Whitepapers

White Paper: Data Security

Executive Summary

Data is fast becoming a company’s most valuable asset, but with that value, comes added pressure to keep it safe. We all know that it is an essential part of the modern marketer’s toolkit but it can be challenging to manage and protect. The security and privacy of customer data should be a top priority for every single company that is active online and storing business data. This applies to all forms of marketing, but email can be especially vulnerable as many businesses will be using sophisticated segmentation and targeting campaigns that involve keeping a lot of data on file. Additionally, with many people now performing email marketing (and online marketing in general) through cloud-based software systems it’s even more important to be on top of protecting your data.

Long gone are the days where, if a bank was robbed, we took pity on the banks. Now, if our data is compromised, our first instinct isn’t to blame the culprit, but to point the finger at the company for failing to protect us and provide adequate security. Securing sensitive data is a complex process which is continuously evolving, and underestimating the importance of data security could put your business at risk. With high-profile data breaches hitting the headlines, there is growing customer distrust in the way organisations handle data. It is critical, therefore that businesses take the necessary steps to protect their data, or face the very real – and potentially extremely damaging – risks. Suppliers, agencies and brands must advocate best practice with a clear data policy and have a well communicated data strategy in place. And legally, although there is an ever-evolving complex web of requirements, fundamentally you have a duty to take appropriate measures to protect data, as well as be open and honest to all concerned if any data is compromised.

Email remains the preferred communication channel for most consumers. Brands also understand that trust is at the heart of any email programme. A recent study commissioned by the Direct Marketing Association revealed that 54% of those surveyed said that trusting the company would be the primary factor in prompting them to provide personal details, and consumers are seven times more likely to provide personal information to a company with which they have an existing relationship1, but underpinning all of this is the importance of data security. 

Tags: 
Data Security

Xerox SMARTdocument Travel

Xerox SMARTdocument Travel

Xerox’s commitment to meeting and exceeding customers’ document-related challenges has never been more evident. Working closely with our Xerox Software Partners, we custom build solutions that leverage the power and flexibility of Xerox Multifunction Printers (MFPs), with the latest in business automation technology. Through partnerships, technology, and business process innovation, Xerox simplifies your every day business processes.

Streamline the journey from document to destination…

Whoever said “Time is money” was right. By giving you a flexible, convenient and time saving way to manage your document workflow, Xerox SMARTdocument Travel helps you move your paper and electronic documents quickly and accurately – giving your business more time to generate deals, receive payments, compete for bids, and do whatever else it takes to increase income and viability.

Stay on top of paperwork

One-touch scanning from a centrally controlled Xerox digital copier or MFP lets you scan, index and send all of your important documents to virtually any document management system. There’s no need to process multiple electronic documents individually, or to manually sort through paper files. Just click and go. And, that’s not all that happens. Each time you enter your user ID on the Xerox MFP, SMARTdocument Travel will give you a full range of processing options to choose from:

  • Image blurry? Put away the magnifying glass and use the imaging enhancement features.
  • A spreadsheet needs to be opened by somone who doesn’t have Excel? Easy. Transform it into a searchable PDF.
  • Want to send a document to the UK and Kansas? No problem. Scan once and send to multiple destinations.
  • Sensitive documents? No worries. Encrypt the document and set the workflow to accept only authenticated users. 
Tags: 
Xerox

Cloud Security: Developing a Secure Cloud Approach

Executive summary

Businesses are facing IT and data management challenges unlike those they’ve ever experienced. Big data and the globalisation of the business landscape, coupled with increased time-to-market pressures and budget restrictions, have resulted in ad hoc infrastructure buildouts and high levels of complexity. This hampers the IT organisation’s ability to function efficiently. The cloud has become a perceived panacea for all these problems, but the journey to the cloud isn’t one that should be undertaken lightly. There are many potential pitfalls along the road, the most prominent of which is security.

Gartner analyst Jeffrey Wheatman comments in a recent research note that: “Security requirements and drivers in the cloud are different from those in traditional data center environments… The dynamic nature of the cloud, coupled with the lack of customer ownership of infrastructure and limited transparency, has essentially broken traditional security models and architectures.”* 

This paper examines the differences between cloud and on-premise security requirements and discusses what organisations should consider to securely and confidently make the shift to the cloud.

Cloud breaks the traditional security model

As enterprise networking technology has evolved, so too have the requirements for enterprise security. What began simply as setting up a perimeter around the network using security tools like firewalls and e-mail gateways has evolved to the deployment of a wide range of tools. These include virtual private networks (VPNs) and intrusion detection systems (IDS) needed to handle the continuously growing number of threats to the network. For many IT departments, the idea of moving this established infrastructure into the cloud is a daunting proposition. Although the cost and scalability benefits of the cloud are appealing, the perceived lack of security and control has prevented organisations from taking the plunge.

