A strong declaration from a historically antagonist foe should put chills in the hearts of Americans preparing themselves for the world ahead: Russian President Vladimir Putin says the nation that leads in AI will be the ruler of the world [1]” … The ruler of the world! From the article (with some modification to avoid political landmines), we get the following: “The development of artificial intelligence has increasingly become a national security concern in recent years. It is China and the US (not Russia), which are seen as the two frontrunners, with China recently announcing its ambition to become the global leader in AI research by 2030. Many analysts warn that America is in danger of falling behind, especially as the [current US] administration prepares to cut funding for basic science and technology research.”
While walking around the office I happened upon a relatively new employee dragging emails from his inbox into folders. I asked why and was told, “I’m just answering emails and getting stuff off my desk.” An empty inbox may be emotionally satisfying to look at, but in practice, you should never do it. Here’s why. I recently wrote a piece arguing that from a mathematical perspective, Messy Desks Are Perfectly Optimized. While it validated the genius of my friends with messy desks, it also generated a barrage of good-natured ribbing from my super-neat friends. Emotions aside, the math is the math! By putting the last paper you looked at on top of the pile, you are organizing your desk using an algorithm called LRU (Least Recently Used). It is based on the idea that the papers you most recently used are the ones you are most likely to use again. Conversely, the papers you have not used in a long time will probably remain unused. It is the closest you can come to predicting what data you are most likely to need next. But what about the papers on the bottom of the pile? When and where should they be filed?
The enterprise data storage marketplace is poised to become a battlefield. No longer the quiet backwater of cloud computing services, the focus of this global transition is now going from compute to storage. An overview of recent storage market history is needed to understand why this transition is important. Before 2007 and the birth of the cloud computing market we are witnessing today, the on-premise model hosted in large local data centers dominated enterprise storage. Key marketplace players were EMC (before the Dell acquisition), NetApp, IBM, HP (before they became HPE) and Hitachi. Company employees managed information technology resources (compute, storage, network) and companies tightly controlled their data in facilities they managed. Data security, legal and regulatory concerns, for the most part, were very localized. The data itself was highly structured (i.e., Relational Databases and SQL) in support of serially executed mostly static business processes. This structured approach worked because consumer segments in most industries were homogeneous, segregated and relatively static. Companies also felt relatively safe in their industry vertical due to the high financial and operational barriers prospective new competitive entrants would face.
Following a tradition dating back to 2002 at ZapThink and continuing at Intellyx since 2014, it’s time for Intellyx’s annual predictions for the coming year. If you’re a long-time fan, you know we have a twist to the typical annual prediction post: we actually critique our predictions from the previous year. To make things even more interesting, Charlie and I switch off, judging the other’s predictions. And now that he’s been with Intellyx for more than a year, this Cortex represents my first opportunity to see if his auguries made the cut.
A strong declaration from a historically antagonist foe should put chills in the hearts of Americans preparing themselves for the world ahead: Russian President Vladimir Putin says the nation that leads in AI will be the ruler of the world [1]” … The ruler of the world! From the article (with some modification to avoid political landmines), we get the following: “The development of artificial intelligence has increasingly become a national security concern in recent years. It is China and the US (not Russia), which are seen as the two frontrunners, with China recently announcing its ambition to become the global leader in AI research by 2030. Many analysts warn that America is in danger of falling behind, especially as the [current US] administration prepares to cut funding for basic science and technology research.”
The cloud revolution in enterprises has very clearly crossed the phase of proof-of-concepts into a truly mainstream adoption. One of most popular enterprise-wide initiatives currently going on are “cloud migration” programs of some kind or another. Finding business value for these programs is not hard to fathom – they include hyperelasticity in infrastructure consumption, subscription based models, and agility derived from rapid speed of deployment of applications. These factors will continue to drive cloud adoption into the foreseeable future.
The goal of Microservices is to improve software delivery speed and increase system safety as scale increases. Microservices being modular these are faster to change and enables an evolutionary architecture where systems can change, as the business needs change. Microservices can scale elastically and by being service oriented can enable APIs natively. Microservices also reduce implementation and release cycle time and enables continuous delivery. This paper provides a logical overview of the Microservices Reference Architecture that highlights various sub systems needed to support Microservices deployment and execution.
