SigmaWay Blog

No matter, how modernized your IT systems are, but data loss is a major problem. And what will happen if you lose your big data?

More companies are keeping on using big data analytics to analyze real time data – and it has gone to such an extent that now, it is most important to your company. To prevent loss of your big data and to ensure that you are not ruined, it is vital that you should have a proper disaster recovery plan of Big Data. Unlike your conventional data, you cannot apply prevalent data recovery practices. You have to keep in mind that you are dealing with big data and so, you need to formulate your plans properly.

Mary Shacklett, president of technology research and market development firm Transworld Data, takes you through some guidelines. Read them at http://www.techrepublic.com/article/stop-procrastinating-formulate-a-big-data-disaster-recovery-plan-today/# .

It is of no doubt that switching to cloud platform will benefit you; but, have you ever thought which cloud platform will you use? Now, you may be wondering what the various cloud platforms are. Let's know it.

Cloud platforms can be private, public, managed or hybrid. The first two types are self-explanatory. While private cloud refers to an infrastructure operated and run for the benefit of your company only, in public cloud, this infrastructure is available for public use and can be accessible over the internet. On the other hand, managed cloud platform gives you services that are offered to manage and maintain the underlying technology to run cloud services.

So, what is hybrid cloud? You may have guessed it right – it’s the combination of two or more cloud services. Hybrid cloud has an edge over types of cloud services. If you opt for private, then it may prove costly to you, on the other hand, if you choose public, then although you will get the cost advantage, but a security concern will lie over you. However, if you go for hybrid, then they remain unique and in addition to that, you can access extra resources on an as – needed basis. So, for example, when you use hybrid cloud, you may use your private cloud application to store confidential data and for billing and ERP, you may use your public cloud application which is cost effective. The other main advantage of hybrid cloud is that, you have the option to switch to public cloud resources temporarily, if at any time your own capacity is exceeded.

Thinking of switching to hybrid cloud? Read more at http://cloudtweaks.com/2014/04/importance-hybrid-matters/ to get an idea about what is the importance of hybrid cloud and why it will matter to you. 

An article by Sandra Erwin, editor of National Defense Magazine, talks about how Homeland Security Solutions is facing changes in their business and how market intelligence is helping them to overcome such changes.

To read more about this topic, visit the following link: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=1484

Nowadays software industry around the world is focused on the cloud. Workday Inc. is a human capital management and financial management software firm that joined the cloud bandwagon recently. HCM which falls in the domain of ERP solutions is becoming more and more acceptable ever since ERP solutions are available over cloud. The global SaaS-based ERP software market will grow at CAGR of 14.21% from 2011 to 2105. The major factor for this ERP growth as SaaS model is due to the lower cost of ownership.

Read more about this aspect, visit the following link: http://www.gurufocus.com/news/255442/workday-growth-continues-with-erp-as-the-saas-application-market-is-booming 

Whether you are a startup, entrepreneur, SME or a large business enterprise, cloud technology is the thing that should come to you handy. Unlike the past, where a newbie in a business has to think twice over investing in costly equipment, cloud has made the job easy. With scalability, ubiquity and user centricity, it is the cloud that should be on your agenda in setting or developing up your business, irrespective of size.

With cloud, you can have access to technological advancements at a cheaper cost enabling you to compete with your rivals. With cloud technology in your hands, it can even happen that you are defeating your rivals!

Read more at: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/apr/15/cloud-computing-large-businesses-benefit.

As disruptive technologies are taking place often, CIOs need to take a look at their roles and they need to rebrand themselves as drivers of digital innovation. According to a survey done by consultancy firm EY (known formerly as Ernst and Young) titled 'Born to be digital: How leading CIOs are preparing for a digital transformation', social media, cloud, data analytics and mobile are acting as disruptive forces for businesses across all industries - whether it's a retailer or an automobile manufacturer. The way social network, cloud, data analytics and mobile have evolved; companies need to think alternate approaches to interact with their customers. Not only this, the change has helped the businesses to search for new opportunities to expand.

All these have redefined the roles and responsibilities of the CIOs. To take their organization forward, they have to become key drivers of digital innovation and can handle the technological transformations the businesses are undergoing.

Read more about how the leading CIOs are preparing for the technological changes that will guide you through the path here: http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY_CIO_-_Born_to_be_digital/%24FILE/EY-CIOs-Born-to-be-digital.pdf.

When technology is running fast in the cloud way, taking multinational companies as its partner, restaurants are not very much successful in it. Most of them are still using costly proprietary software that never gives benefits in return. If MNCs can adopt the cloud and mobile technology, why do restaurants, which have large number of transactions per day, are not able to do it?

With the world becoming increasingly mobile, cloud services becoming cheap, restaurants have ample chance to switch over to cloud and mobile technology. You may be thinking of what are the benefits of switching? Well, you will be able to increase your operational efficiency and better manage your employees and that too while dealing with your customers and simultaneously not sitting in front of your desktop.

