Contact Debbie Sims or John Wilcox with questions or comments.
2018 Webinars
AI is not (just) automation: Best practices for achieving new levels of scalability
Wednesday, November 7
12-1 PM (Duration: 1 hour) San Jose, CA
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Abstract: Artificial intelligence provides us with an amazing collection of tools for reproducing what humans do via intuition and reasoning. Thanks to techniques long studied in academia, but recently crossed into commercial application, companies can write programs that learn representations from data, understand how to act in uncertain domains over long periods of time, and perform complex diagnostic reasoning. Moreover, they can do this at a scale and complexity too large for the human alone. These techniques are now applied ubiquitously in departments such as infrastructure, decision support systems, and quality control. Indeed, they are all but required for companies to operate at today’s scale. In this talk, I will discuss how companies use AI to move beyond automation into intelligent, learning systems, how those systems enable companies to increase their scale, as well as best practices for integrating learning systems with teams of people, who depend upon them on a daily basis.
Speaker: Don M. Dini has been building, researching, and writing about artificial intelligence and intelligent systems for over 10 years. He studied computer science and artificial intelligence at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Southern California. While at USC he was a lecturer in computer science and worked on applying AI to real world problems, such as understanding city populations through simulation, and systems to provide security against unknown attackers, which have since been used at institutions such as LAX and the US coast guard. At AT&T he was a principal data scientist, where he applied AI to manage the complexity of diagnosing and operating modern communication networks, resulting in a projected savings of $10-15 million. Today, Don is Lead AI engineer, cofounder, and CEO of New Cortex, which uses AI to redefine how people interact with machines.
How CISO’s assess and build adaptive cybersecurity platforms to protect their organizations
Thursday October 11
12-1 PM (Duration: 1 hour) Remote
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Abstract: From the Department of Defense to the City of San Diego, and now in private industry at Webroot. Gary Hayslip, the Global CISO for Webroot, will discuss the processes he’s used to assess and build adaptive security programs using frameworks, cybersecurity startups, and current technologies to provide a security portfolio focused on continuous scanning, remediation and assessment.
Speaker: Gary R. Hayslip, CISSP, CISA, Chief Information Security Officer, Webroot Inc.As Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Webroot, Gary advises executive leadership on protecting critical information resources and oversees enterprise cyber security strategy. As CISO, his mission includes creating a “risk aware” culture that places high value on securing and protecting customer information entrusted to Webroot. Gary is a proven cyber security professional, his previous information security roles include multiple CISO, Deputy Director of IT and Senior Network Architect roles for the City of San Diego, the U.S. Navy (Active Duty) and as a U.S. Federal Government employee. Gary is involved in the cyber security and technology start-up communities in San Diego, he is an advisory board member for Cybertech, the parent organization for the Cyber incubator Cyberhive and the Internet of Things incubator iHive. He also serves as a member of the EvoNexus Selection Committee where he reviews and mentors Cyber Security and Internet of Things startups and he is a member of the board of directors for the Cyber Center of Excellence. Gary holds numerous professional certifications including: CISSP, CISA, and CRISC, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems Management from University of Maryland University College & Masters in Business Administration from San Diego State University.
New Technologies for the Internet of Things
Tuesday September 18th
12-1 PM PT (Duration: 1 hour), Remote
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Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) movement is one of the most important and transformative tech events in recent history, expecting to deliver trillions of dollars in value in upcoming years. IoT will drive the implementation of over 50 million connected devices in applications as diverse as building automation, transportation, agriculture, energy, civil infrastructure, medicine, and manufacturing. These devices will generate thousand-fold increases in data that will be analyzed in order to improve efficiency, productivity, and performance of operations, as well as provide new business opportunities. However, the rollout of IoT is not without challenges. A number of enabling technologies and business practices must evolve in order to make the dream of IoT a functional reality. This presentation will discuss three important emerging technologies, all of which are needed for large scale implementation of IoT: (1) 5G wireless communications, (2) Portable power, (3) Edge computing. This presentation will provide an introduction to these technologies, their challenges and advantages, and insight on how these technologies are needed for IoT to be successful.
Speaker: Prof. Bachman currently serves Chief Technical Officer of an IoT startup (Integra Devices Corporation) as well as IoT Evangelist and Technologist for the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). He is also part-time faculty in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Bachman is expert in sensor network systems for IoT applications, and has been working in this area for 20 years. He created the first course in microsensors at UC Irvine which he has taught for over 12 years. He has testified before Congress about IoT innovation. Dr. Bachman has been the Principal Investigator, co-PI and project leader for many projects at UC Irvine, including major projects for NSF, DARPA, Veterans Administration, and National Institutes for Health. Dr. Bachman has published over 85 peer reviewed articles, has 18 patents issued, and has given scores of invited presentations around the world. Mark earned a B.S. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Experimental Physics from University of Texas, Austin.
“Big Metamorphosis”
Spinning up Well-Architected Stacks for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Thursday July 26
12-1 PM (Duration: 1 hour) Redondo Beach, CA
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Abstract: Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence requires a different treatment of data than the more traditional methods. The topology and different dimensions of data need to be easily accessible. Distributed platforms and dynamic data structures lend itself well to scale the models near real time. This talk will discuss best practices in spinning up well- architected stacks for machines learning and Artificial Intelligence for scale in an industrial/enterprise setting with practical uses cases, tradeoffs, challenges and storage layers required.
Speaker: Janet George – Fellow/Chief Data Officer/Scientist/ Big Data Platform/Data Science/Cognitive Computing, Western Digital/SanDisk A technical leader with more than 15 years experience in Big Data Platform, machine learning, distributed computing, compilers, and Artificial Intelligence, Janet George is a Fellow and Chief Data Officer at Western Digital. Previously, she served as managing director, chief scientist, and Big Data expert.
