Hong Kong Computer Society - enterpriseinnovation.net

viewpoint Should IP addresses constitute personal data? page 57 

Hong Kong’s source of IT insight http://www.cw.com.hk Nov 10, 2009 • Vol XXVI No 9 Price HK$40 

40th anniversary of the 

Hong Kong 

Computer Society 

From “EDP” to “ICT”: 

four decades of tech 

excellence Page 16 

SINCE 1984 SINCE 1984 

bizpeople 

Meet ‘The Fixer’ 

for troubled IT projects 

www.cw.com.hk 

Page 10 

chinawatch 

Internet development: 

China’s conundrum 

Page 50 

backwatch 

Your avatar 

needs a dress code 

Page 58 

Nov 2009 Computerworld Hong Kong 1

2 Computerworld Hong Kong Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk

c o n t e n t s November 2009 

Cover image courtesy of IBM Hong Kong: 

Kam Leung, one of the first four employees to 

join IBM Hong Kong, ferries an IBM electric 

typewriter across the Victoria Harbor to a 

Norwegian ship 

40th anniversary of the 

Hong Kong 

Computer Society 

From “EDP” to “ICT”: four decades of tech excellence 

Page 16 

Cover story contents: 

16 HK 

CS: 40 yea 

ears 

of Ho 

ng Kon 

ong IT 

20 Ho 

ng Kon 

ong hi 

gh tec 

h in the 

60 

s an 

d 70s 

24 IT pav 

aves 

way 

to the top 

28 IT—B 

—Black 

box 

mys 

tiqu 

que 

30 ICT Aw 

ards 

ds: el 

evat 

atin 

g indu 

stry 

and indi 

divi 

vidu 

dual 

s 

32 El 

evat 

atin 

ing IT’s 

pro 

rofe 

fess 

ssiona 

l st 

atus 

36 In pic 

ictu 

res: 

40 ye 

ar 

s of IT 

38 No 

bel wi 

nner 

er: Char 

les Ka 

o 

Check: www.cw.com.hk for daily news 

and online features. 

4 upfront 

Finally, Windows 7 

6 biznews 

8 technews 

10 bizpeople 

Meet ‘The Fixer’ for 

troubled IT projects 

His job is to “either killor-cure” 

tech projects 

that have gone awry 

42 windows7 

Windows 7 finally delivers what Vista 

promised 

44 industryprofile 

Local dotcom survivor flourishes 

Radica is still here because the team 

came up with a new focus fast enough 

during the dotcom bust 

46 casestudy 

ERP helps standardize workflow at 

Jackel 

Jackel is now deploying a new ERP 

system in phases for real-time data and 

workflow integration 

48 productwatch 

Clothes-folding robot and eyes on with 

Sony’s 360 degree 3D display 

50 chinawatch 

Internet development: China’s 

conundrum 

Hong Kong journo co-author’s first-hand 

account of China’s cyberscape 

52 techreview 

HP blade takes a stab at Cisco 

ProCurve security blade integrates 

firewall, IPS, VPN 

57 viewpoint 

Should IP addresses constitute 

personal data? 

Charles Mok on proposed changes to the 

Privacy Ordinance 

58 backpage 

Take the social media challenge 

Your avatar needs a dress code 

www.cw.com.hk 

.co 

mh 


UPFRONT STEFAN HAMMOND 

Finally, Windows 7 

Stefan Hammond 

Editor 

shammond@ 

questexasia.com 

Last month saw the release-to-market of Windows 7. How important is the 

new OS? 

Some view W7 as the most important OS since Windows 95. I remember 

that debut—the hoopla was inescapable. Someone told me a friend of his stood in 

line for hours to get a copy of Windows 95. “The strange thing,” said my friend, “is 

that he doesn’t even own a computer!” 

Windows 7 is not only eagerly anticipated by consumers, SMBs and enterprises, 

but by PC manufacturers as well. Market share for Windows XP—which debuted 

in 2001—is still over 70%, as demand for its successor, Windows Vista, has been 

underwhelming. 

In the tech world, where two or three years of hardware use often leads to a refreshcycle. 

But Microsoft’s XP has proven a durable OS that users are loathe to abandon. 

With a minimum of RAM (and regularly patched, with Service Pack 3 installed), XP 

is the most stable Microsoft OS I’ve used—except for an NT 

installation maintained constantly by a quartet of ace technicians 

(no coincidence: XP’s the first Microsoft consumeroriented 

operating system built on the Windows NT kernel 

and architecture). 

As enterprises and SMBs prepare for hardware-refresh cycles, 

they should be ready for PCs to arrive with W7 preloaded. 

There’s more info on our Windows 7 site (http://www. 

cw.com.hk/term/Windows+7), but XP users should be aware 

that installing W7 will involve a clean-reinstall. 

This is why PC manufacturers are enthused by Windows 

7. Most of XP-boxes are near the end of their useful life, and 

most copies of Windows 7 will come with a new PC attached. If you’ve been holding 

off a hardware-refresh because of Vistaphobia, that excuse has expired. Sure, you 

may want to wait a bit and see how mass-deployments of W7 play out among your 

peers. But so far, initial reports are largely positive. Check out “Windows 7 migration: 

Four planning tips” at http://www.cw.com.hk/content/windows-7-migrationfour-planning-tips. 

Of course, Windows 7 isn’t the only OS out there. Apple’s new Snow Leopard (OS 

X 10.6) is wicked-fast and while you’re tied to Apple hardware (and increasingly, 

Apple software for certain interfaces and functions), Snow Leopard comes in both 

desktop and server versions and leverages Intel’s multicore processors efficiently. 

While Linux has proven itself in the server space, the desktop-Linuxtistas seem too 

busy arguing over the relative merits of Karmic Koala versus Mint to notice that 

they’ve yet to collectively crack the 1% market-share level. 

It’s your business and your choice. But the debut of Windows 7 is a welcome boost 

to the tech-sector. 

http://www.cw.com.hk 

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NEWS 

newsbites 

Sun to cut 3,000 jobs 

Sun will lay off up to 3,000 workers over 

the next 12 months as Oracle awaits approval 

from European regulators for its 

acquisition of the company. Sun is losing 

US$100 million a month while it awaits 

approval for the deal, Oracle CEO Larry 

Ellison said last month, so news of the 

layoffs came as no great surprise. In a filing 

with US regulators recently, Sun said 

the move will “better align the company’s 

resources with its strategic business 

objectives.” 

Managed telepresence grows 

fast in Asia 

The telepresence-based videoconferencing 

services market is estimated to reach 

US$190 million in Asia Pacific by 2014, 

42 percent of the global market worth 

US$450 million, said Ovum recently. The 

research firm forecasts that revenues from 

suite-based videoconferencing (including 

telepresence) are outstripping revenues for 

desktop videoconferencing in Asia Pacific 

and will be worth 53 percent of total business 

videoconferencing revenues of $360 

million in the region in 2012. 

Excelsior taps QlikTech 

Taiwan-based Excelsior Healthcare Group 

has chosen QlikTech to manage its business 

information across all departments. 

Excelsior uses QlikView for financial 

analysis for consolidated financial reporting; 

supply chain analysis to analyze 

demand planning, procurement, supplier 

performance, logistics and fulfillment; and 

warehousing and inventory management. 

Ñ HONG KONG 

IDC: IT to create 21,000 new jobs in Hong Kong 

The IT industry will create 21,000 

new jobs in Hong Kong over the 

next four years, among the massive 

number of 5.8 million jobs worldwide, 

according to findings of a global 

study by IDC. 

The expected growth rate for IT employment 

of 3 percent a year is more 

than 16 times the rate of growth of total 

employment in Hong Kong and is 

a strong indicator that investing in IT 

will contribute to economic recovery 

and growth, said IDC. 

Besides, IT-related activities will generate 

HK$14 billion in taxes in 2009, 

said IDC, adding that over the next four 

years that means more than HK$8 bil- 

Ñ HONG KONG 

Senior business executives in Hong 

Kong aren’t optimistic about the 

sustainability of the recovery in 

their local economy, according to findings 

of an EIU (Economist Intelligence 

Unit) survey sponsored by SAP. 

The EIU conducted an online survey 

of senior business executives across Asia 

and Australasia in June and July 2009. 

According to the organization, the survey 

attracted 258 CEOs, COOs, CFOs, chief 

risk officers and other managers from 

a wide variety of industries and markets—23 

percent of respondents came 

from Australia and New Zealand; 22 percent 

from India; 16 percent from Japan;10 

lion in aggregate net new taxes. 

The IDC study, commissioned by Microsoft, 

investigated the contribution of 

IT to GDP, job creation in the IT industry, 

employment in the software sector, 

formation of new companies, local IT 

spending, and tax revenues in 52 countries, 

representing 98 percent of total 

worldwide IT spending, said Microsoft. 

In addition, IT spending is expected to 

grow at triple the rate of GDP growth, 

said IDC, adding that IT spending in 

2009 will be HK$38 billion. From 

the end of 2008 to the end of 2013, IT 

spending will grow 2.6 percent a year, 

compared to GDP growth of 0.9 percent 

a year, the research house noted. 3 

Hong Kong execs: Current recovery isn’t sustainable 

percent from China; 7 percent each from 

Hong Kong and Singapore; and the remaining 

15 percent from rest of Asia. 

Survey results revealed that only 17 percent 

of respondents in Hong Kong think the 

current recovery will be sustainable, compared 

with 60 percent in China and India. 

Asia as a region is ambivalent about the 

apparent economic recovery, said EIU. 

While about one-third of respondents 

believe they are seeing a sustainable 

rebound in their country of residence, 

another one-third question whether the 

recovery is sustainable, said EIU, adding 

that a sizeable 27 percent don’t even 

think there is a recovery. 


Nov 2009 Computerworld Hong Kong 7 

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Ñ HONG KONG 

IT spending will reach HK$38 billion in 

2009 in Hong Kong, IDC estimated 

Ñ GLOBAL 

Survey: Windows 7 migration plan incomplete 

A 

large number of companies plan 

to move to Windows 7, but many 

of them have no solid plans for 

when they will do it, according to a recent 

Forrester survey. 

The issue is one of preparation to accommodate 

the new operating system, 

which shipped recently to consumers but 

has been available to volume licensing 

customers since late August. 

“There is a lot of work to get your applications 

and hardware compatible with 

the new operating system … especially for 

organizations that support XP and did not 

do a lot of application compatibility testing 

when Vista was released,” said Benjamin 

Gray, the Forrester analyst who conducted 

the survey with 653 PC decision-makers at 

North American and European enterprises 

and small-to-midsize businesses. 

The survey shows that 66 percent of companies 

plan to move to Win 7, but of those 

companies, a whopping 49 percent say they 

have no specific migration plans yet. 

“I suspect most of those organizations are 

in the relatively early stages of application 

compatibility testing and remediation and 

they are determining if it will be 12, 16 or 18 

months to get there. But as soon as they are 

ready they are going to move to Windows 

7,” Gray said. 

Steve Kleynhans, an analyst with Gartner, 

said users in the evaluation stage should 

think about including 64-bit testing. Win 7 

supports both 32-bit and 64-bit processors. 

“The bottom line is that at some point in 

the next five years you very likely will be 

moving to a 64-bit operating environment 

and Windows 7 may be the right time to 

make the move,” Kleynhans wrote in his 

blog. “At the very least everyone should 

include one 64-bit environment in their 

testing matrix. While it may not be the right 

time to make the move, it is certainly the 

right time to start preparing for the inevitable 

64-bit shift.” 

Gartner polled 400 attendees to one of 

its recent Webcasts and found 34 percent 

planned to mostly deploy 32-bit, while 13 

percent were planning mostly on 64-bit. 

The other 52 percent were undecided. 

Forrester’s Gray said there are a number 

of wild cards that could influence the ebb 

and flow of upgrades. He thinks the vast 

majority of upgrades will tie into the natural 

PC refresh cycle, “so if users are not buying 

PCs they will not be buying Windows 7.” 

Gartner predicts that Win 7 will have 

minimal impact on worldwide PC sales 

from October through December. 

In addition, Gray said organizations that 

are embracing Windows Server 2008 R2 

are likely to move faster to Win 7 in order 

to take advantage of features that work with 

the server such as Branch Cache and Direct 

Access. 3 

newsbites 

IBM: Enhanced storage 

virtualization gear 

The latest version of IBM’s SAN 

Volume Controller will enable enterprise 

users to put solid-state devices 

inside the SVC, promising a huge 

performance boost with or without 

flash storage. The SVC 5.0 also 

has upgrades that will enhance the 

performance of hard disk drives in the 

virtualized storage environment. 

Avaya: UC for SMBs 

Avaya has launched the Aura System 

Platform, a mid-sized, single-server 

unified communications product that 

is designed for companies with as 

few as 100 employees. The product is 

scalable, however, and can support up 

to 2,400 users in 250 locations. It uses 

standards-based virtualization technology 

for real-time communications. 

Enterasys upgrades 

Ethernet switches 

Enterasys has upgraded its Ethernet 

switch line via the introduction of the 

S-Series switches, which are targeted 

for converged networks, including the 

heavily virtualized ones. The S-Series 

promises an almost fourfold boost in 

switching capacity and a tenfold increase 

in throughput as compared with 

its predecessor, the N-Series. The S- 

Series also features a 10G port density 

and comes with improved policy-based 

security features. 


‘Maximize IT Efficiency in Virtualized Environments’ 

Workshop Series 

Sep-Dec 2009 

Maximize IT Efficiency in 

Virtualized Environments 

In today’s digital world, ‘Virtualization’ has become the magic 

word for businesses which strive to ensure business continuity, 

while boosting greater value and performance at lower 

costs. Jointly organized by EMC and VMware, the ‘Maximize 

IT Efficiency in Virtualized Environments” Workshop Series will 

run from September to December, providing IT professionals 

with insights into the latest trends and technologies surrounding 

virtualization – from disaster recovery, backup and data deduplication, 

to security and IT management. 

Upcoming Workshops: 

Nov 13 • Save Costs and Boost Efficiency with 

(Friday) Improved Infrastructure Manageability, 

Security and Compliance in Virtualized 

Environments 

Dec 11 • Virtualized desktop environments 

(Friday) and IT management skills 

Time: 2:30pm – 5:00pm 

Venue: Cliftons, Level 33, 9 Queen’s Road Central, 

Central, Hong Kong 

Organizers: EMC Hong Kong and VMware Hong Kong 

Medium: Cantonese 

Website: hk.emc.com. 

All participants will receive a stylish EMC Mini Speaker (Nov 13) 

or EMC Diary 2010 (Dec 11). Attendees will also have the opportunity 

of winning a CitySuper shopping voucher. 

For more information, please contact Ms Cheng at 

2839-5125 or email to hkcontact@emc.com 

www.cw.com.hk 


BIZPEOPLE 

Meet ‘The Fixer’ for troubled IT projects 

His job as an objective third party is to “either kill-or-cure” tech projects that have gone awry 

By Thomas Wailgum, CIO.com 

Jason Coyne describes his unusual 

job in many ways: Marriage counselor. 

The Equalizer. Relationship 

guru. Project conscience. Resolution 

manager. The Fixer. 

Coyne’s job as an objective third party 

is to “either kill-or-cure” tech projects 

that have gone awry. The managing 

partner at UK-based Evolution Project 

Consulting firm claims to have worked 

on more than 500 different projects in 

the UK and abroad since the 1990s. “Not 

all disputes,” Coyne adds, “but most of 

them have been.” 

CIO.com spoke with Coyne about the 

ill-fated patterns and emotional traps 

that most tech implementation teams 

fall prey to, how he “sells” himself to 

his customers, and why companies often 

forget about a project’s original goals 

during implementations 

CIO.com: How do you describe your 

job? 

Jason Coyne: I describe it as “marriage 

guidance for technology agreements.” 

Just as different, diverse people come 

together in a marriage, different and 

diverse organizations come together to 

form a project. And when there’s fallout, 

they need somebody independent to help 

mediate and resolve the disputes. 

I just help people understand why 

they’re in this relationship, this agreement. 

Usually, they lose sight of what 

their goals are—I bring that back to the 

forefront of the attention and they start 

focusing on the common goals. 

CIO.com: Who typically hires you? 

Coyne: Generally it’s the purchasing 

party, sometimes the technology vendor 

or systems integrator. But [my services 

can be hired] for anything to do with 

technology and a commercial dispute, if 

there’s a contract and a legal agreement 

in place. 

CIO.com: How did you get into this? 

Coyne: I started as a fourth-generation 

language programmer—creating business 

control software, accounting and 

manufacturing software in the late 

1980s. I didn’t really enjoy programming, 

but I saw how things got created 

and implemented a number of these systems 

I helped develop. 

In the early ‘90s, one of the systems 

I’d helped build ended up getting into 

dispute. One of the companies found me 

and [asked me] to give evidence about 

the way the software was put together, so 

I gave evidence in a trial of the software 

that I helped write. 

CIO.com: Why do companies contact you? 

Coyne: The more visionary customers 

understand that I will likely know how 

to steer them through the murky waters 

of their technology implementation and 

how to avoid [failure] in the future. 

I’m working with some major global 

companies on dispute-avoidance, as “the 

voice of reason” on a monthly or sixweek 

basis. It helps people see what’s 

important to the project, because project 

teams invariably get too involved in the 

details, and lose sight of the direction of 

where the project is actually going. 

CIO.com: Do you usually get a warm or 

frosty reception? 

