Oracle FLEXCUBE expands capabilities to support

Today's financial services landscape calls for seamless, rich and individualized online and mobile experiences for consumers, new ways to meet increasing regulatory pressures and the ability to continually drive improved performance.

Oracle FLEXCUBE has expanded capabilities to support these areas including new contactless payment and rich, personalized portal enhancements as well as new Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) certification and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) compliance.
Oracle Financial Services Software Limited today introduced new Oracle FLEXCUBE capabilities that help financial institutions to support regulatory compliance, offer richer and more personalized customer experiences, improve perfromance and streamline their IT environments.
Supporting Regulatory Compliance
With FATCA provisions set to take effect in July 2014, Oracle FLEXCUBE provides new features to help facilitate compliance and reduce risk. These features include support for due diligence for new customer onboarding and existing customers to identify United States (U.S.) individuals and U.S.-owned foreign entities.
Enhancing Customer Experience
Oracle FLEXCUBE Mobile Banking now supports contactless payments, including near field communication (NFC), quick response (QR) code support, person-to-person (P2P) and social media payments, enabling banks to offer a new level of convenience and flexibility for customers.
Oracle FLEXCUBE Direct Banking enables banks to provide more comprehensive, flexible and consistent service as well as greater customer convenience with end-to-end multi-channel, multi-step and multi-device collaborative originations capabilities for retail and corporate customers. It also provides expanded customer self-subscription and onboarding features and enables full-scale straight through processing (STP) and support for offline processing.
Corporate banking users of Oracle FLEXCUBE can now take advantage of the enhanced bulk payment capability to help streamline operational efficiency and reduce risk.
Oracle FLEXCUBE has been named a SWIFT Certified Application for Payments 2013.
The enhanced Oracle FLEXCUBE platform also integrates more easily with multiple channels, such as call centers, ATMs and kiosks to quickly and effectively enable customers to access their accounts.
Improving Operational Performance
To help financial institutions better divide and compare transactional data while managing profitablity, cost and performance, Oracle introduces Oracle FLEXCUBE Information Server.
This new capability enables users to simply and rapidly analyze products, review current profitability data and trends to better optimize business decisions and manage competitive pressures, and review standard reports and enhance accountability by monitoring branch-level performance.
Reducing IT Complexity
Oracle FLEXCUBE Development Workbench will now support R10 and R11 versions of FLEXCUBE, enabling financial institutions to transfer exisiting customizations from one FLEXCUBE release to another to help speed upgrades and help reduce cost and resource requirments.
To ease testing of upgrades, patches and fixes on Oracle FLEXCUBE, Oracle today announced the availability of Oracle FLEXCUBE Testing Workbench for Universal Banking, which enables banks to record user and branch transactions, extract subsets of production data, re-run data in test environments and receive immediate diagnostics on errors, which can substantially reduce testing efforts.
To help banks better manage production environments and data compliance, Oracle FLEXCUBE now also ships with a new archiving and purging utility.
Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking now runs on Oracle Database Appliance X3-2 to deliver mid-size banks a compelling banking-in-a-box solution. With this certification, banks can benefit from a low-IT-footprint, high-performance, full-scale banking technology that is engineered to support end-to-end business requirements.
In a recent performance test of Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking on Oracle Database Appliance X3-2, the system managed more than 2.6 million online transactions in 60 minutes.
This equated to 744 transactions per second with an average response time of 156 milliseconds for 98 percent of the transactions.
The solution completed end-of-month batch processing for 10 million customer accounts in 123 minutes during the perfromance test.
"Financial institutions are grappling with evolving customer and regulatory requirements and the need to reduce IT complexity," said Chet Kamat, CEO & Managing Director, Oracle Financial Services Software. "The latest enhancements to Oracle FLEXCUBE help banks to provide an enhanced customer experience, meet industry standards, such as FATCA regulations and SWIFT standards, as well as streamline compliance, reduce risk and minimize IT complexity."

http://www.finextra.com/news/announcement.aspx?pressreleaseid=52502

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WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.8 is part of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 Version 11.1.1.8.

Oracle WebCenter Suite is an integrated suite of Fusion Middleware 11gR1 tools used to create web sites and portals using service-oriented architecture (SOA). Applications adapters are also available.

WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.8 is now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2. This complements our existing certifications of WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.8 with EBS 12.0 and 12.1. WebCenter Portal 11.1.1.8 is part of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 Version 11.1.1.8.0, also known as FMW 11gR1 Patchset 7.
Certified Platforms
Oracle WebCenter Portal is certified to run on any operating system for which Oracle WebLogic Server 11g is certified. For information on operating systems supported by Oracle WebLogic Server 11g and Oracle WebCenter Portal, refer to the 'Oracle Fusion Middleware on WebLogic Server - System Certification' in the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.x) Certification Matrix.
Integration with Oracle WebCenter Portal involves components spanning several different suites of Oracle products. There are no restrictions on which platform any particular component may be installed so long as the platform is supported for that component.
Migrating to Oracle WebCenter
If you're currently using Oracle Portal, you should be aware that Portal is now in maintenance mode. Updates with bug fixes will continue to be produced, but you should consider migrating to Oracle WebCenter for ongoing new features.