New Technologies for the Internet of Things
Tuesday May 1, 2018
12-1 PM (Duration: 1 hour) San Diego, CA
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Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) movement is one of the most important and transformative tech events in recent history, expecting to deliver trillions of dollars in value in upcoming years. IoT will drive the implementation of over 50 million connected devices in applications as diverse as building automation, transportation, agriculture, energy, civil infrastructure, medicine, and manufacturing. These devices will generate thousand-fold increases in data that will be analyzed in order to improve efficiency, productivity, and performance of operations, as well as provide new business opportunities. However, the rollout of IoT is not without challenges. A number of enabling technologies and business practices must evolve in order to make the dream of IoT a functional reality. This presentation will discuss three important emerging technologies, all of which are needed for large scale implementation of IoT: (1) 5G wireless communications, (2) Portable power, (3) Edge computing. This presentation will provide an introduction to these technologies, their challenges and advantages, and insight on how these technologies are needed for IoT to be successful.
Speaker: Prof. Bachman currently serves Chief Technical Officer of an IoT startup (Integra Devices Corporation) as well as IoT Evangelist and Technologist for the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). He is also part-time faculty in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Bachman is expert in sensor network systems for IoT applications, and has been working in this area for 20 years. He created the first course in microsensors at UC Irvine which he has taught for over 12 years. He has testified before Congress about IoT innovation. Dr. Bachman has been the Principal Investigator, co-PI and project leader for many projects at UC Irvine, including major projects for NSF, DARPA, Veterans Administration, and National Institutes for Health. Dr. Bachman has published over 85 peer reviewed articles, has 18 patents issued, and has given scores of invited presentations around the world. Mark earned a B.S. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Experimental Physics from University of Texas, Austin.
The State of Cloud in the Enterprise
Tuesday April 24, 2018
12-1 PM (Duration: 1 hour) McLean VA
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Abstract: Cloud computing has become the de-facto hosting platform for all types of applications and social innovations such as Big Data, the Internet of Things, Smart Mobility and Social Networking – basically, it is the new normal in all industry sectors. Recent surveys show that the majority of enterprises have defined a cloud strategy that includes multi-clouds, hybrid cloud in addition to public and private clouds. Private and public clouds are growing at a healthy pace with no indication of a winner and on average, an enterprise uses five clouds. Containers are growing rapidly. Security and cost management are two major challenges enterprises are worried about. Defining a cloud strategy also includes cloud transformation and migration, which remain big challenges for Enterprises due to a number of technological, organizational and cultural challenges. Specific example challenges include the diversity/complexity of applications’ landscapes, lack of effective governance, a shortage of skilled resources and the complexities of dealing with data and managing its lifecycle. In this talk, we will discuss the state of the cloud in the enterprise and talk about some of the challenges, which I categorize in three buckets, namely: migration, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Data Handling. I will also talk specifically about what a CIO should focus on when dealing with cloud migration/transformation.
Speaker: Dr. Yousif is the VP of Digital Transformation at T-Systems, International. Before that, he was the Global Chief Technology Officer and VP of Architecture for the Royal Dutch Shell Global account; also at T-Systems. He also spent some time with IBM Canada GTS (CTO for Cloud Computing), Avirtec (Cybersecurity startup), Intel and IBM. Dr. Yousif is the Founding Editor-In-Chief of the IEEE Cloud Computing Magazine. He chaired the Advisory Board of the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics and founded the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Autonomic Computing He was a principal leader defining the InfiniBand Architecture and co-chaired the management working group in the InfiniBand Trade Association. Dr. Yousif was an adjunct professor in several universities including Duke, NCSU, OGI and Portland State. He has served as the General Chair or Program Chair for many conferences and serves on the editorial board of many journals. He is a frequent speaker at academic and industry conferences on topics related to cloud computing, the Internet of Things, big data and digital transformation. He has also published extensively and was an IEEE Distinguished Visitors Program speaker from 2008 – 2013. Dr. Yousif finished his Master (Electrical Engineering) and Ph.D. (Computer Engineering) degrees from the Pennsylvania State University in 1987 and 1992, respectively.
2017 Webinars
Adaptive Security
Wednesday December 13, 2017
12-1 PM (Duration: 1 hour) Baltimore, MD
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Abstract: Everywhere you turn there seems to be bad news about the state of security at organizations these days. In the first nine months of 2017, there were 3,833 publicly disclosed data breaches exposing over 7 billion records. The number of records exposed was up 305% compared to the same period in 2016. When looking at the vulnerabilities disclosed through Q3 in 2017, there were 16,006 vulnerabilities representing a 38.0% increase over 2016. In fact, the number of vulnerabilities disclosed only through Q3 was more than all of 2016! When analyzing the vulnerabilities being disclosed, with many of them very basic in nature, it is clear that vendors have not implemented the security improvements we require in our software. As the code providing our basic infrastructure (e.g. water, electricity), cars, medical, and other “Internet of Things” devices comes under increasing scrutiny and attack, dramatic reports flood the news about how vulnerable these critical systems are and the mass chaos that could ensue, if they were compromised. With over 168,000 known vulnerabilities published and approaching 20,000 new disclosures in 2017 alone, organizations must make constant risk decisions. The longer a decision is put off on the best course of action, the longer it takes for a mitigating control to be implemented increasing the organization’s Time of Exposure. Using Vulnerability Intelligence, combined with a proper asset inventory system it can support an organization’s adaptive security efforts. This presentation will also discuss how vulnerability metrics can assist in the evaluation of vendors and products to determine which are most likely to put your organization at risk for a data breach.
