Lately we have seen Bitcoin surge and fall in value. At first, it was said to be down to the economic issues in Cyprus turning investors to look at other (safer?) forms of storing their money. And now, since I first started this article, collapse in value in under a less than a month. Is Bitcoin a new haven for investors, or a new way to throw notes on to the fire? read more
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When I joined Atos, light years ago, I was very pleased with my new job, but had some mixed feelings about the provided hardware and related operating system. I have worked with Macs forever as from the last years of university and, in fact, in all my jobs. The all-time high for me was in my role as an ICT manager, responsible for a complete Mac environment, from desk tops to servers, 1997.
So it was a matter of days before I decided to bring my own Laptop to the Atos environment and from then everything worked fine, although I was bit disconnected. Ok, I did manage to get internet working and thereby access to email was arranged through a web client, but printing, network shares and native applications where unknown territory for me. So then, with some horror, the black tank was booted and I could perform the necessary actions in for me an alien zone, uploading my documents to the central systems, downloading what I needed, do some printing etc. read more
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I once had to go through a very intensive security check because I left a 1 euro piece in my pocket. The pocket had a hole. The euro coin found is way in the fabric and I was setting off all alarms. The only thing that prevented me from having to strip was a portable scanner that pinpointed the culprit. A small knife (not mine) was used and the problem was taken away.
It was like having public surgery.
This experience came to mind when I was reading the new white paper of the Atos Scientific Community that is about to be published shortly (we will let you know when). The document explores the world of mobile payments.
“Mobile payment is not about printing money or inventing a new currency, but about a customer, a merchant (or both) using a mobile device during the payment of a transaction.”
The paper describes in detail the technological challenges and looks into the way that business need to adapt themselves to accommodate the use of mobile devices for enabling payments.
Several business scenarios are explored in the paper showing the benefits of this way of handling transactions.
Normally when we introduce this concept we focus on the benefit for the customer. Mobility, no need for cash and ease of use are obvious positive points. It becomes interesting if we move our view to the merchant and look at what mobility can do at the ‘other side of the transaction’.
- Firstly a mobile point of sale introduces more flexibility in store concepts and a intimacy between sales person and buyer; this enhances the shopping experience and makes the transaction a more natural part of the shop visit.
- Secondly, the investment in the point of sale equipment is lower, any mobile device will do and there is a great choice available.
- Finally the digitalization allows for multiple payment scenarios including different levels of security (each with their own cost level), connecting loyalty schemes and ad hoc sales promotions.
Although the benefits look compelling there are still hurdles to overcome. These include the obvious security challenges as well as the physical capabilities of the devices such as encryption, local storage and Near Field Communication. Also you do not want your roaming contract or mobile data plan to become an inhibitor when you see that once in a life time opportunity at the local market in that cute little village in Peru.
“Can technology make physical money irrelevant? That may be a statement that is too bold to make today, but it is certainly not too difficult to envision. One of the main enablers for such a zero-cash scenario is mobile payment.”
Once the white paper is published we will add the download location so you can download it and discuss it with your local grocery store.
Update October 25, 2012: The whitepaper is now published and can be found here.
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Sharing your personal information with the founders of FaceBook, MySpace, Pinterest, Friendster, Twitter and LinkedIn is probably something you would think about twice. The association of your private stuff with each of these networks is something you want to take very seriously.
There is an interesting tension between social networks and the concept of Privacy. Not only because some people will share what others will want to keep a secret; also because the social networks love to know more about you and continuously challenge your boundaries. read more
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The access, the storage and processing of information has changed dramatically and will change even faster in the next years driven by trends like Cloud Services, SOA, mobile computing. Business IT is no longer guarded by reliable boundaries. Therefore security systems such as perimeter firewalls are today ineffective and trustworthy networks are dying out. Almost every client is directly connected with untrustworthy networks and systems. Formerly local installed software is more and more leased on the Internet as SaaS (Software as a Service). As on demand services for little money comes more and more widespread (micropayment apps), business IT Services are no longer bought centrally and standardized. Even the client itself is often not owned by the business any more. Professional and private IT systems are mixed like never before. This goes along with the availability of more broadband networks and low bandwidth prices.
To sum it up – enterprises are faced with a dramatic loss of governance as hardware, software and services are often no longer owned or controlled by them. What remains in parts is end-point Security. The described disruptive trends within IT lead to mandatory needs for business and technology.
Our track SECURITY within scientific community deals about the four core values confidentiality, integrity, availability and non-repudiation of information. We will show which key questions have to be answered to stay with secure and reliable IT services.
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