Ben Kepes
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Ben Kepes
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The Internet of (Living) Things: Tracking dairy cow eating habits
Consumer Physics is all about enabling people to get a better handle on their field, receiving dock or production line. The company offers the SCiO pocket-sized spectrometer, which enables farmers and agricultural organizations to analyze the makeup of the forage that dairy cows are grazing.In the past there was a dual barrier to really taking action on this data—spectrometers were big and clunky and the data was disconnected from operational systems. But Consumer Physics is closing that loop by making the device smaller and connecting it to a smartphone application and the cloud.+ Also on Network World: John Deere leads the way with IoT-driven precision farming + So, given this Internet of Things play, it is particularly interesting to hear that Cargill, a huge multinational in the food, agriculture, financial, and industrial products and services space is partnering with Consumer Physics to deliver a new joint offering: Reveal. Reveal is a real-time forage analysis service that puts the formerly hard to attain Cargill forage lab analysis in the palm of a hand.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Lufthansa Systems taps Portworx for stateful containers
When Docker first (re) popularized the use of container-based infrastructure, there was a bit of discussion around the storage problems related to containers. Two startups came into being to try and resolve the issue: ClusterHQ and Portworx.While ClusterHQ flamed out, Portworx is still going strong and today announced a high-profile and interesting case study.To clarify exactly what Portworx does, users can use it to manage any database or stateful service on any infrastructure using any container scheduler, including Kubernetes, Mesosphere DC/OS and Docker Swarm. Portworx solves the five most common problems DevOps teams encounter when running containerized databases and other stateful services in production: persistence, high availability, data automation, support for multiple data stores and infrastructure, and security. As such, Portworx technology is ideally suited for solution verticals such as databases, messaging queues, continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD), big data, and content management. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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PitchBook moves to a microservices infrastructure – scaling the business through scalable tech
PitchBook is a data company. Its reason for being is to provide a platform that tracks a plethora of different aspects of both private and public markets. Want to know about what’s happening in venture capital, private equity or M&A? Chances are PitchBook can give you the answer. The company is a subsidiary of Morningstar and has offices in Seattle, New York, and London.But here’s the thing, though. PitchBook was founded in 2007 when cloud computing was pretty much just beginning and there was no real awareness of what it meant. In those days, enterprise IT agility meant leveraging virtualization to gain efficiencies. Now don’t get me wrong, moving from a paradigm of racking and stacking physical servers to being able to spin up virtual servers at will is a big deal, it’s just that since 2007, there has been massive further innovation in the infrastructure space.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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PitchBook moves to a microservices infrastructure – scaling the business through scalable tech
PitchBook is a data company. Its reason for being is to provide a platform that tracks a plethora of different aspects of both private and public markets. Want to know about what’s happening in venture capital, private equity or M&A? Chances are PitchBook can give you the answer. The company is a subsidiary of Morningstar and has offices in Seattle, New York, and London.But here’s the thing, though. PitchBook was founded in 2007 when cloud computing was pretty much just beginning and there was no real awareness of what it meant. In those days, enterprise IT agility meant leveraging virtualization to gain efficiencies. Now don’t get me wrong, moving from a paradigm of racking and stacking physical servers to being able to spin up virtual servers at will is a big deal, it’s just that since 2007, there has been massive further innovation in the infrastructure space.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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OwnBackup wants to broaden the backup footprint
OwnBackup is a cloud-to-cloud backup and restore vendor that aims to provide secure, automated, daily backups of SaaS and PaaS data. Founded by well-regarded recovery, data protection and security experts, OwnBackup is a Salesforce partner and ranks highly on the Salesforce AppExchange.As well as the usual backup and recovery options, OwnBackup has a broader take on what backup really means and offers data comparison and restoration tools to offer more granular control in the broader backup and recovery space.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Augury scoops up cash to power the industrial IoT
Ever since outgoing GE CEO Jeff Immelt opined upon his organization’s move from being an industrial machinery vendor to a software one, the world has been increasingly interested in the opportunities introduced by the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).IIoT simply refers to the increasing trend towards industrial machinery being connected to the internet and pinging off all sort of interesting data that can then be monitored and analyzed. And while it is fair to say that connected industrial machinery has been around for a long time (via SCADA and PLCs), the difference today is that under the IIoT, it is general the public internet that has all this data traversing on it. Further, increasingly customers are looking to the IIoT to deliver efficiencies, create agility and reduce downtime.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Hitachi wants to IoT-enable cities
