Category: Comments & opinions

The way people collaborate is in the midst of an enormous shift. Whether you’re ready or not, it will impact how and where teams and employees conduct business. In 2014 alone, global mobile data traffic grew 69% and nearly half a billion mobile devices were activated and connected. And by 2019? That traffic is expected to increase nearly tenfold.  Tenfold! Collaboration is a major driver for increased mobile usage.  We’ve used chat and messaging tools to maintain personal connections for years with popular apps like FaceTime, WhatsApp, Voxer, and many others. With…

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Mary Shacklett explains how pricing changes and trends can affect IT budgets, and what CIOs need to know to stay ahead of the shifting budget landscape. Despite cloud computing’s stronghold/seemingly inevitable role in the/ on the future of IT, there are still many reasons why enterprises want to keep their data—and their computing—under direct management. Security and governance concerns are one reason. Avoiding painful boardroom discussions and marketplace embarrassments is another. Technology vendors are aware of this. They know that while cloud computing will continue to grow, on-premises computing for…

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Sensors and other connected items are secondary to support network, claims HPE executive While many people focus on sensors and gadgets when talking about the Internet of Things (IoT), it is the infrastructure behind the scenes that will make or break the technology, it has been claimed. Speaking at a press conference at HPE Discover in London, Robert Youngjohns, EVP and GM of software at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), said: “When people think about the Internet of Things, they often immediately go to a discussion of sensors, smart meters, Nest…

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By 2016, it’s estimated that 36 percent of all data will be stored on the cloud, with the total spent on cloud computing amounting to $183 billion by the end of this year. Hundreds of businesses make the transition to software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud storage every day, and after looking at these numbers, it’s not difficult to see why: • 94 percent of managers say digital security was improved after transitioning to the cloud • 80 percent of businesses on the cloud say it’s reduced IT costs • 52 percent of…

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I recently had the pleasure of appearing on CXOTalk with Michael Krigsman to discuss PwC’s Digital IQ survey. Michael asked me about a concept catching fire in the IT community called “bimodal” or “two-speed” IT. Bimodal IT is the idea of creating two faces of the IT department: operational and aspirational. One side focuses on keeping the lights on. The other side sets the world on fire by producing products and services and powering the business with apps and analytics. As with any new approach du jour to solving IT’s…

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Who here remembers taking computer programming in school? Whether you learned programming by punching holes in a never ending series of cards, or by writing simple DOS or other computer language commands, the fact remained that computers needed an incredibly precise set of instructions to accomplish a task. The more complicated the task, the more complicated your instructions had to be. Machine learning is inherently different. Rather than telling a computer exactly how to solve a problem, the programmer instead tells it how to go about learning to solve the…

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The Investigatory Powers Bill was intended to be introduced by the end of 2016, but the Government is now asking for it to be pushed through ‘as soon as possible’ The Government is already using the deadly attacks in Paris to push forward its surveillance legislation. Following the attacks, various senior members of the Conservative including David Cameron and Boris Johnson have called for the surveillance legislation to be pushed through as soon as possible. The new bill was introduced only two weeks ago and originally had a deadline of…

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Hard to believe that men reached the moon on a tiny fraction of the data available in the laptops we use today. We and our devices, our cities, even our clothes are leaving digital footprints all over the universe of big data.  Businesses really need to transform how we grapple with all this information.  It is still the case that knowledge is power, but the ability to use that knowledge is what will set successful companies apart. Recent research found that 64% of companies already believe big data is changing…

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Exciting showcases at CeBIT demonstrate that the Internet of Things encompasses all areas of life. According to expert opinion, the largest potential market slumbers in factories. Refrigerators that report if you are out of milk. Washing machines that order more washing powder from Amazon. The car that picks up its driver right on time from their front door. Thanks to examples like these, the Internet of Things has received a great deal of media attention. Many are astounded; some remain unconvinced. But everyone has had some contact with the IoT.…

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The consoles are increasingly popular as a way of secretly communicating, according to officials The attacks in Paris may have been planned using a PlayStation 4, according to reports. The games console is being increasingly used as a way to chat secretly. And at least one PlayStation 4 was reportedly seized during a huge night of raids across Belgium and France. Last week, Belgium’s foreign affairs minister warned that the PlayStation 4 was being increasingly used and was very difficult to track. “The thing that keeps me awake at night is the guy…

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