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The Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC) is the largest technology trade association in Texas, representing a quarter million employees through its 300 member companies. The MTBC strengthens North Texas’ technology community by acting as the innovation hub for entrepreneurs, universities and corporations. The MTBC continues to prove that “technology lives here” by growing future tech leaders with: its talent and workforce development initiative, advocating technology’s advancement in governmental arenas, and connecting people and inspiring ideas through its programs and special interest groups. More information about MTBC and its annual Tech Titans awards gala can be found online by visiting www.metroplextbc.org.

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Cover ImaGe: Server room of MTBC member, VCE. See Andre Wu’s article on page 4.

1 Welcome Jeff Meier, MTBC Cloud CoMpuTing Sig Chair, Senior ViCe preSidenT and Cio, Fujitsu neTwork CoMMuniCaTionS

2 Developing a Future-Proof Cloud Strategy paul CarMody, Senior ViCe preSidenT produCT ManageMenT and BuSineSS deVelopMenT, inTernap

3 Command and Control: The Importance of the Network in Cloud Strategy Tony hurTado, Vp gloBal MarkeTing, MaSergy

4 Trends in Public and Private Cloud Offerings andre wu, Senior direCTor, gloBal Cloud STraTegy, VCe

8 Integrating Cloud Solutions Into the IT Toolbox Jay warSaw, Senior direCTor of eleCTroniC BuSineSS SoluTionS aT Fujitsu neTwork CoMMuniCaTionS

10 Delivering Secure Updates to the Cloud ruSTy Cone, Senior ViCe preSidenT of SaleS and MarkeTing, nei

11 Cloud-Centric Assured Information Sharing BhaVani ThuraiSinghaM, direCTor of CyBer SeCuriTy reSearCh CenTer aT The uniVerSiTy of TexaS aT dallaS

12 Mobile Device Security and Infrastructure Management eriC edSTroM, ViCe preSidenT, profiTlink TeleCoM expenSe ManageMenT

13 Data Storage Technology Achieves Sustainability While Reducing Cost larS roSene, Chief SuSTainaBiliTy offiCer, hie eleCTroniCS

16 Drafting Contracts for the Cloud – roBerT J. SCoTT, Managing parTner, SCoTT & SCoTT, llp

17 SOC 2 Report: Cloud Service Providers Can Offer Greater Assurance Brian J. ThoMaS, CiSa, CiSSp, parTner, adViSory SerViCeS, weaVer

18 Recycling Legacy IT Systems in a Cloud Environment BoB harriS, preSidenT, BCd eleCTro

18 Enabling Business Models That Work in the Cloud gordon haff, Cloud eVangeliST, red haT, inC.

19 Cloud Solutions for Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses Zane ColVin, preSidenT, ZaC SoluTionS

20 Preferred Business Listings

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Download a copy of the magazine: www.metroplextbc.org/magazine

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WelcomeWelcome to the MTBC magazine featuring the exciting topic of cloud computing.

As chair of MTBC’s Cloud Computing Special Interest Group (SIG), I welcome the opportunity to explain some of the technology, contractual and security components

necessary to implement a successful cloud strategy that enhances a businesses’ competitive position.

The MTBC Cloud Computing SIG brings together DFW companies involved in cloud computing. We strive to support and accelerate the growth of the cloud computing industry in the DFW Metroplex by creating a collaborative network of business users and providers of technologies and services, while promoting the region as one of the premier cloud computing centers in the United States.

In carrying out this mission, the Cloud Computing SIG:

Educates and advises DFW Metroplex IT executives about the advantages of cloud ●●

computing, emphasizing solid security measures, best practices and significant cost-reduction opportunities that drive the industry’s growth.Encourage service offering deployments that provide services, research and products ●●

which enable companies to improve operational efficiencies.Support the cloud computing technology ecosystem in North Texas, bringing together ●●

industry players with the goal of stimulating economic growth in the region. Closely align cloud computing services with the telecom industry, accentuating the fact ●●

this surging technology requires robust network architecture to move the data.

Most large and mid-size companies will never outsource all of their IT technology assets and services to the cloud. However, key aspects of a company’s IT strategy will prove to be a good, economical fit to live in an off-premise cloud environment. The challenge of the company’s CIO will be to demonstrate how these selected systems will coexist with a company’s in-house IT service in terms of an easy-to-implement and ongoing-support integration model.

This issue of tech trends gives a nod to the complexities of the cloud computing effort from a business need and technology implementation perspective. It also contains a fascinating security update from the UTD Cyber Security Research Center. Practical considerations are brought up about how enterprise companies deal with employees using personal mobility devices securely, how to draft contracts with cloud suppliers from a legal standpoint, and, in accounting, how an SOC 2 report can assure customers of cloud providers that the company has addressed compliance issues.

Tech trends is just one piece of our information sharing. For more opportunities to gain and share cloud computing targeted information, get involved in the MTBC Cloud Computing SIG. Join our mail list at www.metroplextbc.org/cloud.

Jeff MeierMTBC Cloud Computing SIG ChairSenior Vice President and CIOFujitsu Network Communications

Cloud Computing SIG founding members:Cisco SystemsDigital Realty TrustFujitsu Network CommunicationsHaynes & Boone LLPMicrosoft NetAppNokia SiemensSoftLayerTatumTektronix

Metroplex Technology Business Council2

Developing a Future-Proof Cloud Strategy

IT organizations often speculate about when they will move everything to the cloud. This discussion presupposes two things. First, that the cloud will be suitable for all IT needs sometime in the future. Second, that those organizations should make wholesale, not

incremental, changes in IT deployments. The relevant question is, “How can your organization leverage the cloud as part of a mix of IT infrastructure services to support your unique, but evolving, business needs?” Consideration must be given to specific performance, control, security and cost requirements. Enterprises should take a pragmatic approach to cloud adoption — there isn’t a “one size fits all” approach to deploying cloud services.

While the cloud is a powerful solution, it is only one piece of an overall IT infrastructure strategy. An organization should conduct an audit of IT needs to determine the cloud solution that will help meet business goals. Even with the advent of the cloud, enterprises will continue to require multiple types of IT infrastructure services, such as managed hosting and colocation. IT leaders should understand the fundamental differences between the available offerings and determine the right mix of services to meet business needs.

For example, while early-stage businesses may choose to host applications in the cloud, when an organization reaches a certain level of application usage or Web traffic, the economics of managed hosting or colocation might make one of these services a better fit than pure cloud services. Similarly, a business may have specific compliance or performance requirements that require significant portions of the company’s infrastructure reside on dedicated, physical hardware. Would an IT organization put a gigantic enterprise database in the cloud? Maybe not. Would requests for temporary IT resources (testing instances, temporary marketing programs) be satisfied using the cloud? You bet.