Coyne: Historically I’ve been the customers’ 

champion, and in court cases, 

I’ve generally been acting as counsel to 

the customer against the big, bad technology 

supplier that’s let them down. 

So often it’s a frosty reception from the 

computer vendors. 

CIO.com: How do you sell yourself to all 

these groups of people involved? 

Coyne: I’ve got to demonstrate credibility, 

and the way to do that is to show 

them that I’m vehemently independent. 

I might be instructed by the purchasing 

organization (the end-user) or when I 

might be instructed by the technology 

provider (the supplier). But if either of 

the parties has failed to discharge their 

obligations to the agreement, then I will 

be constructively critical of either party. 

The way that I convince people to 

contract with me is to explain to them 

continued on page 12 4 


Sponsored Feature 

Phoenix TV deploys high performance network with ASL and H3C 

ASL and H3C help Phoenix build network with mission critical reliability while facing tight 

schedule and dynamic changing needs 

Phoenix TV, H3C and ASL executives stand before the new high-tech TV headquarters 

From Left to Right: 

Ivan Wong (H3C) ; Johnny Lam (H3C); Phyvid Lee (Phoenix TV); Kenneth Chau (ASL) ; Kenneth Kee (ASL); Tony Yau (ASL) 

Six months after Phoenix TV moved into 

its new Tai Po office the New Territories, 

MIS manager Phyvid Lee is finally breathing a 

sign of relief - the new H3C 10GE network infrastructure 

was implemented beyond all expectations 

and there has been no significant 

problems at all in the last half year. 

“Looking back, I must have had to ‘touch 

wood’ so many times,” said Phyvid, “When 

we first found out we had to move, the new office 

was just a construction site. I didn’t know 

what exactly I needed for the new network, 

and I didn’t know when we would be able to 

implement it,” he said. “All I knew was the 

date we had to move in and have everything 

live and ready by.” 

Phoenix TV was moving all its operations 

from a shared facility with Star TV in Hunghom 

to its own building in Tai Po. The new office 

would be its Global News Center supporting 

its production and broadcast of five channels 

to 150 countries in the world. 

“I must thank H3C for providing the high 

performance and reliable network solution as 

well as proactive and responsive service from 

ASL for implementing the network under a 

tight schedule and almost impossible situation,” 

Phyvid added. 

Starting from nothing 

The office was remodeled from an old factory 

building of Motorola. Many interior structures 

had to be changed and renovation work 

was being carried out while the new network 

was implemented. 

“Most of times, we would have a stable 

environment to work in, but not this case,” 

said Kenneth K.F. Chau, General Manager, 

Infrastructure & Managed Services Division of 

Automated Systems (HK) Limited (ASL), who 

implemented Phoenix’s network. 

www.cw.com.hk 

To cope with the high uncertainty, ASL had 

two engineers stationed full time on the site 

during the two-year project. “Whenever a room 

or a part of the office was ready, we moved in 

and built the network,” said Chau. 

“This is unusual given the high cost of manpower 

in Hong Kong. We chose ASL partly for 

that, as it showed commitment to the project,” 

said Phyvid, “At that time, I was responsible for 

6-7 projects simultaneously. Having 2 extra 

persons really helped.” 

Network architecture 

Phoenix network consists of two parts. 1) 

A production network with 10GE backbone, 

which support its digital production and broadcast 

system, as well as its video library (the 

Media Asset Management system). 2) An office 

network supporting 300 workstations in 4 

floors, completed with over 500 IP phones and 

many other applications. 

Large video files have to be transmitted across 

the network. Therefore, it has to be high performance 

and reliable. “We chose H3C’s solution 

because the fully digitalized IP backbone can 

easily transmit video files in fast pace over several 

tens of GE. Also, it is fully redundant—there 

is no single point of failure in any component allowing 

Phoenix TV to guarantee its commitment 

on 24x7 broadcasting service,” said Phyvid. 

“H3C provides carrier class equipment. We 

knew Phoenix’s network has to be mission critical. 

Therefore, we design a system with full redundancy,” 

said Ivan Wong, Product Manager, H3C 

Technologies Co., Limited. “There are dual paths 

from a server to another. Traffic will not be affected 

even if the line is broken.” 

In fact, before they implement the actual network, 

proof of concept was made to demonstrate 

the different scenarios. “Phoenix rented 

a temporary office in Hunghom to run the test. 

All three parties are involved to make sure the 

new network will meet its performance and reliability 

requirement once implemented,” said 

Ivan. 

The careful preparation paid off handsomely. 

Six month after its implementation, there 

is not a single problem in the network. What 

is more: Phoenix TV can finally have its independency. 

“Before the move, we outsourced 

80% of our IT operation and we can only get 

basic service,” said Phyvid. Phoenix TV relied 

on Star TV’s facilities at that time. “Now, 

we can have full control of our own operation. 

That is really important as a TV station. The 

new and fully integrated digital system also 

shortens Phoenix’s production time considerably,” 

said Phyvid. 

ASL & H3C alliance 

Automated Systems (HK) Limited was 

founded in Hong Kong in 1973 and was 

listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong 

Kong Limited in 1997. The Group, in 

Hong Kong and Macau alone, has over 

1,300 employees dedicated to delivering 

a comprehensive one-stop service. 

After over 36 years of successful operation, 

the Group has established its 

reputation as a leading information 

technology (IT) services provider in 

the region. Find out more at www.asl. 

com.hk 

Headquartered in Hong Kong, with 

research and development centres in 

China (Beijing, Hangzhou and Shenzhen), 

H3C is an innovative IP-based 

network architecture solutions provider 

which employs 4,800 people with 

more than half engaged in R&D. Additional 

information can be found at 

www.h3c.com. 


BIZPEOPLE 

4 continued from page 10 

that I’ve seen practically every different 

type of dispute stage. My standard sell 

is a 12-week exercise. At the end of 12 

weeks, we’ll have either cured or killed 

the project. And I exit, with the project 

either back on track or killed. 

Sometimes when I exit, I’m sending 

in lawyers to deal with termination [of 

the project]. But more often than not, 

I’m handing it back to the project managers, 

and am retained as the “program 

conscience.” 

CIO.com: With large enterprise software 

projects, what patterns do people 

and teams fall into? 

Coyne: When the project starts, the 

[technology-buying] organization sets 

out clear outcomes. You see strategiclooking 

documents on anticipated success: 

a percentage increase in the way we 

do this type of process; greater efficiency 

here, greater visibility of doing business 

there; faster this, that and the other thing. 

That’s a very positive stage. 

But then what generally happens is 

that detail-oriented techies get involved 

and business objectives get boiled down 

to technical function. The danger is that 

people end up contracting or creating an 

agreement to deliver technical function, 

and that’s how the “success” of the project 

is measured: on the amount of technical 

functions delivered. Often, there’s a 

loss of vision into why the project was 

started in the first place. 

So the business concept we were trying 

to achieve—greater visibility to the 

directors or executives, or new business 

processes—is often lost, and that’s 

where a project starts to fail. 

CIO.com: That’s where you come in? 

Coyne: You must remind the project 

team what they are aiming for. In disputes, 

the customer wants to protect the 

project’s objectives. But often the supplier 

says: “We contracted to deliver you a 

module that delivers XYZ functionality, 

and we delivered that, therefore we’ve 

discharged our contractual obligations.” 

But the customer will often say: “Yes, 

but this CRM system that you delivered 

doesn’t deliver on those [original] 

high-level objectives.” But [the supplier] 

didn’t contract for these high-level objectives; 

they’ve just delivered a CRM 

system with these modules in it. That’s 

the disconnect. 

I’ve got to demonstrate 

credibility, and the 

way to do that is to 

show them that I’m 

vehemently independent 

CIO.com: Is there a way to fix that? 

Coyne: When there’s a disagreement 

about the deliverables, I have a process 

I call “alignment of objectives”: supplier 

and customer go through a matrix 

of strategic, operational and functional 

objectives. The customer is responsible 

for the strategic objective, there’s a partnership 

[of all involved] on operational 

objectives, and the technology vendor is 

responsible for functional objectives. 

This process forces people to focus on 

the reasons they entered into the project. 

It generally gets universal buy-in because 

[by this point] the tech vendor sees 

they will never going get the project delivered 

unless they understand what the 

customer is trying to achieve. 

CIO.com: How do you deal with the 

emotional baggage of these expensive, 

career-threatening project failures? 

Coyne: Customers always say that the 

vendor—prior to signing the contract— 

told them they understood the project, 

understood the business, have implemented 

similar systems in the past, and 

described the great ROIs other companies 

have seen. Pre-sale, they’ll also tell 

customers they’ll get “the A team’ [of 

tech-workers]. But then once the contract 

is signed, the customer gets the B 

team, because the A team went off to sell 

the next system. 

Customers get emotional because 

they must define how they want the 

system to look. They always say: “The 

vendor keeps saying to me: ‘You need 

to specify how you want this to look 

and work; spec it out for me’. Customers 

are frustrated by that, because the 

customers understand their business 

processes, but they don’t necessarily 

understand what the [vendor’s] technology 

can do. 

And that’s why they contracted with 

these specialist vendors! They didn’t expect 

to have to spec it out—they expected 

the vendors to guide them through 

the process and meet them halfway. So 

my job is to put the customer back in his 

comfort zone. 

CIO.com: How are you different from 

a project-management turnaround specialists 

at the big consultancies? 

Coyne: Those people are usually new 

project managers who come in and try 

to understand the governance processes 

that have been used by the project. 

They’ll try to tweak the project and it 

make operate better. 

But they seldom try to realign the project 

to its original objectives. If the project 

is going in the wrong direction, doing 

it better means you head in the wrong 

direction quicker or more efficiently. 

You’ve got to ask: Why did we ever start 

this project? 3 


www.cw.com.hk 

.com.h 

mhk 

Nov 2009 

Computerworld orl 

Hong 

Kong 

13

Enterprises face inadequate 

data availability and security 

IBM helps businesses rethink Information Infrastructure strategy with moves to 

improve information access, management and data integrity 

Hong Kong enterprises, like others in the 

region, are facing escalating problems 

in the management of data. For both large 

and small organizations, current practices 

are proving inadequate, raising the need 

to rethink strategy in this area, observed 

Douglas Lo, Storage & Mainframe Platform 

Manager, Systems and Technology Group, 

IBM China/Hong Kong Limited. 

He notes that three major changes are 

impacting data usage. 

First, the volume of data stored by enterprises 

has exceeded all expectations. Current 

predictions indicate a compound annual 

data growth rate of 57% until 2010. The 

reasons for data growth include the growing 

importance of IT systems to the economy, 

but in particular the runaway success 

of video for videoconferencing, corporate 

education and training, and website information. 

Graphics and audio files are also a 

much higher proportion of enterprise data 

throughput. 

data. Many executives need to access 

contractual details, customer records and 

product specifications instantly to respond 

to real-time market demands. 

Enterprises need new strategy 

“Current storage practices simply don’t 

provide business users with the data they 

need in a timely way,” said IBM’s Lo. According 

to an IDC report (The Expanding 

Digital Universe, March 2007), 52% of 

managers don’t have confidence in their 

enterprise data, while 59% admit to missing 

vital information, and 42% have cases 

where the wrong information was used. 

Most enterprises today need to create 

a new strategy to ensure that the kinds of 

data essential to their business processes 

are always available in a timely manner. 

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, because 

the way enterprises utilize data varies 

greatly. They will need an Information 

Infrastructure strategy to meet the critical 

needs around Information Compliance, 

Information Availability, Information Retention 

and Information Security (or CARS). 

For backup and restore purposes, data 

needs to be classified according to two 

variables. First, how much data can you afford 

to lose if the system goes down? Your 

tape archive may be run weekly, or daily, 

but that does not protect business users in 

most cases. Any data created since the last 

backup may be lost and will be unavailable. 

“You have to consider your business need 

and determine the interval between backups 

on that basis,” Lo added. “The daily 

archives of the past are likely to fall short 

of requirements: hourly backups may make 

more sense.” 

Second, if data is lost for some reason, 

how long can the business wait for restoration? 

Increasingly, enterprises are recognizing 

that data has to be available when it 

is needed and the business world will not 

wait for laggards. 

Traditional tape archives are becoming 

progressively less useful because, when 

restoration is required from daily tape archives, 

the restore time may be more than 

Douglas Lo, IBM: There is no “one-size-fitsall” 

solution, because the way enterprises 

utilize data varies greatly. 

Ordered chaos 

All industries are affected by the data 

surge, but the areas in which data management 

within the hour, or even 15 minutes, depending 

on the nature of the business. 

has already become an acute 

problem include business intelligence, the 

media and entertainment industries and the 

healthcare sector. 

Second, 80% of data is now unstructured 

from different media such as emails, file 

sharing, audio and video files. Each enterprise 

may need to use, and therefore 

to store and retrieve, such information in 

a way that useful to its business processes. 

In addition, all industries are subject 

compliance requirements which include 

higher standards of data discovery in legal 

proceedings. Emails are expected to be 

archived and in the finance industry, compliance 

requirements may be tougher and 

include voice recordings, especially where 

these have contractual content. 

Third, is the acceleration of decisionmaking 

processes. Real-time trading and 

Internet mediated supply chains are setting 

the pace for rapid management decisions, 

which in turn demand instant availability 

of relevant and accurate decision support a day. Restoration is increasingly needed 

Data duplication problem 

Data exchanged with business partners 

in high-speed supply chains must 

be right up to date and quickly available. 

For this kind of service a ‘snapshot’ 

backup system is needed. For example, 

IBM FlashCopy function, can do instant 

backups at intervals and restore data 

within minutes. 

Automatic Tape Libraries, which access 

and change cassettes as necessary, can 

provide disaster recovery if they are located 

at premises separate from the production 

site. But tape performance is inherently 

limited, these systems are now challenged 

by Virtual Tape Libraries that use disks to 

emulate tape archiving procedures, but can 

provide much faster writing and restore performance. 

If these are equipped with snapshot 

capability, data protection is vastly 

improved. 

One of the biggest issues with storage 

efficiency is the data duplication involved. 



Since 90% of the content will be the same 

each day, it is a major advantage if your 

system can execute de-duplication of the 

contents. Volumes of email can typically 

be reduced by 30% by removing duplicated 

attachments and identical documents circulated 

to many addresses, for example. 

Databases can be reduced by up to 90% of 

their volume. Using de-duplication technology 

reduces storage volume and costs and 

speeds retrieval. 

Disaster recovery 

Another crucial need is for a disaster 

recovery strategy to ensure that a usable 

copy of the enterprise data is available if 

the primary site is completely unavailable 

for any reason. Relying on a tape archive 

is inviting problems – tapes may so easily 

be lost, stolen or destroyed and even when 

they are available, restoration of service is 

slow. 

Today large or small enterprises should 

look into real-time data replication on 

disk, linked with telecom lines. The ideal 

is real-time mirroring, using a system 

such as the IBM SVC (SAN Volume Controller), 

an appliance that can virtualize 

different brands of disks for data mirroring. 

Enterprise and mid-range solutions 

are also available. 

There are three storage tiers commonly 

used for enterprises: 

Tier 1: Continuous, online, transactional 

data mirroring. 

Tier 2: Flashcopy, a snapshot technology, 

which can easily protect data at intervals 

of an hour or less, with recovery in the 

same period. Suitable for applications such 

as email and database, for example. 

Tier 3: Basic restore within one day, or 

suitable for long retention restoration requirements. 

The security of data at rest 

Most enterprises are tackling network 

data security fairly actively, but numerous 

serious security breaches result from the 

theft or loss of ‘data at rest’ on tape cartridges, 

USB thumb drives, notebooks and 

disk drives removed for service. Even PCs 

or servers can disappear from data centers 

on occasion. The most common such 

problem arises with routine servicing of disk 

drives or when they are removed for redeployment 

or retirement. Although we like to 

trust service vendors that handle storage 

www.cw.com.hk 

Tier 1 

Systems can provide full 

data mirroring and higher 

read and write performance: 

 

series 

 

series 

 

 

 

 

devices, once a drive is removed from the 

storage appliance, it is impossible to guarantee 

that its content will not fall into the 

wrong hands. 

It is difficult to permanently delete the 

data on a hard drive. Degaussing (magnetic 

obliteration) is expensive and troublesome, 

while physical destruction of the disk is obviously 

not appropriate if it is intended for 

re-use. The disk can be stored indefinitely 

by the owner, but this will also prevent its 

re-use. 

A complete solution is now available in 

52% of managers don’t have confidence in their 

enterprise data, while 59% admit to missing vital 

information. 

the form of self-encrypting disks. These devices 

encrypt all stored data as it is written, 

and decrypt all content as it is read, without 

any external application or encryption key. 

This means when the drive is removed for 

servicing, redeployment or retirement, the 

data on it cannot be read by any party. IBM 

experience is that 90% of drives returned 

for warrantee service have readable data 

on them. Nor can the drive be installed in 

any other hardware, unless it is reformatted 

in a secure way which absolutely destroys 

the current data. 

Most important, the encryption and decryption 

processes are completed with 

no performance overhead whatsoever. 

One of the largest reasons why enterprises 

users resist encryption is that 

conventional encryption methods have a 

processing overhead that slows system 

performance for all applications. Self-encrypting 

disks use a different technology 

that eliminates performance loss and operation 

efforts. 

Data Availability Tiers 

 

Tier 2 

 

management: 

 

 

series 

 

series 

 

 

 

 

Tier 3 

 

 

 

 

System 

The outlook for self-encryption 

There is already a strong trend in place 

to protect ‘data at rest,’ including thumb 

drives, tapes and laptops and special technologies 

have been developed for that purpose. 

