MC+A

At MC+A, we are always on the lookout for companies implementing cloud computing solutions for their organization. Seeing as how we are Google Enterprise Partners and part of the Google Apps Partnership, it is easy for us to stay current on changes to business technology. Because of our position, we came across a couple of interesting whitepapers about the cloud computing solutions and felt that it would be best to address this in our own way.

The whitepapers are titled: Cloud Computing – Latest Buzzword or Glimpse of the Future? and Cloud Computing – What is its Potential Value for your Company? The first whitepaper analyzes the past, present, and future of computing in “the cloud.” It goes through the market landscape of which companies have, are, and/or would benefit from cloud computing. The analysis is in-depth to the point to give individuals the ability to see both sides of the coin – the benefits and negatives of “the cloud.”

The second whitepaper is more of an overview of organizations and governments who have recently joined the cloud computing revolution. They take four different organizations with four different job functions and analyze each and show the benefits of cloud computing. The results for each are startling (oh yes, they provide a financial benefit outline as well).

For those who are unaware of what cloud computing actually is, it is the ability to take previously in-house hosted solutions and move them into a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider hosting facility. Thus, companies free themselves from the burden of hardware purchasing, technical employee hiring, and license fees. A clever way to put it is to think of personal online banking, web email (like gmail or hotmail), and instant messaging (like AIM) – all done by not installing servers, hardware, or software – being stored in “the cloud” (or not local).

MC+A was extremely interested in these whitepapers and they sure did not disappoint. If you want to take a look at them you can click here.

Please see information on Google’s Support site:

https://support.google.com/enterprise/doc/gsa/00/update_index_page.html

Customers under Sliver & Gold support constracts with MC+A will be contacted regarding upgrading.

One of the most significant improves to the Google Search Appliance over the last couple of years has been in inclusion of the on board appliance database feeder.  With this technology, administrators can create crawls directly against several standard databases.

However, a limitation is that there is only one driver per database.  We’ve had several customers encounter this issue when connecting to DB2 on zOS or the 400.  This is a significant limitation when you are attempting to index your WCS database for something like product catalog search.

We’ve constructed an off appliance database connector that functions very similarly to the appliance.  It’s customizable to be able to use any JDBC connector and any transformation prior to submittal to the appliance.

We’ll be publishing the details shortly on the main website.  Until then, contact usfor more information.

For Immediate Release:
Contact: John Cizmar
media@mcplusa.com

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) March 13, 2009 – With the ever expanding corporate environment into the “enterprise 2.0” and cloud computing, MC+A has once again forged its way into the forefront of business intelligence solutions. MC+A announces the development and release of the new MC+A Physician Finder mashup.

This product will assist individuals locate doctors and physicians with more accuracy and less frustration. “Healthcare Providers are under great pressure to help their customers find the doctor of their choice,” said Michael Cizmar, President of MC+A. “In this product, we have combined two offerings from Google for a unique vertical solution achieving just that.”

With the development of this Physician Finder, MC+A has effectively and efficiently given its clients the ability to provide individuals with the most accurate healthcare information. This new technology brings together actual location of physicians and the information needed to make the best healthcare choices. “Through the use of the Physician Finder technology, end-users can effectively make more appropriate decisions when it comes to their health,” stated Michael Cizmar. Indeed, this new product offers a wide-array of tools, beneficial to all users.

The Physician finder incorporates the Google Search Appliance strength and physical relevancy of Google Maps By putting these two great technologies together, MC+A effectively took the guess work out of choosing a healthcare provider. The search results display the doctor’s name, address, contact information, and what health insurance plans they accept. MC+A desired to create a mashup that was simple to use and provided the greatest end-user advantage.

Some features of the Physician Finder include:

• Multi-language out-of-the-box
• Physician’s name and contact information
• Location context
• Insurance plans accepted
• Advanced Spell-check
• Parametric Filtering
• Advanced key-match
• Query Speed

For more information on the MC+A Physician Finder, please visit:
http://www.mcplusa.com/solutions/collaboration/physician-finder.aspx

About MC+A:
MC+A is dedicated to solving business challenges by enabling organizations to derive maximum value from their business intelligence assets. They provide solutions focused on managing business intelligence and help their clients build, find and share those assets securely. In addition, MC+A provides managed services implementing enterprise 2.0 and cloud computing initiatives.

