April 20, 2017

Writing a new story for IT and digital disruption

Every technology wave calls the role and value of IT into question. More than a dozen years ago it was cloud technology raising the question “Does IT Matter?” Today, digital transformation is calling the role of IT in to question. This requires the CIO and IT to write a new story about themselves and the value they bring to an organization. Before we can talk about the new story, it is important to think about past tales of IT.
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Be prepared for transformative change as the Next Revolution in Information Technology spreads

Mark McDonald, a year-after-year favorite WTN Fusion speaker, created a compelling case for Information Technology’s next revolution at the recent Fusion 2017 conference. Mainframe computers, the first innovation, made Information Technology (IT) a specialty that enabled organizations to scale their operations. Client Servers, the next innovation, and the software they deployed allowed processes to be dramatically improved and automated – think ERP systems, on-line purchasing, and Human Resource systems. Next came mobile computing and the digital transformation of businesses that greatly enhanced customer experience. All of these stages were ones of mechanization, with hardware and software replacing previously manual activities. Read More >>

Mobile security technology, advances often a double-edged sword

The rapid advancement of mobility in the enterprise has often outpaced the development of mobile data security best practices, and this obstacle is made more complicated by the fact that mobile devices now include emerging technology such as the internet of things. The trend has left companies — and their IT leaders — scrambling to develop mitigating mobile security technology and processes necessary to protect data.
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Getting behind the numbers: Tech’s role in the Wisconsin economy

Agriculture, manufacturing and tourism are the holy trinity of the Wisconsin economy and may always be so, given the state’s rich traditions in all three sectors. Technology increasingly drives each of those sectors, however, and is slowly building an impressive standing of its own in terms of the jobs and value it adds to the Wisconsin economy. A recent national report makes the case. The 2017 “Cyberstates” report from CompTIA, the nation’s largest leading tech association, showed Wisconsin cracking the 100,000-job barrier in 2016 for the first time. The report, which draws upon a mix of public and private data, counted 101,542 state tech workers last year compared with 97,633 in 2015.
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Who Controls the Blockchain?

Blockchain networks tend to support principles, like open access and permissionless use, that should be familiar to proponents of the early internet. To protect this vision from political pressure and regulatory interference, blockchain networks rely on a decentralized infrastructure that can’t be controlled by any one person or group. Unlike political regulation, blockchain governance is not emergent from the community. Rather, it is ex ante, encoded in the protocols and processes as an integral part of the original network architecture. To be a part of a community supporting a blockchain is to accept the rules of the network as they were originally established.
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How artificial intelligence is helping detect tuberculosis in remote areas

Researchers are training artificial intelligence to identify tuberculosis on chest X-rays, an initiative that could help screening and evaluation efforts in TB-prevalent areas lacking access to radiologists. The findings are part of a study published online in the journal Radiology. “An artificial intelligence solution that could interpret radiographs for the presence of TB in a cost-effective way could expand the reach of early identification and treatment in developing nations.”
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Users Overshare Sensitive Enterprise Data

When it comes to keeping confidential data locked down, it turns out that even employees trained in cybersecurity best practices still don’t always know how to protect sensitive information, according to the Dell End-User Security Survey 2017 released today. While employees don’t want their companies to fall victim to a security breach, they also prefer to avoid security policies that limit their workplace productivity and daily activities, the survey found.Read More >>

Facebook Is Working on Some Brainy Technology

Facebook on Wednesday pulled aside the curtain on a secretive unit headed by a former chief of the Pentagon’s research arm, disclosing that the social media company is studying ways for people to communicate by thought and touch.
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Baidu to share self-drive car technology

Chinese internet giant Baidu has said it will share much of the technology it has created for its self-driving cars. The firm predicted that the move would help drive the development of autonomous vehicles. Called Apollo, the project will make a range of software, hardware and data services available to others, especially carmakers.
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Microsoft launches new IoT services for the enterprise

Microsoft is launching IoT Central today, a new Internet of Things (IoT) service that gives enterprises a fully managed solution for setting up their IoT deployments without needing the in-house expertise necessary for deploying a cloud-based IoT solution from scratch. It’s basically IoT-as-a-Service. In addition, the company is bringing its Azure Stream Analytics to edge devices, making it easier to provision new IoT devices, and it’s launching a completely new analytics service for time series data.
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