Inside the Briefcase
The past year was a unique period of technological growth and advancement. Technology impacts the lives of people in new ways, thanks to the internet, politics, and other market forces. Understanding what happened in 2017 and what that means for the year coming will be the key for making upcoming plans.
If you’re a small business owner and you can’t seem to figure out where or how to increase your revenue, you’re not alone. Tons of small business owners are in the same boat as you. The good news: there’s a solution. And not only is this solution available, it’s incredibly efficient and any small business can take advantage. It’s called ecommerce. You’ve heard of it. It’s everywhere.
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has the potential to revolutionize manufacturing, commerce, and even healthcare. Think smarter, more efficient factories. Supply chains and distribution networks revolutionized by real-time location data. Imagine more fault-tolerant systems for producing products, food, and power. This is the promise of Industry 4.0, and the transformation is already underway.
The potential of the Internet is limitless, and it’s changing every day. If your small business isn’t already online, it should be. Not only can having an online presence increase your sales, but it could also increase your reputation and credibility. Today, consumers need to trust a store before they buy from it, especially if it’s online and they can’t see the physical object for themselves. To make the transition to digital, however, you need to do it right.
with Bill Ottman, MINDS.comIn this interview, Bill Ottman, CEO of Minds.com discusses the open source foundation of tools and platforms all of us like to use every day — such as social networks. Read More >>>
with Cuong Le, Data DynamicsIn this interview, Data Dynamics’ Senior Vice President of Field Operations, Cuong Le, shares his thoughts on why IT professionals need to be put back in total control of their data – and the best ways to make that happen. Read More >>>
Knowledge sharing through your service desk is extremely important and the topic should really receive much more coverage than it does. There are several reasons for this including the reduction of resolution times massively, but it also promotes a better working culture. But to really push this cultural shift through in your organization, there are a few things you need to do.
Open source software has characteristics such as quality, flexibility, security, and standardization that are unsurpassed by traditional software solutions. It has long-term viability and is always on the cutting-edge of technology. The software is created and supported by a worldwide community of organizations and individual developers, many of whom also live by open source values like collaboration and volunteerism.
with Arun Rao, GrandCanalsIn this interview, Arun Rao discusses how to support businesses who are struggling with the “Amazonification” of the fulfillment chain where there are rising costs and rising expectations on delivery times. Read More >>>
with Sundip Arora, KaminarioIn this interview, Kaminario, shares his take on how this rapid increase in retail technology means retailers must implement a solid storage backbone to handle the exponential growth of data and stay ahead of their competition. Read More >>>
with Gabby Nizri, AyehuIn this interview,Gabby Nizri, Co-Founder and CEO of Ayehu Inc., discusses how automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence are being used as a force multiplier to help organizations overcome the staffing crunch and operate at peak performance. Read More >>>
with Keith Fenech, RevulyticsIn this interview, Keith Fenech, VP, Software Analytics at Revulytics, speaks with IT Briefcase on how collecting and analyzing software usage data can help developers make faster, more efficient decisions at all stages of the development lifecycle. Read More >>>
with Cam Roberson, Beachhead SolutionsIn this interview, Cam Roberson, Director of the Reseller Channel at Beachhead Solutions, shares his perspective on how device security technology is addressing this need across industries. Read More >>>
On the surface, mainframe architecture seems relatively simple: A centrally located computer processes data through an input/output subsystem and stores its computations in memory. At the other end of the mainframe are printers and terminals that communicate with the mainframe through protocols. For all of its apparent simplicity, mainframe architecture can be extraordinarily complex. Mainframes process thousands of transactions per second and require an extensive infrastructure to house and maintain them.
Mobile telecommunications network equipment is expected to work without issue 24/7. There is no compromise on this, which is why transmission equipment, BTS systems, RF equipment, etc., are designed, tested and built for operation in the most demanding of environmental conditions.
