Here is my collection of trends and predictions for year 2014:
It seems that PC market is not recovering in 2014. IDC is forecasting that the technology channel will buy in around 34 million fewer PCs this year than last. It seem that things aren’t going to improve any time soon (down, down, down until 2017?). There will be no let-up on any front, with desktops and portables predicted to decline in both the mature and emerging markets. Perhaps the chief concern for future PC demand is a lack of reasons to replace an older system: PC usage has not moved significantly beyond consumption and productivity tasks to differentiate PCs from other devices. As a result, PC lifespan continue to increase. Death of the Desktop article says that sadly for the traditional desktop, this is only a matter of time before its purpose expires and that it would be inevitable it will happen within this decade. (I expect that it will not completely disappear).
When the PC business is slowly decreasing, smartphone and table business will increase quickly. Some time in the next six months, the number of smartphones on earth will pass the number of PCs. This shouldn’t really surprise anyone: the mobile business is much bigger than the computer industry. There are now perhaps 3.5-4 billion mobile phones, replaced every two years, versus 1.7-1.8 billion PCs replaced every 5 years. Smartphones broke down that wall between those industries few years ago – suddenly tech companies could sell to an industry with $1.2 trillion annual revenue. Now you can sell more phones in a quarter than the PC industry sells in a year.
After some years we will end up with somewhere over 3bn smartphones in use on earth, almost double the number of PCs. There are perhaps 900m consumer PCs on earth, and maybe 800m corporate PCs. The consumer PCs are mostly shared and the corporate PCs locked down, and neither are really mobile. Those 3 billion smartphones will all be personal, and all mobile. Mobile browsing is set to overtake traditional desktop browsing in 2015. The smartphone revolution is changing how consumers use the Internet. This will influence web design.
The only PC sector that seems to have some growth is server side. Microservers & Cloud Computing to Drive Server Growth article says that increased demand for cloud computing and high-density microserver systems has brought the server market back from a state of decline. We’re seeing fairly significant change in the server market. According to the 2014 IC Market Drivers report, server unit shipment growth will increase in the next several years, thanks to purchases of new, cheaper microservers. The total server IC market is projected to rise by 3% in 2014 to $14.4 billion: multicore MPU segment for microservers and NAND flash memories for solid state drives are expected to see better numbers.
Spinning rust and tape are DEAD. The future’s flash, cache and cloud article tells that the flash is the tier for primary data; the stuff christened tier 0. Data that needs to be written out to a slower response store goes across a local network link to a cloud storage gateway and that holds the tier 1 nearline data in its cache. Never mind software-defined HYPE, 2014 will be the year of storage FRANKENPLIANCES article tells that more hype around Software-Defined-Everything will keep the marketeers and the marchitecture specialists well employed for the next twelve months but don’t expect anything radical. The only innovation is going to be around pricing and consumption models as vendors try to maintain margins. FCoE will continue to be a side-show and FC, like tape, will soldier on happily. NAS will continue to eat away at the block storage market and perhaps 2014 will be the year that object storage finally takes off.
IT managers are increasingly replacing servers with SaaS article says that cloud providers take on a bigger share of the servers as overall market starts declining. An in-house system is no longer the default for many companies. IT managers want to cut the number of servers they manage, or at least slow the growth, and they may be succeeding. IDC expects that anywhere from 25% to 30% of all the servers shipped next year will be delivered to cloud services providers. In three years, 2017, nearly 45% of all the servers leaving manufacturers will be bought by cloud providers. The shift will slow the purchase of server sales to enterprise IT. Big cloud providers are more and more using their own designs instead of servers from big manufacturers. Data center consolidations are eliminating servers as well. For sure, IT managers are going to be managing physical servers for years to come. But, the number will be declining.
I hope that the IT business will start to grow this year as predicted. Information technology spends to increase next financial year according to N Chandrasekaran, chief executive and managing director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest information technology (IT) services company. IDC predicts that IT consumption will increase next year to 5 per cent worldwide to $ 2.14 trillion. It is expected that the biggest opportunity will lie in the digital space: social, mobility, cloud and analytics. The gradual recovery of the economy in Europe will restore faith in business. Companies are re-imaging their business, keeping in mind changing digital trends.
The death of Windows XP will be on the new many times on the spring. There will be companies try to cash in with death of Windows XP: Microsoft’s plan for Windows XP support to end next spring, has received IT services providers as well as competitors to invest in their own services marketing. HP is peddling their customers Connected Backup 8.8 service to prevent data loss during migration. VMware is selling cloud desktop service. Google is wooing users to switch to ChromeOS system by making Chrome’s user interface familiar to wider audiences. The most effective way XP exploiting is the European defense giant EADS subsidiary of Arkoon, which promises support for XP users who do not want to or can not upgrade their systems.
There will be talk on what will be coming from Microsoft next year. Microsoft is reportedly planning to launch a series of updates in 2015 that could see major revisions for the Windows, Xbox, and Windows RT platforms. Microsoft’s wave of spring 2015 updates to its various Windows-based platforms has a codename: Threshold. If all goes according to early plans, Threshold will include updates to all three OS platforms (Xbox One, Windows and Windows Phone).
Amateur programmers are becoming increasingly more prevalent in the IT landscape. A new IDC study has found that of the 18.5 million software developers in the world, about 7.5 million (roughly 40 percent) are “hobbyist developers,” which is what IDC calls people who write code even though it is not their primary occupation. The boom in hobbyist programmers should cheer computer literacy advocates.IDC estimates there are almost 29 million ICT-skilled workers in the world as we enter 2014, including 11 million professional developers.
The Challenge of Cross-language Interoperability will be more and more talked. Interfacing between languages will be increasingly important. You can no longer expect a nontrivial application to be written in a single language. With software becoming ever more complex and hardware less homogeneous, the likelihood of a single language being the correct tool for an entire program is lower than ever. The trend toward increased complexity in software shows no sign of abating, and modern hardware creates new challenges. Now, mobile phones are starting to appear with eight cores with the same ISA (instruction set architecture) but different speeds, some other streaming processors optimized for different workloads (DSPs, GPUs), and other specialized cores.