Every year about this time, we gaze into crystal balls to divine the future of our industry – or at least where it’s headed over the next 365 days. The result is often a triumph of incrementalism: we predict that we will get more of what we already have. The truth is, technology isn’t as revolutionary as we often think – and commenting on incremental changes alone may not help us understand what lies ahead. Along with a few near-term predictions – so hard to resist – I’d also like to make some predictions not just about technology per se, but about related changes to organizations, processes, and the cultures around them. Here’s my main prediction: By 2030 what we’ve come to know as “IT” today will be virtually unrecognizable.
"Grape Up leverages Cloud Native technologies and helps companies build software using microservices, and work the DevOps agile way. We've been doing digital innovation for the last 12 years," explained Daniel Heckman, of Grape Up in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 21st Cloud Expo, held Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Following a tradition dating back to 2002 at ZapThink and continuing at Intellyx since 2014, it’s time for Intellyx’s annual predictions for the coming year. If you’re a long-time fan, you know we have a twist to the typical annual prediction post: we actually critique our predictions from the previous year. To make things even more interesting, Charlie and I switch off, judging the other’s predictions. And now that he’s been with Intellyx for more than a year, this Cortex represents my first opportunity to see if his auguries made the cut.
The goal of Microservices is to improve software delivery speed and increase system safety as scale increases. Microservices being modular these are faster to change and enables an evolutionary architecture where systems can change, as the business needs change. Microservices can scale elastically and by being service oriented can enable APIs natively. Microservices also reduce implementation and release cycle time and enables continuous delivery. This paper provides a logical overview of the Microservices Reference Architecture that highlights various sub systems needed to support Microservices deployment and execution.
The enterprise data storage marketplace is poised to become a battlefield. No longer the quiet backwater of cloud computing services, the focus of this global transition is now going from compute to storage. An overview of recent storage market history is needed to understand why this transition is important. Before 2007 and the birth of the cloud computing market we are witnessing today, the on-premise model hosted in large local data centers dominated enterprise storage. Key marketplace players were EMC (before the Dell acquisition), NetApp, IBM, HP (before they became HPE) and Hitachi. Company employees managed information technology resources (compute, storage, network) and companies tightly controlled their data in facilities they managed. Data security, legal and regulatory concerns, for the most part, were very localized. The data itself was highly structured (i.e., Relational Databases and SQL) in support of serially executed mostly static business processes. This structured approach worked because consumer segments in most industries were homogeneous, segregated and relatively static. Companies also felt relatively safe in their industry vertical due to the high financial and operational barriers prospective new competitive entrants would face.
The impact of emerging technologies has taken the business by storm. Everyone is familiar with Virtual Reality and 360-degree virtual reality. The immersive experience offered by these emerging technologies have replaced the way people shopped, interact and have fun. Though, the virtual reality and 360-degree virtual reality are new in the marketing arena. Therefore, most of the marketers are not familiar with how to incorporate into marketing and sale strategy. The survival of any business in today’s world is only possible by integrating emerging technologies within the organization. In this article, we are going to discuss how to incorporate VR in your marketing campaigns.
The end of the year is a time for reflection. It’s when most of us are looking back at the choices, accomplishments, and mistakes of the year prior and setting goals to improve the following year. It’s also when businesses analyze the year’s trends and behaviors to determine necessary strategic changes to be made; however, if you aren’t analyzing the right metrics, such reflection is a useless effort. Below is an excerpt from an article provided by Elad Rave, founder and CTO of Teridion, explaining why TTLB (Time to Last Byte) should be one of the performance metrics on your radar.
The cloud revolution in enterprises has very clearly crossed the phase of proof-of-concepts into a truly mainstream adoption. One of most popular enterprise-wide initiatives currently going on are “cloud migration” programs of some kind or another. Finding business value for these programs is not hard to fathom – they include hyperelasticity in infrastructure consumption, subscription based models, and agility derived from rapid speed of deployment of applications. These factors will continue to drive cloud adoption into the foreseeable future.
SAP HANA was released as a work in progress. Tenants could leverage the increased speed of the HANA database immediately, but had to wait for the updated SAP S/4HANA applications to be released. Each release has allowed applications to more fully harness HANA, creating new, compelling reasons to migrate for a range of use cases. With the S/4HANA 1709 release, SAP has taken yet another step toward creating a complete product, with substantial benefits over Suite on HANA for most use cases. As with any ERP software, there will be future improvements and innovations, but at this point upgrading to S/4 is a worthwhile investment for nearly every landscape still on SAP ECC or Suite on HANA.
