In 2016, blockchain technology came close to hitting its peak on Gartner’s annual Hype Cycle, signaling an imminent shift from an emerging, theoretical technology to widespread adoption. Like cloud, big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT) before it, blockchain is the tech industry’s latest Next Big Thing. Analysts and industry experts say it holds immense potential for organizations, but many business leaders don’t yet see a practical application for their operations. While a lot of people know blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies, what about enterprise applications in other industries?
According to a roundup by Gartner, the average cost of downtime for an enterprise is $5,600 per minute. While the data collected was from incredibly large companies, the cost of downtime for even small startups is no laughing matter. Let's assume, for the sake of simplicity, that your core product is a web app that relies solely on organic sales, totaling $1 million in revenue a year. This amounts to about $2 in lost revenue per minute. This doesn't sound like too much in the grand scheme of things, but revenue is only a small part of your downtime costs. We also must consider wasted operating costs.
In his session at Cloud Expo, Alan Winters, an entertainment executive/TV producer turned serial entrepreneur, will present a success story of an entrepreneur who has both suffered through and benefited from offshore development across multiple businesses: The smart choice, or how to select the right offshore development partner Warning signs, or how to minimize chances of making the wrong choice Collaboration, or how to establish the most effective work processes Budget control, or how to maximize project results within possible constraints
MongoDB Atlas leverages VPC peering for AWS, a service that allows multiple VPC networks to interact. This includes VPCs that belong to other AWS account holders. By performing cross account VPC peering, users ensure networks that host and communicate their data are secure. In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Jay Gordon, a Developer Advocate at MongoDB, will explain how to properly architect your VPC using existing AWS tools and then peer with your MongoDB Atlas cluster. He'll discuss the security advantages you immediately gain, easier configuration of whitelisting networks and potential cost savings on bandwidth.
There was a recent tabloid piece featuring a video of a woman asking Alexa if it was connected to the CIA. At the time, the Echo Dot she was speaking to did not respond to the question. She asked a few times, and each time the Echo was silent. Conspiracy theorists weighed in. It was an amusing video, but the Daily Mail’s clickbait headline raises a legitimate question: Can Alexa lie? According to Amazon, you can “use the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) to add intelligent voice control to any connected product that has a microphone and speaker.” Alexa uses machine learning to help it recognize what you say (Automatic Speech Recognition) and understand the question (Natural Language Understanding) and then routes your information as requested.
My daughter is taking a class on entrepreneurship in her senior year of high school (yep, that’s the Silicon Valley for you). She loves the class, the energy of the teacher, and the creativity associated with the subject. As a result, we have had several conversations about what does it mean to be an entrepreneur. While I am sure there are folks more qualified than me to define what it means to be an entrepreneur, I’ve run into enough of those folks over the years to believe that I have a pretty decent perspective.
What do Delta, United, Marriott and National Car Rental all have in common? They’re some of the most popular and highest-rated brands among business travelers, according to Certify, and companies are working hard to ensure that their business clientele – and their tourism and leisure travel guests – are having the customer experience that boosts their brand and bottom line. The same goes for travel booking companies too, and they’re increasingly turning to cloud-based services and mobile technologies to keep their customer satisfaction and brand reputation first in a competitive marketplace. What companies like TripAdvisor, HotelsCombined or AirBnb have in common is a strong online presence boosted by technology investments.
MongoDB Atlas leverages VPC peering for AWS, a service that allows multiple VPC networks to interact. This includes VPCs that belong to other AWS account holders. By performing cross account VPC peering, users ensure networks that host and communicate their data are secure. In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Jay Gordon, a Developer Advocate at MongoDB, will explain how to properly architect your VPC using existing AWS tools and then peer with your MongoDB Atlas cluster. He'll discuss the security advantages you immediately gain, easier configuration of whitelisting networks and potential cost savings on bandwidth.
My daughter is taking a class on entrepreneurship in her senior year of high school (yep, that’s the Silicon Valley for you). She loves the class, the energy of the teacher, and the creativity associated with the subject. As a result, we have had several conversations about what does it mean to be an entrepreneur. While I am sure there are folks more qualified than me to define what it means to be an entrepreneur, I’ve run into enough of those folks over the years to believe that I have a pretty decent perspective.
There was a recent tabloid piece featuring a video of a woman asking Alexa if it was connected to the CIA. At the time, the Echo Dot she was speaking to did not respond to the question. She asked a few times, and each time the Echo was silent. Conspiracy theorists weighed in. It was an amusing video, but the Daily Mail’s clickbait headline raises a legitimate question: Can Alexa lie? According to Amazon, you can “use the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) to add intelligent voice control to any connected product that has a microphone and speaker.” Alexa uses machine learning to help it recognize what you say (Automatic Speech Recognition) and understand the question (Natural Language Understanding) and then routes your information as requested.
Retailers are witnessing a rising trend towards customers ordering food online and requesting hybrid delivery, such as home delivery, picking up from stores or dedicated pickup points. In light of this and other emerging innovations, retailers need to develop and deploy new applications quickly to support new customer-oriented services that maximize user convenience. If they fail, customers will turn to competitors offering the service capability they want and likely never return.
Retailers are witnessing a rising trend towards customers ordering food online and requesting hybrid delivery, such as home delivery, picking up from stores or dedicated pickup points. In light of this and other emerging innovations, retailers need to develop and deploy new applications quickly to support new customer-oriented services that maximize user convenience. If they fail, customers will turn to competitors offering the service capability they want and likely never return.