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nigeria set to host Oracle Day 2013

Oracle Nigeria will hold its third Oracle Day in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja on November 5, offering delegates the chance to learn how businesses can leverage disruptive technologies.

In addition to Abuja, Oracle Day events will also be held in more than 30 cities in other parts of Africa, Middle East and Europe, under the theme “Converge. Connect. Empower the Modern Enterprise”.

“Oracle Day events offer stories of innovation across multiple industries, geographies and disciplines, with the discussion focused on real-world business results,” Oracle said.

“Each event will be a powerhouse combination of business- and technology-focused tracks, all dedicated to one goal: showing Oracle customers and prospects how the power of simplicity can change IT to a force that drives business innovation: Empowering modern business, Big data at work, Cloud computing, Mobilising business, The modern datacenter.”

Adebayo Sanni, country manager of Oracle Nigeria, said: “Oracle OpenWorld is the showcase for our newest technology; this year’s event in San Francisco demonstrated how Oracle can simplify IT and drive innovation in business.

“Bringing the major OpenWorld announcements to countries beyond the US gives Oracle an opportunity to expose the power of hardware and software engineered to work together at Oracle Days. We believe these new technologies bring unmatched benefits to businesses everywhere. Now in its third year in Nigeria, Oracle Day 2013 promises to be the best yet, with industry experts and customers delivering a content-rich agenda.”

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Effects of new support dates on Java upgrades for EBS environments

Java Runtime Environment 7u45 (a.k.a. JRE 7u45-b18) and later updates on the JRE 7 codeline are now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and 12.0, 12.1, and 12.2 for Windows-based desktop clients. Effects of new support dates on Java upgrades for EBS environments
Support dates for the E-Business Suite and Java have changed. Please review the sections below for more details:

• What does this mean for Oracle E-Business Suite users?
• Will EBS users be forced to upgrade to JRE 7 for Windows desktop clients?
• Will EBS users be forced to upgrade to JDK 7 for EBS application tier servers?

All JRE 6 and 7 releases are certified with EBS upon release
Our standard policy is that all E-Business Suite customers can apply all JRE updates to end-user desktops from JRE 1.6.0_03 and later updates on the 1.6 codeline, and from JRE 7u10 and later updates on the JRE 7 codeline. We test all new JRE 1.6 and JRE 7 releases in parallel with the JRE development process, so all new JRE 1.6 and 7 releases are considered certified with the E-Business Suite on the same day that they're released by our Java team.
You do not need to wait for a certification announcement before applying new JRE 1.6 or JRE 7 releases to your EBS users' desktops.
What's needed to enable EBS environments for JRE 7?
EBS customers should ensure that they are running JRE 7u17, at minimum, on Windows desktop clients.

Of the compatibility issues identified with JRE 7, the most critical is an issue that prevents E-Business Suite Forms-based products from launching on Windows desktops that are running JRE 7.
Customers can prevent this issue -- and all other JRE 7 compatibility issues -- by ensuring that they have applied the latest certified patches documented for JRE 7 configurations to their EBS application tier servers.
These patches are compatible with JRE 6 and 7, production ready, and fully-tested with the E-Business Suite. These patches may be applied immediately to all E-Business Suite environments. All other Forms prerequisites documented in the Notes above should also be applied.
Where are the official patch requirements documented?
All patches required for ensuring full compatibility of the E-Business Suite with JRE 7 are documented in these Notes:

For EBS 11i:

• Deploying Sun JRE (Native Plug-in) for Windows Clients in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i (Note 290807.1)
• Upgrading Developer 6i with Oracle E-Business Suite 11i (Note 125767.1)

For EBS 12.0, 12.1, 12.2

• Deploying Sun JRE (Native Plug-in) for Windows Clients in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Note 393931.1)
• Upgrading OracleAS 10g Forms and Reports in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Note 437878.1)

EBS + Discoverer 11g Users
JRE 1.7.0_45 is certified for Discoverer 11g in E-Business Suite environments with the following minimum requirements:

• Discoverer (11g) 11.1.1.6 plus Patch 13877486 and later
• Reference: How To Find Oracle BI Discoverer 10g and 11g Certification Information (Document 233047.1)

Worried about the 'mismanaged session cookie' issue?
No need to worry -- it's fixed. To recap: JRE releases 1.6.0_18 through 1.6.0_22 had issues with mismanaging session cookies that affected some users in some circumstances.
The fix for those issues was first included in JRE 1.6.0_23. These fixes will carry forward and continue to be fixed in all future JRE releases on the JRE 6 and 7 codelines. In other words, if you wish to avoid the mismanaged session cookie issue, you should apply any release after JRE 1.6.0_22 on the JRE 6 codeline, and JRE 7u10 and later JRE 7 codeline updates.
Implications of Java 6 End of Public Updates for EBS Users
The Support Roadmap for Oracle Java is published here:

• Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap

The latest updates to that page (as of Sept. 19, 2012) state (emphasis added):

Java SE 6 End of Public Updates Notice
After February 2013, Oracle will no longer post updates of Java SE 6 to its public download sites. Existing Java SE 6 downloads already posted as of February 2013 will remain accessible in the Java Archive on Oracle Technology Network. Developers and end-users are encouraged to update to more recent Java SE versions that remain available for public download. For enterprise customers, who need continued access to critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for Java SE 6 or older versions, long term support is available through Oracle Java SE Support .

What does this mean for Oracle E-Business Suite users?
EBS users fall under the category of "enterprise users" above. Java is an integral part of the Oracle E-Business Suite technology stack, so EBS users will continue to receive Java SE 6 updates from February 2013 to the end of Java SE 6 Extended Support in June 2017.
In other words, nothing changes for EBS users after February 2013.
EBS users will continue to receive critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for Java SE 6 until the end of Java SE 6 Extended Support in June 2017.
How can EBS customers obtain Java 6 updates after the public end-of-life?
EBS customers can download Java 6 patches from My Oracle Support. For a complete list of all Java SE patch numbers, see:

• All Java SE Downloads on MOS (Note 1439822.1)

Will EBS users be forced to upgrade to JRE 7 for Windows desktop clients?
This upgrade is highly recommended but remains optional while Java 6 is covered by Extended Support. Updates will be delivered via My Oracle Support, where you can continue to receive critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for JRE 6 desktop clients.
Java 6 is covered by Extended Support until June 2017. All E-Business Suite customers must upgrade to JRE 7 by June 2017.
Coexistence of JRE 6 and JRE 7 on Windows desktops
The upgrade to JRE 7 is highly recommended for EBS users, but some users may need to run both JRE 6 and 7 on their Windows desktops for reasons unrelated to the E-Business Suite.
Most EBS configurations with IE and Firefox use non-static versioning by default. JRE 7 will be invoked instead of JRE 6 if both are installed on a Windows desktop. For more details, see "Appendix B: Static vs. Non-static Versioning and Set Up Options" in Notes 290807.1 and 393931.1.
Applying Updates to JRE 6 and JRE 7 to Windows desktops
Auto-update will keep JRE 7 up-to-date for Windows users with JRE 7 installed.
Auto-update will only keep JRE 7 up-to-date for Windows users with both JRE 6 and 7 installed.
JRE 6 users are strongly encouraged to apply the latest Critical Patch Updates as soon as possible after each release. The Jave SE CPUs will be available via My Oracle Support. EBS users can find more information about JRE 6 and 7 updates here:

• Information Center: Installation & Configuration for Oracle Java SE (Note 1412103.2)

The dates for future Java SE CPUs can be found on the Critical Patch Updates, Security Alerts and Third Party Bulletin. An RSS feed is available on that site for those who would like to be kept up-to-date.
What do Mac users need?
Mac users running Mac OS 10.7 or 10.8 can run JRE 7 plug-ins. See this article:

• EBS 12 certified with Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.8 with Safari 6 and JRE 7
  

Will EBS users be forced to upgrade to JDK 7 for EBS application tier servers?
JRE is used for desktop clients. JDK is used for application tier servers
JDK upgrades for E-Business Suite application tier servers are highly recommended but currently remain optional while Java 6 is covered by Extended Support. Updates will be delivered via My Oracle Support, where you can continue to receive critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for JDK 6 for application tier servers.
Java SE 6 is covered by Extended Support until June 2017. All EBS customers with application tier servers on Windows, Solaris, and Linux must upgrade to JDK 7 by June 2017. EBS customers running their application tier servers on other operating systems should check with their respective vendors for the support dates for those platforms.

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CompTIA Addresses Growing Mobile Security App Needs

The worldwide mobile device market continues to soar in both the consumer and business realms. This is making mobile device integration, management and application security some of the most needed services among organizations and critical skillsets for solution providers.

