80 percent of IT decision makers say outdated tech is holding them back
A study by analysts Vanson Bourne for self service automation specialist SnapLogic looks at the data priorities and investment plans of IT decision makers, along with what's holding them back from maximizing value.
Among the findings are that 80 percent of those surveyed report that outdated technology holds their organization back from taking advantage of new data-driven opportunities. Also that trust and quality issues slow progress, with only 29 percent of respondents having complete trust in the quality of their organization’s data.
Canonical shares analytics from Ubuntu Linux desktop user data collection
Linux and user data collection. Some people will decry such a thing, but they would be wrong. As long as the collection is opt-in, it is totally acceptable and in line with Linux ideology. When is it questionable? When users don't have a choice. With Windows 10 telemetry, for instance, users can opt out of sharing some data with Microsoft, but not all. And that's a problem. Even if Microsoft's intentions are pure, and designed solely with improving Windows 10, users should be able to refuse all data sharing at time of installation.
With Ubuntu desktop, Canonical has started collecting installation data, but it is doing it the right way. It shows the user exactly what data could be shared and lets them choose whether or not they want to send it. It is 100 percent optional -- the way it should be. Guess what? According to the company, 67 percent of users decided to do so. That is an impressive metric in itself. By being open and honest, Canonical achieved what I would call a successful conversion rate. Best of all, it gleaned a lot of interesting data, and it is sharing the analytics publicly.
Data science moves away from big data towards containers and cloud
Traditional Hadoop-style big data is giving way to cloud and container solutions like Docker, according to the results of a new survey.
The State of Data Science survey, carried out by Python data science platform Anaconda, among over 4,000 of its users, shows that Docker now makes up 19 percent of data science platforms, beating Hadoop/Spark with 15 percent and Kubernetes at 5.8 percent.
Organizations waste billions of dollars preparing data
Clean data is vital if analytics are to deliver useful results, but a new survey reveals that many organizations are still relying on manual and inefficient processes to clean and prepare information.
The study by data preparation company Trifacta shows these inefficiencies are draining resources and inhibiting organizations' ability to glean insights that could be crucial to their business decisions.
Under Armour MyFitnessPal suffers data breach, becomes MyFitnessFoe
Geting in shape can be very hard. Not only do you need the means to get fit -- education on what to eat, for instance -- but you also need time. Sadly, so many people put in long hours at work -- sometimes toiling away at two or more jobs -- that finding time (and energy) to exercise can be a near-impossibility. Luckily, technology can help with these deficiencies, as software can educate, while hardware -- such as wearables -- can (potentially) motivate and track progress.
While technology can be good, it can also be vulnerable, leading to stolen user data. Under Armour's 'MyFitnessPal' is the latest platform to experience a security breach. If you aren't familiar with it, Under Armour calls it a "Free calorie counter, diet, and exercise journal." Unfortunately, hackers have made off with the data of 150 million users. I guess you could say MyFitnessPal has become MyFitnessFoe!
New partnership delivers data-driven insights into customer behavior
Businesses have more data than ever about their customers, but it can be hard to extract meaningful insight from it.
A new partnership between data warehousing company Snowflake Computing and data analytics platform Segment aims to give enterprises the ability to carry out rapid analysis of customer data at scale.
HVR solution streamlines enterprise data integration
Companies operate in an increasingly complex data environment, where information can exist across multiple systems and locations. This can mean the movement of data between a variety of sources and targets, such as data lakes and cloud-based infrastructures, without impacting daily business operations.
Data integration specialist HVR is addressing this need by launching a distributed architecture to provide easy management and control of data movement.
The rapid growth of digital data
The volume of digital information in the world is growing at a scarily fast rate. In fact 90 percent of the digital data that exists worldwide today was created within the last two years -- and 2.5 quintillion bytes of extra data are created each and every day.
We browse websites, stream music and video, and post on social media all of which contributes to this deluge. But how did data get to be such a key part of modern life?
Business data is getting bigger
It probably comes as no surprise that we're all storing more data. But just how much of an impact is this having for businesses.
Enterprise file sharing specialist Egnyte says 82 percent of businesses are hybrid-enabled, keeping their data both physically backed up and in put into cloud storage. This is up from 76 percent in 2016.
Despite challenges, mainframe use is still central to large enterprises
Mainframes are still vital to many larger businesses and a new report from Syncsort highlights some key trends including the mainframe’s role in strategic projects.
The results show the mainframe remains strategic to businesses, with 57 percent of respondents saying it will continue to be the main hub for business-critical applications this year. It will run revenue-generating services for 43 percent. Cost control is a priority though, 51 percent say they plan to cut IT costs by optimizing mainframe resources.
Cloud will account for 95 percent of total data center traffic by 2021
Cloud services are increasingly dominating the internet and could account for 95 percent of data center traffic in three years time.
This is among the findings of the latest Global Cloud Index report from networking company Cisco, which finds both consumer and business applications are contributing to the growth in demand.
Data professionals waste half their time on futile activities and repeated efforts
Analytics and data science is having a major impact on the commercial world, but a new report shows that data professionals are wasting half of their time each week finding, protecting, or preparing data -- costing organizations significant amounts of money.
The research commissioned by self-service analytics company Alteryx, and conducted by IDC, surveyed 400-plus individuals performing data functions across North America and Europe.
Moving to 'intelligent operations' will help businesses thrive
Organizations that can harness the combination of innovative talent, diverse data, and applied intelligence will be best placed to use data-driven insights to improve business outcomes and enhance the customer experience, according to new research.
The study conducted by HfS Research for professional services company Accenture shows that 80 percent of those surveyed are concerned with disruption and competitive threats, especially from new digital-savvy entrants.
Shutterstock unveils 2018 Creative Trends Report -- cryptocurrency, fantasy, and more
Shutterstock is an excellent website to obtain high-quality media -- images, music, and videos. Not only is it easy to use, but it has a large and diverse selection too. That is probably why so many companies use the service (including us). With so many people searching Shutterstock for media, the company has the opportunity to analyze that search data to predict trends. This is smart to do, as unused data is arguably worthless data.
Today, Shutterstock unveils its Creative Trends Report for 2018, and the data is quite interesting. If you aren't familiar, it is a report that highlights certain media trends based on search data. Even though it focuses on media, the subject matter can reveal larger overall worldwide trends too. As an example, one of the big media search trends is cryptocurrency -- this should come as no surprise, as Bitcoin and others have seen huge gains (and losses) lately. As you can see, people will search for media that represents things that are happening in the world.
Big data delivers higher revenue and faster growth
Almost 60 percent of enterprises adopting big data cite both increased productivity across the organization and improved efficiency leading to reduced costs as their biggest gains.
This is among the findings of a survey by enterprise software company Syncsort, which finds that the most dramatic increase in reported benefits was higher revenue and accelerated growth, which 55 percent named as a benefit this year compared with only 37 percent last year.
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