Open Systems. DBMS. 2014, Volume 22, Number 4COVER FEATURES
STORAGE SYSTEMS
What the Future Holds for Solid-State Memory

The memory industry faces significant disruption due to challenges related to scaling. Future memory systems will have more heterogeneity at individual levels of the hierarchy, with management support from multiple layers across the stack.
Karin Strauss (kstrauss@microsoft.com), researcher, Microsoft Research; Doug Burger (dburger@microsoft.com), director, Extreme Computing Group, Microsoft Research

Big Data Storage Technologies
In the era of big data there is a need for storage combining large capacity with high speed of access. However, currently there is no preferred technology that offers both, which creates a need for memory based on new physical principles.
Leonid Chernyak (osmag@osp.ru), Associate Editor-in-Chief, Research Features, Open Systems. DBMS

Reliable Storage: Pitfalls and Solutions
Most organizations have already recognized the importance of safeguarding information with many businesses deploying some data archiving components. Yet only
a few have implemented a comprehensive data backup and archiving system. How to build such a system e.g. based on HP solutions?
Alexey Polyakov (Aleksey.Polyakov@hp.com), manager, backup systems, HP Russia & CIS; Maxim Lugansky (Maxim.Lugansky@hp.com), technical consultant, information management solutions, HP Russia & CIS

Storage Systems: Focus on Virtualization
Storage systems have come a long way of evolution to bring about the current diversity of data storage approaches. Taking Hitachi VSP G1000 storage platform as an example can help identify the approaches that have deserved their right to be used in today’s storage equipment.
Aleksey Silin (alexey.silin@hds.com), expert consultant, Hitachi Data Systems

PLATFORMS
Chips for Streaming Data Processing
Handling large real time data streams requires hybrid chips combining CPU and GPU capabilities.
Leonid Chernyak (osmag@osp.ru), Associate Editor-in-Chief, Research Features, Open Systems. DBMS

SECURITY
Security in the Absence of Perimeter
IT security solution providers increasingly talk about how information systems today have no distinct perimeter, but little is heard about what have come to replace it. Perhaps, adaptive security systems can give the needed answers.
Valeriy Korzhov (osmag@osp.ru), staff writer, Computerworld Russia

Big Mobile Data Mining: Good or Evil?
Increasingly, data are collected through sensors embedded in smartphones as well as through the cellular infrastructure. This information is extremely valuable for marketing applications, but also has an incredible potential to benefit society as a whole. Because mobile data are highly personal, however, privacy concerns are increasingly at the center of the public debate.
Mirco Musolesi (m.musolesi@cs.bham.ac.uk), senior lecturer, School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, UK.

Moving-Target Defenses for Computer Networks
One of the criticisms of traditional security approaches is that they present a static target for attackers. Critics state, with good justification, that by allowing the attacker to reconnoiter a system at leisure to plan an attack, defenders are immediately disadvantaged. To address this, the concept of moving-target defense (MTD) has recently emerged as a new paradigm for protecting computer networks and systems.
Marco Carvalho (mcarvalho@fit.edu), associate department head of computer sciences and cybersecurity, Florida Institute of Technology; Richard Ford (rford@fit.edu), department head of computer sciences and cybersecurity, Florida Institute of Technology.

CLOUD COMPUTING
Hybrid Systems Management

The success of integrating cloud services with business processes is determined to a large extent by the efficiency of hybrid environments management. While expanding existing corporate environment with cloud services or infrastructures, a business might face management problems which can be solved with the help of Microsoft Cloud OS.
Rodion Tulsky (rtulsky@microsoft.com), infrastructure solutions consultant, Microsoft

INTEGRATION
Mobility, the «Grown-Up» Way
Today, mobility topics are of interest to solution vendors, system integrators and customers alike. Though plenty of work has been already done, there are grounds for believing that the interest in the area will continue into coming years. The evolution of Citrix solution portfolio can help both trace the latest developments in the mobile enterprise industry and predict future directions.
Sergey Khalyapin (sergeykh@outlook.com), manager, Systems Engineering Department, Citrix Systems Russia

DBMS
A Survey of Cloud Database Systems
This survey of 15 popular cloud databases provides an overview of each system and its storage platform, license type, and programming language used for writing the source code of the NoSQLs. It also considers features such as data-handling techniques and billing practices.
Ganesh Chandra Deka (ganeshdeka2000@gmail.com), assistant director of training, Ministry of Labor & Employment, India.

EXTREME TECHNOLOGY
Flash Memory Integration

Big data processing requires scalable storage systems, particularly SSD arrays.
Leonid Chernyak (osmag@osp.ru), Associate Editor-in-Chief, Research Features, Open Systems. DBMS

OPINION
Big Data, Networked Worlds
Big data analytics poses significant challenges for privacy protection. Meeting these challenges requires thinking hard about the increasingly critical role autonomous embedded networks play in all aspects of life.
George F. Hurlburtis (ghurlburt@change-index.com), chief scientist, STEMCorp; Jeffrey Voas (jeffrey.m.voas@gmail.com), IEEE Fellow.

OS ACADEMY. UNIVERSITIES
Everyday Life and Festive Days of Nation’s First University Computer Science Department

Half a century ago N. I. Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod has created the first computational mathematics and cybernetics university department in USSR. The present-day dean of the department tells about new challenges and development prospects of computational mathematics and IT.
Natalya Dubova (osmag@osp.ru), Associate Editor-in-Chief, Special Features, Open Systems. DBMS

OS ACADEMY. LIBRARY
The Manifold World of Testing

The February issue of the IEEE Computer Magazine (IEEE Computer Society, Vol. 47, No. 2, 2014) is focused on the topic of software testing.
Sergey Kuznetsov (kuz@ispras.ru), professor, Moscow State University