To help address this CompTIA has introduced a new skills certification for solution providers and developers designed to raise security awareness and preparedness around mobile application development. CompTIA Mobile App Security+ is vendor-neutral and validates the skills required to securely create a mobile application and ensures secure network communications and backend web services, according to the non-profit IT association.
CompTIA realizes that mobile device management and security are growing service opportunities for the channel. In fact, for the first time in history, mobile device shipments are surpassing PC shipments. Going forwared, the gap is only going to widen.
To put things in perspective, worldwide PC shipments are expected to decrease to 315 million this year from 341 million in 2012 and then continue to decline to 302 million in 2014 and to approximately 271.6 million in 2017, according to a research report issued earlier this year by Gartner.
By comparison, mobile devices (including ultra-mobile notebooks, tablets and phones) are expected to rise to just more than a combined 2 billion shipments this year, increasing in 2014 to 2.3 billion and 2.7 billion in 2017, according to Gartner.
"While there will be some individuals who retain both a personal PC and a tablet, especially those who use either or both for work and play, most will be satisfied with the experience they get from a tablet as their main computing device," said Carolina Milanesi, Research vice president at Gartner, at the time the report was issued. "As consumers shift their time away from their PC to tablets and smartphones, they will no longer see their PC as a device that they need to replace on a regular basis."
On the operating system front, Google (GOOG) Android, Apple (AAPL) iOS/Mac OS and Microsoft (MSFT) Windows will continue to be the top three, the research firm said.
As a result, the two new unique certification exams launched by CompTIA will be for native Android and iOS mobile applications, according to the company.
“Mobile apps numbering in the millions are downloaded daily on smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices,” said Terry Erdle, executive vice president, skills certification, CompTIA, in statement. “But too often, in the dizzying race to bring new apps to market quickly, security considerations are an afterthought. With these new certifications we aim to bring the security focus back to where it belongs—in the starting blocks of mobile app development.”
CompTIA said candidates for the CompTIA Mobile App Security+ credential will come from mobile app developers, software developers, applications development managers and network security developers. Complete exam objectives are available on the CompTIA Certification website.
Areas covered in the exams include:

• Principles of secure application development
• 
Security models of Android and iOS devices

• Common threats to mobile app security
• 
Web services security models and vulnerabilities
• 
Secure coding techniques

• Common implementations of cryptography

• Encryption for storage and communications

The mobile revolution, as I have stated before, has just begun. Mobile application development and security is a critical skill for solution providers moving forward.

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Data centre training for Africa

Data centre design and data centre management has, over the past decade, evolved into a profession that requires formal training and development. The need for exposure to recognised data centre standards, guidelines and best practices has become self-evident due to the evolution of the data centre professional.

Gone are the days where individuals must handle the complexities of myriad data centre components through traditional engineering methods, gut feel, and trial and error. Annually, the data centre fraternity can serve up a fair quantity of examples where mission-critical environments experienced spectacular failures and incidents resulting in unplanned downtime, loss of data, loss of productivity and revenue, and reputational impact. The demand for accredited and certified skills within the data centre environment has grown significantly during the past five to 10 years.

The training division of Dee Smith & Associates (DS&A) was established as a result of demand for these skills in the South African data centre market. Subsequently, this demand has also come from the larger African continent. There is a quantifiable need for training and development that results in the formal recognition and accreditation of data centre design and management professionals.

Through its partnership with EPI in Singapore, DS&A's objective is to deliver internationally certified and accredited data centre training in Africa. It strives to expand and nurture these skills by creating sustainability and depth. Formal training in this field also provides an improved understanding of the complexity of data centre design and management, paramount to building the knowledge base. Its training framework demonstrates the impact of a single decision impacting myriad components or disciplines within the data centre environment.

DS&A focuses on education, experience and the continued evolution of data centre design and management as sciences in their own right. Its training programmes are aligned to international best practice, standards, guidelines and trends.



Since introducing this suite of data centre training courses in late 2010, more than 200 candidates have attended and graduated from the training in South Africa. The candidates come from a wide range of industries, such as financial services, telecommunications, information technology, healthcare, property development, project management and product suppliers. Several candidates have travelled from countries like Nigeria and Kenya to attend the training courses presented in South Africa.

Each course is concluded with a mandatory certification exam. All delegates must obtain a minimum percentage ranging between 67% and 75% (depending on the course taken) in order to obtain a professional certification and internationally recognised accreditation. The philosophy is simple – all candidates must prove their ability to grasp the subject matter at a theoretical level before certification can be awarded.

As Lee Smith, director of data centre services and training at DS&A, states clearly: "Anybody can attend a course for a few days, learn nothing and then walk away with unfounded claims of knowledge and professional growth. A certification exam is a simple but effective way to ensure that knowledge is transferred by the instructor and assimilated by the candidate during the course." EXIN is the international certification body that conducts the accreditation for each qualifying candidate.

All certifications are valid for three years where-after a candidate must renew the accreditation through a recertification exam or by providing proof of his or her growth within the data centre profession.

The course curriculum is updated annually to ensure relevance and the incorporation of the latest developments within the international data centre fraternity. DS&A continuously strives to improve and expand on its course curriculum. Only relevant, well-designed and practical courses are selected.

The course offering for 2014 incorporates the following internationally accredited training programmes:

The suite of courses on offer through Dee Smith Associates.

The suite of courses on offer through Dee Smith Associates.
The entry point is the Certified Data Centre Professional (CDCP) course. It is aimed at all persons who are involved in data centres. It provides candidates with a common understanding of the generic components within a data centre facility and the critical design aspects such as power, cooling, fire detection and suppression, EMF, operations and security, to name but a few.

