With its greater performance, reliability, and scalability, it is little surprise that we’re seeing a boom in  the deployment of public cloud services. According to a recent survey by Gartner, companies consider public cloud to be both the most disruptive and most impactful issue facing them in 2017. In fact, IDC predicts that the worldwide public cloud services spending forecast will double to more than $141 billion by 2019.

For most organizations, this first venture into public cloud has been in deploying new applications to engage with their customers (systems of engagement). Now, having successfully used public cloud platforms for these new applications, a growing number of application development and delivery leaders want to bring the same benefits of fast delivery, high security, and cost flexibility to core business applications.

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Years ago, comedian Steve Martin joked about the best trick to play on a three year-old kid: "Whenever you’re around him," he said, "talk wrong." On his first day at school, the kid will raise his hand and say, "May I mambo dogface to the banana patch?"

Pitching a project for implementing DevOps at your company can make you feel a lot like that kid. To you, the ask is crystal clear. To your executives, it’s mumbo jumbo. Why? Because if you’re like lots of technical folks, you’re using technical terms to make your case. However, "technical" is not the language that your management team speaks when discussing new processes and tools. When you’re asking to "mambo dogface," they’re thinking about things like, "How many people do I need to implement this?" or "How many people will need to be trained?" and "How long will it take them to become proficient?"

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In creating a world that doesn’t break down, a huge $20B opportunity is on the table for the process industry to address. Astute manufacturers should focus on reducing unplanned downtime and increasing asset utilization, as both processes represent the biggest opportunities for financial improvement in production operations.

Albert Einstein could well be alluding to smart manufacturing when he said: "If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes."

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Enterprises are increasingly bound by legal and compliance requirements to retain information and communications.

Yet a new study reveals that over half of office-based employees say their companies don't have written policies on data retention or personal use of work devices, or if they do, they aren’t aware of them.

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Security professionals are putting pressure on themselves to secure their organization's systems according to the findings of a new report.

The 2017 Security Pressures Report from managed security specialist Trustwave surveyed over 1,600 security decision makers around the world and finds that while 53 percent of respondents report increased pressure in trying to secure their organization, that pressure is becoming more personal as 24 percent say they put the most pressure on themselves, up from 13 percent last year.

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The adoption of cloud IT services by small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) is increasing at an exponential rate. But despite the robust adoption rates and proven track record of cloud technology, many organizations of all sizes, including SMBs, are still relying on on-premises backup methods. By doing so they may very well be draining themselves of valuable resources, including financial resources.

This article discusses the specific ways in which these organizations that continue to rely on on-premises instead of cloud backups are costing themselves money. It discusses benefits of adopting the cloud backup model, and addresses common concerns and misconceptions IT and business professionals often mention as reasons for staying with on-premises backups instead of adopting the cloud.

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While companies are keen to benefit from the agility and cost savings of using the cloud, there are still concerns about the ability to monitor and secure systems to an enterprise standard.

Ireland-based network analysis specialist Corvil is addressing this with the launch of a software-defined solution for packet-level instrumentation of virtual machines in public, private and hybrid cloud infrastructures.

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A combination of big data and the web means that there's more opportunity than ever for companies to study and understand the habits of consumers.

Online lists and voting site Ranker is using its wealth of polling data to launch a new Ranker Insights platform for marketers to uncover details of consumer behavior.

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Workforces are increasingly mobile, but that presents a problem for businesses when it comes to controlling workloads.

Scheduling software specialist Skedulo and marketing company Column Five have produced an infographic showing how technology is key to managing field workers.

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A third (36 percent) of companies in the UK that have been victims of a ransomware attack are not "very confident" they managed to completely eradicate the malware from their systems, according to a new report by Citrix.

The report also shines new light on just how prevalent and dangerous ransomware attacks really are. One in three UK businesses have had more than 100 of their devices affected by ransomware recently.

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IT environments require either moderate or significant transformation if they are to meet business requirements over the course of the next five years, a new report says.

The report by 451 research, entitled "Voice of the Enterprise: Cloud Transformation," says that 80 percent of organizations agree IT departments need disrupting to stay relevant.

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Although governments need to secure their nation's critical infrastructure from cyber attack, they can often lack the context in which to assess risk.

Security ratings specialist BitSight is addressing this with the announcement of its Sovereign Security Ratings, the first objective measurement of national cybersecurity risk.

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Purple wants to disrupt the market by offering a free license Wi-Fi solution. It has called the service Purple Free, and claims it delivers "more advanced functionality than other paid-for-utility WiFi solutions" out there.

The service allows businesses and venues to acquire a seamless guest Wi-Fi service, while keeping the Corporate Data Protection Policy in mind. Businesses can expect a "simplistic login," branded splash pages and "a glimpse of' Purple's customer insights."

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Digital technology is disrupting the manufacturing sector, but it seems as it is not afraid of it. As a matter of fact, the manufacturing industry seems to be embracing new technology and is excited to see what the future holds.

This is according to a new report by Fujitsu, entitled Fit for Digital, which takes a closer look at the UK’s manufacturing sector.

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In the dash to move systems to the cloud many organizations neglect the need to safely backup their information.

Secure file services specialist CTERA Networks is addressing this problem for Amazon cloud users by making its Cloud Server Data Protection Platform available on the AWS Marketplace.

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