Hitachi is an interesting organization. A huge conglomerate with total revenues of over $80 billion per annum, it employs over 300,000 people worldwide and has an incredibly broad range of contributing businesses in the power, industrial, urban development and healthcare spaces to name just a few.+ Also on Network World: Smart city tech growing in the U.S. + One of the businesses within the Hitachi Group is the Hitachi Insight Group (HIG), an organization focused on digital solutions within the broader Internet of Things (IoT) space. HIG offers the Lumada IoT platform, a solution that serves both public and private sector customers across three distinct categories: IoT, Energy IoT and Smart City.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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GE’s Predix wants to help the industrial IoT shine
GE has always had technology as a core part of its offering. After all, you don’t build wind turbines, jet engines and gas plants without leveraging technology. But in recent years, the company has moved from being an industrial company that uses technology to an outright vendor of technology solutions.A core part of this approach is by powering what GE calls the Industrial IoT, that is all the connected devices that are used in industrial settings of every kind. Predix is GE’s platform for the industrial IoT, and it promises to connect machines, data and people to drive results. Predix offers a single platform based in the cloud that can reconcile all the disparate data feeds and information streams pouring out of the industrial IoT.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IDG Contributor Network: Armis wants to resolve the IoT security issue
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a big deal. A really big one.There are approximately 8 billion connected devices on the market today, collectively accounting for 50 percent of internet traffic. And that is but a taste of the future—the number of devices is anticipated to increase 150 percent in the next three years. And where growth like that is predicted, every man and his dog is keen to grab market share. The security for IoT space is no different.+ Also on Network World: A lack of IoT security is scaring the heck out of everybody + There are some justified reasons why security in this new IoT context will be different. Connected devices (e.g., laptops, webcams, HVAC systems, etc.) are designed to connect wirelessly, without corporate oversight or control. This creates a dynamic, ever-expanding matrix of connections that not only boosts employee productivity and business efficiency, but simultaneously flies under the radar of security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Armis wants to resolve the IoT security issue
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a big deal. A really big one.There are approximately 8 billion connected devices on the market today, collectively accounting for 50 percent of internet traffic. And that is but a taste of the future—the number of devices is anticipated to increase 150 percent in the next three years. And where growth like that is predicted, every man and his dog is keen to grab market share. The security for IoT space is no different.+ Also on Network World: A lack of IoT security is scaring the heck out of everybody + There are some justified reasons why security in this new IoT context will be different. Connected devices (e.g., laptops, webcams, HVAC systems, etc.) are designed to connect wirelessly, without corporate oversight or control. This creates a dynamic, ever-expanding matrix of connections that not only boosts employee productivity and business efficiency, but simultaneously flies under the radar of security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Armis wants to resolve the IoT security issue
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a big deal. A really big one.There are approximately 8 billion connected devices on the market today, collectively accounting for 50 percent of internet traffic. And that is but a taste of the future—the number of devices is anticipated to increase 150 percent in the next three years. And where growth like that is predicted, every man and his dog is keen to grab market share. The security for IoT space is no different.+ Also on Network World: A lack of IoT security is scaring the heck out of everybody + There are some justified reasons why security in this new IoT context will be different. Connected devices (e.g., laptops, webcams, HVAC systems, etc.) are designed to connect wirelessly, without corporate oversight or control. This creates a dynamic, ever-expanding matrix of connections that not only boosts employee productivity and business efficiency, but simultaneously flies under the radar of security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IDG Contributor Network: Cloud helps Elon Musk further his audacious goals
There are some people whose vision of the future simply defy words. I would put Elon Musk firmly in the category – changing the world through a single initiative isn’t Musk’s style, rather, he wants to deliver his vision of the future across multiple areas. Space travel? Check. Hyper-efficient terrestrial transportation? Also check. Personal automobiles that challenge both existing business and technology models? Check. Solar power with new economics and scale? Also check. While many would question his political leanings, there is no denying that Musk is a genius.I’ve never met Musk, but watching him speak it is obvious that this is one visionary who not only sees a “bigger picture” for the future of humanity, but he also deeply understands the technology constraints and opportunities that will deliver the future. Which is an inspiring thing to watch, but which also places huge challenges upon the individuals who need to deliver that work. By extension, it also pushes the boundaries of what existing technologies can do.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cloud helps Elon Musk further his audacious goals