Speaker: Jake Kouns is the CISO for Risk Based Security that provides vulnerabilities and data breach intelligence. He previously oversaw the operations of the Open Sourced Vulnerability Database (OSVDB.org) and DataLossDB. Kouns has presented at many well-known security conferences, including RSA, Black Hat, DEF CON, DerbyCon, Bsides, CISO Executive Summit, IEEE, FIRST, CanSecWest, InfoSecWorld, SOURCE and SyScan. He is the co-author of Information Technology Risk Management in Enterprise Environments, Wiley, 2010, and The Chief Information Security Officer, IT Governance, 2011. He holds bachelor of business administration and master of business administration degrees from James Madison University, with a concentration on information security. In addition, he holds a number of certifications, including: ISC2’s CISSP, and ISACA’s CISM, CISA and CGEIT. He has briefed the DHS and Pentagon on Cyber Liability Insurance issues and is frequently interviewed as an expert in the security industry by Information Week, eWeek, Forbes, PC World, CSO, and CIO Magazine. He has appeared on CNN as well as the Brian Lehrer Show, and was featured on the cover of SCMagazine.
Java Programming
Tuesday November 7, 2017
9:30am CT (Duration: 1 hour) Rolling Meadows, IL
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In this presentation, Monica Beckwith will cover OpenJDK HotSpot garbage collection algorithms and will compare and contrast them. Monica will also provide generic tuning tips as well as talk in depth about the latest default garbage collector (GC) for Java 9 – the Garbage First (G1) GC. She will dive into the tuning tips for G1 GC and talk about major memory management pitfalls.
Speaker: Monica Beckwith is an independent performance consultant and trainer optimizing customer applications and systems running the Java Virtual Machine. She has made various performance contributions to the Java HotSpot VM by researching the need for a NUMA-aware allocator and allocation patterns, reduction of redundant instructions, reduction of the Java object header, prefetching patterns, redundant array checks in a loop and various other optimizations for the JIT compiler, the generated code, the Java VM heuristics and garbage collection and collectors. Monica is a regular speaker at various conferences and has several published articles on topics including garbage collection, the Java memory model, adaptive Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation and others. Monica led Oracle’s Garbage First Garbage Collector performance team, and was named a JavaOne Rock Star. Monica also co-authored the ‘Java Performance Companion’ book and is currently working on a book that would cover Java 9 features. Monica was recently considered one of the influential women in Java and Scala: http://blog.takipi.com/10-influential-women-in-java-scala-and-everything-in-between/
Adaptive Cybersecurtiy
Postponed: New Date to come.
12-1 PM (Duration: 1 hour) Baltimore, MD
An inside look into how CISO’s assess and build adaptive cybersecurity platforms to protect their organizations. From the Department of Defense, to the City of San Diego and now in private industry at Webroot. Gary Hayslip, the Global CISO for Webroot, will discuss the processes he’s used to assess and build adaptive security programs using frameworks, cybersecurity startups and current technologies to provide a security portfolio focused on continuous scanning, remediation and assessment.
Speaker: Gary R. Hayslip, CISSP, CISA, Chief Information Security Officer, Webroot Inc.As Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Webroot, Gary advises executive leadership on protecting critical information resources and oversees enterprise cyber security strategy. As CISO, his mission includes creating a “risk aware” culture that places high value on securing and protecting customer information entrusted to Webroot. Gary is a proven cyber security professional, his previous information security roles include multiple CISO, Deputy Director of IT and Senior Network Architect roles for the City of San Diego, the U.S. Navy (Active Duty) and as a U.S. Federal Government employee. Gary is involved in the cyber security and technology start-up communities in San Diego, he is an advisory board member for Cybertech, the parent organization for the Cyber incubator Cyberhive and the Internet of Things incubator iHive. He also serves as a member of the EvoNexus Selection Committee where he reviews and mentors Cyber Security and Internet of Things startups and he is a member of the board of directors for the Cyber Center of Excellence. Gary holds numerous professional certifications including: CISSP, CISA, and CRISC, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems Management from University of Maryland University College & Masters in Business Administration from San Diego State University.
What is Good C++?
Tuesday August 8, 2017
1-2 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour) Fairfax, VA
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For more than a decade between 1998 and 2011 C++ largely stagnated, with no new features being added to the language. Since then we have had C++11 and C++14. Now C++17 is on the horizon with all major features set in stone. Each of these releases has made both significant and minor changes to the language that change the way we use it. What now does good C++ look like? How do we recognize it? More importantly, how do we learn to write it?
Speaker: Jason Turner is a speaker, developer and trainer. He is host of the YouTube show C++Weekly, Co-host of the podcast CppCast, Co-creator and maintainer of the embedded scripting language for C++, ChaiScript, and author and curator of the forkable coding standards document http://cppbestpractices.com.
All about Blockchain
Wednesday June 21, 2017
12-1 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
2691 Technology Dr, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701 at noon ET
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Speaker: Srinivas Attili is the V.P. And Partner for IBM’s Public Sector Application Services business including Health Plans, Providers, State and Local Governments and Higher Education institutions. He has over 15 years of Technology Consulting and System Integration experience leading capture and delivery of several mission-critical programs. He has several patents in the Analytics space and has expertise in Healthcare, and Federal (Homeland Security, Immigration, and Defense) industries with a strong track record of growing market share, revenue, profitability and delivery of complex systems integration, cloud solutions, Information Management, Big Data and Analytics programs. He has an M.B.A., University of Maryland, College Park and an M.S., Computer Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey. He is also a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from Project Management Institute (PMI) and Certified Professional Academy of Healthcare Management (PAHM)
Where’s Your Host At?
Thursday, April 20, 2017
12-1 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
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Speaker: Owen Shearing is an avid technology and IT Security enthusiast. An Associate Director of NotSoSecure and Black Hat trainer, Owen leads much of the educational program of NotSoSecure, a specialist IT security company delivering high-end IT security consultancy and training. Prior to this he was a pen tester/technical trainer for a leading IT security firm. He runs the blog rebootuser.com and has authored tools which can be found at github.com/rebootuser. Over the past few years Owen has identified and responsibly disclosed vulnerabilities in various software found in both work and personal research.