Tags: 
Data Security

Lexmark Mobile Printing White Paper

Mobile Printing Gets Down to Business

By all accounts, 2011 marked a milestone in the rise of mobile computing. According to a survey by Deloitte Canada Research, 2011 was the year when sales of “non-PCs” – the umbrella term for smartphones and tablet devices – overtook that of traditional PCs. This turning point should come as no surprise to most industry observers, especially now that mobile devices have become so powerful and affordable that few people can resist getting into the act.

“People are doing things on their mobile devices that they used to have to do on their laptops,” says Duncan Stewart, a director with Deloitte Canada Research. As with sales of mobile devices, the trend toward a more mobile workforce only shows signs of strengthening. A recent report by IDC predicted that by the end of 2011, the number of mobile workers worldwide could reach as high as 1 billion1 – and by 2013, the research group says the mobile worker population will represent nearly 35% of the global workforce.

Worker mobility is being propelled and aided by faster and more powerful mobile devices, more and better cloud services, and an expanding ecosystem of applications, or apps as they are commonly called. Inventive business leaders are intrigued by the possibilities for implementing new computing models, serving work environments not practical for traditional approaches, and gaining competitive advantages from new mobile applications.

Although today’s tablet devices don’t yet rival PCs when it comes to heavy data entry or content creation tasks, users are starting to see tablets and smartphones as more than just a companion to their PCs. People appreciate the instant-on convenience of mobile devices, which lets them collaborate with coworkers, share information with a client, or explain a medical procedure with a patient without waiting for the device to boot up. Other features such as multi-touch interfaces, motion sensing and location services are boosting the attractiveness of mobile devices. All this means that more people are reaching for their mobile devices first – and leaving their heads-down, PCbased data entry chores until the end of the day or during downtime.

Tags: 
Lexmark

Xerox® Mobile Print Solution: Information Assurance Disclosure

Introduction

A Xerox Workflow Solution that connects a mobile workforce to new productive ways of printing. Printing is easy and convenient from a mobile device without needing drivers and cables.

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to disclose information for the Xerox Mobile Print Cloud with respect to system security. System Security, for this paper, is defined as follows:

  1. How print jobs are received, accessed, and transmitted
  2. How user information is stored and transmitted
  3. How the product behaves in a networked environment
  4. How the product may be accessed, both locally and remotely

Please note that the customer is responsible for the security of their network and the Xerox Mobile Print Cloud product does not establish security for any network environment.

The purpose of this document is to inform Xerox customers of the design, functions, and features of the Xerox Mobile Print Cloud relative to Information Assurance (IA).

This document does NOT provide tutorial level information about security, connectivity, PDLs, or Xerox Mobile Print Cloud features and functions. This information is readily available elsewhere. We assume that the reader has a working knowledge of these types of topics.

Target Audience

The target audience for this document is Xerox field personnel and customers concerned with IT security.

Tags: 
Xerox

Unlocking Hidden Savings in the Enterprise Through Output Device Consolidation, Automated Fleet Management and Workflow Enhancements

Introduction

We are in the toughest economic climate most people alive today have ever seen. Banks are failing at a historic pace. Brokerage houses and retail chains are disappearing. The automotive industry is on the precipice of calamity. Home foreclosures have soared to numbers that defy comprehension. In January 2009, the national unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent, a figure not seen since 1992. 

It’s no wonder then, that businesses, from the smallest corporation to the largest multinational enterprise, are rapidly stepping up their already frantic search to slash costs, retain liquidity, and maintain profitability. Unfortunately, many businesses equate cutting costs with cutting payroll, leading some to believe this is the cheapest, fastest way to achieve savings. There is a good chance this belief is misplaced.

Similarly misaligned is the belief that turning off IT investments is a wise move. A recent issue of McKinsey on Business Technology titled, “Managing IT in a downturn; Beyond cost cutting” says “still, except in the most dire circumstances, turning off technology investments during a downturn is counterproductive. When business picks up, you may lack critical capabilities … Targeted IT investments can make operations more efficient and increase revenues, delivering returns larger than simple cost-cutting measures typically do … Simplistic cuts, applied across the board, may endanger critical business priorities from sales support to customer service.”

