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viewpoint Should IP addresses constitute personal data? page 57<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s source of IT insight http://www.cw.com.hk Nov 10, 2009 • Vol XXVI No 9 Price HK$40<br />
40th anniversary of the<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
<strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
From “EDP” to “ICT”:<br />
four decades of tech<br />
excellence Page 16<br />
SINCE 1984 SINCE 1984<br />
bizpeople<br />
Meet ‘The Fixer’<br />
for troubled IT projects<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Page 10<br />
chinawatch<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong> development:<br />
China’s conundrum<br />
Page 50<br />
backwatch<br />
Your avatar<br />
needs a dress code<br />
Page 58<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 1
2 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
c o n t e n t s November 2009<br />
Cover image courtesy of IBM <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>:<br />
Kam Leung, one of the first four employees to<br />
join IBM <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, ferries an IBM electric<br />
typewriter across the Victoria Harbor to a<br />
Norwegian ship<br />
40th anniversary of the<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
<strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
From “EDP” to “ICT”: four decades of tech excellence<br />
Page 16<br />
Cover story contents:<br />
16 HK<br />
CS: 40 yea<br />
ears<br />
of Ho<br />
ng Kon<br />
ong IT<br />
20 Ho<br />
ng Kon<br />
ong hi<br />
gh tec<br />
h in the<br />
60<br />
s an<br />
d 70s<br />
24 IT pav<br />
aves<br />
way<br />
to the top<br />
28 IT—B<br />
—Black<br />
box<br />
mys<br />
tiqu<br />
que<br />
30 ICT Aw<br />
ards<br />
ds: el<br />
evat<br />
atin<br />
g indu<br />
stry<br />
and indi<br />
divi<br />
vidu<br />
dual<br />
s<br />
32 El<br />
evat<br />
atin<br />
ing IT’s<br />
pro<br />
rofe<br />
fess<br />
ssiona<br />
l st<br />
atus<br />
36 In pic<br />
ictu<br />
res:<br />
40 ye<br />
ar<br />
s of IT<br />
38 No<br />
bel wi<br />
nner<br />
er: Char<br />
les Ka<br />
o<br />
Check: www.cw.com.hk for daily news<br />
and online features.<br />
4 upfront<br />
Finally, Windows 7<br />
6 biznews<br />
8 technews<br />
10 bizpeople<br />
Meet ‘The Fixer’ for<br />
troubled IT projects<br />
His job is to “either killor-cure”<br />
tech projects<br />
that have gone awry<br />
42 windows7<br />
Windows 7 finally delivers what Vista<br />
promised<br />
44 industryprofile<br />
Local dotcom survivor flourishes<br />
Radica is still here because the team<br />
came up with a new focus fast enough<br />
during the dotcom bust<br />
46 casestudy<br />
ERP helps standardize workflow at<br />
Jackel<br />
Jackel is now deploying a new ERP<br />
system in phases for real-time data and<br />
workflow integration<br />
48 productwatch<br />
Clothes-folding robot and eyes on with<br />
Sony’s 360 degree 3D display<br />
50 chinawatch<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong> development: China’s<br />
conundrum<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> journo co-author’s first-hand<br />
account of China’s cyberscape<br />
52 techreview<br />
HP blade takes a stab at Cisco<br />
ProCurve security blade integrates<br />
firewall, IPS, VPN<br />
57 viewpoint<br />
Should IP addresses constitute<br />
personal data?<br />
Charles Mok on proposed changes to the<br />
Privacy Ordinance<br />
58 backpage<br />
Take the social media challenge<br />
Your avatar needs a dress code<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
.co<br />
mh<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 3
UPFRONT STEFAN HAMMOND<br />
Finally, Windows 7<br />
Stefan Hammond<br />
Editor<br />
shammond@<br />
questexasia.com<br />
Last month saw the release-to-market of Windows 7. How important is the<br />
new OS?<br />
Some view W7 as the most important OS since Windows 95. I remember<br />
that debut—the hoopla was inescapable. Someone told me a friend of his stood in<br />
line for hours to get a copy of Windows 95. “The strange thing,” said my friend, “is<br />
that he doesn’t even own a computer!”<br />
Windows 7 is not only eagerly anticipated by consumers, SMBs and enterprises,<br />
but by PC manufacturers as well. Market share for Windows XP—which debuted<br />
in 2001—is still over 70%, as demand for its successor, Windows Vista, has been<br />
underwhelming.<br />
In the tech world, where two or three years of hardware use often leads to a refreshcycle.<br />
But Microsoft’s XP has proven a durable OS that users are loathe to abandon.<br />
With a minimum of RAM (and regularly patched, with Service Pack 3 installed), XP<br />
is the most stable Microsoft OS I’ve used—except for an NT<br />
installation maintained constantly by a quartet of ace technicians<br />
(no coincidence: XP’s the first Microsoft consumeroriented<br />
operating system built on the Windows NT kernel<br />
and architecture).<br />
As enterprises and SMBs prepare for hardware-refresh cycles,<br />
they should be ready for PCs to arrive with W7 preloaded.<br />
There’s more info on our Windows 7 site (http://www.<br />
cw.com.hk/term/Windows+7), but XP users should be aware<br />
that installing W7 will involve a clean-reinstall.<br />
This is why PC manufacturers are enthused by Windows<br />
7. Most of XP-boxes are near the end of their useful life, and<br />
most copies of Windows 7 will come with a new PC attached. If you’ve been holding<br />
off a hardware-refresh because of Vistaphobia, that excuse has expired. Sure, you<br />
may want to wait a bit and see how mass-deployments of W7 play out among your<br />
peers. But so far, initial reports are largely positive. Check out “Windows 7 migration:<br />
Four planning tips” at http://www.cw.com.hk/content/windows-7-migrationfour-planning-tips.<br />
Of course, Windows 7 isn’t the only OS out there. Apple’s new Snow Leopard (OS<br />
X 10.6) is wicked-fast and while you’re tied to Apple hardware (and increasingly,<br />
Apple software for certain interfaces and functions), Snow Leopard comes in both<br />
desktop and server versions and leverages Intel’s multicore processors efficiently.<br />
While Linux has proven itself in the server space, the desktop-Linuxtistas seem too<br />
busy arguing over the relative merits of Karmic Koala versus Mint to notice that<br />
they’ve yet to collectively crack the 1% market-share level.<br />
It’s your business and your choice. But the debut of Windows 7 is a welcome boost<br />
to the tech-sector.<br />
http://www.cw.com.hk<br />
<strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> is published by Questex Asia Ltd, 501 Cambridge<br />
House, Taikoo Place, 979 King’s Road, Quarry Bay, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
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EDITORIAL<br />
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Chee Sing Chan cchan@questexasia.com<br />
EDITOR<br />
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4 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 5
NEWS<br />
newsbites<br />
Sun to cut 3,000 jobs<br />
Sun will lay off up to 3,000 workers over<br />
the next 12 months as Oracle awaits approval<br />
from European regulators for its<br />
acquisition of the company. Sun is losing<br />
US$100 million a month while it awaits<br />
approval for the deal, Oracle CEO Larry<br />
Ellison said last month, so news of the<br />
layoffs came as no great surprise. In a filing<br />
with US regulators recently, Sun said<br />
the move will “better align the company’s<br />
resources with its strategic business<br />
objectives.”<br />
Managed telepresence grows<br />
fast in Asia<br />
The telepresence-based videoconferencing<br />
services market is estimated to reach<br />
US$190 million in Asia Pacific by 2014,<br />
42 percent of the global market worth<br />
US$450 million, said Ovum recently. The<br />
research firm forecasts that revenues from<br />
suite-based videoconferencing (including<br />
telepresence) are outstripping revenues for<br />
desktop videoconferencing in Asia Pacific<br />
and will be worth 53 percent of total business<br />
videoconferencing revenues of $360<br />
million in the region in 2012.<br />
Excelsior taps QlikTech<br />
Taiwan-based Excelsior Healthcare Group<br />
has chosen QlikTech to manage its business<br />
information across all departments.<br />
Excelsior uses QlikView for financial<br />
analysis for consolidated financial reporting;<br />
supply chain analysis to analyze<br />
demand planning, procurement, supplier<br />
performance, logistics and fulfillment; and<br />
warehousing and inventory management.<br />
Ñ HONG KONG<br />
IDC: IT to create 21,000 new jobs in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
The IT industry will create 21,000<br />
new jobs in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> over the<br />
next four years, among the massive<br />
number of 5.8 million jobs worldwide,<br />
according to findings of a global<br />
study by IDC.<br />
The expected growth rate for IT employment<br />
of 3 percent a year is more<br />
than 16 times the rate of growth of total<br />
employment in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> and is<br />
a strong indicator that investing in IT<br />
will contribute to economic recovery<br />
and growth, said IDC.<br />
Besides, IT-related activities will generate<br />
HK$14 billion in taxes in 2009,<br />
said IDC, adding that over the next four<br />
years that means more than HK$8 bil-<br />
Ñ HONG KONG<br />
Senior business executives in <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> aren’t optimistic about the<br />
sustainability of the recovery in<br />
their local economy, according to findings<br />
of an EIU (Economist Intelligence<br />
Unit) survey sponsored by SAP.<br />
The EIU conducted an online survey<br />
of senior business executives across Asia<br />
and Australasia in June and July 2009.<br />
According to the organization, the survey<br />
attracted 258 CEOs, COOs, CFOs, chief<br />
risk officers and other managers from<br />
a wide variety of industries and markets—23<br />
percent of respondents came<br />
from Australia and New Zealand; 22 percent<br />
from India; 16 percent from Japan;10<br />
lion in aggregate <strong>net</strong> new taxes.<br />
The IDC study, commissioned by Microsoft,<br />
investigated the contribution of<br />
IT to GDP, job creation in the IT industry,<br />
employment in the software sector,<br />
formation of new companies, local IT<br />
spending, and tax revenues in 52 countries,<br />
representing 98 percent of total<br />
worldwide IT spending, said Microsoft.<br />
In addition, IT spending is expected to<br />
grow at triple the rate of GDP growth,<br />
said IDC, adding that IT spending in<br />
2009 will be HK$38 billion. From<br />
the end of 2008 to the end of 2013, IT<br />
spending will grow 2.6 percent a year,<br />
compared to GDP growth of 0.9 percent<br />
a year, the research house noted. 3<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> execs: Current recovery isn’t sustainable<br />
percent from China; 7 percent each from<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> and Singapore; and the remaining<br />
15 percent from rest of Asia.<br />
Survey results revealed that only 17 percent<br />
of respondents in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> think the<br />
current recovery will be sustainable, compared<br />
with 60 percent in China and India.<br />
Asia as a region is ambivalent about the<br />
apparent economic recovery, said EIU.<br />
While about one-third of respondents<br />
believe they are seeing a sustainable<br />
rebound in their country of residence,<br />
another one-third question whether the<br />
recovery is sustainable, said EIU, adding<br />
that a sizeable 27 percent don’t even<br />
think there is a recovery.<br />
6 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 7<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
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Ñ HONG KONG<br />
IT spending will reach HK$38 billion in<br />
2009 in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, IDC estimated<br />
Ñ GLOBAL<br />
Survey: Windows 7 migration plan incomplete<br />
A<br />
large number of companies plan<br />
to move to Windows 7, but many<br />
of them have no solid plans for<br />
when they will do it, according to a recent<br />
Forrester survey.<br />
The issue is one of preparation to accommodate<br />
the new operating system,<br />
which shipped recently to consumers but<br />
has been available to volume licensing<br />
customers since late August.<br />
“There is a lot of work to get your applications<br />
and hardware compatible with<br />
the new operating system … especially for<br />
organizations that support XP and did not<br />
do a lot of application compatibility testing<br />
when Vista was released,” said Benjamin<br />
Gray, the Forrester analyst who conducted<br />
the survey with 653 PC decision-makers at<br />
North American and European enterprises<br />
and small-to-midsize businesses.<br />
The survey shows that 66 percent of companies<br />
plan to move to Win 7, but of those<br />
companies, a whopping 49 percent say they<br />
have no specific migration plans yet.<br />
“I suspect most of those organizations are<br />
in the relatively early stages of application<br />
compatibility testing and remediation and<br />
they are determining if it will be 12, 16 or 18<br />
months to get there. But as soon as they are<br />
ready they are going to move to Windows<br />
7,” Gray said.<br />
Steve Kleynhans, an analyst with Gartner,<br />
said users in the evaluation stage should<br />
think about including 64-bit testing. Win 7<br />
supports both 32-bit and 64-bit processors.<br />
“The bottom line is that at some point in<br />
the next five years you very likely will be<br />
moving to a 64-bit operating environment<br />
and Windows 7 may be the right time to<br />
make the move,” Kleynhans wrote in his<br />
blog. “At the very least everyone should<br />
include one 64-bit environment in their<br />
testing matrix. While it may not be the right<br />
time to make the move, it is certainly the<br />
right time to start preparing for the inevitable<br />
64-bit shift.”<br />
Gartner polled 400 attendees to one of<br />
its recent Webcasts and found 34 percent<br />
planned to mostly deploy 32-bit, while 13<br />
percent were planning mostly on 64-bit.<br />
The other 52 percent were undecided.<br />
Forrester’s Gray said there are a number<br />
of wild cards that could influence the ebb<br />
and flow of upgrades. He thinks the vast<br />
majority of upgrades will tie into the natural<br />
PC refresh cycle, “so if users are not buying<br />
PCs they will not be buying Windows 7.”<br />
Gartner predicts that Win 7 will have<br />
minimal impact on worldwide PC sales<br />
from October through December.<br />
In addition, Gray said organizations that<br />
are embracing Windows Server 2008 R2<br />
are likely to move faster to Win 7 in order<br />
to take advantage of features that work with<br />
the server such as Branch Cache and Direct<br />
Access. 3<br />
newsbites<br />
IBM: Enhanced storage<br />
virtualization gear<br />
The latest version of IBM’s SAN<br />
Volume Controller will enable enterprise<br />
users to put solid-state devices<br />
inside the SVC, promising a huge<br />
performance boost with or without<br />
flash storage. The SVC 5.0 also<br />
has upgrades that will enhance the<br />
performance of hard disk drives in the<br />
virtualized storage environment.<br />
Avaya: UC for SMBs<br />
Avaya has launched the Aura System<br />
Platform, a mid-sized, single-server<br />
unified communications product that<br />
is designed for companies with as<br />
few as 100 employees. The product is<br />
scalable, however, and can support up<br />
to 2,400 users in 250 locations. It uses<br />
standards-based virtualization technology<br />
for real-time communications.<br />
Enterasys upgrades<br />
Ether<strong>net</strong> switches<br />
Enterasys has upgraded its Ether<strong>net</strong><br />
switch line via the introduction of the<br />
S-Series switches, which are targeted<br />
for converged <strong>net</strong>works, including the<br />
heavily virtualized ones. The S-Series<br />
promises an almost fourfold boost in<br />
switching capacity and a tenfold increase<br />
in throughput as compared with<br />
its predecessor, the N-Series. The S-<br />
Series also features a 10G port density<br />
and comes with improved policy-based<br />
security features.<br />
8 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
‘Maximize IT Efficiency in Virtualized Environments’<br />
Workshop Series<br />
Sep-Dec 2009<br />
Maximize IT Efficiency in<br />
Virtualized Environments<br />
In today’s digital world, ‘Virtualization’ has become the magic<br />
word for businesses which strive to ensure business continuity,<br />
while boosting greater value and performance at lower<br />
costs. Jointly organized by EMC and VMware, the ‘Maximize<br />
IT Efficiency in Virtualized Environments” Workshop Series will<br />
run from September to December, providing IT professionals<br />
with insights into the latest trends and technologies surrounding<br />
virtualization – from disaster recovery, backup and data deduplication,<br />
to security and IT management.<br />
Upcoming Workshops:<br />
Nov 13 • Save Costs and Boost Efficiency with<br />
(Friday) Improved Infrastructure Manageability,<br />
Security and Compliance in Virtualized<br />
Environments<br />
Dec 11 • Virtualized desktop environments<br />
(Friday) and IT management skills<br />
Time: 2:30pm – 5:00pm<br />
Venue: Cliftons, Level 33, 9 Queen’s Road Central,<br />
Central, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
Organizers: EMC <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> and VMware <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
Medium: Cantonese<br />
Website: hk.emc.com.<br />
All participants will receive a stylish EMC Mini Speaker (Nov 13)<br />
or EMC Diary 2010 (Dec 11). Attendees will also have the opportunity<br />
of winning a CitySuper shopping voucher.<br />
For more information, please contact Ms Cheng at<br />
2839-5125 or email to hkcontact@emc.com<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 9
BIZPEOPLE<br />
Meet ‘The Fixer’ for troubled IT projects<br />
His job as an objective third party is to “either kill-or-cure” tech projects that have gone awry<br />
By Thomas Wailgum, CIO.com<br />
Jason Coyne describes his unusual<br />
job in many ways: Marriage counselor.<br />
The Equalizer. Relationship<br />
guru. Project conscience. Resolution<br />
manager. The Fixer.<br />
Coyne’s job as an objective third party<br />
is to “either kill-or-cure” tech projects<br />
that have gone awry. The managing<br />
partner at UK-based Evolution Project<br />
Consulting firm claims to have worked<br />
on more than 500 different projects in<br />
the UK and abroad since the 1990s. “Not<br />
all disputes,” Coyne adds, “but most of<br />
them have been.”<br />
CIO.com spoke with Coyne about the<br />
ill-fated patterns and emotional traps<br />
that most tech implementation teams<br />
fall prey to, how he “sells” himself to<br />
his customers, and why companies often<br />
forget about a project’s original goals<br />
during implementations<br />
CIO.com: How do you describe your<br />
job?<br />
Jason Coyne: I describe it as “marriage<br />
guidance for technology agreements.”<br />
Just as different, diverse people come<br />
together in a marriage, different and<br />
diverse organizations come together to<br />
form a project. And when there’s fallout,<br />
they need somebody independent to help<br />
mediate and resolve the disputes.<br />
I just help people understand why<br />
they’re in this relationship, this agreement.<br />
Usually, they lose sight of what<br />
their goals are—I bring that back to the<br />
forefront of the attention and they start<br />
focusing on the common goals.<br />
CIO.com: Who typically hires you?<br />
Coyne: Generally it’s the purchasing<br />
party, sometimes the technology vendor<br />
or systems integrator. But [my services<br />
can be hired] for anything to do with<br />
technology and a commercial dispute, if<br />
there’s a contract and a legal agreement<br />
in place.<br />
CIO.com: How did you get into this?<br />
Coyne: I started as a fourth-generation<br />
language programmer—creating business<br />
control software, accounting and<br />
manufacturing software in the late<br />
1980s. I didn’t really enjoy programming,<br />
but I saw how things got created<br />
and implemented a number of these systems<br />
I helped develop.<br />
In the early ‘90s, one of the systems<br />
I’d helped build ended up getting into<br />
dispute. One of the companies found me<br />
and [asked me] to give evidence about<br />
the way the software was put together, so<br />
I gave evidence in a trial of the software<br />
that I helped write.<br />
CIO.com: Why do companies contact you?<br />
Coyne: The more visionary customers<br />
understand that I will likely know how<br />
to steer them through the murky waters<br />
of their technology implementation and<br />
how to avoid [failure] in the future.<br />
I’m working with some major global<br />
companies on dispute-avoidance, as “the<br />
voice of reason” on a monthly or sixweek<br />
basis. It helps people see what’s<br />
important to the project, because project<br />
teams invariably get too involved in the<br />
details, and lose sight of the direction of<br />
where the project is actually going.<br />
CIO.com: Do you usually get a warm or<br />
frosty reception?<br />
Coyne: Historically I’ve been the customers’<br />
champion, and in court cases,<br />
I’ve generally been acting as counsel to<br />
the customer against the big, bad technology<br />
supplier that’s let them down.<br />
So often it’s a frosty reception from the<br />
computer vendors.<br />
CIO.com: How do you sell yourself to all<br />
these groups of people involved?<br />
Coyne: I’ve got to demonstrate credibility,<br />
and the way to do that is to show<br />
them that I’m vehemently independent.<br />
I might be instructed by the purchasing<br />
organization (the end-user) or when I<br />
might be instructed by the technology<br />
provider (the supplier). But if either of<br />
the parties has failed to discharge their<br />
obligations to the agreement, then I will<br />
be constructively critical of either party.<br />
The way that I convince people to<br />