A myriad of short- and long-term decisions about an organization’s need for security, control, scalability, performance and support of IT infrastructure must be made when developing a cloud strategy. As you look to future-proof your investments, do the math on the use of clouds as compared to other IT infrastructure services. Solutions that offer maximum flexibility with private cloud, public cloud and scalable cloud storage services should suit your specific application needs.

Some companies follow a fairly linear path to IT infrastructure outsourcing. Newly formed companies often start by placing infrastructure in the cloud. As bottlenecks emerge with growth, dedicated infrastructure is often added to the mix when the database needs to achieve higher levels of performance. As IT workloads become more predictable, the economics of colocation become appealing. This path works for some, but many businesses find the evolution is not quite so sequential.

By mapping growth projections for major applications, investments in cloud solutions can be made wisely, and scaled accordingly — enabling the movement from one platform to another or using hybrid approaches as priorities and business needs evolve. The key to solving the cloud evolution challenge is to find the right mix of services — from colocation and managed hosting to public and private cloud — to support specific application and business requirements; and to realize that the cloud is a means to an end, not the end itself in the overall IT infrastructure services picture.

Internap provides intelligent IT infrastructure services that enable customers to focus on their core business, improve service levels, and lower the cost of IT operations. Internap’s enterprise IP, CDN, colocation, managed hosting and cloud solutions are differentiated by unparalleled levels of performance, availability and support. In December, Internap opened the first high-density data center in Dallas that features cutting-edge green design and operational practices to minimize energy consumption, as well as a full range of customer amenities and maximum flexibility and performance for customers.

http://www.internap.com

Paul Carmody, Senior Vice President Product Management and Business Development, Internap

“The key to

solving the

cloud evolution

challenge is to

find the right

mix of services.”


Command and Control: The Importance of the Network in Cloud Strategy

As cloud adoption continues to proliferate within the enterprise environment, it is clear there is no one-size-fits-all model to deliver dynamic mission-critical applications businesses crave. A variety of approaches to executing a cloud strategy exist based on

the unique needs of organizations. However, even the most ambitious and innovative cloud strategies rely on one simple

element: network quality. Without a sound, reliable network, business applications can’t deliver the performance necessary to fulfill objectives.

Here are some of the cloud options:

Public cloud●● The public cloud is familiar to most businesses, where applications, information and computing power are accessed via the Internet.Private cloud●● Private cloud solutions typically involve businesses purchasing, configuring and maintaining servers within company-owned facilities.virtual private cloud●● Virtual private clouds involve connecting businesses to a public cloud provider through a secure, quality of service (QoS)-enabled network that is inaccessible to outside parties, eliminating most concerns associated with traditional public clouds. Hybrid●● Hybrid cloud options are where service providers incorporate private, public and virtual private cloud components to correspond with evolving needs and business processes.

The Power of visibility and Control Regardless of the cloud strategy adopted, the ability to analyze network performance

and react in real time is essential for success. Real-time network visibility and on-demand configuration allow businesses to leverage the cloud’s agility and flexibility with in-depth network troubleshooting and real-time adjustments to traffic prioritization and bandwidth.

The ability to adjust network configurations and increase bandwidth requirements on demand is a powerful component of enabling cloud-based services as it allows companies to scale resources to meet the fluctuating requirements of the enterprise. For example, a static Internet connection to a cloud provider might meet a business’ needs initially, but, as more applications are delivered via the cloud, bandwidth congestion becomes a problem and application performance suffers.

An elastic bandwidth model allows the network to accommodate a variety of services from a cloud provider that complements evolving business priorities. This capability empowers organizations to manage their network traffic; without it, mission-critical applications could be compromised by insufficient bandwidth.

A customized network solution may be deployed to meet specific requirements, taking full advantage of public, private and virtual private clouds as needed. Overwhelmed IT departments can better manage and disseminate critical business information around the world without incurring exorbitant operating and capital expenses. Transitioning to the cloud on a quality network offers tremendous advantages, including cost efficiencies.

Tony Hurtado is VP Global Marketing for Masergy, a provider of managed, secure virtualized network services to enterprises with complex data needs across multiple locations.

www.masergy.com

Tony Hurtado, Vice President Global Marketing, Masergy

“Transitioning to

the cloud on a

quality network

offers tremendous

advantages,

including cost

efficiencies.”


Andre Wu, Senior Director, Global Cloud Strategy, VCE

abstractThis article is a specific look at the major changes and shifts occurring in the IT industry

and how they are being reflected in the way technology vendors are going to market with their cloud offerings.

Very few B2B industries embrace major thematic shift as broadly and dramatically as the technology industry. In the last couple of years, cloud computing has permeated its way into the lexicon of every new offering or solution that vendors are bringing to market. Beyond naming conventions, some significant trends have emerged in how the major industry players are going to market with their cloud offerings and are worth some inspection as customers look to explore, enter or expand their own cloud computing experience.

Public CloudPublic cloud offerings have generally been grouped into three well-known types:

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)Definition: compute, networking and storage infrastructure in a pay-per-use model, made

popular by their well-advertised pennies-per-hour pricing. Early IaaS offerings were typically characterized by their minimalist approach to support and SLAs. This is rapidly being addressed as an increasing number of players enter the IaaS segment, forcing vendors to differentiate themselves by offering more traditional outsourcing types of services and service levels.

On the downside, this has resulted in an increase of more traditional outsourcing contract models being applied in the form of consumption minimums, annualized contracts or extensive base fees that detract from the pure consumption-based models that make public clouds so appealing. Finally, IaaS has been traditionally dominated by x86 platforms, but new cloud services based on traditional unix and mainframe technologies are forthcoming.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)Definition: application environments, development tools and middleware available

as subscription offerings on IaaS platforms. This area is experiencing significant growth as ISVs aggressively expand their comfort level with shifting their software licensing models to support usage consumption versus traditional user-based or token-based pricing.

With software compliance an increasingly expensive and complex risk for customers, and more firms using global resources to address application development needs, PaaS should become more appealing. However, this will place even more pressure on IT organizations to have strong governance models to ensure that rogue IT consumers don’t increase the level of exposure that firms have to the aforementioned compliance concerns.

As the trend towards pushing the line of abstraction (where users no longer need to care about what’s under the covers) upward continues, PaaS will continue to be more and more relevant and is worthy of some focus by customers exploring how to leverage the cloud to their benefit.

Software-as-a-ServiceDefinition: business applications being delivered as cloud services with a variety of

consumption models that aren’t always usage based. Initially, SaaS focused on industry diagnostic or less differentiated solutions such as e-mail, billing and CRM. However, as this

Trends in Public and Private Cloud Offerings


has also become a high-growth area within the realm of cloud offerings, these services often misrepresent how little they differ from traditional hosted solutions.

