In this video, we're going to talk about the future.
We're going to talk about the future of IT services, the future of cloud computing and
the future of security.
Good day Dan, how are you?
Good, thanks Tim.
So as someone who's been involved in IT, running an IT company for 20 something years, you
must have seen some patterns emerge.
What do you see coming when it comes to IT services?
Yeah, IT services used to be very manually intensive.
It used to have, we used to have to go and sit down in front of the computer or the server.
It may have taken several hours to do a report and to go through and do all the checks that
we need to do.
Most of that is now largely automated with the tools that we can use, and not only that
it's real time as well so if there's a problem that occurs on the server, we can have an
alert that comes up and tells us that there's a problem there.
Either have somebody connect in and fix it, in some cases the software itself can automatically
heal some of these files that are starting to occur in the servers and in the desktops.
So it's much more automated, enables the software to take care of the task rather than relying
on a human to do it.
It sounds like the software is becoming more artificially intelligent.
It may be the case.
Alright, let's talk to the future when it comes to cloud computing.
What are some of the trends that are emerging there?
Yeah, I mean, the cloud's pace is moving quite rapidly in the last few years.
Certainly the last decade it's been moving and we've seen large businesses, vast empires
being built in the cloud environment.
The thing to watch for me, there's quite a few areas but the focus that we have is particularly
around the internet of things so that's using sensors and devices to be able to send data
back into the cloud to enable businesses to make better decisions about what's going on
with their equipment.
Let's talk about the third area which is security and in a positive fashion.
Let's talk about some of the trends that are emerging.
The security landscape changes quite rapidly.
I mean, for us it changes almost week by week and what we see new threats emerging.
So, some of the more scary things that we're starting to see is emails that are actually
coming in to a user and saying, this is your username and we also have your password.
And the password is an accurate password.
How do they find that out?
So there's databases that have been out on the internet that have been hacked from time
to time that may have legitimate information, username and passwords in them that are real
user name and passwords.
Right, you're talking about some of these big hacks that wind up with press attention
like I wanna say some of the big shopping companies and so forth I think have been hacked
one way or another over the last 10 years.
So, those data bases are still around.
That's right.
I mean, the example that comes to mind is the Adobe website.
It was hacked about 2 to 3 years ago so a lot of people use Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat.
They may have put in the username and the password, that may be the same password that
they use for their internet banking for example.
Right.
So imagine Tim, if you then got an email that said, hi Tim this is your username and this
is your password.
Now that password is your Adobe password (right)
but it may also be your internet banking password (right)
as well.
And if I haven't changed it, I mean all kinds, I would think I'm in all kinds of trouble.
Absolutely.
What's a proactive approach to this knowing that this threat is emerging?
So what we say to people is make sure that
you're changing your passwords on a regular basis.
So if you change your passwords 2 to 3 times a year, that's probably enough to keep just
one or two steps ahead of the hackers who may have that password that you used in 2013.
Alright, excellent.
Any other big trends that we need to be aware of or that's three pretty good ones I think
from three big slices of the industry.
Look, the take out for the trends for me is just to look for the different pieces out
there which can enable your business to be able to grow and to be productive.
It's different for everyone but that certainly have a look at what is relevant for you and
see how you can put into practice.
Alright, terrific. Thank you.
For those of you who'd like to find out more, you can go visit Dan through his book "Downtime,
Disruption and Deception" which is available on Amazon, or approach him directly through
his website or his team on sabervox.com.au