contract with me is to explain to them<br />
continued on page 12 4<br />
10 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
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To cope with the high uncertainty, ASL had<br />
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“This is unusual given the high cost of manpower<br />
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Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 11
BIZPEOPLE<br />
4 continued from page 10<br />
that I’ve seen practically every different<br />
type of dispute stage. My standard sell<br />
is a 12-week exercise. At the end of 12<br />
weeks, we’ll have either cured or killed<br />
the project. And I exit, with the project<br />
either back on track or killed.<br />
Sometimes when I exit, I’m sending<br />
in lawyers to deal with termination [of<br />
the project]. But more often than not,<br />
I’m handing it back to the project managers,<br />
and am retained as the “program<br />
conscience.”<br />
CIO.com: With large enterprise software<br />
projects, what patterns do people<br />
and teams fall into?<br />
Coyne: When the project starts, the<br />
[technology-buying] organization sets<br />
out clear outcomes. You see strategiclooking<br />
documents on anticipated success:<br />
a percentage increase in the way we<br />
do this type of process; greater efficiency<br />
here, greater visibility of doing business<br />
there; faster this, that and the other thing.<br />
That’s a very positive stage.<br />
But then what generally happens is<br />
that detail-oriented techies get involved<br />
and business objectives get boiled down<br />
to technical function. The danger is that<br />
people end up contracting or creating an<br />
agreement to deliver technical function,<br />
and that’s how the “success” of the project<br />
is measured: on the amount of technical<br />
functions delivered. Often, there’s a<br />
loss of vision into why the project was<br />
started in the first place.<br />
So the business concept we were trying<br />
to achieve—greater visibility to the<br />
directors or executives, or new business<br />
processes—is often lost, and that’s<br />
where a project starts to fail.<br />
CIO.com: That’s where you come in?<br />
Coyne: You must remind the project<br />
team what they are aiming for. In disputes,<br />
the customer wants to protect the<br />
project’s objectives. But often the supplier<br />
says: “We contracted to deliver you a<br />
module that delivers XYZ functionality,<br />
and we delivered that, therefore we’ve<br />
discharged our contractual obligations.”<br />
But the customer will often say: “Yes,<br />
but this CRM system that you delivered<br />
doesn’t deliver on those [original]<br />
high-level objectives.” But [the supplier]<br />
didn’t contract for these high-level objectives;<br />
they’ve just delivered a CRM<br />
system with these modules in it. That’s<br />
the disconnect.<br />
I’ve got to demonstrate<br />
credibility, and the<br />
way to do that is to<br />
show them that I’m<br />
vehemently independent<br />
CIO.com: Is there a way to fix that?<br />
Coyne: When there’s a disagreement<br />
about the deliverables, I have a process<br />
I call “alignment of objectives”: supplier<br />
and customer go through a matrix<br />
of strategic, operational and functional<br />
objectives. The customer is responsible<br />
for the strategic objective, there’s a partnership<br />
[of all involved] on operational<br />
objectives, and the technology vendor is<br />
responsible for functional objectives.<br />
This process forces people to focus on<br />
the reasons they entered into the project.<br />
It generally gets universal buy-in because<br />
[by this point] the tech vendor sees<br />
they will never going get the project delivered<br />
unless they understand what the<br />
customer is trying to achieve.<br />
CIO.com: How do you deal with the<br />
emotional baggage of these expensive,<br />
career-threatening project failures?<br />
Coyne: Customers always say that the<br />
vendor—prior to signing the contract—<br />
told them they understood the project,<br />
understood the business, have implemented<br />
similar systems in the past, and<br />
described the great ROIs other companies<br />
have seen. Pre-sale, they’ll also tell<br />
customers they’ll get “the A team’ [of<br />
tech-workers]. But then once the contract<br />
is signed, the customer gets the B<br />
team, because the A team went off to sell<br />
the next system.<br />
Customers get emotional because<br />
they must define how they want the<br />
system to look. They always say: “The<br />
vendor keeps saying to me: ‘You need<br />
to specify how you want this to look<br />
and work; spec it out for me’. Customers<br />
are frustrated by that, because the<br />
customers understand their business<br />
processes, but they don’t necessarily<br />
understand what the [vendor’s] technology<br />
can do.<br />
And that’s why they contracted with<br />
these specialist vendors! They didn’t expect<br />
to have to spec it out—they expected<br />
the vendors to guide them through<br />
the process and meet them halfway. So<br />
my job is to put the customer back in his<br />
comfort zone.<br />
CIO.com: How are you different from<br />
a project-management turnaround specialists<br />
at the big consultancies?<br />
Coyne: Those people are usually new<br />
project managers who come in and try<br />
to understand the governance processes<br />
that have been used by the project.<br />
They’ll try to tweak the project and it<br />
make operate better.<br />
But they seldom try to realign the project<br />
to its original objectives. If the project<br />
is going in the wrong direction, doing<br />
it better means you head in the wrong<br />
direction quicker or more efficiently.<br />
You’ve got to ask: Why did we ever start<br />
this project? 3<br />
12 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
www.cw.com.hk<br />
.com.h<br />
mhk<br />
Nov 2009<br />
<strong>Computer</strong>world orl<br />
<strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong><br />
13
Enterprises face inadequate<br />
data availability and security<br />
IBM helps businesses rethink Information Infrastructure strategy with moves to<br />
improve information access, management and data integrity<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> enterprises, like others in the<br />
region, are facing escalating problems<br />
in the management of data. For both large<br />
and small organizations, current practices<br />
are proving inadequate, raising the need<br />
to rethink strategy in this area, observed<br />
Douglas Lo, Storage & Mainframe Platform<br />
Manager, Systems and Technology Group,<br />
IBM China/<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Limited.<br />
He notes that three major changes are<br />
impacting data usage.<br />
First, the volume of data stored by enterprises<br />
has exceeded all expectations. Current<br />
predictions indicate a compound annual<br />
data growth rate of 57% until 2010. The<br />
reasons for data growth include the growing<br />
importance of IT systems to the economy,<br />
but in particular the runaway success<br />
of video for videoconferencing, corporate<br />
education and training, and website information.<br />
Graphics and audio files are also a<br />
much higher proportion of enterprise data<br />
throughput.<br />
data. Many executives need to access<br />
contractual details, customer records and<br />
product specifications instantly to respond<br />
to real-time market demands.<br />
Enterprises need new strategy<br />
“Current storage practices simply don’t<br />
provide business users with the data they<br />
need in a timely way,” said IBM’s Lo. According<br />
to an IDC report (The Expanding<br />
Digital Universe, March 2007), 52% of<br />
managers don’t have confidence in their<br />
enterprise data, while 59% admit to missing<br />
vital information, and 42% have cases<br />
where the wrong information was used.<br />
Most enterprises today need to create<br />
a new strategy to ensure that the kinds of<br />
data essential to their business processes<br />
are always available in a timely manner.<br />
There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, because<br />
the way enterprises utilize data varies<br />
greatly. They will need an Information<br />
Infrastructure strategy to meet the critical<br />
needs around Information Compliance,<br />
Information Availability, Information Retention<br />
and Information Security (or CARS).<br />
For backup and restore purposes, data<br />
needs to be classified according to two<br />
variables. First, how much data can you afford<br />
to lose if the system goes down? Your<br />
tape archive may be run weekly, or daily,<br />
but that does not protect business users in<br />
most cases. Any data created since the last<br />
backup may be lost and will be unavailable.<br />
“You have to consider your business need<br />
and determine the interval between backups<br />
on that basis,” Lo added. “The daily<br />
archives of the past are likely to fall short<br />
of requirements: hourly backups may make<br />
more sense.”<br />
Second, if data is lost for some reason,<br />
how long can the business wait for restoration?<br />
Increasingly, enterprises are recognizing<br />
that data has to be available when it<br />
is needed and the business world will not<br />
wait for laggards.<br />
Traditional tape archives are becoming<br />
progressively less useful because, when<br />
restoration is required from daily tape archives,<br />
the restore time may be more than<br />
Douglas Lo, IBM: There is no “one-size-fitsall”<br />
solution, because the way enterprises<br />
utilize data varies greatly.<br />
Ordered chaos<br />
All industries are affected by the data<br />
surge, but the areas in which data management<br />
within the hour, or even 15 minutes, depending<br />
on the nature of the business.<br />
has already become an acute<br />
problem include business intelligence, the<br />
media and entertainment industries and the<br />
healthcare sector.<br />
Second, 80% of data is now unstructured<br />
from different media such as emails, file<br />
sharing, audio and video files. Each enterprise<br />
may need to use, and therefore<br />
to store and retrieve, such information in<br />
a way that useful to its business processes.<br />
In addition, all industries are subject<br />
compliance requirements which include<br />
higher standards of data discovery in legal<br />
proceedings. Emails are expected to be<br />
archived and in the finance industry, compliance<br />
requirements may be tougher and<br />
include voice recordings, especially where<br />
these have contractual content.<br />
Third, is the acceleration of decisionmaking<br />
processes. Real-time trading and<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong> mediated supply chains are setting<br />
the pace for rapid management decisions,<br />
which in turn demand instant availability<br />
of relevant and accurate decision support a day. Restoration is increasingly needed<br />
Data duplication problem<br />
Data exchanged with business partners<br />
in high-speed supply chains must<br />
be right up to date and quickly available.<br />
For this kind of service a ‘snapshot’<br />
backup system is needed. For example,<br />
IBM FlashCopy function, can do instant<br />
backups at intervals and restore data<br />
within minutes.<br />
Automatic Tape Libraries, which access<br />
and change cassettes as necessary, can<br />
provide disaster recovery if they are located<br />
at premises separate from the production<br />
site. But tape performance is inherently<br />
limited, these systems are now challenged<br />
by Virtual Tape Libraries that use disks to<br />
emulate tape archiving procedures, but can<br />
provide much faster writing and restore performance.<br />
If these are equipped with snapshot<br />
capability, data protection is vastly<br />
improved.<br />
One of the biggest issues with storage<br />
efficiency is the data duplication involved.<br />
14 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
Sponsored Feature<br />
Since 90% of the content will be the same<br />
each day, it is a major advantage if your<br />
system can execute de-duplication of the<br />
contents. Volumes of email can typically<br />
be reduced by 30% by removing duplicated<br />
attachments and identical documents circulated<br />
to many addresses, for example.<br />
Databases can be reduced by up to 90% of<br />
their volume. Using de-duplication technology<br />
reduces storage volume and costs and<br />
speeds retrieval.<br />
Disaster recovery<br />
Another crucial need is for a disaster<br />
recovery strategy to ensure that a usable<br />
copy of the enterprise data is available if<br />
the primary site is completely unavailable<br />
for any reason. Relying on a tape archive<br />
is inviting problems – tapes may so easily<br />
be lost, stolen or destroyed and even when<br />
they are available, restoration of service is<br />
slow.<br />
Today large or small enterprises should<br />
look into real-time data replication on<br />
disk, linked with telecom lines. The ideal<br />
is real-time mirroring, using a system<br />
such as the IBM SVC (SAN Volume Controller),<br />
an appliance that can virtualize<br />
different brands of disks for data mirroring.<br />
Enterprise and mid-range solutions<br />
are also available.<br />
There are three storage tiers commonly<br />
used for enterprises:<br />
Tier 1: Continuous, online, transactional<br />
data mirroring.<br />
Tier 2: Flashcopy, a snapshot technology,<br />
which can easily protect data at intervals<br />
of an hour or less, with recovery in the<br />
same period. Suitable for applications such<br />
as email and database, for example.<br />
Tier 3: Basic restore within one day, or<br />
suitable for long retention restoration requirements.<br />
The security of data at rest<br />
Most enterprises are tackling <strong>net</strong>work<br />
data security fairly actively, but numerous<br />
serious security breaches result from the<br />
theft or loss of ‘data at rest’ on tape cartridges,<br />
USB thumb drives, notebooks and<br />
disk drives removed for service. Even PCs<br />
or servers can disappear from data centers<br />
on occasion. The most common such<br />
problem arises with routine servicing of disk<br />
drives or when they are removed for redeployment<br />
or retirement. Although we like to<br />
trust service vendors that handle storage<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Tier 1<br />
Systems can provide full<br />
data mirroring and higher<br />
read and write performance:<br />
<br />
series<br />
<br />
series<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
devices, once a drive is removed from the<br />
storage appliance, it is impossible to guarantee<br />
that its content will not fall into the<br />
wrong hands.<br />
It is difficult to permanently delete the<br />
data on a hard drive. Degaussing (mag<strong>net</strong>ic<br />
obliteration) is expensive and troublesome,<br />
while physical destruction of the disk is obviously<br />
not appropriate if it is intended for<br />
re-use. The disk can be stored indefinitely<br />
by the owner, but this will also prevent its<br />
re-use.<br />
A complete solution is now available in<br />
52% of managers don’t have confidence in their<br />
enterprise data, while 59% admit to missing vital<br />
information.<br />
the form of self-encrypting disks. These devices<br />
encrypt all stored data as it is written,<br />
and decrypt all content as it is read, without<br />
any external application or encryption key.<br />
This means when the drive is removed for<br />
servicing, redeployment or retirement, the<br />
data on it cannot be read by any party. IBM<br />
experience is that 90% of drives returned<br />
for warrantee service have readable data<br />
on them. Nor can the drive be installed in<br />
any other hardware, unless it is reformatted<br />
in a secure way which absolutely destroys<br />
the current data.<br />
Most important, the encryption and decryption<br />
processes are completed with<br />
no performance overhead whatsoever.<br />
One of the largest reasons why enterprises<br />
users resist encryption is that<br />
conventional encryption methods have a<br />
processing overhead that slows system<br />
performance for all applications. Self-encrypting<br />
disks use a different technology<br />
that eliminates performance loss and operation<br />
efforts.<br />
Data Availability Tiers<br />
<br />
Tier 2<br />
<br />
management:<br />
<br />
<br />
series<br />
<br />
series<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Tier 3<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
System<br />
The outlook for self-encryption<br />
There is already a strong trend in place<br />
to protect ‘data at rest,’ including thumb<br />
drives, tapes and laptops and special technologies<br />
have been developed for that purpose.<br />
Part of the reason is compliance with<br />
government and professional regulations<br />
that require that data is protected using the<br />
best technology available.<br />
Most enterprises have suffered some<br />
cost or inconvenience related to the disposal<br />
of hard drives. Within one or two<br />
years, most users may adopt self-encrypting<br />
drives as a solution. The advantages<br />
are very real, while the additional cost is<br />
negligible, and there is no performance<br />
impact – the encryption process is transparent<br />
to users.<br />
IBM is already providing self-encrypting<br />
hard drives as an option with storage appliances<br />
such as:<br />
• DS5000 Mid-range series and<br />
• DS8000 Enterprise class storage<br />
servers<br />
IBM’s self-encrypting hard drive also provides<br />
an ‘Instant Secure Erase’ function<br />
that enables users to safely redeploy disks<br />
with no possibility of readable data remaining<br />
on them. Early adopters are the finance<br />
industry, driven by compliance. It is likely<br />
that they will become standard in the enterprise<br />
environment over the next two or<br />
three years.<br />
Enrol for the IBM Information<br />
Infrastructure workshop on Nov 12 at:<br />
www.ibm.com/hk/events/DS5020/<br />
or contact Ms Yeung at<br />
2825 6140.<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 15
Cover story contents:<br />
16 HKCS: 40 years of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> IT<br />
20 <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> high tech in the 60s and<br />
70s<br />
24 IT paves way to the top<br />
28 IT—Black box mystique<br />
40th anniversary<br />
of the HKCS<br />
From “EDP” to “ICT”: four decades of tech excellence<br />
By Stefan Hammond<br />
It’s a year for major anniversaries<br />
and the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
turns 40 this year. As most of us<br />
here at CWHK don’t have four decades<br />
of experience in IT (or “EDP: Electronic<br />
Data Processing” as it was known back<br />
then), we asked some of the tech experts<br />
here in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> during those formative<br />
days.<br />
“The first computer for commercial<br />
use in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> came into use in<br />
1965,” said Daniel Lai, head of information<br />
technology for the MTRC. “It was<br />
a NCR 315 installed by China Light and<br />
Power for its billing and accounting services.”<br />
“Before then,” said Lai, “only accounting/ledger<br />
machines or ‘tabulators’<br />
were used by some banks, government<br />
departments and utilities companies;<br />
30 ICT Awards: elevating industry and<br />
individuals<br />
32 Elevating IT’s professional status<br />
36 In pictures: 40 years of IT<br />
38 Nobel winner: Charles Kao<br />
and analogue computers were used by<br />
universities in research. Only a few<br />
computer companies were in business in<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>: IBM, NCR and ICT (later<br />
changed to ICL and acquired by Fujitsu).”<br />
Early adopters: banks<br />
“The second commercial computer<br />
was installed at NCR’s headquarters in<br />
King’s Road North Point: it was a system<br />
to serve as backup for CLP’s system<br />
and to serve as a commercial computer<br />
service bureau,” said Lai. “In 1967, it<br />
was a competition between two banks<br />
(<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> and Shanghai Banking<br />
Corporation—now HSBC and Chartered<br />
Bank—now Standard Chartered) to install<br />
the first online Banking <strong>Computer</strong><br />
System in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, HK Bank system<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
was based on IBM 360 while Chartered<br />
Bank was a NCR 315.”<br />
“Around 1965-66, the Education Department<br />
installed an ICT system with<br />
optical mark recognition capability<br />
to mark examination papers for <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> School Certificate Examination,<br />
and to process and print certificates, and<br />
the government’s Treasury Department<br />
also installed a system for accounting<br />
services. In 1968, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Electric<br />
installed an ICL system 1901 (again<br />
with optical mark recognition) for meter<br />
reading, billing and accounting. Government<br />
and <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Telephone Company<br />
(now PCCW) also installed ICL<br />
systems.”<br />
Anthony FM Conway, longtime <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> tech-veteran and currently chairman<br />
of both I.Tel Holdings and the<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Management Association IT<br />
Management Committee, says he sold<br />
that first NCR machine to CLP. Conway<br />
also worked for COL, which set up shop<br />
in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> in 1972.<br />
Early days: expats and<br />
mainframes<br />
The employee-mix was different in<br />
those early days, according to John<br />
Strickland, current chairman of Cyberport<br />
and former chairman of HSBC<br />
(Asia). “Industry peers in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
in the 60s and 70s were expats,” said<br />
Strickland. “The workers, data processors<br />
were mainly locals but senior EDP<br />
staff and managers were often expats.”<br />
Strickland pointed out while the early<br />
EDP experts “were highly influential in<br />
the development of IT in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> at<br />
