Category: Comments & opinions

Mark Samuels ponders what the latest job title du jour means for those currently tasked with their firm’s digital strategy If you think the position of chief digital officer (CDO) is pointless, then another job title has emerged that takes superfluous senior IT roles to a whole new level. All hail the head of the Internet of Things (IoT), a new executive position for the technology industry’s latest trend. The concept of IoT refers to the interconnection of internet-enabled objects and devices – and research suggests the trend is going…

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Cloud computing is still too risky for CIOs to gamble on putting all enterprise applications out there. Although more and more organisations are experimenting with cloud-based applications, tech chiefs remain extremely cautious about putting mission-critical applications into the cloud, citing security, cost and reliability among their key considerations. 92 percent say ‘no’ When asked “Is it now a realistic possibility to run all the applications a business needs through the cloud?” the ZDNet/TechRepublic CIO Jury of tech decision makers responded with resounding ‘no’ by a margin of 11 to one.…

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Keeping tabs on the incoming and outgoing inventory in a busy warehouse is no easy task, especially if you rely on manual procedures or basic accounting software. As your small or midsized business continues to grow, managing an expanding inventory, global suppliers, and increasing customer demands takes the right people and the right systems. Working with inaccurate data or estimates can lead to costly mistakes. Connect people, processes and systems to get the real-time insight you and your team need with a business solution from Microsoft. With a better business…

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Have your say with Ofcom now, before Freeview becomes Feeview Breaking Fad For fans of terrestrial television, this is the best of times and this is the worst of times. The DVB consortium has recently produced a draft specification for Ultra High Definition aka 4K, fitting the UHD video within the standard transport streams that are already used for SD and HD. As evidenced by the BBC’s current closed trial – which had been showing World Cup content and will carry some of the Commonwealth Games too – it’s clearly…

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This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers pick one big idea that will shape 2014. Is 2014 going to be the year that there’s a real backlash over privacy against Silicon Valley? I wouldn’t be surprised. Yes, as we’ve been told endlessly, privacy is dead. We’ll share a thousand times more stuff in a decade than we do now. Every time there’s a rebellion against, say, Facebook, the company apologies and then continues to do more or less the same thing. Why would anything change now?…

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According to Gartner’s latest market share report, the customer relationship management (CRM) market is worth just around $20 billion and continues to grow at double-digit rates. Part of that growth has been fueled by the expansion of cloud-based platforms and new solutions tailored for distinct industry application. SAP, one of the world leaders in enterprise software, has just launched three new industry-specific versions of their customer engagement solutions. SAP’s new versions are designed for customers in the vertical markets of insurance, utilities, and retail, and all of them are part…

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Storing enterprise resource management (ERP) data in the cloud can raise some serious questions about security. Decision makers have to look at each vendor to see how it protects data from the myriad of threats that try to access confidential information. They ask questions about what type of firewalls and intrusion prevention or detection technologies are used, they make inquiries regarding testing for common vulnerabilities, and they might even discuss the security of the physical location. But it is also important to talk about who, from the cloud vendor’s side,…

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Glass, sensors, and drones are changing the way people tell stories. Advances in technology mean advances in all forms of communication, which mean changes in journalism. With a plethora of gadgets and high-end technology hitting the market so rapidly, it’s more important than ever for journalism curricula in higher education to evolve with the times. In a recent post published on Nieman Journalism Lab, Texas State University Associate Journalism Professor Cindy Royal wrote: If you are a journalism educator or media professional, I have news for you: We work in tech.…

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Disclaimer: EMC is a proud member of the Puppet Supported Program. These are my thoughts and not necessarily those of my employer.   I work at EMC which is a federation of well-known brand names; VMware, RSA, Pivotal & EMC II, and they all have the same goal: the Software-Defined Data Center. It’s become a real buzzword these last two years where anyone who’s anyone within the IT industry is embracing the SDDC; all our competitors and partners, and our joint customers, and I’d like to explain my take on it.…

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Not all that long ago it was announced that Google was to comply with the right for people to “be forgotten” within search results. As soon as the form was released, Google was flooded by an overwhelming response and thousands of people had some or other page or result that they wanted removed. It should also be noticed that other search engines are following in Google’s footsteps by designing a similar method to “be forgotten”. However, a new website has already surfaced in an effort to reveal these hidden results!…

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