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The Bloor Perspective: Security, e-procurement and convergence
Industry guru Robin Bloor and his team of analysts cast their eyes back over the latest top stories to hit the industry. Under the spotlight this week: IBM's new 'secure' PCs, the UK government's e-procurement promise, and Nortel's push for supremacy in the converged networks market

By editorial@silicon.com

Published: Monday 04 October 1999

* Security on a chip: a threat to civil liberties? *
Security news was the big concern among our clients last week. This followed the hardware announcements from IBM offering PCs with built in security hardware (see http://www.silicon.com/a32985 ).
There are essentially two crucial issues when it comes to security: one is ease of use, and the other is connectivity to the Internet. The problem though is that many claim that these two prerequisites combine to create a recipe for insecurity. Easy to use systems can't be secure, and insecure systems are vulnerable when they're connected to the potentially hostile Internet.
Like so many people, I don't have time to figure out whether there is a way to reconfigure my PC to make it more secure. So we have to rely on the software and hardware from vendors, and IBM's latest attempt is to build security processing into its latest PC hardware. The new 300PL model will support public key security and digital signatures, which is a good thing because hardware key processing is seen as more secure and efficient than software.
Besides this, IBM is including a utility called User Verification Manager (UVM). IBM says the utility can be used along with its Policy Director software to set up user identities and determine access rights and privileges. We know the shape of the solution to the security issue - it is Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) combined with Certification Authorities (CA). So the IBM hardware is pitching in the right field.
But it lays itself open to civil liberties issues. Intel has already had to abandon plans to make processor serial numbers available to web sites because people don't want their every move to be watched. Likewise, plans for digital passports that contain a whole raft of personal information are liable to create problems for the individual's legitimate privacy. As with many novel areas, we understand the technology, but we don't yet understand how to deploy it to serve our own best interests.

* The government: do as we say, not as we do *
Another issue that falls into this category of understanding the theory but failing in deployment, is ecommerce - particularly when it is put into the hands of the government. The UK government's latest plans involve setting up an online procurement centre that will cover all its needs - from paperclips to parallel computers. The hope is that by doing this it can harness the bulk buying power of central government and reduce costs by £1bn. (See http://www.silicon.com/a32840 ).
This shouldn't be too difficult in theory - but we think the government may struggle. Governments across the world have repeatedly proved that it is possible, even easy, for a monopoly to make a loss. All that is required is the judicious application of incompetence and a hefty dose of structural inefficiency. The UK government is now challenged with whether it can be even less efficient using the techniques of ecommerce.
It is a seriously difficult objective to achieve, but will Britannia pull it off?
This is hard to say. The early announcements on the plans lack imagination - just as one would expect. There is no talk of using auctions or aggregation engines or price robots. How about transparency? Is the UK government going to reveal the activities of the procurement site to Britain's surfing citizens? Well& No. As a simple idea, wouldn't it be an act of genuine leadership for the UK government to demonstrate that it really does understand the dynamics of ecommerce and set up a genuine electronic and transparent market for government procurement? If it did this, then those heady dreams of the UK becoming the ecommerce capital of Europe would simply follow suit. But perhaps that's just too much to ask for.

* Nortel pitches for success in a converged world *
There is a big push from the communication hardware vendors towards fast networks that will carry voice, data and video signals with the reliability of telephone networks. But as we see it, uptake of this combined technology will be slow in enterprise networks because data networks are not trusted to deliver the standard of reliability that is expected of the conventional telephone.
In the carrier space, however, a different picture emerges. New contenders are especially keen to build integrated networks because of the many benefits associated with cutting costs and delivering new services through the use of more manageable networks. Naturally, Nortel and Cisco are keen to exploit this trend and have been battling away to grab a slice of the market.
John Roth, Nortel CEO, believes strongly in the development of fast networks that will carry voice, data and video signals with the reliability of telephone networks. And to this end, last week the company launched a series of new products - routers, hubs and the like - aimed at beefing up the Internet. They are designed to support voice and video as well as the familiar data traffic. (See http://www.silicon.com/a27613 for an interview with Nortel's former UK MD.)
The company's latest move brings routers that direct the data flow through the high capacity cables, handling quality of service for different types of transmission. Nortel claims that no other equipment maker can provide such a complete package. Our view is that Nortel is indeed in a leading position at present, but to write off a company like Cisco, or Lucent for that matter, would be naïve to say the least.

* For more in-depth analysis from the Bloor analysts, see http://www.it-director.com .