the time, very few were Chinese. Robert<br />
Tih at Standard Chartered and Stephen<br />
Lau in the Government were some of the<br />
few…it was only in the 90s that we saw<br />
more Chinese people in senior roles.”<br />
“In the late 60s, there were no PCs,<br />
only mainframes,” said Lai. “Programming<br />
was done with pencil and ‘pro-<br />
16 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
HKCS: 40 years<br />
COVERSTORY<br />
gramming sheets,’ program codes were<br />
transcribed (‘punched’) onto paper<br />
punch-cards or punch-tapes, then read<br />
by card or tape readers and then ‘compiled’<br />
with a compiler which generated<br />
executable program codes and a program<br />
listing. Debugging was painful—<br />
sometimes memory images had to be<br />
‘dumped’ or listed and decoded in binary<br />
(0s and 1s).”<br />
“Testing had to be performed overnight<br />
as resources were limited,” said<br />
Lai. “Many entering the computer/IT<br />
field could not handle it and sought other<br />
avenues of employment.”<br />
The HKCS takes shape<br />
“The first generation of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
computer professionals was born and<br />
bred through the [early] few computer<br />
vendors and users,” said Lai. “As the<br />
sector was still at its infancy and there<br />
were few opportunities or platforms for<br />
sharing computer knowledge and experience,<br />
the need for a computer professional<br />
body in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> was apparent.<br />
This professional body was to promote<br />
the development and application of IT,<br />
to promote professionalism in the industry,<br />
and foster fraternity among those individuals<br />
in the computer community.”<br />
Lai said a group of individuals from<br />
key computer users organizations (including<br />
HK Bank, CLP, HKE, Cable and<br />
Wireless) and vendors came together<br />
and established the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>. “Recruitment of the first<br />
members took place in 1970 and initially<br />
around 200+ were recruited,” he said. “I<br />
was member number 179.”<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> IT enters the 70s<br />
“Growing acceptance of computing<br />
by <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s major organizations<br />
heralded the arrival of computing in<br />
the daily lives of ordinary people,” said<br />
Conway. By the mid 70s most of the<br />
bills that arrived in the mail—from utilities,<br />
bank statements and so on—were<br />
printed on computers.” But one of the<br />
first places people actually came face to<br />
face with computers was in the banks.<br />
“When banking staff got electronic teller<br />
terminals, the whole customer experience<br />
changed.” Another development in<br />
the 1970s was the launch of the URBTIX<br />
online ticketing system.<br />
The decade also marked the launch<br />
of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s first purpose-built data<br />
center with the construction of Telecom<br />
House on Fenwick Street. Many of <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong>’s leading organizations took up<br />
residence. Major tenants included the<br />
government, newswire services like AFP<br />
and the then “Royal” <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Jockey<br />
Club, whose totalizator—the board that<br />
lists the current odds position and final<br />
payouts for each horse in a race—was<br />
based there.<br />
“I recall when we put the first computer<br />
into COL’s premises at Asian House,”<br />
said Conway. “We had to knock a huge<br />
hole in the outside wall and lift it up using<br />
a crane. The police even had to stop<br />
traffic on Hennessy Road from 3:00-<br />
5:00AM.”<br />
Conway said that the first microcomputers<br />
arrived in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> in 1977.<br />
And while they were primitive by today’s<br />
standards, they caused tremendous<br />
debate in business circles, not all of<br />
it positive. “I recall a former chairman<br />
of the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Bank saying to me,<br />
‘never in my lifetime will you have individual<br />
computers. Where would you put<br />
your security?’,” said Conway, adding<br />
that this gentleman is still alive and well,<br />
although presumably not on Facebook.<br />
The HKCS matures<br />
“From inception, establishment and<br />
development, HKCS has been engineered<br />
as a professional body,” said Lai.<br />
“In the early days, the program consisted<br />
of speakers meetings, seminars, visits<br />
to computer installations, and also social<br />
activities. Whenever prominent or<br />
knowledgeable IT personnel came to<br />
HK, they were invited to give a talk.”<br />
”My first engagement with HKCS was<br />
over 20 years ago when my manager<br />
invited me to join their annual dinner<br />
event,” said Fred Sheu, director, marketing<br />
and business development, HP<br />
Enterprise Business, HP HK. “Charles<br />
Kao was nominated and received HKCS<br />
Distinguished Fellow that year. There’s<br />
no doubt that the HKCS has helped build<br />
a great foundation for <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s ICT<br />
industry!”<br />
The System/360 is unloaded from a “walla-walla” at Causeway Bay<br />
continued on page 18 4<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 17
COVERSTORY<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
4 continued from page 17<br />
“In 1978, the first HKCS computer<br />
conference was organized,” said Lai.<br />
This eventually became the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
International <strong>Computer</strong> Conference<br />
(HKICC: the longest running computer<br />
conference series in HK), an event that<br />
is organized by IT professionals/practitioners<br />
for IT professionals/practitioners.<br />
With HK set to become an SAR<br />
of the PRC, the HKCS initiated “One<br />
conference—two cities” with the second<br />
part of the HKICC held in a city in China.<br />
The first was held in Guangzhou in<br />
1994, followed by Shanghai in 1995 and<br />
Chengdu in 1996. This series of computer<br />
conferences was renamed the Joint<br />
International <strong>Computer</strong> Conferences in<br />
1997 and it continues as an annual or biannual<br />
event.<br />
“I was first elected a Council member<br />
and Vice President in 1989,” said Lai. “I<br />
also acted as HKCS’ representative in<br />
Australia between 1991-1994, and on my<br />
return to HK I was elected VP in 1995<br />
and then served as president from 1998-<br />
2003.” He added that the HKCS has<br />
actively associated itself with computer<br />
professional bodies overseas and the<br />
mainland. “Together with other national<br />
computer associations in Asia, HKCS<br />
was instrumental in founding the South<br />
East Asia Regional <strong>Computer</strong> Confederation<br />
(SEARCC) and also the Asia<br />
Pacific IT Confederation (AIC), as well<br />
as Asia Pacific ICT Awards Network<br />
(APICTAN). HKCS participated actively<br />
in the regional IT events and hosted<br />
SEARCC and AIC Conferences in HK,<br />
and hosted 2004 APICTA in HK.”<br />
The 90s and beyond<br />
Current HKCS President (and Head of<br />
IT for the Jockey Club) Sunny Lee was<br />
working for a multinational company in<br />
the early 90s, and didn’t join the HKCS<br />
until he became CIO Towngas in 1996,<br />
when he was approached by Andy Mak<br />
from Digital Equipment. “Mak told me<br />
about the HKCS,” said Lee, “he was a<br />
member and I thought the professional<br />
<strong>net</strong>work was a good fit for me.”<br />
Although Lee is now known as one<br />
of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s premier tech-experts,<br />
he said he didn’t feel that way when he<br />
joined the HKCS. “I wasn’t very active<br />
at first...people like Lai and Mak were<br />
celebrities to me,” he said. “But I would<br />
attend events like the HKICC and saw<br />
all these great sources of info, as well as<br />
<strong>net</strong>working opportunities.”<br />
In 1998, Lee said it occurred to him<br />
that the conference could benefit from<br />
his experience with Towngas, where he<br />
had completed one phase of business<br />
process re-engineering. “I cold-called<br />
Daniel Lai, and even though I felt I was a<br />
nobody, to my surprise I was welcomed<br />
with open arms. He invited me to lunch at<br />
the Fortune Room at the HKJC (editor’s<br />
note: ironic!), along with Charles Mok,<br />
KT Yung and people of that caliber—I<br />
was flattered to see all these senior people.<br />
Daniel further surprised me by inviting<br />
me to join the Organizing Committee<br />
of the HKICC—I became vice-chairman<br />
by 1998 and got a speaker-slot. In 1999<br />
I became a council member, and now,<br />
president.”<br />
As <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> IT expands into the<br />
21st century, with social <strong>net</strong>working and<br />
mobile enterprise devices now standard<br />
operating equipment, the HKCS enters<br />
its next decade as <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s premier<br />
organization for <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> professionals.<br />
This issue is dedicated not only to<br />
the original tech visionaries and senior<br />
tech gurus we’ve profiled in this story<br />
and feature on our pages regularly, but<br />
also to all the wonderful hard-working<br />
folks at HKCS. 3<br />
HKCS mission statement<br />
The <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong> (HKCS) was founded in 1970, in the<br />
early days of information technology (IT). The vision that led to its establishment<br />
still continues to provide the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> business sector, the<br />
general public and the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> SAR Government with vital new insights and<br />
advice into the ways in which information technology is shaping and changing our<br />
lives.<br />
The HKCS aims to:<br />
• provide a forum for the exchange • promote education on the technology<br />
and training programs either<br />
of technical information and ideas<br />
amongst members;<br />
on its own or in conjunction with<br />
• hold lectures, discussions, seminars, other institutions in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> or<br />
open forums on subjects related to overseas;<br />
IT;<br />
• promote fraternity among members;<br />
• provide for those intended users of • liaise with other (overseas and <strong>Hong</strong><br />
IT or related tools the opportunity <strong>Kong</strong>) professional bodies with similar<br />
objectives;<br />
of communicating with experienced<br />
users;<br />
• advise the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Government<br />
• foster an informed public opinion regarding<br />
the IT industry and its social affecting the interest of the IT profes-<br />
and the public general on matters<br />
implications;<br />
sion;<br />
• provide facilities for the benefit of • maintain and enforce a code of<br />
members in furtherance of their information<br />
technology knowledge;<br />
professional conduct for members to<br />
observe.<br />
18 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
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Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 19
COVERSTORY<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> high tech in the<br />
60s and 70s<br />
Sent to <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> on a three-year contract as a programmer in 1966, John Strickland<br />
qualifies as one of the pioneers of IT in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>. He shares his memories with<br />
CWHK in this exclusive interview By Chee Sing Chan<br />
CWHK: How did you first come to <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong>?<br />
John Strickland (JS): I arrived at <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> on 28 April 1966 by boat from Venice.<br />
I had signed up for a three-year contract<br />
with the <strong>Hong</strong>kong and Shanghai<br />
Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC)<br />
as Chief Programmer at HK$3,600 per<br />
month, plus housing on the Peak.<br />
HSBC had ordered two IBM S/360<br />
30s—each with 64KB memory and<br />
35MB disks—for processing all the<br />
banks savings and fixed-deposit accounts,<br />
as well as handling the capture<br />
of Mag<strong>net</strong>ic Ink Character Recognition<br />
data encoded on checks: firstly for interbank<br />
clearing but later to automate the<br />
banks current account record keeping.<br />
The bank had transferred 19 young<br />
Chinese staff from the branch <strong>net</strong>work<br />
as trainee programmers for the new<br />
computer systems. None had university<br />
degrees. All programming of the IBM<br />
S/360 30s was in Assembler language<br />
(i.e. essentially machine code), and they<br />
were trained by Mike McNamara from<br />
IBM Australia.<br />
CWHK: What was <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> like at the<br />
time?<br />
JS: The Cultural Revolution was un-<br />
derway on the mainland, and <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> was far from being calm. Demonstration<br />
marches and confrontations<br />
with the police were common—so were<br />
street sides “bombs,” although most<br />
were fakes. We had running water four<br />
hours per day. And loudspeakers on the<br />
roof of the Bank of China blared the<br />
mainland’s point of view, which was<br />
drowned out by Cantonese opera provided<br />
by the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Government<br />
from Beaconsfield House on Queen’s<br />
Road Central.<br />
The IBM 360/30s were delivered to a<br />
new bank annex on One Queen’s Road<br />
Central in September 1967. As shipping<br />
containers had yet to be invented,<br />
they were transferred from the boat by<br />
crane over open water, then taken<br />
to Queen’s Pier and similarly<br />
offloaded. Glen Rasmussen of<br />
IBM, who together with his<br />
son Reid played a notable role<br />
in the development of IT in<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, helped oversee this<br />
perilous transfer.<br />
In 1969 HSBC hired<br />
its first university<br />
graduates as Systems<br />
Analysts before<br />
it started hiring<br />
graduates as<br />
bank officers. <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong>.<br />
But by then my contract was up and I<br />
was working for Control Data in the<br />
States developing the operating system<br />
for the CDC 7600 supercomputer. I returned<br />
to <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> as <strong>Computer</strong> Systems<br />
Development Manager at HSBC in<br />
July 1971 and immediately joined the<br />
newly set up <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
(HKCS).<br />
CWHK: What was the IT scene like<br />
then?<br />
JS: I still have many of the publications<br />
of the time, including copies of “<strong>Computer</strong><br />
Asia” (1980-1990) and of “<strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong> Journal” (1985-1990).<br />
They all look so unsophisticated and<br />
dated today!<br />
In the 1970s the autopay<br />
system was introduced by<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Bank. This was<br />
greatly welcomed by factories<br />
because it allowed them pay<br />
the workers by bank transfer<br />
instead of cash. Huge<br />
numbers of passbook<br />
savings<br />
accounts<br />
were opened<br />
by factory<br />
workers. The<br />
workload<br />
John Strickland, current chairman of Cyberport,<br />
former chairman of HSBC (Asia) and head of<br />
Group IT, Distinguished Fellow of the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
20 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
apidly escalated and the bank upgraded<br />
its computers to S/360 40s, then to S/370<br />
145 units.<br />
HSBC owned a controlling interest in<br />
Hang Seng Bank and the computer systems<br />
we developed were used in both<br />
banks. A vivid memory of the 1970s was<br />
the annual snake dinners hosted by Hang<br />
Seng Bank at their headquarters. Senior<br />
bank staffs were expected to attend these<br />
dinners for their customers every night<br />
for the better part of the month before<br />
Lunar New Year.<br />
CWHK: Did your bank experience ever<br />
converge with HKCS duties?<br />
CWHK: What was the view of education-<br />
al institutions tution<br />
towards IT?<br />
<strong>Kong</strong>. Leaving aside stock market collapses,<br />
the economy climbed ever wards and wealth creation was enor-<br />
upmous.<br />
Confidence was buoyant and the<br />
resistance to new ideas and new ways of<br />
doing business negligible. We just got<br />
on with it and did it, care less of the risk<br />
of failure.<br />
A vivid memory of the 1970s was the annual<br />
snake dinners hosted by Hang Seng Bank at their<br />
headquarters<br />
— John Strickland<br />
JS: In 1972 I was elected Treasurer of<br />
HKCS. I kept the accounts on punched<br />
cards, but had little awareness of accounting<br />
standards. In any event I managed<br />
to persuade Carlye Tsui, the HKCS<br />
Honorary Auditor that year, that everything<br />
was in order at the end of the year.<br />
She succeeded me as Treasurer the following<br />
year and I moved on to be Vice<br />
President. Carlye is now Chief Executive<br />
of the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Institute of Directors<br />
and has held many public service positions<br />
contributing to the community during<br />
her career.<br />
JS: The only tertiary ti institution in the<br />
1970s that paid much attention to computer<br />
science education was the <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> Polytechnic. I joined the Computing<br />
Studies Advisory Committee in<br />
1973, under the auspices of Con Conway,<br />
husband of Carlye Tsui and one of<br />
the grand old men of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> computing.<br />
Vir Gulati then headed up the<br />
department. He was later succeeded by<br />
Graham Mead who made a significant<br />
contribution to training the next generation<br />
of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s programmers and<br />
systems analysts.<br />
CWHK: Can you cite the biggest differences<br />
from working in IT in the 70s and<br />
80s versus today?<br />
JS: The 1970s were a hugely exciting<br />
time to be in the IT profession in <strong>Hong</strong><br />
Of course there have been significant<br />
changes—in the 80s and 90s IT was<br />
seen as a very attractive career path<br />
whereas now it is not. The times were<br />
so different, we were nose-deep in the<br />
technology, we understood in detail the<br />
machinery we were using, whereas today<br />
you sit down in front of a PC and<br />
there are so many layers between you<br />
and the computer—it’s much more<br />
complex today.<br />
Today if there is a problem to solve,<br />
you reach for the software package<br />
whereas we’d start pulling cables and<br />
opening up boxes. 3<br />
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Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 21
With the Compliments of<br />
22 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
With the Compliments of<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 23
COVERSTORY<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
IT paves way to the top<br />
Paul Chow charts his path from mainframe punchcard programming languages to the<br />
dizzy heights of Chief Executive of the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEx)<br />
By Chee Sing Chan<br />
<strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> (CWHK):<br />
Where did your career in IT begin?<br />
career path when you first joined the<br />
industry?<br />
Paul Chow (PC): After studying mechanical<br />
engineering at the University<br />
of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, I took on a role in the<br />
Public Works Department of the <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> Government but I soon moved to<br />
IBM. I was a systems engineer there<br />
and I used my knowledge in Fortran,<br />
RPG and Assembly language to support<br />
mainframe systems. I was not a programmer<br />
as such but more of a systems<br />
analyst. Then in 1973, I joined Sun<br />
Hung Kai, one of IBM’s key customers<br />
at the time.<br />
I spent 15 years at Sun Hung Kai. During<br />
this period, I participated in various<br />
business segments and functions—securities<br />
and commodities, deposit / savings,<br />
credit cards, as well as mortgage operations.<br />
In these roles, I was able to apply<br />
the IT skills which I had developed over<br />
the previous years and automated operations<br />
to bring about greater efficiency.<br />
Then in 1989 I joined HKEx as director<br />
of operations and technology. I was<br />
responsible for running the trading operations<br />
and maintaining the trading and<br />
information dissemination systems. A<br />
Stock Exchange relies very much on the<br />
use of technology in all its operations,<br />
and so, although my roles have changed<br />
over the years, my connection with the<br />
IT world has continued.<br />
CWHK: How was IT perceived as a<br />
PC: Even though people at that time<br />
were just starting to explore and understand<br />
the use of technology, few would<br />
doubt its power in shaping businesses.<br />
Many people were already aware of<br />
the benefits IT could bring in storing,<br />
sorting, indexing and retrieving electronic<br />
data. Most businessmen had a<br />
general idea of what IT professionals<br />
were doing in the 70s but I think none<br />
at the time could foresee the impact<br />
IT would bring to people’s lives thirty<br />
years later.<br />
It was in the 1970s that I joined the<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong>. I was<br />
very green and inexperienced then and I<br />
wanted to gain exposure through participating<br />
in the <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s activities<br />
and exchanging experience with its<br />
members.<br />
CWHK: How does IT as a career compare<br />
to other fields and industries?<br />
PC: IT is a very interesting discipline.<br />
