Steve

Steve Ebersole

About Steve Ebersole

Steve Ebersole Steve is Senior Consultant at TransAccel Group. Steve has also worked for the IBM Corporation where his responsibilities included recommending hardware and software product solutions for a wide range of businesses, both big and small and across multiple industry categories, from manufactures to law firms to hospitals. He was also responsible for leading product educational programs, both internally and externally, as well as serving in the customer support center. Steve has a B.S. in Business Management from Indiana University in Bloomington.

GET SMART About Unstructured Data. CONTROL or CHAOS? (Or is it KAOS?)

By |November 24th, 2014|Categories: Data Security|Tags: , , , , , , |Comments Off on GET SMART About Unstructured Data. CONTROL or CHAOS? (Or is it KAOS?)

How Smart are you? Here’s a quick quiz to find out:

1. In the mid-60’s TV show Get Smart, Don Adams’ fellow female agent was Agent number what?

a. 79

b. 89

c. 99

d. 229

 

2. True or False

Unstructured data is human-generated, existing on Windows and Linux/Unix File servers, SharePoint and Exchange Platforms.

 

3. Who were Get Smarts’ creators?

a. Steve Allen

b. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry

c. Buck Henry and Cesar Romero

d. Mel Brooks

 

4. True or False

Unstructured data on average represents 80% of your organization’s data and is multiplying at 30-50% a year.

 

5. What device did “Control” utilize in order to keep information confidential?

a. A tricked-out umbrella

b. A private closet

c. The Cone of Silence

d. Invisible Ink

 

6. Which of the following questions regarding the management of unstructured data is difficult for most organizations to answer?

a. Who owns what data?

b. Who has permission to the data?

c. What data is highly sensitive and over-exposed?

d. How can exposed data be remedied without disturbing the business?

e. What data is being deleted? By whom?

f. What data is walking out of the company and with whom?

g. All the above.

 

7. Which was not one of Maxwell Smart’s catchphrases?

a. Maxwell Smart will not fail.

b. I asked you not to tell me that.

c. Would you believe…

d. Missed it by that much.

e. And…loving it.

 

8. True or False

TransAccel Group has partnered with Varonis Systems to offer solutions that address the concerns regarding the proliferation of unstructured data by offering audit trail analysis, permissions hierarchies and transparency, alerts, and data transfer solutions, among other benefits.

 

9. Which of the following characters was not featured in Get Smart?

a. The Chief

b. Dr. Iron

c. Hymie the Robot

d. Ludwig Von Siegfried

e. Mr. Big

 

10. Varonis software reduces risks to data in which of the following ways:

a. Data mistakenly exposed is identified and locked down safely, including sensitive and regulated content

b. Access controls are much more restricted; employees have access to only what they need

c. Data owners with knowledge of their data assets are …
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Transparency & Cost Optimization… Bank on it!!

By |June 19th, 2014|Categories: Leadership|Tags: , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Transparency & Cost Optimization… Bank on it!!

In my last blog I spoke about the four principles that lead to better Cost Optimization. They were Transparency, Flexibility, Simplification and Discipline. I would like to take this opportunity to discuss Transparency in more detail.

How many times has IT management staff felt that their business partners don’t appreciate or understand the effort, time and money required to satisfy a business demand? On the other hand, how many times do you think business partners wonder if IT is focusing on the correct enterprise initiatives, or why their requests are not satisfied to their expectation level? The answer? Too many times to count on both hands. Without transparency, the worst fears of both sides and all stakeholders become a reality.

Webster defines Transparency as “the quality that makes something obvious or easy to understand.” At TransAccel, we view Transparency as a prerequisite for making better supply and demand decisions that are based on cutting the right costs in the right way, while maintaining what is most valuable to the organization. With transparency, the IT organization can participate in valuable discussions that balance costs with IT benefits.

Transparency should exist across all sectors of IT – but especially crucial are:

The first step toward Transparency is to divide IT services into two camps: those that support core (vital, no one else can do them) activities and operations, and those that could be outsourced if need be (non-core). Obviously, step one goes a long way in determining where resources and assets should be allocated (or not). For transparency and cost optimization to occur, defining and validating IT business services must be carried out, even if this is done through a series of incremental steps rather than a complete transformation.

Poor Transparency …
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Cost Optimization – It’s The Principle Of It…

By |February 20th, 2014|Categories: Optimization|Tags: , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Cost Optimization – It’s The Principle Of It…

Groucho Marx once joked “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them…well, I have others.” This is great for getting a laugh, but decision making without guiding principles is like a ship’s captain navigating the wind and current without a compass.

The same can be said about an IT organization’s approach to cost optimization. After years of one-off tactical cost cutting, many businesses are facing the challenge of ongoing and continuous cost optimization. For many, this is no longer the exception but the new reality.

The usual approach to cutting costs is the purely tactical. Problem is, when the clear cost culprits have been identified and reduced or eliminated, future optimization initiatives can become more arbitrary and problematic. Even the low-hanging fruit that appears to be an obvious candidate for reduction to some may not be to others—like your business clients.

In a recent Gartner survey, CIO’s were asked, “What are the main barriers preventing organizations from achieving continuous optimization of IT costs?” Sixty-five percent of the respondents indicated that it was a matter of mindset—that is, creating the environment necessary for all resources to work together, move in the same direction, and agree on the same strategy.

We agree. TransAccel believes there’s a better approach to determining cost optimization decisions—one based on four “Guiding-Principles.” The benefits of using this method include a more consistent alignment with the company’s strategic drivers, a consensus among business leaders, a long-term framework for ongoing cost optimization initiatives, and a correct way to maintain what is most important to the organization.

The Four Principles are:

Transparency – IT and business leaders need to explicitly agree on what IT provides the business, and what the business needs from IT. Often, basic cost optimization …
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