Last month, I analyzed the Google Search Appliance and its relationship to business intelligence security. The next in this series of best practices for integrating enterprise search is the desire for companies to have knowledgeable workers. People are one of the greatest assets that an organization has. How often are the individuals working within the organization getting the information they need to make intelligent and informed decisions? Are individuals utilizing all the systems that have been integrated to assist in the storing of important information? Can these people find the data in a timely manner?

Many companies have spent millions of dollars to integrate enterprise-wide data storage units which include CRM systems, ECM systems, shared file systems, databases, web servers and many others. Each of these systems performs different functions, but they do share something in common: they store tons of information. As a company grows, so does its document numbers. According to studies done by IDC, content increases by over 80% per year. In addition to that, 66% of companies say they have 5 content repositories or more. With all the development of new data and the multiple locations to store the information are workers really finding the most relevant and beneficial information possible? Probably not.

How are workers finding the correct content to do their jobs more effectively? In many cases, with a multitude of companies, they can’t. Even knowledgeable workers who are hired on to perform a specific task due to their experience in it, they may not be able to find the tools necessary to equate their work with their particular company. What does this mean? Well often times it means duplicated efforts, loss in productivity, and wasted time (which more importantly equates to, uh oh, wasted money). Can a company afford, especially in these financial times, to not be fiscally responsible?

What should a company do in order to prevent this waste? Well multiple companies have implemented enterprise-wide solutions that involve extensive hardware and software implementations. This takes its toll on an organization as well. With the high cost of the technology, the system developers to implement, the administrators to ensure the systems are running properly, and the time to go through the entire development lifecycle, a company can spend literally millions of dollars to deploy. This is not even the greatest of all problems. The question remains: after designing, developing, and deploying the system, is it really going to provide knowledge workers with the correct information? If not, then why start in the first place?

The solution that is both economical and user friendly is the Google Search Appliance. End-users and knowledge workers will definitely benefit from using a system that is just like Google.com. They are already familiar with the user interface and will have no trouble searching for documents behind the firewall instead. Wasted time and efforts will be greatly decreased because the Google Search Appliance will crawl the entire enterprise repositories and find the information they are looking for. How will this happen? Google is the leader in search on the web and they have done so through speed and accuracy of searches. Thousands of developers have tuned the search algorithms to ensure the relevance and the speed of the Google Search Appliance. This means that no time will be wasted within an organization developing and tweaking algorithms to receive the most relevant content.

The Google Search Appliance due to its price, lack of labor needed to install, and end-user friendliness makes it the most powerful and best tool for enterprise search. An organization can really benefit right out the box from the Google Appliances. The knowledge workers will be able to find the information they need to make informed and better decisions without wasting time creating new content (especially since more often than not it has already been created). Business owners, executives, and managers can feel confident that employment decisions were accurate. Knowledge workers rejoice, assistance for projects comes in a little yellow box.

Google Enterprise has released a maintenance release of the software. Some minor fixes have been included. You can download the update at:

https://support.google.com/enterprise/

with the login credentials provided in your welcome email. If you are under a maintenance contract, MC+A Support will be contacting you to schedule your update. If you need assistance with the release, contact MC+A support or Google support.

For Immediate Release:

Chicago (PRWEB) – As the competitive nature of business increases, new and innovative ways of providing technical solutions to access their business intelligence continues to become more necessary. To provide a larger array of solutions to their customers, MC+A, a Google Enterprise Partner, announces its participation in the Google Apps™ Reseller Program.

“This is just another important step towards assisting organizations manage their information assets, what we call business intelligence,” said Michael Cizmar, MC+A President and Managing Partner. “The wide variety of apps that Google Apps provides will allow our organization to continue to assist our clients collaborate on a greater scale. The fundamental need for companies to become part of ‘the cloud’ is becoming recognized.”

In joining the Google Apps Reseller Program, MC+A looks to continue working with clients to leverage their expertise into solutions that will allow their end-users to engage co-workers and digital assets. “Workers can now use communication apps to easily connect with one another,” Michael Cizmar continues, “this provides a greater quality output and reduces wasted time.”

Google Apps brings powerful and easy-to-use communication and collaboration tools to the enterprise. With Google Apps, users are able to use GmailTM webmail service, Google TalkTM messaging, Google CalendarTM, Google DocsTM program, Google SitesTM web application and Google VideoTM within their work domain. Because the apps are hosted by Google™, there is no hardware to install or software to download and maintain.