Digital transformation. It’s only two simple words, but in the increasingly complex, customer-centric enterprise IT landscape, it’s a phrase that carries multiple meanings — to the point where some would probably observe, tongue-in-cheek, that it doesn’t mean anything anymore. It’d be hard to argue that “digital transformation” hasn’t been pushed into buzzword territory by those of us who write about business IT, but I feel like that speaks more of the concept’s genuine relevance and importance to the success of today’s digital first enterprises than just simple hype. The sports media talks about the Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavs, and their superstar players a lot, too.
What sort of WebRTC based applications can we expect to see over the next year and beyond? One way to predict development trends is to see what sorts of applications startups are building. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Arin Sime, founder of WebRTC.ventures, will discuss the current and likely future trends in WebRTC application development based on real requests for custom applications from real customers, as well as other public sources of information,
By now, every company in the world is on the lookout for the digital disruption that will threaten their existence. In study after study, executives believe that technology has either already disrupted their industry, is in the process of disrupting it or will disrupt it in the near future. As a result, every organization is taking steps to prepare for or mitigate unforeseen disruptions. Yet in almost every industry, the disruption trend continues unabated.
Special thanks for the help on this blog to the coolest, most hip group of industry experts that I have ever met: the Pathfinders. The Pathfinders is an elite forces group of master system engineers inside of Dell EMC who tackle our customers’ most difficult and inspiring challenges. I am honored to be part of that club! Suppose an autonomous vehicle learns of a more efficient route and wants sell this knowledge to other autonomous cars for a fee (using blockchain to handle machine to machine transaction). Suppose the autonomous vehicle could start to monetize itself; to self-fund its own operations and the acquisition of goods and services such as gas, repairs or vehicle upgrades (using blockchain to conduct commerce). Now suppose the autonomous vehicle could couple real-time analytics of vehicle performance and maintenance with real-time bidding for maintenance servicing and replacement parts (blockchain inserted again). Lastly, think “intelligent” vehicle depreciation and salvage value optimization where the autonomous vehicle continuously scours used car and auto parts markets for vehicles in need of older chassis, transmission and electrical components (again leveraging blockchain).
End-user experience is everything when it comes to facilitating workplace productivity. You could deploy or develop the most powerful applications anyone has ever seen-but they won't do any good if they offer a poor experience. This is a major reason why applications are moving to SaaS, PaaS and IaaS cloud computing models. The cloud simplifies applications on the back end, which translates to smoother end-user experiences. But as cloud apps integrate more services and user bases diversify, IT has to do more to streamline application platforms. Enter container technology.
By now, every company in the world is on the lookout for the digital disruption that will threaten their existence. In study after study, executives believe that technology has either already disrupted their industry, is in the process of disrupting it or will disrupt it in the near future. As a result, every organization is taking steps to prepare for or mitigate unforeseen disruptions. Yet in almost every industry, the disruption trend continues unabated.
The origins of SAP GRC software goes back decades, but adoption has been slow. But with the rigor of modern compliance regimes like SOX, coupled with the sheer volume and complexity of online transactions, there’s been an accelerating movement away from document-centric review processes to automation.
InformationWeek recently ran an article I wrote that describes CollabNet's work with non-profit #YesWeCode. This Dream Corps initiative aims to help young adults find careers and success in the tech industry. In the article, I address the growing need for new talent in the tech industry: "The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics estimates that there will be one million more IT jobs than computer science students in the U.S. by 2020. The software development field in particular is expected to see a much higher than average growth rate of 17 percent."
What sort of WebRTC based applications can we expect to see over the next year and beyond? One way to predict development trends is to see what sorts of applications startups are building. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Arin Sime, founder of WebRTC.ventures, will discuss the current and likely future trends in WebRTC application development based on real requests for custom applications from real customers, as well as other public sources of information,
Special thanks for the help on this blog to the coolest, most hip group of industry experts that I have ever met: the Pathfinders. The Pathfinders is an elite forces group of master system engineers inside of Dell EMC who tackle our customers’ most difficult and inspiring challenges. I am honored to be part of that club! Suppose an autonomous vehicle learns of a more efficient route and wants sell this knowledge to other autonomous cars for a fee (using blockchain to handle machine to machine transaction). Suppose the autonomous vehicle could start to monetize itself; to self-fund its own operations and the acquisition of goods and services such as gas, repairs or vehicle upgrades (using blockchain to conduct commerce). Now suppose the autonomous vehicle could couple real-time analytics of vehicle performance and maintenance with real-time bidding for maintenance servicing and replacement parts (blockchain inserted again). Lastly, think “intelligent” vehicle depreciation and salvage value optimization where the autonomous vehicle continuously scours used car and auto parts markets for vehicles in need of older chassis, transmission and electrical components (again leveraging blockchain).
SYS-CON Events announced today that Interoute, owner-operator of one of Europe's largest networks and a global cloud services platform, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. Interoute is the owner-operator of one of Europe's largest networks and a global cloud services platform which encompasses 12 data centers, 14 virtual data centers and 31 colocation centers, with connections to 195 additional third-party data centers across Europe. Its full-service Unified ICT platform serves international enterprises and many of the world’s leading service providers, as well as governments and universities.
Trends as Internet of things (IoT), distributed IT, data sovereignty requirements, and pervasive security concerns are combining to challenge how IT operates. Thanks to adoption of hybrid IT, tech organizations are shifting to become strategists and internal service providers. To help us define a new ideology for hybrid IT, we're joined by Neil Thurston, Chief Technologist for the Hybrid IT Practice at Logicalis Group in the UK. The discussion is moderated by Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions.
InformationWeek recently ran an article I wrote that describes CollabNet's work with non-profit #YesWeCode. This Dream Corps initiative aims to help young adults find careers and success in the tech industry. In the article, I address the growing need for new talent in the tech industry: "The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics estimates that there will be one million more IT jobs than computer science students in the U.S. by 2020. The software development field in particular is expected to see a much higher than average growth rate of 17 percent."