While the majority will offer browser-based access to applications, the underlying infrastructure and contract vehicles are still heavily grounded in traditional hosting models. This results in financial offerings to customers that still lack the flexibility and economic efficiencies that their cloud moniker implies, especially when vendors use pricing models that are not reflective of actual consumption. Customers will also need to be vigilant to ensure they are not compromising their corporate standards for security and compliance, as vendors look to manage costs by leveraging massive multi-tenant environments.

Private CloudPrivate cloud solutions have also undergone some significant

restructuring as vendors look to simplify offerings for customers, resulting in three types of go-to-market approaches:

Single StacksDefinition: offerings that combine the required infrastructure

(compute, storage and networking) and software (products that provide the necessary automation, orchestration and management) with nominal services to deliver “cloud in a box.” Typically, this offering is the bastion of the larger IT vendors who have been systemically filling the gaps in their hardware and software portfolios with well-publicized acquisitions. This approach plays on traditional themes around global presence, strength of brand, and single-vendor accountability, which will resonate in the executive suite.

Customers must be conscious of the exposure to potential rip-and-replace scenarios for both existing hardware and IT service management software tools, significant integration and process consulting work for the extensive software stacks, and the long-term impact of a broad IT lock-in with a single vendor. Interestingly, this was the initial starting point for many of private cloud offerings from larger players, and we’ve seen a movement softening a rigid all-in-one solution approach.

Reference ArchitecturesDefinition: a market approach that takes successful solution

designs that leverage components from multiple vendors and bundles them with some additional pre-sales and post-sales support. This model has created a significant number of alliances and cross-alliances from traditional and nontraditional players. We’ve seen component-specific vendors partner together and, more interestingly, we’ve seen open-source vendors partner with traditional IT vendors.

Typically this approach is seen as beneficial as it provides validation that different components can work together for certain use cases. It also allows the most flexibility and customization for customers as no governance is required in either its configuration models or in the offerings themselves. The risk for customers is that the designs are static, which limits the applicability while evaluating different system sizes or how to support mixed workloads. Customers also have to be watchful as flexibility and customization will likely push them even further away from the original validated solution design.

When customers finalize configurations, they will still need to execute the traditional order, build, test and deploy, which can be time-consuming. Finally, they should be conscious that additional support is often delivered through alliances, which can still put them

on the hook for integrating problem resolution and support. There was significant activity in 2011, as vendors scrambled to have a cloud story, and this should continue as barriers to entry for this approach are not challenging.

Converged Infrastructure (CI)Definition: a tightly defined set of compute, storage, networking

and virtualization technologies that are pre-engineered and pre-integrated into a single infrastructure platform as the foundation for cloud computing. Admittedly, this approach can see significant variance depending on the vendor, but as mentioned previously, there is a trend toward raising the level of abstraction within IT and converged infrastructures provide this for customers looking to mitigate the complexity, risk and time that managing today’s complex IT environments require.

By leveraging CI’s standardized configurations approach, customers can mitigate their risk around design, configuration, sizing, testing and validation of the infrastructure platform. This same premise also means that the time required for deployment and integration should be greatly reduced. Customers should also benefit from a reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and enhanced support experience as their CI vendor has ownership for providing support that encompasses the entire solution, mitigating a significant amount of work previously owned by the client’s own IT organization.

From a concern standpoint, customers familiar with trying to institute standards in their company will understand the challenges that may arise and that the deployment of converged infrastructures may require transformation of existing approaches to skills, processes and culture. Converged infrastructures may also require customers to refresh broader portions of their infrastructure in a timeframe that differs from the norm. This segment seen significant movement as vendors look to capitalize on the market’s adoption of this approach, and it will be important for customers to inspect vendors’ offerings carefully to ensure the value proposition of this segment is being adhered to.

These opinions are solely of the writer and not the opinions of the MTBC or VCE.

[email protected]

Fujitsu Network Communications Inc.Profiles In Excellence

Fujitsu Network Communications Inc.2801 Telecom ParkwayRichardson, TX 75082800-777-FAST

Profiles In Excellence

Just a few years ago, we were still talking about the Internet as a separate entity, almost like a destination or an activity in itself. Things have changed dramatically since then, and what we used to think of as “going online” or “connecting to the net” has

become interwoven with every aspect of most people’s lives. Thanks to near-ubiquitous personal connectivity and cloud computing systems, everyday activities like scheduling a doctor’s appointment, going to the bank, or booking a table for dinner are now potentially a connected experience. And then there’s the expanding realm of online entertainment: the latest viral videos; watching whole TV episodes over the Web; multiplayer smartphone games…and apps that let your friends know when you pop into your local hangout.

Over the past decade, the near-universal uptake of online connectivity, new “cloud-based” online systems, and huge growth in mobile handheld communication devices have caused demand for bandwidth to explode. Fiber-optic networking, once the stuff of science fiction, has become the technology powerhouse that supports affordable access to very high-speed data transmission capacity. Optical networking provides the infrastructure that enables you to do things like trade shares, order clothing, download movies, and view real-time radar of the latest weather conditions on your PC or iPod®.

It’s easy to take all this connectivity for granted, but complex high-tech infrastructure underpins our growing everyday dependence on communications networks. And one founding member of the Telecom Corridor, Fujitsu Network Communications, has made a 35-year success story building the networks that provide the lightning-fast connections we all use every day. Not only that, but they manufacture their own equipment right here in the Metroplex. Fujitsu optical networking systems do the heavy lifting – and they do it at remarkable speed – routing and transmitting data and voice traffic on networks large and small, from global networks to local telephone and cable companies and also within businesses, universities, government agencies and other enterprises. When you share vacation photos on a public cloud photo-sharing site like

PhotoBucket or Flickr, make purchases through a cloud retail system like Amazon, or create an online invitation to a special event, odds are that your data passes through Fujitsu network equipment.

The same is true when you’re on a conference call or talking to a co-worker in another state. While many companies fly the innovation flag, Fujitsu has proof of its creative pedigree. In 2010, for the sixth consecutive year, Fujitsu was the top U.S. patent recipient in optical communications. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), 110 optical communications patents were granted to Fujitsu in 2010 alone. Innovations in equipment and technology by Fujitsu are transforming telecommunications, giving communications service providers the tools to succeed in an industry that constantly demands faster and more robust networks.

Of course, there’s a lot more to building and running communications networks than plugging together hardware and cables. The digital arteries that deliver phone calls, TV shows and emails require a great deal of technical and engineering

expertise, in addition to planning, project management and on-going maintenance. Fujitsu provides complete solutions to its customers, which means combining equipment with services such as network planning and design, installation, testing, routine maintenance and troubleshooting.

