Category: Analysis

The smart connected device (SCD) market posted another quarter of growth in Western Europe, driven mainly by increased demand for personal computers. According to figures published by International Data Corporation (IDC), PC, tablet, and smartphone shipments totaled 60.1 million units, with volume 8.6% higher compared with the same quarter a year ago. London, December 9, 2014 —The trends seen during the previous quarter were confirmed in the third quarter of 2014: shipments of PCs continued to post an increase, with demand shifting towards desktops and portable PCs after few years of…

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The benefits of going with an enterprise startup are diverse — from affordable pricing to funding R&D to accessing unique expertise.  Large enterprises and startup ventures are seldom uttered in the same breath. But there are some excellent reasons for enterprises to consider using a startup. 1: Influence Companies like the feeling that they have influence over the projects and technologies their vendors develop. Startups offer their customers a golden opportunity for this because in early startup phases, their customers are their lifeblood. They do everything possible to satisfy their…

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The development of the Internet of things seems inevitable, but security, interoperability and privacy remain as challenges to its full deployment. Photo courtesy of engagor The era of the so-called Internet of things has been talked about so much in tech circles the past few years that some may think it’s already here. But smartwatches, Google Glass and clothing embedded with sensors hardly represent a full mainstream deployment of the system. So what has to happen to make the Internet of things (or IoT, as it’s sometimes called) more accessible…

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Yes, it’s that time of year again. Everyone who’s got an opinion will be telling the world and his dog about their predictions for cloud computing in 2015. CloudTech will bring you the very best of these in due course, but for now analyst house Forrester has got theirs in early and proclaimed 2015 is the year when companies fighting the cloud will finally be a thing of the past. Picture credit: iStockPhoto The report, entitled “Predictions 2015: The Days of Fighting the Cloud Are Over”, examines 10 key trends for the…

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87% of enterprises believe big data analytics will redefine the competitive landscape of their industries within the next three years. 89% believe that companies that do not adopt a Big Data analytics strategy in the next year risk losing market share and momentum. Picture credit: iStockPhoto These and other key findings are from a Accenture and General Electric study published this month on how the combination of Big Data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) are redefining the competitive landscape of entire industries. Accenture and GE define the Industrial Internet as the…

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When looking for IT leaders, technical and management skills generally top the criteria. However, in many situations, charisma and an ability to relate to stakeholders is equally or more important. Image: iStock Charisma often gets a bad rap in technical circles. It’s perceived as the sizzle without the steak, or the “empty suit” who shakes the hands and kisses the babies, but underneath it all has no idea what he or she is talking about. In IT we often evaluate our peers and managers by their technical acumen, and anyone…

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Although it is still relatively new as far as media entities go, BuzzFeed has become one of the leading new-media players, thanks in large part to its command of the social web, an ability to craft viral content and a large fan base among millennials. Credit: VLADGRIN/ThinkStock True to form, the company has created a visually-rich index of facts about its size and reach — numbers which help explain how it was able to raise $50 million in a recent financing round. As a caveat, it’s worth noting that the presentation is clearly…

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The cost and functional benefits of migrating services to the cloud have been well documented, but as more solutions are introduced to the market, choosing the right one is presenting many businesses with a real challenge. The industry is becoming increasingly crowded, so we have simplified the research process and singled out five key things organisations may not know about the cloud to help them make the most informed decision.   Picture credit: iStockPhoto Beware of hidden costs Many businesses have discovered that there can potentially be a number of…

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Over the next 12 months, the majority of business applications will be deployed to the cloud, with most of these being deployed to multiple clouds across multiple geographies. Picture credit: iStockPhoto That’s the key trend from a survey conducted by Equinix, in which the overwhelming majority of the 659 global respondents (77%) said they planned to deploy to multiple clouds in the next year, and a similar number (74%) expect a larger budget in 2015 for cloud services. 91% of new cloud-based offerings will be deployed in the organisation over…

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Less than one-third of businesses keep their virtualization servers on-premises and managed entirely by their own internal IT staff, according to a Kaspersky Lab survey of 3,900 IT professionals worldwide. As virtual infrastructure increasingly handles more business-critical services, the reliance on external hosting and management services raises potential security concerns, particularly for smaller businesses. Off-site vs. On-Premises: Based on Business Size According to the more than 2,000 survey respondents who use virtual servers, only 29% report that their physical machines were located within the walls of their business and maintained…

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