Identity Management and Enterprise Single Sign-On (ESSO) - ppt download

Identity Management and Enterprise Single Sign-On (ESSO) - ppt download: Introduction Follows on from other related themes: Unified Operator Interface (UOI) Network Convergence Network Security and Domains Circles of Trust Federated Identities Security as a Service Location transparency Virtualisation

Let's Chennai!

India is diverse - from snowy Himalayas to serene coasts of Indian Ocean, and Chennai, name it the shore of majestic Marina or the vibrant window of Southern India, is one of the shinning gems that glitters on India's tip.

Looking at pictures of havoc caused by floods in Chennai had my memories of the city come alive, so this Sunday, over a shot of espresso, am putting my thoughts for you, Chennai. I have been seeing a lot of feeds on my social networking connections about people in Chennai and across the country lending hands and love for the charmingly chilly Chennai. This is India's strength. We stand together holding hands, when the need of hour be. 

I always see these moments to remind cities like Chennai of its strength and to look back and within to remind them of what they hold beneath them.  I have had the charm of living in various cities, and they happen to not let me see them as just mere cities but a living soul with a distinct culture and a story to inspire many souls. These cities are like those humans, who inspire us. Whether it's the never dying spirit of Mumbai which keeps growing strong, or the vibrant and cultured charm of Ahmedabad, that focuses on strategic evolution. Let's be honest, we fall in love with a city we tend to know more-and-more about, and as-and-when we happen to know them. 

My memories of Chennai are pleasant, may be of course I visited Chennai in winters and not sunny summers. In both my interaction with this majestic city, I realized it holds a warm, and a set of always helpful people beneath it. They are happy and jolly in living life the way they do. It's like straight being out of a 700 MM screen, where everything about it is normal, but a dream in our eyes to be larger than life. In fact, within my Tech Mahindra's tenure as well, and otherwise around Hinjewadi IT Park, I happen to meet people from Chennai and elsewhere, holding promises in eyes to be long lasting friends, and they just want you to know more about their culture and always eager to see do what your culture holds for them. That breaks the very stereo-type that Chennai souls hardly get interactively closer to the way others live. All you need to do with Chennai and its people is, shake a hand, give them a warm greeting and they open a box of happiness for you; this has been my experience.

Chennai has a glorious and uniquely inspirational history, just like any other majestic Indian city going as deep as 7th and 8th centuries. It has the distinct flavor from the ancient Indian culture ( Mahabalipuram temple or the morning sh​lokas that are very Sanskrit) , blend of Mughal and English savor (Triumph of Labour).

It gives a feeling of discomfort to see our cities being uprooted by calamities. So Chennai, you hold a lot within you, let's get back on the track of unlimited entertainment, beating the drum of sneering equatorial heat, thriving roads and pumping the life of many. You've made the look the wrath of 2004 tsunami and its aftermath look pity in front of your majestic charisma! One long Whsitle podu, and stand tall larger, bigger. Lets Chennai!​ 

Information Security - More about Implanting Practices Than Just Awareness & Training

With more and more data getting electronic, and with more and more data going on line, information security is becoming a vital discussion and area of concern for organizations, federal agencies, governments, even individuals.

Because of this, many organizations have been spending a certain amount of effort and time in conducting awareness training, and, coming up with ways to make people more aware with hoardings, sign boards and what not. This is done to take the best short-cut approach in making their most vulnerable asset for information security, their people, educate and realize the pros & cons, and to preach awareness about how responsible they should be.

But lets be honest to ourselves? Have we been successful? There are still cases I hear knowing organizations, colleagues, friends, acquaintances compromising their vital information and getting hooked, whether be their own personal credit cards, documents and what not!

I believe that a well presented training and awareness program does invoke thoughts about aspects of information security and realization of being secured, but it CANNOT ensure how the attendees may take that very invoked thought ahead and if they can really implement the thoughts in their lives, unless and until they happen to witness an incidence themselves!

Through this article, I am trying to open a thought process, where we think beyond just training and awareness campaigns, but infact implant the very practices in their people.

Everybody is aware about wearing a seat-belt while driving and helmet while riding, everybody is aware about the fact that smoking tobacco is injurious to health, everybody is aware about the benefits of having good food habits, exercising daily and waking up early. Awareness exist, but practices does not.

As health is important for people to think about, similarly, information security is equally important for organizations to maintain their competitive edge, confidentiality of their data, integrity of their organizational practices, and availability of resources and data as and when required.

