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The automotive capital of the world has “quietly become a leader among the nation’s technology economies,” says an Automation Alley’s 2014 Technology Industry Report released today. According to media reports, the study shows Metro Detroit tech industry employment is up 15 percent (approximately 30,000 jobs) compared to last year, making it the largest tech hub in the Midwest. The growth rate significantly eclipses more traditional technology regions like Silicon Valley, which lost 4 percent (approximately 10,000 jobs) of its employment base. The study also shows schools in Metro Detroit graduated more science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science than Silicon Valley. Online Tech contributed 15 jobs to the Detroit-area technology boom when it announced the opening of its new, world-class Metro Detroit data center facility in Westland. A $10 million investment into the infrastructure of the building will “provide the critical IT infrastructure and services that growing Michigan companies need to sustain growth and credibility in the next few years,” Online Tech co-CEO Mike Klein said in a press release announcing the center. “Metro Detroit is a perfect location for expansion with a healthy enterprise market of Fortune 500 companies and a fast-growing community of startups in the healthcare, financial…
Criminal attacks on healthcare systems have risen 100 percent over the past four years, according to the Ponemon Institute’s fourth annual Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy and Data Security. When the Traverse City, Mich.-based institute first conducted the study in 2010, 20 percent of senior employees at healthcare organizations across the country reported attacks on sensitive data. That number rose to 40 percent in 2014. Despite the uptick in cyber attacks, the report indicates that the total number of data breaches declined slightly from previous years and the average economic impact of breaches dropped 17 percent. Not surprisingly, 75 percent of organizations reported employee negligence is their greatest breach threat and that healthcare organizations continue to struggle to comply with increasing complex federal and state privacy and security regulations. Primary causes of breaches were lost or stolen devices (49 percent), employee mistakes or unintentional actions (46 percent) and third-party errors (41 percent). “The combination of insider-outsider threats presents a multi-level challenge, and healthcare organizations are lacking the resources to address this reality,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. “Employee negligence, such as a lost laptop, continues to be at the root of most data breaches…
When Target’s Beth Jacob resigned in the aftermath of the company’s holiday season data breach that affected up to 110 million customers, it put the role of CIOs in a spotlight of scrutiny. But the ramifications of Target’s problems – which includes $17 million in breach-related expenses and a significant blow to the retail giant’s reputation – could also help technology executives get the funds and manpower required to battle cyber attacks. Target, which said the resignation was Jacob’s decision, announced it will hire a chief information security officer and a chief compliance officer as part of its “overhaul of our information security and compliance structure and practices at Target.” A recent Associated Press story discussed how the role of CIOs has gone from behind-the-scenes to high-profile with the rise of cybercrime. CIOs told the news organization the fallout at Target has resulted in a mix of additional scrutiny and support: For a host of companies, the Target breach was a pivotal event that permanently altered the way they approach data security. Many CIOs say they’re receiving more support, but they say the trade-off is that they’re facing increased scrutiny from their CEOs and other executives. If their fortress walls…
Scared of HIPAA? Don’t be. It represents huge opportunities for the IT world. That was the message from April Sage, Director of Healthcare IT for Online Tech, when she joined Karl Palachuk on his ‘Odd Tuesdays‘ podcast yesterday. (Find the replay here.) Palachuk invited Sage to join his bi-weekly show because its primary audience – managed service providers – has been engaged in a debate about whether HIPAA regulations and the HITECH Act make working in the healthcare space “so big and so complicated and so scary” that it’s best to just run away. Sage counters that the rapidly growing health IT industry creates “a wonderful opportunity” and that while understanding HIPAA regulations “does require a bit of homework to understand the compliance rules, they’re not so different than the normal security protocols that one would find to protect any sensitive data.” Here is more of the sage advice delivered by April (pun credit: Palachuk): “For smaller businesses, the healthcare space is both a great opportunity and a significant burden. The smaller businesses really have the kind of agility to react to the disruptive innovation that the healthcare industry is screaming for in order to figure out how on Earth…
This is the latest in a series of Online Tech client profiles. Read more here. How do you move from founding Hour Detroit magazine to being the president of Spin Media to starting an app development company to Apple requesting healthcare-focused iPad apps that are saving lives via improved communications? “Either way, you’re still trying to get people to respond and to react to something,’’ said Tom Hartle, founder and CEO of CoherentRx. “Whether it’s publishing an app, a magazine or website, the business models can be nearly the same. The format is a thing by which you deliver the content. A lot of people really don’t have the true will or temperament to succeed in other formats.” Referring to David and Goliath matchups between giants and startups, Hartle argues smaller companies can usually “out-maneuver’’ bigger ones “because we can out engineer bigger companies.” “The reason Hour Detroit was successful was we leveraged new technologies in desktop publishing and distribution outlets. At the time (1994), desktop publishing technology was new. Our competition was tied to their old expensive publishing infrastructure,” Hartle said. ““Because the technology is always changing, publishers live in a constant state apprenticeship, with the master being technology….