It’s extremely broad in scope and is quite<br />
difficult to define—there are programmers,<br />
hardware specialists, telecoms<br />
operators, software architects and so<br />
on who may be applying technology to<br />
solve different business problems. Although<br />
there are different areas of expertise<br />
in the IT arena, underpinning each<br />
is still the common technological frame-<br />
Paul Chow, Chief Executive, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. Distinguished<br />
Fellow, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
work and system logics.<br />
While the IT profession can be very<br />
specialized, the application of technology<br />
is very wide and it extends across<br />
different industries and functions. It is<br />
not difficult to witness the significant<br />
contributions IT has made to different<br />
industries, from the mass transit systems<br />
to horseracing, to banking to aviation,<br />
etc.<br />
We have also been taking technology<br />
for granted that we almost forget how<br />
much it has assimilated into our daily<br />
lives and how indispensable it is to all<br />
of us. In fact you could ask all the lawyers<br />
and accountants to stop working<br />
for a day and I bet the world would continue<br />
– but if all the IT systems stopped<br />
continued on page 26 4<br />
24 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
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Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 25
COVERSTORY<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
4 continued from page 24<br />
working, quite possibly sibl<br />
the world would<br />
grind to a halt.<br />
CWHK: As pervasive as IT is today,<br />
how has being a technology professional<br />
helped you in being a business leader?<br />
PC: Business today is complex, particularly<br />
in finance. Having worked in the<br />
IT function at Sun Hung Kai and now at<br />
the Stock Exchange, I have learned that<br />
understanding the real “nitty-gritty” of<br />
securities and finance operations is as<br />
important as seeing the “big picture”.<br />
Without in-depth understanding of the<br />
processes within each operation and<br />
function, IT professionals cannot create<br />
or enhance systems that are capable of<br />
supporting business strategies and operational<br />
needs.<br />
That calls for IT professionals to be<br />
pragmatic, detailed-oriented and creative.<br />
With these traits, they are in a<br />
better position to envisage scenarios,<br />
anticipate contingencies and implement<br />
changes effectively.<br />
Most people may only have narrow<br />
views of their own business functions.<br />
But IT professionals have the privilege<br />
to explore different aspects of an organisation<br />
as they undertake different projects.<br />
The combination of top-down and<br />
bottom-up understanding of cross-business<br />
functions is a genuinely valuable<br />
asset to the IT professionals.<br />
To achieve this understanding of business<br />
you need more than technical knowl-<br />
edge. Being a good communicator is criti-<br />
i<br />
cal; you also need to convince people, sell<br />
new ideas, initiate changes and be prepared<br />
to learn every step of the way. The<br />
biggest lesson I have learned since my IT<br />
days is humility—to appreciate what we<br />
don’t know and be eager to learn.<br />
CWHK: In your view what are the biggest<br />
contributions of the <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong>?<br />
The next generation is<br />
always better than the<br />
previous one<br />
— Paul Chow<br />
PC: The <strong>Society</strong> has become a focal<br />
point of the industry and its professionals—no<br />
longer just an exclusive club as<br />
it was when it was first started. It is easily<br />
accessible and people look to it for<br />
assistance, for knowledge, and for <strong>net</strong>working<br />
opportunities with peers. All<br />
these have helped increase the professional<br />
knowledge and ethics of IT industry<br />
players.<br />
One of the biggest challenges for many<br />
IT professionals today is to gain recognition<br />
and professional status. The <strong>Society</strong><br />
helps elevate the profile of IT professionalism<br />
through fostering awareness about<br />
technology’s contributions to businesses<br />
and our society which, as I mentioned<br />
earlier, are so often taken for granted.<br />
CWHK: What would you say to aspiring<br />
IT professionals in HK today?<br />
PC: You should never lose faith in the<br />
impact that technology can play in businesses<br />
and society. IT’s role is bound to<br />
be greater and more important as technology<br />
advances. Our society’s reliance<br />
on technology will be ever-increasing.<br />
With a large supply of eager and high<br />
quality IT workforce over the border,<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> professionals need to work<br />
harder to differentiate themselves, and<br />
add value using more imagination and<br />
innovation.<br />
CWHK: What about the next generation<br />
of professionals—are you concerned if<br />
they will give back to the community in<br />
the way you and your peers have?<br />
PC: I am not concerned about this. I<br />
have one very strong conviction—that<br />
the next generation is always better than<br />
the previous one. Mankind collectively<br />
improves over time, and the next generation<br />
will always learn new things in<br />
this fast-changing world, and be more<br />
knowledgeable and skillful.<br />
They may have different working<br />
styles but they will contribute to the<br />
community in their own, possibly, different<br />
ways. And that’s the beauty of<br />
diversity. 3<br />
26 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
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Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 27
COVERSTORY<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
IT – Black box mystique<br />
Stephen Lau has no regrets after leaving behind chartered accountancy in the UK to<br />
assume a career in IT which at the time held a mysterious allure and fascination<br />
By Chee Sing Chan<br />
<strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> (CWHK):<br />
Describe how your career in IT started?<br />
Stephen Lau (SL): After studying<br />
Physics in UK I decided to try chartered<br />
accountancy at a city firm in London in<br />
the mid-1960’s. At the time computers<br />
were very new and only just coming into<br />
the commercial world. After six months<br />
there I was attracted to join a computer<br />
science MSc course at London University<br />
and left the accountancy firm. In<br />
hindsight if I had stayed on with my<br />
article clerkship and returned to <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> I would have been one of a handful<br />
of fully qualified chartered accountants<br />
of Chinese origin in all <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>—<br />
things could have turned out to be quite<br />
different, but no regrets.<br />
Being an overseas Chinese I was grateful<br />
to have been accepted at a city firm in<br />
London but auditing accounts and cross<br />
checking statements were not something<br />
I thought I could do for the rest of my<br />
life. So after graduating I joined ICL<br />
in the UK as a trainee which was a big<br />
supplier to the UK government and after<br />
a while I came back to <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
in 1968.<br />
Working as a technical support specialist<br />
to the government I specialized<br />
in processing census data which also<br />
led me to work with projects in Malay-<br />
sia, Indonesia and Burma, in addition to<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
CWHK: And how was IT perceived as a<br />
career during that time?<br />
SL: At that time when IT was seen very<br />
much like a “black box” of mystery with<br />
an air of mystique. To be honest for<br />
those in the field it wasn’t that much of a<br />
mystery but to most people it was something<br />
of an unknown art. Computing was<br />
genuinely regarded as an elite profession<br />
and very much at the cutting edge.<br />
It was this allure that pulled me from<br />
my accountancy job and into the world<br />
of mainframes and data processing.<br />
CWHK: So what attributes did you need<br />
for a career in IT at that time?<br />
SL: One observation from the 60s and<br />
the 70s is that there were very few real<br />
IT focused degrees or programs. As a result<br />
the question in the industry was how<br />
to evaluate and assess capabilities, particularly<br />
with fresh recruits. Incoming<br />
programmers often took aptitude tests<br />
to assess their ability to apply logic. The<br />
assumption has always been that if you<br />
were good at maths then you could be<br />
a good programmer—that’s not the case<br />
as logic is the most important attribute.<br />
As a result, you would find computer<br />
operators and programmers from a variety<br />
of backgrounds, from guys that<br />
studied music, to French and archaeology<br />
– it was a real mix. And from being a<br />
computer operator you could quite easily<br />
progress to other roles and get up the ladder<br />
to senior positions if you were bright<br />
and intelligent.<br />
That’s almost impossible today as any<br />
incoming IT professional needs to have<br />
an IT qualification and be specialized.<br />
But you look at some of today’s senior<br />
figures at OGCIO for example and figures<br />
such as John Wong and Dennis<br />
Pang have come through the ranks as<br />
Stephen Lau, current advisor, HP Enterprise<br />
Services, former chairman of EDS and Distinguished<br />
Fellow of the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong><br />
28 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
ICL mainframes formed the core of<br />
government IT in the 60’s and 70’s<br />
computer operators—both rs<br />
oth extremely<br />
em ely<br />
bright individuals iduals that rose from the<br />
ground up. That route would be very<br />
difficult to follow today. My own path<br />
led me from ICL to joining the government<br />
to succeed Lee Tate, the data processing<br />
Manager recruited from the UK,<br />
the government’s head of IT during that<br />
time. As a 33 year-old executive that was<br />
quite a step up and a relatively rare feat<br />
for someone at that age within the government.<br />
CWHK: How significant was the <strong>Computer</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong> at that time?<br />
SL: It started as a <strong>net</strong>working platform<br />
and I recall we had a newsletter that<br />
was distributed to members—GIGO or<br />
“Garbage in Garbage out”. This term referred<br />
to the idea that computers at the<br />
time simply processed data, the brains of<br />
any operation was the user so if you fed<br />
the computer garbage, ge<br />
garbage age is<br />
what<br />
would come out. It<br />
emphasized that<br />
users<br />
had to specify what the computer needed<br />
to process to derive a desired result—<br />
seemed a good name for the newsletter.<br />
During the 80s through to 1990, President<br />
Richard Li really brought a passion<br />
and vigor to the role and he pushed IT to<br />
Computing was genuinely regarded as an elite<br />
profession and very much at the cutting edge<br />
—Stephen Lau<br />
become a driving influence on the industry<br />
to advance the credibility of IT and<br />
the professionals. He also started real engagements<br />
with China and created a tangible<br />
focus for the <strong>Society</strong>’s resources<br />
via special interest groups.<br />
CWHK: What are the greatest strengths<br />
and achievements of the <strong>Society</strong>?<br />
SL: The biggest strength I believe is in<br />
the respect and influence of its Distinguished<br />
Fellows who are industry peers<br />
that have been unanimously voted for by<br />
the HKCS council as key contributors<br />
to the<br />
IT community and industry. You<br />
cannot apply for or buy into<br />
this fellowship,<br />
the council nominates and votes for<br />
you. This gathering of industry figures is<br />
unique in the industry and the collective<br />
experience, their ongoing and continuous<br />
work in the industry, and their continuous<br />
contributions to the HKCS are<br />
invaluable.<br />
Highlight achievements in my mind<br />
are the ongoing progress on professional<br />
certification which is being adopted in<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> and China, but to really succeed<br />
here we need to find ways to sustain<br />
the effort. As a group the <strong>Society</strong> is made<br />
up of hardworking volunteers and we’re<br />
great at projects but sustaining initiatives<br />
will be a great challenge—we need full<br />
time resources and budget.<br />
Other noteworthy items include the<br />
Joint International <strong>Computer</strong> Conferences<br />
held in China which have forged<br />
great relationships with the mainland,<br />
but again, to sustain this we need to refocus<br />
on evolving issues that benefit both<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> and China businesses.<br />
The <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> International <strong>Computer</strong><br />
Conference in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> is now<br />
in its 32nd year. For a general IT conference<br />
to have survived and flourished<br />
that long with the increasing push for<br />
specialized conferences is quite a triumph.<br />
3<br />
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COVERSTORY<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
ICT Awards:<br />
Elevating Industry and<br />
Individuals<br />
With an 11-year history, the ICT Awards has realized the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
<strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s original vision to recognize IT excellence and<br />
highlight <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s world class technology achievements<br />
By Chee Sing Chan<br />
What began in 1998 as an idea<br />
to create an awards program<br />
to raise the profile of technology<br />
across general industry has today<br />
become a fully-government-backed program<br />
encompassing nine industry categories,<br />
over 600 entries, and with winners<br />
going on to represent <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> in<br />
regional competition.<br />
Agnes Mak, HKCS Distinguished<br />
Fellow and Chairperson of the Organizing<br />
Committee of the first IT Excellence<br />
Awards in 1998, recalled that it was a<br />
real struggle to establish the program<br />
as IT was only just getting recognition<br />
from the government.<br />
After making the case over a number<br />
of years, the government granted funds<br />
to start what was called the IT Excellence<br />
Awards. It was organized by the<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong> (HKCS)<br />
and sponsored by the Information &<br />
Technology Bureau and the Industry<br />
Department.<br />
Recognizing success<br />
The original awards sought to recognize<br />
two areas. One was for applications<br />
in IT and to recognize the excellence<br />
of IT being used by <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
businesses. This would reward the IT<br />
teams responsible and also highlight<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s industry-leading use of<br />
technology.<br />
The second award area was for products<br />
and to give recognition to <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong>-developed commercial products<br />
and services. The aim was that these<br />
products would get greater awareness<br />
not only locally but overseas as well.<br />
The success of the IT Excellence<br />
awards and ongoing encouragement of<br />
HKCS have seen the program expand in<br />
scope and coverage, and in 2006 it became<br />
the ICT Awards with nine categories,<br />
each organized and run by different<br />
industry groups and associations.<br />
The government is now fully behind<br />
the scheme with regular funding and<br />
support across the various industry<br />
groups. HKCS now presides over the<br />
“Best Business Award” segment which<br />
continues the theme of awards for both<br />
IT applications and products.<br />
For glory and growth<br />
Past ICT Award winners have gained<br />
a huge boost in profile. Outblaze, which<br />
won the Best Business Product Gold<br />
Award in 2007, also went on to pick up<br />
an award for Best Tools & Infrastructure<br />
Application at the Asia Pacific ICT<br />
Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2007. Outblaze<br />
more recently sold its messaging<br />
services assets to IBM in a landmark<br />
deal for the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> technology industry.<br />
While companies such as PCCW and<br />
large enterprises and government bodies<br />
like the Immigration Department, Housing<br />
Authority and Airport Authority<br />
have consistently won the ICT Awards<br />
and APICTA, smaller companies have<br />
shown their worth too recently.<br />
PremiumSoft, a local open source<br />
software firm won a unique triple<br />
in 2008 with Best Business Product<br />
award, Best Business Grand Award as<br />
well as the overall Award of the Year.<br />
With only 20 employees at the time, the<br />
win symbolized the huge potential of<br />
smaller businesses in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
The fact that a global<br />
firm like Sun would<br />
seek out PremiumSoft<br />
is testament to the<br />
recognition that the<br />
award can create for<br />
winners<br />
—C K Wong, HKCS<br />
According to Dr C K Wong, HKCS<br />
Distinguished Fellow and chief assessor<br />
for award nominations, he recommended<br />
that Sun Microsystems talk to<br />
PremiumSoft for collaboration in the<br />
open source space and that was only<br />
possible on the back of the ICT award.<br />
“The fact that a global firm like Sun<br />
would seek out PremiumSoft is testament<br />
to the recognition that the award<br />
can create for winners,” said Wong.<br />
“These awards really help the overall<br />
branding of these companies as well as<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s technology industry as a<br />
whole,” said Stephen Lau, Distinguished<br />
Fellow at HKCS and also Chairman of<br />
APICTA. Lau has been involved in both<br />
the ICT Awards and APICTA for as<br />
long as they have been established and<br />
has noted how both awards have risen in<br />
status and prestige.<br />
30 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
HKCS: 40 years<br />
Broad impact<br />
Interestingly, Emily Suen, Marketing<br />
Manager, PremiumSoft CyberTech,<br />
was not aware of the ICT Awards until<br />
last year when the company first entered<br />
the competition. “Even when we<br />
discussed the idea of entering we were<br />
unsure of what value we would derive,”<br />
said Suen.<br />
Since winning the trio of awards Suen<br />
has found the benefits to be varied and<br />
extensive.<br />
“The biggest benefit so far is the immediate<br />
rise in profile in the local market<br />
as most of our customers come from<br />
US or Europe—the visibility in <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> now is huge,” she said. In addition<br />
to expanding their market potential<br />
the process of nomination, assessment<br />
and also the coaching received during<br />
the preparation for APICTA have given<br />
the staff at PremiumSoft many new<br />
ideas.<br />
Suen noted the process made the team<br />
rethink the way they present their product<br />
but also review product development<br />
ideas. “The evaluation helped us<br />
develop new features such as support<br />
for other databases which one of the assessors<br />
raised during our presentation—<br />
we’d never thought of that before,” she<br />
added.<br />
Reaching beyond HK<br />
The awards have also given PremiumSoft<br />
a fantastic platform to showcase<br />
their products via trade shows like<br />
the ICT Expo which award winners are<br />
entitled to attend. There’s also been<br />
greater media exposure with English<br />
and Chinese-language press.<br />
Another winner in the 2008 ICT<br />
Awards as well as at APICTA was<br />
the Airport Authority of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
Denny Chan, communication & control<br />
engineer, technical services, Airport<br />
Authority, observed that winning<br />
ICT award winners and committee members gathered to discuss the<br />
rising importance of the awards as an industry-wide recognition program.<br />
the award helps position <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
as leading the way in technologies<br />
like RFID, which is being used in the<br />
award winning baggage handling system.<br />
“The value of the award for us has<br />
been the internal recognition and pride<br />
that we have achieved in the project,”<br />
said Chan. “But also knowing that our<br />
work helps contribute to the business<br />
gaining worldwide recognition.” <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong>’s airport was awarded “Airport<br />
of the Year 2008” by Skytrax and the<br />
baggage system forms a key component<br />
of the award-winning infrastructure at<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Airport.<br />
Stars of the future<br />
Another recent noteworthy winner<br />
is Esther Leung, Form 5 student at<br />
TWGH’s Chang Ming Thien College.<br />
Though not her first entry into the ICT<br />
Awards, Leung noted that her second<br />
attempt in 2008 was a much more considered<br />
and serious effort than her first<br />
attempt.<br />
With encouragement from her teacher<br />
she entered but approached the first entry<br />
as a fun project without much expectation.<br />
After her first experience she<br />
realised that the awards was a very involved<br />
exercise and vowed to make a<br />
greater effort second-time around.<br />
“I realised there was much I didn’t<br />
know about the process and the second<br />
attempt was much more prepared,”<br />
said Leung. In fact she won the Best<br />
Innovation & Research award for her<br />
“Intelligent Bus Stop” concept. Her<br />
achievement led to a nomination for<br />
APICTA which involved traveling to<br />
Malaysia and presenting to overseas<br />
judges. HKCS coached her extensively<br />