The Myth and Reality of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)
Thursday, February 16, 2017
San Diego, CA 92128
12-1 PM PT (Duration: 1 hour)
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Speaker: Rick Steiner is an independent Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) consultant and systems modeling coach, with clients in various Aerospace and Defense companies. He retired after a 30-year career at Raytheon as an Engineering Fellow and a Raytheon Certified Architect. He has focused on pragmatic application of systems engineering modeling techniques and has been an advocate, consultant, and instructor of model-based engineering. Rick has served as chief engineer, architect, and lead system modeler for several large-scale defense programs. He has been recognized by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) as an Expert Systems Engineering Professional (ESEP), and has been honored as an INCOSE Fellow. Mr. Steiner continues to be a key contributor to the development of SysML, and contribute to the OCSMP certification. He is also co-author of “A Practical Guide to SysML”, currently in its 3rd edition.
2016 Webinars
The Myth and Reality of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)
Thursday, December 15, 2016
15160 Innovation Dr., San Diego, CA 92128
12-1 PM PT (Duration: 1 hour)
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Speaker: Rick Steiner is an independent Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) consultant and systems modeling coach, with clients in various Aerospace and Defense companies. He retired after a 30-year career at Raytheon as an Engineering Fellow and a Raytheon Certified Architect. He has focused on pragmatic application of systems engineering modeling techniques and has been an advocate, consultant, and instructor of model-based engineering. Rick has served as chief engineer, architect, and lead system modeler for several large-scale defense programs. He has been recognized by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) as an Expert Systems Engineering Professional (ESEP), and has been honored as an INCOSE Fellow. Mr. Steiner continues to be a key contributor to the development of SysML, and contribute to the OCSMP certification. He is also co-author of “A Practical Guide to SysML”, currently in its 3rd edition.
Test-Driven Development: From Software to Hardware
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Rolling Meadows, IL
12-1 PM CT (Duration: 1 hour)
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Test-driven development (TDD) is a technique for building software that has been used for years to build high quality applications. However, success with TDD isn’t exclusive to software development. It’s also an effective technique in the development of embedded systems right down to the silicon. In this talk we’ll discuss how hardware teams can realize quality improvements in SoC, ASIC and FPGA development similar to those seen in software development.
How Consumer Electronics is Revolutionizing Mobility, Manufacturing, and Space Technology
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Space Park, CA
12-1 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
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Where’s Your Host At?
McLean, VA
12-1 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
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With the ever growing use of personal devices and the expansion of IOT devices, connectivity to the traditional network has become a bit of a blur. Users are often away from the office and use a multitude of devices to connect back to base from where they operate as if they were sitting at their desks. It’s commonplace to hear about attacks on weak server and device configurations, poorly managed systems and weak physical controls – how do you protect a user that is not based on the company premises?! Networks that were considered to be fairly well secured and have a limited external presence have in recent months become exposed within hours of vulnerability disclosures such as the debacle surrounding Junipers SCREENOS towards the end of 2015 as well as the recently disclosed issues that affected Cisco based IKE VPNs of recent times. We’ll take this opportunity to highlight some common, simple yet effective attacks on infrastructure, remote users and ‘undefined’ equipment that you may not even give a second thought. We’ll provide an introduction into using common techniques on attacking infrastructure, examples of how to utilize built-in tools to aid in attacks as well as give you a glimpse of a pen testers mindset.
Speaker: Owen Shearing is an avid technology and IT Security enthusiast. An Associate Director of NotSoSecure and Black Hat trainer, Owen leads much of the educational program of NotSoSecure, a specialist IT security company delivering high-end IT security consultancy and training. Prior to this he was a pen tester/technical trainer for a leading IT security firm. He runs the blog rebootuser.com and has authored tools which can be found at github.com. Over the past few years Owen has identified and responsibly disclosed vulnerabilities in various software found in both work and personal research.
Big Data security, tools, and tips to protect information assets
Wednesday, October 5 2016
Annapolis Junction, MD
12-1 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
As more organizations are taking advantage of Big Data to innovate and gain new insights using Machine Learning and Advanced Analytics, information security departments are concerned about the security of these platforms and the user permissions to this massive data repository. In this session we will discuss how Apache Hadoop not only can securely store and process sensitive data, but that also Machine Learning and Advance Analytics tools can be used to detect threats, network anomalies and user behavior changes across an organizations data center.
MeriTalk recently surveyed 150 Federal cybersecurity professionals to examine how agencies are using big data and advanced analytics. We will discuss some of their findings including, 88 percent of respondents said that their agency faces challenges drawing cybersecurity intelligence from data, while 90 percent of big data users have already seen a decline in security breaches as a result of using big data analytics, and 84 percent have successfully used data to thwart at least one cybersecurity attack.
Speaker: Eddie Garcia, Chief Security Architect, Cloudera Eddie Garcia is chief security architect at Cloudera, a leader in enterprise analytic data management. Eddie helps Cloudera enterprise customers reduce security and compliance risks associated with sensitive data sets stored and accessed in Apache Hadoop environments. Working in the office of the CTO, Eddie also provides security thought leadership and vision to the Cloudera product roadmap. Formerly the VP of InfoSec and Engineering for Gazzang prior to its acquisition by Cloudera, Eddie architected and implemented secure and compliant Big Data infrastructures for customers in the financial services, healthcare and public sector industries to meet PCI, HIPAA, FERPA, FISMA and EU data security requirements. He was also the chief architect of the Gazzang zNcrypt product and is author of two patents for data security.