April Sage, Director of Healthcare IT for Online Tech, will join the ‘Odd Tuesdays‘ podcast on Tuesday, March 4, to give advice on HIPAA compliance. Odd Tuesdays is a podcast for IT consultants that discusses what’s new in tech management and best practices for running an IT business. The podcast airs on the first and third Tuesdays of each month and features a variety of vendor and managed service provider consultant interviews and advice segments. The March 4 podcast, titled Fear Not HIPAA, will be hosted by MSP-focused author, speaker, consultant and business coach Karl Palachuk and include Rayanne Buchianico, whose business provides complete accounting, business, and tax consulting services to IT professionals. Online Tech’s HIPAA compliant data centers annually pass a HIPAA audit with 100% compliance against the OCR Audit Protocol.
Note: This is the 12th in a 12-part data backup video series by Online Tech Senior Product Architect Steve Aiello. View the entire backup video series. What two technologies give you the most “bang for your buck” in data backup software? Deduplication and compression. The benefits of compression are well known. But implemented properly, deduplication can save a considerable amount of time on backups and a considerable amount of space on backup storage. Deduplication eliminates duplicate or redundant information and only backs up new data. Aiello estimates it can cut a typical 6-to-8 hour backup window down to 30-to-50 minutes. That’s a huge benefit particularly for servers that are both mission critical and need to be online servicing customers. “You’re spending less time backing up the server and the server can spend its time the way it’s supposed to be, servicing requests from customers,” Aiello says. Learn more by downloading our disaster recovery white paper. This white paper is ideal for executives and IT decision-makers seeking a primer, as well as up-to-date information regarding disaster recovery best practices and specific technology recommendations.
April Sage, Director of Healthcare IT for Online Tech, contributed some photos from HIMSS14, where a group of Online Tech employees are spending their week networking, learning and exhibiting the company’s enterprise cloud with end-to-end encryption. (If you’re in Orlando, stop by booth #3904.) Above you see the outside of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, the location of this year’s annual event. Below are a couple scenes from inside the conference’s 440,000 square feet of exhibition space. Sage notes the buses are “great metaphors of BIG data, mobility, integration … all keys for moving ONWARD with innovation!” Stay tuned to this blog for thoughts from HIMSS14 live sessions and keynote addresses. Today’s keynote address is from former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady Hillary Clinton. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, spoke at HIMSS13 in New Orleans. In a keynote address on Monday, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini called for change to a healthcare system that he says is “breaking the bank” of the U.S. economy. Forbes transcribed his speech, and interesting coverage of it can be found at Medical Economics, Modern Medicine, Modern Healthcare and Healthcare IT News.
Note: This is the 11th in a 12-part data backup video series by Online Tech Senior Product Architect Steve Aiello. View the entire backup video series. Here is Aiello’s three-part answer to the question driving today’s data backup entry: Always test the restore process. Always test the restore process. Always test the restore process. So, yes, you do need a testing plan for data backups. It doesn’t matter if you back things up if you can’t restore it. If data is in your backup catalog, do a test restore and make sure that restore works. “Any good cloud provider or backup provider worth their salt should be able to work with you and provide that for you as part of the service,” Aiello says. “That way you can validate that the data you’re backing up is actually retrievable in the event of an emergency.” This video series will continue throughout February. Check back for new entries every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Up next: “What are cost-effective data backup technologies? Deduplication and compression.” Learn more by downloading our disaster recovery white paper. This white paper is ideal for executives and IT decision-makers seeking a primer, as well as up-to-date information regarding…
If you’re a member of a healthcare company at HIMSS14 this week, chances are you’re looking for innovations to improve patient outcomes at lower costs. As outlined in a recent press release, Online Tech will exhibit its innovative approach to securing patient data by incorporating encryption at the very core of its cloud and backup infrastructure to protect PHI from the front-end of patient portals all the way to the data-at-rest in offsite disaster recovery environments. This approach means PHI is never in an unencrypted state. At HIMSS booth #3904, Online Tech will have enterprise architects available for one-on-one consultations with companies seeking advice and best practices for health IT architecture, compliance strategies and security for PHI. Security and healthcare attorney Tatiana Melnik, will be dropping by the booth to answer questions about compliance in the cloud and Online Tech will put a spotlight on customer stories, allowing healthcare organizations like CoherentRx, Annkissam and Rimage Designs to tell their stories about protecting PHI and demonstrating compliance with the encryption requirements of HIPAA. This video of instaRounds CEO & Founder Kurian Thott gives a preview of the case studies that Online Tech will highlight at the event. Online Tech’s end-to-end encryption…