By and large, following are the gaps with training and awareness programs:

• Training programs are not aligned with the risk assessment that has identified the potential risk areas to the business and organization;
• Success of majority of training programs are immeasurable;
• Majority of training programs are unrealistic and based on generic aspects i.e. they're not tailor-made;
• Focus is more on presentation, or as a periodic practice of just having a training program but not on what people want.

So what next?

Simple. Just three aspects:

1. Conduct risk assessment to identify risks;
2. Target behavior change;
3. Prepare a yearly timeline and set realistic targets;
4. Engage people personally.

Lets get realistic. Lets start putting efforts in the right direction, because you anyways are or you anyways will have to. Remember, precautions are always easier than corrections! The awareness has to be embedded in the most important and most vulnerable asset of the organization - human resource i.e. people, and at certain stages in some organizations, this has been.

For example, when was the last time, you changed the password of your LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter account? That's because LinkedIn or Facebook doesn't prompt you to change passwords every 60 days! But, if you work in an organization, where the password is set to be changed in every 60 days, you will do it, and there's no other way out to avoid it. But again, every organization doesn't has this practice implemented or is been restricted to certain users; but they will always talk about securing their data and pass-coding their machines / workstations through passwords!

Tail-gating, phishing emails, malware attacks, you've been talking about it in your training, but no one takes it seriously. Implement practices to curb or catch hold of people to train them that they are doing it wrong.

For ex: create a dummy account, send an email which looks like a phishing mail, see how many open it. Call those people and then train them, that it is not the correct practice and they shouldn't be opening emails, make them aware about the real time incidents of how the accounts of even many CEOs, CTOs were compromised because of phishing emails and the consequences, ask them to report such emails to the network monitoring team (or whosoever can take care of these aspects in the organization). 

You see an unlocked workstation, click it and then tell the custodian that you were abut to send his resignation letter to his boss with a pinch of humor. 

I believe Information Security is one of the most discussed and challenging subjects for organizations, federal agencies, and governments, but at the same time it is one of the most easiest practice to secure the information, only if you follow the basics and the under-lying processes efficiently. The most basic fundamental about information security is the fact that it all depends on the custodian themselves to realize how vulnerable they're and it is them who must follow and embed culture around them to become immune to any InfoSec attacks! It is like snow and rains, which is targeting everything around you, but if you have the right gear, you will walk without feeling a pinch of it.

Let Project Portfolio start working for project, and project for you!

Lets start with project...meaning of the project, in simple words, is a planned set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations.

Moreover, projects add value to the organizations, as they not only mean business, but executing projects effectively helps organizations gain recognition and reputation. Organizations also endow effort, time, finances and different types of resources for execution of their projects.

That is the reason why many organizations believe in delivering projects through their well-planned, self-defined and structured project management, where they identify the different phases of the projects, list of activities to be carried out within each phase, limitations. Organizations also weave project life-cycles depending on their classification of projects, major or minor.

The simple definition to realize importance of project is that projects are executed to achieve a specific goal. This goal may be for its clientele or for the organization itself. If project is executed loosely, you may not achieve goal in the desirable way. To achieve efficient execution of projects, organizations have project management or as they may realize it through their dedicated group or department commonly named project management office.
But can project management translate an organization's business strategy? Answer is No! Then who? Answer is Project Portfolio Management!

I have worked on developing various programme management framework for clients across various domains, and I realize clients, even internal resources are usually confused between what project, portfolio or programme (some call it 'program' as well) is or for them, or if they are all the same!

But that’s not true! These are three different verticals and they have different functions to perform. You may have a well-defined project management in place, but it is always going to assist you in delivering a single project. Project management will define the best practices to assist you develop a plan and timeline to deliver specific set of deliverable defined for a project.

But is project management all what organizations need? Rather, let me ask is your organization doing just one project a year? You have multiple projects, and what about handling them, who is going to handle them? Project management will help you deliver each of those multiple projects, but what about managing those multiple projects? For this aspect you have Progamme Management.

Programme Management helps managing several related projects, often with the intention of improving an organization's performance. In practice multiple projects, span functions within an organisation, includes business elements (set of projects makes a programme).

But again, what if an undertaken project is not aligned with the organization’s strategies or does not make use of its core competencies, ultimately resulting in poor returns. What if the projects are overlapping and organization finds itself in a pool of resource crunch, despite having adequate resources?