Building High Performance Teams With Scrum
Wednesday, April 27 2016
Fair Lakes facility at 12900 Federal Systems Park Dr, Fairfax, VA 22033
12-1 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
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Software is created by teams and teams of teams. Thus creating high performance teams is the holy grail of software development process improvement. But what does high performance really mean? In this talk Dave West Product Owner Scrum.org and former Forrester Analyst talks about how Scrum has become the most popular Agile approach and how it can help organizations build high performance teams using Scrum to bring everyone together in a simple, light weight framework. He describes the genesis of Scrum, and how organizations are employing Scrum at the team and product level. He will introduce the idea of professional Scrum and how the mechanics of Scrum combined with technical excellence and pursuit of the Scrum values enables organizations to transform their delivery teams. He will highlight where Scrum makes sense and where it does not.
2015 Lunch and Learns
Cyber / Secure networking — The Next Wave: Data-centric Security
Tuesday, December 8 2015
12-1 p.m. ET (Duration: 1 hour)
Today’s info protection environment is evolving, driven by paradigm shifts such as BYOD devices, cloud environments, and increased regulatory oversight which are causing a total ‘re-think’ of technology approaches. This session presentation will address the new strategies evolving for this new world.
Leading organizations worldwide, such as Sony, United Airlines, JP Morgan Chase, Target, Bank of London, etc. are finding out that “not all press is good press.” Cybersecurity breaches, and cybercrime, have become mainstream topics due to continued escalation of loss/leak of sensitive information. As this info continues to be leaked, lost, and stolen (often from either erroneous or malicious actions by trusted ‘insiders’), industry experts are waking up to the fact that decades of investment into “securing the perimeter” through upgraded firewalls, IPS/IDS solutions, isn’t enough anymore. There will always be users coming and going across network boundaries, putting virtually all data at risk of malicious or accidental disclosure. As a result, information loss continues daily, with massive financial impact (average breach costing $3.85M according to recent studies). These new threat vectors are driving a shift in cyberdefense approaches, as security technologies evolve from strictly ‘perimeter-centric’ to more ‘data-centric’ in their nature. These new strategies aim to identify and secure sensitive information dynamically – often the moment it’s created – to ensure protection regardless of where that information goes, or who accesses it. In these days of BYOD and cloud, this means that as data moves outside the perimeter, it can stay secure even if the data falls into the wrong hands.
This new wave of technology initiative which extends protection past the network boundary to the information itself has become known as data-centric security. Solutions in this realm dynamically classify, mark, and protect information of all types such that only users with express authorization can use that data, regardless of where it resides.
Key Points
- Legislation trends such as the US Executive Order on Cybersecurity – what it means to you
- Moving from perimeter-centric to data-centric security technologies
- Envisioning a multi-level information security policy
- Advanced persistent encryption for full information lifecycle protection
- Securing information outside of the network boundary
Speaker: Mr. Foley has over 20 years of experience leading both private and public company teams in the technology sector. Prior to Watchful Software, he was Chairman and CEO of TimeSight Systems, Inc., a developer of leading-edge storage and video management solutions for the physical security market. He also served as President of Tacit Networks, where he designed the marketing and business development strategies that led to their profitable acquisition by Packeteer. Mr. Foley sits on the Board of Directors as Chairman for Critical Links, Inc., and holding advisory positions with RackWare, Inc. and Phuture Concepts, LLC.
Computing Efficiency and Software
Thursday, December 3, 2015
12:00 PM PT (Duration: 1 hour)
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Efficiency is “doing more with less.” To become efficient often requires change, rather than more effort. This presentation will discuss changes IT organizations can make to achieve greater efficiency. Specific topics addressed include:
- Infrastructure
- Execution environment
- Application design
- Operations
- DevOps and beyond
By the end of this presentation, attendees will have a good perspective on the changes that can help them achieve true computing efficiency.
Named by Wired.com as one of the ten most influential persons in cloud computing, Bernard Golden serves as Vice President, Strategy for ActiveState Software. Prior to ActiveState he was Senior Director, Cloud Computing, for Dell Computer, which he joined when it acquired Enstratius, a leading cloud management software company, where he served as Vice President, Enterprise Solutions. Bernard also serves as the cloud computing advisor for CIO Magazine; his blog has been named to over a dozen “best of cloud computing” lists and is read by tens of thousands of persons each month. He is a highly regarded speaker, and has keynoted cloud conferences around the world. Bernard is the author or co-author of four books on virtualization and cloud computing, including his most recent book, Amazon Web Services for Dummies, published in Autumn 2013.
IEEE Computer Society Software Certifications Pilot Program
November 12 2015
12:00 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
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This webinar will cover the new software engineering certification program sponsored by IEEE. Georgann Carter, from the Computer Society, will lead the discussion, providing insight into the objectives and approach of the new certification program. Scott Wright will provide additional information about a Northrop Grumman pilot of the new certification program that will allow all NG employees to become certified at a reduced cost in 2016.
User Experience – Why Do Our User Experiences Suck?
Wednesday, November 4 2015
12-1 p.m. ET (Duration: 1 hour)
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Everyone on your team wants to talk about user experience. Each team member wants a user experience they can be proud of. Something that will leave users amazed and competition astounded. So why do all of your user experiences suck? With the incredible tools available, multiple industries still struggle with some of the basic concepts of creating a good user experience. In this talk whurley will help take the audience through user experiences from mobile apps to mind control. More importantly he will help explain away the myths of most of our modern design paradigms and reveal the key tenants of creating an award winning, innovative user experience.
Whurley is the founder and CEO of Honest Dollar; a fintech startup bringing honesty, transparency, and simplicity to the financial services industry. Whurley’s career has spanned over 20 years working for some of the most innovative companies on the planet including Apple Computer, and IBM. He has received numerous awards and recognitions including an Apple Design Award, being named an IBM Master Inventor, and being awarded the 2012 International Genius Grant from the City of Amsterdam. In 2013 he was one of 100 innovators on British Airways inaugural UnGrounded flight where he and his team founded the AdvisHer initiative to advise, advocate, and accelerate Women in STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Math); an effort that was recognized by the United Nations at the 39th G8 innovation summit. Whurley is a published author and frequent public speaker focusing his personal efforts on innovation and diversity.