For further course details and the entire training schedule for 2014, please visit

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Cisco CCNA v2.0 120-200 Certification

There has a been a lot of discussion and confusion surrounding what the Cisco CCNA exam changes will mean to students who are currently studying for their CCNA certification. So hopefully this can make it very easy for readers to understand while assisting in obtaining the CCNA certification.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjgTPyxJM0Y


The first thing one may notice is that the name of the certification has changed from simply Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) to CCNA Routing & Switching to signify a switch in Cisco’s new certification structure. What do they mean by this? Well specifying the particular discipline one has their Cisco certification in marries up with the structure that was first put in place at the CCIE level. There one will note they offered CCIEs in different disciplines such as Routing & Switching, Voice, Security, Wireless, Service Provider and Data Center. This then filtered down to the CCNP certification with the same designations of Routing & Switching, Voice, Security, etc. These have been in place the past few years. Now after 5 plus years Cisco has updated the CCNA certification and the new name is CCNA Routing & Switching. This also compliments the CCNA Voice, Wireless, Security, etc certifications that have been in place for the past year or two. So now exam takers can see why it is not a surprise that the name was changed as it makes total sense!
What has stayed the same is that exam takers can either take two separate exams that break the material up to obtain their CCNA R&S certification or they can take the single composite exam covering all the material in one exam.
What has changed is the exam numbers and the content on each exam. If one goes with the two exam option they will take the new ICND1 exam number 100-101. Upon passing this exam, they will obtain their CCENT (Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician) certification. Previously there was not much prestige in this certification as it was viewed as nothing more than a stepping stone to the CCNA certification. But Cisco has really changed that now! Why is that? Well Cisco has made the CCNA certification process much harder now! They did this by taking approximately 75% of the historical ICND2 exam content and put it in the new ICND1 exam. So now to get the CCENT and pass the ICND1 exam it is required to know almost all the material from the ICND1 and ICND2 exam. So what changed?
Removed from the new ICND1 exam are RIP, SDM, Shared LANs, Wireless and Security as the latter two are now fully covered in the CCNA Wireless and CCNA Security exams.
Added to the ICND1 exam is a TON of IPv6 questions. Know the IPv6 basics, theory and how to properly configure a router to support IPv6. Also moved over to the ICND1 exam is VLSM, VLANs, Inter-VLAN Routing, Trunking, ACLs, NAT, and OSPF Area topics.
So why did Cisco cram all this information into the ICND1 exam? Simply because it is now the new prerequisite for the second level CCNA certifications discussed before such as CCNA Routing & Switching, CCNA Voice, CCNA Security, and CCNA Data Center. See how it is all starting to fall into place? But don’t worry, as stated before, Cisco has retained the option to obtain the CCNA Routing & Switching certification in a single composite exam number 200-120. But more on that in a minute.
So what were the changed to the ICND2 200-101 exam? Well Cisco moved NAT, VLSM and Inter-VLAN Routing into the ICND2 exam. Cisco also removed the Security concepts that are now covered in the CCNA Security track. They also added a plethora of new topics such as OSPFv3 and Multi-Area OSPF, EtherChannel, Layer 3 Redundancy, Syslog, Cisco NetFlow, Cisco Licensing, and Troubleshooting of VLANS, EIGRP, IPv4 and IPv6. This is very similar to the TSHOOT troubleshooting exam in the CCNP track, just condensed at the CCNA level.
So it should go without saying if exam takers go with the single composite 200-120 exam option it will include all the changes to the exam noted above. Hopefully this overview was able to provide great insight on the changes to the Cisco CCNA certification exam!

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IAITAM & APMG-International Begin Accreditation Partnership

APMG-International will begin accrediting training organizations to deliver the IAITAM Courseware effective immediately. This announcement was made today at IAITAM’s Annual Fall ACE Conference by Dr. Barbara Rembiesa, CEO of IAITAM, to the attendees. This partnership will allow wide spread adoption of the IAITAM Courseware and meet the growing demand for IT Asset Management Training.
“IAITAM is very excited about making this move to allow training organizations around the globe to start teaching the IAITAM Courseware. One of many benefits of this partnership is the additional focus IAITAM will garner to create new and critical content initiatives for the profession,” said Dr. Rembiesa. “Finding an organization such as APMG-International, which shares the same business philosophy and excellent reputation as IAITAM, made making this move easy.”
For APMG-International, the IAITAM Courseware is a natural fit due to the synergies that exist between the IAITAM Courseware and the other best practices that APMG has under its umbrella, most notably ITIL® and Cobit® 5. “With the speed at which technology changes we are excited to have a best practice in IAITAM that focuses on the technical aspects of IT as well as business practices to manage that IT across the entire organization,” said Richard Pharro, CEO, APMG-International. “With ITIL being so wide spread and adopted globally, now having the authority in IT Asset Management in IAITAM to compliment ITIL and Cobit 5 training will allow us to have the most robust IT Management offerings to bring to training organizations.”