Take a simple example of tubes, metros or commuter trains. Consider train as a project, which is well - executed, follows signals from starting point to its destination and has an efficient driver (project manager). But your train is not the only train in the system. There are multiple trains (projects) operating at a quick pace as they have to meet their defined timeline. They require the railway track, platforms for commuters to get in and out (resources), and all these trains share the same amount of resources!

If these trains are not managed efficiently and effectively, trains may end up being at the wrong terminal at the same time. Not just that, this may cause major accidents with trains being on the same track (projects to be delivered on the same date), and exhausting of resources (SME required for 2 projects at the same time)! It will be a chaos!

Therefore, as it is important to manage projects for the organizations, they also need to manage the portfolio of projects. Portfolio of projects will ensure a central repository or database consisting of projects in pipeline, current and projects that were executed in the past.

This will assist in strategizing delivery of projects based on the business strategy, assessing and managing the projects in a collective manner with the following:

• Determining whether (and how) a set of projects can be executed by the organization with finite set of resources in a specified time. Business Benefit is estimating and selecting capital investment projects with strategic plan;
• Efficient and effective utilization of organization’s resources including financials, inventory of project assets (servers, workstations etc), human resources etc. Business benefit also extends to realizing annual resource allocation, resource utilization during adverse impact minimal or nil exhaustion of resources;
• Planning and prioritization of any new all-of-a-sudden project requirements, new and amending regulatory demands, or requirement of enhancements;
• Proactive risk assessment of project related risks. But caution – this depends on how you develop your risk assessment methodology, your focuses. Do they include quality or information security or both or what?

Project Portfolio Management will create a balanced platform of projects by categorizing, sorting and prioritizing based on identified criteria. Organizations may identify these criterions from business context, to utilization of resources, expenditures, financial profit cost centers, etc.

Look at this below picture, Project Portfolio always sits up in the hierarchy when it comes to effective handling of projects, as it is responsible to provide input for annual business strategy to organizations and also ensures that the organization’s strategy is not compromised by the execution of projects.

If organizations are conforming to certain ISO certifications, Project portfolio also turns vital now, as it advocates top management leadership and business alignment.

But key to a successful Project Portfolio Management is to define and set priorities through an intent of:

• Achieving appropriate business value optimization for the organization;
• Considering risk recognition and mitigation is equal to reward;
• Conducting periodic reviews of the portfolio with top management understanding the concerns or issues through a bottom’s up approach

Remember - A project is complete when Project portfolio starts working for project, and project starts working for you!

Ahmedabad, and it's foul stories!

Anu - "Chacha! one bottle of mineral water please!"

Shopkeeper - "Here you go!"Anu - "This isnt a Kinley or Aquafina! Dont you have one of them?"

Shopkeeper - "No son! This is all I have. I am done with their stocks!"

Anu - "Okay! Here are 20 bucks. Thank You"

Shopkeeper - "No No! Water is a necessity, just 10 rupees please!"

Shushi - "Is the water really mineral?" I mean it reads 20 INR and you charging us only 10!"

Shopkeeper - "Do you know how much does these mineral bottles cost us?" 7 INR! So, as I said, water is a necessity. You take a red bull or a cold drink, I will charge you the maximum, but not for water. Allah wont be happy if I do that!"

Where do you think this may have happened? Ahmedabad, next to infamous Siddi Sayed ki Jalli. The little shop is next to a pan shop opposite to the Siddhi Sayed ki Jalli!

This is my blog after more than a year, and trust me, I always wanted to write on this topic, but then onset of the biggest election of the human history showed in. I didn't want to publish this, before I cast my vote, because my motive of writing is to pen down my thoughts and what I see and witness, rather being read as imposing my thoughts and personal liking for any given candidate who may be standing in the Indian election s 2014. Because, this would have not helped my motive and effort. 

It really bothers me, when my friends from outside Gujarat keep asking me if the stories that they hear from few political parties and sections of Indian media portraying about Gujarat since 2002 are true. I am probably grateful that they think I am well-versed with current affairs nationally and globally, and have been born in Ahmedabad and spending a considerable amount of time in Ahmedabad, would give a honest response. 

I love Ahmedabad as much as I love Calcutta, where I spent my childhood or Mumbai where I worked and have pent most of my summer vacations or a small sleepy town in the center of India, where I did my high school. I am completely against stereotyping of any city or people or communities, because I am an Indian, which is the largest secularist and democratic state to the globe. By the grace of God, I have traveled and lived in many places in my country, and when folks ask me which one is better. I really cannot think of one, Because every city has it's own charm and beauty, thats why they different. Mumbai has it's own charm, which is not as same as Calcutta or Chennai or even New York. Lol, infact the samosas of Mumbai, Ahmedabad or Calcutta tastes different, so why not love the charm of every city.   