Tags: 
Lexmark

Exective Summary for Frontline Workers' Perspective

Customer-facing employees desperately want to please

Much has been said about the decline of customer service, but it’s especially unfortunate when customer-facing employees desperately want to please — yet can’t. This appears to be the case for nearly 9 in 10 customer-facing employees (89 percent) — e.g., bank clerks, call center operators, nurses, bank managers and shop supervisors — who in a new research study by Forrester Consulting said there’s a gap between the experience they can deliver and the experience the customer expects. Without investment in new technologies and processes, the research suggests, organizations will be facing a new competitive landscape at a substantial disadvantage.

The research, conducted for Ricoh Company, Ltd. by Forrester Consulting, found that poor customer support often stems from inadequate time for customer-facing employees to focus on the customer, as well as inadequate document and process support that would allow more human-centric interaction. Current systems consume too much human bandwidth by necessitating low-value tasks, and they drain energy from workers that could be used to provide a richer customer experience. 

Among Forrester’s key findings:

This research reveals that gaps in systems and document services do not allow time for a rich personalized experience. Decision-makers believe that customer-facing workers could be more effective with more time available to personalize the customer experience. Poor information access and time spent capturing, searching, printing, and filling out documents and forms that do not add value absorb precious client-facing time and are major limitations in supporting customers today, with a significant opportunity cost to the business.

Tags: 
Ricoh

Data Protection: Understanding the Benefits of Various Data Backup and Recovery Techniques

With the growing value of data as a strategic corporate asset, today’s IT organizations face the challenge of implementing reliable backup and recovery solutions in the most efficient, cost-effective manner. To meet this challenge, they need to carefully define their business requirements and recovery objectives before deciding on the right backup and recovery technologies to deploy.

This paper describes some of the key deciding factors and potential techniques these organizations should consider as they build the right backup and recovery infrastructure for their particular needs. For organizations that need assistance in finding the best solution, Brocade® Services provides a wide range of offerings for designing, enhancing, and managing backup and recovery infrastructures.

THE NEED FOR BETTER DATA PROTECTION

As today’s businesses increasingly recognize corporate data as a strategic asset that must be protected against a wide range of risks and threats, data protection has become a high-priority objective for IT organizations. In turn, these organizations now face the challenges of identifying, deploying, and efficiently managing their data backup and recovery infrastructures. 

One of the greatest challenges is justifying the costs associated with data protection solutions. This is because data protection is often viewed not as a revenue-generating function but rather a “necessary evil”—an overhead cost that most organizations would prefer to keep to a minimum. However, recent well-publicized events (natural and manmade disasters, lost backup tapes, and stolen corporate laptop computers) have increased the visibility and elevated the importance of data protection.

Tags: 
Data Security

Mobile Technology Tablets and Workplace Integration

Executive Summary

Smart phones keep getting smarter. Applications for tablet computers are emerging at dizzying speeds. And the cloud that links them all is limitless in scope. Mobile computing is no longer a technology trend, but rather, an integral component of our business and social lives. 

As a result, businesses need to be aware of the benefits this might bring, how these technologies are being used, and who is using them. It is important to deliver solutions that make the process of using documentation on these platforms as streamlined as possible. 

As mobile technology increases in speed and user friendliness, the adoption rate of new mobile options by consumers increases. Consumerisation (consumers driving information technology innovation, instead of business) is forcing Australian businesses to accept that mobile technology is now used in the workplace, and holds the key to achieving the paperless office. Already, reputable research companies are predicting a decline in print volumes in the US market by 5 percent by the end of 2012 financial year.

Tags: 
Xerox

HP iLO Management Engine Technologies

Introduction

The HP iLO Management Engine is a suite of embedded management technologies that supports the complete lifecycle of all HP ProLiant Gen8 servers, from initial deployment to ongoing management and service alerting. The iLO Management Engine is a key component of the end-to-end HP Insight Management server management portfolio, along with HP Insight Control and HP Insight Online. Together they provide customers with the most comprehensive set of server management capabilities in the industry.

The iLO Management Engine includes:

  • HP iLO 4 management processor that provides the foundation for other capabilities in iLO Management Engine
  • HP Intelligent Provisioning that lets customers provision and configure a single server without any separate media
  • HP Agentless Management that provides remote embedded server management without OS-based management software
  • HP Active Health System that builds diagnostic support into the server

iLO Management Engine comes standard across the BL, DL, ML, and SL ProLiant Gen8 server lines. Customers will need an HP iLO Advanced License to take advantage of iLO 4 capabilities such as the Remote Console and Virtual Media. We assume that most readers are familiar with previous versions of iLO technology. If not, the following section contains a brief background.

Tags: 
HP

Pages