During Dr. Rembiesa’s remarks to the audience she said:
“IT Asset Management has grown to the point where global wide spread adoption is eminent. The demand for the IAITAM certification is such that it forced IAITAM to make a decision. We had two choices, to become a training organization or an organization that will continue to lead the profession with expert and practical content and strong and innovative leadership. IAITAM always has been, and will continue to be, thought leaders for the IT Asset Management professions. In partnering with APMG we brought two world class reputations and skillsets to work together to set the course for how IT Asset Management will be taught and viewed moving into the future.”
APMG-International CEO Richard Pharro states, “Expert IT Asset Management is essential for any organization. APMG was impressed with the levels of professionalism and support that IAITAM gives its members. We are delighted to join forces with an organization whose objectives for raising skills and competency are similar to ours. APMG’s existing global network of Accredited Training Organizations (ATOs) plus IAITAM’s leadership on developing personnel who work in this important area, will together make a significant difference to IT Asset Managers everywhere.”
About IAITAM
The International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers, Inc. (“IAITAM”) the professional association for individuals and organizations involved in any aspect of IT Asset Management (“ITAM”), Software Asset Management (“SAM”), Hardware Asset Management, Mobile Asset Management, IT Asset Disposition and the lifecycle processes supporting IT Asset Management in organizations of every size and industry across the globe. IAITAM certification is the only IT Asset Management certifications that are recognized worldwide. For more information, visit: www.iaitam.org.
About APMG-International
APMG-International is a global examination institute. Its portfolio of qualifications includes COBIT 5, CESG’s Information Assurance Scheme, ITIL®, and PRINCE2®. Its Accredited Training Organizations have undergone the most rigorous assessment process in the industry. Its examinations are available globally and it works with 21 languages. APMG was granted a Queens’ Award for International Trade in 2012. For more information, visit: www.apmg-international.com.

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Common Linux Questions Answered

There are several questions that crop up in one’s mind when opting for a career in IT. These questions are critical to their long-term growth in the chosen profession and worth considering. Here are some questions answered for those of you who are in the midst of making a career choice.

As cited on linfo.org, here are a couple of them answered.

1. What is the advantage of studying Linux when a number of jobs are being outsourced to developing countries to save cost?
A. The main reason to opt Linux is that you enjoy studying it. Linux does not assure job guarantee. Acquiring skills in Linux will only prove valuable in the long term, as it is known to be more valuable than Microsoft Windows skills. More importantly you must keep in mind that every job is not outsourced and there are a number of them that need to be performed locally which include, systems administration, security and help desk.

2: How good is a Linux certificate in comparison to an MCSE?
A: It is quite difficult to get a Linux certification with better compensation as there are lesser number of Linux specialists than MCSEs who have higher skill levels.

3: What is the significance of acquiring a Linux certification?
A: There is a lot of debate that run over this issue. Some feel that certification is essential for getting a specific job while others feel that experience is a must. Nonetheless, Linux is the best option for gaining certification in certain IT specialties.

4: How would the Linux job market appear in five or ten years from now?
A: The job market appears to be quite bright for Linux as it is predicted to grow swiftly with an increasing number of companies discovering its benefits. Also, Unix has been present for over three decades with various operating systems having come and gone. This has resulted in making it the oldest operating system being in use. You need to spend considerable time and effort in required to gain proficiency in Linux, hence the value of your investment should prolong over the long term.

5: What is the extent of knowledge that one must acquire to get a Linux-related job and the time invested to attain that level?
A: This will depend on what you wish to do. Whether you want to simply use Linux as many people use Microsoft Windows for word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, etc. In such cases, you don’t need to study. In case you wish to be a system administrator or a security expert, it might require many years of deep study in the event you do not have a sound IT background.

6: IT jobs appear to have a dull outlook with the all time increase in outsourcing to low wage countries. There are people who have over ten years of Unix experience and desperate to get any kind of job. What makes you think the situation will improve?
A: Apart from outsourcing, many factors determine growth. These include the collapse of the Internet bubble, the ending of the huge IT expenditures for dealing with the Y2K problem and the extreme slump in the economy. With these factors diminishing over time, there is bound to be an upswing in the IT expenditures. The other factors that will have a positive impact on IT expenditures are the growing advancement of technology and the importance to businesses of using IT effectively for staying competitive.

7: In what fields can Linux skills help me in acquiring a good job when compared to the computer field?
A: There are several and they include many aspects of business, research, education and engineering. Nearly anything, that makes use of computers.

8: Is the employment situation for Linux experts the same as it is for Unix experts?
A: This is a tricky question as the skill sets for both these languages are highly transferable and the situation is likely to change with time. As per a latest search on monster.com, there were over 5,000 jobs with the "Unix" keyword and 2794 with the "Linux" keyword.

