The best and worst of Black Hat/Defcon 2012

The annual Black Hat and Defcon IT security conferences may have wrapped up in Las Vegas, but there’s lots of post-event commentary to catch up on. CSO rates the best and worst of the event, as does Forbes, while Dark Reading calls for a return to the gathering’s roots.

Big data may be the hot buzzword of 2012, but explaining it can still be a challenge. Time magazine recently put together a feature that goes over the opportunities and potential dangers of big data. This may be the article that brings up questions from the C-suite.

The failure of three major power grids in India raises questions about how well outsourcers are prepared from a business continuity perspective. The Economic Times explores how Wipro, Genpact and WNS are mitigating against the worst possible scenarios.

Oracle’s purchase of Xsigo and VMware’s decision to buy Nicira has raised questions about M&A activity in the cloud computing/networking sector. The Financial Times assesses the vendor landscape and what’s ahead for virtualized networks in the cloud.

And while it’s taken better pricing, better service and a few other factors, CIO India claims that enterprises are warming up to IP telephony, including hosted offerings.