Johannesburg, 14 Mar 2014
Knotion Consulting, the dynamic and visionary South African EA consultant and training specialist, continues to make headlines. The company's Executive and Enterprise Architecture (EA) Thought Leader, James Thomas, received the 'Rising Star of the Year' award at the LEADing Practice Conference, held in Charleston, USA, on 5-6 March.
The award was motivated by his contribution to the development of the LEADing Practice Security Reference Content, which he introduced to a global business and IT community at the conference. This new development from LEADing Practice (LEAD) in the security area adds even more breadth to the organisation's already vast Reference Content base.
In his presentation, Thomas reviewed current security frameworks and methods available in the market. He explained how the LEADing Practice concept embraces existing best and leading practices and forms a fully integrated product with a fresh and holistic business perspective. This is far more powerful than following a technology approach only, or going about security in a fragmented manner, as is often the case.
"Security is a hot topic, for good reason," commented Thomas. "Rising incidences of large-scale cyber security compromises, identity theft, and corporate fraud and corruption, all add to the mounting pressure. I am privileged to be a part of this important LEAD development that addresses security from both a risk and opportunity perspective."
Recognising that many of today's organisations face resource constraints, the LEAD way will enable them to selectively and effectively target their efforts to mitigate the priority risks. It will never be possible to fully eliminate all security risks, and businesses need to be able to identify high impact areas that should be fully secured.
At the Charleston conference, Professor Mark von Rosing, Chairman of the Global University Alliance, representing over 300 universities, said: "I am proud to have been part of the development of the LEADing Practice Security Reference Content. Headed by James Thomas, the development has already made a global impact."
The prestigious biannual conference was attended by various high profile organisations, including NATO, the US government, the US Department of Defence, the Canadian government, Canadian Border Service, KLM/Air France, the Dutch Railway (NS), SaxoBank, Johnson & Johnson, DuPont, BPM.com, FLSmidth, Modus DNA, LEGO, iGrafx and many more.
"The LEADing Practice Enterprise Standards and among them the Security Reference Content, are the result of years of international university and industry research, together with expert consensus on repeatable patterns that can be re-used and replicated," explained Henrik von Scheel, CEO and Chief Architect at LEADing Practice. "The power of such enterprise standards is that it is packed as a 'Reference Content' designed to be readily implemented by any organisation. The fact that we are 100% free, as a community-driven open source, is always a big surprise for many." The Security Reference Content will be among other LEADing Practice Enterprise Standards presented to governments and defence organisations from around the world, at the Global NATO Summit in Spain, during first week of April 2014.
Knotion is a LEAD partner, and representative of LEAD on the African continent. The company has recently certified a significant number of its consultants as 'LEAD EA eXpert' practitioners and will be hosting the next South African LEAD Conference in the latter half of this year. Knotion is passionate about its South Africa and African client base, and is committed to bring the best of international thought leadership in EA to its market.
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