Part of the reason is compliance with 

government and professional regulations 

that require that data is protected using the 

best technology available. 

Most enterprises have suffered some 

cost or inconvenience related to the disposal 

of hard drives. Within one or two 

years, most users may adopt self-encrypting 

drives as a solution. The advantages 

are very real, while the additional cost is 

negligible, and there is no performance 

impact – the encryption process is transparent 

to users. 

IBM is already providing self-encrypting 

hard drives as an option with storage appliances 

such as: 

• DS5000 Mid-range series and 

• DS8000 Enterprise class storage 

servers 

IBM’s self-encrypting hard drive also provides 

an ‘Instant Secure Erase’ function 

that enables users to safely redeploy disks 

with no possibility of readable data remaining 

on them. Early adopters are the finance 

industry, driven by compliance. It is likely 

that they will become standard in the enterprise 

environment over the next two or 

three years. 

Enrol for the IBM Information 

Infrastructure workshop on Nov 12 at: 

www.ibm.com/hk/events/DS5020/ 

or contact Ms Yeung at 

2825 6140. 


Cover story contents: 

16 HKCS: 40 years of Hong Kong IT 

20 Hong Kong high tech in the 60s and 

70s 

24 IT paves way to the top 

28 IT—Black box mystique 

40th anniversary 

of the HKCS 

From “EDP” to “ICT”: four decades of tech excellence 

By Stefan Hammond 

It’s a year for major anniversaries 

and the Hong Kong Computer Society 

turns 40 this year. As most of us 

here at CWHK don’t have four decades 

of experience in IT (or “EDP: Electronic 

Data Processing” as it was known back 

then), we asked some of the tech experts 

here in Hong Kong during those formative 

days. 

“The first computer for commercial 

use in Hong Kong came into use in 

1965,” said Daniel Lai, head of information 

technology for the MTRC. “It was 

a NCR 315 installed by China Light and 

Power for its billing and accounting services.” 

“Before then,” said Lai, “only accounting/ledger 

machines or ‘tabulators’ 

were used by some banks, government 

departments and utilities companies; 

30 ICT Awards: elevating industry and 

individuals 

32 Elevating IT’s professional status 

36 In pictures: 40 years of IT 

38 Nobel winner: Charles Kao 

and analogue computers were used by 

universities in research. Only a few 

computer companies were in business in 

Hong Kong: IBM, NCR and ICT (later 

changed to ICL and acquired by Fujitsu).” 

Early adopters: banks 

“The second commercial computer 

was installed at NCR’s headquarters in 

King’s Road North Point: it was a system 

to serve as backup for CLP’s system 

and to serve as a commercial computer 

service bureau,” said Lai. “In 1967, it 

was a competition between two banks 

(Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking 

Corporation—now HSBC and Chartered 

Bank—now Standard Chartered) to install 

the first online Banking Computer 

System in Hong Kong, HK Bank system 

HKCS: 40 years 

was based on IBM 360 while Chartered 

Bank was a NCR 315.” 

“Around 1965-66, the Education Department 

installed an ICT system with 

optical mark recognition capability 

to mark examination papers for Hong 

Kong School Certificate Examination, 

and to process and print certificates, and 

the government’s Treasury Department 

also installed a system for accounting 

services. In 1968, Hong Kong Electric 

installed an ICL system 1901 (again 

with optical mark recognition) for meter 

reading, billing and accounting. Government 

and Hong Kong Telephone Company 

(now PCCW) also installed ICL 

systems.” 

Anthony FM Conway, longtime Hong 

Kong tech-veteran and currently chairman 

of both I.Tel Holdings and the 

Hong Kong Management Association IT 

Management Committee, says he sold 

that first NCR machine to CLP. Conway 

also worked for COL, which set up shop 

in Hong Kong in 1972. 

Early days: expats and 

mainframes 

The employee-mix was different in 

those early days, according to John 

Strickland, current chairman of Cyberport 

and former chairman of HSBC 

(Asia). “Industry peers in Hong Kong 

in the 60s and 70s were expats,” said 

Strickland. “The workers, data processors 

were mainly locals but senior EDP 

staff and managers were often expats.” 

Strickland pointed out while the early 

EDP experts “were highly influential in 

the development of IT in Hong Kong at 

the time, very few were Chinese. Robert 

Tih at Standard Chartered and Stephen 

Lau in the Government were some of the 

few…it was only in the 90s that we saw 

more Chinese people in senior roles.” 

“In the late 60s, there were no PCs, 

only mainframes,” said Lai. “Programming 

was done with pencil and ‘pro- 



COVERSTORY 

gramming sheets,’ program codes were 

transcribed (‘punched’) onto paper 

punch-cards or punch-tapes, then read 

by card or tape readers and then ‘compiled’ 

with a compiler which generated 

executable program codes and a program 

listing. Debugging was painful— 

sometimes memory images had to be 

‘dumped’ or listed and decoded in binary 

(0s and 1s).” 

“Testing had to be performed overnight 

as resources were limited,” said 

Lai. “Many entering the computer/IT 

field could not handle it and sought other 

avenues of employment.” 

The HKCS takes shape 

“The first generation of Hong Kong 

computer professionals was born and 

bred through the [early] few computer 

vendors and users,” said Lai. “As the 

sector was still at its infancy and there 

were few opportunities or platforms for 

sharing computer knowledge and experience, 

the need for a computer professional 

body in Hong Kong was apparent. 

This professional body was to promote 

the development and application of IT, 

to promote professionalism in the industry, 

and foster fraternity among those individuals 

in the computer community.” 

Lai said a group of individuals from 

key computer users organizations (including 

HK Bank, CLP, HKE, Cable and 

Wireless) and vendors came together 

and established the Hong Kong Computer 

Society. “Recruitment of the first 

members took place in 1970 and initially 

around 200+ were recruited,” he said. “I 

was member number 179.” 

Hong Kong IT enters the 70s 

“Growing acceptance of computing 

by Hong Kong’s major organizations 

heralded the arrival of computing in 

the daily lives of ordinary people,” said 

Conway. By the mid 70s most of the 

bills that arrived in the mail—from utilities, 

bank statements and so on—were 

printed on computers.” But one of the 

first places people actually came face to 

face with computers was in the banks. 

“When banking staff got electronic teller 

terminals, the whole customer experience 

changed.” Another development in 

the 1970s was the launch of the URBTIX 

online ticketing system. 

The decade also marked the launch 

of Hong Kong’s first purpose-built data 

center with the construction of Telecom 

House on Fenwick Street. Many of Hong 

Kong’s leading organizations took up 

residence. Major tenants included the 

government, newswire services like AFP 

and the then “Royal” Hong Kong Jockey 

Club, whose totalizator—the board that 

lists the current odds position and final 

payouts for each horse in a race—was 

based there. 

“I recall when we put the first computer 

into COL’s premises at Asian House,” 

said Conway. “We had to knock a huge 

hole in the outside wall and lift it up using 

a crane. The police even had to stop 

traffic on Hennessy Road from 3:00- 

5:00AM.” 

Conway said that the first microcomputers 

arrived in Hong Kong in 1977. 

And while they were primitive by today’s 

standards, they caused tremendous 

debate in business circles, not all of 

it positive. “I recall a former chairman 

of the Hong Kong Bank saying to me, 

‘never in my lifetime will you have individual 

computers. Where would you put 

your security?’,” said Conway, adding 

that this gentleman is still alive and well, 

although presumably not on Facebook. 

The HKCS matures 

“From inception, establishment and 

development, HKCS has been engineered 

as a professional body,” said Lai. 

“In the early days, the program consisted 

of speakers meetings, seminars, visits 

to computer installations, and also social 

activities. Whenever prominent or 

knowledgeable IT personnel came to 

HK, they were invited to give a talk.” 

”My first engagement with HKCS was 

over 20 years ago when my manager 

invited me to join their annual dinner 

event,” said Fred Sheu, director, marketing 

and business development, HP 

Enterprise Business, HP HK. “Charles 

Kao was nominated and received HKCS 

Distinguished Fellow that year. There’s 

no doubt that the HKCS has helped build 

a great foundation for Hong Kong’s ICT 

industry!” 

The System/360 is unloaded from a “walla-walla” at Causeway Bay 


www.cw.com.hk 


COVERSTORY 



“In 1978, the first HKCS computer 

conference was organized,” said Lai. 

This eventually became the Hong Kong 

International Computer Conference 

(HKICC: the longest running computer 

conference series in HK), an event that 

is organized by IT professionals/practitioners 

for IT professionals/practitioners. 

With HK set to become an SAR 

of the PRC, the HKCS initiated “One 

conference—two cities” with the second 

part of the HKICC held in a city in China. 

The first was held in Guangzhou in 

1994, followed by Shanghai in 1995 and 

Chengdu in 1996. This series of computer 

conferences was renamed the Joint 

International Computer Conferences in 

1997 and it continues as an annual or biannual 

event. 

“I was first elected a Council member 

and Vice President in 1989,” said Lai. “I 

also acted as HKCS’ representative in 

Australia between 1991-1994, and on my 

return to HK I was elected VP in 1995 

and then served as president from 1998- 

2003.” He added that the HKCS has 

actively associated itself with computer 

professional bodies overseas and the 

mainland. “Together with other national 

computer associations in Asia, HKCS 

was instrumental in founding the South 

East Asia Regional Computer Confederation 

(SEARCC) and also the Asia 

Pacific IT Confederation (AIC), as well 

as Asia Pacific ICT Awards Network 

(APICTAN). HKCS participated actively 

in the regional IT events and hosted 

SEARCC and AIC Conferences in HK, 

and hosted 2004 APICTA in HK.” 

The 90s and beyond 

Current HKCS President (and Head of 

IT for the Jockey Club) Sunny Lee was 

working for a multinational company in 

the early 90s, and didn’t join the HKCS 

until he became CIO Towngas in 1996, 

when he was approached by Andy Mak 

from Digital Equipment. “Mak told me 

about the HKCS,” said Lee, “he was a 

member and I thought the professional 

network was a good fit for me.” 

Although Lee is now known as one 

of Hong Kong’s premier tech-experts, 

he said he didn’t feel that way when he 

joined the HKCS. “I wasn’t very active 

at first...people like Lai and Mak were 

celebrities to me,” he said. “But I would 

attend events like the HKICC and saw 

all these great sources of info, as well as 

networking opportunities.” 

In 1998, Lee said it occurred to him 

that the conference could benefit from 

his experience with Towngas, where he 

had completed one phase of business 

process re-engineering. “I cold-called 

Daniel Lai, and even though I felt I was a 

nobody, to my surprise I was welcomed 

with open arms. He invited me to lunch at 

the Fortune Room at the HKJC (editor’s 

note: ironic!), along with Charles Mok, 

KT Yung and people of that caliber—I 

was flattered to see all these senior people. 

Daniel further surprised me by inviting 

me to join the Organizing Committee 

of the HKICC—I became vice-chairman 

by 1998 and got a speaker-slot. In 1999 

I became a council member, and now, 

president.” 

As Hong Kong IT expands into the 

21st century, with social networking and 

mobile enterprise devices now standard 

operating equipment, the HKCS enters 

its next decade as Hong Kong’s premier 

organization for Hong Kong professionals. 

This issue is dedicated not only to 

the original tech visionaries and senior 

tech gurus we’ve profiled in this story 

and feature on our pages regularly, but 

also to all the wonderful hard-working 

folks at HKCS. 3 

HKCS mission statement 

The Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS) was founded in 1970, in the 

early days of information technology (IT). The vision that led to its establishment 

still continues to provide the Hong Kong business sector, the 

general public and the Hong Kong SAR Government with vital new insights and 

advice into the ways in which information technology is shaping and changing our 

lives. 

The HKCS aims to: 

• provide a forum for the exchange • promote education on the technology 

and training programs either 

of technical information and ideas 

amongst members; 

on its own or in conjunction with 

• hold lectures, discussions, seminars, other institutions in Hong Kong or 

open forums on subjects related to overseas; 

IT; 

• promote fraternity among members; 

• provide for those intended users of • liaise with other (overseas and Hong 

IT or related tools the opportunity Kong) professional bodies with similar 

objectives; 

of communicating with experienced 

users; 

• advise the Hong Kong Government 

• foster an informed public opinion regarding 

the IT industry and its social affecting the interest of the IT profes- 

and the public general on matters 

implications; 

sion; 

• provide facilities for the benefit of • maintain and enforce a code of 

members in furtherance of their information 

technology knowledge; 

professional conduct for members to 

observe. 


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COVERSTORY 


Hong Kong high tech in the 

60s and 70s 

Sent to Hong Kong on a three-year contract as a programmer in 1966, John Strickland 

qualifies as one of the pioneers of IT in Hong Kong. He shares his memories with 

CWHK in this exclusive interview By Chee Sing Chan 

CWHK: How did you first come to Hong 

Kong? 

John Strickland (JS): I arrived at Hong 

Kong on 28 April 1966 by boat from Venice. 

I had signed up for a three-year contract 

with the Hongkong and Shanghai 

Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) 

as Chief Programmer at HK$3,600 per 

month, plus housing on the Peak. 

HSBC had ordered two IBM S/360 

30s—each with 64KB memory and 

35MB disks—for processing all the 

banks savings and fixed-deposit accounts, 

as well as handling the capture 

of Magnetic Ink Character Recognition 

data encoded on checks: firstly for interbank 

clearing but later to automate the 

banks current account record keeping. 

The bank had transferred 19 young 

Chinese staff from the branch network 

as trainee programmers for the new 

computer systems. None had university 

degrees. All programming of the IBM 

S/360 30s was in Assembler language 

(i.e. essentially machine code), and they 

were trained by Mike McNamara from 

IBM Australia. 

CWHK: What was Hong Kong like at the 

time? 

JS: The Cultural Revolution was un- 

derway on the mainland, and Hong 

Kong was far from being calm. Demonstration 

marches and confrontations 

with the police were common—so were 

street sides “bombs,” although most 

were fakes. We had running water four 

hours per day. And loudspeakers on the 

roof of the Bank of China blared the 

mainland’s point of view, which was 

drowned out by Cantonese opera provided 

by the Hong Kong Government 

from Beaconsfield House on Queen’s 

Road Central. 

The IBM 360/30s were delivered to a 

new bank annex on One Queen’s Road 

Central in September 1967. As shipping 

containers had yet to be invented, 

they were transferred from the boat by 

crane over open water, then taken 

to Queen’s Pier and similarly 

offloaded. Glen Rasmussen of 

IBM, who together with his 

son Reid played a notable role 

in the development of IT in 

Hong Kong, helped oversee this 

perilous transfer. 

In 1969 HSBC hired 

its first university 

graduates as Systems 

Analysts before 

it started hiring 

graduates as 

bank officers. Computer Society. 

But by then my contract was up and I 

was working for Control Data in the 

States developing the operating system 

for the CDC 7600 supercomputer. I returned 

to Hong Kong as Computer Systems 

Development Manager at HSBC in 

July 1971 and immediately joined the 

newly set up Hong Kong Computer Society 

(HKCS). 

CWHK: What was the IT scene like 

then? 

JS: I still have many of the publications 

of the time, including copies of “Computer 

Asia” (1980-1990) and of “Hong 

Kong Computer Journal” (1985-1990). 

They all look so unsophisticated and 

dated today! 

In the 1970s the autopay 

system was introduced by 

Hong Kong Bank. This was 

greatly welcomed by factories 

because it allowed them pay 

the workers by bank transfer 

instead of cash. Huge 

numbers of passbook 

savings 

accounts 

were opened 

by factory 

workers. The 

workload 

John Strickland, current chairman of Cyberport, 

former chairman of HSBC (Asia) and head of 

Group IT, Distinguished Fellow of the Hong Kong 


apidly escalated and the bank upgraded 

its computers to S/360 40s, then to S/370 

145 units. 

HSBC owned a controlling interest in 

Hang Seng Bank and the computer systems 

we developed were used in both 

banks. A vivid memory of the 1970s was 

the annual snake dinners hosted by Hang 

Seng Bank at their headquarters. Senior 

bank staffs were expected to attend these 

dinners for their customers every night 

for the better part of the month before 

Lunar New Year. 

CWHK: Did your bank experience ever 

converge with HKCS duties? 

CWHK: What was the view of education- 

al institutions tution 

towards IT? 

Kong. Leaving aside stock market collapses, 

the economy climbed ever wards and wealth creation was enor- 

upmous. 

Confidence was buoyant and the 

resistance to new ideas and new ways of 

doing business negligible. We just got 

on with it and did it, care less of the risk 

of failure. 

A vivid memory of the 1970s was the annual 

snake dinners hosted by Hang Seng Bank at their 

headquarters 

— John Strickland 

JS: In 1972 I was elected Treasurer of 

HKCS. I kept the accounts on punched 

cards, but had little awareness of accounting 

standards. In any event I managed 

to persuade Carlye Tsui, the HKCS 

Honorary Auditor that year, that everything 

was in order at the end of the year. 

She succeeded me as Treasurer the following 

year and I moved on to be Vice 

President. Carlye is now Chief Executive 

of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors 

and has held many public service positions 

contributing to the community during 

her career. 

JS: The only tertiary ti institution in the 

1970s that paid much attention to computer 

science education was the Hong 

Kong Polytechnic. I joined the Computing 

Studies Advisory Committee in 

1973, under the auspices of Con Conway, 

husband of Carlye Tsui and one of 

the grand old men of Hong Kong computing. 