Just another new USB connector type will be pushed to market. Lightning strikes USB bosses: Next-gen ‘type C’ jacks will be reversible article tells that USB is to get a new, smaller connector that, like Apple’s proprietary Lightning jack, will be reversible. Designed to support both USB 3.1 and USB 2.0, the new connector, dubbed “Type C”, will be the same size as an existing micro USB 2.0 plug.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Influential scribe Charles Petzold: How I figured out the Windows API
From Programming Windows to Xamarin Forms
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/14/charles_petzold_how_i_figured_out_the_windows_api/
Charles Petzold’s book Programming Windows (in various editions) was how a generation of developers learned to code for Windows – 25 years ago when Microsoft’s operating system was the hot new thing.
Petzold now works for Xamarin, and I caught up with him at the company’s Evolve conference in Atlanta last week. It may come as a shock to anyone who assumed Petzold’s books were the official guide, but the truth is he worked out the Windows API for himself.
“I never worked for Microsoft,” he told me. “I really liked figuring things out on my own. Early on in the development of a new version of Windows, I would explore it, I would try out various things, I would see what worked, I would see what didn’t work.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Changing the way business decisions are made
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 | By Chris Moody (@chrismoodycom), VP, Twitter Data Strategy [15:45 UTC]
https://blog.twitter.com/ibm
We believe that social data has unlimited value, and near limitless application. Today, we’re taking an important step toward unleashing this value through a new relationship with IBM. This alliance will let enterprises incorporate Twitter data into their decision-making through an established set of IBM tools, solutions and consulting services.
Twitter provides a powerful new lens through which to look at the world – as both a platform for hundreds of millions of consumers and business professionals, and as a synthesizer of trends. This partnership, drawing on IBM’s leading cloud-based analytics platform, will help clients enrich business decisions with an entirely new class of data. This is the latest example of how IBM is reimagining work.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Keep up with the fast-moving world of flash array storage
How to pick the right kind
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/storage_flash/
An all-flash networked array can do wonders in speeding up data accesses by applications running in connected servers.
It is obviously best if the all-flash array is seamlessly integrated with your existing networked storage infrastructure. Suppliers of new integrated flash arrays say that getting the best use out of flash requires new system architecture outside of legacy storage arrays.
They say that the performance of such new-design flash arrays makes their purchase worthwhile, and over time data management facilities will mature.
Are they right?
Let’s list four types of array to lay down the groundwork:
All-disk array
Hybrid disk and flash array
All-flash array inside disk array infrastructure
All-flash array outside disk array infrastructure
An existing networked disk array, SAN or filer or both, needs to be deployed, operated and managed and to have its data protected. There will be service routines in place for array management and data protection.
Processes such as backup, snapshot, replication, archiving and disaster recovery, often involving separate hardware and software products, will form an operating environment for the array.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HP introduces the quirky Sprout all-in-one computer with a built in projector and 3D scanner
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/10/29/hp-introduces-quirky-sprout-one-built-projector-3d-scanner/
HP is ditching the keyboard and mouse today with it’s quirky new computer: the HP Sprout.
At its core its a touch-enabled Windows 8 all-in-one, but it’s the way you interact with it that makes it unique – the computer comes with an in-built projector, a ‘touch mat’ where said projector displays images, and a 3D scanner to place real objects onto your virtual workspace.
The touch mat supports pen input, and is meant to help designers and creatives be able to naturally integrate real world objects into their virtual creations – it’s like an integrated Wacom tablet on steroids. Objects can be passed between the two displays with gestures so you can interact them with them via specialized software.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IT management of the Ten Commandments
1. Lead the IT as you would lead business
2. Service first
3. Lead through the people
4. Simplify
5. Develop wisely
6. Make it together
7. Make sure the organization’s ability
8. Lead affiliates
9. Know your strengths
10. Safely home
Prepare yourself, make sure to monitor and educate, so there is no point in anyone’s quiver.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/cio/blogit/CIO_100_blogi/itjohtamisen+kymmenen+kaskya/a1024511
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twitter, IBM, in deal to create brainy Big Blue Bird
#Enterprise #BigData #Analytics #BuzzwordFest
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/little_bluebird_will_read_your_tweets_to_big_blues_watson/
IBM and Twitter have assembled their buzzwords, ranked them into a regiment, and jointly set them loose to march upon a waiting world, by announcing that the avian network will feed data galore to Big Blue’s cloudy enterprise big data analytics offerings.
Did El Reg add that the pair are promising to transform businesses and institutions with customer engagement platforms and consulting services? Consider it said.
IBM says it will be integrating Twitter with “selected cloud-based services” like its Watson Analytics, which will provide access to its outputs down to mobiles and tablets so that marketing executives under a Tweet-storm can get panic attacks at the press of a button.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux systemd dev says open source is ‘SICK’, kernel community ‘awful’
Reckons newbies should beware of hostile straight white males
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/06/poettering_says_linux_kernel_community_is_hostil/
Lennart Poettering, creator of the systemd system management software for Linux, says the open-source world is “quite a sick place to be in.”
He also said the Linux development community is “awful” – and he pins the blame for that on Linux supremo Linus Torvalds.
“A fish rots from the head down,” Poettering said in a post to his Google+ feed on Sunday.
Poettering said Torvalds’ confrontational and often foul-mouthed management style is “not an efficient way to run a community”
“The Linux community is dominated by western, white, straight, males in their 30s and 40s these days,” Poettering wrote.
The Linux main man has no great love for the core systemd developers, either. In April he called top systemd coder Kay Sievers a “fucking prima donna” and said he didn’t want to ever work with him.
From https://plus.google.com/app/basic/stream/z13rdjryqyn1xlt3522sxpugoz3gujbhh04
Much of the Open Source community tries to advertise the community as one happy place to the outside. Where contributions are valued only by their technical quality, and everybody meets at conferences for beers.