RF Devices – New Predictive Simulation of MIMO Antennas for 5G Telecommunications
Tuesday, October 13 2015
3:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM PT / 19:00 GMT (Duration: 1 hour)
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Due to the rapid growth of wireless devices and data use, researchers and telecommunications companies are investigating a wide array of potential future solutions for the next generation of wireless data network technology, known as the fifth generation (5G). Technologies based on Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) concepts, including Massive MIMO, are among the key concepts being researched to achieve 5G objectives for increasing the capacity, coverage, reliability, and energy efficiency for new systems. Continuing our history as a leader in the simulation of wireless propagation channels through our Wireless InSite® modeling tool suite, Remcom is developing new, innovative capabilities to efficiently model the complex channel matrix for MIMO antenna arrays. Prediction of wireless channels, particularly in the complex environments of small cells and dense urban environments, is a complicated and computationally-intensive process. The technologies available in tools today are simply not sufficient to perform this level of simulation in any reasonable amount of time for the expected future MIMO technologies. To address this, Remcom is adapting a unique capability that we have recently developed, called Adjacent Path Generation (APG), into the computationally-efficient ray-tracing models in our Wireless InSite® suite in order to predict the amplitude and phase of the propagation channels between each element of transmitting and receiving MIMO arrays. This innovative approach allows us to rapidly predict the full channel matrix for MIMO antennas, including future Massive MIMO arrays that are being considered for 5G, which may have hundreds of elements or more. Through this new capability, researchers will be able to predict how specific urban environments will impact the channel matrix, providing a tool for virtual design and testing of new MIMO concepts. In this talk, we will present results from a prototype of Remcom’s new MIMO modeling and simulation capability, demonstrating the value of such a tool and providing Northrup Grumman with a unique opportunity to preview this capability before it is released to the market.
Greg Skidmore is the Director of Propagation Software & Government Services at Remcom, Inc., a company that provides electromagnetic simulation software and consulting, including innovative simulation tools to assist users in the wireless industry and government sectors in both the design of wireless devices and antennas, and the prediction of their performance in complex environments. Mr. Skidmore’s educational background is in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, and his work experience includes approximately 22 years in software engineering and modeling and simulation. In his role at Remcom, Mr. Skidmore oversees the research, development, and application of modeling and simulation tools that are used to evaluate wireless propagation and performance, radar scattering, and government applications, such as jamming and communications. Remcom’s products in the area of signal propagation & performance include the Wireless InSite® propagation tool suite, whose new MIMO feature and its relevance for 5G are highlighted in today’s talk.
Big Data Analytics: From Insights to Actions
Thursday, September 24 2015
3:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM PT / 19:00 GMT (Duration: 1 hour)
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Data is only as valuable as the impact it leads to ! There is a lot of talk about deriving insights from data, but ultimately is the actions that come out of those insights that matter. You can get lots of exotic insights from data, but next you will ask : now what ? Can we use data to actually prescribe actions ? Can we do it repeatedly, accurately and in large scale production systems ? This talk will provide you with practical examples, learnings of how this was done successfully and the data modeling behind the scenes needed to do so. Most of the principles that will be presented are broadly applicable to any large scale ecosystems of users, devices, applications so you might find those principles as a good inspiration for your next data project.
“Gigel Avram is a Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft with 12 years of experience in data and analytics focused on understanding the end user experience on broad ecosystems of software, devices and applications. His past work involve finding effective ways to interpret the telemetry data in order to drive actions, also running the large scale data processing backend services needed for this. Most recent work is around leveraging new near real time data processing capabilities towards answering not only what is the end user experience, but also why is so and what should we do about it.”
Web Services Testing
Wednesday, July 29 2015
3:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM PT / 19:00 GMT (Duration: 1 hour)
Most organizations today have not embraced the challenge of composite applications, and adopted modern testing practices, so to deliver high quality and high value results now. In addition, ‘time to market’ drives decisions and budget priority of several organizations and agencies today. We have seen how Web Services have moved technology stacks from Mainframe and Client Server to a Composite Application architecture, enabling a faster time to market, and changing the competitive landscape of the market today. Understanding more about Composite Applications, and specifically Web Services along with modern testing practices, will enable you to evolve your personal capabilities and professional career while delivering value to your end user.
From our discussion you will learn
- What are Web Services and why does it matter to testing
- How are Web Services part of the bigger composite application architecture testing complexity
- Why do you need to evolve your testing practices
- When testing Web Services what are the Top 5 common approaches
- How can you adopt modern testing practices into your development, testing, and production (break fix) for success
- Key 3 takeaways which you can use to shape and change organizational practices, starting with testing
Todd DeCapua is a Senior Product Marketing Manager, focused on the two high growth and strategic incubation capabilities of Network Virtualization and Service Virtualization. In addition, at HP Todd is also an Innovation Coach with the HP Software Innovation Team and Chief Technology Evangelist with the HP Software Thought Leadership and Evangelism Team.
DeCapua is a seasoned software professional with more than 20 years of experience in IT applications development, IT operations, product marketing, product management, channels operations and business development in several domains including: Mobile, Agile, Cloud, and Performance.
Prior to joining HP by acquisition, DeCapua was VP of Channel Operations and Services for Shunra. (DeCapua’s ability to deliver resulted in HP acquiring Shunra in April 2014) Prior to Shunra, DeCapua held several senior leadership roles at ING DIRECT. (Key executive Agile change agent, transforming it to an Agile organization with the right people / processes / tools and delivering compelling results) Prior to ING DIRECT, DeCapua worked in several consulting organizations and roles, including Andersen Consulting. He brings a rare background of being a Customer, Partner, and now Employee with Mercury / HP; bringing perspectives from all three dimensions, and sharing practical experiences which are relevant and timely for all.