Almost all the major and minor communities, ethnicity, races reside in India and have their steam in it's roots. India is a culture born out of each and every community, races and that is what makes Indians religiously democratic in nature. I have discussed in one of my previous blogs about Internationalism, which is the call of the hour for our globe. I did point out that how we will find people of our likings and disliking in each and every country carved on this planet. It's just the geographical divide, climatic conditions that make us look different. 

Ahmedabad, is the seventh largest metropolitan area and the fifth largest city in india . It is the judicial capital of Gujarat state, which has the largest coastline in India and has rich and vibrant history from an era as old as Indus Valley Civilization. Ahmedabad, as the name suggests, is named after it's ruler from 1400 B.C., Ahmed Shah, and take this as one of the pointer what I am trying to convey. 

The city is so vibrant that Mahatma Gandhi also established his ashram here on the banks of Sabarmti river, which flows beautifully midst of the city.

Despite all this, my city, is stereotyped and dragged by political parties and certain sections in media as being communal. This is extremely hurting, and false implication on the vibrant city. Ahmedabad is home to various communities who live in harmony with each other. Yes, there has been instances o f communal tensions between certain communities in and before 2002, alike other asian or western cities. Every city in the world, and I say that on record, have faced some kind of internal fighting sadly. If we humans were so damn matured, we never would have had wars or spending on armed forces. However, history has been my favorite subject and I believe, it makes you learn, forgive, and develop a better world around you. Ahmedabad has learnt from the wound. The communities are in harmony and there has been not even a slightest violence registered in it since 2002. It was probably because they never opened up, lived in themselves, they all drew lines and never realized what they were doing. 

Just for the record, I was giving my 10th grade exams in 2002 and now, here I am, an engineering grad. and a a full-fledge IT professional! Is it not sad on the part of few media houses and political parties dragging a state and a city in for their personal causes? May be they want to humiliate a given politician or party. Acting matured is an art you can't expect from classes, but atleast do not dare dragging a state or a city in your conversations. By doing that you acting no good, you are actually hurting the sentiments of many and many lives, many communities and even the economic prosperity of a state and city. What is the consequence?  

Someone today asked me she has heard there were no Christmas breaks in Gujarat, a principal and a scholar writes a letter to tell a story to it's students, but drags the state. Years back, a friend of mine from Delhi asks me that she heard there were human right violations in the state. In my eyes, this is completely incorrect. This also at certain level hampered economic investments in the most prosperous state of India.

Every entity on this planet needs continual improvement. I will be glad if real issues that brings prosperous change to a city or a state are brought on table by media or by political individuals.  I have friends from every corner of the world and am always open to meeting new people, learning new communities. We have one life, why not really love the fact that there is many beautiful and rich spirtiual believes and culture breathing around us. Needless to say, I had roommates from every community, I infact find usage of words like 'community', religion' taboo and while jotting this write-up, am wondering if they should be really written?  Gujarat and my Ahmedabad is rich and peaceful. If you want to talk about a sad year 2002? Why don't you remember that city was peaceful and together, when a temple was attacked by terrorists from across the border, when a series of serial blast shook Ahmedabad, and it stood strong and everyone had hands were clubbed together. How do any human being feel when their wounds are purposely kept afresh or pressed now and then?

As I said, Amdavadis will never tell you that you hurting their wounds. They will infact keep ignoring and laughing at such silly stories, and be graceful of not correcting you, as they will have all of the time to make their penny a pound! 

One more thing, that I wish to talk about is, the Gujarat Police. I everyday cross helmet circle, and I crib about the heat that I face for some 10-15 mins of halting at a signal. I see those policemen standing all day, safe-guarding and managing adrenalin rush. Similarly, on festive seasons, they have no holiday. I feel for them when the whole Police force of a state is questioned and go through media trial over. If certain folks do wrong they shall face the trial and be punished for it, but tagging and stereotyping the whole of police force is completely incorrect. Its an insult, that atleast my soul wishes to disagree with as those policemen at midnight hours guard societies. 

Drive someday, in the late hours in Ahmedabad, and you see them standing, guarding your city. Infact deployment of so many cops is also because the state and city is under constant threat and made vulnerable, as it has even stereotyped as not being vibrant and tagged as ungraceful. You are making my city, and India's fastest growing city vulnerable! Furthermore, Ahmedabad is a beauty. If one has ever come to the city, they fall in love with it. It has a rich heritage. The Srakhej roja mosque, which has been filmed in many Bollywood movies and Lothal, which reminds you of Indus valley civilization.  Ahmedabad is a city, where if you come across someone cutting your way in the traffic, he would smile and step behind to let you go.

