Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security

What is Control Systems? We will first try to understand the significance of the term 'control systems'. According to the Wikipedia, Control Systems is a device or set of devices that manages, commands, directs or regulates the behavior of other device/s or system/s. In short, Control system is a system for controlling the operation of another system.  

As we are now acquainted with 'what does control systems exactly mean?', we will proceed further with the concept closely related to the main topic of my today's post. Its 'Industrial Control Systems'. Industrial Control System is a term which represents various types of control systems that are used in industrial production processes. For instance,Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition systems (SCADA), Distributed Control Systems (DCS) etc.

Now a days, we can notice that there is an obvious progression in the cyber and network security threats. These threats convinced the industries to adopt cyber security for the industrial Control systems. This has been a primary reason behind the evolution of 'Industrial control systems Security'. Companies that are working in the sector of cyber security are ready and well prepared to get full benefits in this growing market of ICS security. These companies are mainly working on the creation of comprehensive security solutions and integrated security management platforms to facilitate and aid industries with the proper cyber security.

According to the Marketsandmarkets, the global ICS Security market is estimated to be $7.02 billion in 2013 and is expected to grow to $10.33 billion in 2018. This represents an estimated Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.0% from 2013 to 2018. This surely replicates a huge scope of growth in this market. Here is the link if anyone is interested in the market report:-

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16620355-global-industrial-control-systems-ics-security-market-worth-1033-billion-by-2018

Energy Management System

'Energy Management Systems' is the concept that will be explained in this post. So what does this term means? Its very obvious from the name of this concept that it belongs to the Electrical Engineering field. Still, what does this terminology mean in electrical engineering? what does it mean in the IT sector? To obtain answer for this question, lets proceed further.

As the name describes, 'Energy Management System' is a system designed for the management of the energy. But these layman's words aren't enough to define this technical concept. So, lets dive in the core details of 'Energy Management Systems'.

Before moving on to 'Energy Management Systems' (abbreviated as 'EMS'), lets first focus on Energy Management. Energy Management is a term which conveys a lot of meanings depending on various perspectives. With respect to EMS, energy management basically refers to the management of energy in business sectors, corporate sectors, government organisations, homes etc. with the purpose of  energy conservation (saving energy), cost reduction and atmospheric protection. 

Now, lets move forward to the concept of EMS. According to the Wikipedia, Energy Management Systems is a system of computer-aided tools used by operators of electric utility grids to monitor, control and optimize the performance of the generation &/or  transmission systems. I know these are heavy words to digest. This definition of EMS on the general platform or to be more specific, its on the basis of electrical  or power engineering platform . But if we focus on Information technology domain, EMS has different significance. According to the Marketsandmarkets, EMS is a turn key solution comprising of software and related hardware along with communication systems for improving energy efficiency. 

                                                (image source:- http://www.captiveaire.com/)

Lets focus on its market scenario. According to Marketsandmarkets, the global 'Energy Management Systems' is estimated to grow from $17.4 billion in 2013 to $38.49 billion in 2018 at a Compound Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of 17.2% from 2013 to 2018. This obviously replicates a good scope of market growth in this segment. Here is the link if anyone is interested in the market report:-

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16604435-global-energy-management-systems-market-worth-3849-billion-by-2018

Gamification- A new "Fun with Work" trend

The term 'Gamification' sounds very catchy and interesting to most of us as it contains our beloved word i.e 'Game'. In this post, we will go on a brief journey to the new & interesting world of gamification. So, the first few questions which might have popped up in your mind, must be 'what does Gamification exactly mean?, 'what is its relation with the actual games we play on our PC, PS3, X-box etc.?. All these questions of yours will be answered as you go through the topic. So lets begin, shall we?

'Gamification' is the process of applying game thinking, game mechanics & game dynamics to create a game like deep user engagement in the non-gaming context. In layman's language, gamification simply means making a particular organisational process, product or activity more like a video game so that the users will feel like gamers engrossed in playing a game while working on that process, product or activity. This will drastically increase their concentration and involvement in the respective processes or activities assigned to them. Thus, gamification will amplify company's productivity.