There’s also a very human and compassionate side to this founding member of the MTBC. Fujitsu is not only a keystone in Richardson’s technology economy; the company is also committed to the community and to the environment. Fujitsu employees are actively involved in a number of arts, civic, educational, and social services organizations: the American Red Cross, the Richardson Symphony Orchestra, the Richardson and Dallas Chambers of Commerce, Richardson Independent School District, the Boys’ and Girls’ Club, the North Texas Food Bank, and many more.

Fujitsu also takes conservation and environmental stewardship seriously. Many in the Richardson area will be familiar with the huge swath of bluebonnets that grace the park-like Fujitsu campus every spring; this is a local sight that attracts many photographers every year. In addition to looking pretty, the campus is also a focal point for innovative approaches to environmental responsibility. In a year-long project in 2009-2010, for instance, the manufacturing operation worked closely with its suppliers to save hundreds of thousands of dollars and eliminate almost 200 tons of trash by developing environmentally friendly, reusable packaging.

Change is the only constant in the communications network industry. Projections are for network speed and capacity to continue growing. Fujitsu will continue its research and development investments, both independently and with academic and government research organizations, to stay ahead of the ever-changing curve. As more and more of our daily life is carried out online, Fujitsu will continue to revolutionize the communications network industry with new technology that cost-effectively improves digital storage capacity and transmission speed and keeps you connected anywhere, anytime. This is how Fujitsu is shaping tomorrow….with you®.


For today’s IT organizations, it’s essential to keep the IT toolbox tuned up with the latest and greatest tools. Jay Warsaw, senior director of Electronic Business Solutions at Fujitsu, knows that running a smooth IT operation is not about just choosing applications because they’re

“in the cloud.” It’s about evaluating the solution based on the business need. “The key is finding the best solution that meets the business requirements, and evaluating options on a variety of criteria, not just cost,” Jay said.

“When we begin evaluating a business need, we run down a long list of considerations, exploring options and doing a lot of up-front due diligence. Do we have well-defined requirements? Do we currently have a solution in house? Do we have a possible solution with other existing vendors? Are there other solutions available? What are the cost, time, security and integration considerations? The cloud raises additional important questions, since your data and business processes will be running in someone else’s data center.”

Cloud computing isn’t always the go-to answer — the solution is always going to be business-process driven. Although the cloud has numerous advantages, Fujitsu has its own efficient, highly virtualized internal data center environment. Eliminating worries about integration or security issues when moving data in and out of their internal systems can be its own advantage.

For an electronic version of this magazine, visit: www.metroplextbc.org/magazine

Integrating Cloud Solutions Into the IT Toolbox

Jay Warsaw, Senior Director of Electronic Business Solutions at Fujitsu Network Communications


“We just had an instance where we chose to bring an externally hosted application in house,” Jay said. “If you plan on using the solution long term and it’s not a true multi-tenant solution but merely a hosted application, it’s sometimes better just to house it internally instead of paying monthly hosting fees and having your IT department develop the in-and-out integration processes necessary to transfer information externally.”

However, during the last five years, Fujitsu has found success with the cloud, as 60 percent of its new significant software implementations have been cloud-based.

For example, the company recently determined that it needed to consolidate and automate the configure-price-quote (CPQ) process, as the current process involved too many separate tools, was very cumbersome and extremely manual with multiple hand-offs. Fujitsu sent an RFP to eight candidate providers (without the requirement that they be cloud-based) and only three met the selection criteria: two cloud-based, one on-premises.

As the evaluation continued, Fujitsu chose to build a proof of concept with each solution. With the cloud, providers could move quickly and set up an environment to begin building test solutions the next day. With the non-cloud-based provider, they would have to build multiple physical and virtual servers and have an engineer fly in to do the configuration for a proof of concept.

“We decided to continue with only the cloud-based solutions for our proof of concept. Ultimately we chose our vendor for their ability to meet our complex business requirements, the great implementation support they were able to provide, and the fact that their multi-tenant solution had an existing fully certified integration with the Salesforce.com solution,” Jay said.

Jay’s experience matches the benefits frequently touted by cloud advocates: quick implementation, easier upgrades, backup capabilities, low maintenance, and low up-front costs.

Previous cloud experience, such as that enjoyed by Fujitsu, eases ongoing cloud use and makes internal audiences more comfortable that the right questions have been asked and answered. “With our first major move to the cloud in 2007, corporate security and business leaders were much more wary about the security of information,” Jay said. “Over time, standards and controls have evolved with most service providers acquiring relevant certifications and having their processes regularly audited. We have a better idea of what to ask and look for, so comfort levels have certainly increased.”

“Personally, I feel while more and more processes continue to move out to the cloud, we will continue to manage and maintain some solutions in our data center. In the future, I expect the majority of our data center will be in the cloud as well,” Jay said.

Considerations of cloud-based solutions:Company financial stability●●

Data center operations ●●

● Whose data centers and where are they ● Defined processes (change control, backup, etc.) ● Infrastructure and facility standards Security ●●

● Physical site access ● Employee background checks ● Firewalls, intrusion detection ● AuditingIntegration capabilities ●●

● Security and single sign-on ● Flat file transfers and/or real-time integrationsAgreements ●●

● Service level ● Subscription and termination agreements

Implementation obstacles needed to overcome:Possible in any system implementation ●●

● Competing requirements from hardware, software and services business groups ● Availability of subject matter experts for business requirement/process definition and testingSpecific cloud-related challenges ●●

● Integration with other cloud and on-premises systems ● End-user experience and perception of performance ● Overall system performance

Cloud-based solution benefits:Overall cloud benefits ●●

● Lower upfront costs ● Quick implementation process ● Little or no hardware or maintenance costs ● Easier and more regular upgrades with less resources ● Disaster recovery and backup capabilitiesSpecific to our implementation ●●

● Ability to perform proof-of-concept implementations ● Ability to address system performance issues


Rusty Cone, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, NEI

Everybody is talking about cloud computing and its potential for transforming today’s enterprises. But while the cloud can confer many benefits for IT — among them, greater flexibility, efficiency, scalability

and cost savings — some issues, particularly in the area of support and maintenance, need to be considered before moving to the cloud.

What Is the Cloud?Cloud computing is essentially the delivery of IT computing as a

utility service (similar to the electricity grid) by which resources, software and information are provided over a shared network. With the ability to deliver greater flexibility, efficiency and scalability, cloud computing is transforming the way enterprise software is developed, deployed and maintained. As a result, it has become a rapidly growing technology area, due in large part to the potential savings in fixed operational costs and capital expenditures that cloud computing offers.

While clouds can be private or public, they are further differentiated at the service level:

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provides a bare virtual machine for the enterprise to configure in the cloud. The user is responsible for providing the operating systems (OS) and all applications that will run on it.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is the next step up. As the name implies, it provides a virtual platform that will often consist of the configured OS and required applications.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provides a service to the end user instead of a virtual server or platform (e.g. Gmail or Salesforce.com). The end users simply consume a service.

