In a rapidly evolving digital world, businesses are moving at breakneck speeds and one upping each other to achieve the unicorn of customer delight. For a number of organizations, a large part of that equation boils down to accelerating the release of high quality software. A release every three months is now being replaced by a release every three days. The timelines are shrinking; the expectations are only getting higher. It is crucial now more than ever for all the moving parts to come together in unison and work cohesively towards achieving a sustainable competitive advantage.

Despite several reams of virtual space being dedicated to discussing the intrinsic nature of DevOps, its true identity still remains muddled amongst a slew of varied opinions. And based on their respective vantage points, each opinion carries with it some truth and yet remains vastly adrift from the heart of the matter.

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IT buzzwords change like the wind. From big data, to containers, to the Internet of things, there is no shortage of often-used phrases that organizations must quickly become accustomed to.

DevOps is the latest trend that can increase agility and improve performance in the IT department. However, confusion is still rife, with many businesses unsure what it is, and how to capitalize upon it.

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During this year's, seventh Global Mobile Broadband Forum in Tokyo, deputy chairman of the board and Huawei Rotating CEO Ken Hu took to the stage to share his vision of the mobile future and presented the XLabs Wireless. This brand new initiation aims to be the platform which will unite carriers, developers and companies from different verticals.

Together, they must build an open ecosystem of mobile apps which will reshape the future of business, entertainment, and everyday living. XLabs Wireless consists of three elements -- the mLab, with the focus on people, vLab, with the focus on verticals, and hLab, focusing on households.

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We get plenty of reports on people being asked if they'd continue doing business with organizations that got breached. Sometimes, the reports are positive, saying people understand all the hard work organizations put into securing their data and that, sometimes, breaches can happen.

On other days, these reports claim people would walk away from such companies, never to look in their direction again. Today is one of those days. A new report by The Internet Society, called 2016 Global Internet Report, says 40 percent of users would not do business with a company that suffered a data breach.

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Black Friday is finally upon us, and to celebrate we have some amazing bargains for you to feast your eyes on.

Courtesy of our partners at TechBargains, our selection of great deals include a 55 inch Samsung 4K UltraHD LED Smart HDTV (with a $150 Dell Gift Card) for just $599.99, and a Dell Inspiron 3650 Intel Core i7 Quad-Core Desktop with 16GB RAM, Win 7 Pro, and a 2GB HDD for $599. And that's just for starters. We also have great deals on Amazon products, laptops, HDTVs, electronics, cloud storage services, and much more...

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Cloud computing is all the rage today, to the point that it feels like you can’t fill out your "buzzword bingo" card at any meeting without using the phrase. There are all kinds of technical reasons why cloud has the market momentum it does, but what if you aren’t swayed by such things? If you’ve seen technology trends come and go, you need non-technical justification for moving your business in any direction, and cloud computing is no different for you.

So, what is the main justification for business owners to use cloud that doesn’t involve a lot of technical jargon? Let’s get to the bottom line and talk ROI and payback instead.

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UK bank Barclays is testing a new feature for cash withdrawals which should eliminate skimming at ATM machines, the BBC reports. The idea is similar to contactless and mobile payment systems -- you wave your smartphone close to an ATM machine and, when prompted, type in your PIN code in either the smartphone or the ATM.

The bank says that way it will make it much harder to hijack card details. The new feature is being tested for Android-powered devices only, with iPhones being out of the picture. Apple has limited the use of iPhone NFC chips to their own Apple Pay technology, making it impossible for Barclays to use the device. However, those that don't have an Android phone will be able to use an NFC-enabled card.

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Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks make a lot of noise, and according to a new Kaspersky Lab report, that’s exactly what hackers are using them for.

As businesses are preoccupied with handling DDoS attacks, hackers use the opportunity for another, more targeted, and more deadly type of attack. Basically, DDoS is nothing more than a smokescreen. The conclusion comes in Kaspersky Lab’s report, which polled businesses about their cybersecurity experiences. More than half (56 percent) say DDoS is being used to cover something else.

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A multinational company with thousands of employees and a turnover of more than £2 billion in 2015 requests access to young customers’ private social media history to predict their likely future behavior.

While this might sound like the basis for an episode of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian TV series Black Mirror, it’s actually a real plan formulated by insurance provider Admiral to create more accurate quotes for young drivers. The initiative, aptly named firstcarquote, was intended to examine a user’s Facebook presence -- including the pages they like and the content they post -- to identify key personality traits. These traits, in turn, would be used to predict the prospective customer’s driving style.

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Big data and analytics have transformed the way businesses operate, and big data increasingly has a profound influence on the daily lives of consumers. The sports world isn’t immune to the impact of big data: Statistics-driven sports like Major League Baseball and the National Football League have long crunched numbers to make key decisions, so using big data is a natural progression.

During last summer’s Olympic Games in Rio, analysts and trainers pored over data to predict performance and develop strategies. Whether motivated by profit or the quest for a win, greater efficiency and increased accuracy, the sporting world is embracing big data to improve performance. Here are three ways big data is making sports smarter:

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The technology skills gap is working well for those already in the industry, as the salaries for these positions in the UK just keep going up. According to a new Dice report, tech jobs have seen an increase of five percent, on average, in salaries, in the last 12 months.

The highest average pay was spotted for program managers, with these positions getting a six percent increase in salaries, up to £78,847 for permanent roles. Contractors have day rates of £600 now, 1.5 percent up compared to last year.

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Mobile devices have inundated our lives. Smartphones, tablets, phablets, wearables, the list of mobiles and their variants is endless. People have stopped talking and started dat(a)ing in a big way. Communication through smart devices has clearly overwhelmed us like never before. People are buying, paying and living through their mobiles. Love and relationships can be activated through a single app.

We have reached a state where people use more than a single smart device at a time. As long as the smart-ness of smartphones was confined to individuals, the corporate world could afford to remain a silent bystander, but no longer. The BYOD or Bring Your Own Device is the new norm and not a single business can avoid the challenges which come with mobility in management.

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Quantum computers have the potential to perform calculations faster than ever possible before, inviting a significant rethink in how we approach cyber security.

Given the amount of research being ploughed into this area, we are likely to see a commercially viable machine in the near future, so cryptographers and the cyber security industry in general should work to have a clear view on the implications way ahead of that achievement.

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IBM has announced its commitment to a multi-million pound project that will see the company construct four new data centers in the UK to increase its cloud capabilities in the region.

The company revealed its new project ahead of the Autumn Statement, which offered a boost to the Government that has recently seen a number of large US technology companies increasing their operations in the country. IBM's decision to create four new data centers will triple its cloud computing capacity in the UK.

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Oracle is showing no desire to slow down it's spending spree after announcing the acquisition of DNS provider Dyn for an undisclosed sum.

The timing of the deal has raised a few eyebrows as, although Dyn powers some of the biggest sites in the world such as Netflix, Twitter and Spotify, in October it was hit by a DDoS attack which took several of its big-name clients offline.

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