Vir Gulati then headed up the 

department. He was later succeeded by 

Graham Mead who made a significant 

contribution to training the next generation 

of Hong Kong’s programmers and 

systems analysts. 

CWHK: Can you cite the biggest differences 

from working in IT in the 70s and 

80s versus today? 

JS: The 1970s were a hugely exciting 

time to be in the IT profession in Hong 

Of course there have been significant 

changes—in the 80s and 90s IT was 

seen as a very attractive career path 

whereas now it is not. The times were 

so different, we were nose-deep in the 

technology, we understood in detail the 

machinery we were using, whereas today 

you sit down in front of a PC and 

there are so many layers between you 

and the computer—it’s much more 

complex today. 

Today if there is a problem to solve, 

you reach for the software package 

whereas we’d start pulling cables and 

opening up boxes. 3 

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With the Compliments of 


With the Compliments of 

www.cw.com.hk 


COVERSTORY 


IT paves way to the top 

Paul Chow charts his path from mainframe punchcard programming languages to the 

dizzy heights of Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEx) 

By Chee Sing Chan 

Computerworld Hong Kong (CWHK): 

Where did your career in IT begin? 

career path when you first joined the 

industry? 

Paul Chow (PC): After studying mechanical 

engineering at the University 

of Hong Kong, I took on a role in the 

Public Works Department of the Hong 

Kong Government but I soon moved to 

IBM. I was a systems engineer there 

and I used my knowledge in Fortran, 

RPG and Assembly language to support 

mainframe systems. I was not a programmer 

as such but more of a systems 

analyst. Then in 1973, I joined Sun 

Hung Kai, one of IBM’s key customers 

at the time. 

I spent 15 years at Sun Hung Kai. During 

this period, I participated in various 

business segments and functions—securities 

and commodities, deposit / savings, 

credit cards, as well as mortgage operations. 

In these roles, I was able to apply 

the IT skills which I had developed over 

the previous years and automated operations 

to bring about greater efficiency. 

Then in 1989 I joined HKEx as director 

of operations and technology. I was 

responsible for running the trading operations 

and maintaining the trading and 

information dissemination systems. A 

Stock Exchange relies very much on the 

use of technology in all its operations, 

and so, although my roles have changed 

over the years, my connection with the 

IT world has continued. 

CWHK: How was IT perceived as a 

PC: Even though people at that time 

were just starting to explore and understand 

the use of technology, few would 

doubt its power in shaping businesses. 

Many people were already aware of 

the benefits IT could bring in storing, 

sorting, indexing and retrieving electronic 

data. Most businessmen had a 

general idea of what IT professionals 

were doing in the 70s but I think none 

at the time could foresee the impact 

IT would bring to people’s lives thirty 

years later. 

It was in the 1970s that I joined the 

Hong Kong Computer Society. I was 

very green and inexperienced then and I 

wanted to gain exposure through participating 

in the Computer Society’s activities 

and exchanging experience with its 

members. 

CWHK: How does IT as a career compare 

to other fields and industries? 

PC: IT is a very interesting discipline. 

It’s extremely broad in scope and is quite 

difficult to define—there are programmers, 

hardware specialists, telecoms 

operators, software architects and so 

on who may be applying technology to 

solve different business problems. Although 

there are different areas of expertise 

in the IT arena, underpinning each 

is still the common technological frame- 

Paul Chow, Chief Executive, Hong Kong 

Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. Distinguished 

Fellow, Hong Kong Computer Society 

work and system logics. 

While the IT profession can be very 

specialized, the application of technology 

is very wide and it extends across 

different industries and functions. It is 

not difficult to witness the significant 

contributions IT has made to different 

industries, from the mass transit systems 

to horseracing, to banking to aviation, 

etc. 

We have also been taking technology 

for granted that we almost forget how 

much it has assimilated into our daily 

lives and how indispensable it is to all 

of us. In fact you could ask all the lawyers 

and accountants to stop working 

for a day and I bet the world would continue 

– but if all the IT systems stopped 



www.cw.com.hk 


COVERSTORY 



working, quite possibly sibl 

the world would 

grind to a halt. 

CWHK: As pervasive as IT is today, 

how has being a technology professional 

helped you in being a business leader? 

PC: Business today is complex, particularly 

in finance. Having worked in the 

IT function at Sun Hung Kai and now at 

the Stock Exchange, I have learned that 

understanding the real “nitty-gritty” of 

securities and finance operations is as 

important as seeing the “big picture”. 

Without in-depth understanding of the 

processes within each operation and 

function, IT professionals cannot create 

or enhance systems that are capable of 

supporting business strategies and operational 

needs. 

That calls for IT professionals to be 

pragmatic, detailed-oriented and creative. 

With these traits, they are in a 

better position to envisage scenarios, 

anticipate contingencies and implement 

changes effectively. 

Most people may only have narrow 

views of their own business functions. 

But IT professionals have the privilege 

to explore different aspects of an organisation 

as they undertake different projects. 

The combination of top-down and 

bottom-up understanding of cross-business 

functions is a genuinely valuable 

asset to the IT professionals. 

To achieve this understanding of business 

you need more than technical knowl- 

edge. Being a good communicator is criti- 

i 

cal; you also need to convince people, sell 

new ideas, initiate changes and be prepared 

to learn every step of the way. The 

biggest lesson I have learned since my IT 

days is humility—to appreciate what we 

don’t know and be eager to learn. 

CWHK: In your view what are the biggest 

contributions of the Computer Society? 

The next generation is 

always better than the 

previous one 

— Paul Chow 

PC: The Society has become a focal 

point of the industry and its professionals—no 

longer just an exclusive club as 

it was when it was first started. It is easily 

accessible and people look to it for 

assistance, for knowledge, and for networking 

opportunities with peers. All 

these have helped increase the professional 

knowledge and ethics of IT industry 

players. 

One of the biggest challenges for many 

IT professionals today is to gain recognition 

and professional status. The Society 

helps elevate the profile of IT professionalism 

through fostering awareness about 

technology’s contributions to businesses 

and our society which, as I mentioned 

earlier, are so often taken for granted. 

CWHK: What would you say to aspiring 

IT professionals in HK today? 

PC: You should never lose faith in the 

impact that technology can play in businesses 

and society. IT’s role is bound to 

be greater and more important as technology 

advances. Our society’s reliance 

on technology will be ever-increasing. 

With a large supply of eager and high 

quality IT workforce over the border, 

Hong Kong professionals need to work 

harder to differentiate themselves, and 

add value using more imagination and 

innovation. 

CWHK: What about the next generation 

of professionals—are you concerned if 

they will give back to the community in 

the way you and your peers have? 

PC: I am not concerned about this. I 

have one very strong conviction—that 

the next generation is always better than 

the previous one. Mankind collectively 

improves over time, and the next generation 

will always learn new things in 

this fast-changing world, and be more 

knowledgeable and skillful. 

They may have different working 

styles but they will contribute to the 

community in their own, possibly, different 

ways. And that’s the beauty of 

diversity. 3 


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COVERSTORY 


IT – Black box mystique 

Stephen Lau has no regrets after leaving behind chartered accountancy in the UK to 

assume a career in IT which at the time held a mysterious allure and fascination 


Computerworld Hong Kong (CWHK): 

Describe how your career in IT started? 

Stephen Lau (SL): After studying 

Physics in UK I decided to try chartered 

accountancy at a city firm in London in 

the mid-1960’s. At the time computers 

were very new and only just coming into 

the commercial world. After six months 

there I was attracted to join a computer 

science MSc course at London University 

and left the accountancy firm. In 

hindsight if I had stayed on with my 

article clerkship and returned to Hong 

Kong I would have been one of a handful 

of fully qualified chartered accountants 

of Chinese origin in all Hong Kong— 

things could have turned out to be quite 

different, but no regrets. 

Being an overseas Chinese I was grateful 

to have been accepted at a city firm in 

London but auditing accounts and cross 

checking statements were not something 

I thought I could do for the rest of my 

life. So after graduating I joined ICL 

in the UK as a trainee which was a big 

supplier to the UK government and after 

a while I came back to Hong Kong 

in 1968. 

Working as a technical support specialist 

to the government I specialized 

in processing census data which also 

led me to work with projects in Malay- 

sia, Indonesia and Burma, in addition to 

Hong Kong. 

CWHK: And how was IT perceived as a 

career during that time? 

SL: At that time when IT was seen very 

much like a “black box” of mystery with 

an air of mystique. To be honest for 

those in the field it wasn’t that much of a 

mystery but to most people it was something 

of an unknown art. Computing was 

genuinely regarded as an elite profession 

and very much at the cutting edge. 

It was this allure that pulled me from 

my accountancy job and into the world 

of mainframes and data processing. 

CWHK: So what attributes did you need 

for a career in IT at that time? 

SL: One observation from the 60s and 

the 70s is that there were very few real 

IT focused degrees or programs. As a result 

the question in the industry was how 

to evaluate and assess capabilities, particularly 

with fresh recruits. Incoming 

programmers often took aptitude tests 

to assess their ability to apply logic. The 

assumption has always been that if you 

were good at maths then you could be 

a good programmer—that’s not the case 

as logic is the most important attribute. 

As a result, you would find computer 

operators and programmers from a variety 

of backgrounds, from guys that 

studied music, to French and archaeology 

– it was a real mix. And from being a 

computer operator you could quite easily 

progress to other roles and get up the ladder 

to senior positions if you were bright 

and intelligent. 

That’s almost impossible today as any 

incoming IT professional needs to have 

an IT qualification and be specialized. 

But you look at some of today’s senior 

figures at OGCIO for example and figures 

such as John Wong and Dennis 

Pang have come through the ranks as 

Stephen Lau, current advisor, HP Enterprise 

Services, former chairman of EDS and Distinguished 

Fellow of the Hong Kong Computer 

Society 


ICL mainframes formed the core of 

government IT in the 60’s and 70’s 

computer operators—both rs 

oth extremely 

em ely 

bright individuals iduals that rose from the 

ground up. That route would be very 

difficult to follow today. My own path 

led me from ICL to joining the government 

to succeed Lee Tate, the data processing 

Manager recruited from the UK, 

the government’s head of IT during that 

time. As a 33 year-old executive that was 

quite a step up and a relatively rare feat 

for someone at that age within the government. 

CWHK: How significant was the Computer 

Society at that time? 

SL: It started as a networking platform 

and I recall we had a newsletter that 

was distributed to members—GIGO or 

“Garbage in Garbage out”. This term referred 

to the idea that computers at the 

time simply processed data, the brains of 

any operation was the user so if you fed 

the computer garbage, ge 

garbage age is 

what 

would come out. It 

emphasized that 

users 

had to specify what the computer needed 

to process to derive a desired result— 

seemed a good name for the newsletter. 

During the 80s through to 1990, President 

Richard Li really brought a passion 

and vigor to the role and he pushed IT to 

Computing was genuinely regarded as an elite 

profession and very much at the cutting edge 

—Stephen Lau 

become a driving influence on the industry 

to advance the credibility of IT and 

the professionals. He also started real engagements 

with China and created a tangible 

focus for the Society’s resources 

via special interest groups. 

CWHK: What are the greatest strengths 

and achievements of the Society? 

SL: The biggest strength I believe is in 

the respect and influence of its Distinguished 

Fellows who are industry peers 

that have been unanimously voted for by 

the HKCS council as key contributors 

to the 

IT community and industry. You 

cannot apply for or buy into 

this fellowship, 

the council nominates and votes for 

you. This gathering of industry figures is 

unique in the industry and the collective 

experience, their ongoing and continuous 

work in the industry, and their continuous 

contributions to the HKCS are 

invaluable. 

Highlight achievements in my mind 

are the ongoing progress on professional 

certification which is being adopted in 

Hong Kong and China, but to really succeed 

here we need to find ways to sustain 

the effort. As a group the Society is made 

up of hardworking volunteers and we’re 

great at projects but sustaining initiatives 

will be a great challenge—we need full 

time resources and budget. 

Other noteworthy items include the 

Joint International Computer Conferences 

held in China which have forged 

great relationships with the mainland, 

but again, to sustain this we need to refocus 

on evolving issues that benefit both 

Hong Kong and China businesses. 

The Hong Kong International Computer 

Conference in Hong Kong is now 

in its 32nd year. For a general IT conference 

to have survived and flourished 

that long with the increasing push for 

specialized conferences is quite a triumph. 

3 

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COVERSTORY 


ICT Awards: 

Elevating Industry and 

Individuals 

With an 11-year history, the ICT Awards has realized the Hong Kong 

Computer Society’s original vision to recognize IT excellence and 

highlight Hong Kong’s world class technology achievements 


What began in 1998 as an idea 

to create an awards program 

to raise the profile of technology 

across general industry has today 

become a fully-government-backed program 

encompassing nine industry categories, 

over 600 entries, and with winners 

going on to represent Hong Kong in 

regional competition. 

Agnes Mak, HKCS Distinguished 

Fellow and Chairperson of the Organizing 

Committee of the first IT Excellence 

Awards in 1998, recalled that it was a 

real struggle to establish the program 

as IT was only just getting recognition 

from the government. 

After making the case over a number 

of years, the government granted funds 

to start what was called the IT Excellence 

Awards. It was organized by the 

Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS) 

and sponsored by the Information & 

Technology Bureau and the Industry 

Department. 

Recognizing success 

The original awards sought to recognize 

two areas. One was for applications 

in IT and to recognize the excellence 

of IT being used by Hong Kong 

businesses. This would reward the IT 

teams responsible and also highlight 

Hong Kong’s industry-leading use of 

technology. 

The second award area was for products 

and to give recognition to Hong 

Kong-developed commercial products 

and services. The aim was that these 

products would get greater awareness 

not only locally but overseas as well. 

The success of the IT Excellence 

awards and ongoing encouragement of 

HKCS have seen the program expand in 

scope and coverage, and in 2006 it became 

the ICT Awards with nine categories, 

each organized and run by different 

industry groups and associations. 

The government is now fully behind 

the scheme with regular funding and 

support across the various industry 

groups. HKCS now presides over the 

“Best Business Award” segment which 

continues the theme of awards for both 

IT applications and products. 

For glory and growth 

Past ICT Award winners have gained 

a huge boost in profile. Outblaze, which 

won the Best Business Product Gold 

Award in 2007, also went on to pick up 

an award for Best Tools & Infrastructure 

Application at the Asia Pacific ICT 

Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2007. Outblaze 

more recently sold its messaging 

services assets to IBM in a landmark 

deal for the Hong Kong technology industry. 

While companies such as PCCW and 

large enterprises and government bodies 

like the Immigration Department, Housing 

Authority and Airport Authority 

have consistently won the ICT Awards 

and APICTA, smaller companies have 

shown their worth too recently. 

PremiumSoft, a local open source 

software firm won a unique triple 

in 2008 with Best Business Product 

award, Best Business Grand Award as 

well as the overall Award of the Year. 

With only 20 employees at the time, the 

win symbolized the huge potential of 

smaller businesses in Hong Kong. 

The fact that a global 

firm like Sun would 

seek out PremiumSoft 

is testament to the 

recognition that the 

award can create for 

winners 

—C K Wong, HKCS 

According to Dr C K Wong, HKCS 

Distinguished Fellow and chief assessor 

for award nominations, he recommended 

that Sun Microsystems talk to 

PremiumSoft for collaboration in the 

open source space and that was only 

possible on the back of the ICT award. 

“The fact that a global firm like Sun 

would seek out PremiumSoft is testament 

to the recognition that the award 

can create for winners,” said Wong. 

“These awards really help the overall 

branding of these companies as well as 

Hong Kong’s technology industry as a 

whole,” said Stephen Lau, Distinguished 

Fellow at HKCS and also Chairman of 

APICTA. Lau has been involved in both 

the ICT Awards and APICTA for as 

long as they have been established and 

has noted how both awards have risen in 

status and prestige. 



Broad impact 

Interestingly, Emily Suen, Marketing 

Manager, PremiumSoft CyberTech, 

was not aware of the ICT Awards until 

last year when the company first entered 

the competition. “Even when we 

discussed the idea of entering we were 

unsure of what value we would derive,” 

said Suen. 

Since winning the trio of awards Suen 

has found the benefits to be varied and 

extensive. 

“The biggest benefit so far is the immediate 

rise in profile in the local market 

as most of our customers come from 

US or Europe—the visibility in Hong 

Kong now is huge,” she said. In addition 

to expanding their market potential 

the process of nomination, assessment 

and also the coaching received during 

the preparation for APICTA have given 

the staff at PremiumSoft many new 

ideas. 

Suen noted the process made the team 

rethink the way they present their product 

but also review product development 

ideas. “The evaluation helped us 

develop new features such as support 

for other databases which one of the assessors 

raised during our presentation— 

we’d never thought of that before,” she 

added. 

Reaching beyond HK 

The awards have also given PremiumSoft 

a fantastic platform to showcase 

their products via trade shows like 

the ICT Expo which award winners are 

entitled to attend. There’s also been 

greater media exposure with English 

and Chinese-language press. 

Another winner in the 2008 ICT 

Awards as well as at APICTA was 

the Airport Authority of Hong Kong. 

Denny Chan, communication & control 

engineer, technical services, Airport 

Authority, observed that winning 

ICT award winners and committee members gathered to discuss the 

rising importance of the awards as an industry-wide recognition program. 

the award helps position Hong Kong 

as leading the way in technologies 

like RFID, which is being used in the 

award winning baggage handling system. 

