Applications are changing dramatically due to mobile and cloud pressures. This not only drives the need to change application development practices, but it changes the nature of what is delivered to users. Applications are changing dramatically due to mobile and cloud pressures. This not only drives the need to change application development practices, but it changes the nature of what is delivered to users. Ahead of the Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit 2014, May 19-20 in London, David Mitchell Smith, vice president and Gartner Fellow, answered questions that are…

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Just visualize your product in this environment. That’s the basic pitch behind an augmented reality app for sales, which helped Paris-based startup Augment raise $1.5 million. “There is not really any other augmented reality platform targeted to sales people,” CEO and founder Jean-Francois Chianetta told VentureBeat. He added that other augmented reality platforms, like Blippar, Aurasma or Wikitude, are “focused on the marketing opportunity” instead of sales. The first target for the company: sales reps selling merchandising displays to retailers, such as the ones from the European division of L’Oréal Professional Products that are using the app. “This…

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IT outsourcing customers say they want more from their service providers. Yet they often use the same old negotiating tactics to set up their outsourcing deals. If you want a more collaborative relationship with IT service providers, it has to start at the negotiating table, says Kate Vitasek, author of “Getting to We: Negotiating Agreements for Highly Collaborative Relationships,” based on research conducted at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. CIO.com talked to Vitasek about what’s driving the need for more collaborative outsourcing relationships, how traditional negotiating tactics destroy value, and…

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IT leaders from EMC believe the software-driven transformation of the data center will redefine enterprise IT. Virtualizing server technology was only the beginning. The race to transform the entire data center into a lean, mean, software-defined machine is on. “Fundamental change is needed. A new approach is required,” said VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger during a keynote address at EMC World. The need for a shift in the way IT resources are generated, stored and distributed is part of a much larger trend happening in technology in general. Throughout much of EMC World, experts…

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Whether you’re writing a prospecting email or executing a lead generation campaign, your goal should be to simply start a conversation—giving contacts only what they need to take a small step forward on the path to purchase. We’ve all done it—sat down at the computer, crafted a prospecting or lead generation email message, and thought to ourselves,“This content is so compelling and rich with insight that there’s no way prospects will ignore it; the response rates are going to be through the roof!” Then, we click “send” and wait for…

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Hewlett-Packard hopes its focus on private clouds — and it’s investment of muscle and money in the technology — can convince enterprise IT executives that it can provide a secure way to enter the fray. Hewlett-Packard hopes its focus on private clouds — and it’s investment of muscle and money in the technology — can convince enterprise IT executives that it can provide a secure way to enter the fray. Three years after it vowed to become a major cloud vendor, HP Wednesday unveiledHelion, a set of products and services…

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How to create a safe and easy to remember password It’s World Password Day, so it’s the perfect time to see how secure your password is. Remember, just because a password is hard for you to remember, doesn’t mean that a computer won’t crack it within minutes or hours. If you take away one thing from this article, it should be this: A long, easy to remember password is better than a short, complex password. Let’s illustrate this with a couple of examples. The first from XKCD shows the complicated password “TrØub4dor&3” might appear secure, but…

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