MC+A customers and prospects can today begin to utilize Google Apps by completing the online form and purchasing here.

For more information on MC+A Collaboration Solutions please visit:
www.mcplusa.com/solutions/collaboration

About MC+A:
MC+A is dedicated to solving business challenges by enabling organizations to derive maximum value from their business intelligence. They provide solutions focused on managing business intelligence. They focus on helping our clients build, find and share those assets securely. Additionally, MC+A provides managed services implementing enterprise 2.0 initiatives.

Contact: John Cizmar
Ph: 312.275.5737 x366
media@mcplusa.com

Google, Google Apps, Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites, and Google Video are all trademarks of Google, Inc.

Last month, I wrote about best practices for and some business impact of search technology. This month, I am delving into the Google Search Appliance’s ability to protect corporate information. To stop the loss of data, corporations spend thousands, nay, millions of dollars per year, either preventing the loss or cleaning up after it has been leaked (see my post on the $20 million laptop). It would be safe to say that protecting confidential information is at the top of the executive priority list.

Understanding how the Google Search Appliance works is part of what my job entails. Every time I hear something in relation to the Google Search Appliance or the Google Mini its usually their ability to keep secure information secure. From the Google Enterprise Search site, they provide a list of ways in which the Google Appliances can protect important and confidential information.

Here is a list of ways that Google Enterprise Search will protect sensitive information:

1. The Google Appliances work already existing security policies within the organization.
2. Kerberos Support: Provides native support for Kerberos, enabling a silent authentication process for end-users
3. Metadata Biasing: Administrators can bias results based on metadata (in addition to biasing on source, URL or date)
4. Advanced Reporting: View and export daily and hourly result sets, top queries, special feature usage and more. Report for every query, including reports on which queries receive no clicks by a user and how often the user is clicking on sponsored links in comparison to organic search results or OneBox modules.
5. Secure Web Content: Enable secure searching of information protected by basic HTTP authentication, NTLM versions 1 and 2, as well as Windows Integrated Authentication
6. Enterprise Single Sign-on: Integrate with forms-based single sign-on security systems, included Oblix and Netegrity, to enable seamless searching across secure content
7. Secure Content API: Search across secure content using Google’s SAML Authorization SPI to integrate into existing access control systems
8. X509 Client Certificates: Serve secure results to users using mutually authenticated x509 client certificates
9. Lotus Domino Security: Integrate with Lotus Notes environments using fast, efficient crawling of Lotus Domino servers

Here are nine specific examples of how the Google Appliances can protect sensitive information from reaching the end-users. Coming from a non-IT background, I understand that some of these reasons seem a bit difficult to understand. That is why I added the number one protection item (The Google Appliances work with existing security policing all ready existing within the organization). This means that no matter what environment the Google Appliance is placed in, it will not release information to users who do not identify themselves as an individual who has access to see that information. All this right out of the box!

If more proof is needed you can take a look at Windows Networking’s “10 million documents in a single box” post. It is also understood that security is constantly on Google’s mind for their Enterprise Search as well . There are other high marks that are touted for the GSA such as:

“The Google Search Appliance’s unrivalled security functions were the perfect answer to our requirements and allowed for optimal information sharing”- Administrative and Financial Manager, Societe Generale.

For searching secure content, Google enterprise search seems to be the choice to make. It’s plug-and-play simplicity for security is unmatched in the field of enterprise search. I have seen first-hand the impact that Google Enterprise Search has on an organization and its power and speed are only rivaled by its security.

Next month, I will be analyzing workers and how the Google Search Appliance has benefited them. Happy searching!

Invariably, more often recently we have been involved with configuring the Google Search Appliance with Single Sign On forms authentication based content. As you may know, this is one of my many on board features of the appliance. In many cases it can be easier said than done to complete the wizard successfully. This article demonstrates some easy tricks to help you complete the wizard.  Unfortunately the topic of SSO is quite large.  I will be just describing some short cuts that we employ when attempting to configure the Appliance.

Single Sign On – The Problem

Most of the difficulties in completing the form come from small amounts of javascript that is called with the web browser normally submits the form. The appliance does not execute any javascript on the page. It instead simply rewrites the form and presents it to you. Evidence of javascript is when you hover over you see javascript:submitLogin() in your browsers status window.

