There are a couple of major events scheduled for today but, with apologies to Amazon, Microsoft is set to steal the limelight with the kickoff to its Build 2014 conference. The show, which takes place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, will run through this Friday, and features a plethora of sessions geared towards developers.

But those sessions aren't what matter to the average user -- the big stories will come out on day one with the keynote that kicks off at 11:30 am EDT. There are a few things we expect and others that are are rumored, and some that can be left to pure speculation. Here is a brief look.

It's sometimes said that big data is like teenage sex, everyone talks about it but few are actually doing it. To which you could add that those who are doing it aren't really sure if they’re getting it right.

In an effort to find out how big data is being used in the real world, we spoke to the heads of three startup companies which are employing it in unique ways to pursue specific business opportunities.

It’s no secret that interface design is difficult. Very, very difficult. Even the biggest and best companies regularly make big mistakes.

There are ways to improve your chance of success, though -- and you could start by creating a prototype of your app, program or website in the open source Pencil.

The data contained in logs can be useful for a variety of purposes, but analysing it in order to extract what you need can be difficult and time consuming.

Search analytics specialist Elasticsearch is aiming to make log data more accessible with the release of Logstash 1.4.

We looked a few weeks ago at how Point.io is simplifying accessing corporate data from cloud platforms.

Now the company has launched APIflow, a product that allows businesses to externalize core processes and make them available remotely from anywhere and on any device. APIflow means that cloud providers, application developers and IT departments can easily integrate with existing applications, simplify software design and significantly reduce their development and maintenance costs.

It wasn’t that long ago that web-savvy marketers were touting the advances in technology that allowed anyone to build a website, publish a blog, or embark on a social media campaign. The advent of mobile platforms has rendered all of those tools passé. We are now a mobile society and the proliferation of smartphones and tablets has given rise to a new paradigm in digital marketing: the mobile app.

With the rapid global penetration of smartphones and tablets and the increased data speed of 4G networks, mobile applications are riding a wave of explosive growth. Leading companies are focusing on the development and distribution of dynamic mobile apps, reaching consumers and potential consumers on the one device that is never far from reach. What about small businesses?

Web user interface testing needs a lot of time and resources if it's to produce worthwhile results.

Manual testing eats into developer time and even using established testing frameworks like Selenium requires significant computing resource. Cloud specialist Ravello Systems has introduced blueprints for Selenium Grid to its SaaS test offering to bring cloud capacity to bear on automated testing. It allows developers to run their applications on a public cloud and offers a scalable, customizable and cost-effective testing environment.

Whether they involve upgrading equipment, switching operating systems or moving to the cloud, data center modernization projects can be complex and costly.

According to Agile Data specialist Delphix, many organizations estimate that their modernization projects will take years and cost millions of dollars whilst impacting on existing operations.

We reported on Cloud Technology Partners' migration tool PaaSLane entering its public beta phase back in October and how it can cut the time and cost spent on moving to the cloud.

From tomorrow (March 11) the product becomes generally available with new and enhanced features to enable users to rapidly assess applications and speed up cloud migrations.

No one could argue very convincingly that mobile isn’t one of the most disruptive, transformational factors in business -- and in life -- today. Consumers are armed 24/7 with ever more powerful smartphones and tablets. But most aren’t dying to download the app you paid handsomely to develop.

Most consumers are using their mobile devices to access the web while away from home and from the couch. They’re using them to read your opt-in emails, clicking on your links and forwarding your offers to friends. They’re comparison-shopping, pitting brick-and-mortars with online stores, and reading reviews as part of their decision-making process. They’re relating their experiences with ratings and photos in real time with their social networks.

Adobe’s open source code editor Brackets has received an update to Sprint 36, adding some significant new features.

Smart file watchers mean the editor and Project tree now recognize when files are modified outside of Brackets, and update automatically. You’re always looking at the latest state of your project, no manual refresh required.

Elasticsearch, the big data search and analytics specialist, has launched its first major product release.

Elasticsearch 1.0 is built on the company's experience of helping businesses deploy Elasticsearch as part of the ELK stack, used by many major organizations including Netflix, Soundcloud and Facebook.

Big data is something that many companies are keen to exploit, but implementing big data solutions involves a number of hurdles.

Open Data Services specialist GoGrid is aiming to make the move to big data easier with its launch of 1-Button Deploy technology.

We looked at the launch of the Point.io backend as a service (BaaS) platform last year and explained how it could help companies retain control of their data in the era of BYOD.

The company is now making it easier to enable fast, secure data links with the launch of APIdoc, a single point of access for all file sharing and storage technologies.

The app market has exploded but only a few apps will survive in the long haul. The ability to monetize will be the defining factor. Fortunately, innovations in mobile technology have emerged to make monetization possible with in-app advertising and in-app purchase models.

There was a lot of hullabaloo around Snapchat recently when its founders declined a US$3 billion buyout offer from Facebook. That raised the question of whether it was being grossly overvalued given its revenue deficit. Other popular apps make revenue but are losing money: music apps Pandora and Spotify are prime examples. Why, then, are the valuations so astronomical? It’s because they have an audience. But is that good enough?