as it does for all <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> entries<br />
to APICTA. This also taught her additional<br />
skills in presentation and general<br />
interaction. Her teacher remarked<br />
that her transformation into a confident<br />
and professional individual has been remarkable<br />
and a very proud moment for<br />
him personally.<br />
Mak noted that HKCS encourages<br />
people to enter into the ICT Awards<br />
not just for the sake of winning but for<br />
the experience and the possible learning.<br />
She noted one example of a bronze<br />
award winner that had taken part before<br />
but not won anything initially. But the<br />
experience gave them knowledge and<br />
the inspiration to do better and enter<br />
again, finally winning a bronze award.<br />
“If the awards help people improve<br />
products or the way they apply technology<br />
then the objective has been met<br />
and the awards has created meaningful<br />
value,” she said. 3<br />
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Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 31
COVERSTORY<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
Elevating IT’s professional status<br />
The <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong> makes official recognition and certification of industry<br />
professionals a reality after a fight for almost 20 years<br />
The information and communications<br />
technology (ICT) industry<br />
is relatively young compared to<br />
the legal, accounting and medical industries,<br />
but IT professionals are by no<br />
means taking their profession lightly.<br />
Thanks to the pioneering work of the<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong> (HKCS),<br />
the ICT industry is now on track to gradually<br />
gain recognition as a “certified”<br />
profession in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
With funding support from the Office<br />
of the Government Chief Information<br />
Officer (OGCIO) of the HKSAR Government,<br />
HKCS undertook a project<br />
in 2005 to establish an IT Professional<br />
Certification System for <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> IT<br />
professionals. Led by Edith Mok, the<br />
project involved over 100 ICT veterans<br />
spending their precious spare time<br />
in various taskforces and expert groups<br />
in over 200 meetings plus numerous industry-wide<br />
consultations with approximately<br />
50 IT or IT-related professional<br />
and trade organizations. The result is a<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>-based certification scheme<br />
for IT professionals in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>,<br />
namely the Certified Professional of IT<br />
(CPIT) Scheme, which is governed by<br />
an industry-led governance structure including<br />
a Board of Governance (BoG)<br />
and a Certification Board (CB).<br />
Therefore, in mid-2007, IT professionals<br />
in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> were for the first<br />
time accredited with homegrown IT<br />
professional titles with the launch of<br />
three senior level credentials—CPIT<br />
(Project Director), CPIT (Systems Ar-<br />
By Carol Ko<br />
CLP’s Locandro: The certifications enable<br />
us to recruit professional IT personnel more<br />
readily, while allowing us to develop and<br />
retain outstanding talents.<br />
chitect), and CPIT (Quality Assurance<br />
Manager). Endorsed by 30 major international<br />
or local corporations in <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong>, over 50 senior IT professionals<br />
have been accredited with these senior<br />
IT credentials.<br />
With the success of the project, OG-<br />
CIO injected more funding to HKCS in<br />
2007 with an aim to continue the development<br />
of the certification scheme.<br />
This “second-phase” has led to the establishment<br />
of a new entity, the <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> Institute for IT Professional Certification<br />
(HKITPC), which was set up<br />
as a non-profit Institute to oversee and<br />
manage the development and operation<br />
of the CPIT scheme. In 2009, three<br />
more CPIT titles are launched, including<br />
CPIT (Associate Project Manager,<br />
APM), CPIT (Information Security Officer,<br />
InfoSec), and CPIT (Business An-<br />
alyst, BA). These three new titles target<br />
IT professionals who have entered the<br />
profession for a couple of years and are<br />
beginning to choose a specialization for<br />
their IT career. Like the three senior<br />
CPIT titles, these three new ones are<br />
also managed by the HKITPC.<br />
Link with the Qualifications<br />
Framework<br />
To sustain <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> as a knowledge-based<br />
economy, the Education<br />
Bureau (EDB) has established a 7-level<br />
cross-sectoral Qualifications Framework<br />
(QF) to develop and sustain quality<br />
workforce. Established in 2004 with<br />
the aim of clearly defining the standards<br />
of different qualifications, ensuring<br />
their quality and indicating the steps to<br />
advance to the next qualification levels,<br />
QF provides a framework for the definition<br />
of various skills and competency<br />
levels required for the performance of<br />
different activities in a given industry<br />
sector. These skills are documented in<br />
the form of Unit of Competency (UoC).<br />
They are collected into the Specification<br />
of Competency Standard (SCS)<br />
document that is published by the EDB.<br />
The Information and Communications<br />
Technology Industry Training Advisory<br />
committee (ICT ITAC) chaired by Agnes<br />
Mak was established in 2005. Supported<br />
by close to 30 devoted committee<br />
members and 100 co-op members<br />
and with three Industry Consultation<br />
sessions and three Focus Group workshops,<br />
over 300 UoCs for the Software<br />
32 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
HKCS: 40 years<br />
COVERSTORY<br />
to date: The University of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s<br />
School of Professional and Continuing<br />
Education, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Productivity<br />
Council’s Productivity Training Institute,<br />
The Chinese University of <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong>’s School of Continuing & Professional<br />
Studies and Vocational Training<br />
Council’s Institute of Professional Education<br />
and Knowledge.<br />
From L to R: Lester Li, Edith Mok, Agnes Mak, Andy Ho and Raymond Wong.<br />
Design and Development branch were<br />
developed in 2007.<br />
The six CPIT titles developed so far<br />
are all have a strong link with the QF.<br />
The expert groups involved in the CPIT<br />
certification development have made<br />
use of these UoCs for the definition of<br />
these required skills in each of the CPIT<br />
titles. This is to ensure that holders of<br />
these CPIT titles are those IT professionals<br />
who possess the necessary skills<br />
and have demonstrated sufficient competencies<br />
in performing the work that is<br />
required for the certification title. These<br />
skills and competencies are assessed either<br />
by peer expert review (for the three<br />
senior titles) or by examination (for the<br />
three junior titles).<br />
Endorsement and support<br />
from Industry<br />
Since its inception, the CPIT scheme<br />
is gaining more and more acceptance<br />
by the industry. “CLP (China Light and<br />
Power) is a very good example. They<br />
list the CPIT titles as a recommended<br />
qualification in their job recruitment<br />
advertisement. They even fully sponsor<br />
their staff to get certification with<br />
these titles,” said Agnes Mak, director<br />
in-charge of the HKITPC, a HKCS distinguished<br />
fellow and a former HKCS<br />
president (1995-1998). Joe Locandro,<br />
director of IT, CLP said, “At CLP, we<br />
appreciate and respect the certifications<br />
awarded by the Institute. The certifications<br />
enable us to recruit professional<br />
IT personnel more readily, while allowing<br />
us to develop and retain outstanding<br />
talents.”<br />
To help those junior level applicants<br />
to prepare for the CPIT examinations,<br />
HKITPC has joined forces with local<br />
training and education institutes<br />
to provide relevant CPIT examination<br />
preparatory courses. These courses are<br />
all monitored by HKITPC to ensure<br />
alignment with the CPIT scheme requirements<br />
in terms of course contents,<br />
course delivery and the qualifications of<br />
the course instructors. Four course providers<br />
have been endorsed by HKITPC<br />
Homegrown credentials<br />
The CPIT titles bear the fruits of<br />
more than 10 years of planning and development<br />
by volunteers from different<br />
ICT associations, academics and supporting<br />
organisations in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
These homegrown professional ICT<br />
titles were developed in response to the<br />
adaptation to local circumstances. As illustrated<br />
by Andy KW Ho, a member of<br />
the Certification Board of HKITPC and<br />
regional I/T security manager of IBM<br />
Global Services Asia Pacific, why the<br />
CPIT (Information Security Officer)<br />
In mid 2007, IT professionals in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> were for the<br />
first time accredited with homegrown IT professional<br />
titles with the launch of three senior level credentials.<br />
—Agnes Mak<br />
title will potentially be in hot demand<br />
in the community, “In the past, security<br />
professionals used to take international<br />
exams to be certified in the area of information<br />
security. The problem with<br />
international exams, however, was the<br />
high threshold that they imposed on the<br />
candidates, [which requires a minimum<br />
of three years of related work experience].<br />
As a result, local fresh graduates<br />
and those who seek to change their field<br />
to information security have difficulties<br />
continued on page 34 4<br />
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Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 33
COVERSTORY<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
4 continued from page 33<br />
in finding “the key” to enter the discipline<br />
as they did not meet the prerequisite.<br />
In contrast, the new CPIT (InfoSec)<br />
credential offered by the HKITPC provides<br />
IT practitioners with a stepping<br />
stone to get into the field,” said Ho.<br />
This view is also echoed by Patrick<br />
Chau, director of the “second-phase”<br />
project and a professor in information<br />
systems at the University of <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong>. “We need a local and credible<br />
IT professional qualification to attract<br />
our young talent to enter the field and<br />
consider working in IT as their choice<br />
of career. The development of the three<br />
junior-level CPIT titles is exactly for<br />
this purpose.”<br />
A “Roadmap” for IT<br />
certification<br />
Looking forward, HKITPC is tasked<br />
to consolidate the multitude of qualifications<br />
awarded by different professional<br />
bodies in the city. As “phase<br />
three” progresses, HKITPC will spell<br />
out the qualifications of IT professionals<br />
in eight major disciplines in a consolidated<br />
roadmap called the Professional<br />
Proficiency Matrix with three levels of<br />
progression – practitioner level, specialist<br />
level and expert level. The eight<br />
designated ICT discipline areas are:<br />
(1) Application Development/Software<br />
Engineering, (2) Quality Assurance, (3)<br />
Project Management, (4) System Solution<br />
& Architecture, (5) Information<br />
Services, (6) Infrastructure, (7) Information<br />
Security, and (8) Digital Interactive<br />
Professional.<br />
According to Sunny Lee, chairperson<br />
of the board of directors of HKITPC, the<br />
roadmap benefits the IT professionals in<br />
various ways: Firstly, it helps IT professionals<br />
plan their career development.<br />
Secondly, it allows employers to define<br />
precisely the skills and experience required<br />
for their recruitments. Thirdly,<br />
it assists professional bodies to identify<br />
the gaps in professional qualifications;<br />
hence develop the most meaningful<br />
certifications. Fourthly, it provides a<br />
yardstick for the accreditation of school<br />
curricula and the design of continuing<br />
professional development materials.<br />
Fifthly, it provides a framework for<br />
cross recognition of certifications with<br />
professional bodies overseas. Finally,<br />
it helps the government to rationalize<br />
what and when to support development<br />
projects of further qualifications.<br />
“We need a local and<br />
credible IT professional<br />
qualification to attract<br />
our young talent to enter<br />
the field.<br />
—Patrick Chau, HKUC<br />
Agnes Mak, director in-charge of<br />
the HKITPC, a HKCS distinguished<br />
fellow and a former HKCS president<br />
(1995-1998), emphasizes the importance<br />
of the Institute for the whole IT<br />
community and industry and says, “the<br />
HKITPC belongs to all professional<br />
ICT associations in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>. It is<br />
not under sole ownership of the HKCS.<br />
From HKITPC’s point of view, all<br />
credible ICT professional bodies are<br />
welcome to join the institute as shareholders<br />
and to work together to elevate<br />
the professional status of our IT profession.”<br />
Mutual recognition<br />
The HKITPC is gearing up to achieve<br />
mutual recognition of professional ICT<br />
titles with those offered in mainland<br />
China, with a pilot program in Guangzhou.<br />
Presently, the HKITPC are in<br />
the preparation stage in signing up a<br />
memorandum of understanding with an<br />
ICT association in Guangzhou to crosspromote<br />
the six titles offered in <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> and some 30 titles being offered<br />
in mainland China.<br />
“Chinese people generally have high<br />
regard for qualification titles and passing<br />
examinations. This is almost a tradition<br />
for them, as positions and ranks<br />
are most welcome. Mainland Chinese<br />
people generally have greater confidence<br />
in professionals in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
Hence, it is crucial to drive these professional<br />
certification examinations and<br />
peer assessment in mainland China. At<br />
HKITPC, certification of senior ICT<br />
titles is based on assessment by their<br />
own peers [instead of by examination].<br />
If <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> is to tap into the mainland<br />
Chinese market with these certifications,<br />
we need to complement the<br />
existing qualification titles, which are<br />
all examination-based,” said Stephen<br />
Lau, JP, chairperson of the first Board<br />
of Governance of HKITPC and a distinguished<br />
fellow of HKCS.<br />
Proving doubters wrong<br />
In retrospect, Agnes Mak recollected<br />
one occasion in the 1990s where a renowned<br />
barrister in town, Martin Lee,<br />
attended an annual dinner of <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong> <strong>Society</strong> as guest of<br />
honor. When Mak told Lee that IT practitioners<br />
would also like to become professionals<br />
like lawyers, Lee said, “It is<br />
impossible for the IT industry to attain<br />
professional standing, because IT develops<br />
just too quickly.”<br />
“At first I thought he was right. A few<br />
years later, I believed he was wrong,”<br />
recalled Mak. “While Martin was referring<br />
to the technical aspects, IT experts<br />
are indeed valued for their capability of<br />
managing the ever changing technology<br />
in the ICT world. Our practices, our<br />
code of ethics, and our accumulated expertise<br />
remain unchanged.” 3<br />
34 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 35
COVERSTORY<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
40 years of IT in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>…<br />
from punch cards to mainframes<br />
to Apple and the mobile phone<br />
36 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
HKCS: 40 years<br />
COVERSTORY<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 37
COVERSTORY<br />
HKCS: 40 years<br />
Father of fiber optics<br />
Charles Kao, a Distinguished Fellow of the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> <strong>Computer</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong> since 1989, makes a contribution to both the tech and the<br />
education worlds By <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> staff<br />
Charles Kao’s award of the Nobel<br />
Prize in Physics came as a surprise<br />
to both himself and <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> where the scientist studied and<br />
worked before.<br />
It’s a surprise because as Kao put it in<br />
his open letter to <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, a Nobel<br />
Laureate of Chinese ethnicity is a rare<br />
event. Rarer is the fact that the prize goes<br />
to an applied science researcher.<br />
Born in Shanghai in 1933, Kao moved<br />
with his family fifteen years later to <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> where he finished secondary education<br />
at St. Joseph’s College in 1952.<br />
He went on to undergraduate studies in<br />
electrical engineering in the UK and received<br />
a PhD in electrical engineering in<br />
1965 from the University of London.<br />
Kao worked as an engineer at the Standard<br />
Telephone Laboratories (STL) of<br />
Standard Telephones and Cables (STC,<br />
which eventually became part of Nortel<br />
Networks) in Harlow, England while he<br />
was a PhD student.<br />
The search for purity<br />
In the early 1960s at STL, Kao and his<br />
research partner George Hockham did pioneering<br />
work in turning fiber optics into<br />
a telecommunications medium.<br />
They demonstrated that the high loss of<br />
fiber optics was a result of impurities in<br />
the fibers rather than an underlying problem<br />
with technology itself.<br />
The research results were first presented<br />
in early 1966 and further published in<br />
June of the same year, laying a foundation<br />
for today’s optical fiber communications.<br />
Though initially received with skepti-<br />
Charles Kao, winner of 2009 Nobel Prize for<br />
Physics<br />
Photo by Richard Epworth<br />
cism in the engineering community, this<br />
ground-breaking idea of using glass fibers<br />
thinner than human hair and cheaper to<br />
produce than fishing line for transmitting<br />
near-limitless amounts of information<br />
over a long distance drove manufacturers<br />
to look for ways of producing fibers so<br />
pure that could make Kao’s dream come<br />
true.<br />
The first ultrapure fiber was finally<br />
created in 1970. According to the Nobel<br />
organization, if all the glass fibers in the<br />
world were put end to end, they would<br />
circle the globe more than 25,000 times.<br />
In 1970, Kao, also referred to as the<br />
‘father of fiber-optics’, returned to <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> and joined the Chinese University<br />
of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> (CUHK) to found the Department<br />
of Electronics, which later became<br />
the Department of Electronic Engineering.<br />
Four years later, he went to the US to<br />
work first as a chief scientist and later as a<br />
director of engineering for ITT, the parent<br />
company of STC.<br />
Returning to <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
Leaving top jobs in the US, Kao went<br />
back to <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> in the early 80s to<br />
become a full-time engineering professor<br />
at CUHK. He was the university’s vicechancellor<br />
from 1987 to 1996. His stint<br />
at CUHK helped turn the university into<br />
a powerhouse in engineering and science<br />
long dominated by the much older University<br />
of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
After leaving academia, Kao continued<br />
to promote science and technology as a<br />
Now you know who is responsible for fiber optical<br />
cables that enable all the excessive information, both<br />
true and false, good and bad, that circulate on the<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong><br />
— Charles Kao and his wife in their open letter to <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
means to transform <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s economy<br />
by setting up his own tech transfer<br />
company and playing the non-executive<br />
director role in a few hi-tech firms.<br />
He also helped found the ISF Academy,<br />
an independent primary and secondary<br />
school in Pok Fu Lam that aims to integrate<br />
the best practices of international<br />
schools and a focus on Chinese language<br />
and culture. Kao has given up all his official<br />
posts since 2008. 3<br />
38 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
Sponsored Feature<br />
Kingdee’s ERP solution helps companies to<br />
grow as economy recovers<br />
While costs and revenue occupy the management of SMEs, it’s clear most are<br />
still not tapping the growth potential of deploying more technology.<br />
year ago, the world economy was hit<br />
A badly by the largest financial crisis in<br />
decades. Today most analysts believe the<br />
worst of part of the financial tsunami has<br />
passed and the economy is gradually recovering.<br />
What does that mean for companies<br />
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“Last year, the biggest challenge was<br />
the financial crisis. Companies, especially,<br />
the small and medium enterprises (SMEs),<br />
were struggling for survival. Now, as the<br />
economy recovers, their challenges should<br />
be how to seize opportunities to grow, in<br />
market share and in production capacity,”<br />
said Liang Zeng, Vice President and General<br />
Manager of Asia Pacific, Kingdee International<br />
Software Group Company Limited.<br />
“Enterprise management software, such<br />
as enterprise resource planning (ERP), is<br />
a powerful tool for companies looking for<br />
growth. It can streamline their internal<br />
processes, forecast sales and improve operational<br />
efficiency,” said Zeng.<br />