Well, it is not like that. It’s quite a sick place to be in.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Best Video Cards: October 2014
by Ryan Smith on October 30, 2014 12:00 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8662/best-video-cards-october-2014
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Exec Andy Rubin Leaving Google
https://www.theinformation.com/Google-Exec-Andy-Rubin-Leaving-Google1
Long-time Google exec and former Android boss Andy Rubin told his team today that he’s leaving Google, according to people close to the company.
Mr. Rubin has been working on a slew of secret robotics projects over the past year, after handing over the reins at Android to Sundar Pichai.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft stops selling consumer versions of Windows 7 to computer makers
http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/31/microsoft-stops-selling-consumer-versions-of-windows-7-to-oems/
Microsoft today stopped providing Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, and Windows 7 Ultimate licenses to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including its PC partners and systems builders. This means you’ll only be able to buy a computer running Windows 7 as long as stock lasts.
The only exception will be business computers running Windows 7 Professional, which will continue being sold for at least another year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Improving JavaScript: Google throws AtScript into the mix
Better JavaScript … even works with Microsoft’s TypeScript
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/04/improving_javascript_google_throws_atscript_into_the_mix/
Google’s Miško Hevery, co-inventor of the popular AngularJS framework, has announced a new project to improve JavaScript by adding type annotations and other features.
The announcement came at the ng-europe Angular conference in Paris at the end of October 2014.
AtScript is the latest among numerous projects to fix up JavaScript’s deficiencies. Developers love JavaScript because it runs everywhere and performs well, thanks to fast engines like Apple’s Nitro and Google’s V8. That said, the absence of language features like types and classes make large, multi-developer JavaScript projects hard to maintain.
One solution is to write code in a different language that is compiled to JavaScript for deployment. Google’s Dart language is an example
Google Web Toolkit is another one, which compiles Java to JavaScript.
Microsoft’s TypeScript takes a different approach, being a superset of JavaScript that adds classes and strong typing but does not replace the language. TypeScript compiles to readable JavaScript, making debugging easier.
AtScript is more in tune with the TypeScript approach. It adds two features to JavaScript. The first is Annotations, which can be Type annotations, Field annotations, or Metadata annotations. Type annotations declare the type of a variable or argument. Field annotations let you specify the type and order of fields in a class. Metadata annotations attach metadata to the code, for example for use by frameworks.
The second feature is Introspection, which lets you query the annotations at runtime.
AtScript builds on EcmaScript 6 (ES6), which is the official next version of JavaScript, rather than EcmaScript 5 (ES5), the current version implemented in modern web browsers.
Angular 2.0, the next version, is being rewritten from scratch in AtScript.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Great IT Hiring He-Said / She-Said
http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/11/04/0113217/the-great-it-hiring-he-said–she-said
Is there an IT talent shortage?
Or is there a clue shortage on the hiring side? Hiring managers put on their perfection goggles and write elaborate job descriptions laying out mandatory experience and know-how that the “purple squirrel” candidate must have. They define job openings to be entry-level, automatically excluding those in mid-career. Candidates suspect that the only real shortage is one of willingness to pay what they are worth. Job seekers bend over backwards to make it through HR’s keyword filters, only to be frustrated by phone screens seemingly administered by those who know only buzzwords.
The IT Talent Shortage Debate
http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/team-building-and-staffing/the-it-talent-shortage-debate/d/d-id/1317128
Tech employers say good people are hard to find. Job hunters see a broken hiring process. Both sides need to shake their frustration and find new ways to connect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This time it’s SO REAL: Overcoming the open-source orgasm myth with TODO
If the web giants need it to work, hey, maybe it’ll work
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/todo_opensource_lessons/
What can the world learn from Google, Twitter and Facebook – apart from how to make millions through ads flinging? How to run a successful open-source project.
The trio in September announced TODO, to make open-source project “easier.” Joining them are Dropbox and Box and code-site GitHub, payment providers Square and Stripe, US retailer WalMart Labs and a body called the Khan Academy.
successful open source is something most in this sector believe they are well acquainted with – and yet there are plenty of failed open-source projects.
Failure is important because open source has become a way of life spanning thousands of projects and committers.
A 2013 Black-Duck survey reckoned on the existence of more than one million open-source projects with a projected two million by 2014
Sixty two per cent of those surveyed believe half of purchased software will be open-source in five years’ time, up from 26 per cent in 2009.
Software developed using open-source methods and released under open license runs servers, supercomputers, clouds, devices, cars – even drones
First, of course, you need to define your metric – what is “success”? For most, you’re talking about a project with fresh code and lots of active committers that is widely used.
By that definition, Google, Twitter and Facebook are successful.
What TODO with open source: Google, Facebook and Twitter launch collab project
It’s all about making it easier – on their bottom lines
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/17/webgiants_join_todo/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel To Expand Core M Broadwell Line With Faster Dual-Core Processors
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/11/04/030224/intel-to-expand-core-m-broadwell-line-with-faster-dual-core-processors
Intel didn’t waste much time following-up on its initial Core M lineup launch. The company has added 4 more Core M models to its roster. Like the launch chips, these four are dual-core designs that support HyperThreading to enable an effective four logical threads for processing. Also like those earlier chips, these are spec’d with a TDP of 4.5W. These new chips, however, are generally faster than the launch models, with a new top-end processor called the M-5Y71.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Data Must Be Prioritized
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324471&
Big data is already putting pressure on IT infrastructures as digital information streams in from social networking sites, e-commerce, and a plethora of mobile devices. But as the Internet of Things evolves and wearables begin to flourish, what are the pressures for memory and Flash storage?
It’s already clear these new devices will have unique requirements for memory and data storage vis-à-vis power, performance, and form factor, but at the same time many IoT devices and wearables will simply be harvesting and transmitting data to the cloud and datacenters to be processed.
When it comes to IoT, memory is pretty broad, since it can be found in devices such as sensors, computers, or smartphones, says Cliff Leimbach, analyst at IHS. What’s happening is there are more yet smaller ways to connect to the Internet to share data. What will dictate memory requirements is how much processing devices will have to do. “If something just has to transmit stuff back, it doesn’t need a lot of memory.”