The Need for automated UpdatingWhether moving to a public or private cloud, companies must have a comprehensive strategy for deploying validated

updates for both the OS and applications. Managing software patches and updates is critical to maintaining cloud performance and compute efficiency. Cloud instances can proliferate much faster than physical deployments, causing small support issues to balloon quickly.

With a growing number of non-IT professionals deploying cloud services for their departments or workgroups, simplicity of updates is critical. Deploying application updates and OS patches manually is extremely labor-intensive, and cloud platform managers will need a secure and automated method for the distribution of authorized updates.

Furthermore, updating operating systems can be difficult and often disruptive for end-users, a challenge for OEMs trying to automate the application lifecycle management process. An automated method that allows OEMs and ISVs to provide updates and maintenance of applications in the cloud without requiring IT managers to execute them manually provides many benefits to application technology providers, including:

Accurate and automated management of application and OS patches●●

Secure delivery and administration of updates with digital fingerprinting technology●●

Reduced support costs ●●

Increased uptime and reliability●●

This type of technology will allow software providers to completely control updates in the cloud, while streamlining administration and integration processes.

Delivering Secure Updates to the Cloud


The Cyber Security Research Center at UTD is working to address the needs of the Department of

Defense as it works to find a cloud-centric approach to information sharing between government agencies. The group, working with assured information sharing (AIS), is developing technologies and tools for cloud-centric assured information sharing funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

We initially examined developments in grid and cloud

computing and explored security issues. In particular, we explored secure virtualization, secure storage, secure data management and secure cloud monitoring. A secure cloud data manager was developed that will be used as the engine for assured information sharing (AIS).

Two types of cloud data managers were developed, one based on semantic web data and the other based on relational data. Current frameworks do not scale for large resource description framework (RDF) graphs and, as a result, do not address these challenges. Here, we developed a framework using Hadoop to store and retrieve large numbers of RDF triples by exploiting the cloud computing paradigm.

A scheme to store RDF data in a Hadoop Distributed File System was developed. More than one Hadoop job may be needed to answer a query, because a triple pattern in a query cannot take part in more than one join in a Hadoop job. To determine the jobs, we developed algorithms to generate a near optimal query plan based on a greedy approach to answer a SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL) query.

Hadoop’s MapReduce framework answers the queries. XACML-based policy management was implemented and integrated with query processing strategies. The HIVE framework was used for secure query processing for relational data. In addition to secure query processing, encrypted query processing was also developed on the Amazon cloud that interfaced to the Intelligence Community’s BlackBook system.

More recently we have developed strategies for secure storage and query processing in a hybrid cloud. In particular, algorithms for query processing have been developed where users’ local computing capability is exploited alongside public cloud services to deliver an efficient and secure data management solution.

Hybrid clouds offer numerous advantages including the ability to restrict data and processing being outsourced based its sensitivity or confidentiality, as well as controlling expenses

by exploiting local resources. Nonetheless, query processing in hybrid cloud introduces new challenges:

Data Design:1. How to partition relations between public and private components of the cloud? The solution must account for the sensitivity of attributes in a relation as well as the workload that will be executed; Data Security: 2. How to represent encrypted (sensitive) data that enables non-trivial query processing on the public cloud? and Query Processing: 3. How to execute queries over the distributed data with mixed representation (i.e., encrypted and plaintext) while minimizing processing and communication costs?

We have also made progress on a number of research areas related to the cloud.

SParQL/JeNa1. -based inference controller for provenance data. This inference controller is being implemented on our Hadoop Cloud; Cloud-based 2. malware detection for evolving data streams with a scalable feature selection and extraction solution that leverages a cloud-computing framework; and Cloudmask: 3. developed with Purdue University, this approach supports fine-grained attribute-based access control based on encryption while assuring privacy of the identity attributes of the users accessing the data. Future plans include secure virtualization using the 4. XeN hypervisor to host cloud data managers and demonstrate assured information sharing.

Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham (aka Dr. Bhavani) is a Distinguished Professor in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and Director of the Cyber Security Research Center. She is one of the leading experts in data security and data mining. Thuraisingham works behind the scenes of our ever-increasing digital world to protect the billions of pieces of personal data floating around. Her work has resulted in more than 100 journal articles, 200 refereed conference papers and workshops, and five U.S. patents (two pending). She is the author of 11 books in data management, data mining and data security including one on data mining for counter-terrorism and another on database and applications security. She has given more than 90 keynote presentations at various technical conferences including at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and at the United Nations on Data Mining for counter-terrorism.

Cloud-Centric Assured Information SharingBhavani Thuraisingham, Director of Cyber Security Research Center at The University of Texas at Dallas


The proliferation of smartphones and tablets in the workplace, along with the advent of cloud-based file-hosting services have combined to present IT managers with an array of complex new

management and security challenges. IT managers are being asked to support a diverse population of devices with up to five different mobile operating systems, but existing processes and tools often lag behind the many new choices out there. Mobile device users can lose proprietary information, expose the enterprise to potential legal liability, and seriously compromise system security. It is for these reasons that instituting a robust mobile device policy and mobile device management (MDM) process are becoming high priorities for many IT leaders.

MDM solutions allow IT managers to secure and manage all mobile devices out of a single console and allow IT to configure and secure mobile devices over the air without needing physical access to the device. In many organizations employees can connect personally owned smartphones and tablets to enterprise e-mail without the knowledge and approval of IT. MDM solutions control this potential source of data leakage by instituting a quarantine process around e-mail that ensures only approved users and devices have access to enterprise information.

After enrollment, MDM solutions allow administrators to mandate and enforce the use of strong passwords or PINs. Administrators can also lock down certain features to prevent use or changes by users and can blacklist high-risk applications and services like cloud-based file-hosting services. Another useful feature of

MDM solutions is their ability to locate lost devices and lock or wipe them. For employee-owned devices, the ability to selectively wipe company information only while leaving pictures and music intact is key to maintaining user satisfaction. More advanced solutions allow administrators to push home-grown or purchased mobile apps to mobile devices and to manage apps over the air.

Some of the most popular MDM solutions are offered in a cloud-based, multi-tenant, software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model. The advantages of MDM in the cloud are quick deployment, flexibility and scalability; automatic upgrades to support multiple and rapidly evolving mobile operating systems; and lower total cost of ownership. Some cloud-based MDM solutions can even achieve complete integration with the enterprise’s existing messaging infrastructure without installing an appliance in the data center.

Managing mobile devices in the enterprise involves a level of complexity and a pace of change never before encountered in IT. Some of the new mobile device management challenges and security threats IT leaders face have their origins in the cloud. The good news is that some of the most viable MDM solutions offer help in the form of the unique capabilities made possible by their cloud-based, multi-tenant architecture and SaaS delivery model.

