Midsize businesses rarely achieve the same standards of security in their own datacenters as professional providers that specialize in delivering these services to organizations.

Civil libertarians are outraged at the revelation the NSA is reportedly spying on more than one-third of Americans -- obtaining phone records from phone companies, in case it might need them for later use. Edward Snowden, the man who leaked details of that program, also revealed a second effort dubbed “Prism,” which represented a more aggressive grab of email and other communications. (See: Prism Exposes Unwritten Privacy Rules.)

In the past few weeks, Evernote, Twitter, and LinkedIn have implemented an optional security feature: two-step verification. It's time -- perhaps even past due -- for enterprises to consider offering this feature as well.

Why can countries such as South Korea, Canada, Norway, and Japan provide universal healthcare, while the United States -- which most consider the world's superpower -- cannot afford to treat its sick?

United States military bases are full of information about the engineering systems successfully used to create systems for building automation, energy, HVAC, and alarms -- yet for years, most of this data sat untapped and unused in silos. Thankfully, that's changing now, in a move that will optimize design, improve energy efficiency, and enhance security.