Leimbach says the DRAM market is continuing to grow steadily at 30% per year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power Week: Idle Computers Waste More Energy Than Thought
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324442&
Desktop and laptop computers are consuming much more energy when not in use than previously thought, according to two recent studies commissioned by the California Energy Commission. The studies, using a university population, found that many computer users were not properly taking advantage of power management options such as sleep, hibernate, and shutdown modes even when leaving their machines on, but not in use, for many hours at a time.
Real-time data collected for one of the studies showed that only 20% of the computers measured had automatic settings enabled, yet were powered up for 76% of a day on average and in use for only 16% of each day. At the same time, most users assumed — incorrectly — that their computers had energy saving settings enabled.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CCL White Paper: Key Risks in Managing Oracle Licensing
http://www.clearlicensing.org/key-risks-in-managing-oracle-licensing/
This report is the result of discussions and research with CCL members, The ITAM Review community and the Oracle License Management Services (LMS) team.
The report consists of two sections:
Part one shows how organizations view working with Oracle LMS
Part two explores specific issues as prioritized by CCL members
This report highlights the key issues and risks in managing Oracle Licensing.
Key issues identified by the respondents with Oracle can be broadly grouped into three themes;
The customer does not feel autonomous
They receive inconsistent messages from Oracle
They feel that Oracle realigns the goal posts to favour revenue streams over customer requirements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trisquel 7 Released
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/11/04/0517220/trisquel-7-released
Trisquel 7.0 Belenos has been released. Trisquel is a “free as in freedom” GNU/Linux distribution endorsed by the FSF.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DRAMs integrate Error Correcting Code
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4436899/DRAMs-integrate-Error-Correcting-Code
DRAM manufacturer Intelligent Memory has come up with what the company claims is a revolutionary new JEDEC compliant DRAM memory IC that brings server-grade reliability to any application at board-level.
DRAM soft errors can cause your smart phone touch screen not to respond, Wi-Fi routers to quit, or in car navigation to suddenly stop and re-boot. On HDD or SSD drives, which use DRAM as a cache or write-buffer, memory bit-flips can be the root-cause for corrupted files or directory-entries. In the world of high powered servers, these failures are guarded against with some form of error correction coding, otherwise known as ECC is built into the processors that populate the servers.
To store the additional bits required for the parity-information, the processor requires special server memory modules with a wider data-bus having a 72-bits width where 64 bits are for the data, and 8 bits accommodate the parity information. The server processor and memory combination works to correct any errors, seen or unseen, without service interruption.
Unfortunately, the majority of industrial electronics use CPUs, FPGAs and controllers that have no ECC capabilities, explains the company in a statement. Additionally, small form factor devices do not have enough physical board-space to accommodate the vast amount of DRAM memory components required for the wider bit-widths used in ECC.
With its Integrated Error Correcting (ECC) DRAM components available in DDR1, DDR2, DDR3, and LPDDR, Intelligent Memory presents a solution to make any application as reliable as a server. The drop-in replacement DRAM ICs perform the ECC error correction within the DRAM chip itself, independent of the processor driving the application.
For more information, visit the Intelligent Memory ECC DRAM page.
http://www.intelligentmemory.com/ECC-DRAM/DDR1/
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM Cortex-A gets optimized code generation
http://www.edn.com/design/design-tools/development-kits/4436897/ARM-Cortex-A-gets-optimized-code-generation?elq=dd982d024b1f45b3958310219999aa0e&elqCampaignId=20024
The benefits of Model-Based Design, says The MathWorks, are now more accessible to embedded developers, with the addition of optimized code generation for the Cortex-A processor family
Code generated from MATLAB and Simulink is now optimized for use across the ARM Cortex-A processor family. Embedded systems developers using ARM Cortex processors in the automotive, aerospace, signal processing and medical device industries can now automatically generate code, speeding execution time and reducing memory usage. This ability to generate optimized code helps small design teams extend Model-Based Design across applications and devices including motor control, power electronics, audio, and communications.
Building on CMSIS library support for Cortex-R and Cortex-M cores, Embedded Coder now offers Ne10 DSP library support, which helps generate optimized DSP filter code for the full line of ARM Cortex-A processor-based devices. Simulink also offers built-in target support for ARM-based hardware devices including BeagleBone Black, Xilinx Zynq, STMicroelectronics Discovery Board, and Freescale Freedom Board. Third-party integrations exist for other ARM-based devices including Texas Instruments’ Hercules and Analog Devices’ CMx40 hardware.
MathWorks cites three principal benefits of Model-Based Design for engineers throughout the software and hardware design process.
By using Simulink for desktop simulation of systems, engineers can catch errors early and optimize designs;
Automatic code generation with Embedded Coder can help to prevent manual coding errors and optimize code;
Automated testing of model code using processor-in-the-loop with Embedded Coder saves time via test reuse and improves code quality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EFF asks for the right to revive “abandoned” online games
DMCA exemption would allow “dead” games to live on through legal, third-party servers.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/11/eff-asks-for-the-right-to-revive-abandoned-online-games/
While playing the original versions of classic games on aging original hardware can sometimes be difficult, it’s at least typically possible. That’s not the case for many online games, which are functionally inoperable once the developer or publisher decides to shut down the official servers that provide the only way for players to communicate with each other. Unofficial hobbyist projects that try to create new servers for these abandoned games could run afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and its ban on “the circumvention of access control technologies.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to change that. In an official exemption request (PDF) filed with the Library of Congress this week, the nonprofit advocacy group asks that users be allowed to modify access controls and online authentication checks in legally obtained games “when the [game] servers authorized by the developer are permanently shut down.” In this way, those users can access third-party servers in order to regain “core functionality” that is no longer available through the defunct official servers.