Eric Edstrom has been Vice President at ProfitLink Telecom Expense Management since 2003. He holds a B.A. from Bates College and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

[email protected]

www.profitlinktelecom.com

Eric Edstrom, Vice President, ProfitLink Telecom Expense Management

Mobile Device Security and Infrastructure Management

Consider these scenarios:

a product development manager saves important and confidential documents on iCloud and loses their personal iPhone in the Shanghai airport.

The CFo reuses his existing e-mail security partnership to view e-mailed m&a documents on his teenage nephew’s iPad.

an IT manager is given the assignment of deploying, securing and pushing applications to 300 new iPads — in just two weeks!


Lars Rosene, Chief Sustainability Officer, Hie Electronics

The ever-evolving nature of information systems ultimately poses a considerable environmental risk for our planet. Each year, more than 2 million electronic devices are discarded (according to the Environmental Protection Agency). Electronic landfill

waste from data storage devices contributes a significant amount of toxic substances found in soil and water. By consolidating data center operations into a cloud environment, lasting sustainability can be obtained compared to on-site data center operations.

Cloud service providers are beginning to invest heavily in data center infrastructure in order to meet the growing demand of business and individual user communities. “The Smart Report: Enabling the Low Carbon Economy in the Information Age,” released by Global e-Sustainability Initiative, estimates that the environmental footprint for data centers will more than triple between 2002 and 2020, making them the fastest-growing contributor to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector’s carbon footprint.

Hie Electronics has developed a data storage Active Archive™ providing end users a sustainable solution and can easily be integrated into today’s cloud computing infrastructure. The technology solves the three main issues with current cloud systems: energy consumption, maintenance and capacity. The TeraStack® Solution avoids consuming unnecessary power and considerably increases the lifecycle of data storage, while reducing the total cost of ownership by as much as 70 percent.

Because of its sustainability benefits, Frost & Sullivan awarded Hie Electronics with the 2009 North American Data Storage Technologies Green Excellence Award in Technology Innovation.

The TeraStack® Solution is an improvement over current technology, which places a large burden on cooling infrastructure. It operates on only 500 watts of power, equivalent to a home refrigerator. In fact, the system allows for a 92 percent energy savings, while comparable solutions require as much as 7,000 watts per hour.

To reduce power consumption and maintenance, the system uses energy passive data storage. Studies have shown that 80 percent of all new digital data is fixed content (or sleeping data). The TeraStack® Solution uses an Active Archive™ architecture that moves fixed content onto lower cost storage tiers.

Blu-ray media is used to store sleeping data, eliminating the need for hard drives to constantly spin, migrate data and consume energy. Blu-ray media is rated for 50 to 100 years of data integrity, a significant improvement over current hard drives and tape backup systems that need to be replaced every four to nine years and eventually end up as electronic landfill waste. In addition, the implementation of passive data storage reduces maintenance costs.

Lars Rosene serves as Chief Sustainability Officer for Hie Electronics. Prior to his current roles, Rosene served as Chief Sustainability Officer for Flowserve Corporation.

www.hie-electronics.com

Data Storage Technology Achieves Sustainability While Reducing Cost

“By consolidating data

center operations into

a cloud environment,

lasting sustainability

can be obtained

compared to on-site

data center operations.”

ecs.utdallas.edu


As more companies adopt cloud computing services, corporate and outside counsel are being asked to review cloud agreements. The unique business, legal and regulatory risks associated with

cloud computing arise from the fact that customer data is stored and processed by the cloud vendor. This article highlights these risks and describes recommended methods for risk balancing between the parties.

Business risks

Data Risk Data security is a primary concern for parties to cloud computing

agreements. Each party endeavors to place data security risk on the other. In our experience the risk is best balanced by putting data security liability on the vendor, then transferring that risk to a professional liability carrier. By structuring the limitations of liability, indemnity and insurance provisions properly, both sides can reduce the risks associated with data security and privacy.

Service Interruption The next significant business risk is the access and availability of

the service and the impact to the business if the service is unavailable for any reason. Access and availability commitments are typically contained in a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that is part of many cloud computing contracts. The best SLAs contain custom service metrics narrowly tailored to the customer’s business requirements.

Many times the cloud solution may be comprised of two or more third-party platforms, so customers should ensure that the SLA addresses subcontractor liability for third-party service failures. Also, the SLA should define service failure remedies and action plans for resolution of service interruptions.

Termination of the Agreement Because the data is controlled by the cloud vendor, cloud

computing agreements should contain an effect of termination clause that sets out a process for returning customer-owned data to the customer post-engagement. It should also specify the circumstances under which the provider can withhold services or preclude the customer for accessing the service.

Legal risks

Intellectual Property Ownership In cloud contracts, data provided by the customer is generally

understood to be owned by the customer. It is not necessarily

obvious, however, who owns intellectual property that is not customer data. For instance, it is common for a vendor to customize its service offering to meet a customer requirement. The agreement should specify whether additional code written by the vendor to customize its solution for a customer is the property of the vendor or considered a “work for hire” owned by the customer. If the vendor will own the customizations, the customer may ask for exclusivity over the customizations throughout the term of the agreement.

Litigation and Discovery The customer must have access to its data in the event of

litigation. Cloud agreements should define policies for data retention and procedures for discovery production that provide the customer with significant control. In addition, data retention in the cloud should match the customer’s internal retention policies.

regulatory Issues Compliance with industry and regulatory requirements is one

of the most vexing issues facing a customer contemplating cloud services. From HIPAA/HITECH to PCI, FTC Red Flags Rules to state security and privacy statutes, many companies are required to comply with one or more data privacy and security regulations. In many cases, the cloud vendor is subject to the same data security regulatory requirements as its customers.

Whether and to what extent a vendor or customer is a covered entity under privacy and data security regulation is something both parties must evaluate separately. Much to the chagrin of cloud vendors, attempts to specifically reject responsibility for compliance with applicable regulatory requirements are prohibited by some of the more recent privacy and security statutes. Where a regulation is particularly important to the customer or vendor, contract language should track the applicable statutory language. In other cases, a provision requiring both parties to comply with applicable laws and regulations related to the services may be sufficient.

Conclusion The two important steps to take before entering into any cloud

computing agreement is to identify the risks described above to determine your client’s comfort level with respect to each and begin the discussion of risk balancing early in the negotiation. Lengthy, unsuccessful negotiations can be avoided if each side is clear as to their “deal-breakers” with respect to these risks upfront.

Rob Scott, the managing partner of Scott & Scott, LLP, handles intellectual property and technology matters. He represents services providers and end users in technology transactions including cloud services contracts. He can be reached at [email protected] or 214-999-0080.