“The value of the award for us has 

been the internal recognition and pride 

that we have achieved in the project,” 

said Chan. “But also knowing that our 

work helps contribute to the business 

gaining worldwide recognition.” Hong 

Kong’s airport was awarded “Airport 

of the Year 2008” by Skytrax and the 

baggage system forms a key component 

of the award-winning infrastructure at 

Hong Kong Airport. 

Stars of the future 

Another recent noteworthy winner 

is Esther Leung, Form 5 student at 

TWGH’s Chang Ming Thien College. 

Though not her first entry into the ICT 

Awards, Leung noted that her second 

attempt in 2008 was a much more considered 

and serious effort than her first 

attempt. 

With encouragement from her teacher 

she entered but approached the first entry 

as a fun project without much expectation. 

After her first experience she 

realised that the awards was a very involved 

exercise and vowed to make a 

greater effort second-time around. 

“I realised there was much I didn’t 

know about the process and the second 

attempt was much more prepared,” 

said Leung. In fact she won the Best 

Innovation & Research award for her 

“Intelligent Bus Stop” concept. Her 

achievement led to a nomination for 

APICTA which involved traveling to 

Malaysia and presenting to overseas 

judges. HKCS coached her extensively 

as it does for all Hong Kong entries 

to APICTA. This also taught her additional 

skills in presentation and general 

interaction. Her teacher remarked 

that her transformation into a confident 

and professional individual has been remarkable 

and a very proud moment for 

him personally. 

Mak noted that HKCS encourages 

people to enter into the ICT Awards 

not just for the sake of winning but for 

the experience and the possible learning. 

She noted one example of a bronze 

award winner that had taken part before 

but not won anything initially. But the 

experience gave them knowledge and 

the inspiration to do better and enter 

again, finally winning a bronze award. 

“If the awards help people improve 

products or the way they apply technology 

then the objective has been met 

and the awards has created meaningful 

value,” she said. 3 

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COVERSTORY 


Elevating IT’s professional status 

The Computer Society makes official recognition and certification of industry 

professionals a reality after a fight for almost 20 years 

The information and communications 

technology (ICT) industry 

is relatively young compared to 

the legal, accounting and medical industries, 

but IT professionals are by no 

means taking their profession lightly. 

Thanks to the pioneering work of the 

Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS), 

the ICT industry is now on track to gradually 

gain recognition as a “certified” 

profession in Hong Kong. 

With funding support from the Office 

of the Government Chief Information 

Officer (OGCIO) of the HKSAR Government, 

HKCS undertook a project 

in 2005 to establish an IT Professional 

Certification System for Hong Kong IT 

professionals. Led by Edith Mok, the 

project involved over 100 ICT veterans 

spending their precious spare time 

in various taskforces and expert groups 

in over 200 meetings plus numerous industry-wide 

consultations with approximately 

50 IT or IT-related professional 

and trade organizations. The result is a 

Hong Kong-based certification scheme 

for IT professionals in Hong Kong, 

namely the Certified Professional of IT 

(CPIT) Scheme, which is governed by 

an industry-led governance structure including 

a Board of Governance (BoG) 

and a Certification Board (CB). 

Therefore, in mid-2007, IT professionals 

in Hong Kong were for the first 

time accredited with homegrown IT 

professional titles with the launch of 

three senior level credentials—CPIT 

(Project Director), CPIT (Systems Ar- 

By Carol Ko 

CLP’s Locandro: The certifications enable 

us to recruit professional IT personnel more 

readily, while allowing us to develop and 

retain outstanding talents. 

chitect), and CPIT (Quality Assurance 

Manager). Endorsed by 30 major international 

or local corporations in Hong 

Kong, over 50 senior IT professionals 

have been accredited with these senior 

IT credentials. 

With the success of the project, OG- 

CIO injected more funding to HKCS in 

2007 with an aim to continue the development 

of the certification scheme. 

This “second-phase” has led to the establishment 

of a new entity, the Hong 

Kong Institute for IT Professional Certification 

(HKITPC), which was set up 

as a non-profit Institute to oversee and 

manage the development and operation 

of the CPIT scheme. In 2009, three 

more CPIT titles are launched, including 

CPIT (Associate Project Manager, 

APM), CPIT (Information Security Officer, 

InfoSec), and CPIT (Business An- 

alyst, BA). These three new titles target 

IT professionals who have entered the 

profession for a couple of years and are 

beginning to choose a specialization for 

their IT career. Like the three senior 

CPIT titles, these three new ones are 

also managed by the HKITPC. 

Link with the Qualifications 

Framework 

To sustain Hong Kong as a knowledge-based 

economy, the Education 

Bureau (EDB) has established a 7-level 

cross-sectoral Qualifications Framework 

(QF) to develop and sustain quality 

workforce. Established in 2004 with 

the aim of clearly defining the standards 

of different qualifications, ensuring 

their quality and indicating the steps to 

advance to the next qualification levels, 

QF provides a framework for the definition 

of various skills and competency 

levels required for the performance of 

different activities in a given industry 

sector. These skills are documented in 

the form of Unit of Competency (UoC). 

They are collected into the Specification 

of Competency Standard (SCS) 

document that is published by the EDB. 

The Information and Communications 

Technology Industry Training Advisory 

committee (ICT ITAC) chaired by Agnes 

Mak was established in 2005. Supported 

by close to 30 devoted committee 

members and 100 co-op members 

and with three Industry Consultation 

sessions and three Focus Group workshops, 

over 300 UoCs for the Software 



COVERSTORY 

to date: The University of Hong Kong’s 

School of Professional and Continuing 

Education, Hong Kong Productivity 

Council’s Productivity Training Institute, 

The Chinese University of Hong 

Kong’s School of Continuing & Professional 

Studies and Vocational Training 

Council’s Institute of Professional Education 

and Knowledge. 

From L to R: Lester Li, Edith Mok, Agnes Mak, Andy Ho and Raymond Wong. 

Design and Development branch were 

developed in 2007. 

The six CPIT titles developed so far 

are all have a strong link with the QF. 

The expert groups involved in the CPIT 

certification development have made 

use of these UoCs for the definition of 

these required skills in each of the CPIT 

titles. This is to ensure that holders of 

these CPIT titles are those IT professionals 

who possess the necessary skills 

and have demonstrated sufficient competencies 

in performing the work that is 

required for the certification title. These 

skills and competencies are assessed either 

by peer expert review (for the three 

senior titles) or by examination (for the 

three junior titles). 

Endorsement and support 

from Industry 

Since its inception, the CPIT scheme 

is gaining more and more acceptance 

by the industry. “CLP (China Light and 

Power) is a very good example. They 

list the CPIT titles as a recommended 

qualification in their job recruitment 

advertisement. They even fully sponsor 

their staff to get certification with 

these titles,” said Agnes Mak, director 

in-charge of the HKITPC, a HKCS distinguished 

fellow and a former HKCS 

president (1995-1998). Joe Locandro, 

director of IT, CLP said, “At CLP, we 

appreciate and respect the certifications 

awarded by the Institute. The certifications 

enable us to recruit professional 

IT personnel more readily, while allowing 

us to develop and retain outstanding 

talents.” 

To help those junior level applicants 

to prepare for the CPIT examinations, 

HKITPC has joined forces with local 

training and education institutes 

to provide relevant CPIT examination 

preparatory courses. These courses are 

all monitored by HKITPC to ensure 

alignment with the CPIT scheme requirements 

in terms of course contents, 

course delivery and the qualifications of 

the course instructors. Four course providers 

have been endorsed by HKITPC 

Homegrown credentials 

The CPIT titles bear the fruits of 

more than 10 years of planning and development 

by volunteers from different 

ICT associations, academics and supporting 

organisations in Hong Kong. 

These homegrown professional ICT 

titles were developed in response to the 

adaptation to local circumstances. As illustrated 

by Andy KW Ho, a member of 

the Certification Board of HKITPC and 

regional I/T security manager of IBM 

Global Services Asia Pacific, why the 

CPIT (Information Security Officer) 

In mid 2007, IT professionals in Hong Kong were for the 

first time accredited with homegrown IT professional 

titles with the launch of three senior level credentials. 

—Agnes Mak 

title will potentially be in hot demand 

in the community, “In the past, security 

professionals used to take international 

exams to be certified in the area of information 

security. The problem with 

international exams, however, was the 

high threshold that they imposed on the 

candidates, [which requires a minimum 

of three years of related work experience]. 

As a result, local fresh graduates 

and those who seek to change their field 

to information security have difficulties 


www.cw.com.hk 


COVERSTORY 



in finding “the key” to enter the discipline 

as they did not meet the prerequisite. 

In contrast, the new CPIT (InfoSec) 

credential offered by the HKITPC provides 

IT practitioners with a stepping 

stone to get into the field,” said Ho. 

This view is also echoed by Patrick 

Chau, director of the “second-phase” 

project and a professor in information 

systems at the University of Hong 

Kong. “We need a local and credible 

IT professional qualification to attract 

our young talent to enter the field and 

consider working in IT as their choice 

of career. The development of the three 

junior-level CPIT titles is exactly for 

this purpose.” 

A “Roadmap” for IT 

certification 

Looking forward, HKITPC is tasked 

to consolidate the multitude of qualifications 

awarded by different professional 

bodies in the city. As “phase 

three” progresses, HKITPC will spell 

out the qualifications of IT professionals 

in eight major disciplines in a consolidated 

roadmap called the Professional 

Proficiency Matrix with three levels of 

progression – practitioner level, specialist 

level and expert level. The eight 

designated ICT discipline areas are: 

(1) Application Development/Software 

Engineering, (2) Quality Assurance, (3) 

Project Management, (4) System Solution 

& Architecture, (5) Information 

Services, (6) Infrastructure, (7) Information 

Security, and (8) Digital Interactive 

Professional. 

According to Sunny Lee, chairperson 

of the board of directors of HKITPC, the 

roadmap benefits the IT professionals in 

various ways: Firstly, it helps IT professionals 

plan their career development. 

Secondly, it allows employers to define 

precisely the skills and experience required 

for their recruitments. Thirdly, 

it assists professional bodies to identify 

the gaps in professional qualifications; 

hence develop the most meaningful 

certifications. Fourthly, it provides a 

yardstick for the accreditation of school 

curricula and the design of continuing 

professional development materials. 

Fifthly, it provides a framework for 

cross recognition of certifications with 

professional bodies overseas. Finally, 

it helps the government to rationalize 

what and when to support development 

projects of further qualifications. 

“We need a local and 

credible IT professional 

qualification to attract 

our young talent to enter 

the field. 

—Patrick Chau, HKUC 

Agnes Mak, director in-charge of 

the HKITPC, a HKCS distinguished 

fellow and a former HKCS president 

(1995-1998), emphasizes the importance 

of the Institute for the whole IT 

community and industry and says, “the 

HKITPC belongs to all professional 

ICT associations in Hong Kong. It is 

not under sole ownership of the HKCS. 

From HKITPC’s point of view, all 

credible ICT professional bodies are 

welcome to join the institute as shareholders 

and to work together to elevate 

the professional status of our IT profession.” 

Mutual recognition 

The HKITPC is gearing up to achieve 

mutual recognition of professional ICT 

titles with those offered in mainland 

China, with a pilot program in Guangzhou. 

Presently, the HKITPC are in 

the preparation stage in signing up a 

memorandum of understanding with an 

ICT association in Guangzhou to crosspromote 

the six titles offered in Hong 

Kong and some 30 titles being offered 

in mainland China. 

“Chinese people generally have high 

regard for qualification titles and passing 

examinations. This is almost a tradition 

for them, as positions and ranks 

are most welcome. Mainland Chinese 

people generally have greater confidence 

in professionals in Hong Kong. 

Hence, it is crucial to drive these professional 

certification examinations and 

peer assessment in mainland China. At 

HKITPC, certification of senior ICT 

titles is based on assessment by their 

own peers [instead of by examination]. 

If Hong Kong is to tap into the mainland 

Chinese market with these certifications, 

we need to complement the 

existing qualification titles, which are 

all examination-based,” said Stephen 

Lau, JP, chairperson of the first Board 

of Governance of HKITPC and a distinguished 

fellow of HKCS. 

Proving doubters wrong 

In retrospect, Agnes Mak recollected 

one occasion in the 1990s where a renowned 

barrister in town, Martin Lee, 

attended an annual dinner of Hong 

Kong Computer Society as guest of 

honor. When Mak told Lee that IT practitioners 

would also like to become professionals 

like lawyers, Lee said, “It is 

impossible for the IT industry to attain 

professional standing, because IT develops 

just too quickly.” 

“At first I thought he was right. A few 

years later, I believed he was wrong,” 

recalled Mak. “While Martin was referring 

to the technical aspects, IT experts 

are indeed valued for their capability of 

managing the ever changing technology 

in the ICT world. Our practices, our 

code of ethics, and our accumulated expertise 

remain unchanged.” 3 


www.cw.com.hk 


COVERSTORY 


40 years of IT in Hong Kong… 

from punch cards to mainframes 

to Apple and the mobile phone 



COVERSTORY 

www.cw.com.hk 


COVERSTORY 


Father of fiber optics 

Charles Kao, a Distinguished Fellow of the Hong Kong Computer 

Society since 1989, makes a contribution to both the tech and the 

education worlds By Computerworld Hong Kong staff 

Charles Kao’s award of the Nobel 

Prize in Physics came as a surprise 

to both himself and Hong 

Kong where the scientist studied and 

worked before. 

It’s a surprise because as Kao put it in 

his open letter to Hong Kong, a Nobel 

Laureate of Chinese ethnicity is a rare 

event. Rarer is the fact that the prize goes 

to an applied science researcher. 

Born in Shanghai in 1933, Kao moved 

with his family fifteen years later to Hong 

Kong where he finished secondary education 

at St. Joseph’s College in 1952. 

He went on to undergraduate studies in 

electrical engineering in the UK and received 

a PhD in electrical engineering in 

1965 from the University of London. 

Kao worked as an engineer at the Standard 

Telephone Laboratories (STL) of 

Standard Telephones and Cables (STC, 

which eventually became part of Nortel 

Networks) in Harlow, England while he 

was a PhD student. 

The search for purity 

In the early 1960s at STL, Kao and his 

research partner George Hockham did pioneering 

work in turning fiber optics into 

a telecommunications medium. 

They demonstrated that the high loss of 

fiber optics was a result of impurities in 

the fibers rather than an underlying problem 

with technology itself. 

The research results were first presented 

in early 1966 and further published in 

June of the same year, laying a foundation 

for today’s optical fiber communications. 

Though initially received with skepti- 

Charles Kao, winner of 2009 Nobel Prize for 

Physics 

Photo by Richard Epworth 

cism in the engineering community, this 

ground-breaking idea of using glass fibers 

thinner than human hair and cheaper to 

produce than fishing line for transmitting 

near-limitless amounts of information 

over a long distance drove manufacturers 

to look for ways of producing fibers so 

pure that could make Kao’s dream come 

true. 

The first ultrapure fiber was finally 

created in 1970. According to the Nobel 

organization, if all the glass fibers in the 

world were put end to end, they would 

circle the globe more than 25,000 times. 

In 1970, Kao, also referred to as the 

‘father of fiber-optics’, returned to Hong 

Kong and joined the Chinese University 

of Hong Kong (CUHK) to found the Department 

of Electronics, which later became 

the Department of Electronic Engineering. 

Four years later, he went to the US to 

work first as a chief scientist and later as a 

director of engineering for ITT, the parent 

company of STC. 

Returning to Hong Kong 

Leaving top jobs in the US, Kao went 

back to Hong Kong in the early 80s to 

become a full-time engineering professor 

at CUHK. He was the university’s vicechancellor 

from 1987 to 1996. His stint 

at CUHK helped turn the university into 

a powerhouse in engineering and science 

long dominated by the much older University 

of Hong Kong. 

After leaving academia, Kao continued 

to promote science and technology as a 

Now you know who is responsible for fiber optical 

cables that enable all the excessive information, both 

true and false, good and bad, that circulate on the 

Internet 

— Charles Kao and his wife in their open letter to Hong Kong 

means to transform Hong Kong’s economy 

by setting up his own tech transfer 

company and playing the non-executive 

director role in a few hi-tech firms. 

He also helped found the ISF Academy, 

an independent primary and secondary 

school in Pok Fu Lam that aims to integrate 

the best practices of international 

schools and a focus on Chinese language 

and culture. Kao has given up all his official 

posts since 2008. 3 



Kingdee’s ERP solution helps companies to 

grow as economy recovers 

While costs and revenue occupy the management of SMEs, it’s clear most are 

still not tapping the growth potential of deploying more technology. 

year ago, the world economy was hit 

A badly by the largest financial crisis in 

decades. Today most analysts believe the 

worst of part of the financial tsunami has 

passed and the economy is gradually recovering. 

What does that mean for companies 

in the region? 

“Last year, the biggest challenge was 

the financial crisis. Companies, especially, 

the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), 

were struggling for survival. Now, as the 

economy recovers, their challenges should 

be how to seize opportunities to grow, in 

market share and in production capacity,” 

said Liang Zeng, Vice President and General 

Manager of Asia Pacific, Kingdee International 

Software Group Company Limited. 

“Enterprise management software, such 

as enterprise resource planning (ERP), is 

a powerful tool for companies looking for 

growth. It can streamline their internal 

processes, forecast sales and improve operational 

efficiency,” said Zeng. 

Streamline effect 

In the last 16 years, Kingdee’s ERP solution 

has helped many companies in China 

and Hong Kong to streamline their sales 

and production processes. “Kingdee’s 

ERP helps them to organize their sales orders, 

reducing uncertainty, so that they can 

plan their production capacity accordingly, 

and when and how much materials to purchase 

from their suppliers,” said Zeng. 