So, what are you thinking of? Making your restaurant system interesting and keeping in sync with the technological advancement?   Larry Abramson, CEO of Red Book Connect writes about why you should switch to cloud and mobile technology. Read them at at http://www.fastcasual.com/article/231005/3-reasons-why-restaurants-need-mobile-cloud-technology.

Neural Network is the buzzword in Financial Analytics nowadays. You may be thinking now 'what is a neural network?' Well, Neural Network is a state - of - the - art trainable algorithm which is emulated to function like a human brain. Speaking in terms of stock markets, you can train the algorithm with some historical stock market data and the algorithm will predict the pattern for you.

As forecasting of stock markets, currency markets and other markets are becoming increasingly difficult, neural network is gaining prominence among traders to predict where markets are heading in the near future. Certainly, there are reasons for it. As generation is progressing at a fast pace, people are adopting technologies quickly. The usage of Neural Network has amplified because of the availability of several open source software which have the capability to form a neural net framework. To enhance your shareholder wealth maximization, it is desirable that you must be equipped with the knowledge of how neural network is applied in forecasting markets. Though, as a thumb rule you must remember that no forecasting is accurate, but still this neural network can give some valuable insights.

Wondering how to go about it? Read at http://www.geocities.ws/francorbusetti/KaastraArticle.pdf to know how a neural network is designed for forecasting financial time series data.

An article by E-Commerce Times columnist, Peter S. Vogel, says that it is hard to detect which is growing at a faster pace - cloud or cybercrime. Cloud may be anywhere in the world which creates interesting and complex legal questions regarding privacy of data stored in the cloud. Nevertheless, more businesses are migrating to the cloud to host data, often without regard to the legal consequences.  Many companies are migrating to the cloud to reduce their IT costs but are creating new malware-based and cyber-crime risks to their businesses. If cybercrime and cloud-focused malware continue to grow along with the cloud, the predicted growth of cloud migration may not be realized.

To know more follow http://www.technewsworld.com/story/80107.html

MongoDB added new backup and recovery abilities to its monitoring service to track deployments. People can set up the monitoring service for free when they use it as a cloud-based service and companies can pay to run it in an onsite data center. In version 2.6, the database supports index intersection, which makes it possible to search for information with multiple characteristics.

To read more read the article by Jordan Novet, staff writer based in San Francisco, follow http://venturebeat.com/2014/04/08/mongodb-bigwig-says-new-features-keep-it-way-ahead-of-everybody-else/

In his recent article on human capital management, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, proprietor of ADVANCED SYSTEMS, speaks about how to handle the most expensive asset of a company-Human Capital.  Human capital management emphasizes in recruitment, managing the work force and developing workforce skills. Sustainability is the issue in today's dynamic business world. An efficient human capital management can transform a small business to achieve a foothold in a bigger sphere of operations.

To read more, visit the following link: http://posttrib.suntimes.com/news/hoaglandsmith/26937937-452/ignoring-human-capital-is-beyond-foolish.html#.U1SVMFWSyZY

In an article written by Stephen L. Cohen, a private practitioner, strategic and business planning, said how one can identify the talent management growth strategies. In talent management industry, there are only a few ways to differentiate the business: content, delivery, or expertise. This article also describes the above business aspects in details.

To read more, visit the following link: http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/Human-Capital-Blog/2014/04/Talent-Management-Growth-Strategies

One important call center metric is that you should pay attention to abandon rates. An abandon rate is the percentage of calls that people disconnects before an agent can take a call. To keep your customers satisfied with your service, it is important that you should keep your abandon rate to as low as possible because, if a customer hangs up a lot, they may not like the speed of your service. The longer it takes to answer a call, the higher is the abandon rate. High abandon rate can cause a much bigger problem - they can inflate future call volumes which resonates to even higher call abandon rates. Inflating call volume means that the same caller tries to call your call center agent for second or third time.

So, how will you progress to reduce your call abandon rates? Read at http://www.callcentrehelper.com/how-to-bring-down-your-call-abandon-rates-50805.htm  to get some guidelines.

The power of Big Data is used by many industries ranging from healthcare to finance and automobile manufacturer to government. But, a recent survey showed that the retail sector is not an ardent participant in using big data. Research by eCommera reveals that only 23% of UK retailers are able to interpret data quickly for making business decisions, 16% of them are confident about how to use this data to get a clear picture of their requirement and 50% said that they do not have correct business intelligence tools.

It is data, more appropriately Big Data, which will be the future driver in the retail sector. So, to be able to survive stiff competition, it is vital that you should properly use it and interpret it. The question is how will you progress? You will face challenges and you should overcome it.

So, what are they and how should you mitigate them? Caroline Baldwin from ComputerWeekly.com writes about them here:  http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240218550/Are-retailers-using-data-analytics-to-their-advantage. 

Much is being talked about how to protect our environment. But, have you ever thought that how Big Data can play a major role in it? Certainly not, right?

