Expert Says BlackBerry Is ‘NSA-Proof’, Despite Reports Otherwise

Today’s IP news roundup highlights some of the latest headlines in data centres, big data, cloud and more:

• German magazine Der Spiegel recently reported that the U.S. and U.K. have been spying on encrypted BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) messages. However, the CBC stated that BlackBerry has “one of the few networks in the world that can’t be hacked by the U.S. National Security Agency.” The CBC quoted Peter Misek of the U.S. investment banking firm Jefferies, who spoke with the NSA and believes that it has not successfully cracked BlackBerry. Misek said that BlackBerry’s “security is so good, it takes four million years on brute compute force to hack it.” For more information on BlackBerry security, see the CBC article.
• According to a Riverbed Technology infographic, data centres are entering an era of “hyperconvergence” that will “raise network traffic levels faster and further than anything the IT world has seen before”. The infographic highlighted a number of hyperconvergence drivers, including the fact that 80% of end user traffic will move to the WAN. These drivers have prompted 63% of enterprises to consolidate their data centres and 60% to increase their cloud spending. For more information on hyperconvergence, see the Riverbed Technology infographic.
• The auto industry is using big data to improve efficiencies. According to a Crain’s Detroit Business article, “The North American automotive industry is preparing for 32 new and remodeled vehicle launches in 2014. In response, the supply base is finding ways to collect and analyze ‘big data’ to improve product planning, streamline development and meet the industry’s aggressive launch schedules over the next three years.”

The article gives examples of how suppliers are using big data to track and analyze information, which in turn helps them improve efficiencies and identify bottlenecks. In fact, one supplier, AlphaUSA, was able to achieve more than a 35% increase in efficiency on its shop floor less than a year after it started collecting data. For more information on how auto suppliers are using big data, see the Crain’s Detroit Business article.

• And finally … the personal computer era is over. We’re now in the personal cloud era. According to Michel Emelianoff, executive vice president of Alcatel-Lucent and president of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, for the past 30 years the personal computer has been the sole device that employees have used to access corporate information. However, with the rise of devices such as tablets, we are entering a new era “where the terminal is nothing more than the access point to individual and personal content. The content will be stored in a ‘space,’ available from anywhere, any device, anytime.” Emelianoff also noted that this personal cloud era will not put an end to personal computers. Instead, the personal computer will be one device out of many that employees use to do work. For more of Emelianoff’s insights on the personal cloud era, see PCWorld.

What is your take on today’s news? Feel free to share your opinions below.