Big data is not the end-all, be-all of marketing strategies. It's not that big data is too simplistic, rather, it's that our standard way of using data is limiting. Typical big data analytics are incapable of painting the full picture of consumer behaviors and often fail to quickly provide complete insights. When this happens, marketers end up with broad insights that miss the mark when translated into real-world advertisements and campaigns.
Posted January 03, 2017
The past year was a blockbuster one for those working in the data space. Businesses have wrapped their fates around data analytics in an even tighter embrace as competition intensifies and the drive for greater innovation becomes a top priority. The year ahead promises to get even more interesting, especially for data managers and professionals. Leading experts in the field have witnessed a number of data trends emerge in 2016, and now see new developments coming into view for 2017.
Posted January 03, 2017
As enterprises accelerate their movement of data into the cloud, a slew of new challenges are presenting themselves on the security front. For users of external or public cloud services, the risks are well understood. However, private and hybrid clouds are not immune to security vulnerabilities either. Thanks to private clouds, data is proliferating across various parts of the enterprise, along with the potential for insider abuse, according to a new Unisphere Research report.
Posted January 03, 2017
Trend-Setting Products in Data and Information Management for 2017
Posted December 07, 2016
New Big Data Sourcebook Examines the Unfolding Big Data Era
Posted December 01, 2016
IT operations teams have been furiously preparing for this year's holiday season - the retail industry's busiest time of the year for web traffic. Here is a checklist of the key factors IT operations teams need to consider to ensure their IT infrastructure is ready now - and stays that way throughout the shopping season.
Posted December 01, 2016
It is not uncommon for a medium-to-large company to have 50 or more different security technologies in place. While fiscally inefficient, this approach has been somewhat effective up to this point in dealing with the types of attacks launched against it. But the threat landscape is currently changing more rapidly than ever, forcing businesses to shift to a more forward-thinking security model.
Posted December 01, 2016
By now it's well documented that employees will take IT tasks into their own hands when IT cannot give them the support they need, and when they need it. The phenomenon is ubiquitous and persistent, even to the point that it's been dubbed "shadow IT." Gartner recently noted that by 2020, a third of successful attacks experienced by enterprises will be on their shadow IT resources.
Posted December 01, 2016
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) calls it "The Treacherous Twelve." Others have called it the Dirty Dozen. But by whatever name, this is the list to know if you have concerns about security in the public cloud. To be honest, much is being done to address the items on this list. In fact, some predict that in a few years' time the public cloud may be more secure than private ones—and certainly more than traditional networks. Imagine, even, the possibility of security being the reason to go to—rather than shun—the public cloud.
Posted November 02, 2016
In the age of big data, efficiently managing relational databases, particularly SQL Server, may be the single most important issue facing a growing number of CIOs and data center managers. Throughout the enterprise IT community, and in the world of big data in particular, SQL Server is on a tear. Gartner projects that the market for relational database management systems will grow to $40 billion by 2018, with expanding instances of SQL Server growing nearly as fast as the big data opportunities they are expected to manage.
Posted November 02, 2016
Running databases both on premises and in a public cloud is increasingly becoming the answer to many of the headaches that database administrators and developers alike run into when working on their organization's databases. Most organizations originally favored private clouds, allowing their staff members to spin up private instances whenever needed, but public cloud providers and cloud database vendors now offer serious alternatives that make a good case for DBaaS.
Posted November 02, 2016
Scaling Data Integration Across Hybrid Environments in a Big Data World
Posted November 02, 2016
One hundred-fifty million people use Snapchat every day. Moreover, the playing field for mobile apps is much broader than MapQuest or Pokémon GO, the free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game for iOS and Android devices, which became so wildly popular this summer that there were reports of it causing some players to walk blindly off a cliff and others into traffic. To adequately manage this unprecedented level of capacity, data centers need to up their compute, storage, and memory capabilities.
Posted October 24, 2016
Business intelligence (BI) and analytics are at the top of corporate agendas this year, and with good reason. The competitive environment is intense, and business leaders are demanding they have access to greater insights about their customers, markets, and internal operations to make better and faster decisions—often in real time. There have also been dramatic changes with BI and analytics tools and platforms. The three Cs—cloud, consolidation, and collaboration—are elevating BI and analytics to new heights within enterprises and gaining newfound respect at the highest levels.