Streamline effect<br />
In the last 16 years, Kingdee’s ERP solution<br />
has helped many companies in China<br />
and <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> to streamline their sales<br />
and production processes. “Kingdee’s<br />
ERP helps them to organize their sales orders,<br />
reducing uncertainty, so that they can<br />
plan their production capacity accordingly,<br />
and when and how much materials to purchase<br />
from their suppliers,” said Zeng.<br />
In a typical case, a company can reduce its<br />
inventory level from 28 days to 10 days, after<br />
implementing Kingdee’s ERP solution. And<br />
account receivables can be reduced from 90<br />
days to 40-50 days. “It frees up much of the<br />
company’s working capital,” said Zeng.<br />
The customer relationship management<br />
(CRM) module within the ERP solution can<br />
help companies to identify who are their<br />
most valuable customers, so that they can<br />
serve them the best. “This could increase<br />
customer loyalty, and hence, company’s<br />
sales in the future,” said Zeng.<br />
Kingdee’s Zeng: Enterprise management<br />
software, such as enterprise resource planning<br />
(ERP) systems, is a powerful tool for companies<br />
looking for growth.<br />
IT complexity<br />
But one problem that might be hindering<br />
SMEs looking to implement ERP solutions<br />
is that ERP is a complicated IT solution and<br />
they do not have a large IT department.<br />
“That won’t be a problem for Kingdee’s<br />
solution,” said Zeng. Kingdee has a professional<br />
service team to serve its clients<br />
in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> directly – both implementing<br />
and maintaining their systems.<br />
Kingdee also boasts a complete product<br />
line, covering accounting, manufacturing,<br />
human resource management, supply<br />
chain management, customer relationship<br />
management and so on, providing a onestop<br />
ERP solution for companies.<br />
Compared with some ERP systems from<br />
overseas, Kingdee’s solution is much more<br />
cost effective, said Zeng. And it needs<br />
much shorter implementation time. Usually<br />
it takes only 3-4 months, compared<br />
with 1 year for the overseas solutions, said<br />
Zeng.<br />
Kingdee’s solution will be especially<br />
helpful to large firms and SMEs in the Asia<br />
region, whether multinationals or local, and<br />
in particular for firms wit interests in China.<br />
“Our accounting system fully meets the<br />
complex legal, accounting and statutory<br />
requirements within China and our human<br />
resource management system can handle<br />
the mainland labor practices,” said Zeng.<br />
Customers across the board<br />
Many of the largest Chinese companies<br />
and multinational companies in Asia are<br />
using Kingdee today. Existing customers<br />
are extensive and come from industry<br />
verticals such as manufacturing, logistics,<br />
retail and trading.<br />
For companies looking for growth across<br />
the Asia Pacific region, Kingdee can also<br />
be a key partner reaching their growth objectives.<br />
“We have unrivalled presence in<br />
China, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, Singapore and chanel<br />
partners in many of the South East Asia<br />
countries to serve customers throughout<br />
the region,” Zeng added.<br />
Kingdee has achieved number one market<br />
share of ERP solutions for SMEs for<br />
five consecutive years from 2004 to 2008,<br />
according to IDC.<br />
Kingdee’s ERP solution consists of three<br />
series: Kingdee EAS, Kingdee K/3 and<br />
Kingdee KIS.<br />
Kingdee EAS (Enterprise Application<br />
Suite) provides large- and medium-sized<br />
enterprises with personalized enterprise<br />
management and e-Business application<br />
solutions that cater to their complex management<br />
needs.<br />
Kingdee K/3 ERP is a cross-border,<br />
multilingual enterprise management software<br />
designed for small- to mediumsized,<br />
fast-growing local companies and<br />
multinational enterprises with a footprint<br />
covering China, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, Singapore,<br />
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other<br />
Asia Pacific countries.<br />
Finally, Kingdee KIS, is an integrated<br />
solution, designed for small businesses,<br />
mainly covering their accounting needs.<br />
Asia’s best<br />
“Kingdee started as an account software<br />
company in China,” said Zeng. Today,<br />
Kingdee has 4800 employees and<br />
46 offices, serving 600,000 customers<br />
worldwide from various industries including<br />
manufacturing, wholesales/retail,<br />
logistics, service and trading.<br />
Founded in 1993 and listed on the<br />
Main Board of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Stock Exchange<br />
in 2005 (SEHK:268), it is the<br />
only enterprise management software<br />
company in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> and China listed<br />
as “Asia’s 200 best companies with<br />
sales under US$1 billion a year” for<br />
four consecutive years from 2006 to<br />
2009, by Forbes Asia Magazine. Find<br />
out more at www.kingdee.com.hk
GREENING YOUR OFFICE<br />
– Cut Costs in an Eco-Friendly Way.<br />
More than just reducing environmental impact<br />
A green oce is no longer<br />
just an indication of an<br />
organisation’s responsibility<br />
to the environment, and it is<br />
not just the IT department’s<br />
problem. The business case<br />
for a green oce, in terms<br />
of reduced costs, improved<br />
ciency and greater security<br />
controls is easy to see.<br />
The oce is predicted to<br />
be an even bigger energy<br />
guzzler in the future,<br />
consuming up to 20% of<br />
any country’s energy. So the<br />
oce can no longer remove<br />
itself from environmental<br />
concerns. There is now a<br />
great urgency to reduce the<br />
power consumption of IT<br />
devices as well as lessen the<br />
environmental burden.<br />
THE EVOLUTION OF THE<br />
OFFICE<br />
IT infrastructure has<br />
progressively developed in<br />
recent years with the rapid<br />
expansion of IT budgets<br />
within companies. Now,<br />
most employees are provided<br />
with their own PC. There are<br />
also increasing numbers of<br />
servers and output devices<br />
(printers, faxes and copiers).<br />
reuse documents on a PC and<br />
freely distribute them over the<br />
<strong>net</strong>work, resulting in higher<br />
productivity in the ce.<br />
Whilst development of<br />
sophisticated IT infrastructure<br />
has increased ciency, it has<br />
also created new problems. For<br />
instance, an increase in output<br />
devices may compromise the<br />
quality of security as employees<br />
have additional avenues<br />
to siphon off information.<br />
that more maintenance is<br />
eventually required.<br />
These issues may<br />
sound like trivial low level<br />
‘administrative’ problems.<br />
Yet if ignored, there is a high<br />
possibility that they may<br />
escalate to ‘managementlevel<br />
issues’ such as having<br />
to deal with data leakage,<br />
higher operating cost for<br />
the organisation and greater<br />
impact to the environment.<br />
“Fuji Xerox’s Green Oce Solution<br />
offers customers a smarter way to<br />
<br />
You can realise more business bts<br />
-<br />
Lydia Chan, Senior Manager, <br />
Production Business, Business Planning<br />
and Marketing, Fuji Xerox <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
TODAY’S GREEN OFFICE<br />
Many organisations looking<br />
to be greener have approached<br />
green consultancies for expert<br />
advice or adopted green<br />
programs such as Fuji Xerox’s<br />
Solution.<br />
Solution,<br />
for instance, helps solve<br />
problems occurring in the<br />
IT development and changes<br />
in business operations<br />
by optimising document<br />
management. This includes<br />
managing data-related and<br />
document-related devices.<br />
Together with our ecofriendly<br />
products and ecological<br />
approaches, Fuji Xerox’s<br />
Green O Solution focuses<br />
on 3 main areas: Optimisation<br />
of Output, IT Devices and<br />
Document Management and<br />
Print- On-Demand.<br />
OPTIMISATION OF<br />
OUTPUT<br />
With output optimisation,<br />
you can optimise the number<br />
of output devices in the oe<br />
as well as the use of paper.<br />
Optimise output devices<br />
With output device<br />
allocation, unnecessary<br />
equipment is reduced.<br />
This lowers the energy<br />
consumption and provides<br />
better device management<br />
saving both time and money.<br />
More printers and copiers<br />
means more energy and<br />
paper are used. Since paper<br />
is not phased out despite<br />
the technological advances,<br />
organisations now have<br />
to deal with the hassle of<br />
Manage usage<br />
managing overlapping paper<br />
authentication<br />
and electronic data. And<br />
By using IC cards<br />
the consequence of<br />
authentication on output<br />
Individuals can create, edit and having more machines is due to the progress of devices, different levels of<br />
40 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
Sponsored Feature<br />
Fuji Xerox‘s <br />
Solution – Saving costs,<br />
enhancing productivity,<br />
preserving the Environment<br />
and Health.<br />
user permission settings can<br />
be customised. This would not<br />
only manage usage but also<br />
prevents information leaks.<br />
Prevent Uncollected Print-<br />
Outs<br />
IC card authentication is<br />
needed at <strong>net</strong>worked MFD<br />
before printing is processed.<br />
The print job can be viewed<br />
on the device panel before<br />
print release. Users can also<br />
decide when to print the<br />
documents securely. Paper<br />
wastage is reduced as errors<br />
and unnecessary print jobs<br />
can be cancelled before they<br />
are processed and printed by<br />
the selected MFD.<br />
Reduce Paper Usage<br />
With N-UP and duplex<br />
printing, you can reduce<br />
paper resulting in further<br />
cost reduction. Less paper<br />
will also reduce paper-centric<br />
document management<br />
issues.<br />
Digital Imaging and<br />
Archiving<br />
Converting hardcopy<br />
documents into softcopies<br />
helps to streamline paperwork<br />
so that they can be captured<br />
and stored securely on a<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
centralised server. These<br />
archives can be printed on<br />
demand from a server or<br />
distributed via FTP, S MB<br />
and email – all without a<br />
PC. Delivery costs are thus<br />
reduced and workforce<br />
collaboration is enhanced<br />
as printing from remote<br />
is now possible. With<br />
document handling software,<br />
you can now view documents<br />
electronically just like paper<br />
with editing, processing and<br />
document search functions.<br />
OPTIMISATION<br />
OF IT DEVICES<br />
AND DOCUMENT<br />
MANAGEMENT<br />
By using enterprise<br />
document management<br />
solutions, you can reduce<br />
the need to deploy multiple<br />
servers. With Fuji Xerox<br />
Docushare, servers from<br />
various departments, or from<br />
s in various locations,<br />
may be combined into one<br />
depository. Users will be<br />
able to store and retrieve<br />
documents, and collaborate<br />
with their teammates<br />
anywhere and anytime. It<br />
also leads to more t<br />
ow and enhances<br />
information sharing. By<br />
consolidating the servers,<br />
power consumption is reduced<br />
as less servers, backup devices<br />
and other related <strong>net</strong>work<br />
devices are required.<br />
OPTIMISATION OF<br />
PRINT-ON-D EMAND<br />
With optimisation of Printon-demand,<br />
the Green Oe<br />
Solution provides customers<br />
with the ability to generate<br />
on-demand documents,<br />
such as brochures, product<br />
information, promotional<br />
pamphlets and more. Thus,<br />
we cut down the need to<br />
transport printed documents<br />
to various locations, the<br />
storage space required to store<br />
them and reduce wastage<br />
of discarding outdated<br />
documents.<br />
CREATING THE GREENER<br />
OFFICE<br />
Document-related activities<br />
account for approximately<br />
70 per cent of total IT power<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
consumption. The Green<br />
O Solution can help<br />
reduce up to 80 per cent of<br />
power consumption, resulting<br />
in reduced carbon dioxide<br />
emissions and operating costs.<br />
Fuji Xerox’s Green Oce<br />
Solution allows you to better<br />
allocate and optimise output<br />
devices, while reducing total<br />
cost, ce space, paper usage,<br />
power consumption, and most<br />
importantly C O2 emission.<br />
Businesses can sigy<br />
gain massive savings in<br />
time, money, manpower as<br />
well as strengthen security,<br />
streamline ww and<br />
reduce environmental impact.<br />
For more information about<br />
Fuji Xerox‘s Green <br />
Solutions, please go to:<br />
<br />
BENEFITS OF GREEN OFFICE SOLUTION<br />
Reduce Total Cost & Optimise Infrastructure<br />
Secure Information Access<br />
Improve and Productivity<br />
Reduce Carbon Footprint<br />
Enhance Corporate Image<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 41
WINDOWS7<br />
Windows 7 finally delivers what Vista promised<br />
After the largest ever beta testing<br />
program by Microsoft, 8<br />
million testers, 2600 customers<br />
in pre-launch research studies and three<br />
years of waiting—Windows 7 has finally<br />
launched.<br />
In a star-studded Saturday morning<br />
launch event in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> last month,<br />
Microsoft cast off the monkey-off-itsback<br />
that was the much-maligned Windows<br />
Vista.<br />
Based on initial reviews and industry<br />
feedback, the software giant has at last<br />
given users, both business and consumer,<br />
an operating system to confidently upgrade<br />
to. While certainly not without its<br />
bugs, Windows 7 is at least convincing<br />
many that they can finally ditch XP—by<br />
far the Redmond firm’s most stable and<br />
successful OS ever.<br />
But users have been grinding away on<br />
XP for seven or eight years, in most cases<br />
preferring to stick with the reliable workhorse<br />
OS in fear of Vista’s many problems.<br />
Enterprises tentative on rollout plans but eager to move off 8-year old XP<br />
By Chee Sing Chan<br />
Entertainment star Ella Koon joins Microsoft’s Raymond Hung on stage to launch Windows 7.<br />
Enterprises are now clearly eager to<br />
move to a new platform with businesses<br />
in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> already rolling out Windows<br />
7.<br />
“For us, Windows 7 is a long overdue<br />
upgrade from Windows XP,” said Manny<br />
Fernandez, CTO, Li & Fung Group. “And<br />
the major areas [of improvement] for the<br />
users are performance and compatibility,<br />
and we’re always looking at the end user<br />
experience. On an IT specific area, security<br />
and control is another major area for<br />
us,” Fernandez added. Li & Fung is rolling<br />
out Windows 7 globally to 80 offices<br />
in 40 economies.<br />
Immediate savings<br />
Another of the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> early adopters<br />
is telecoms provider Reach who has 15<br />
users currently running Windows 7 with<br />
a full rollout to its 500 staff expected by<br />
next year. “For us, Windows 7 is not just<br />
an OS upgrade, it’s the whole package of<br />
encryption, the backward compatibility<br />
with XP and the deployment manage-<br />
ment framework and the remote management<br />
capabilities,” said Sundi Balu, CIO<br />
at Reach. “We had a few gaps in some of<br />
these areas that Windows 7 helps fill in.”<br />
He noted that Windows 7 has helped<br />
bolster security, reduce operating costs<br />
and had been easy to deploy on existing<br />
hardware as the rollout plan involves creating<br />
a virtual environment with applications<br />
and data being more centralized. In<br />
conjunction with Windows Server 2008<br />
R2, Reach will be able to deploy Windows<br />
7 on Windows XP-level hardware<br />
as well as run XP applications.<br />
According to Rich Reynolds General<br />
Manager for Windows Commercial Product<br />
Marketing at Microsoft, a recent analyst<br />
study showed that 57% of enterprises<br />
surveyed will begin deployment of Windows<br />
7 within the next 12-18 months. He<br />
also pointed to other early adopters who<br />
are already reaping returns from the new<br />
OS.<br />
Baker Tilly, the accounting firm, has<br />
already saved 18% on PC management<br />
costs since adopting Windows 7, while<br />
the City of Miami, estimates that the expected<br />
power savings of $54 per PC per<br />
A Windows 7 model shows off the new OS<br />
look and feel<br />
42 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
year alone can justify its Windows 7 deployment.<br />
Early Windows 7 deployment customers<br />
are already projecting cost savings.<br />
Direct cost savings of IT labor dedicated<br />
to desktop management are expected to<br />
range between $89 and $160 per PC annually.<br />
Ballmer unveils Win7<br />
At the Windows 7 launch in the US,<br />
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled<br />
the general availability of Windows 7<br />
with his usual enthusiasm, emphasizing<br />
ease of use, faster boot up times and the<br />
ability to bring together the PC and the<br />
television.<br />
Windows 7 is a long<br />
overdue upgrade from<br />
Windows XP<br />
– Manny Fernandez,<br />
Li & Fung<br />
Ballmer drum-beating aside, Windows<br />
7 has garnered some of the best reviews<br />
of any version of the OS.<br />
Enterprises, on the other hand, are a<br />
more complicated bunch.<br />
Yet despite the testing, planning and<br />
time-consuming complexities of an enterprise<br />
OS upgrade, corporate customers<br />
at the Windows 7 launch interviewed for<br />
this story are hankering to deploy Windows<br />
7 in their environments.<br />
Early adopters from different lines of<br />
business and at different stages of migration<br />
agree on three points: Windows XP<br />
has had its day; Vista was never worth<br />
it; and Windows 7 offers businesses too<br />
many security, <strong>net</strong>working and navigation<br />
features to ignore.<br />
XP couldn’t last forever<br />
Holland America Line, a US-based<br />
Windows 7: positively glowing<br />
cruise ship company with a fleet that<br />
travels all over the world, has been aggressively<br />
testing Windows 7 as part of a<br />
migration from Windows XP for its 3,900<br />
PCs across 14 cruise ships.<br />
Application managers in the company’s<br />
IT and finance departments have been<br />
testing Windows 7 for application compatibility<br />
for about a year. Though only<br />
20 machines run Windows 7 right now,<br />
IT manager Phil Norman says that a year<br />
from now he plans to have 50 percent of<br />
all machines at Holland America Line<br />
running Windows 7.<br />
“We tested Vista with a small group,<br />
but there were too many application compatibility<br />
issues. The benefit just wasn’t<br />
there,” says Norman, adding that Windows<br />
7 is a “much more usable operating<br />
system, with better security features.”<br />
Norman gives kudos to Windows XP<br />
for being a very stable and easy OS to<br />
maintain. “But only to a certain extent,”<br />
he says. “More and more we’re relying on<br />
third party vendors with XP, and it can’t<br />
handle newer drivers.”<br />
Del Monte Foods, the US-based food<br />
production and distribution company<br />
that sells canned fruits and vegetables as<br />
well as pet foods, is at a similar stage in<br />
their Windows 7 deployment as Holland<br />
America Line, with 45 out of its 3,000 total<br />
business users running Windows 7 on<br />
their machines.<br />
The other users run Windows XP. Del<br />
Monte plans to have Windows 7 on 1,000<br />
machines within a year. The company<br />
skipped Vista because it was “cumbersome,<br />
hard to use and had too many compatibility<br />
issues,” says David Glenn, Del<br />
Monte’s director of enterprise operations.<br />
According to Ovum’s Principal Analyst,<br />
Jens Butler, of greatest concern is<br />
the impact that running Windows 7 will<br />
have on existing customer business applications,<br />
and especially ERP offerings,<br />
often developed for the XP platform.<br />
While Ovum expects some teething<br />
problems for those with a large portfolio<br />
of in-house developed applications, much<br />
functionality will be retained.<br />
“The XP mode, still somewhat an<br />
unknown quantity in enterprise environments,<br />
has the potential to facilitate<br />
XP-only applications. Rigorous testing<br />
procedures (be they internal or externally<br />
provisioned) will need to be carried out to<br />
ensure that critical application downtime<br />
and impact is minimized and the line of<br />
business offerings fully supported,” said<br />
Butler. 3<br />
—IDG reporters contributed to this<br />
report<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 43
INDUSTRYPROFILE<br />
Local dotcom survivor flourishes<br />
Radica is still here because the team came up with a new focus fast<br />
enough during the dotcom bust, said Francis Kwok, Radica’s CEO<br />
By Teresa Leung<br />
CWHK: Radica was set up in 2000 when<br />
the dotcom bubble burst. How did you<br />
survive?<br />
Francis Kwok: When we first started,<br />
we had a recommendation-engine product<br />
good for companies that wanted personalization<br />
for their customers. As we<br />
saw more and more dotcom players fail,<br />
we chose a few markets to focus on.<br />
Despite the dotcom failure, the Inter<strong>net</strong><br />
population continued to grow. Companies<br />
selling electronic products or<br />
services such as digital cameras or telcos<br />
need to reach more customers on the<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong>. That led to the development of<br />
our email marketing products.<br />
CWHK: How many employees are there<br />
in Radica?<br />
FK: More than 40. They are in <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong>, Guangzhou, and Shanghai.<br />
CWHK: How many of them are in<br />
R&D?<br />
FK: 80 percent in R&D and analytics.<br />
Staffers involved in analytics focus on<br />
understanding customer requirements<br />
and how they can be tied into our products.<br />
Our annual R&D budget is over<br />