The EFF gives the specific example of Nintendo’s Mario Kart games, which used a proprietary protocol to communicate with Nintendo’s servers before Nintendo shut those servers down for the Wii and DS. Reverse-engineering that protocol could be considered “circumvention” in the DMCA’s current broad prohibitions, as could modifying the game’s code to allow for connection to new, non-Nintendo servers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shippable raises $8 million to help companies accelerate software development
http://www.geekwire.com/2014/shippable-raises-8-million/
Shippable helps teams more easily ship code, helping them do so more quickly and efficiently. The company says it can reduce an organization’s development and test lab footprint by 70 percent, improving application development quality along the way. It competes with Travis CI and Circle CI, with plans to expand more aggressively into the enterprise arena.
At this time, Cavale said about 1,600 businesses are using its tools. The service runs on Amazon Web Services, and is built on Docker.
Cavale said his company’s hosted service removes the need for utilizing virtual machines in the development environment, creating an “automatic pipeline between GitHub and whatever cloud provider you want to use.”
“We use containers to remove the need for VMs,” said Cavale, a former Microsoft manager in the Azure group. “Containers provide a tremendous advantage because the spin-up time for a container is less 10 or 15 seconds. A spin-up time for a VM is 15 to 20 minutes, so what you get is a faster build time, as well as a cheaper infrastructure for your bills because you are no longer spinning all of those VMs.”
https://www.shippable.com/
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Lenovo second-quarter profit climbs but disappointing revenue sends shares lower
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/06/us-lenovo-results-idUSKBN0IQ09320141106
Lenovo Group Ltd, the world’s biggest maker of personal computers (PCs), reported a 19 percent jump in net income in the second fiscal quarter, but revenue fell short of analyst expectations, sending shares lower.
The company, which has been muscling its way into the smartphone market, said quarterly revenue rose 7 percent to $10.5 billion, but sales from its mobile device division fell 6 percent to $1.4 billion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
We’re kind of a big deal
By Stephen Rahal – November 4, 2014
http://www.igloosoftware.com/blogs/inside-igloo/were_kind_of_a_big_deal
For the 6th consecutive year, Igloo was positioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace.
Tomi Engdahl says:
GPU Compute and OpenCL: an introduction.
http://www.edn-europe.com/en/gpu-compute-and-opencl-an-introduction..html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10005133&vID=209#.VFs-cclsUik
This article provides, to the reader unfamiliar with the subject, an introduction to the GPU evolution, current architecture, and suitability for compute intensive applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CNN commentators ignore free Surface Pro 3 tablets, use iPads instead
http://www.windowscentral.com/cnn-commentators-use-ipads-ignore-surface-pro-3
Microsoft’s product placement for the Surface Pro 3 on CNN has taken a surprising turn for the worse. The company managed to score a deal with the broadcaster to have its laptop killers present on CNN’s news show, but commentators appeared to be more interested in iPads concealed behind said Microsoft hardware.
This also isn’t the first time Microsoft has had to deal with Surface Pro product placements going wrong.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Launch desktop applications from Google Drive in Chrome
http://googledrive.blogspot.fi/2014/11/launch-desktop-applications-from-google.html
Browsers are pretty amazing things. Before, if you wanted to do any serious computing, you’d have to install software onto your computer. But these days, most of that can be done right from within the browser. For example, you can use Google Drive to preview files directly in Gmail, create and share Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, and even edit other file types like Microsoft Office documents without installing a single thing on your hard drive.
But here’s the catch: when it comes to browsers and installed applications working well together, they aren’t quite on the same page. To change that, today we’re launching a new extension for Chrome that lets you open files from Google Drive directly into a compatible application installed on your computer. This includes apps like advanced image and video editing software, accounting and tax programs, or 3D animation and design tools. So, no matter what you keep in Drive, using the web to access and manage files doesn’t mean you’re limited to using applications that only work in your browser.
To get started, install the latest version of the Drive app for Mac or PC (version 1.18) and sync your files.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Old hat: Fedora 21 beta late than never… and could be best ever
An alternative to mobile-obsessed Ubuntu
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/06/fedora_21_beta_review/
As has become regrettably typical for the Fedora project, the first Fedora 21 beta is well behind schedule. According to the current schedule on the Fedora wiki, the final version will arrive about a month late, on 9 December. That is if nothing goes wrong during the beta testing phase that’s just started.
A month might not sound so bad, but it has been nearly 12 months since Fedora 20 arrived, which is not good for a distro that supposedly updates every six months.
Whatever. Fedora 21, whose beta has just arrived, looks like it will be worth the wait.
The big news in GNOME 3.14, though, is improved support for Wayland. Contrary to widespread internet belief, Wayland is not a new display server. In fact, it’s a protocol. What’s new in 3.14 is that Mutter (GNOME’s default display manager) can now work as a Wayland compositor.
If you’d like to test out GNOME running under Wayland, click the gear icon on the GNOME login screen and choose the option “GNOME on Wayland”.
The fallback to XWayland for unsupported apps – notably GNOME Terminal – is largely seamless, though there are some jittery graphics when resizing windows (in fairness the jitteriness in XWayland may be more noticeable because of how smooth window resizing is in Wayland).
The other big gotcha – and the reason you don’t see any screenshots – is that you can’t take screenshots in Wayland GNOME sessions just yet.
Fedora isn’t just about GNOME, of course, there are plenty of other desktop options to choose from – including updates for KDE and the MATE desktop.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PC Cooling Specialist Zalman Goes Bankrupt Due To Fraud
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/11/06/1316226/pc-cooling-specialist-zalman-goes-bankrupt-due-to-fraud
apparently spent the last five years producing fraudulent documentation relating to the sales performance of Zalman. These documents inflated sales figures and export data for Zalman’s products.
PC cooling specialist Zalman goes bankrupt due to fraud
http://www.geek.com/chips/pc-cooling-specialist-zalman-goes-bankrupt-due-to-fraud-1608736/
Moneual CEO Harold Park, and vice presidents Scott Park and Won Duck-yeok, have apparently spent the last five years producing fraudulent documentation relating to the sales performance of Zalman. These documents inflated sales figures and export data for Zalman’s products. The reason? Bank loans.