In a typical case, a company can reduce its 

inventory level from 28 days to 10 days, after 

implementing Kingdee’s ERP solution. And 

account receivables can be reduced from 90 

days to 40-50 days. “It frees up much of the 

company’s working capital,” said Zeng. 

The customer relationship management 

(CRM) module within the ERP solution can 

help companies to identify who are their 

most valuable customers, so that they can 

serve them the best. “This could increase 

customer loyalty, and hence, company’s 

sales in the future,” said Zeng. 

Kingdee’s Zeng: Enterprise management 

software, such as enterprise resource planning 

(ERP) systems, is a powerful tool for companies 

looking for growth. 

IT complexity 

But one problem that might be hindering 

SMEs looking to implement ERP solutions 

is that ERP is a complicated IT solution and 

they do not have a large IT department. 

“That won’t be a problem for Kingdee’s 

solution,” said Zeng. Kingdee has a professional 

service team to serve its clients 

in Hong Kong directly – both implementing 

and maintaining their systems. 

Kingdee also boasts a complete product 

line, covering accounting, manufacturing, 

human resource management, supply 

chain management, customer relationship 

management and so on, providing a onestop 

ERP solution for companies. 

Compared with some ERP systems from 

overseas, Kingdee’s solution is much more 

cost effective, said Zeng. And it needs 

much shorter implementation time. Usually 

it takes only 3-4 months, compared 

with 1 year for the overseas solutions, said 

Zeng. 

Kingdee’s solution will be especially 

helpful to large firms and SMEs in the Asia 

region, whether multinationals or local, and 

in particular for firms wit interests in China. 

“Our accounting system fully meets the 

complex legal, accounting and statutory 

requirements within China and our human 

resource management system can handle 

the mainland labor practices,” said Zeng. 

Customers across the board 

Many of the largest Chinese companies 

and multinational companies in Asia are 

using Kingdee today. Existing customers 

are extensive and come from industry 

verticals such as manufacturing, logistics, 

retail and trading. 

For companies looking for growth across 

the Asia Pacific region, Kingdee can also 

be a key partner reaching their growth objectives. 

“We have unrivalled presence in 

China, Hong Kong, Singapore and chanel 

partners in many of the South East Asia 

countries to serve customers throughout 

the region,” Zeng added. 

Kingdee has achieved number one market 

share of ERP solutions for SMEs for 

five consecutive years from 2004 to 2008, 

according to IDC. 

Kingdee’s ERP solution consists of three 

series: Kingdee EAS, Kingdee K/3 and 

Kingdee KIS. 

Kingdee EAS (Enterprise Application 

Suite) provides large- and medium-sized 

enterprises with personalized enterprise 

management and e-Business application 

solutions that cater to their complex management 

needs. 

Kingdee K/3 ERP is a cross-border, 

multilingual enterprise management software 

designed for small- to mediumsized, 

fast-growing local companies and 

multinational enterprises with a footprint 

covering China, Hong Kong, Singapore, 

Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other 

Asia Pacific countries. 

Finally, Kingdee KIS, is an integrated 

solution, designed for small businesses, 

mainly covering their accounting needs. 

Asia’s best 

“Kingdee started as an account software 

company in China,” said Zeng. Today, 

Kingdee has 4800 employees and 

46 offices, serving 600,000 customers 

worldwide from various industries including 

manufacturing, wholesales/retail, 

logistics, service and trading. 

Founded in 1993 and listed on the 

Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange 

in 2005 (SEHK:268), it is the 

only enterprise management software 

company in Hong Kong and China listed 

as “Asia’s 200 best companies with 

sales under US$1 billion a year” for 

four consecutive years from 2006 to 

2009, by Forbes Asia Magazine. Find 

out more at www.kingdee.com.hk

GREENING YOUR OFFICE 

– Cut Costs in an Eco-Friendly Way. 

More than just reducing environmental impact 

A green oce is no longer 

just an indication of an 

organisation’s responsibility 

to the environment, and it is 

not just the IT department’s 

problem. The business case 

for a green oce, in terms 

of reduced costs, improved 

ciency and greater security 

controls is easy to see. 

The oce is predicted to 

be an even bigger energy 

guzzler in the future, 

consuming up to 20% of 

any country’s energy. So the 

oce can no longer remove 

itself from environmental 

concerns. There is now a 

great urgency to reduce the 

power consumption of IT 

devices as well as lessen the 

environmental burden. 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE 

OFFICE 

IT infrastructure has 

progressively developed in 

recent years with the rapid 

expansion of IT budgets 

within companies. Now, 

most employees are provided 

with their own PC. There are 

also increasing numbers of 

servers and output devices 

(printers, faxes and copiers). 

reuse documents on a PC and 

freely distribute them over the 

network, resulting in higher 

productivity in the ce. 

Whilst development of 

sophisticated IT infrastructure 

has increased ciency, it has 

also created new problems. For 

instance, an increase in output 

devices may compromise the 

quality of security as employees 

have additional avenues 

to siphon off information. 

that more maintenance is 

eventually required. 

These issues may 

sound like trivial low level 

‘administrative’ problems. 

Yet if ignored, there is a high 

possibility that they may 

escalate to ‘managementlevel 

issues’ such as having 

to deal with data leakage, 

higher operating cost for 

the organisation and greater 

impact to the environment. 

“Fuji Xerox’s Green Oce Solution 

offers customers a smarter way to 

 

You can realise more business bts 

- 

Lydia Chan, Senior Manager, 

Production Business, Business Planning 

and Marketing, Fuji Xerox Hong Kong 

TODAY’S GREEN OFFICE 

Many organisations looking 

to be greener have approached 

green consultancies for expert 

advice or adopted green 

programs such as Fuji Xerox’s 

Solution. 

Solution, 

for instance, helps solve 

problems occurring in the 

IT development and changes 

in business operations 

by optimising document 

management. This includes 

managing data-related and 

document-related devices. 

Together with our ecofriendly 

products and ecological 

approaches, Fuji Xerox’s 

Green O Solution focuses 

on 3 main areas: Optimisation 

of Output, IT Devices and 

Document Management and 

Print- On-Demand. 

OPTIMISATION OF 

OUTPUT 

With output optimisation, 

you can optimise the number 

of output devices in the oe 

as well as the use of paper. 

Optimise output devices 

With output device 

allocation, unnecessary 

equipment is reduced. 

This lowers the energy 

consumption and provides 

better device management 

saving both time and money. 

More printers and copiers 

means more energy and 

paper are used. Since paper 

is not phased out despite 

the technological advances, 

organisations now have 

to deal with the hassle of 

Manage usage 

managing overlapping paper 

authentication 

and electronic data. And 

By using IC cards 

the consequence of 

authentication on output 

Individuals can create, edit and having more machines is due to the progress of devices, different levels of 



Fuji Xerox‘s 

Solution – Saving costs, 

enhancing productivity, 

preserving the Environment 

and Health. 

user permission settings can 

be customised. This would not 

only manage usage but also 

prevents information leaks. 

Prevent Uncollected Print- 

Outs 

IC card authentication is 

needed at networked MFD 

before printing is processed. 

The print job can be viewed 

on the device panel before 

print release. Users can also 

decide when to print the 

documents securely. Paper 

wastage is reduced as errors 

and unnecessary print jobs 

can be cancelled before they 

are processed and printed by 

the selected MFD. 

Reduce Paper Usage 

With N-UP and duplex 

printing, you can reduce 

paper resulting in further 

cost reduction. Less paper 

will also reduce paper-centric 

document management 

issues. 

Digital Imaging and 

Archiving 

Converting hardcopy 

documents into softcopies 

helps to streamline paperwork 

so that they can be captured 

and stored securely on a 

www.cw.com.hk 

centralised server. These 

archives can be printed on 

demand from a server or 

distributed via FTP, S MB 

and email – all without a 

PC. Delivery costs are thus 

reduced and workforce 

collaboration is enhanced 

as printing from remote 

is now possible. With 

document handling software, 

you can now view documents 

electronically just like paper 

with editing, processing and 

document search functions. 

OPTIMISATION 

OF IT DEVICES 

AND DOCUMENT 

MANAGEMENT 

By using enterprise 

document management 

solutions, you can reduce 

the need to deploy multiple 

servers. With Fuji Xerox 

Docushare, servers from 

various departments, or from 

s in various locations, 

may be combined into one 

depository. Users will be 

able to store and retrieve 

documents, and collaborate 

with their teammates 

anywhere and anytime. It 

also leads to more t 

ow and enhances 

information sharing. By 

consolidating the servers, 

power consumption is reduced 

as less servers, backup devices 

and other related network 

devices are required. 

OPTIMISATION OF 

PRINT-ON-D EMAND 

With optimisation of Printon-demand, 

the Green Oe 

Solution provides customers 

with the ability to generate 

on-demand documents, 

such as brochures, product 

information, promotional 

pamphlets and more. Thus, 

we cut down the need to 

transport printed documents 

to various locations, the 

storage space required to store 

them and reduce wastage 

of discarding outdated 

documents. 

CREATING THE GREENER 

OFFICE 

Document-related activities 

account for approximately 

70 per cent of total IT power 

 

 

 

 

 

consumption. The Green 

O Solution can help 

reduce up to 80 per cent of 

power consumption, resulting 

in reduced carbon dioxide 

emissions and operating costs. 

Fuji Xerox’s Green Oce 

Solution allows you to better 

allocate and optimise output 

devices, while reducing total 

cost, ce space, paper usage, 

power consumption, and most 

importantly C O2 emission. 

Businesses can sigy 

gain massive savings in 

time, money, manpower as 

well as strengthen security, 

streamline ww and 

reduce environmental impact. 

For more information about 

Fuji Xerox‘s Green 

Solutions, please go to: 

 

BENEFITS OF GREEN OFFICE SOLUTION 

Reduce Total Cost & Optimise Infrastructure 

Secure Information Access 

Improve and Productivity 

Reduce Carbon Footprint 

Enhance Corporate Image 


WINDOWS7 

Windows 7 finally delivers what Vista promised 

After the largest ever beta testing 

program by Microsoft, 8 

million testers, 2600 customers 

in pre-launch research studies and three 

years of waiting—Windows 7 has finally 

launched. 

In a star-studded Saturday morning 

launch event in Hong Kong last month, 

Microsoft cast off the monkey-off-itsback 

that was the much-maligned Windows 

Vista. 

Based on initial reviews and industry 

feedback, the software giant has at last 

given users, both business and consumer, 

an operating system to confidently upgrade 

to. While certainly not without its 

bugs, Windows 7 is at least convincing 

many that they can finally ditch XP—by 

far the Redmond firm’s most stable and 

successful OS ever. 

But users have been grinding away on 

XP for seven or eight years, in most cases 

preferring to stick with the reliable workhorse 

OS in fear of Vista’s many problems. 

Enterprises tentative on rollout plans but eager to move off 8-year old XP 


Entertainment star Ella Koon joins Microsoft’s Raymond Hung on stage to launch Windows 7. 

Enterprises are now clearly eager to 

move to a new platform with businesses 

in Hong Kong already rolling out Windows 

7. 

“For us, Windows 7 is a long overdue 

upgrade from Windows XP,” said Manny 

Fernandez, CTO, Li & Fung Group. “And 

the major areas [of improvement] for the 

users are performance and compatibility, 

and we’re always looking at the end user 

experience. On an IT specific area, security 

and control is another major area for 

us,” Fernandez added. Li & Fung is rolling 

out Windows 7 globally to 80 offices 

in 40 economies. 

Immediate savings 

Another of the Hong Kong early adopters 

is telecoms provider Reach who has 15 

users currently running Windows 7 with 

a full rollout to its 500 staff expected by 

next year. “For us, Windows 7 is not just 

an OS upgrade, it’s the whole package of 

encryption, the backward compatibility 

with XP and the deployment manage- 

ment framework and the remote management 

capabilities,” said Sundi Balu, CIO 

at Reach. “We had a few gaps in some of 

these areas that Windows 7 helps fill in.” 

He noted that Windows 7 has helped 

bolster security, reduce operating costs 

and had been easy to deploy on existing 

hardware as the rollout plan involves creating 

a virtual environment with applications 

and data being more centralized. In 

conjunction with Windows Server 2008 

R2, Reach will be able to deploy Windows 

7 on Windows XP-level hardware 

as well as run XP applications. 

According to Rich Reynolds General 

Manager for Windows Commercial Product 

Marketing at Microsoft, a recent analyst 

study showed that 57% of enterprises 

surveyed will begin deployment of Windows 

7 within the next 12-18 months. He 

also pointed to other early adopters who 

are already reaping returns from the new 

OS. 

Baker Tilly, the accounting firm, has 

already saved 18% on PC management 

costs since adopting Windows 7, while 

the City of Miami, estimates that the expected 

power savings of $54 per PC per 

A Windows 7 model shows off the new OS 

look and feel 


year alone can justify its Windows 7 deployment. 

Early Windows 7 deployment customers 

are already projecting cost savings. 

Direct cost savings of IT labor dedicated 

to desktop management are expected to 

range between $89 and $160 per PC annually. 

Ballmer unveils Win7 

At the Windows 7 launch in the US, 

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled 

the general availability of Windows 7 

with his usual enthusiasm, emphasizing 

ease of use, faster boot up times and the 

ability to bring together the PC and the 

television. 

Windows 7 is a long 

overdue upgrade from 

Windows XP 

– Manny Fernandez, 

Li & Fung 

Ballmer drum-beating aside, Windows 

7 has garnered some of the best reviews 

of any version of the OS. 

Enterprises, on the other hand, are a 

more complicated bunch. 

Yet despite the testing, planning and 

time-consuming complexities of an enterprise 

OS upgrade, corporate customers 

at the Windows 7 launch interviewed for 

this story are hankering to deploy Windows 

7 in their environments. 

Early adopters from different lines of 

business and at different stages of migration 

agree on three points: Windows XP 

has had its day; Vista was never worth 

it; and Windows 7 offers businesses too 

many security, networking and navigation 

features to ignore. 

XP couldn’t last forever 

Holland America Line, a US-based 

Windows 7: positively glowing 

cruise ship company with a fleet that 

travels all over the world, has been aggressively 

testing Windows 7 as part of a 

migration from Windows XP for its 3,900 

PCs across 14 cruise ships. 

Application managers in the company’s 

IT and finance departments have been 

testing Windows 7 for application compatibility 

for about a year. Though only 

20 machines run Windows 7 right now, 

IT manager Phil Norman says that a year 

from now he plans to have 50 percent of 

all machines at Holland America Line 

running Windows 7. 

“We tested Vista with a small group, 

but there were too many application compatibility 

issues. The benefit just wasn’t 

there,” says Norman, adding that Windows 

7 is a “much more usable operating 

system, with better security features.” 

Norman gives kudos to Windows XP 

for being a very stable and easy OS to 

maintain. “But only to a certain extent,” 

he says. “More and more we’re relying on 

third party vendors with XP, and it can’t 

handle newer drivers.” 

Del Monte Foods, the US-based food 

production and distribution company 

that sells canned fruits and vegetables as 

well as pet foods, is at a similar stage in 

their Windows 7 deployment as Holland 

America Line, with 45 out of its 3,000 total 

business users running Windows 7 on 

their machines. 

The other users run Windows XP. Del 

Monte plans to have Windows 7 on 1,000 

machines within a year. The company 

skipped Vista because it was “cumbersome, 

hard to use and had too many compatibility 

issues,” says David Glenn, Del 

Monte’s director of enterprise operations. 

According to Ovum’s Principal Analyst, 

Jens Butler, of greatest concern is 

the impact that running Windows 7 will 

have on existing customer business applications, 

and especially ERP offerings, 

often developed for the XP platform. 

While Ovum expects some teething 

problems for those with a large portfolio 

of in-house developed applications, much 

functionality will be retained. 

“The XP mode, still somewhat an 

unknown quantity in enterprise environments, 

has the potential to facilitate 

XP-only applications. Rigorous testing 

procedures (be they internal or externally 

provisioned) will need to be carried out to 

ensure that critical application downtime 

and impact is minimized and the line of 

business offerings fully supported,” said 

Butler. 3 

—IDG reporters contributed to this 

report 

www.cw.com.hk 


INDUSTRYPROFILE 

Local dotcom survivor flourishes 

Radica is still here because the team came up with a new focus fast 

enough during the dotcom bust, said Francis Kwok, Radica’s CEO 

By Teresa Leung 

CWHK: Radica was set up in 2000 when 

the dotcom bubble burst. How did you 

survive? 

Francis Kwok: When we first started, 

we had a recommendation-engine product 

good for companies that wanted personalization 

for their customers. As we 

saw more and more dotcom players fail, 

we chose a few markets to focus on. 

Despite the dotcom failure, the Internet 

population continued to grow. Companies 

selling electronic products or 

services such as digital cameras or telcos 

need to reach more customers on the 

Internet. That led to the development of 

our email marketing products. 

CWHK: How many employees are there 

in Radica? 

FK: More than 40. They are in Hong 

Kong, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. 

CWHK: How many of them are in 

R&D? 

FK: 80 percent in R&D and analytics. 

Staffers involved in analytics focus on 

understanding customer requirements 

and how they can be tied into our products. 

Our annual R&D budget is over 

HK$2 million. Our R&D is done in 

Hong Kong. 

CWHK: Who are your customers? 

FK: We have more than 100 customers. 