Traffic! Ahh! Thats the core issue, by the way. Ahmedabad's traffic sense sucks! 

Gujarat is a dry state, and few people even have a problem with that. Well, it is based on the ideology set by the world-acclaimed Mahatama, whose preaching even the U.S. president wishes to follow, and Gujarat is proud to continue the ideology. Gujarat has been a dry state since years now, and the beauty is, that even without the taxes collected from alcoholic earnings, Gujarat is prospering -  an example that can be shared by India to the globe and followed by states which believe that alcohol is one of the medium of economic earnings!

Finally, you go, discuss issues you wish on political spectrum in India or anywhere in the world, but please do not drag a state or a city in pity conversations. Be sensible, think sensible, and do not hear.. believe what you see. 

Coincident to this write-up, just for the record folks, the infamous three wise monkeys of Mahatma Gandhi, who tell us the proverbial principle of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" are in Sabarmathi Ashram of Ahmedabad! 

By the way, the mineral bottle wala chacha was helpful in tellling me about the textile mills and factory outlet in the outskirts of the city where I can find the few branded clothes with quite an irresistible price tag!

Run Mumbai Run

“Xavy! Ameet! Mukesh! I’m excited & infact nervous about completing 21 kms of run tomorrow morning.” – I tell my friend, also my flat-mate, while setting up an alarm of 03:00 AM.

“Dude. Chuck that. All possible ONLY if you wake up on time, which I’m sure you won’t. “– replied Xavy.

“We will see. Ka-Chow!” – I snub back before the shutters of my eyes roll  down slowly and in peace.

Ringggg.. “Throw that phone out of the window someone.” The alarm doesn’t, but my other flat-mates voice wakes me up for the day, which was to witness an awesome proceedings.

Gradually, I start receiving calls from everyone I know who are participating in the Marathon to check if I was awake or not. It's Marathon mania!

Marathons are usually long running events, where runners participate to run on roads for 40 - 42 kms. There are of course different categories for running the Marathon. You can run just 6 kms or run a half marathon!

I’m at the starting point in Bandra, where this early morning, there is a huge crowd of runners far and by. I have my BIB number on my company’s T-shirt, especially designed for the Marathon participants, which lists down all the NGOs that we have been associated with.

I stand in the queue with my friends and colleagues amidst this big stream of people all around us. Man is always more important than the things that exists around. This was proved by the waves of people who have shown up  well before the Sun lord  on this pleasant Sunday morning, in a city where a peace sleep after a tiring day is the biggest spiritual feeling. They made this event the most count as the most successful Marathon in India, and am sure, soon the globe will look up to it. 

And, you can never take the credit away from the beautiful city of Mumbai. Mumbai, is the city of dreams, and ask many souls who have come to this city, how it has always nurtured their true dedication. It does test you, but if you pass, it never shies away from giving you what you deserve.

Mumbai never complains. It holds many dreams, many aspirations, and many stories every day, every hour. It has seen some of the horrifying days, sometimes from it's own people, it has fed. But then, she never bows, down, she looks into the eyes of people who aspire her, and stands back on her knees, no matter how wounded she may be. Mumbai is an example to our man-kind, of how without demanding even a passing recognition, she gives us a lot. Shouldn’t it be our duty as well, in return, to respect her, keep it CLEAN atleast? Is that too much to ask for?

My legs could feel what my hands were talking, and vice-a-versa. Half Marathon.

“Dude, it’s our time to start soon. Best of Luck!”

“Thanks ya!” – I can feel my vain. “Hope I don’t sleep midway. 21 kms is way too much! Hah!”

I see the wave of people in front of us start running. The fourth last row to me vanishes on the sea-link, third-last, second last, and then it’s us!

I pass the starting tracker with some red beams, and I’m in the air. I run with my full strength and find myself charged up with some kind of spiritual feeling.  It was phenomenal.

“Run Mumbai Run” – shouts someone ahead of us.

I see reporters on the side lanes clicking us. It’s Mumbai on the run. I soon let lose my nervousness, and find myself in the pool of people cheering, merry. There is some guy with the Team India’s jersey, there’s someone, with Gandhi-topi, then there’s some girl with I-pod on. Colourful people, colourful lives running. Even spot a physically challenged lad in his teens, surpass me quick. I feel like going and patting him, but I feel I shouldn’t remind this young lad of something, and let him run free. Someone needs to pat me, as he was way quicker than I was.