                                                                     (image source:- devbridge)

According to the Wikipedia, over 70% of Forbes Global 2000 companies surveyed in 2013 said they planned to use gamification for the purposes of marketing and customer retention. This makes it clear that this new technology of gamification is applied in the field of marketing on a big scale. Gamification is also applied in the education systems wherein studies and exams are made more active & fun by applying conventional gaming concepts so as to amplify the engagement, concentration & loyalty of students. 

Let me give you few simple and familiar gamification examples. We all are well aware of the professional social networking website known as 'LinkedIn'. So, in linkedin, the profile completion progress bar which is called 'percentage complete' is a gamification applied feature which motivates the linkedin members to fill in their respective profile. Also, the 'Profile strength' feature in linkedin encourages the members to reach the 'all star' level by being socially & positively active on linkedin. This is also a gamification feature.

Gamification is a drastically evolving trend in current IT scenario. According to Marketsandmarkets, the gamification market is estimated to grow from $421.3 million in 2013 to $5.502 billion in 2018. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 67.1% from 2013 to 2018. This obviously signifies a great scope of market growth in this segment. Here is the link if anyone is interested in the market report.

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16572354-global-gamification-market-worth-55-billion-by-2018

'Bring Your Own Device'

In this post, I am introducing to a brand new technology which top IT companies are adopting & is referred as 'Bring Your Own Device'. So, what does this term really mean? Yes, surely the words in this terminology  implicates its own meaning which makes much more sense. In simple words, 'Bring Your Own Device' means 'you can bring your own device in the company for your official work'. 

Now, lets get in more depth of this terminology and the respective technology. To be more technically precise, 'Bring Your Own Device' (also abbreviated as 'BYOD') refers to the currently emerging or emerged company policies specifically designed to facilitate employees to bring their personally owned computing devices like laptops, smartphones and tablets to the workplace for the official use. This is an emerging trend in the current IT sector. Also, this practice has already established its roots in today's education system wherein students are permitted to bring their own tech. devices to the learning atmosphere for educational purposes.

According to Wikipedia, about 75% of the employees in the high growth markets such as Brazil and Russia & 44% in the developed markets are already using their own tech. devices at work.

The term BYOD has certain variations like:-

• 'Bring Your Own Technology' (abbreviated as 'BYOT') which conveys the same meaning as the term BYOD.
• 'Bring Your Own Phone' (abbreviated as 'BYOP') which specifically focuses on smartphones.
• 'Bring Your Own PC' ( abbreviated as 'BYOPC') which concentrates on PCs.

Also, there are few more related terms like 'Bring Your Own Computer' (BYOC), 'Bring Your Own Laptops (BYOL), 'Bring Your Own Applications' (BYOA). These terms are not much highlighted in the market but I mentioned them just for additional knowledge.I hope you are well acquainted with this term now.

                                               (image source:- http://www.industrial-ip.org/)

Just like a coin, this trend has its two sides viz. dark side and fair side.Lets focus on fair or positive side first because it is more dominating over the dark side. So, following are  the main advantages of BYOD :-

Advantages:-

1. BYOD is  financially beneficial to the companies adopting this trend, to a great extent. This practice can save a considerable financial budget of any company. How? let me put it in layman's words. BYOD policies enable a particular company to save much money spent on purchasing high tech gadgets or devices for the official use of each and every employee. As employees will take care of their respective gadgets according to their personal suitability and choices, there is no need for company to worry about it. This surely saves a company from spending a lot of funds and from other complex processes involved. This point is beneficial from corporate perspective
2. BYOD is specially meant for employees. So it's prime advantage is obviously focused on the employee end. Employees feel more comfortable using their own devices or gadgets instead of using unknown devices offered by the company. This directly boosts employee morale and job satisfaction. Employees feel more in control in the office environment. This process increases the overall productivity of the company. Thus, this point is beneficial from employee's as well as company's perspective.

Now, lets focus on the dark side of this trend. Following are the related disadvantages :- 

Disadvantages:-

1. The main disadvantage of this practice is that it incorporates a range of security vulnerabilities and other concerns of data protection if it is not correctly managed. In other words, this trend can be a potential threat to the company security or company's private data if it is not properly applied. 
2. If a particular employee ends up losing his/her device which contains classified official data of the company, then it will surely cause a lot of problems to the company by increasing the probability of company security damage.

