When an expert tells you that the amount of data is exploding it usually leads to a pitch to buy more storage capacity or tools to better manage the storage you have. While that’s probably not bad advice, it misses the most important point.

The point usually overlooked is that the data, when used right, has great business value. “Analyzing large data sets—so-called big data—will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus,” declares McKinsey in a recent research report. Click here for a copy.

IBM, which is in the business of selling technology to generate, capture, store, analyze, and apply data, has been pushing the idea of the business value of data for years. Next week it is holding its annual Information on Demand conference in Las Vegas. There it will showcase its thought leadership and technologies for dealing with big data. more

IBM introduced a new entry-level mainframe computer in July with a price of $75,000. That was 25% below the entry-level price of the previous comparable model. The new machine will deliver more capabilities, higher performance, and use less energy than its predecessor.

So, as CFO, is this a good deal?

“When I suggested a mainframe everyone started laughing,” recalled Danny Gurizzan, executive vice president at Payment Solution Providers (PSP), Toronto, which provides electronic switching software to banks. PSP had a well-established PC-based IT operation. They always assumed a mainframe would cost too much and had never heard of a $75,000 mainframe. more

Last week wiredFINANCE looked at the data breaches Verizon had turned up in its latest data breach investigation. Often you don’t even realize your data has been compromised until the data is being misused, and not always even then.

If you needed any reinforcement of those findings, IBM just released its mid-year X-Force Trend and Risk Report. It turns out that public and private organizations around the world faced increasingly sophisticated, customized IT security threats in 2011. The report documents a rapidly changing security landscape characterized by high-profile attacks, growing mobile vulnerabilities, and more sophisticated threats, such as whaling, which is a form of phishing attack that focuses on a small targeted group within an organization. Phishing attacks spoof the intended victims’ trusted websites for the purpose of deceiving them into giving up valuable data.

The IBM X-Force team serves as the eyes and ears for thousands of IBM clients – studying security attack techniques and creating defenses before many vulnerabilities are even announced. You can access the latest X-Force report here. One way to counter these threats is through the 20 Critical Controls strategy. more

According to a study conducted by the Verizon RISK Team with cooperation from the U.S. Secret Service and the Dutch High Tech Crime Unit, a total of 3.8 million data records were compromised across 760 reported data breaches in 2010. Was yours one of them?

Actually, this is good news. The study indicated a significant decrease in the number of compromised records from the prior two years. The researchers attributed the declining trend of data breaches to the collaborative effort between the US Secret Service and the industry to combat computer cybercrimes and increased security awareness.

Computer forensic and IT security expert Peter Kiilu reviewed the key findings and learning points from the Verizon 2011 Data Breach Investigations Report. You can access the report from here. As part of the report, he suggests controls that companies can implement to significantly reduce the risk of data breach and the related financial losses. more

What do you need to get your business to take advantage of the cloud, business analytics, and other technology trends that have been sweeping the world? These trends are not a passing fad but a fundamental change in the way organizations will do business going forward.

Tapping the cloud or ramping up business analytics, however, isn’t cheap. Industry experts promise that cloud computing, SaaS, virtualization, and other related technologies will save the organization money, drive greater efficiency, and help it make even more money. Sure, but getting started requires considerable money.

In September IBM announced that it will provide $1 billion in financing to help credit-qualified small and medium businesses (SMBs) over the next 18 months take advantage of new advanced technologies, such as analytics and cloud. more