Well, let me tell you then – Big Data is the future for bringing an eco-friendly environment at a time when all of us are chanting the ‘Go Green’ mantra.  Due to its versatility, Big Data is necessary for various environmental needs. It can help in surveying a large area and can also assist you in monitoring a small city’s water supply. With Big Data enabling you to collect data having no limit, it can be implemented with rapidity and ease. As opposed to traditional ways where analyzing environmental data was a slow and laborious task, you can collect the same information much faster with Big Data leading to application of it in a shorter time.

By tackling the grievous environmental problems like deforestation, oil dumping and more, Big Data can help our environment to paint in green. Read at http://www.bigdata-startups.com/5-ways-big-data-protect-planet/ for more details on this.

Long ago, Google has integrated Hadoop on its cloud platform to provide customers a framework for storing and processing large amount of data. Earlier, the only way to get in and out of Hadoop on Cloud Platform was through Google’s Cloud Storage service. In order to run Hadoop on data within its “BigQuery SQL” and “Cloud Datastore NoSQL” databases, recently Google has launched connectors for both of these two products, complementing the existing Cloud Storage implementation.

To read more, visit the following link:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/16/googles-cloud-platform-gets-improved-hadoop-support-with-bigquery-and-cloud-datastore-connectors/

A recent research on 1000 Information Technology executives and decision maker respondents by the cloud services company EvolveIP™ revealed that 84% of organizations that do not currently deploy Unified Communication features, are planning for, or considering the services, for their business in the next one to three years.For the study, Evolve IP defined UC as: "The concept of consolidating phone, email, fax, chat, video, and collaboration into a single unified channel, either on a device or on a computer”. The survey also examined UC components and uncovered that the most requested UC features are:

1. Audio & Web Conferencing (51%).
2. Unified Messaging (46%).
3.  IM&P Instant Messaging and Presence (40%).

To read more, visit the following link:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/84-of-organizations-considering-unified-communications-uc-in-the-near-future-253461811.html

Red Hat aims to reduce the search time &solution search cost for customers with its OpenShift Marketplace. Customers will be able to easily find the information, tools and community they need to discover and procure the right solution. They will be able to securely access and manage leading OpenShift application technologies from a single location. Customers and developers will be able to easily search for third-party OpenShift solutions and add-on productivity offerings, including database, email delivery services, messaging queues, application performance monitoring, all managed from a central location.As more developers use enterprise PaaS for an increasing array of applications, a key to their success is a vibrant and robust partner ecosystem. OpenShift’s current partner ecosystem uses the OpenShift Cartridge specification method to link key technologies and services into applications built on OpenShift, giving customers access to a variety of offerings from cloud industry leaders.Will Shulman, CEO and co-founder, MongoLab, said "We're extremely excited to offer fully-managed MongoDB through the OpenShift Marketplace. Red Hat users will be able to quickly integrate MongoDB into their application and focus on product development instead of operations."

To read more, visit the following link:

http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/141770/

Since its debut a year ago, Red Hat flagship application container Docker has generated much interest among technology professionals. It assists in packaging of applications in a virtual container so that it can be run across different Linux distributions. Docker containers can be easily moved across different Linux servers without the need for reconfiguration.Red hat is planning to release a variant of Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution that is customized to run Docker with maximum efficiency. It has also initiated two community projects to help Docker make better use of new technologies in the Linux kernel and ecosystem.  One- Project Atomic, will concentrate on simplifying maintenance, reducing the footprint, adding additional layers of verification and control to Docker containers. The second community project, called GearD, will integrate Docker into its PaaS hosting software, OpenShift Origin.

To read more, visit the following link:

http://www.techworld.com.au/article/543014/red_hat_adds_muscle_docker_container_technology/

For many enterprises, the most recognizable model of cloud computing is the public cloud model, which provides ultimate scalability, flexibility, location independent access and is of course cost effective. But workload evaluation is important before an organization moves to the public cloud. There can be situations wherepublic cloud such as AWS costs may far exceed on-premise infrastructure costs. According to research firm Gartner, the evaluation every organization must undergo before moving into a public cloud consists of taking into account few major things. These are: number of machines an organization will run, number of hours per day or per week they'll run and the amount of storage these machines will generate. The evaluation should also include the licenses that need to be paid for on a recurring basis; how many times and how often snapshots occur; the rate of change in the data; and how much new data they are going to generate. Mike Ryan, consultant, Epitech, said that “You're paying for the elasticity of Amazon, and if you're not using that, it makes sense to bring things into your own data centre”. The scaling flexibility of public cloud is great during the growth phase, but which solution is the best from an enterprise long term perspective?

Beth Pariseau, senior news writer, SearchAWS, wrote about this aspect on her recent article. To know more, visit the following link:

http://searchaws.techtarget.com/news/2240219066/Enterprises-hit-tipping-point-in-AWS-cloud-vs-private-cloud-costs