So, of course there are certain disadvantages. But if proper related measures are taken, these risks can be neutralized and BYOD can be applied with a considerable reduction in the risks. I hope you have got a crystal clear idea of this BYOD concept. Now, lets move on to its market scenario.

                                                (image source:- http://webhostinggeeks.com/)

BYOD Market :-

According to a well known research firm called Marketsandmarkets, Global BYOD Market is expected to grow from $67.21 billion in 2011 to $181.39 billion by 2017, at an estimated CAGR of 15.17% from 2012 to 2017 This surely replicates a clear scope of market growth in this industry.

(for reference:-

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16558067-global-bring-your-own-device-market-worth-18139-billion-by-2017)

Unified Communications

Unified Communications is an technology industry term used to describe the unification or integration of two types of communication services namely 'Real-time Communication services' and 'Non real-time communication services'.

Now let me give you a quick insight on 'what these two heavy tech. terms really mean?'. So we will begin with 'Real-time communication'

Real-Time Communication:- 

Real-time Communication is a way or a mode of telecommunications in which people can instantly share or exchange (send/receive) information, data, thoughts and ideas. This process often takes place instantly but rarely it can take place with minimum latency which is very negligible. The term 'Real-time' signifies the term 'Live'.

There are two modes in Real-time Communications:-

1) Half-duplex mode:- In half-duplex mode, transmission of data takes place bidirectionally on a single ckt (circuit) . But this bidirectional transmission takes place separately i.e unidirectional transmission at a time. This means it doesn't take place simultaneously.

2) Full-duplex mode:- In Full-duplex mode, data transmission takes place bidirectionally at the same time i.e simultaneous bidirectional data transmission on a single circuit.

Now lets talk about few examples of real-time communication before we proceed to the non real-time communication. Here are some examples:-

• IM (Instant messaging) which includes instant chatting.
• Live Videoconferencing which enables users to directly see and talk with each other through mobiles, PC, tablets and other high tech gadgets.
• Live teleconferencing wherein users can directly communicate with other through a considerably more equipped audio conference with special arrangements.
• VoIP (Voice over IP), also known as internet telephony which enables users to directly talk with each other through internet. There are many apps available to support this feature like g talk (Google talk).
• Land-line telephony wherein users talk with each other on landline based conventional telephones.
• Mobile telephony wherein users talk with each other on cellphones through cellular sim networks.

Non Real-Time Communication:-

Non Real-time communication is another mode of telecommunications in which users exchange information in an unreal time mode. This means that the data transmission doesn't take place instantly. In this type of communication service, users communicate in time-shifting mode, not in real time mode. Thus, there is usually a significant delay between transmission and reception of information.

Here are few examples:-

• Email (sending and receiving emails)
• Voicemail (sending and receiving personally recorded audio clips )
• SMS (Short Message Service) wherein users send and receive text messages through cellular networks.
• Fax (also referred as telefax or telecopying) which signifies the telephonic transmission of scanned printed data with the help of a device called Fax Machine. This data can be text or images.

                                                  (source:-www.agileit.com)

"Unified Communications as a Service" & its Market:- 

Now lets discuss about the latest technology which is booming in this field. It is known as "Unified Communications as a Service". So what does this new term means?, how is this concept related to 'Unified Communications' & what is the market scenario of this newly evolved technology?. These questions might have popped up in your mind. The following information I am providing will answer most of your these types of questions. So, lets proceed further.

'Unified Communications as a Service' (abbreviated as 'UCaaS') is a model or to be more specific, its a delivery model. It includes various communication and collaboration apps and services. These apps and services are outsourced to a third party provider & delivered over an IP network, usually the public internet.

According to a well known research firm called Marketsandmarkets, the UCaaS collaboration application market revenue is expected to grow from $540.74 million in 2013 to $1.75 billion by 2018, at an estimated CAGR of 26.5% from 2013 to 2018. That surely replicates a huge scope of growth in this market within next few years. I hope my post have cleared most of your doubts on this topic.