By increasing sales and exports Park and his associates were able to secure bank loans totaling $2.98 billion. Someone has finally realized what has been going on
It seems unlikely Zalman will make it through what is sure to be a long process filled with lawsuits and prosecutions. However, the company does hold a number of patents relating to cooling and fan noise reduction technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BYOD: don’t let the dream turn into a nightmare
Take back control
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/06/byod_security/
Most vendors and analysts agree: you can’t avoid BYOD (bring your own device). But despite all the excitement about letting people use whatever smartphones, tablets, convertibles or latest thingamajig they want at work, many businesses are still wary of the BYOD trend.
Some organisations, by necessity, just cannot adopt BYOD policies. Government bodies holding highly sensitive data, such as intelligence agencies or NHS Trusts, might not be so keen to accept a more liberal techno-ideology, given some of the data protection snafus they have been embroiled in.
Rob Bamforth, analyst at research firm Quocirca, believes companies need to find their own place based on their business strategy and values.
“Like many other aspects of IT, BYOD operates across a spectrum from ‘definitely not’ to ‘anything goes’,” he says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Changes Tack, Making Office Suite Free on Mobile
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/technology/microsoft-to-give-away-mobile-version-of-office-software.html?_r=0
Few golden geese in technology have survived as long as Office has for Microsoft.
The suite of applications that includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, first released in 1990, generated nearly a third of Microsoft’s revenue during its last fiscal year — about $26 billion of $87 billion in total. By some estimates, the software accounted for an even higher portion of the company’s gross profits.
But in a sign of the seismic changes underway in the tech industry, Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, said on Thursday that it would give away a comprehensive mobile edition of Office. The free software for iPads, iPhones and Android tablets
More Office. Everywhere you need it.
http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2014/11/06/office-everywhere/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bringing Office to everyone
http://blogs.office.com/2014/11/06/bringing-office-everyone/
Today is the next step in bringing Office to everyone and on every device with the start of Office for Android tablet preview, new Office for iPhone apps, updated Office for iPad apps and more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft kicks off its Office for Android tablets preview
http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-kicks-off-its-office-for-android-tablets-preview-7000035483/
Summary: Microsoft is opening up its preview program for Office for Android and plans to deliver the final version of the suite in early 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DDR4 memory bus utilize when entering have been for a long time, but only now – probably Intel’s new chipsets will – modules manufacturers pass on to the new memories in the market.
The company’s DDR3 up a fight compared to the data rate will increase by 30 per cent, while the power consumption remains virtually unchanged.
SWISSBIT presents one of the first DDR4 memory modules.
DDR4 memories power consumption is well of DDR3 memory better. This will help in the use of the voltage drop of 1.35 volts to 1.2 volts. Also, the architecture and signaling solutions to shrink the power consumption.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2038:ddr4-taajonta-laajenee-nopeasti&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Makes Office Mobile Editing Free As in Freemium
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/14/11/06/2245211/microsoft-makes-office-mobile-editing-free-as-in-freemium
Microsoft today announced a significant change to its Office strategy for mobile devices: creating and editing is now free. The company also released standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps for the iPhone, as well a new preview of these apps for Android tablets. Starting today, whether you’re using an Office app on Android or iOS, you can create and edit content without an Office 365 subscription.
Microsoft makes Office mobile editing free, launches separate iPhone apps and preview for Android tablets
http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/06/microsoft-makes-office-mobile-editing-free-launches-separate-iphone-apps-and-preview-for-android-tablets/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Big Data Knows When You Are About To Quit Your Job
http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/11/06/2329246/big-data-knows-when-you-are-about-to-quit-your-job
Workday to Put Employees Through a Big Data Analysis
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/workday-to-put-employees-through-a-big-data-analysis/?_r=0
Don’t be afraid (yet) but big data is coming to your job. While it is unclear whether it will make life better or worse, it is almost certain to change the way companies function.
Workday, a leading maker of cloud-based software for running corporate human resources and financial operations, has announced it is putting into its products the kind of data analysis that Netflix uses to recommend movies, LinkedIn has to suggest people you might know, or Facebook needs to put a likely ad in front of you.
One version of the Workday predicts which high-performing employees are likely to leave a company in the next year; it then offers possible actions (more money, new job) that might make them stay. In another instance, expense reporting software can predict which employee populations are most likely to exceed their budgets.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ONE FIFTH of Win Server 2003 users to miss support cutoff date
Migration is not a dirty word. Crevice, on the other hand…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/07/win_server_2003_upgrade_misses/
A fifth of those running Windows Server 2003 are currently expected to miss Microsoft’s deadline to move before it terminates support next year.
That number will likely increase as Windows Server 2003 migration projects that are underway hit snags and delays.
That’s according to Avanade, which reckons there’s a hard core of Microsoft customers with little or now clue on what’s happening on Windows Server 2003.
Microsoft will stop delivering security updates and fixes for Windows Server 2003 on July 14, 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why solid-state disks are winning the argument
Count the reasons
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/07/storage_ssds/
Perhaps the most perplexing question I have been posed this year is: “Why should I use SSDs?”
On the face of it, it is a reasonable question. When it was put to me, however, I just sat there staring at the wall, trying to form a coherent thought. Where to begin?
Tomi Engdahl says:
You could be eligible for a $15 settlement if you bought a Pentium 4 PC 14 years ago
http://www.neowin.net/news/you-could-be-eligible-for-a-15-settlement-if-you-bought-a-pentium-4-pc-14-years-ago
Do not adjust your screen – the title of this article is correct. If you purchased a new computer equipped with an Intel Pentium 4 processor some 14 years ago, you could be in for a cash windfall of fifteen bucks! The class action lawsuit resulted in this proposed settlement, but you’ll have to read the fine print as well; it applies only to residents of the United States, excluding those residing in Illinois.
