Cloud-based ERP levels the playing field for retailers [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

It makes a lot of sense that Oracle wants to buy NetSuite given its cloud-centric strategy, as the smaller company considers itself first to the cloud in enterprise resource management (ERP) software. But what they also have in common is by being cloud-first with their software portfolio, customers that couldn’t previously take advantage of large ERP software deployments can now do so online.

It’s something that Oracle CEO Mark Hurd noted in his keynote at this year’s OpenWorld, where he highlighted smaller, younger customers such as Uber-competitor Lyft and wireless HotSpot provider Boingo. Hurd said the prior to having cloud offerings, Oracle wouldn’t be involved with these smaller organizations because they don’t have any IT staff.

NetSuite now services 30,000 organizations in 160 countries and is adding 400 customers per year, according to company senior VP Steve Cerovcec, who kicked off a showcase of Canadian customers in Toronto Tuesday night, including retailers Casalife and Sears Canada.

Read my full article on IT World Canada.

Cloud comes first, driven by DevOps: ServiceNow survey [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

We’re living in cloud-first era, according to a new report released by ServiceNow, and it’s result of DevOps have a strong influence that spans across the organization.

That’s one of the key findings “The 2016 Cloud Computing Tipping Point,” which found that more than half of all enterprises with 500 people or more are now choosing cloud as the default for IT projects, based on interviews and polls with 1,800 respondents spanning IT, DevOps and lines of business.

“There’s more going on faster than what we expected,” said Farrell Hough, ‎VP of  product operations at ServiceNow. “Reality is meeting the hype for cloud computing.” What was particularly surprising, she added, what that DevOps was leading the charge. “The rise of DevOps is a major factor.”

Read my article and slideshow on IT World Canada.

Savvius looks to help security teams with forensic investigations [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

Savvius, Inc. is looking to broaden its user base for OmniPeek 10, the company’s latest major update to its software for network performance diagnostics and troubleshooting, by appealing to security teams with features to help with their investigations.

“What we’re finding is it’s just not engineers anymore that want to do packet analysis,” said Savvius director of products Jay Botelho. “We’re definitely finding a growing percentage of people in security who want to do packet analysis.” This includes those brought in on contract to conduct a specific forensic investigation, he said.

The release of OmniPeek 10 marks the first time in recent years that Savvius has taken a new spin on the software, said Botelho, as it looks to provide a combination of tools that makes it useful for security investigations as well as the tradition networking market customer base. “Security features area important to network engineers too.”

Read my full article on IT World Canada.

Facebook and Apple take top spot for encrypted IM [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

Facebook Messenger has become omni-present in the lives of one billion people, and despite concerns over the years about what information it might be gathering from users, a report recently released by Amnesty International found it to be highly secure.

The human rights organization also found that Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage also excelled in terms of security, while other commonly-used messaging applications didn’t make the grade, including – and somewhat surprisingly – Blackberry’s BBM. Even as the popularity of its hardware dimmed, Blackberry had a reputation for strong security. However, Amnesty said that it is not taking the basic steps necessary to guarantee user privacy, along with more popular messaging services such as Snapchat and Microsoft’s Skype. Blackberry and China-based Tencent brought up the rear with Google landing in the middle.

Read my full article on ITBusiness.ca.

Research suggests cities with hosted data centres draw more cybercriminal activity [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

ThreatMetrix Top Cities GraphicHosted data centers have become a common avenue for enterprises to access and deliver IT services, but they’re also a hit with cyber criminals.

According to a recent report by ThreatMatrix, there is a correlation between top U.S. cities for online fraud and those that are home to hosted data centers, with Tampa, Fla. topping the list, followed by New York. Major U.S. cities rounding out the top 10 included Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago. [Read the full story on IT World Canada]

Windows 10 upgrade help is here, but enterprises may need a use case for universal apps [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

win10Windows 10 is here, and there’s no shortage of help available from Microsoft partners willing to help enterprises make the transition.

Just as the new operating system hit the market, HP was one company who announced a slew of tools aimed at helping organizations make the move. Its portfolio of services include the HP Test Drive Services for Windows 10, HP Transformation Services for Windows 10, HP Roadmap Service for Windows 10, and the HP WebApp Accelerator Service for Internet Explorer 11. [Read the full story on IT World Canada]

How mobile device use is pushing wireless bandwidth expectations ever further [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

6168483285_001238bd1c_bEnterprises are hungry for wireless bandwidth, and upgrading access points to 802.11ac is not enough.

According to a forecast recently released by Dell’Oro Group, the overall Wireless LAN market will hit a market high of almost US$13 billion in 2019 – more than 30 per cent growth over 2015 revenues, in part because it’s become easier for IT departments to deploy more WiFi access, according to Chris DePuy, VP at Dell’Oro. “We’ve seen exceptional unit growth for wireless LAN access points in the past few years.”  [Read the full story on IT World Canada]

IBM expands cloud services portfolio with DashDB Enterprise massive parallel processing [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

IBM is putting data warehousing into the cloud. Having formally launched IBM Cloud Data Services earlier this year, the company has been pulling together a broad proud portfolio of services, including the integration of Cloudant, a database-as-a-service provider it acquired in March 2014.

DashDB Enterprise MPP (massive parallel processing), is the first new major product for IBM Cloud Data Services, and uses in-memory technology to speed up analysis. It is a fully managed data warehouse that the company said gives an enterprises a method of analyzing their operations without requiring the resources to running something on-premise; customers can use it to either extend on-premises data warehouses to the cloud or build new, self-service cloud warehousing infrastructure.  [Read the full story on IT World Canada]14796090251_5d6467a59b_b

IT departments must prepare for the impact of commercial drone deployment [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

A great deal of the discussion of drones has revolved around the privacy, safety and security of the general public, but as new applications surface for their use, the talk is shifting to how their deployment affects IT departments.

According to recent research released by Tractica, companies, universities, and government agencies are all actively assessing the opportunity for drones to disrupt some industries and create innovative business models in others. The two primary application markets in the commercial drone sector are aerial im13984618709_a1946019c7_baging and data analysis.  [Read the full story on IT World Canada]