A common approach to addressing any number of performance issues in IT environments is to throw a bunch of potential solutions at the wall and see what sticks. However, IT environments are becoming increasingly complex and varied, making the dart-on-the-wall strategy even less effective than it already was. As such, here I will cover what IT troubleshooting should look like in the hybrid IT world we now find ourselves in, and will continue to be encompassed by into the future.
with Gary Marks, OpengearIn this interview, Opengear CEO Gary Marks offers analysis into why network resilience has become such a challenge for today’s enterprises, as well as how businesses are improving the management of their remotely-located network sites. Read More >>>
The marriage of artificial intelligence and the open-source concept is still very new, and we’re beginning to see its production come to fruition. After a few years, outsiders have been able to help play with other’s open-sourced AI technology and in turn, send these improvements back to the original creators.
To create a success, marketing teams have to move fast! Moving the business forward means completing the next project, campaign or launch flawlessly. But keeping every stakeholder aligned and informed has never been easy. Read this article to discover top five ways marketing teams benefit from using Box.
Western Union has always been on the forefront of technological innovation. The company launched in 1851 with the invention of the telegraph. Now, 165 years later, we are digitally transforming ourselves and devising new and easier ways for our customers to move money around the world.
Curl, an open source application installed on hundreds of thousands of servers, was found to have several serious security vulnerabilities in a voluntary audit. The vulnerabilities were quickly fixed, but the incident exemplifies the importance of external auditing of the open source projects on which we all depend.
with Nancy Van Elsacker, Top DeskIn this Interview, Nancy Van Elsacker Louisnord, president of TOPdesk US, discusses the value of IT Service Management within the ever evolving IT Enterprise. Read More >>>
A lot of great software is being built using open source, and each year Black Duck reviews open source projects started during the past 12 months to recognize those whose mission, community growth, and market impact make them particularly notable. We call our selections the “Open Source Rookies,” and the process begins with an average 100-200 projects that meet those requirements of intriguing vision, ability to build a community, and value to the marketplace.
In many organizations, IT support seems to follow a corollary of Moore’s Law in which the number of support tickets — rather than the number of transistors — doubles every two years. Even companies that experience slower growth find that tickets ultimately proliferate and threaten to overwhelm their IT support teams if they haven’t kept their ticket management systems and processes up to date. You can avoid that fate by following the 10 steps below to keep tickets manageable, resolve them quickly and provide an amazing help desk and ticket management experience.
The direction of technology both follows and influences the direction of business. The tools enterprises need to compete, improve, adapt, solve problems, and succeed are supplied by technology. Sometimes, technology even supplies new opportunities, such as when a technological advance leads to the creation of a new marketplace. The Internet is by far the most powerful example of this in the past 50 years.
One of the buzzwords that has been floating around tech circles for the past several years is “open source.” Open source software has been around for quite a while, now, but there are still several misconceptions about it. Many people aren’t even quite sure what it means. Is it just freeware? Is it copyrighted material? How secure is it? Is it just cheap, low-quality junk that you use because you don’t want to shell out the money for a real program?
There are more online stores than ever as we get nearer to 2017; far more than when we experienced a dot-com boom back in 2000. People are appreciating the advantages offered by maintaining online businesses, which is why the market is saturated and very competitive.
Are you prepared for a network outage? Many companies have invested heavily in disaster-recovery solutions designed to mitigate the effects of catastrophic storms, earthquakes or power outages. However, Information Age notes that the cause of disruptions isn’t always so obvious — software updates gone awry or day-to-day human errors can also precipitate continuity problems. Here are five tips to help your company dodge network disruptions.
It seems as though the world has gone mobile. Everywhere you look someone has their smartphone out doing everything from playing Pokémon Go to shopping on the QVC online store. From texting to checking Facebook to keeping abreast of the news and weather forecasts, there is always something to do and see on that handy little gadget we wouldn’t leave home without. Not only are our cell phones a source of entertainment, but also a source of information and even function.
IT executives today expect they will need to provide more rigorous cost and ROI calculations to justify spending on services. At the same time, digital technology is increasingly the means for delivering profit-generating business services, so keeping technology in optimal working order is critical. This paradoxical imperative with the dual mandate of reducing cost and increasing value needs an effective strategy to drive toward “zero maintenance IT.”