So why the cashback? The lawsuit contends that Intel and HP manipulated benchmark scores to give the first generation Pentium 4 processor favorable results over its rivals AMD Athlon offering back in the day. Intel and HP deny these claims, but have decided to reach settlement all the same.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open sourcing Twitter emoji for everyone
https://blog.twitter.com/2014/open-sourcing-twitter-emoji-for-everyone
Since we’ve gotten many requests to use our emoji in various projects, as of today we’re open sourcing our emoji. We hope that the permissive licensing of this project will enable the spread of emoji adoption across platforms.
Emojis originated in Japan and the term literally translates to “picture character.” They are a convenient way to convey an expression in one character and have even been standardized by the Unicode Consortium. Twemoji is compliant with the latest 7.0 Unicode version and features a library of 872 emoji.
The project ships with the simple twemoji.js library that can be easily embedded in your project.
Tomi Engdahl says:
VMware: Yep, ESXi bug plays ‘finders keepers’ with data backups
Have you tried DISABLING then ENABLING CBT?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/03/vmware_data_gobbling_bug/
Running VMware’s ESXi and diligently backing up your data in the belief it’s safe as houses? Think again.
VMware has quietly ‘fessed up to the existence of a bug affecting all versions of its bare-metal hypervisor. It copped the problem in its knowledge base as users began cottoning on to the fact something was amiss in their data backups.
The bug affects virtual machines with Changed Block Tracking (CBT) turned on and that have been increased in size by more than 128Gb.
The problem affects VMware ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5 and the virty giant admits it is stumped.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 36 People Who Run Wikipedia
https://medium.com/matter/the-36-people-who-run-wikipedia-21ecca70bcca
What the weirdest, wildest, most successful participatory project in history tells us about working together.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why you probably won’t understand the web of the future
http://qz.com/292364/why-you-probably-wont-understand-the-web-of-the-future/
The giants of the connected world are finally waking up to one of the biggest obstacles in their stated missions of connecting billions more people to the internet: The language barrier.
This week alone, Google announced the “Indian Language Internet Alliance,” which aims to get half a billion Indians online by 2017 by serving them content in local languages, and there are indications Facebook is already defaulting to local languages in India. Facebook’s head of internationalization and localization published a long piece about “The Internet’s Language Barrier” in Innovations, a quarterly journal from MIT; and Mozilla and GSMA, a trade body of mobile operators, published a white paper titled “Unlocking relevant Web content for the next 4 billion people.”
Language barriers in globalization are hardly a new issue. So why the sudden drive for polyglotism? It’s simple: As mobile operators and web giants try to expand their markets by bringing more people online, we have reached a tipping point where the imbalance of content on the internet has become too stark to avoid.
80% of the web remains dominated by just 10 languages.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft offers prorated Office 365 refunds to paid subscribers after making mobile editing free
http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/07/microsoft-offers-pro-rated-office-365-refunds-to-paid-subscribers-after-making-mobile-editing-free/
Following Microsoft’s announcement yesterday that you can now create and edit documents using its mobile Office apps for free, there is some good news for Office 365 subscribers regretting their purchase. The company is offering prorated refunds, though you’ll have to apply, and there’s some important fine print.
First of all, this only applies to Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal subscriptions purchased on or after March 27, 2014 (when Office for iPad was released) and activated before November 6, 2014 (when the changes were announced). Other Office 365 subscriptions are aimed at businesses, and those licensing terms are a bit more complex.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twitter open sources its emoji set, which Automattic rolls out on WordPress.com
Open sourcing Twitter emoji for everyone
https://blog.twitter.com/2014/open-sourcing-twitter-emoji-for-everyone
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Alibaba Turned November 11 Into the World’s Biggest Online Shopping Day
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/11/09/2241214/how-alibaba-turned-november-11-into-the-worlds-biggest-online-shopping-day
Singles Day, which started out as a joke among a group of male college students attending Nanjing University in the 1990s, has become the world’s biggest online shopping day, thanks to the e-commerce prowess of China’s Alibaba Group.
How Alibaba turned 1111 into $$$$
Sad and lonely? Alibaba says buy yourself something nice on “11.11,” when China’s unattached celebrate being single.
http://www.cnet.com/news/how-alibaba-turned-1111-into/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Words to put dread in a sysadmin’s heart: ‘We are moving our cloud from Windows to Linux’
If you must pick Windows, pick early and stick
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/10/start_ups_doing_it_right/
The worldview of elastic compute, or mine at least, has historically had very little Microsoft involved in it. Recently however, I have attended several job interviews and one question that has invariably been asked is: “We are planning on moving from Windows to Linux. Have you done it before?”
This situation usually arrives through a well-worn path brought around due a number of factors. Most startups don’t hire full-time (or even part-time) sysadmins in the beginning to save on costs. Developers in startups, the ones whom I have spoken with, seem to know enough Windows to get a basic web stack configuration working, perhaps even a cluster.
The issues of how to scale out, build resilience and the costs involved are the last things on their mind.
Trying to manage your own physical and virtual infrastructure to scale with Microsoft products isn’t any more difficult than it is with Linux, given a good admin. The real problem (perceived or otherwise) is the cost of Windows deployment and trying to work out the licensing models.
How do you keep your app or service on Microsoft and still run it yourself?
It’s that question that leads us to the main issue of how licensing works for elastic compute in a Microsoft environment, because the key deliverable is also the main issue: how do you deal with a Microsoft virtual machine in a highly elastic environment where the server might only live for a couple of hours?
Historically, Redmond has been complex. After coming across the question of licence-cost-induced migration several times, I decided to investigate and there are a number of options, all with different pros and cons.
Microsoft’s virtualisation card is Hyper V. If you are going all in, then you require the high-end Windows Datacenter Edition, which gives an unlimited number of virtual instances.
The list price is $6,155, no discounts. The average price on a data centre, dual CPU, unlimited core licence is $4,809 for the operating system. In a discussion I had with Microsoft, the firm quoted just under $3,500.
Often, server pricing does not include Client Access Licenses (CALs), a licence for every device accessing the server. CALs are extra and are a not very friendly licensing model for a web-facing firm that will have fluctuating numbers of customers. That’s because this pricing model grew up in the enterprise, where the number of clients was known.