The mighty Bandra-Worli Sea-Link was lit-up with aspirants, cheerful voices, joyful street-lights. Many flaunting the camera clicks. It was an experience that doesn’t fade away from memory so easily. 

I speed up and finish the sea-link and on the main, land, next to the curve is the loo. Okay Break!

After a break, I’m on the run again, seeing a lot of people covering the streets, the neighborhoods all out with the Sun Lord slowly blinking his eye lids. These are the Mumbaikars, cheering each one runner, bucking up the one puffing his breathes, clapping and roaring. This electrifies the already puffing me. The spirit is lively.

Crossing Worli was so easy, now at Mahalaxmi, where the Sun lord is already smiling and majestic Haji Ali dargah is a splendid watch early morning, my feet feel the heat. Heat, in the real sense. Blisters on my leg, and I feel like some pebbles are into my shoes.

(Picture: Mahalaxmi Circle - Imagine the picturesque with humans and not cars on 20th Jan'2013)

I don’t stop, I run up the little hilly terrain, where music is played with little kids dancing to encourage us all. Cookies, glucose distributed by the neighborhoods, the spirit is amazing. Familiar colleagues, friends cheering us all up, and yeah they get the return too, when I’m kind of charged. I was witnessing the festivity and lost deep forgetting everything. A day before, I was lost in brain-storming the exciting idea. I would be lost tomorrow too, but then, this is the time to set myself loose and run in the spirit. Many like me would be, someone for some examination or result, someone for somebody’s health or wealth, someone for finding a way to marrying his girl-friend, some net-addict would have forgotten what tweets or posts mean. Run was the only LIKE button to press.  

At the Marine Drive, Lord Sun’s meditation seemed kind of intensified, subtly expressing the nature of the day.  I targeted 3 hours to finish the Half-Marathon. I was around Churchgate station when the clock hit three hours from the time I started.  The loud of people around us is wild. When I was finally at the finish area at CST Terminus, I see some African athletes finishing the lines. These are the winners of Full Marathon. Okay embarrassing that they finishing double the kilometers when I managed to finish half, but then cheers to them. After all it’s cheese, Bikaneri bhujias, pastry shops in & around Bandra that win. Not to forget, the Ahmedabadi brunches & the royal Rajasthani feasts!

I managed to finish the Marathon of 21 kilometers in 03Hours 07 minutes. A 55+ colleague I knew finished way before me, by only brisking his way. A 40+ another fellow I knew was minutes ahead of me. Honestly, you can finish too. If you think you not the part of Marathon this year, honestly you still can be. Everyone here was running for cause.

I liked an idea where the friends of each running the Marathon had decided to donate some amount if his friend finishes in some given time. For ex, A & B are pals. A is the runner, and B tells him – ‘Hey! I’m a student, job-seeker..so what..I contribute $x if you finish the race in this given time.” Or “I encourage your spirit, $y for you to finish the race”. They aren’t poking, they aren’t doubting, but they are trying to find a classy way to contribute to some NGO, he may be running for. As they say, a drop makes an ocean, a penny by 100 people a runner knows make what? Imagine the same for each runner. 

Again, I don’t wana sound like am asking people to do charity, that’s not my style of writing. I want you to be in the spirit. The spirit of this city, it’s roads warming up like burning tyres with the runners paddling their way towards CST on 20^th January. You can stand anywhere from Bandra to CST to boost the morale. You never know a Parle-G a runner pops in from your plate, is worth an effort. Even your presence to cheer the puffin ones is worth a memory. I hardly remember the faces smiling and cheering, but I remember the affectionate energy those little kids, those aunts, and ladies were out greeting us, cheering us with.

Beauty about atleast this Marathon, no one is left-out. You still can be a part, and that’s what is spiritual about it. I could have used the word ‘sexy’ for some sane readers, but honestly, am sure that doesn’t gives out the expression which this ‘spiritual’ word surely does, despite how ‘anti-spiritual’ we think you may be. For those running, the Marathon, I never practiced to run the last Marathon. For me, planning for practicing with pals, was only about waking up & feeling the pleasant morning, which I usually fail to. After-all, it is the best time of the day! 

And, you need to credit the way it was organized by the sponsors,  organizations. Waiting for this year’s Marathon bag full of goodies.