While walking around the office I happened upon a relatively new employee dragging emails from his inbox into folders. I asked why and was told, “I’m just answering emails and getting stuff off my desk.” An empty inbox may be emotionally satisfying to look at, but in practice, you should never do it. Here’s why. I recently wrote a piece arguing that from a mathematical perspective, Messy Desks Are Perfectly Optimized. While it validated the genius of my friends with messy desks, it also generated a barrage of good-natured ribbing from my super-neat friends. Emotions aside, the math is the math! By putting the last paper you looked at on top of the pile, you are organizing your desk using an algorithm called LRU (Least Recently Used). It is based on the idea that the papers you most recently used are the ones you are most likely to use again. Conversely, the papers you have not used in a long time will probably remain unused. It is the closest you can come to predicting what data you are most likely to need next. But what about the papers on the bottom of the pile? When and where should they be filed?
As we end 2017, I’m tired of writing “lecturing” blogs about what organizations should be doing to master data monetization in order to power their business models and achieve digital transformation. While the objective of every organization should be to master big data and data science (artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning) to drive “data monetization,” let’s take a breath and have some fun. My recent ankle surgery afforded me the opportunity to binge watch “Game of Thrones.” As I watched the impending battle between the White Walkers and humanity, I couldn’t help but identify a number of lessons that we can learn from Jon Snow’s battle with the leader of the White Walkers…and the power of Valyrian steel! Game of Thrones and data, not exactly two things you think are in harmony, but this is where I find myself.
The end of the year is a time for reflection. It’s when most of us are looking back at the choices, accomplishments, and mistakes of the year prior and setting goals to improve the following year. It’s also when businesses analyze the year’s trends and behaviors to determine necessary strategic changes to be made; however, if you aren’t analyzing the right metrics, such reflection is a useless effort. Below is an excerpt from an article provided by Elad Rave, founder and CTO of Teridion, explaining why TTLB (Time to Last Byte) should be one of the performance metrics on your radar.
The impact of emerging technologies has taken the business by storm. Everyone is familiar with Virtual Reality and 360-degree virtual reality. The immersive experience offered by these emerging technologies have replaced the way people shopped, interact and have fun. Though, the virtual reality and 360-degree virtual reality are new in the marketing arena. Therefore, most of the marketers are not familiar with how to incorporate into marketing and sale strategy. The survival of any business in today’s world is only possible by integrating emerging technologies within the organization. In this article, we are going to discuss how to incorporate VR in your marketing campaigns.
SAP HANA was released as a work in progress. Tenants could leverage the increased speed of the HANA database immediately, but had to wait for the updated SAP S/4HANA applications to be released. Each release has allowed applications to more fully harness HANA, creating new, compelling reasons to migrate for a range of use cases. With the S/4HANA 1709 release, SAP has taken yet another step toward creating a complete product, with substantial benefits over Suite on HANA for most use cases. As with any ERP software, there will be future improvements and innovations, but at this point upgrading to S/4 is a worthwhile investment for nearly every landscape still on SAP ECC or Suite on HANA.
For better or worse, big data has irrevocably altered the digital landscape. The explosion in variety, velocity, volume and value of information presents an abundance of previously unimaginable opportunity. But it also creates a number of challenges that need to be successfully navigated. This reshaped technical world poses the following question to organizations: do you risk presenting, stale, incorrect or erroneous data to your customers? Because, with 2.5 quintillion bytes of data now being created every day, finding a way to manage and harness such potential is a new experience for everyone. And if you don't take advantage, your competitors will.
"Grape Up leverages Cloud Native technologies and helps companies build software using microservices, and work the DevOps agile way. We've been doing digital innovation for the last 12 years," explained Daniel Heckman, of Grape Up in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 21st Cloud Expo, held Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Accessing files using traditional VPN software comes at a great cost. In this article we quantify true costs of supporting VPN's for remote access. Businesses of all types utilize VPN software solutions to provide remote access to their employees. How do we quantify the true Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of supporting VPN software? Why is TCO Important? Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) defines TCO as the total cost of using and maintaining an IT investment over time. TCO calculations include a combination of direct costs (hardware, software acquisition, management and support) and indirect costs (end-user training and downtime). TCO is often overlooked and unbudgeted, presenting an incomplete projection of overall IT costs.
For better or worse, big data has irrevocably altered the digital landscape. The explosion in variety, velocity, volume and value of information presents an abundance of previously unimaginable opportunity. But it also creates a number of challenges that need to be successfully navigated. This reshaped technical world poses the following question to organizations: do you risk presenting, stale, incorrect or erroneous data to your customers? Because, with 2.5 quintillion bytes of data now being created every day, finding a way to manage and harness such potential is a new experience for everyone. And if you don't take advantage, your competitors will.