Safeguarding Most Important Wealth - Intellectual Property

By Richard Caron, CIO & VP of Business Process Management, Isola Group

Challenges in Technology in Manufacturing Sector and its Solutions

Everyone has a different appetite for cloud services, and I think it’s safe to say that comfort levels vary widely. One trend that everyone can agree on, however, is that Cloud computing is increasingly pervasive. I see risk in three areas. First, organizations don’t realize how much they are already invested in the Cloud and have few controls in place; second, managing the cloud requires different sets of IT skills, therefore organizations need to train and prepare their IT staffs to act as cloud service brokers; and third, there is Cloud vendor overload. There will be a day of reckoning, either through consolidation or bankruptcy. Picking a cloud vendor that will be in the game for the long run is critical.

Leadership in IT includes having a vision for the future and anticipating the system requirements needed to support the organization. Companies that are resisting the move to the Cloud should instead be preparing and planning for the inevitable change to this new model. I would be aggressive with cloud-based solutions, as long as we understand the risks.

Overcoming challenges to make job easier

One of the top concerns for manufacturing business is the threat to our intellectual property. This is a serious risk that is often neglected due to the complexity of managing this risk and the mystery that often surrounds the identity of the malicious players in this sinister game. From individual hackers to government-sponsored organizations, the risk of IP loss grows every day. They are after our manufacturing practices, formulas, and any other IP that provides a competitive advantage. This concern has been labeled as the biggest transfer of wealth in a short period of time that the world has ever seen. Locking down “everything” can be an unreasonable mission; but having a dialogue to define the organization’s critical IP and providing extra focus on encrypting and segregating these valuable assets can provide tremendous benefits.