On the positive side, while the processor licensing sounds expensive, Datacenter edition does give you the ability to stop worrying about licensing and if you run several machines on each host, the cost comes right down. Of course you still have the hardware, cooling and lighting costs, too.
This compares to a similarly specified virtual machine in Microsoft’s Azure cloud. Such a configuration, assuming 24/7 usage, excluding disk and network traffic, comes in at $2,640 for the year – according to Microsoft. I realise this is not a true when you compare like for like but it does give an indication of price.
You get what you pay for…
When it comes to comparing Microsoft and Linux, let’s be clear: there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How do Reg readers keep their vendors in line?
CIOs talk sticks, carrots and account managers
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/27/reg_roundtable_2_writeup/
It’s difficult to speak openly about how to squeeze the best out of your suppliers. On the one hand, you always suspect there’s more you could be doing. On the other, you don’t want to give away your secrets.
All the IT execs were facing multiple challenges in managing cloud vendors, not just in the way that they may not even have an account manager.
Data sovereignty also loomed through the smog as something that alarmed the execs in terms of the US government’s fight with Microsoft over accessing data in the EU. But since it hasn’t actually happened yet they do not feel they can make a case for changing how they select which cloud. In contrast the CTOs of startups loved the cloud, since their appetite for risk isn’t just higher, it has a different structure. They said they will deal with the fallout of international privacy issues if and when they happen. What they don’t want is to lock up capital in a data centre and in custom software development that they might never grow to support.
The standard issues with Cloud data in terms of vendor fragility, government snooping, retrieving your data and the “the contract is whatever we say it is this week” attitude of many Cloud suppliers. But the execs were clear what business unit managers fail to even notice is: the sheer scale of the business logic in terms of rules, procedures, reporting and governance that you’ve built up in your older systems; that it is horribly hard to extract from whatever confection of VB, Excel, SQL, and even Cobol your firm has built up over the years; and that when they’ve looked at the Cloud they see even bigger risks. At least if you have the legacy code it can be understood and translated by a team of contractors who are prepared to do dull work for good money, but if you’re in a proprietary environment like Salesforce.com this is a lot harder than decoding ancient VB 6.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ROBOTS of the FUTURE will EXTERMINATE UK jobs – study
33% of Blighty workers crushed by machines by 2034
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/10/rise_of_the_robot_workforce_theyre_after_your_job/
One in three UK jobs will be performed by machine in as little as 20 years, according to a new study carried out by Deloitte and the University of Oxford.
Somewhere around a massive 10.8 million people could be replaced by machine by 2034, the researchers claim. Londoners are least likely to be affected (with only 30 per cent of jobs at risk compared to 35 per cent nationwide) and those higher up the management food chain are also safer than their minions from the threat of robo-replacement. “Lower-paid jobs are over five times more likely to be replaced than higher-paid, almost eight times as likely in London,” says the study.
But it’s not all doom and gloom: 40 per cent of UK jobs are low or no risk (51 per cent in London) and jobs requiring digital, management and creative skills will be on the up.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Managing BYOD starts with asset management
I think therefore ITAM
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/10/managing_byod_starts_with_asset_management/
he prevalence of BYOD (bring your own device) activity across the enterprise landscape has seen every IT vendor worth its salt try to offer a solution to the problem of keeping employees’ mobile devices under control.
There are several worthy options, such as CYOD (choose your own device) and managed virtualised desktop solutions, but the best medicine for BYOD might just be right under your nose.
The IT manager tearing his or her hair out wondering when there might be time to implement a BYOD platform is looking at a complex matrix of different device management, system management and, crucially, asset management panes of glass
The IT sub-discipline of asset management is affectionately known as ITAM. In terms of form and function, ITAM is generally defined as a collection of business practices designed to optimise expenditure on IT-related purchases, management and redistribution, based on an agreed inventory process.
Martin Thompson, asset management analyst and owner of The ITAM Review, thinks software and application monitoring are must-haves for any MDM solution.
“Within asset management tools, the IT department has visibility on when, how long and how many times an application on a mobile device has been used,”
“This type of control is aimed at smartphones and tablets and should be viewed just as you would view the data usage for software installed on a machine.”
But the “ITAM for BYOD control” argument needs to go further than simply counting the number, type and form factor of devices – and further too than being able to describe what user has what device with what application.
The next stage is a layer of identity so that we know what data is being accessed and exchanged with the corporate data centre at any moment.
Looking back at our installed base of BYOD devices with an ITAM-focused eye, we must first decide whether we will host the MDM software layer on the company network or buy it in as a cloud software service.
After conducting an audit of all our devices’ lock and wipe capabilities, we then decide how to push out the MDM controls to the devices.
Samsung comes into this technology space with its Knox container offering. This is a virtual Android environment within the mobile device so that the container has its own home screen, launcher, apps and widgets.
Applications (and their data) inside the container are isolated from applications outside the container. This isolation means the Knox container can be used as a secure enterprise workspace, while everything outside the container represents the user’s personal space.
Part of the company’s Samsung Approved For Enterprise (SAFE) programme, Knox (named after the fort if you hadn’t guessed) addresses the security issues faced by enterprises deploying BYOD by providing a “dual-persona environment” which isolates enterprise apps and data from personal apps and data.
According to Simon Townsend, chief technologist for workspace management vendor AppSense, ITAM can help overcome some of the challenges presented by BYOD but it is no silver bullet.
“Any device, any operating system and any application that can interact with enterprise systems needs to be monitored”
“All users really want is access to their apps and data on whichever device they choose, wherever. The challenge for IT is to meet those needs while still meeting the compliance and security needs of the organisation,”
Convergence looms
Is there a danger of moving too close to a containerised approach and forgetting our initial ITAM mantra?
It is true that containerisation helps IT to manage and audit the security and other requirements of a heterogeneous enterprise mobile landscape.
But enterprise mobility has entered a new phase, driven by the combination of advanced mobile devices, improved wireless connectivity and increased adoption of cloud-based services. We therefore need some way of bringing several new worlds together – and quite how we do this is not yet clear.