(For reference:-  

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16526397-global-unified-communications-as-a-service-ucaas-market-worth-762-billion-by-2018)

Micro Data Center

Micro Data Center (MDC) is a networking hub formed by combining hardware, software and cabling. Its basically meant to connect IT and industrial networks for greater security, protection (from atmospheric factors such as temperature, heat, dirt etc.) safety, reliability and for making troubleshooting easier. So in layman's language, Micro data center is more advanced and high tech networking hub which is developed for the following purposes:-

• to simplify the complex network systems 
• to reduce the limitations of existing network systems
• to provide better network integrity and security
• to simplify the process of installation 
• to simplify the process of troubleshooting
• to maintain the operational time of network
• to provide the functionality of isolating networks

Micro data center is constructed in such a way that its contains servers, storage, switches, UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), backup systems and DIN rail mounted devices. A typical construction of Micro Data Center is shown in the following figure:-

 

(source :- http://www.canovate.com/)

Now lets talk about the market of Micro Data Center. According to a well known research firm known as Marketsandmarkets, the Micro Data Center market is expected to grow to $21.03 billion by 2018, at an estimated CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 53.11% from 2013 to 2018. This surely replicates the scope of growth in this market in the upcoming future.

(Reference:- 

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16516236-global-mobile-datacentermicro-datacenter-market-worth-20-billion-by-2018)

Mobile Backend As a Service

The  demand for mobile applications is increasing tremendously in both the sectors viz. consumer and enterprise. In order to meet that demand, application development companies are looking for new ways to speed up the development of mobile apps that meet their consumers’ needs on a continual basis.Therefore, many new Independent Software Vendors (ISV) have begun to offer a set of cloud-based, server-side mobile services to accelerate and simplify the development and deployment of mobile apps. These services are termed by ISVs as 'Mobile Backend As a Service'.

(source: http://yourstory.com/)

The mBaaS market provides a wide range of options ranging from pure-play mBaaS vendors like Appcelerator, Kinvy, Parse (recently acquired by Facebook) and StackMob or you can work with IaaS/PaaS providers that offer mBaaS functions, like Google and Microsoft.

According to a market research firm based in US, the global BaaS market is estimated to grow from $216.5 million in 2012 to $7.7 billion in 2017. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 104% from 2012 to 2017. In the current scenario Entertainment applications segment continues to be largest adaptor for BaaS. The major forces driving the market are factors such as rising need for bundled services that will aid the application developers to reduce the complexities and time need for mobile application development and deployment. At the same time, opportunities in venture capital funding will benefit the growth in this market.

(reference:- 

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16476207-global-backend-as-a-service-baas-market-worth-77-billion-by-2017)

Channel in a Box (CiaB)

Multichannel video operators are experimenting with new ways to deliver programming and launch new channels with the least amount of capital expense and human resources, with increasing regularity. The current low-margin economics and highly competitive environment dictates it. This has led to the emergence of the so-called "channel-in-a-box" (CIB) category: a 1RU or 2RU system that is basically a video server on steroids. They offer the ability to automatically playout preprogrammed clip lists, insert commercials at exactly the right time, add a channel or network ID logos and graphics, and even adjust audio levels.

Also, another important benefit has been to help playout facilities around the world migrate their SD operations to the HD world cost-effectively and add new features easily. Initial concerns about reliability have also been overcome with the latest generation of server technology and software.

The  idea of a small box doing the job of a traditional automation system which costs many times more to install and maintain, was initially met with resistance from many automation system vendors (many of which now themselves offer CIB systems), but as next-generation playout centers and individual “barker” channels began to consider the integrated system technology, the trend could no longer be ignored. Broadcasters and program distributors need more automation capability to run their digital TV channels, they just don’t want to pay a traditional master control operator to do it.

source: wtvision.com

PlayBox Technology has been a pioneer in the space, offering one of the first such systems (the "AirBox" IT-based playout automation server) in 1999 and now with 13,200 playout and branding systems installed worldwide. The company’s Channel in a Box product line, which now includes several models including the "EdgeBox," is modular in design, allowing users to customize the system to match a desired workflow.  Going well beyond merely selling boxes, the company helps its customers design, install, deliver and support a complete workflow from a single channel playout server to a multi-channel broadcast center. That includes ingest, MAM, traffic, news, playout, storage, scheduling, interactive character generation and graphics, all integrated in a single box.


To know about CiaB Market :-

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16469392-integrated-playout-automation-market-ciab-market-worth-146-million-by-2017