Actually more than 150 companies 

are using our e-mail marketing products 

because some advertising agen- 

cies deploy our products to do e-mail 

marketing for their clients. Some of 

our customers include LV, Fortress 

MaBelle, Chanel, Mercedez Benz, 

Bank of East Asia, Communications 

Bank, TDC, Global Sources, Paul 

Smith, SaSa, Joyce Boutique, PCCW, 

Haier, LeMeridien, JW Marriott, Holiday 

Inn, and China-based down jackets 

company Bosideng. 

CWHK: What’s the ratio of local and 

overseas customers? 

FK: 50-50. 

CWHK: Where’s your overseas presence? 

FK: We started to expand overseas 

from 2006. Now we have presence in 

Japan, China, Singapore, and Australia. 

CWHK: What issues do you face when it 

comes to overseas expansion? 

FK: Businesses overseas don’t have a 

high-level awareness of non-US software 

brands and products. People are 

surprised when they find out we are 

from Hong Kong. 

Besides, finding the right partners isn’t 

easy. Creating a product that can meet 

requirements of customers from different 

markets is also a tough task. You see, 

market peculiar features are justifiable 

when there is a critical mass. 

CWHK: What are your business and 

tech strategies? 

Radica’s Kwok: We want to acquire rather 

than be acquired 

FK: We continue to add useful, highquality 

products. Having two or three 

competitors, we differentiate by our regional 

experience that enables us to help 

our customer achieve business growth. 

As mentioned, we have large-sized 

firms as customers. The experience of 

serving them helps us a lot in enhancing 

our consultancy services. 

CWHK: Have you cut down on headcount 

to save cost recently? 

FK: We actually raised our headcount 

by 20 percent in the past two quarters 

and we hope to raise our headcount 

again by five to 10 percent in the next 

fiscal year. 

The economic situation remains tough. 

Last year we did ask our employees to 

help out by taking no-pay leaves. But 

the demand for e-mail marketing is still 

there. Our customers want value-added 

services such as consultancy. 

Besides, the impact on the China market 

isn’t as huge. We are seeing growing 

demand for e-mail marketing on the 

mainland. 

CWHK: Do you targeted to be acquired? 

FK: We want to acquire others. Our 

target is a mainland firm with business 

nature similar to ours. 3 


Virtual Office: The Benefits of an Outsourced Virtual Desktop Service 

With the increasing trend of globalization and mobility, enterprises are rethinking how desktops are 

deployed and managed. NTT Com Asia’s Virtual Office could be their solution. 

The cost of maintaining traditional 

desktops is huge - securing and 

supporting desktop computing, including 

equipment purchase, deployment, repair, 

maintenance, upgrading and replacement 

- all consume significant IT resources. 

Virtualization could be a helpful solution as 

it could significantly improve manageability 

and efficient use of human and system 

resources for enterprises. However, 

deploying a virtual desktop infrastructure 

internally is found to be nearly impossible 

for most companies due to its difficulty, 

costly and time-consuming nature. 

Outsourcing desktop virtualization 

NTT Com Asia turns virtual desktop 

infrastructure into a cost-effective, reliable 

outsourced service. The Virtual Office offers 

companies the ability to host individual 

desktops inside virtual machines that run 

on the servers at NTT Com’s premium 

data centre. Users have the flexibility to 

access their desktops remotely from any 

computer or thin client anywhere using the 

MagicConnect USB key. With the operating 

system and applications managed centrally 

www.cw.com.hk 

inside NTT Com Asia’s data 

centre, enterprises can quickly 

realize the full benefits of 

desktop virtualization without 

having to build and deploy the 

infrastructure internally. 

Reduced desktop TCO 

As enterprises no longer own 

or maintain physical assets, 

capital expenditure is greatly 

reduced and computing 

costs are shifted from fixed 

to variables. Operating costs 

are also reduced by 25- 

NTT Com Asia’s Virtual Office hosts individual desktops inside 30% annually as a result 

virtual machines that run on the servers at the company’s of reduced IT labour and 

premium data centre. 

maintenance costs as well as 

Desktop virtualization 

power consumption. 

Improved manageability and 

flexibility 

Virtual Office allows enterprises to quickly 

deploy and scale virtual PC environments to 

specific user requirements. IT administrators 

have the ability to manage users, data access 

rights and application usage dynamically. 

Users can log in from any remote thin 

client or laptop easily with a USB key and 

experience a consistent and personalized 

PC environment every time. 

Enhanced security and reliability 

By virtualizing the desktop, company data 

can be centralized on a well managed, reliable 

and secure server inside the data centre. 

No sensitive data is stored in remote 

thin client laptops and therefore information 

leakage can be prevented in case that laptop 

is lost or stolen. In short, Virtual Office 

makes company information accessible to 

mobile staff anywhere without compromising 

the security of that data. 

Disaster recovery 

Since complete desktop environments 

are centralized inside a virtual machine and 

managed in the data centre, in the event 

of disaster, recovery and redeployment of 

the PC environment can be done instantly. 

If a physical disaster strikes office premises, 

business can still be continued from 

anywhere else with all the PC operations 

and data kept intact inside the virtual machines. 

The newly launched MagicConnect remote 

access solution allows users to access 

Virtual Office anywhere and anytime in a 

secured environment. 

Virtual Office - The first total 

solution offering 

NTT Com Asia’s Virtual Office is the first 

bundled solution in the market for desktop 

virtualization. Other prominent features 

and benefits within the Virtual Office Solution 

include dedicated virtual server hosting, 

MagicConnect remote access solution, 

TeamWorks web collaboration service, SecureVault 

online backup, Endpoint Policy 

Management, Microsoft Office 2007 and 

Trend Micro Antivirus. 

Virtual Office simplifies the traditional 

large-scale desktop deployment and management, 

resulting in unprecedented TCO 

savings and IT security while delivering a 

much more consistent and reliable desktop 

environment to enterprises. 

For more information about NTT Com Asia’s Virtual Office solution, please visit 

www.ntt.com.hk or send email to promotion@ntt.com.hk 

Nov 2009 Computerworld Hong Kong 45 

Sponsored Feature

CASESTUDY 

ERP helps standardize workflow at Jackel 

Jackel is now deploying a new ERP system in phases for real-time data and workflow integration 

The lack of workflow integration 

and system silos were problems 

facing Hong Kong-based Jackel 

Group. 

Jackel Group provides firms in the beauty 

industry with offerings in components, 

packaging, and filling as well as services 

from product design and engineering all 

the way to manufacturing, filling, packaging, 

assembly, quality assurance, trade 

financing, warehousing, distribution, marketing, 

and after-sales services. 

The company used a trading system for 

handling order processing and managing 

finance process, according to Alvin Wong, 

IT manager at Jackel Group. However, the 

system wasn’t capable of coping with Jackel’s 

growth, said Wong. 

As business volume 

kept growing, Jackel felt 

a strong need for an easyto-customize 

ERP system 

silos 

that can help integrate 

workflows and manage 

the resources of product 

lifecycles from design, 

manufacturing to delivery 

to the buyers’ doorsteps, 

supply chain 

Wong noted. The firm 

picked Microsoft Dynamics 

AX because of its higher flexibility 

when it comes to customization, said 

Wong, adding that this would minimize 

workflow changes within the firm. 

Three-phase implementation 

Starting in August 2007, the first phase 

implementation of the ERP modules—including 

order processing, logistics, inventory 

management, and finance—was completed 

in January this year, said Wong, 

adding that more than 50 employees have 

Challenge: Lack of 

workflow integration; system 

By Teresa Leung 

used these modules since then. 

The company is now in secondphase 

implementation. When completed 

in January 2010, the system 

will allow 50 additional staffers 

to use modules including project 

management and management of 

sub-contracting quality control, 

said Wong. 

In October 2010 when the third 

phase is expected to complete, another 100 

employees will become users of the new 

production management module, he said. 

ERP-driven cultural changes 

Despite the minimal workflow changes 

involved, the new ERP system will bring 

changes to Jackel’s 

work culture, said veteran 

ERP consultant 

Kidd Wong, who is 

providing consultancy 

services during the 

ERP implementation. 

“One major change 

is that users now have 

to keep updating data 

so that real-time data 

will be available to all 

different departments,” 

said Kidd Wong. “Besides, users must follow 

guidelines and steps [when updating 

the data] to achieve data and workflow 

standardization.” 

Tech: Microsoft Dynamics AX 

Benefit: Efficient cost 

control, decision making, 

and management of projects, 

operations, logistics, and 

Centralized data 

As the real-time data is now stored centrally 

in one place rather than in different 

departments’ systems, project tracking 

and management are much easier and effective, 

said Kidd Wong. 

Centralized real-time data also means 

Left: Kidd Wong; Right: Alvin Wong 

more efficient month-end closing that has 

been shortened to 10 days compared with 

two months before, Kidd Wong added. 

When it comes to logistics, staffers are 

able to respond to changes immediately 

and ensure on-time delivery of products to 

customers, he noted. 

The new ERP system also allows more 

effective cost control. “The availability of 

real-time data and integrated workflows 

enable managers to know the purchase 

costs of materials or goods,” said Kidd 

Wong. “This allows them to take actions 

before purchases are confirmed if they 

aren’t justifiable.” 

In addition, the deployment also increases 

the visibility of the company’s 

supply chain. “All purchase orders can be 

viewed on the system, which alerts managers 

when materials aren’t delivered on 

time,” said Alvin Wong. 

The new ERP system’s reporting tools 

allow users to easily generate different 

kinds of reports for executives to speed up 

their decision-making process. 

Although Jackel expects more implementation 

challenges at phase three because 

of the higher number of users involved 

and the greater gap between users 

in terms of computer skills, the firm believes 

it will continue to benefit from the 

deployment, Wong concluded. 3 


A Computerworld HK event 

9 November 2009 

Level 2 (S221-S223), HKCEC 

Dynamic Data Centers: 

Turning IT Virtual. 

Green and into the Cloud. 

Platinum Sponsors 

Gold Sponsors 

Supporting Organizations 

Exhibition Sponsor Printing Sponsor Delegate Bag Sponsor 

Official Media 

For more info, please visit www.cw.com.hk 

For enquiries, please contact Connie Yip Tel: 2589 1373 Email: cyip@questexasia.com

PRODUCTWATCH 

Eyes on with Sony’s 360 degree 3D display 

By Martyn Williams of IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau) 

Sony has unveiled an impressive 

3D display that can be viewed 

from any direction. The screen 

sits in the upper half of a black, circular 

case that’s 13 centimeters in diameter 

and 27 centimeters tall—about the size 

of a small blender. Sony is keeping the 

technology used in the display under 

wraps except to say it uses an LED light 

source. The produced image appears 

to have depth to it and can be viewed 

through 360 degrees around the device. 

Objects displayed on the screen included 

a globe, car, cartoon character and 

model. Sony created the objects either in 

3D on a computer or by keeping them 

still while taking photographs from all 

around. As a result it’s possible to walk 

around the display and view each object 

from any angle on the horizontal plane. 

So, for example, when a model’s head 

was being displayed a visitor could walk 

to the other side of the screen and see the 

back of her head. 

The screen has a resolution of 

96 pixels by 128 pixels, which 

doesn’t sound like it would 

make for a very good image but 

is surprisingly good, especially 

when images of people are displayed. 

Sony has two of the displays 

on show at the DC Expo, both 

of which are early prototypes— 

and possibly the only two prototypes 

judging by the “No.1” and 

“No.2” stickers on them—but 

bigger screens could be on the 

way. 

While it has taken Sony roughly three 

years to develop the prototypes, it will 

not take a great leap to make versions 

with larger screens, said Naoya Eguchi, 

general manager of the photonics development 

department at Sony’s core device 

development group. He hinted that 

a larger version would be ready sometime 

in 2010. 

Sony sees several potential uses for 

the screen. 

“This is a very good display for educational 

purposes and there are many design 

applications,” said Ryoji Chubachi, 

vice chairman of Sony, in an interview. 

“There are so many, I’m expecting to accept 

many proposals from visitors.” 

As for when it might come to market, 

Chubachi said that for now Sony is soliciting 

ideas on how it might be used and 

then will consider future plans. 

“It all depends on the application,” he 

said regarding commercialization. “If 

we can develop a good application then 

we’ll invest more.” 3 

Clothes-folding robot 

It might earn them university credits but a robot developed 

by students in Japan won’t help dispel the 

image of the lazy student. The robot has been designed 

to fold clothes. 

The bot, called “Foldy,” works with a camera mounted 

above a flat surface. An item of clothing is laid out on the 

surface and an image of it is captured into a PC. The robot 

operator can then draw fold lines on the PC. Once that’s done 

it’s just a case of clicking a button and Foldy goes to work. 

The wheeled robot is about the size of a shoe box and has a 

pair of long grippers that it uses to grab the clothing and fold 

it. A 2D bar code sits prominently and clearly on top of the 

robot and allows the PC to control it by watching its position 

and movements through the camera. 

The robot was developed by students at Keio University 

as part of the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s Erato 

project for advanced research. It was one of several futuristic 

prototypes on show last month at the Digital Contents 

Expo in Tokyo. 3 


WHO SHOULD ATTEND 

Vice Presidents, Directors, Heads and Managers of: 

Data Protection 

Security and Information Risk 

IT 

Technology Risk 

Compliance and Legal 

Together with: 

Chief Privacy Officers 

General Counsel 

Information Lawyers and Officers 

e-Business Professionals and Lawyers 

Marketing and Human Resources Managers 

Auditors 

www.cw.com.hk 


CHINAWATCH 

Internet development: 

China’s conundrum 

Hong Kong journo co-author’s first-hand account of China’s cyberscape 

Editor’s note: This article is adapted from 

the book, “Red Wired: China’s Internet 

Revolution” (www.redwiredrevolution.com). 

The book, written by Sherman So and J 

Christopher Westland, and published by 

Marshall Cavendish, is the first to comprehensively 

survey the nature of China’s 

Internet from first-hand interviews with the 

entrepreneurs and visionaries who forged 

China’s Internet markets 

In October 2009, the market value 

of the largest Chinese Internet company—Tencent, 

at US$31 billion— 

had surpassed that of Yahoo ($24 billion) 

and was rapidly approaching that 

of eBay ($32 billion). Many Chinese 

Internet entrepreneurs have expanded 

from their niche markets to become major 

players in the industry. But how did 

this rag-tag band of entrepreneurs grow 

so successful? 

Surprisingly, because the Chinese 

government—long characterized as an 

overbearing, doctrinaire monolith—actually 

took a step back when the Internet 

took off in 1995. Of course, it expressed 

concerns about politically sensitive news 

and discourse, which at times led to blatant 

censorship. But when it comes to 

commercially important issues, the government 

knows when to get out of the 

way. 

Selective regulation 

“While regulating the Internet is important, 

government’s role is also to 

provide a healthy environment for the 

industry to grow,” said Kou Xiaowei, a 

deputy director of the General Administration 

of Press and Publication (GAPP). 

Compared to other industrial sectors in 

China, the Internet is handled with kid 

gloves. In telecoms and heavy industry, 

government entities are both regulators 

and players through state-owned enter- 

prises—China’s Internet sector has more 

freedom, is more dynamic and successful. 

All the major Internet players in China 

are private companies, many of which 

are listed on foreign stock exchanges. 

Major companies such as Sina, Ctrip, 

Baidu, Shanda, Alibaba, Tencent received 

their original investment through 

venture capitalists, ultimately going 

public on either the NASDAQ or Hong 

Kong stock exchanges. 

“There were no incumbent stateowned 

enterprises in the Internet industry,” 

said Kou. “Besides, the nature of 

Internet business is risky, [making it] 

less suitable for state-owned enterprises 

to operate. Private companies, together 

with venture capital investment, are perhaps 

more suitable.” 

Deng’s timely reforms 

Deng Xiaoping completed his “Southern 

Tour” of China’s most successful 

cities in 1992, kicking off the country’s 

economic boom. Deng’s apocryphal 

phrase, “To get rich is glorious,” took 

the public’s fancy and kicked off a wave 

of entrepreneurship. Most impressive, 

though, is the awareness and understanding 

of America’s Internet innovations 

that many of these Chinese entrepreneurs 

demonstrated. 

During the 1990s, the government felt 

that the Internet was too small to be a 


threat—according to researcher CNNIC, 

less than one percent of China’s population 

was online in 1999—and took a 

hands-off approach that the tightly controlled 

media sector envied. Government 

bureaucrats saw the Internet more as a 

technological innovation. 

The government body most involved 

at that time was the Ministry of Information 

Industry (MII), which oversaw the 

development of the country’s telecoms 

infrastructure. MII saw the Internet as 

another way of increasing China’s telecoms 

usage, and thus its own revenues. 

Imported skills, unfettered 

ambition 

With no state-owned enterprises as 

competitors, little direct government 

control, and relatively low barriers to 

entry, Chinese Internet entrepreneurs 

flourished. They had access to Silicon 

Valley’s capital and know-how, as many 

of the entrepreneurs were returnees from 

overseas. 

People like Baidu’s Robin Li, Sohu’s 

Charles Zhang, and Ctrip’s James Liang 

had been valuable members of the 

American engineering community before 

they returned to China. It was a new, 

Darwinian world where only the fittest 

survived. The result was a burgeoning 

Chinese Internet market with a bevy of 

competing services. 

The strongest players, with the most 

creative ideas and best overall performance, 

eventually dominated their 

individual sectors—Baidu for search 

engines, Taobao for online auction, Tencent 

for online chat, and Sina for online 

portals. In fact, today these companies 

are so strong that they have beaten their 

Western rivals—Google, eBay, Yahoo, 

and so on—in the battle for Chinese online 

consumer loyalty. 