DeCapua has earned an MBA with Concentration in Finance, and Bachelor of Science. In addition, he also has been recognized with several industry certifications and awards, and is an industry renowned leader / speaker / author.
Testing Trends and Innovations
Thursday, May 21 2015
3:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM PT / 19:00 GMT (Duration: 1 hour)
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Today’s Testing Innovations
As a consultant, Lee Copeland has spoken with thousands of software testers in hundreds of different organizations. Generally, he comes away from these discussions depressed with the state of testing. Many organizations neither know about nor have adopted recent important innovations in our field. Lee will discuss nine of the important innovations in testing—the context-driven school, test-first development, really good books, open source tools, session-based test management, testing workshops, freedom of the press, virtualization, and testing in the cloud. Join Lee for his list, and propose others if you’d like. Discuss the keys to innovation and take a test evaluating your organization’s innovation quota.
With more than thirty years of experience as an information systems professional at commercial and nonprofit organizations, Lee Copeland has held technical and managerial positions in applications development, software testing, and software process improvement. At Software Quality Engineering, Lee has developed and taught numerous training courses on software development and testing issues, and is a sought-after speaker at software conferences in the United States and abroad. He is the author of the popular reference book, A Practitioner’s Guide to Software Test Design.
2014 Lunch and Learns
Topic: Early Warning to Minimize Risk
Oct. 30, 12-1 p.m. PT (Duration: 1 hour)
Speaker: Steve Tockey, Principal Consultant, Construx
“Capers Jones says, ‘If you do not actively attack risk, it will actively attack you’. Tim Lister says, ‘Software project management IS risk management’, meaning that much of what a project manager should be doing is actively managing that project’s risks. Tim Lister also says, ‘The opposite of risk management is reckless management’. This presentation is on the fundamentals of risk management for software projects, how to identify, analyze, prioritize, and control risks to projects. The presentation has particular emphasis on dealing with the common risks on software projects. If you want to have immediately applicable tools for better managing risks on your software projects, this is the presentation for you.”
Moderated by: Neil Siegel, Sector Vice-President & Chief Technology Officer, Northrop Grumman Information Systems
Location: Space Park facility 1 Space Park Drive, Redondo Beach, CA 90278
Topic: Affordable Software Architecture
Nov. 13, 12-1 p.m. MT (Duration: 1 hour)
Speaker: Stephen Mellor a signatory to the Agile Manifesto
The trick to affordable software architecture is to be application independent. A successful architecture must appear to have been constructed by a single mind, even though many minds are involved in the construction of an application of any size. An application-independent architecture, however, is independent of application size, which makes it much more affordable, especially for large systems. This presentation focusses on the establishment of rules that define how to transform a well-specified application into code. It describes how an independent architecture provides a coherent rationale for the implementation decisions that need to be made, and for when to apply them. Since the architecture defines rules to be applied consistently across the application, there are fewer testing and integration problems. The approach has opportunities for automation, and–because the same decisions are not being taken (slightly differently) repeatedly across the application–a significantly more affordable implementation.
Moderated by: Paul Monson, Manager, National / Theater Operations Department, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division
Location: “El Capitan” Conference Room Auditorium 750 S. Richfield St., Aurora, Colorado, 80017
Why is Agile Putting the Lifecycle into DevOps?
Dec. 11, 9-10 a.m. PT (Duration: 1 hour)
Speaker: Dave West, Chief Product Officer, Tasktop
For many, DevOps describes the process of software release automation. But the promise of DevOps is much more than release. It’s about building a strong set of practices between operations and development that foster trust and cooperation, reduce waste, and increase value. Agile provided a framework that let development teams collaborate more effectively. It also changed the development lifecycle and practices. But can the agile lifecycle be employed across operations, and what would the broader lifecycle look like? In this talk, Dave West will describe the challenges and opportunities that Agile + real DevOps affords organizations, including the promise of DevOps, the reality of DevOps efforts, disconnects between the Agile and DevOps lifecycles, and best practices for making software flow.
Topic: Why is Agile Putting the Lifecycle into DevOps?
Sept. 10, 12-1 p.m. ET (Duration: 1 hour)
Speaker: Dave West, Chief Product Officer, Tasktop
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For many, DevOps describes the process of software release automation. But the promise of DevOps is much more than release. It’s about building a strong set of practices between operations and development that foster trust and cooperation, reduce waste, and increase value. Agile provided a framework that let development teams collaborate more effectively. It also changed the development lifecycle and practices. But can the agile lifecycle be employed across operations, and what would the broader lifecycle look like? In this talk, Dave West will describe the challenges and opportunities that Agile + real DevOps affords organizations, including the promise of DevOps, the reality of DevOps efforts, disconnects between the Agile and DevOps lifecycles, and best practices for making software flow.
Moderated by: Ray Renner, Technical Fellow and Senior Software Engineer, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division
Location: Conference Room 1220S (Auditorium) 7555 Colshire Drive Mclean, VA 22102-7508
Topic: 10 Grand Challenges in Using Big Data in Healthcare
Oct. 1, 12-1 p.m. ET (Duration: 1 hour)
Speaker: Dean Sittig, University of Texas Health Sciences Center professor
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Big Data, often defined by the 4 V’s of Volume: the amount of information to process; Velocity: the rate at which data must be processed; Variety: the diversity of data sources, types, dimensions, and time scales; and Veracity: the uncertainty in the data’s trustworthiness, is beginning to have a significant impact on healthcare. This talk will give practical examples of the types and uses of various big data techniques and resources and discuss 10 grand challenges that big data enthusiasts must overcome to realize the potential of the vast healthcare data resources. Examples of these challenges include: linking patients across organizations; dealing with “opt-in” biases; overcoming limitations of retrospective, observational study designs; and separating spurious correlations from new discoveries. While big data has great potential to help answer many healthcare research and operational questions, failure to acknowledge and deal with practical challenges could lead to erroneous conclusions and violation of one of the most important goals of healthcare: “First, do no harm!”