Posted October 24, 2016
Almost all database workloads are now (or eventually will be) virtualized. High availability (HA) clusters using virtual servers provide the application protection needed to satisfy even the most demanding service-level agreements (SLAs). Configuring the shared storage needed for HA in VMware can present challenges to creating these clusters and therefore satisfying SLAs.
Posted October 07, 2016
Big Data Means Big Transformation
Posted October 07, 2016
Internet of Things (IoT) devices are revolutionizing the way we share data and carry a huge charter to improve our banking, shopping, transportation, patient, and individual care and safety, to name a just a few. The mission is admirable, but with thousands of devices flooding the market, the lack of standards and multitude of security deficiencies are creating an on-ramp to corporate, government, and private networks that is wide open to cyberattacks.
Posted October 07, 2016
Cyberattacks happen. How can you recover quickly? If you are in IT management, everywhere you turn, you see warnings of malicious forces working diligently with the one aim of compromising your security and eating your data for lunch. It's not a question of if anymore but rather of when. Many times, the cybersecurity tools will not prevent the break-in, but only alert you of the compromise.
Posted October 07, 2016
There is a tug-of-war of sorts going on in organizations today. On one hand, there is pressure on IT staff to maintain systems' uptime and availability along with a growing focus on data security, while dealing with the multitude of maintenance-level tasks, such as applying upgrades, fixes, and patches. But on the other hand, there is a growing requirement for IT to support the business as it seeks to use data in new ways for strategic benefit.
Posted October 07, 2016
As data volumes continue to grow along with the number of (mobile) devices, agile jacks-of-all-trades such as enterprise apps are taking the place of standard applications. These programs allow companies to combine analytical functions and transactional capabilities to design flexible business process. At the same time, apps support smart decision-making and offer a link to social networks.
Posted September 14, 2016
An Offline-First Approach Keeps Applications Connected
Posted September 14, 2016
The year 2015 was especially rich in cyberattacks with companies such as T-Mobile, Kaspersky, and Anthem having had their security compromised and all sorts of personal information about users exposed. The urgent need to solve the problem of anomaly detection lies in the fact that any deviation from a general picture showing the current state of the system may carry important information about the existing issue.
Posted September 14, 2016
Data governance is sometimes viewed as a roadblock that keeps data scientists and analysts from turning data into business insights quickly and efficiently. Yet, in the enterprise data and analytics work that we've undertaken for clients across diverse industries, we've found that it's often a lack of sound data governance that prevents organizations from realizing the full value of their data.
Posted September 02, 2016
Waterloo is known as the site of Napoleon's downfall. But it was the insufficiency of communication - a failure to deliver vital information concerning the proximity of enemy garrisons on the march - that deserves the lion's share of the blame. In the battle of conducting business today, information endures.
Posted August 20, 2016
SHARE recently wrapped up its summer conference in Atlanta. James Vincent, immediate past president of SHARE, reflected on the changes that have taken place in the IT industry during his tenure and the key takeaways from the event which took place July 31-August 5. "One takeaway is that SHARE is on the right track when it comes to its focus on the new IT generation, what we call zNextGen," said Vincent.
Posted August 20, 2016
Being able to deliver a rapid response to problems is a core need for the modern enterprise. While many network "issues" can suffer a delay in response time, true problems such as security breaches and network outages cannot. Let's look at two situations that require a rapid response, five questions that IT never wants to hear, and one example of a solution that IT can implement.
Posted August 20, 2016
Anyone who has ever attended Oracle OpenWorld knows that you must plan ahead. The conference held in San Francisco each fall is vast, and the upcoming conference, scheduled for September 18-22, 2016, promises to be equally expansive. Just as in years before, tens of thousands of attendees from well over 100 countries can be expected converge to learn more about Oracle's ever-expanding ecosystem of technologies, products and services during thousands of sessions held at the Moscone Center and multiple additional venues in downtown San Francisco. Here, Database Trends and Applications presents the annual Who to See @ Oracle OpenWorld special section.
Posted August 04, 2016