patterns of Business Intelligence (BI). But how many ways can you slice and dice the data? The answer is, “Any way you choose.” But data mining can be like peeling an onion - the more you peel, the more it may bring you to tears. Whether they are tears of joy or sorrow will depend on what you do with the information. And that’s another story we’ll share with you next time. 

In summary:

• Data mining is indispensible in helping today's decision makers discover hidden patterns of vital BI.
• In real time, executives can view their financial, operational, and marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Dashboards give managers granularity, flexibility, and responsiveness.

If you access the Internet or receive email, you're computer will be subject to electronic infection. Left unchecked and uncorrected the damage these electronic infections inflict can be devastating. But what are these electronic infections? What can they do and how are they propagated? The three main categories of electronic infections are viruses, worms and Trojan horses.

A virus is a small piece of software that piggybacks onto real programs. For example, a virus might attach itself to a spreadsheet program. Each time the program runs, the virus reproduces itself (by attaching to other programs) or wreaks havoc directly. Once it is running, it can infect and spread to other programs or documents.

Most viruses also have some sort of destructive attack phase. A trigger will activate this phase and the virus will "do something," ranging from printing a silly message on the screen to erasing all of your data. The trigger might be a specific date or the number of times the virus has been replicated.

A worm is a computer program that has the ability to copy itself from machine to machine through computer networks. To infect a machine, a worm usually exploits some sort of security hole in software or the operating system.  Each time a worm finds an unsecured server or PC, the worm will copy itself to that server or PC. The new copy then scans for other servers or PCs to infect. Depending on the number of unsecured servers, a worm could conceivably create hundreds of thousands or even millions of copies in very little time.

Worms cause damage by using up computer time and network bandwidth when they are replicating. One such worm was called the Slammer worm. It essentially ground the entire Internet to a halt by sending out millions upon millions of packets of meaningless information which jammed critical Internet servers causing corporate email systems to crash and various web sites to become unresponsive. Other times a worm may replace web pages or generate excess traffic to a particular web site in order to overwhelm it. 

A Trojan horse is a computer program, which, as the name implies, claims to do one thing such as a game, but instead does damage when you run it (i.e. erasing your hard disk). Trojan horses are almost always designed to do harmful things, such as erasing or overwriting data, corrupting files in a subtle way, setting up networks of zombie computers in order to launch DDoS attacks or send spam, spying on the user of a computer, logging keystrokes to steal passwords and credit card numbers, "phishing" for bank or other account details, or installing a backdoor on a computer system to enable unauthorized access by hackers. Trojan horses get around through email, web sites, other infected programs, or through open ports on the network.

The strengths of outsourcing-Outsourcing information technology (IT) for many has been the best-fit alternative to designing, building, equipping, staffing, and deploying an in-house solution.

Because Cloud Services Providers (CSPs) are able to take advantage of economies of scale in the deployment of cutting-edge technology, providers can access information at anytime from anywhere. For a predictable monthly fee, customers of CSPs enjoy the benefits of:

• Affordability
• Scalability
• Reliability
• Availability
• Extensibility
• Maintainability

While the above sounds good in a sales pitch, you may still feel "ill-at-ies", because the real world can be something different. Information systems present a peculiar puzzle with unique risks. As such, exposure to disasters can be much broader than natural disasters. Corrupted data, systems crashing, blackouts, theft, viruses, sabotage, definitely expand the definition of "disaster."

Compatibility with business objectives-Disaster recovery puts a significant strain on IT resources, particularly CSPs whose data centers house mission-critical applications and data for numerous customers. Before selecting a CSP, you should test its compatibility with your business model. Does the CSP understand not only your industry/profession, does it understand and can it respond swiftly to your business requirements?

Questions to ask about your CSP-Theoretically, CSPs are equipped to deal with disasters. They have the environmentals, physical plant, equipment, and staff to respond quickly should the need arise. To test their response-ability, you should seek and verify the answers to questions, such as:

• Does the CSP have and has it tested a working disaster recovery plan?
• May you examine the the plan?
• Can the plan stand alone in the event its "key people" are unavailable?
• Is the CSP willing to test the system with you as part of a regularly-scheduled disaster drill?
• Can you form a crisis management team with members of the CSP staff?
• Does the CSP have a back-up and disaster recovery site? Does it have ready access to the outside world, such as a redundant and scalable Metro Ethernet ring, to provide critical backup and disaster recovery service?
• Does the CSP have an operational automated network monitoring system, such as Big Brother, to monitor its servers and data communications networks?
• Does the CSP have communication procedures in place to alert needed personnel compatible with your disaster plan?
• In the event of a disaster, how quickly would you be "back in business?"
• What procedures do they have in place?
• Have you communicated to the CSP what applications and data are absolutely mission critical?
• What fail-over systems does the CSP have in place? How often does the CSP test these?

These are just a few of the questions. With a proper service level agreement (SLA) in place, a customer and the CSP can develop a working relationship under any circumstance. Remember, to leverage an CSP's strengths, you must know its capacity to respond its response-ability.