Again, you still can be a part of this race, where everyone is the winner. Bus, spirit chaiye! I don’t know if they play the Kolaveri remix at the start of the race this time, but whosoeva is running or cheering, do greet out loud the electrifying ‘Run Mumbai Run’ chant. So, to brighten up someone’s future, to lighten up someone’s life...........................Run Mumbai Run!

(P.S. - Ignore typos, if any. I post, once jotted :-P)

Torn page of a Calm Night

It is a moist cool rainy September night in Mumbai, the maximum city. Mumbai, for me, a kind lady, an inspiration of strength holding beneath her arms, many exciting stories of rags and riches. Every move, every nerve of her, every minute witnesses some or other kind of excitement, some kind of inspiration, some kind of lessons learnt.

It has it's own charm – from hustle bustle of the suburban ‘local’ stations to calm sea shores, which takes away all your tiredness in its deepness.  From noisy busy mornings to silent tired nights. It has it all.

I’m in the room of my guest house, sipping a hot cup of Green tea, which has a punch of ginger in it. An usual composed hoping sound by field cricket is playing at the back of my ears. My room is all on boxes – formals, jeans, tees all scattered around, and thankfully, not on my bed!

Suddenly, it starts raining. Rains are different here in Mumbai, or maybe they are just similar to any other rain. But then, what makes them look different? May be the feeling of relaxation it gives you after or midst a busy day. The sudden downpour and the moist air suddenly relaxes you and touches your soul, bringing to you the aroma of wet soil - the best perfume on the planet.

Rains fall unrelenting, sounding like a lullaby, putting on mute all the hulla bo noises around me, bringing you close the voice of your soul. Not really sure about how, where and what my Sunday will bring for me – kind of little excited, nervous, happy, scarred. Believing in my honest work and dedication, and awaiting some magic for next Sunday, I wear my slippers and walk out of the building.

Magical sound of the raindrops slowly touching the dark black wet road plays at my back. One hand, I have my umbrella, and on the other, my phone

I start walking towards the station for some station wali - chai and packed biscuits. This walk is not the usual walk I have every morning. My walks are sluggish towards the station rather than being measurable for me with every minute having its own meaning to me. 5 minutes late to the projected time – 9:29 Churchgate Slow, 10 minutes late – 9:42 Andheri Fast, so that I can catch the same 9:29 slow from Andheri station.

The scene is also different on the road-sides at this time of the day. Roadsides are sleepy, they are dark. Yea alright your nostrils do hit some wet rotten stinky smell, mix of vegetables, polybags and all day long trash.

I finally reach the station. The view is calm. Few autowallahs sleeping, few having a chat. I finally reach Platform no.1.

“Ek chai dena” – waiting for my cup of chai, I realize, that station is the place, though it may yawn, but will never sleep. You have people here waiting for the first train that leaves and arrives in the morning. You’ve a gang of college guys and girls, laughing and chatting all out.

I turn towards the stall vendor.

“Kahan se ho?” (where are you from?) – I ask yawningly .

“Sahab Johnpur”. Aur app? – He asks in a friendly tone.

Living and growing up in so many cities, I always find this a tough question to answer.

“Whole night, you’re awake no sleep?” – I continue to talk to him, when he serves me my cup of tea, with some chocolate chip cookies.

“No sir! We officially have to be awake. Railway stalls cannot be shut in the night.” He continues – “I sit here whole night, and then sleep for 4 hours. Then I go to work to guard one of the ATMS close by from noon to night. “

“That’s tough! Don’t you think of going back to Johnpur?”

“No sir! I don’t get the time to think about it, and anyways going back there will be a bigger struggle. There are local groups, who would not let us hamper their business, if we wish to start one” – he answers

“Chai kum pani jyada hai” – I complain.

“Sir, should I make another?”

“No! that's fine.”

I start walking towards the guest house, where I’m staying, thinking, every person here around me have different dreams for tomorrow’s Sunday. Every person has different aspirations. Every person’s definition of what he/she wants is so different. Every being’s definition of comfort is so different. It’s quite amazing.

Cloud Security

IT has the ability to deliver almost anything that you can think of, and here is the latest entrant - The Clouds, which is now a phrase du jour in the IT coliseum already. Clouds are on the rise and so are the organizations looking ahead to capture clouds for their business practices.

Cloud Computing has changed the approach such that a cloud – user now only requires a browser for access to the company’s network. And this raises risks and compliance concerns.

Being a part of GRC, we know what matters to organizations most and here, it is their corporate data which they may put on off-premise servers. So are the clouds safe? What are the risks involved? Will the data (kept off – shore) still sync with their company's internal compliance mandates?