But a point worth nothing here is that even though Unix has a greater demand than Linux, the use of the latter in businesses is seeing a greater increase than Unix.

9: Is it good to mention Linux on your resume if you have been studying it over time on your own? In the absence of any job experience, is it good to mention Linux on your CV?
A: Yes you must as many Linux experts have never taken classes in it and began at a point of time with no on-the-job experience. Classroom experience is not a must and it is good to study at home. You must be clear about your qualifications on your resume and in interviews.

10: I can’t get a job in Linux even though I am really good at Linux. Companies won’t offer me job without prior job experience?
A: This situation will gradually change but in the meantime, you can gain experience by doing voluntary work at schools, church or small business in maintaining a Linux system. This will not only look good on your CV but also prove to be a valuable learning experience for you as you will be assisting others. 

http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=118258

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Oracle Still Hates Open Source Software

It's no wonder that Google, Red Hat and others have been abandoning Oracle's most visible open-source project, MySQL. After all, Oracle has a highly conflicted relationship with open source. Nowhere is this conflict more apparent than in a new white paper Oracle released for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in which Oracle suggests open source costs more and is less reliable.
Unfortunately for Oracle, the DOD has its own white paper on open source—several, actually—which directly contradicts Oracle's key arguments.

Oracle's Love-Hate Relationship With Open Source

Oracle is an odd beast. Throughout the whitepaper, Oracle somewhat accurately proclaims itself "one of the biggest proponents and contributors to open source within the industry," and points to ways that it improves open source. Much of this is true: Oracle does significantly contribute to open source.
But given how much of Oracle's business depends upon a steady stream of big, upfront license deals with eternal maintenance fees, it's not surprising Oracle damns open source with faint praise: "Oracle is embracing and offering open source solutions as a viable way to complete simple software projects and as an adjunct to the development and deployment of more complex projects that are based on commercial software."
In other words, Oracle loves open source ... to a point.

The DOD's Long-Term Relationship With Open Source

It's not surprising that Oracle would try to dampen the DOD's enthusiasm for open source. The DOD has demonstrated a long-standing willingness to entrust serious, mission-critical applications to open source. (See here and here and here.)
First memorialized in an official memo back in 2003, the DOD has continually agitated for more open source within the U.S. military. The DOD has even sponsored its own open source conference, and has published a list of lessons learned from its many years using open source.
As such, if any organization is intimately familiar with both the promise and pitfalls of open source, it's the DOD. And yet open source adoption at the DOD remains rampant and robust.

DOD: Sorry, Oracle, Open Source Costs Less

In fact, the DOD has authored an FAQ that answers Oracle's myth-making white paper point for point.
Oracle argues that open source is more expensive than its proprietary software:

Focusing on the easily identifiable and predictable hard costs, such as software licensing and annual support, can obscure the total lifecycle cost of a program. Technology DoD and Open Source Software decisions based on short-term or up-front savings only consider 10 to 20 percent of total program costs. The best value to the government comes through optimizing developer productivity, providing reliable and scalable infrastructure, and reducing these soft costs. 

In many cases, the commercial alternatives [to open source] lead the market because they have far superior capabilities to the open source projects. In those circumstances, adoption of open source has proven to actually increase the overall cost of the project, thereby resulting in program cost overruns.

In other words, Oracle wants the DOD to believe open source costs more (and that it somehow delivers enhanced developer productivity, which surely must seem comical to the overwhelming majority of developers who have embraced open source). To this the DOD offers this response:

Proprietary COTS [commercial off-the-shelf software] ... typically trades off flexibility; the government typically does not have the right to modify the software, so it often cannot fix serious security problems, add arbitrary improvements, or make the software work on platforms of its choosing.  If the supplier attains a monopoly or it is difficult to switch from the supplier, the costs may skyrocket.  What is more, the supplier may choose to abandon the product; software escrow can reduce these risks somewhat, but in these cases it becomes GOTS [government homegrown code] with its attendant costs.

OSS [open-source software] COTS is especially appropriate when there is an existing OSS COTS product that meets the need, or one can be developed and supported by a wide range of users/co-developers.  OSS COTS tends to be lower cost than GOTS, in part for the same reasons as proprietary COTS: its costs are shared among more users.  It also often has lower total cost-of-ownership than proprietary COTS, since acquiring it initially is often free or low-cost, and all other support activities (training, installation, modification, etc.) can be competed. 

Or, as the DOD writes elsewhere, "DOD needs a more efficient software development ecosystem—more innovation at lower cost. [Open source] squeezes financial waste out of the equation by reducing lock-in and increasing competition."