Moderated by: Alexis Sulyma, Director, Public Health Operating Unit, Health Division
Location: 2800 Century Parkway NE Atlanta, GA 30345-3111
2013 Training Webinars
Enterprise Mobile Security/BYOD
Thursday, October 17 2013
12:00 PM ET / 9:00 AM PT / 16:00 GMT (Duration: 1 hour)
Security concerns can slow enterprise momentum towards more mobile computing.
Whether you’re deploying third-party mobile apps or developing them internally, apps need to be locked down tight. That’s not easy. Users bring in their own mobile devices, download their own apps, mix personal and business content, and carry confidential business data outside of corporate protection into the Cloud.
Today, new mobile app security methods are shifting device management and security into mobile apps and removing dependence on hardware. Enterprises everywhere, especially those looking to leverage the cloud, are increasingly looking to such “app wrapping” for added security. With app-wrapping, security travels with the app – and with the data – wherever it goes. Up to the cloud and back down.
In this talk, we’ll explore app wrapping technologies and its alternatives, learn how to decouple security implementation from app development, and cover issues concerning embedding fine-grained usage and security policies into mobile apps after they are compiled.
Enabling Innovation Inside the Network
Thursday, September 26 2013
12:00 PM ET / 9:00 AM PT / 16:00 GMT (Duration: 1 hour)
Modern computer networks perform a bewildering array of tasks, from routing and traffic monitoring, to access control and server load balancing. Yet, managing these networks is unnecessarily complicated and error-prone, due to a heterogeneous mix of devices (e.g., routers, switches, firewalls, and network-address translators) with closed and proprietary configuration interfaces. The emergence of Software Defined Networking (SDN) is poised to change all this by offering a clean and open interface between networking devices and the software that controls them. In particular, many commercial switches support the OpenFlow protocol, and a number of campus, data-center, and backbone networks have deployed the new technology. Many example SDN applications (e.g., server load balancing, seamless virtual machine migration, traffic engineering, and energy-efficient networking) illustrate SDN’s potential to transform future networks. Yet, while SDN makes it possible to program the network, it does not make it easy. Today’s OpenFlow controllers offer very low-level APIs that mimic the underlying switch hardware. To reach SDN’s full potential, we need to identify the right higher-level abstractions for creating (and composing) powerful applications. In the Frenetic project (www.frenetic-lang.org) at Princeton and Cornell, we are designing simple and intuitive abstractions for programming SDNs, including ways to query network state, compose application modules, update a set of switches, collect measurement data from servers, and virtualize the network topology. These abstractions substantially lower the barrier for innovating inside the network
Big Data: Applications, Technical Challenges, and Opportunities
Thursday, June 20 2013
3:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM PT / 19:00 GMT (Duration: 1 hour)
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Big Data is used heavily in meteorology, bioinformatics, and other computational science domains. It gained notoriety as part of a multi-agency initiative to address research on and analyze large data sets. Challenges in Big Data involve the capture, curation, storage, search, sharing, analysis, and visualization of large data sets.
This presentation will address the historical aspects of Big Data and clarify why it’s emerged from niche status. With a growing number of mobile, embedded, and distributed sensing networks, the need to analyze and make sense of a myriad of data will be essential to business. To address the challenge of working with Big Data, we must look beyond the current stack of technologies and reconsider systems architecture, operating systems support, datacentric programming languages, and strategies for breaking down barriers to real-time analysis.
This talk will take a technical and pan-disciplinary perspective and will include examples from computational biology, digital humanities, network science, astrophysics, and other domains.
Automation Everywhere — Industrial Control Systems in the Cross Hair
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
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Zach Tudor – Although everyone is increasingly familiar with the computers in their homes, cars, and mobile devices, Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are the critical systems enable our modern lifestyles. From transportation, manufacturing, water and wastewater treatment to nuclear power plants, gas pipelines and the smart grid, these systems are coming under increasing scrutiny and attack. This presentation will discuss current ICS trends, vulnerabilities and threats, and activities underway to make them more secure.
Building Software for Affordability
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
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Grady Booch – Building quality software-intensive systems that meet the needs of its stakeholders is hard; trying to do that while simultaneously striving to reduce the cost of production as well as the total cost of ownership of that software as it evolves over its lifetime is harder still. In this presentation, we will first examine some best practices for delivering quality software-intensive systems, and then we will analyze the factors that contribute to the costs of production and of evolution. Next, we will study some approaches to building software for affordability, and then we will conclude by presenting emerging approaches to measuring and monitoring software costs.
Agile Leadership and Contracting Models
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
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The question is not: Time & materials or fixed price contracts? The right question is: How can we stop using fixed scope contracts? Contracts for legal services and marketing services do not have “scope.” Contracts for engineering services and even software maintenance services do not have “scope.” But for some reason, contracts for software development services are usually accompanied by a long list of features and functions to be delivered – and this is called “scope.” What we need is a short list of problems to be solved, instead of bad amateur design of their solutions. Agile contracts leave solution design to software engineers and control projects through the regular delivery of measurable value. Mary Poppendieck will discuss software development as a design and delivery service, and the contracts which support a professional approach to software engineering.
Agile Model-Driven Development
Thursday, September 29, 2011
9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET (Duration: 1 hour)
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“Agile” and “Model-Driven Development” do not often appear in the same sentence. Among several important ideas, agility promotes the notion that testing a running system is better than building descriptions of them. On the face of it, this speaks against the construction of models, surely the heart of model-driven development. With the addition of actions to UML, however, models can be executed, and many of the principles of agility can be applied to executable models.
This class describes the construction of executable UML models and translation rules that map models onto multiple platforms and implementations. We also show how this process is inherently agile, and parallel to boot.