Robert J. Scott, Managing Partner, Scott & Scott, LLP

Drafting Contracts for the Cloud


Cloud service providers (CSP) should consider adopting the recently introduced Service Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2) report for providing greater assurance to their customers.

The SOC 2 report is one of three SOC reports offered by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The AICPA developed those reports to complement its 2011 replacement of SAS 70 with a new reporting standard, Statement of Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 (SSAE 16).

Like SAS 70, SSAE 16’s focus remains strictly on internal controls over financial reporting. The SOC reports, though, provide more appropriate options for examining the compliance and operational aspects of a service organization’s internal controls, particularly controls related to information technology and cloud service providers.

An SoC 1 engagement is based on SSAE 16. That report is most valuable to cloud customers who used the CSP’s SAS 70 in fulfilling Sarbanes-oxley requirements (i.e. internal controls over financial reporting).

The SOC 2 and SOC 3 reports are based on the AICPA’s trust services principles of security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

The SoC 2 report addresses one or more of the trust services principles as it pertains to the CSP’s internal controls over the services provided to customers. For example, a CSP could receive an SOC 2 report focused on just security OR security and availability.

The SoC 3 report is more of a general-use report that is beneficial for marketing purposes and only includes the auditor’s opinion about whether the system achieved the trust services criteria (not the supporting detail). Although helpful from a marketing perspective, SOC 3 reports are less useful in fulfilling customers’ audit requirements.

examplesFor a CSP, the SOC 2 report directly addresses vital concerns facing its customers. A health

care provider, for example, must comply with provisions that require it to safeguard personal health information. The heath care provider needs to know whether the CSP’s internal controls provide sufficient assurance for maintaining the security, privacy and confidentiality of that information.

A hotel chain may depend on a CSP to host its website for accepting customer reservations and inquiries. For that hotel chain, system availability and processing integrity are crucial operational needs.

By adopting SOC 2, CSPs have an opportunity to provide customers greater assurance for such compliance and operational concerns, which should increase the value of the services provided to their customers.

Brian J. Thomas, CISA, CISSP, is a partner in Advisory Services for Weaver, ranked the largest independent accounting firm in the Southwest with offices throughout Texas.

[email protected]

713-800-1050

Brian J. Thomas, CISA, CISSP, Partner, Advisory Services, Weaver

SOC 2 Report: Cloud Service Providers Can Offer Greater Assurance

“By adopting SOC 2, CSPs have

an opportunity to provide

customers greater assurance for

such compliance and operational

concerns, which should increase

the value of the services provided

to their customers.”


We are in another period of disruptive technology in IT with cloud computing. Though seldom described accurately in

the midst of disruptive periods, these transitions usually bring wonderful technologies.

This time, the disruption may have a broader scope. A large quantity of legacy IT equipment and resources for environmentally conscientious recycling may be squeezed. In IT Asset Disposal/Management (ITAD and ITAM), like many other environmentally conscious service businesses, price has become easily researched online. Other considerations, like data breach issues, timeliness of service, downstream accountability and zero landfill policy are more difficult to determine.

In a post-cloud-migration world, recycling of legacy IT systems will face considerable challenges. One issue will be data wiping correctly to avoid data breach issues. There’s also the cost of maintenance and power requirements if left installed.

CIOs could save budget money by outsourcing a company’s ITAD, which would include IT recycling, data wiping and data destruction, deinstalling legacy equipment and other post-cloud-migration activities to a cheaper provider who specializes in a recycling platform.

214-630-4298

www.bcdelectro.com

Bob Harris, President, BCD Electro

Increased agility. Faster time-to-market. Increased business value. Phrases like these pepper cloud computing marketing

literature. Cloud computing concepts are more focused on IT as a business enabler than on simply making IT cost less. But that doesn’t mean the need for financial justification is thrown out of the window even if “soft costs” play a bigger role than in other cases.

Metrics that you might use for your analysis include:

Time to Deploy a New Service (application)One of the main features of cloud delivery models is that users are given self-service

access to computing resources. On-demand provisioning can dramatically decrease the time needed to kick off a new project or to ramp up work on an existing one. At the same time, self-service takes place under a managed, policy-based framework so the IT department can maintain appropriate control over usage patterns. While a soft benefit, this speed and agility can be quantified through a combination of productivity measures.

Standard operating environmentsResearch from market researchers Gartner Group shows that an average of 80 percent of

mission-critical application service downtime is directly caused by people or process failures. A significant portion can be attributed to change management and configuration management, which the centralization of policy and workflow controls in a cloud computing infrastructure can help reduce. Gartner goes on to note that downtime can tarnish a company’s image and reputation. While this can be hard to quantify, downtime can also cause a company to miss out on orders or require overtime to make up for lost productivity — factors that can be more easily modeled in a financial analysis.

administrator to Server ratioOne of the big efficiency differences between a public cloud provider and traditional enterprise

IT lies in how many servers (or virtual machines) that an administrator can manage. For traditional enterprise IT, a few dozen servers per admin is a fairly typical number. For a large cloud provider, a ratio of servers per admin into the thousands is not unheard of. Much of the difference can be attributed to the high level of standardization that large cloud providers drive into their operations. While it won’t typically be possible for an enterprise to adopt such cookie-cutter practices, a private cloud can nonetheless provide a means to develop and deploy a more standardized catalog of services to users, thereby reducing the amount of one-off work that admins need to perform to keep images updated and patched.

My focus in this article has been on some of the elements that can be quantified to provide business justification for a hybrid or on-premise cloud computing deployment. Organizations would be well advised not only to think of business cases focusing on OPEX and CAPEX reduction, but to also attempt to quantify how agile and flexible delivery of IT services via the cloud can increase the organization’s ability to deliver on its balanced scorecard.

Gordon Haff is senior cloud strategy marketing and evangelism manager at Red Hat.

Gordon Haff, Cloud Evangelist, Red Hat, Inc.

Recycling Legacy IT Systems in a Cloud Environment

Enabling Business Models That Work in the Cloud


Small businesses are getting a lot of attention lately as the driving force for job creation in America. Many small- and medium-sized (SMB) businesses are doing just that, but at the same time they are looking

for ways to lower costs and improve both competitiveness and customer satisfaction.

Cloud-based products and services are a great way for a SMB to improve their bottom line and compete with larger companies. Large companies have cumulatively invested billions of dollars in messaging, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM) and other platforms to help manage their business. For SMB, each of these systems can be set up in the cloud in a matter of minutes or days versus the months or years it takes a large business to do the same.

Essential business functions such as e-mail, shared calendars, contact management and collaboration are available from major cloud providers such as Google and Microsoft, and can cost as little as $50/user/year. More than just the essentials are included for a low cost. Mobile device integration, cloud document storage, instant messaging, voice and video chat, and more are all part of the package.