DOD: Sorry, Oracle, Open Source Can Be Highly Reliable

Oracle's other big myth is that open source is inherently not reliable. Oracle tries to position open source as a bit of a play thing: "Open Source tends to be used successfully in simple, low-risk projects." But such an argument flies in the face of the hundreds of thousands of mission-critical, open source-based IT projects within the DOD and elsewhere. Nevertheless, Oracle persists with its argument:

Perhaps the most important issue in a major DoD system is reliability, which includes the ability to scale under heavy load as well as a system’s security and information-assurance features ... Load testing, system performance tuning, and system optimization are also expensive tasks. Commercial software companies have developed highly refined methodologies to perform these tasks. Don’t underestimate the difficulties associated with testing open source software and incorporating required changes into the main development stream, especially when it comes to testing for robustness and reliability under load.  

Of course not, concludes Oracle, declaring that "for mission-critical functionality, commercial software wins the day."
The DOD, however, disagrees:

[Proprietary software] lock-in tends to raise costs substantially, reduces long-term value (including functionality, innovation, and reliability), and can become a serious security problem (since the supplier has little incentive to provide a secure product and to quickly fix problems found later)...

Continuous and broad peer-review, enabled by publicly available [open] source code, improves software reliability and security through the identification and elimination of defects that might otherwise go unrecognized by the core development team. Conversely, where source code is hidden from the public, attackers can attack the software anyway...

That said, the DOD goes on to note that neither proprietary software nor open-source software is a good fit where the slightest error could result in fatalities: "Software that meets very high reliability/security requirements, aka 'high assurance' software, must be specially designed to meet such requirements.  Most commercial software (including OSS) is not designed for such purposes."

Advantage, Open Source?

This isn't to suggest that open source is perfect. Rather, it simply shows that the DOD, with over a decade's worth of experience running open-source software in mission-critical projects at scale, doesn't need Oracle to help it understand how to save money and improve reliability. For some applications, Oracle's technology is almost certainly a great fit at the DOD. For many other applications, however, open source is perfect, and these aren't just the "simple applications" Oracle dismisses.
As such, expect to see open source continue to boom within the DOD ... and Oracle to continue to wish it didn't.

http://readwrite.com/2013/10/15/oracle-opens-both-barrels-on-open-source-software-in-military-whitepaper#awesm=~okoK5q2azPE6sH

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9-Year-Old Nigerian Becomes World’s Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional

Nigeria has come on the global scene in the information communication technology sector, as 9-year-old Jomiloju Tunde-Oladipo joined the community of achievers when he became one of the world’s youngest 2013 certified Microsoft Office specialists for Office Word 2010.
Jomiloju, a primary 6 pupil of Role Model School, owned by DayStar Christian Centre, Oregun, Ikeja Lagos, broke the record created in 2012 by 10-year-old JSS1 student, Seyi-Ojo Anjolaoluwa, who was adjudged the youngest Nigerian and one of the youngest people in the world to have become a Microsoft certified professional.
Jomiloju took the July 2013 examination while in primary 5, after passing all the preparatory stages leading to the final examinations following intense teachings in school and trainings he received from United Global Resources Ltd, an accredited ICT training firm.
Odion Oyakhire, the center manager in charge of the school noted that his firm, “encourages pupils to learn ICT and get certified.”
Oyakhire explained that his firm coordinates the certification examinations for several schools and was proud to associate with Jomiloju and Role Model School on this feat. He said that the certification examination is an online, real-time test.
Before setting this new record in Nigeria for the certification examination, Jomiloju led his school to glory in June 2013, when they won an ICT quiz competition with 15 participating school in Lagos. The competition was put together by United Global Resources.
The examination report showed Jomiloju scored 769 points, 69 points higher than the required 700 to be recognized as a Microsoft Office Specialist.

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Understanding Cisco®‘s new Certification Path

Cisco® announced their new certification paths on March 25th, 2013. The CCNA is no longer a prerequisite to all other certification paths; however, the CCENT (ICND1) is now the prerequisite to most tracks. At first, the CCENT would seem to provide an inadequate foundation, but Cisco® has really up’d their technology in the CCENT area! No longer is it an easy introduction to networking with some Cisco® routing and switching. We’re talking about a serious update to the CCENT!
The new CCENT exam covers the usual OSI, TCP/IP, subnetting, etc… but the depth of knowledge is much greater after that! VLANs, IVR, IPv6, EIGRP and OSPF are all new CCENT objectives and were covered previously only on the CCNA!
Cisco® has removed the following from the CCENT:

• Securing the network
• Understanding challenges of shared LANs
• Solving Network Challenges with Switched LAN Technologies
• Wireless LAN’s
• Using Cisco® SDM
• Configuring Serial Encapulation
• Enabling RIP

Topics Added to the ICND1 Exam:

• Implmenting VLSM
• Scaling the Network wtih NAT and PAT
• Managing Traffic Using ACL’s
• Implementing VLAN’s and Trunks
• Routing between VLAN’s
• Implementing Single Area OSPF
• Introducing Basic IPv6
• Understanding IPv6
• Configurating IPv6 Routing
   
  this means 

http://www.lammle.com/blog/3335/understanding-ciscos-certification-path/

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