Single Sign On – The Solution

Using a tool like HTTP Analyzer you can examing the posts and responses during the normal login process. By taking note of the form variables submitted you can recreate this if necessary during the form wizard process.

Be careful to note what the javascript is actually doing. In most cases, there is no logic in the javascript. In that case, you may use the next technique to complete the wizard successfully.

Completing the wizard:

1. Turn off Styles

   Sometimes developers will use Javascript to turn on and off styles. By turning off all styles, you’ll see areas of the HTML that is hidden by CSS styles. In some cases, simply complete the form and save.

2. Editing the HTML that the Google Search Appliance returns to you.

   If you submit a ticket to Google Support with javascript as the cause, the first response will be to see about getting the javascript removed. This will involved multiple internal departments within your company or your clients company.

   I find that this can be difficult at times. At best, a company can roll a version of the form that just the GSA sees. Since you may need to reset the form in the future, a simple swap form temporally will need to be repeated in the future and this too can cause internal stagnation.

   You can save yourself the trouble by simplifying editing the HTML that is returned by the appliance. If you remember earlier, I said to note what actual form variables need to be sent. Simply find the form and make appropriate changes to mimic the original submission. For example, your GSA returned form could look like this.

   <form action="/EnterpriseController" method="post" name="frm1" onsubmit="defaultSubmit(); return false;" />
   <input name="cookieUrl" value="http://sso.mysite.edu:80/amserver/SomethingWrong/" type="hidden" />
   <input name="GoogleOriginalFormMethod" value="GET" type="hidden" />
   <input name="cookieLoginSubmit" value="true" type="hidden" />
   <input name="actionType" value="ssoSites" type="hidden" /><input name=”cookiePattern” value="http://portal.mysite.com/" type="hidden" />
   </form>
   

   Simply change it to this:

   <form action="/EnterpriseController" method="post" name="frm1" onsubmit="defaultSubmit(); return false;">
   <input name="cookieUrl" value="http://sso.mysite.edu:80/amserver/CorrectFormLocation" type="hidden"/>
   <input name="GoogleOriginalFormMethod" value="POST" type="hidden"/>
   <input name="cookieLoginSubmit" value="true" type="hidden"/>;
   <input name="actionType" value="ssoSites" type="hidden"/>
   <input name="cookiePattern" value="http://portal.mysite.com/" type="hidden"/>
   </form>
   

   Then, make sure that all of the text field, hidden and otherwise are included in this form.

   Submit and save.

3. Clicking back and save

There have been times where simply clicking the back button and saving and done the trick.

Of course, MC+A can help you with a detail explanation of this during one of our Search Health Checks or other related support services. Feel free to Contact us.

Within the world today, it is essentially important to protect data that is being shared both across a network and externally. Loss of information can cost companies both financially and legally. Protecting data before a problem strikes is key to ensuring companies are adhering to both governmental and corporate regulations.

Recently it has come to national attention through a class-action lawsuit that was filed against the Veterans’ Affairs Department. The full article is outlined at Federal Computer Week. To outline the situation, the VA had gotten one laptop stolen in 2006 that contained sensitive individual data. The laptop was reported stolen from a VA employee’s home by vandals. Because of this event, the VA was concerned that the secure information that was contained on the laptop would be leaked to unauthorized individuals creating a serious security threat. It had been found, after authorities had retrieved the laptop, that the criminals were unable to access the data that was stored on the laptop. However, because the laptop with sensitive information was stolen, all veterans could have been affected. Lawyers said there could have been a loss of individual information including Social Security Numbers, medical histories, and other personal data. The US Attorney’s office conceded to the lawsuit and settled by paying $20 million to the affected individuals.

The most important aspect of this case is that this security threat was created by the loss of ONE laptop. Many state governments are cracking down on the enforcement of sensitive data policies. California, Nevada and now Massachusetts have passed new legislation that add significant prescribed security controls in support of their previous data privacy regulations. The new Massachusetts law has stringent requirements for corporations that process or store the personally identifiable information (PII) of Massachusetts residents.

The Workshare products can protect against data lost either by the before mentioned incident or from information being leaked out from email or instant message. Because governmental entities will be cracking down on personal information leaks of state residence, and because Workshare is the leader in protecting data, companies will need to recognize the value add of Workshare products. Governments will be cracking down much harder on sensitive data loss because it represents easy revenue from organizations they know will have to adhere to the policy.