In early 2009 the Minister for Tourism, Regional Development, and Industry returns from annual leave to find that the global financial crisis has hit Queensland hard. Job losses are mounting across key industries, tourism numbers are falling in major centers, and the regional townships can do little more than watch the world unravel. While reading an assessment of key industries the Minister recalls that branding and policy initiatives undertaken by various Spanish state governments in tight economic times led to Spain rising to pre‐eminence as the centre of open source in Europe. And more than the ICT industry benefited when the 2008 Open Source World Conference swelled hotels with 6500 delegates from across North America and Europe. In follow up discussions, the Minister and her team hit on the idea of making Queensland famous for open source software by further expanding links with existing success story Red Hat and going one step further by establishing a local icon worthy to sit alongside XXXX, Cane Toads, Wally “The King” Lewis, and the Great Barrier Reef. Yet making Queensland a world‐centre for a well‐known and specific open source solution is not necessarily an easy task. Many wonder if attempting to convert the Lockyer Valley to the west of Brisbane into the Silicon Valley for global open source development is achievable. Unbeknownst to most in the local ICT industry, Linus Torvaldsʹ equivalent for the world’s most popular open source content management system is co‐ordinating the final touches for the latest global release from his office in Toowoomba. Could Queensland’s next iconic software brand be closer than we all think…

Data leakage prevention (DLP) has been heavily marketed as analogous to intrusion protection and a key element of any organisation’s threat response management environment. In spite of international regulation, continued vendor surveys demonstrating the risk of data breaches, and close media scrutiny of public and private organisational data handling, adoption of DLP solutions remains poor. In February 2009, Longhaus surveyed 110 senior business decision makers from Australia’s medium to large enterprises and found that only 34% had implemented any form of DLP. Today there is little doubt that increasing interest in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing will erode the traditional barrier or perimeter of the enterprise. This will put further pressure on organisations to address data-level access control. However, through briefings with key security vendors including CA, Symantec, Websense and ClearSwift, Longhaus conclude that continued association of DLP with perimeter-oriented protection and security strategies undermines the real value of these solutions. When used pro-actively to monitor movement of data, DLP solutions can provide the means to discover and document the key relationship between business process and data within the organisation. Such information is invaluable when determining areas for process improvement and increased efficiency beyond mere compliance.

With much of the country’s ICT hardware and software infrastructure developed in international markets Australia has emerged as a leading ICT services consumer and major market in the Asia Pacific region. In 2009 Longhaus profiled the supply and demand sides of the AUD$12-16 billion Australian ICT services market which today is shared by entrenched global companies, local services companies, and offshore Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms. Among them, the Indian services hydra is rising by moving onshore, yet Chinese BPO firms are as yet nowhere to be seen in the local picture. As well as the cost-effectiveness of key BPO service categories such as financial services, application development and maintenance, and document handling services Australian businesses should consider the potential opportunity Chinese firms present when selecting a BPO service provider. This study provides a unique perspective on the eco-system of the Australian ICT services market through an in-depth comparative analysis across global companies, local service companies, Indian and Chinese BPO firms in terms of market position and service cost-effectiveness.

Hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cable is a technology that has been successfully deployed in Europe and delivers average speeds of 70-100MB compared to the current single digit speeds of between 10-15MB for standard cable. On 10th March Telstra held a media and analyst briefing with CEO Sol Trujillo and Group Managing Directors Michael Rocca, David Moffatt and John Stanhope on an announcement regarding a super-high speed cable broadband network upgrade in Melbourne. Telstra announced that its broadband  upgrade will more than triple the current peak speed.  The HFC is the first major announcement of a cable network rollout since the NBN exclusion announcement and represents the continuing execution of Telstra’s broadband transformation strategy. 

In October 2008 Longhaus conducted an interim small-scale study into the ICT practices of Australia’s Small-to-Medium Enterprise (SME) market as a prelude to a major study in 2009. The initial results provided directional evidence of the core challenges faced by ICT vendors and suppliers attempting to access the SME market.Longhaus qualitatively tested the findings of the study during several public presentations between January and March 2009. The strength of the feedback and critical nature of the findings in the face of the current global economic performance led Longhaus to publish these interim results ahead of the major study.