China’s Internet is no longer a niche 

market. Over 25 percent of the population 

is online, according to CNNIC, and 

the numbers are increasing faster than 

anywhere else in the world. This is a 

mixed blessing, as the Internet has now 

“come to the attention of the authorities.” 

China’s government has recognized the 

Internet as a powerful media force, and 

something to be controlled. Regulation 

is no longer solely the domain of the 

business and technology friendly MII, 

which recently changed its name to the 

Ministry of Industry and Information 

Technology (MIIT). New, hard-line regulators 

are entering the fray, including 

the State Administration of Radio, Film, 

and Television (SARFT). SARFT traditionally 

regulated China’s TV stations 

and cares more about policy and political 

agenda than promoting Internet use. 

Video effect 

The change was most apparent in the 

licensing of video-sharing sites in 2008. 

SARFT initially required all videosharing 

sites to be government owned. 

Though strong protests from the industry 

forced it to cancel this strict requirement, 

a frustrating litany of requirements needed 

to be met before licenses were issued. 

SARFT even made an example of one of 

the major players, to show that it meant 

business. 56.com, the third most popular 

video-sharing site at the time, was suspended 

for a month in June 2008 before 

eventually getting its license. The effects 

were devastating—56.com lost its popularity 

and ceased to be a major player. 

Kou, however, does not think that the 

government’s role in the Internet business 

has changed fundamentally. “As 

Internet services develop and mature, 

the government can implement more 

detailed rules to regulate different Internet 

businesses,” he said. That’s what 

happened: for example, the government 

launched regulations for online news, for 

online publications, and in 2008 came 

SARFT’s new rules on video-sharing 

sites.” 

Rules and regs 

Kou believes more regulation will 

emerge in the next two to three years. 

“The Internet is like a double-edged 

sword. There is no doubt its development 

will benefit society and the people. 

But, without proper control, it can also 

have a negative impact.” 

The current regulatory environment 

reflects China’s consternation over exactly 

how much control is healthy in 

an industry. Over-controlling it would 

kill the creativity that has generated so 

much wealth, employment, and innovation. 

Under-controlling it allows media 

and technology to be used in acts that 

are harmful to society and to the government. 

The challenge facing the government 

is how far it can balance its urge to 

control the Web, while keeping entrepreneurial 

spirits flourishing. 

“Ultimately, the government does not 

want to kill the Internet industry,” said 

Kou. “We just try to rule out what is 

deemed improper.” 3 

Author bio 

Sherman So is a 

journalist and was 

previously the lead 

China technology reporter 

for the South 

China Morning Post. 

Her work allowed her 

to witness the rise of China’s Internet 

sector first-hand and to talk to many 

of the entrepreneurs and industry experts. 

She graduated at the University 

of Hong Kong before earning a MBA 

at Hong Kong University of Science 

and Technology. 

J Christopher Westland is a professor 

at the University of Illinois, with 

extensive professional experience as 

a information technology, innovation 

and financial consultant in the US, 

Europe, Latin America and Asia. 

www.cw.com.hk 


TECHREVIEW 

HP blade takes a stab at Cisco 

ProCurve security blade integrates firewall, IPS, VPN 

By David Newman, Network World (US) 

HP has an alternative to the many 

security appliances that combine 

firewall, intrusion prevention 

and VPN functions: Just put a single 

blade in the vendor’s ProCurve switch 

and be done with it. 

We assessed the HP ProCurve Threat 

Management Services zl module (TMS) 

in terms of its features, usability and 

performance. What we found is a welldesigned, 

easy-to-use implementation 

that packs most common security functions 

into a small form factor. 

The TMS lacks some newer security 

features, such as reputation filtering, and 

its forwarding performance can charitably 

be called modest. But for network 

managers facing budget constraints, the 

TMS represents a viable way to add security 

without adding more boxes. 

The TMS is a single-slot blade for 

HP’s ProCurve 5400zl and 8212zl 

modular switches. It supplies three security 

functions: stateful firewall, intrusion 

prevention system (IPS) and VPN 

concentrator. We tested the TMS in a 

ProCurve 5406zl chassis. 

The ProCurve 5406zl chassis 

Multipurpose security devices are 

nothing new, but it’s unusual to see all 

three functions in one switch module. 

For example, Cisco’s ASA 5500 multifunction 

security appliances are not 

integrated into Cisco’s switches. And 

Cisco sells separate firewall and IPS 

security blades for its Catalyst 6500 

switches, but those are higher-end devices 

with bigger performance numbers 

and bigger price tags. 

Ubuntu under the hood 

The TMS is powered by Ubuntu Linux 

running on a 2.2-GHz Intel Core 2 

Duo “Merom” CPU and 4GB of RAM. 

Those are laptop specs, not surprising 

considering the TMS’ small size. This 

engine is plenty fast for screening traffic 

on most Internet connections but 

won’t necessarily keep up with LAN 

traffic from numerous switch ports. 

Configuration can be done through a 

Web-based GUI or the command-line 

interface (CLI). Initial virtual LAN 

(VLAN) setup must be done on the 

switch rather than the TMS. Network 

architects will need to think carefully 

about which segments to protect: The 

TMS currently supports a maximum of 

19 VLANs, though HP says an increase 

to 250 VLANs is expected soon. 

Once switch setup is complete, the 

TMS handles all tasks for traffic it protects, 

including IP routing as well as 

security monitoring. The TMS supports 

Open Shortest Path First and Routing 

Information Protocol routing as well as 

its security functions. 

The TMS is a true application-layer 

gateway, something we verified by configuring 

a rule allowing HTTP traffic 

and then hitting it with non-HTTP packets 

destined to TCP Port 80. Because 

they were not part of any valid HTTP 

session, the firewall correctly dropped 

these packets. 

The IPS function combines signatureand 

anomaly-based threat detection. Curiously, 

the anomaly-based controls are 

binary: All anomaly checks are either 

always on or off, depending on whether 

the IPS is enabled. In contrast, signatures 

can be individually enabled and 

disabled. Always-on anomaly checking 

is a good thing, though presumably it 

has some performance cost. 

The signature library comprises nearly 

5,000 entries grouped into a dozen 

vulnerability categories such as backdoors, 

viruses, malware, and recon attacks. 

HP offers a subscription service 

to update signatures. 

The VPN concentrator function 

focuses mainly on setting up IPSec 

tunnels, though the TMS also supports 

generic routing encapsulation 

(GRE) tunneling using firewall 

rules. It also supports layer-2 tunneling 

protocol (L2TP) in conjunction 

with IPSec. 


TECHREVIEW 

Test results 

In performance and security testing, 

we assessed the TMS both as a firewall 

and combined firewall/IPS. Due to 

time and hardware constraints, we did 

not test two other TMS features: High 

availability and IPSec-based VPNs. 

We evaluated TMS performance 

with stateless UDP and stateful TCP 

tests. UDP testing produces best-case 

numbers, but TCP testing is a far better 

predictor of performance in enterprise 

settings. 

HTTP forwarding rates are a measure 

of how fast users get their Web content. 

In firewall-only mode, the TMS moved 

Web traffic to 500 simulated users at 

around 1.677Gbps. That’s lower than 

the 3Gbps claimed on the TMS’s data 

sheet, probably because that number 

was obtained with UDP. Since TCP 

traffic is stateful, the firewall consumes 

more cycles keeping track of each connection. 

When we tested with the TMS configured 

as a firewall and IPS, HTTP 

transfer rates fell to 1.206Gbps, around 

28% slower than in firewall-only mode. 

This IPS performance penalty is not unusual; 

in fact, it’s consistent with prior 

Network World tests. 

Our final rate test involved HTTP 

traffic blended with an attack from the 

Net Results 

HP ProCurve Threat Management 

Series ZL module 

HP, www.hp.com 

Score: 3.8 

Pros: Combines firewall, VPN and IPS in one 

blade, easy to use, high TCP scalability 

Cons: Low forwarding rates; fit and finish bugs 

in UI 

Scoring Key: 5: Exceptional; 4: Very good; 3: Average; 

2: Below average; 1: Subpar or not available 

Spirent TestCenter application. We 

used a variation on the well-known 

Code Red attack against Microsoft’s 

IIS Web server on the principle that 

any IPS should be able to block it. As a 

twist, we used a Code Red variant that 

seeks to cloak itself within a stream of 

malformed Unicode characters. 

Commendably, the HP blade recognized 

the cloaking effort for what it 

was and dropped attack traffic before 

Code Red could install itself. The IPS 

A well-designed, easy-to-use implementation that 

packs most common security functions into a small 

form factor 

correctly logged the attack while forwarding 

HTTP traffic at 1.138Gbps, 

or around 6% slower than the same 

test without attacks. However, the actual 

performance cost is really only 4%, 

since attack traffic comprised 2% of the 

total. 

So, even though the TMS is a modest 

performer relative to the switches 

that house it, it may well be adequate 

depending on the traffic rates it handles. 

HP says higher rates are possible by 

using up to four TMS modules 

in a switch chassis and 

assigning separate security 

zones to each chassis, but we 

did not verify this. 

Forwarding rates are only 

one measure of performance. 

We also examined connection 

setup rate and concurrent 

connections. For enterprises 

with e-commerce and 

other transaction-based applications, 

connection setup 

rate often is more important 

than forwarding rate. 

As a firewall, the TMS set up 18,000 

new connections per second (cps), easily 

exceeding HP’s claim of 15,000. As 

a firewall and IPS, the security blade set 

up around 7,000 cps, around 2.5 times 

slower than the firewall-only rate. 

Our final performance test measured 

the maximum number of connections 

the firewall can track at any one time. 

This is a key metric for large server 

farms and transaction-processing applications. 

HP says the TMS can handle 

up to 600,000 concurrent TCP connections. 

The TMS came close to that figure, 

with an average of 569,000 connections 

established in firewall mode and 

574,000 connections in firewall/IPS 

mode. In a few other test trials, the firewall/IPS 

number was around the same 

or slightly lower. In any event, connection 

capacity is one measure where 

intrusion prevention extracts no higher 

cost. 

Rather than pure performance, integration 

of multiple security functions 

is the TMS’s major feature. It’s a good 

choice for network professionals looking 

to add multiple security functions 

into the switched and routed infrastructure, 

especially where adding yet another 

box isn’t an option. 3 

Newman is president of Network Test, 

a benchmarking and network design 

consultancy. He can be reached at 

dnewman@networktest.com 

www.cw.com.hk 


For enquiries, please call Connie Yip at 9407 5454. 

E-mail: cyip@questexasia.com 




 

©2009, Lantronix, Inc. Lantronix is a registered trademark, and DeviceInstaller, Evolution OS and Com Port Redirector are trademarks of Lantronix, Inc. 

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Specifications subject to change without notice. All rights reserved. 

www.cw.com.hk 




R 


VIEWPOINT CHARLES MOK 

Should IP addresses constitute personal data? 

The government’s consultation paper for the review of 

the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (PDPO) is long 

overdue. The ordinance was passed in 1996, before the 

Internet became popular—let alone Web 2.0 and social media—and 

is thus far behind public awareness and expectation 

by the. 

The public naturally wants “maximum protection,” but as the 

consultation document rightfully states: “balance is needed between 

safeguarding personal data privacy and facilitating continued 

development of information and communications tech- 

 

in spite of technological change”—that is, it should maintain 

technological neutrality. 

Sensitive data 

Nonetheless, the IT sector is among the sectors most directly 

affected by this ordinance. An example: the proposal in the con- 

 

“sensitive personal data”—a new introduction to the ordinance 

that would call for a higher degree of protection by the data users, 

and hence heavier punishment in case of data-leakage. The 

government’s rationale is that such biometric data are inalterable, 

thus damage caused to data-owners would be severe and 

permanent. 

However, why single out biometric data to be made “sensitive,” 

while in other jurisdictions such as Australia and the UK, sensitive 

personal data includes criminal records, racial or ethnic origin, political 

opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership in 

trade unions, health information, and sexual orientation? 

 

 

technology in schools for attendance keeping, the effects have 

Charles Mok is 

the president 

of Internet 

Society Hong 

Kong, and 

 

Member 

of the Hong Kong Information 

Technology Federation. He 

has been in the IT industry for 

almost 20 years, and is active in 

a number of advisory committees 

and statutory bodies of the 

HKSAR government 

already been chilling 

for local companies 

providing such solutions. 

While the PCO 

guidelines maintains 

that biometric solutions 

are acceptable as long 

as it is not mandatory, 

or that such high level of 

secure access control is 

 

nonetheless many biometric 

solution provid- 

ers have simply seen their business dry up since this summer. 

Another main concern for the IT sector is the proposal to regulate 

data processors—such as application developers, Internet service 

or web hosting providers, which provide outsourced services to the 

actual data users that hold the personal data of the subjects. Previously, 

data processors were not regulated by the ordinance. With 

the advent of cloud computing, this is a void to be addressed. 

All users affected 

Should data processors be regulated directly by the ordinance, 

or indirectly—meaning the data user must “ensure that its data 

processors provide security protection to personal data at a level 

comparable to itself,” as required by the ordinance? Data subjects 

would have redress against data users, who would in turn 

have redress under contractual law with the data processor. 

The IT sector is among the sectors most 

directly affected by this ordinance 

There are many other areas in the consultation that will affect 

all businesses handling any type of personal data, including 

its customers and employees. For instance, should there 

be mandatory disclosure to data subjects in case of a breach? 

Also, the document proposes further empowering the Privacy 

Commissioner by making it an offense in cases of unauthorized 

obtaining, disclosure and sale of personal data—or repeated 

contravention of a data protection principle—and allowing the 

Commissioner to impose monetary penalty on serious contravention 

of data protection principles. 

However, the document also reveals some recommendations 

made by the Commissioner but not taken up by the government—the 

IT sector should consider whether IP addresses constitute 

personal data. While IP addresses by themselves won’t 

identify users, there are circumstances where combined with 

other data, IP addresses will be critical in identifying their users. 

It is unfortunate that the government has chosen not to even consult 

this important issue, which would produce better guidelines 

for the industry going forward. 

The Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance consultation document 

is at http://www.cmab.gov.hk/doc/issues/PDPO_Consultation_ 

Document_en.pdf and the deadline for responses is November 

30, 2009. 

www.cw.com.hk 


BACKPAGE ROBERT CLARK 

Take the social media challenge 

Your avatar needs a dress code 

Miley Cyrus has closed her Twitter account so she 

can keep control of her personal life. 

Gartner has called on businesses to take control 

of their employees’ avatars. The US has introduced disclosure 

rules for bloggers. The Singapore government is considering 

them. 

 

Tidy avatars 

It looks like the end of the go-go years for social media and 

Web 2.0 in general. Web 1.0 was about people getting online, 

and Web 2.0 is about making the user an essential part of the 

experience. Now it’s reality-check time as we bump up against 

the limitations of 2.0. 

Gartner forecasts 70% of businesses 

will have virtual world behavior 

guidelines by 2013 

One sign: celebrities who joined the Twitter craze because 

everyone else did. But Miley decided to put some distance between 

her and her impressionable demographic. 

Gartner’s signal is enterprise-oriented. Second Life might be 

strewn with abandoned avatars, but avatars on IM clients and 

 

into business environments and will have far-reaching implications—from 

policy to dress code, behavior and computing 

platform requirements.” 

Even virtual worlds will soon become important enough 

for businesses to take them seriously. Gartner forecasts 70% 

of businesses will have virtual world behavior guidelines by 

2013. 

Netopia 2.0 

The new rules in the USA requiring bloggers to disclose commercial 

interests don’t affect business bloggers, but they’re a 

 

We’ve been here before. If you can remember in the early 

bates 

about whether the Net even needed any rules at all. Vow- 

 

I’ve ever heard), Netopians warned of the dangers of allowing 

big business and government interests to invade cyberspace. 

I remember a decade ago coming across an opinion piece 

 

 

forecasts of the great digital future, or tips on how to set up a 

Web site, today they dispense earnest advice on how to deal 

with the social media world. 

 

an online dress code. 

The social media curve 

The use of social media is already advanced in Hong Kong. 

The local association of interactive marketing says 32% of 

panies—Facebook 

and Xanga are the favorite social networking 

sites. 

If you’re a CIO you might have worked with the corp comm 

guys to set policies for company bloggers. Now someone has 

stay on top of what’s being said about your organization on 

Facebook or Twitter and be able to respond, whether via company 

blogs, the media, customer mail outs or some other. Your 

corp comms colleagues are going to need more help. 

 

 

with the market in terms of sharing information, fast-tracking 

problems, and responding to questions.” 

If yours is an FMCG company you’ve surely already feeling 

the heat. If your business has a footprint in mainland 

 

 

complex, but just as important—bad 

news travels fast across tight-knit industry 

groups. 

Companies like Trackur, Jive Software, 

and Backtype offer various kind 

of online reputation management or 

tracking tools, although not yet in Chinese-language. 

For CIOs, staying ahead of the social 

media curve is a bit of a stretch from the 

traditional role. But then, so is everything 

else the CIO does these days. 

Robert Clark is 

a Hong Kongbased 

technology 

journalist. 

rclark@electricspeech.com 


Hong Kong’s Source of IT Insight 

www.cw.com.hk 

technews 

techguide 

techfeature 

industryevent 

biznews 

viewpoint 

bizpeople 

analystwatch 

industryprofile 

www.cw.com.hk

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