December 2, 2014
One of the more talked about industry buzzwords has been “The Third Platform,” the rising foundation of IT built on mobile devices, cloud services, social and Big Data. How big could the third platform become? According to a recent report by the International Data Corporation (IDC), every industry in our economy will witness 1/3 of its top 20 companies displaced by either new companies or transformed members of the top 20 who have embraced the third platform. If this prediction comes to fruition, we’re talking about quite the shakeup in a variety of markets, with new players challenging incumbents resistant to change. As IT continues to accelerate toward this platform with companies understanding its importance, the potential impact from people who provide IT solutions is only going to grow larger. More Influence For Developers The shift to a new platform could mean a shift in terms of the people who influence how IT decisions are made, namely developers. The IDC sees a coming trend in 2015 in which developers in the cloud computing market will be highly coveted for their expertise. In fact, rather than the CIO making major decisions on IT, the developer within an application group will be able to design the application and present a prototype to the CIO for approval (and moving forward into procurement). In other words, developers will hold more power than ever in pushing new applications through the organization. An Infrastructure Tug-Of-War The balancing act for companies may come when they struggle to […]
December 2, 2014
Letting employees use their own personal devices – what could possibly go wrong? Plenty without the proper planning, actually. Many workplace environments in recent years have considered how to implement a structure of BYOD – Bring Your Own Device – so that employees are allowed to bring their own smartphones, tablets and other devices to work. Successfully done, the business may see a cost savings. Without the right security measures, however, you could be putting your company’s network at risk for attack. Can a BYOD program work well in your company environment? Think about these crucial steps first before you dive right in. Picture this: It’s the early afternoon and many of your employees have just come back from lunch. Just before they settle back into their tasks at hand, they go to their smartphone or tablet. Suddenly, you’ve got a variety of devices that could connect to places you’re not prepared for them to go, from USB drives to wireless printers and more. Bob downloads a few unsupported apps, creating a security concern. Jill visits a website and doesn’t suspect that she’s about to introduce a type of malware into the environment. Ethan has sensitive data on his device, which he leaves out in the open on his desk, just waiting to be compromised. Can you see the potential I.T. challenges surfacing here? Every employee could create serious security issues if there aren’t proactive steps taken. What’s Your Policy On Mobile Security? If your answer is, “We don’t have […]
December 2, 2014
Don’t look now, but the Internet’s comfortable infrastructure as you’ve known it is about to change drastically, hopefully in a very positive way. By 2020, more than 30 billion devices will be wirelessly connected according to ABI Research, in a manner referred to as The Internet of Things (IoT). As that happens, some point to a new level of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, but even that can feel somewhat limiting. Because what we’ll continue to see during this evolution won’t be just about mere communication but a number of interconnected applications with automated behaviors. The Car That Could Drive Itself Take the self-driving car project that Google has been working on for several years, for example. Utilizing an array of data from sensors and radar, Google’s prototypical vehicle can be driven without a steering wheel, pedals or any form of human involvement. Unrealistic? Light years away? That’s what the California Department of Motor Vehicles thought as well, but based on the pace of development at Google and the promise of a potentially safer driving experience for the elderly or disabled, the DMV is now writing regulations for automated cars. So when the driverless car becomes a reality, compliance matters will be less likely to hold it back from officially hitting the road. IT Talent Needed Heavily To Bridge Gap So what could hold back some of these advances? For one, a lack of talent with the proper IT networking skills to maintain network security. Think about the large amounts of data […]
October 22, 2014
Lightning never strikes twice. Except when it comes in the form of business intelligence from ISG that hits you in our Lightning Bolt Blog. That lightning bolt next to our logo stands for the extremely powerful energy we bring to every client challenge – and here, it means the powerful insight on the IT trends and technology our blog brings. So you can be well within striking distance of growing your business and growing your career.