  

Being in the GRC domain, I had serious question in front of myself – are clouds secured and safe and what should they do to adhere with IT security norms. How can they be well-equipped to address any IT security concern raised as any organization would want clouds to be safe before putting their enterprise data on-board?

With the current economic scenario, businesses, especially mid-size, may feel the need for cost reduction and look forward to this technology to source some or all of their computing services into the cloud; but what may hold them back are the security concerns. To pass the risk and compliance test, they would need to address the following concern that comes with clouds not only for IT auditors but also for themselves. A lack of robust methodology of identifying risk areas and being compliant may derail the complete concept of clouds. 

First, we discuss the various planks which can be of major concerns to the data owners:

·      SaaS, PaaS and IaaS: Cloud providers use Software as a Service (SaaS) or Platform as a Service (PaaS i.e. providing a platform to build software applications to cloud - users) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS like servers) to deliver a single application through the browser serving multiple clients.

·      Use of web services: Use of web services like search engines, web portals, etc.

·      Use of Utility Computing in Clouds: Utility computing i.e. utilization of services and computing resources, such as virtual Data Centers.  

Risks Involved

·      SaaS, PaaS and IaaS: The risk of using Saas, PaaS or IaaS is that all these platforms raise issues of identifying user accounts (duplicate user accounts) and their roles and rights, misalignment of data.  In short, concerns of authorization and authentication. Here, the onus of data security lies not only on the data owners, but also majorly on the cloud providers (Cloud Service Providers), as the data is stored on any third – party software, storage blocks or platform based clouds.

·      Use of web – services: Use of web services in the clouds is crucial to IT security as traditional vulnerabilities like virus, spywares are always of concern. Apart from the traditional villains resting on the web, it is security of the enterprise data to be transmitted to these web services is also under scanner.

·      Use of Utility Computing in Clouds: Utility computing raises a high level of security concern as mission critical data of organizations are under scrutiny. The access to crucial and critical IT environments such Data Centers has always been of high concern to organizations. The fear of clouds growing dark rises, as we are actually looking into the prospects of a ‘virtual Data Center’.  

Compliance practices to tackle the risks

Addressing risk and compliance aspects is fundamental for clouds to grow. This is important as no GRC umbrella over an organization’s cloud cluster would mean a complete degradation of their enterprise data and their business practice. The best practices to tackle the mentioned risks are suggested below:

·      SaaS, PaaS and IaaS: Organizations need to focus on data security which becomes highly important as the clouds reside on storage blocks, software or platforms. User accounts and their roles and rights are absolutely crucial as well as their authorization and validation must be of primary focus to the organizations.Organizations / data owners here would also require robust cloud-based third party policies, rather than just the orthodox enterprise third party-based policies for the service providers who own the clouds (as the data now no more rest in their environment or facility).

·      Use of web services: Filtering (URL filtering) on what is to be viewed on the basis of User roles is an effective measure while using web services on the clouds. This ensures that each cloud users access what is actually necessary for their role. This takes care of access to attractive but distracting information / services, which gives an easy en-route to traditional intruders. In case web security is outsourced to a third - party, SLAs / KPIs and related policies must just not only focus on web-security and filtering concerns, but must also focus on the services to curb and prevent data loss. Here, the responsibility of these measures lies primarily with the organizations, who own the data, because it’s just not their data residing on the clouds, they actually share a room out there! What is notably important here is to realize the guidelines and policies that need to be built around these risks and consistently keep a check on them.

·      Use of Utility Computing in Clouds: To overcome security concerns related to the utilities like virtual Data Centers, it is highly recommended to locate and highlight low, medium and high-level of security concerns and risks in-depth. The policies, authorization and access to Data Centers must not only highlight but also address the risk areas and concerns that have been analyzed. The back-up and restoration methodologies adopted are of high significance too, because the Data Centers in the clouds are just not located off-shore, but are virtual as well. So, if organizations do not want the clouds to grow dark, it is important to primarily focus on the below aspects:

·         Policy management and audit capabilities for themselves and cloud-providers

·         IT security controls and the ability to transport and archive enterprise data

·         Addressing poor visibility into risk exposure properly

·         Avoiding lack of alignment from not having risk and compliance processes embedded within the business

Best practices ensure that the organizations; their corporate and enterprise data remain on cloud nine. Clouds are always pleasant to watch and GRC is all about ensuring they don’t grow dark. We won’t.