HK$2 million. Our R&D is done in<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
CWHK: Who are your customers?<br />
FK: We have more than 100 customers.<br />
Actually more than 150 companies<br />
are using our e-mail marketing products<br />
because some advertising agen-<br />
cies deploy our products to do e-mail<br />
marketing for their clients. Some of<br />
our customers include LV, Fortress<br />
MaBelle, Chanel, Mercedez Benz,<br />
Bank of East Asia, Communications<br />
Bank, TDC, Global Sources, Paul<br />
Smith, SaSa, Joyce Boutique, PCCW,<br />
Haier, LeMeridien, JW Marriott, Holiday<br />
Inn, and China-based down jackets<br />
company Bosideng.<br />
CWHK: What’s the ratio of local and<br />
overseas customers?<br />
FK: 50-50.<br />
CWHK: Where’s your overseas presence?<br />
FK: We started to expand overseas<br />
from 2006. Now we have presence in<br />
Japan, China, Singapore, and Australia.<br />
CWHK: What issues do you face when it<br />
comes to overseas expansion?<br />
FK: Businesses overseas don’t have a<br />
high-level awareness of non-US software<br />
brands and products. People are<br />
surprised when they find out we are<br />
from <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
Besides, finding the right partners isn’t<br />
easy. Creating a product that can meet<br />
requirements of customers from different<br />
markets is also a tough task. You see,<br />
market peculiar features are justifiable<br />
when there is a critical mass.<br />
CWHK: What are your business and<br />
tech strategies?<br />
Radica’s Kwok: We want to acquire rather<br />
than be acquired<br />
FK: We continue to add useful, highquality<br />
products. Having two or three<br />
competitors, we differentiate by our regional<br />
experience that enables us to help<br />
our customer achieve business growth.<br />
As mentioned, we have large-sized<br />
firms as customers. The experience of<br />
serving them helps us a lot in enhancing<br />
our consultancy services.<br />
CWHK: Have you cut down on headcount<br />
to save cost recently?<br />
FK: We actually raised our headcount<br />
by 20 percent in the past two quarters<br />
and we hope to raise our headcount<br />
again by five to 10 percent in the next<br />
fiscal year.<br />
The economic situation remains tough.<br />
Last year we did ask our employees to<br />
help out by taking no-pay leaves. But<br />
the demand for e-mail marketing is still<br />
there. Our customers want value-added<br />
services such as consultancy.<br />
Besides, the impact on the China market<br />
isn’t as huge. We are seeing growing<br />
demand for e-mail marketing on the<br />
mainland.<br />
CWHK: Do you targeted to be acquired?<br />
FK: We want to acquire others. Our<br />
target is a mainland firm with business<br />
nature similar to ours. 3<br />
44 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
Virtual Office: The Benefits of an Outsourced Virtual Desktop Service<br />
With the increasing trend of globalization and mobility, enterprises are rethinking how desktops are<br />
deployed and managed. NTT Com Asia’s Virtual Office could be their solution.<br />
The cost of maintaining traditional<br />
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supporting desktop computing, including<br />
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maintenance, upgrading and replacement<br />
- all consume significant IT resources.<br />
Virtualization could be a helpful solution as<br />
it could significantly improve manageability<br />
and efficient use of human and system<br />
resources for enterprises. However,<br />
deploying a virtual desktop infrastructure<br />
internally is found to be nearly impossible<br />
for most companies due to its difficulty,<br />
costly and time-consuming nature.<br />
Outsourcing desktop virtualization<br />
NTT Com Asia turns virtual desktop<br />
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outsourced service. The Virtual Office offers<br />
companies the ability to host individual<br />
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www.cw.com.hk<br />
inside NTT Com Asia’s data<br />
centre, enterprises can quickly<br />
realize the full benefits of<br />
desktop virtualization without<br />
having to build and deploy the<br />
infrastructure internally.<br />
Reduced desktop TCO<br />
As enterprises no longer own<br />
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capital expenditure is greatly<br />
reduced and computing<br />
costs are shifted from fixed<br />
to variables. Operating costs<br />
are also reduced by 25-<br />
NTT Com Asia’s Virtual Office hosts individual desktops inside 30% annually as a result<br />
virtual machines that run on the servers at the company’s of reduced IT labour and<br />
premium data centre.<br />
maintenance costs as well as<br />
Desktop virtualization<br />
power consumption.<br />
Improved manageability and<br />
flexibility<br />
Virtual Office allows enterprises to quickly<br />
deploy and scale virtual PC environments to<br />
specific user requirements. IT administrators<br />
have the ability to manage users, data access<br />
rights and application usage dynamically.<br />
Users can log in from any remote thin<br />
client or laptop easily with a USB key and<br />
experience a consistent and personalized<br />
PC environment every time.<br />
Enhanced security and reliability<br />
By virtualizing the desktop, company data<br />
can be centralized on a well managed, reliable<br />
and secure server inside the data centre.<br />
No sensitive data is stored in remote<br />
thin client laptops and therefore information<br />
leakage can be prevented in case that laptop<br />
is lost or stolen. In short, Virtual Office<br />
makes company information accessible to<br />
mobile staff anywhere without compromising<br />
the security of that data.<br />
Disaster recovery<br />
Since complete desktop environments<br />
are centralized inside a virtual machine and<br />
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the PC environment can be done instantly.<br />
If a physical disaster strikes office premises,<br />
business can still be continued from<br />
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The newly launched MagicConnect remote<br />
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Virtual Office anywhere and anytime in a<br />
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Virtual Office - The first total<br />
solution offering<br />
NTT Com Asia’s Virtual Office is the first<br />
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virtualization. Other prominent features<br />
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include dedicated virtual server hosting,<br />
MagicConnect remote access solution,<br />
TeamWorks web collaboration service, SecureVault<br />
online backup, Endpoint Policy<br />
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Virtual Office simplifies the traditional<br />
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environment to enterprises.<br />
For more information about NTT Com Asia’s Virtual Office solution, please visit<br />
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Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 45<br />
Sponsored Feature
CASESTUDY<br />
ERP helps standardize workflow at Jackel<br />
Jackel is now deploying a new ERP system in phases for real-time data and workflow integration<br />
The lack of workflow integration<br />
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facing <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>-based Jackel<br />
Group.<br />
Jackel Group provides firms in the beauty<br />
industry with offerings in components,<br />
packaging, and filling as well as services<br />
from product design and engineering all<br />
the way to manufacturing, filling, packaging,<br />
assembly, quality assurance, trade<br />
financing, warehousing, distribution, marketing,<br />
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The company used a trading system for<br />
handling order processing and managing<br />
finance process, according to Alvin Wong,<br />
IT manager at Jackel Group. However, the<br />
system wasn’t capable of coping with Jackel’s<br />
growth, said Wong.<br />
As business volume<br />
kept growing, Jackel felt<br />
a strong need for an easyto-customize<br />
ERP system<br />
silos<br />
that can help integrate<br />
workflows and manage<br />
the resources of product<br />
lifecycles from design,<br />
manufacturing to delivery<br />
to the buyers’ doorsteps,<br />
supply chain<br />
Wong noted. The firm<br />
picked Microsoft Dynamics<br />
AX because of its higher flexibility<br />
when it comes to customization, said<br />
Wong, adding that this would minimize<br />
workflow changes within the firm.<br />
Three-phase implementation<br />
Starting in August 2007, the first phase<br />
implementation of the ERP modules—including<br />
order processing, logistics, inventory<br />
management, and finance—was completed<br />
in January this year, said Wong,<br />
adding that more than 50 employees have<br />
Challenge: Lack of<br />
workflow integration; system<br />
By Teresa Leung<br />
used these modules since then.<br />
The company is now in secondphase<br />
implementation. When completed<br />
in January 2010, the system<br />
will allow 50 additional staffers<br />
to use modules including project<br />
management and management of<br />
sub-contracting quality control,<br />
said Wong.<br />
In October 2010 when the third<br />
phase is expected to complete, another 100<br />
employees will become users of the new<br />
production management module, he said.<br />
ERP-driven cultural changes<br />
Despite the minimal workflow changes<br />
involved, the new ERP system will bring<br />
changes to Jackel’s<br />
work culture, said veteran<br />
ERP consultant<br />
Kidd Wong, who is<br />
providing consultancy<br />
services during the<br />
ERP implementation.<br />
“One major change<br />
is that users now have<br />
to keep updating data<br />
so that real-time data<br />
will be available to all<br />
different departments,”<br />
said Kidd Wong. “Besides, users must follow<br />
guidelines and steps [when updating<br />
the data] to achieve data and workflow<br />
standardization.”<br />
Tech: Microsoft Dynamics AX<br />
Benefit: Efficient cost<br />
control, decision making,<br />
and management of projects,<br />
operations, logistics, and<br />
Centralized data<br />
As the real-time data is now stored centrally<br />
in one place rather than in different<br />
departments’ systems, project tracking<br />
and management are much easier and effective,<br />
said Kidd Wong.<br />
Centralized real-time data also means<br />
Left: Kidd Wong; Right: Alvin Wong<br />
more efficient month-end closing that has<br />
been shortened to 10 days compared with<br />
two months before, Kidd Wong added.<br />
When it comes to logistics, staffers are<br />
able to respond to changes immediately<br />
and ensure on-time delivery of products to<br />
customers, he noted.<br />
The new ERP system also allows more<br />
effective cost control. “The availability of<br />
real-time data and integrated workflows<br />
enable managers to know the purchase<br />
costs of materials or goods,” said Kidd<br />
Wong. “This allows them to take actions<br />
before purchases are confirmed if they<br />
aren’t justifiable.”<br />
In addition, the deployment also increases<br />
the visibility of the company’s<br />
supply chain. “All purchase orders can be<br />
viewed on the system, which alerts managers<br />
when materials aren’t delivered on<br />
time,” said Alvin Wong.<br />
The new ERP system’s reporting tools<br />
allow users to easily generate different<br />
kinds of reports for executives to speed up<br />
their decision-making process.<br />
Although Jackel expects more implementation<br />
challenges at phase three because<br />
of the higher number of users involved<br />
and the greater gap between users<br />
in terms of computer skills, the firm believes<br />
it will continue to benefit from the<br />
deployment, Wong concluded. 3<br />
46 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
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PRODUCTWATCH<br />
Eyes on with Sony’s 360 degree 3D display<br />
By Martyn Williams of IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)<br />
Sony has unveiled an impressive<br />
3D display that can be viewed<br />
from any direction. The screen<br />
sits in the upper half of a black, circular<br />
case that’s 13 centimeters in diameter<br />
and 27 centimeters tall—about the size<br />
of a small blender. Sony is keeping the<br />
technology used in the display under<br />
wraps except to say it uses an LED light<br />
source. The produced image appears<br />
to have depth to it and can be viewed<br />
through 360 degrees around the device.<br />
Objects displayed on the screen included<br />
a globe, car, cartoon character and<br />
model. Sony created the objects either in<br />
3D on a computer or by keeping them<br />
still while taking photographs from all<br />
around. As a result it’s possible to walk<br />
around the display and view each object<br />
from any angle on the horizontal plane.<br />
So, for example, when a model’s head<br />
was being displayed a visitor could walk<br />
to the other side of the screen and see the<br />
back of her head.<br />
The screen has a resolution of<br />
96 pixels by 128 pixels, which<br />
doesn’t sound like it would<br />
make for a very good image but<br />
is surprisingly good, especially<br />
when images of people are displayed.<br />
Sony has two of the displays<br />
on show at the DC Expo, both<br />
of which are early prototypes—<br />
and possibly the only two prototypes<br />
judging by the “No.1” and<br />
“No.2” stickers on them—but<br />
bigger screens could be on the<br />
way.<br />
While it has taken Sony roughly three<br />
years to develop the prototypes, it will<br />
not take a great leap to make versions<br />
with larger screens, said Naoya Eguchi,<br />
general manager of the photonics development<br />
department at Sony’s core device<br />
development group. He hinted that<br />
a larger version would be ready sometime<br />
in 2010.<br />
Sony sees several potential uses for<br />
the screen.<br />
“This is a very good display for educational<br />
purposes and there are many design<br />
applications,” said Ryoji Chubachi,<br />
vice chairman of Sony, in an interview.<br />
“There are so many, I’m expecting to accept<br />
many proposals from visitors.”<br />
As for when it might come to market,<br />
Chubachi said that for now Sony is soliciting<br />
ideas on how it might be used and<br />
then will consider future plans.<br />
“It all depends on the application,” he<br />
said regarding commercialization. “If<br />
we can develop a good application then<br />
we’ll invest more.” 3<br />
Clothes-folding robot<br />
It might earn them university credits but a robot developed<br />
by students in Japan won’t help dispel the<br />
image of the lazy student. The robot has been designed<br />
to fold clothes.<br />
The bot, called “Foldy,” works with a camera mounted<br />
above a flat surface. An item of clothing is laid out on the<br />
surface and an image of it is captured into a PC. The robot<br />
operator can then draw fold lines on the PC. Once that’s done<br />
it’s just a case of clicking a button and Foldy goes to work.<br />
The wheeled robot is about the size of a shoe box and has a<br />
pair of long grippers that it uses to grab the clothing and fold<br />
it. A 2D bar code sits prominently and clearly on top of the<br />
robot and allows the PC to control it by watching its position<br />
and movements through the camera.<br />
The robot was developed by students at Keio University<br />
as part of the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s Erato<br />
project for advanced research. It was one of several futuristic<br />
prototypes on show last month at the Digital Contents<br />
Expo in Tokyo. 3<br />
48 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
WHO SHOULD ATTEND<br />
Vice Presidents, Directors, Heads and Managers of:<br />
Data Protection<br />
Security and Information Risk<br />
IT<br />
Technology Risk<br />
Compliance and Legal<br />
Together with:<br />
Chief Privacy Officers<br />
General Counsel<br />
Information Lawyers and Officers<br />
e-Business Professionals and Lawyers<br />
Marketing and Human Resources Managers<br />
Auditors<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 49
CHINAWATCH<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong> development:<br />
China’s conundrum<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> journo co-author’s first-hand account of China’s cyberscape<br />
Editor’s note: This article is adapted from<br />
the book, “Red Wired: China’s Inter<strong>net</strong><br />
Revolution” (www.redwiredrevolution.com).<br />
The book, written by Sherman So and J<br />
Christopher Westland, and published by<br />
Marshall Cavendish, is the first to comprehensively<br />
survey the nature of China’s<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong> from first-hand interviews with the<br />
entrepreneurs and visionaries who forged<br />
China’s Inter<strong>net</strong> markets<br />
In October 2009, the market value<br />
of the largest Chinese Inter<strong>net</strong> company—Tencent,<br />
at US$31 billion—<br />
had surpassed that of Yahoo ($24 billion)<br />
and was rapidly approaching that<br />
of eBay ($32 billion). Many Chinese<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong> entrepreneurs have expanded<br />
from their niche markets to become major<br />
players in the industry. But how did<br />
this rag-tag band of entrepreneurs grow<br />
so successful?<br />
Surprisingly, because the Chinese<br />
government—long characterized as an<br />
overbearing, doctrinaire monolith—actually<br />
took a step back when the Inter<strong>net</strong><br />
took off in 1995. Of course, it expressed<br />
concerns about politically sensitive news<br />
and discourse, which at times led to blatant<br />
censorship. But when it comes to<br />
commercially important issues, the government<br />
knows when to get out of the<br />
way.<br />
Selective regulation<br />
“While regulating the Inter<strong>net</strong> is important,<br />
government’s role is also to<br />
provide a healthy environment for the<br />
industry to grow,” said Kou Xiaowei, a<br />
deputy director of the General Administration<br />
of Press and Publication (GAPP).<br />
Compared to other industrial sectors in<br />
China, the Inter<strong>net</strong> is handled with kid<br />
gloves. In telecoms and heavy industry,<br />
government entities are both regulators<br />
and players through state-owned enter-<br />
prises—China’s Inter<strong>net</strong> sector has more<br />
freedom, is more dynamic and successful.<br />
All the major Inter<strong>net</strong> players in China<br />
are private companies, many of which<br />
are listed on foreign stock exchanges.<br />
Major companies such as Sina, Ctrip,<br />
Baidu, Shanda, Alibaba, Tencent received<br />
their original investment through<br />
venture capitalists, ultimately going<br />
public on either the NASDAQ or <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong> stock exchanges.<br />
“There were no incumbent stateowned<br />
enterprises in the Inter<strong>net</strong> industry,”<br />
said Kou. “Besides, the nature of<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong> business is risky, [making it]<br />
less suitable for state-owned enterprises<br />
to operate. Private companies, together<br />
with venture capital investment, are perhaps<br />
more suitable.”<br />
Deng’s timely reforms<br />
Deng Xiaoping completed his “Southern<br />
Tour” of China’s most successful<br />
cities in 1992, kicking off the country’s<br />
economic boom. Deng’s apocryphal<br />
phrase, “To get rich is glorious,” took<br />
the public’s fancy and kicked off a wave<br />
of entrepreneurship. Most impressive,<br />
though, is the awareness and understanding<br />
of America’s Inter<strong>net</strong> innovations<br />
that many of these Chinese entrepreneurs<br />
demonstrated.<br />
During the 1990s, the government felt<br />
that the Inter<strong>net</strong> was too small to be a<br />
50 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
threat—according to researcher CNNIC,<br />
less than one percent of China’s population<br />
was online in 1999—and took a<br />
hands-off approach that the tightly controlled<br />
media sector envied. Government<br />
bureaucrats saw the Inter<strong>net</strong> more as a<br />
technological innovation.<br />
The government body most involved<br />
at that time was the Ministry of Information<br />
Industry (MII), which oversaw the<br />
development of the country’s telecoms<br />
infrastructure. MII saw the Inter<strong>net</strong> as<br />
another way of increasing China’s telecoms<br />
usage, and thus its own revenues.<br />
Imported skills, unfettered<br />
ambition<br />
With no state-owned enterprises as<br />
competitors, little direct government<br />
control, and relatively low barriers to<br />
entry, Chinese Inter<strong>net</strong> entrepreneurs<br />
flourished. They had access to Silicon<br />
Valley’s capital and know-how, as many<br />
of the entrepreneurs were returnees from<br />
overseas.<br />
People like Baidu’s Robin Li, Sohu’s<br />
Charles Zhang, and Ctrip’s James Liang<br />
had been valuable members of the<br />
American engineering community before<br />
they returned to China. It was a new,<br />
Darwinian world where only the fittest<br />
survived. The result was a burgeoning<br />
Chinese Inter<strong>net</strong> market with a bevy of<br />
competing services.<br />
The strongest players, with the most<br />
creative ideas and best overall performance,<br />
eventually dominated their<br />
individual sectors—Baidu for search<br />
engines, Taobao for online auction, Tencent<br />
for online chat, and Sina for online<br />
portals. In fact, today these companies<br />
are so strong that they have beaten their<br />
Western rivals—Google, eBay, Yahoo,<br />
and so on—in the battle for Chinese online<br />
consumer loyalty.<br />
China’s Inter<strong>net</strong> is no longer a niche<br />
market. Over 25 percent of the population<br />
is online, according to CNNIC, and<br />
the numbers are increasing faster than<br />
anywhere else in the world. This is a<br />
mixed blessing, as the Inter<strong>net</strong> has now<br />
“come to the attention of the authorities.”<br />
China’s government has recognized the<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong> as a powerful media force, and<br />
