Archive for October, 2012
5 Reasons Why IT Must Lead the Outsourcing Wave, or Die
Outsourcing is the new IT. Don’t believe me? Just check the numbers. The Information Services Group reported that just cloud-related contracts within the outsourcing industry grew by 120 percent during the third quarter of 2012 (compared to third quarter 2011). And there’s no sign that it’s stopping. IT leaders (that’s probably you if you’re reading [...]
Full StoryReactive VS. Proactive IT Management Styles
There seems to be a dangerous trend where IT managers believe that they don’t need a business background in order to do their job. In fact, it’s commonly said – when referring to the role of IT management – that “The mechanic doesn’t need to know how to fly the plane”. This is a toxic [...]
Full StoryBest Practices For Privacy In The Responsible Use Of Facial Recognition Technology
Big Data adoption is growing rapidly, and measures need to be taken in order to protect consumer privacy. Once your personal information leaks out onto the Internet, trying to erase this information can be like removing milk from coffee. Preventative controls need to be put in place to prevent unwanted privacy breaches, and also to [...]
Full StoryThe Rush to Smart Phone Apps … An OOOPSIE Perhaps?
First, I am not singling anyone or any company out. Second, I wouldn’t know where to begin with the first items anyway. Third the rush to generate smart phone apps and their counterparts for tablets may – MAY — have had a warning shot or two fired across their bows people are choosing to ignore, [...]
Full StoryFrequent Amazon Outages Raise Skepticism
The advantages of cloud computing are abundantly clear. Especially for smaller businesses, hosting applications in the cloud offers greater cost savings, better efficiency, stronger security, and a host of other critical benefits. It allows businesses to host their enterprise systems without the need to hire IT staff, buy hardware or build a datacenter. Many leading [...]
Full StoryOffsite Data Recovery: Who can you trust?
The Information Age has empowered businesses with technologies that make business easier, faster, more profitable and completely on demand. It has also created a host of concerns for the business owner such as hard drive backups, cloud computing and identify theft. When it comes to storing your data, how do you pick a vendor you can [...]
Full Story15 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Let Employees Work From Home
Let us get one thing straight from the get go–if you offer to allow employees to work from home then every employee you have will volunteer. Many people would offer to work from home for reduced wages, and if you advertised the job you would get thousands of applications. So it does have its up [...]
Full StoryHow to Survive a Cloud Outage
A cloud outage can effect many entities, including enterprise-level companies. Having said that, there are still many businesses that rely on the cloud. With the pay as you go pricing structure and flexible options to choose from, the cloud services many customer related needs. Even if just a minor glitch occurs with a cloud hosting [...]
Full StoryThe Biggest Challenges Faced By Any Big Data Implementation
Big Data has the power to provide tremendous value. It allows companies to make better decisions, based on real-time objective numbers, and it also allows organizations to provide a more personalized level of service for customers. But there are a number of technological challenges which must be overcome when launching a new Big Data initiative. [...]
Full StoryWhat Are “Fusion Centers”?
In an effort to curb the threat of terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security has funded the creation of several centers which aim to collect a broad scope of information about potential local and international security threats. These centers are also designed to improve the sharing of information across all branches of government. The establishment [...]
Full StoryThe IBM i Sucks (iSeries, AS/400)
If I had a dollar for every time I heard the IBM i sucks. Usually it comes from folks that don’t know the first thing about the platform, what it excels at and what it does not. Time to dispel some myths and take a look at a few key areas where the IBM i [...]
Full StoryWhat Role Will Data Analytics Play In Tomorrow’s Sustainable Power Grid?
At the same time as we’re seeing increasing worldwide demand for energy, we’re also reaching an ecological tipping point. This has prompted governments all over the world to provide incentives for companies and individuals to reduce their power consumption. Of course, this blog has devoted lots of times to discussing the power management and sustainability [...]
Full StorySurvey Finds Serious Inefficiencies Within American Public Safety Organizations
In today’s increasingly competitive business climate, it’s no longer acceptable to “shoot from the hip” or rely on established habits when making daily business decisions. Today, the most successful organizations are the ones which are most agile in exploiting the organizational data at their disposal and putting it to good use. A recent survey by [...]
Full StoryThe Importance of Visualizing Big Data
For those of us who love and understand big data, there’s never been a better time to be in the business. Thanks both to a host of new measurement technologies and the integration of these tools into popular culture, we’ve knocked holes in the dams that once stood between us and a formerly inaccessible frontier [...]
Full StoryWhat to Look For in a Document Storage Company
If your business is growing and needs storage for important employee or customer records, there are certain things you’ll need to look into before considering different companies and the services they offer. If you’re considering physical storage, you’ll want to consider the company’s policies on security, the construction of their buildings and vehicles, and what [...]
Full StoryFixing HR and the Startups Behind the Effort
In theory, human resources departments in most companies exist to create a more productive and satisfying workplace experience, thereby creating a more successful environment for both employers and employees. As the positive effects of engaged employees for business have come to light in recent years, the importance of human resources has grown tremendously, and in [...]
Full StoryTop 10 Corporate Reputation Disasters of 2011
Oxford Metrica recently published a detailed study into the financial effects of reputation events on companies. In order to do this, they highlighted a number of extreme corporate reputation disasters, and compared them with the effects of these events on the stock prices of these organizations. The study showed – in an objective way – [...]
Full StoryWhat is Heterogeneous Computing?
If you’ve been reading up on the latest innovations in microprocessor technology recently, you might have heard a number of new buzzwords such as Heterogeneous Architecture, HSA, and APUs. Many industry leaders such as Oracle and AMD have been very vocal about their belief that heterogeneous computing is the future of the industry. Because of [...]
Full StoryIndustrial-Grade Ethernet Networks vs. Commercial-Grade Ethernet Networks: What You Need to Know
An industrial Ethernet network has a very different set of requirements and challenges from a standard “commercial-grade” or office network. While the information on an office network is certainly important, the cost of data being delayed or lost can be very high in an industrial environment. Consider this: a production line in a plant may [...]
Full StoryIBM Announces Major Updates Their Power Systems Offerings
On October 3 2012, IBM announced a series of major updates to their Power Systems line. The company invested over $1.4 billion on research and development in order to produce a new line of offerings that address customers’ demands for better security, the ability to leverage the cloud, and the ability to better manage large [...]
Full StoryHigh Performance Computing—Powering Mars Missions and Handling Big Data
NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has been on Mars for two months now, and in that time has managed to cover all of about 800 feet of terrain (this figure becomes much more impressive when you consider that Curiosity’s younger cousin, Opportunity, has been on our neighbor planet for eight and a half years and has [...]
Full StoryApple Makes Public Apology For Apple Maps Mishap
With the recent launch of Apple’s new iPhone 5 platform, they had included a slew of completely re-engineered features which were supposed to be better than previous versions. Amongst these updates was a new version of the iPhone’s native mapping application. Unfortunately, this app contained a number of bugs which led the app to misrepresent [...]
Full Story
Recent Comments