Cloud technologies extend beyond productivity to include areas such as marketing and sales. Potential customers/clients can be found via social networking clouds like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. These tools can be used in any number of ways to expand a company’s presence, promote sales and build an online reputation. Even brick-and-mortar businesses can take advantage of social clouds through promotion and the online equivalent of “word of mouth”.

Some cloud offerings are purpose-based business functions such as accounting or CRM. Here you will see examples of software companies who have adapted to the cloud, such as Microsoft and Intuit, as well as companies who started in the cloud such as Salesforce. Cloud providers, regardless of their origins, are making available powerful software platforms that companies of any size can use.

Cloud services can be quickly implemented. In many cases, getting these services set up is as simple as completing a few forms on a website. When compared to the time and investment necessary to implement similar systems in house, using cloud-based platforms often shows an immediate return on investment.

Most cloud services are available to companies of all sizes, and while significant numbers of businesses are taking advantage today, many are not. The biggest hurdle for many organizations is an understanding of what is out there and how to take advantage of it. Cloud technologies are here to stay and are quickly replacing traditional technologies, so every business should develop a cloud strategy.

ZAC Solutions is a technology solution provider with specialization in both traditional and cloud technologies. ZAC assists businesses with development and execution of technology plans that maximize business value.

[email protected]

Zane Colvin, President, ZAC Solutions

Cloud Solutions for Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses

Technology Lives HereThe Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC) is the largest technology trade association in Texas, representing a quarter million employees through its 300 member companies.

300 member companies 250,000 employees represented

The MTBC strengthens North Texas’ technology community by acting as the innovation hub for entrepreneurs, universities and corporations.

InnovationThe MTBC continues to prove that “technology lives here” by growing future tech leaders with:

educationits talent and workforce development initiative,

Legislationadvocating technology’s advancement in governmental arenas,

Communityand connecting people and inspiring ideas through its programs and special interest groups.

More information about MTBC and its annual Tech Titans awards gala can be found online by visiting

www.metroplextbc.org

We’re creating a tech-friendly environment where your business and community will flourish.

Technology lives here.


2x Software LLC16301 Quorum Drive, Suite 160AAddison, TX 75001866-970-6262fax [email protected]

2X Software offers tailor-made, easy-to-imple-ment and cost-effective cloud and virtual com-puting solutions, including 2X ApplicationServer XG and 2X LoadBalancer. For more information, please visit www.2x.com.

Afghani Law Firm4115 Rawlins StreetDallas, TX [email protected]

Afghani Law Firm specializes in preparing and prosecuting U.S. and foreign patents. As DFW’s premier patent attorneys, we will maxi-mize intellectual property protection for your technology.

Argus Connection1111 W. North Carrier Pkwy., Suite 300Grand Prairie, TX [email protected]

IT Services including imaging, configuration and installation of new computers; reuse and recycling of IT assets; shredding or wiping data bearing media. Logistics for Data Center and equipment moves.

Avnet2021 Lakeside Blvd. - 2nd FloorRichardson, TX [email protected]

Avnet Electronics Marketing distributes elec-tronic components and embedded solutions from leading manufacturers, offering design chain services combined with supply chain services in support of the electronics industry.

BCD Electro2525 W. Commerce St.Dallas, TX 75212214-630-4298fax [email protected]

BCD specializes in recycling IT, telecom, net-working and hospital equipment as well as sales of excess inventory from manufacturing operations. Broad suite of best practices, busi-ness-ready solutions, services and products.

BDO USA, LLP700 N. Pearl, Ste. 2000Dallas, TX 75201214-969-7007fax [email protected]

BDO USA, LLP, is a national professional ser-vices firm providing assurance, tax, financial advisory and consulting services to a wide range of publicly traded and privately held companies.

Inventors of America, LLC201 1/2 E. Virginia Ave., Suite 4Mckinney, TX 75070214-733-7298rarnold@inventors-of-america.cominventors-of-america.com

Inventors of America is an Action Based Training Company which provides Classroom Instruction and Distance Learning for Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Small Businesses to assist in their success.

Network Sourcing Corporation1400 Preston Rd., Ste. 400Plano, TX 75093800-935-3070 x9482fax 800-921-4820www.networksourcing.com

Network Sourcing provides your business with IT budget optimization services. We source high-quality new and renewed networking equipment and asset disposition and recycling services. Manufacturers: Cisco, Polycom, Juniper, Avaya.

NextCorp411 Belle Grove Dr.Richardson, TX 75080972-792-2800fax [email protected]://www.metroplextbc.org/

SMB Suite is the industry’s first fully integrated Microsoft ERP, CRM and eCommerce cloud solution made for small and medium business. Our mission is to take the pain out of software purchase, implementation and management.

Scott & Scott, LLPRobert Scott1256 Main, Ste. 200Southlake, TX 76292214-999-0080www.scottandscottllp.com

Scott & Scott, LLP is a boutique Intellectual Property and Technology Law Firm with emphasis on Software Disputes, Technology Transactions, Brand Management, and Federal Litigation.

SmoothAppsP.O. Box 977Allen, TX [email protected]

SmoothApps is a boutique Management Consulting Firm that helps I.T. R&D teams with Agile Transformation, Change Management and Team-Building. We develop strong teams and inspiring leaders at every level of the organization!

SoftLayer Technologies4849 Alpha Rd.Dallas, TX 75244214-442-0600fax [email protected]

SoftLayer is the innovation leader in on-demand Web hosting and data center services, providing Cloud, Dedicated, or seamlessly integrated computing environments on a fully automated platform.

Texas A&M University - CommerceP.O. Box 3011Commerce, TX 45429888-868-2682www.tamu-commerce.edu

Established in 1889, Texas A&M University-Commerce provides affordable college degrees in more than 100 major areas, including engineering, computer science, and technology.

ViaWest, Inc.3000 Waterview ParkwayRichardson, TX 75080214-272-5806fax [email protected]

One of the largest privately held data center service providers providing colocation, hosting, and managed services to businesses nation-wide. 22 enterprise-class data center facilities delivering high-quality, flexible solutions.

Preferred Business Listings


The Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC) is the largest technology trade association in Texas, represent-ing a quarter million employees through its 300 member companies.

The MTBC strengthens the North Texas’ technology com-munity by acting as the innovation hub for entrepreneurs, universities and corporations.

Technology lives here

DA L L A S - F O RT W O RT HDA L L A S - F O RT W O RT H

300 member companies250,000 employees represented

Technology lives here

More information about MTBC and its annual Tech Titans awards gala can be found online by visiting

www.metroplextbc.org

MTBCarticle.indd 1 5/2/2012 9:13:50 AM

www.metroplexbc.org

www.bcdelectro.com

www.cologix.com/en/markets/dallas

ecs.utdallas.edu/gradstudies

metroplex technology business council

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