something to be controlled. Regulation<br />
is no longer solely the domain of the<br />
business and technology friendly MII,<br />
which recently changed its name to the<br />
Ministry of Industry and Information<br />
Technology (MIIT). New, hard-line regulators<br />
are entering the fray, including<br />
the State Administration of Radio, Film,<br />
and Television (SARFT). SARFT traditionally<br />
regulated China’s TV stations<br />
and cares more about policy and political<br />
agenda than promoting Inter<strong>net</strong> use.<br />
Video effect<br />
The change was most apparent in the<br />
licensing of video-sharing sites in 2008.<br />
SARFT initially required all videosharing<br />
sites to be government owned.<br />
Though strong protests from the industry<br />
forced it to cancel this strict requirement,<br />
a frustrating litany of requirements needed<br />
to be met before licenses were issued.<br />
SARFT even made an example of one of<br />
the major players, to show that it meant<br />
business. 56.com, the third most popular<br />
video-sharing site at the time, was suspended<br />
for a month in June 2008 before<br />
eventually getting its license. The effects<br />
were devastating—56.com lost its popularity<br />
and ceased to be a major player.<br />
Kou, however, does not think that the<br />
government’s role in the Inter<strong>net</strong> business<br />
has changed fundamentally. “As<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong> services develop and mature,<br />
the government can implement more<br />
detailed rules to regulate different Inter<strong>net</strong><br />
businesses,” he said. That’s what<br />
happened: for example, the government<br />
launched regulations for online news, for<br />
online publications, and in 2008 came<br />
SARFT’s new rules on video-sharing<br />
sites.”<br />
Rules and regs<br />
Kou believes more regulation will<br />
emerge in the next two to three years.<br />
“The Inter<strong>net</strong> is like a double-edged<br />
sword. There is no doubt its development<br />
will benefit society and the people.<br />
But, without proper control, it can also<br />
have a negative impact.”<br />
The current regulatory environment<br />
reflects China’s consternation over exactly<br />
how much control is healthy in<br />
an industry. Over-controlling it would<br />
kill the creativity that has generated so<br />
much wealth, employment, and innovation.<br />
Under-controlling it allows media<br />
and technology to be used in acts that<br />
are harmful to society and to the government.<br />
The challenge facing the government<br />
is how far it can balance its urge to<br />
control the Web, while keeping entrepreneurial<br />
spirits flourishing.<br />
“Ultimately, the government does not<br />
want to kill the Inter<strong>net</strong> industry,” said<br />
Kou. “We just try to rule out what is<br />
deemed improper.” 3<br />
Author bio<br />
Sherman So is a<br />
journalist and was<br />
previously the lead<br />
China technology reporter<br />
for the South<br />
China Morning Post.<br />
Her work allowed her<br />
to witness the rise of China’s Inter<strong>net</strong><br />
sector first-hand and to talk to many<br />
of the entrepreneurs and industry experts.<br />
She graduated at the University<br />
of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> before earning a MBA<br />
at <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> University of Science<br />
and Technology.<br />
J Christopher Westland is a professor<br />
at the University of Illinois, with<br />
extensive professional experience as<br />
a information technology, innovation<br />
and financial consultant in the US,<br />
Europe, Latin America and Asia.<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 51
TECHREVIEW<br />
HP blade takes a stab at Cisco<br />
ProCurve security blade integrates firewall, IPS, VPN<br />
By David Newman, Network World (US)<br />
HP has an alternative to the many<br />
security appliances that combine<br />
firewall, intrusion prevention<br />
and VPN functions: Just put a single<br />
blade in the vendor’s ProCurve switch<br />
and be done with it.<br />
We assessed the HP ProCurve Threat<br />
Management Services zl module (TMS)<br />
in terms of its features, usability and<br />
performance. What we found is a welldesigned,<br />
easy-to-use implementation<br />
that packs most common security functions<br />
into a small form factor.<br />
The TMS lacks some newer security<br />
features, such as reputation filtering, and<br />
its forwarding performance can charitably<br />
be called modest. But for <strong>net</strong>work<br />
managers facing budget constraints, the<br />
TMS represents a viable way to add security<br />
without adding more boxes.<br />
The TMS is a single-slot blade for<br />
HP’s ProCurve 5400zl and 8212zl<br />
modular switches. It supplies three security<br />
functions: stateful firewall, intrusion<br />
prevention system (IPS) and VPN<br />
concentrator. We tested the TMS in a<br />
ProCurve 5406zl chassis.<br />
The ProCurve 5406zl chassis<br />
Multipurpose security devices are<br />
nothing new, but it’s unusual to see all<br />
three functions in one switch module.<br />
For example, Cisco’s ASA 5500 multifunction<br />
security appliances are not<br />
integrated into Cisco’s switches. And<br />
Cisco sells separate firewall and IPS<br />
security blades for its Catalyst 6500<br />
switches, but those are higher-end devices<br />
with bigger performance numbers<br />
and bigger price tags.<br />
Ubuntu under the hood<br />
The TMS is powered by Ubuntu Linux<br />
running on a 2.2-GHz Intel Core 2<br />
Duo “Merom” CPU and 4GB of RAM.<br />
Those are laptop specs, not surprising<br />
considering the TMS’ small size. This<br />
engine is plenty fast for screening traffic<br />
on most Inter<strong>net</strong> connections but<br />
won’t necessarily keep up with LAN<br />
traffic from numerous switch ports.<br />
Configuration can be done through a<br />
Web-based GUI or the command-line<br />
interface (CLI). Initial virtual LAN<br />
(VLAN) setup must be done on the<br />
switch rather than the TMS. Network<br />
architects will need to think carefully<br />
about which segments to protect: The<br />
TMS currently supports a maximum of<br />
19 VLANs, though HP says an increase<br />
to 250 VLANs is expected soon.<br />
Once switch setup is complete, the<br />
TMS handles all tasks for traffic it protects,<br />
including IP routing as well as<br />
security monitoring. The TMS supports<br />
Open Shortest Path First and Routing<br />
Information Protocol routing as well as<br />
its security functions.<br />
The TMS is a true application-layer<br />
gateway, something we verified by configuring<br />
a rule allowing HTTP traffic<br />
and then hitting it with non-HTTP packets<br />
destined to TCP Port 80. Because<br />
they were not part of any valid HTTP<br />
session, the firewall correctly dropped<br />
these packets.<br />
The IPS function combines signatureand<br />
anomaly-based threat detection. Curiously,<br />
the anomaly-based controls are<br />
binary: All anomaly checks are either<br />
always on or off, depending on whether<br />
the IPS is enabled. In contrast, signatures<br />
can be individually enabled and<br />
disabled. Always-on anomaly checking<br />
is a good thing, though presumably it<br />
has some performance cost.<br />
The signature library comprises nearly<br />
5,000 entries grouped into a dozen<br />
vulnerability categories such as backdoors,<br />
viruses, malware, and recon attacks.<br />
HP offers a subscription service<br />
to update signatures.<br />
The VPN concentrator function<br />
focuses mainly on setting up IPSec<br />
tunnels, though the TMS also supports<br />
generic routing encapsulation<br />
(GRE) tunneling using firewall<br />
rules. It also supports layer-2 tunneling<br />
protocol (L2TP) in conjunction<br />
with IPSec.<br />
52 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
TECHREVIEW<br />
Test results<br />
In performance and security testing,<br />
we assessed the TMS both as a firewall<br />
and combined firewall/IPS. Due to<br />
time and hardware constraints, we did<br />
not test two other TMS features: High<br />
availability and IPSec-based VPNs.<br />
We evaluated TMS performance<br />
with stateless UDP and stateful TCP<br />
tests. UDP testing produces best-case<br />
numbers, but TCP testing is a far better<br />
predictor of performance in enterprise<br />
settings.<br />
HTTP forwarding rates are a measure<br />
of how fast users get their Web content.<br />
In firewall-only mode, the TMS moved<br />
Web traffic to 500 simulated users at<br />
around 1.677Gbps. That’s lower than<br />
the 3Gbps claimed on the TMS’s data<br />
sheet, probably because that number<br />
was obtained with UDP. Since TCP<br />
traffic is stateful, the firewall consumes<br />
more cycles keeping track of each connection.<br />
When we tested with the TMS configured<br />
as a firewall and IPS, HTTP<br />
transfer rates fell to 1.206Gbps, around<br />
28% slower than in firewall-only mode.<br />
This IPS performance penalty is not unusual;<br />
in fact, it’s consistent with prior<br />
Network World tests.<br />
Our final rate test involved HTTP<br />
traffic blended with an attack from the<br />
Net Results<br />
HP ProCurve Threat Management<br />
Series ZL module<br />
HP, www.hp.com<br />
Score: 3.8<br />
Pros: Combines firewall, VPN and IPS in one<br />
blade, easy to use, high TCP scalability<br />
Cons: Low forwarding rates; fit and finish bugs<br />
in UI<br />
Scoring Key: 5: Exceptional; 4: Very good; 3: Average;<br />
2: Below average; 1: Subpar or not available<br />
Spirent TestCenter application. We<br />
used a variation on the well-known<br />
Code Red attack against Microsoft’s<br />
IIS Web server on the principle that<br />
any IPS should be able to block it. As a<br />
twist, we used a Code Red variant that<br />
seeks to cloak itself within a stream of<br />
malformed Unicode characters.<br />
Commendably, the HP blade recognized<br />
the cloaking effort for what it<br />
was and dropped attack traffic before<br />
Code Red could install itself. The IPS<br />
A well-designed, easy-to-use implementation that<br />
packs most common security functions into a small<br />
form factor<br />
correctly logged the attack while forwarding<br />
HTTP traffic at 1.138Gbps,<br />
or around 6% slower than the same<br />
test without attacks. However, the actual<br />
performance cost is really only 4%,<br />
since attack traffic comprised 2% of the<br />
total.<br />
So, even though the TMS is a modest<br />
performer relative to the switches<br />
that house it, it may well be adequate<br />
depending on the traffic rates it handles.<br />
HP says higher rates are possible by<br />
using up to four TMS modules<br />
in a switch chassis and<br />
assigning separate security<br />
zones to each chassis, but we<br />
did not verify this.<br />
Forwarding rates are only<br />
one measure of performance.<br />
We also examined connection<br />
setup rate and concurrent<br />
connections. For enterprises<br />
with e-commerce and<br />
other transaction-based applications,<br />
connection setup<br />
rate often is more important<br />
than forwarding rate.<br />
As a firewall, the TMS set up 18,000<br />
new connections per second (cps), easily<br />
exceeding HP’s claim of 15,000. As<br />
a firewall and IPS, the security blade set<br />
up around 7,000 cps, around 2.5 times<br />
slower than the firewall-only rate.<br />
Our final performance test measured<br />
the maximum number of connections<br />
the firewall can track at any one time.<br />
This is a key metric for large server<br />
farms and transaction-processing applications.<br />
HP says the TMS can handle<br />
up to 600,000 concurrent TCP connections.<br />
The TMS came close to that figure,<br />
with an average of 569,000 connections<br />
established in firewall mode and<br />
574,000 connections in firewall/IPS<br />
mode. In a few other test trials, the firewall/IPS<br />
number was around the same<br />
or slightly lower. In any event, connection<br />
capacity is one measure where<br />
intrusion prevention extracts no higher<br />
cost.<br />
Rather than pure performance, integration<br />
of multiple security functions<br />
is the TMS’s major feature. It’s a good<br />
choice for <strong>net</strong>work professionals looking<br />
to add multiple security functions<br />
into the switched and routed infrastructure,<br />
especially where adding yet another<br />
box isn’t an option. 3<br />
Newman is president of Network Test,<br />
a benchmarking and <strong>net</strong>work design<br />
consultancy. He can be reached at<br />
dnewman@<strong>net</strong>worktest.com<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 53
For enquiries, please call Connie Yip at 9407 5454.<br />
E-mail: cyip@questexasia.com<br />
54 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
For enquiries, please call Connie Yip at 9407 5454.<br />
E-mail: cyip@questexasia.com<br />
<br />
©2009, Lantronix, Inc. Lantronix is a registered trademark, and DeviceInstaller, Evolution OS and Com Port Redirector are trademarks of Lantronix, Inc.<br />
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Specifications subject to change without notice. All rights reserved.<br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 55
For enquiries, please call Connie Yip at 9407 5454.<br />
E-mail: cyip@questexasia.com<br />
R<br />
56 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
VIEWPOINT CHARLES MOK<br />
Should IP addresses constitute personal data?<br />
The government’s consultation paper for the review of<br />
the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (PDPO) is long<br />
overdue. The ordinance was passed in 1996, before the<br />
Inter<strong>net</strong> became popular—let alone Web 2.0 and social media—and<br />
is thus far behind public awareness and expectation<br />
by the.<br />
The public naturally wants “maximum protection,” but as the<br />
consultation document rightfully states: “balance is needed between<br />
safeguarding personal data privacy and facilitating continued<br />
development of information and communications tech-<br />
<br />
in spite of technological change”—that is, it should maintain<br />
technological neutrality.<br />
Sensitive data<br />
No<strong>net</strong>heless, the IT sector is among the sectors most directly<br />
affected by this ordinance. An example: the proposal in the con-<br />
<br />
“sensitive personal data”—a new introduction to the ordinance<br />
that would call for a higher degree of protection by the data users,<br />
and hence heavier punishment in case of data-leakage. The<br />
government’s rationale is that such biometric data are inalterable,<br />
thus damage caused to data-owners would be severe and<br />
permanent.<br />
However, why single out biometric data to be made “sensitive,”<br />
while in other jurisdictions such as Australia and the UK, sensitive<br />
personal data includes criminal records, racial or ethnic origin, political<br />
opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership in<br />
trade unions, health information, and sexual orientation?<br />
<br />
<br />
technology in schools for attendance keeping, the effects have<br />
Charles Mok is<br />
the president<br />
of Inter<strong>net</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong> <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong>, and<br />
<br />
Member<br />
of the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Information<br />
Technology Federation. He<br />
has been in the IT industry for<br />
almost 20 years, and is active in<br />
a number of advisory committees<br />
and statutory bodies of the<br />
HKSAR government<br />
already been chilling<br />
for local companies<br />
providing such solutions.<br />
While the PCO<br />
guidelines maintains<br />
that biometric solutions<br />
are acceptable as long<br />
as it is not mandatory,<br />
or that such high level of<br />
secure access control is<br />
<br />
no<strong>net</strong>heless many biometric<br />
solution provid-<br />
ers have simply seen their business dry up since this summer.<br />
Another main concern for the IT sector is the proposal to regulate<br />
data processors—such as application developers, Inter<strong>net</strong> service<br />
or web hosting providers, which provide outsourced services to the<br />
actual data users that hold the personal data of the subjects. Previously,<br />
data processors were not regulated by the ordinance. With<br />
the advent of cloud computing, this is a void to be addressed.<br />
All users affected<br />
Should data processors be regulated directly by the ordinance,<br />
or indirectly—meaning the data user must “ensure that its data<br />
processors provide security protection to personal data at a level<br />
comparable to itself,” as required by the ordinance? Data subjects<br />
would have redress against data users, who would in turn<br />
have redress under contractual law with the data processor.<br />
The IT sector is among the sectors most<br />
directly affected by this ordinance<br />
There are many other areas in the consultation that will affect<br />
all businesses handling any type of personal data, including<br />
its customers and employees. For instance, should there<br />
be mandatory disclosure to data subjects in case of a breach?<br />
Also, the document proposes further empowering the Privacy<br />
Commissioner by making it an offense in cases of unauthorized<br />
obtaining, disclosure and sale of personal data—or repeated<br />
contravention of a data protection principle—and allowing the<br />
Commissioner to impose mo<strong>net</strong>ary penalty on serious contravention<br />
of data protection principles.<br />
However, the document also reveals some recommendations<br />
made by the Commissioner but not taken up by the government—the<br />
IT sector should consider whether IP addresses constitute<br />
personal data. While IP addresses by themselves won’t<br />
identify users, there are circumstances where combined with<br />
other data, IP addresses will be critical in identifying their users.<br />
It is unfortunate that the government has chosen not to even consult<br />
this important issue, which would produce better guidelines<br />
for the industry going forward.<br />
The Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance consultation document<br />
is at http://www.cmab.gov.hk/doc/issues/PDPO_Consultation_<br />
Document_en.pdf and the deadline for responses is November<br />
30, 2009. <br />
www.cw.com.hk<br />
Nov 2009 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 57
BACKPAGE ROBERT CLARK<br />
Take the social media challenge<br />
Your avatar needs a dress code<br />
Miley Cyrus has closed her Twitter account so she<br />
can keep control of her personal life.<br />
Gartner has called on businesses to take control<br />
of their employees’ avatars. The US has introduced disclosure<br />
rules for bloggers. The Singapore government is considering<br />
them.<br />
<br />
Tidy avatars<br />
It looks like the end of the go-go years for social media and<br />
Web 2.0 in general. Web 1.0 was about people getting online,<br />
and Web 2.0 is about making the user an essential part of the<br />
experience. Now it’s reality-check time as we bump up against<br />
the limitations of 2.0.<br />
Gartner forecasts 70% of businesses<br />
will have virtual world behavior<br />
guidelines by 2013<br />
One sign: celebrities who joined the Twitter craze because<br />
everyone else did. But Miley decided to put some distance between<br />
her and her impressionable demographic.<br />
Gartner’s signal is enterprise-oriented. Second Life might be<br />
strewn with abandoned avatars, but avatars on IM clients and<br />
<br />
into business environments and will have far-reaching implications—from<br />
policy to dress code, behavior and computing<br />
platform requirements.”<br />
Even virtual worlds will soon become important enough<br />
for businesses to take them seriously. Gartner forecasts 70%<br />
of businesses will have virtual world behavior guidelines by<br />
2013.<br />
Netopia 2.0<br />
The new rules in the USA requiring bloggers to disclose commercial<br />
interests don’t affect business bloggers, but they’re a<br />
<br />
We’ve been here before. If you can remember in the early<br />
bates<br />
about whether the Net even needed any rules at all. Vow-<br />
<br />
I’ve ever heard), Netopians warned of the dangers of allowing<br />
big business and government interests to invade cyberspace.<br />
I remember a decade ago coming across an opinion piece<br />
<br />
<br />
forecasts of the great digital future, or tips on how to set up a<br />
Web site, today they dispense earnest advice on how to deal<br />
with the social media world.<br />
<br />
an online dress code.<br />
The social media curve<br />
The use of social media is already advanced in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
The local association of interactive marketing says 32% of<br />
panies—Facebook<br />
and Xanga are the favorite social <strong>net</strong>working<br />
sites.<br />
If you’re a CIO you might have worked with the corp comm<br />
guys to set policies for company bloggers. Now someone has<br />
stay on top of what’s being said about your organization on<br />
Facebook or Twitter and be able to respond, whether via company<br />
blogs, the media, customer mail outs or some other. Your<br />
corp comms colleagues are going to need more help.<br />
<br />
<br />
with the market in terms of sharing information, fast-tracking<br />
problems, and responding to questions.”<br />
If yours is an FMCG company you’ve surely already feeling<br />
the heat. If your business has a footprint in mainland<br />
<br />
<br />
complex, but just as important—bad<br />
news travels fast across tight-knit industry<br />
groups.<br />
Companies like Trackur, Jive Software,<br />
and Backtype offer various kind<br />
of online reputation management or<br />
tracking tools, although not yet in Chinese-language.<br />
For CIOs, staying ahead of the social<br />
media curve is a bit of a stretch from the<br />
traditional role. But then, so is everything<br />
else the CIO does these days. <br />
Robert Clark is<br />
a <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>based<br />
technology<br />
journalist.<br />
rclark@electricspeech.com<br />
58 <strong>Computer</strong>world <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk
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