There are some people whose vision of the future simply defy words. I would put Elon Musk firmly in the category – changing the world through a single initiative isn’t Musk’s style, rather, he wants to deliver his vision of the future across multiple areas. Space travel? Check. Hyper-efficient terrestrial transportation? Also check. Personal automobiles that challenge both existing business and technology models? Check. Solar power with new economics and scale? Also check. While many would question his political leanings, there is no denying that Musk is a genius.I’ve never met Musk, but watching him speak it is obvious that this is one visionary who not only sees a “bigger picture” for the future of humanity, but he also deeply understands the technology constraints and opportunities that will deliver the future. Which is an inspiring thing to watch, but which also places huge challenges upon the individuals who need to deliver that work. By extension, it also pushes the boundaries of what existing technologies can do.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IDG Contributor Network: Delivering agility to Paychex with XebiaLabs
Recently development and DevOps vendor XebiaLabs reached out to me to see if I’d be keen to talk to one of their customers. XebiaLabs wanted to point out that while they are totally amped on their own products and believe they do awesome things for their customers, the best proof of that is to talk to a real life customer and assess the benefits directly from the horse’s mouth as it where.That sounded like a logical proposition to me, and after a concerted effort by their PR agency to get me to agree to a call (because I’m a little bit busy, and a little bit lazy), I sat down with Paychex's Dave Wilson, director of infrastructure, and Mick Whittemore, vice president of IT, to talk about what Xebia helped them achieve.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IDG Contributor Network: PureSec picks up investment because serverless is exciting
While in Israel late last year, I caught up with Shaked Zin and Avi Shulman, co-founders of security company PureSec. PureSec was in a bit of a conundrum. It was doing important work but in a space that was still nascent: serverless computing. As such, it was having a hard time both articulating its value proposition and getting investors to understand and commit to their story.I found this conundrum interesting. Serverless computing is, after all, pretty high on the hype cycle. Ever since Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced the notion of serverless via its Lambda offering a few years ago, all vendors have been rushing to commercialize their own serverless offering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IDG Contributor Network: PureSec picks up investment because serverless is exciting
While in Israel late last year, I caught up with Shaked Zin and Avi Shulman, co-founders of security company PureSec. PureSec was in a bit of a conundrum. It was doing important work but in a space that was still nascent: serverless computing. As such, it was having a hard time both articulating its value proposition and getting investors to understand and commit to their story.I found this conundrum interesting. Serverless computing is, after all, pretty high on the hype cycle. Ever since Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced the notion of serverless via its Lambda offering a few years ago, all vendors have been rushing to commercialize their own serverless offering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IDG Contributor Network: PureSec picks up investment because serverless is exciting
While in Israel late last year, I caught up with Shaked Zin and Avi Shulman, co-founders of security company PureSec. PureSec was in a bit of a conundrum. It was doing important work but in a space that was still nascent: serverless computing. As such, it was having a hard time both articulating its value proposition and getting investors to understand and commit to their story.I found this conundrum interesting. Serverless computing is, after all, pretty high on the hype cycle. Ever since Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced the notion of serverless via its Lambda offering a few years ago, all vendors have been rushing to commercialize their own serverless offering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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PureSec picks up investment because serverless is exciting
While in Israel late last year, I caught up with Shaked Zin and Avi Shulman, co-founders of security company PureSec. PureSec was in a bit of a conundrum. It was doing important work but in a space that was still nascent: serverless computing. As such, it was having a hard time both articulating its value proposition and getting investors to understand and commit to their story.I found this conundrum interesting. Serverless computing is, after all, pretty high on the hype cycle. Ever since Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced the notion of serverless via its Lambda offering a few years ago, all vendors have been rushing to commercialize their own serverless offering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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PureSec picks up investment because serverless is exciting
While in Israel late last year, I caught up with Shaked Zin and Avi Shulman, co-founders of security company PureSec. PureSec was in a bit of a conundrum. It was doing important work but in a space that was still nascent: serverless computing. As such, it was having a hard time both articulating its value proposition and getting investors to understand and commit to their story.I found this conundrum interesting. Serverless computing is, after all, pretty high on the hype cycle. Ever since Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced the notion of serverless via its Lambda offering a few years ago, all vendors have been rushing to commercialize their own serverless offering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IDG Contributor Network: Capriza touts its mobile-first strategy for the enterprise
Enterprise software, where hopes and dreams go to die. And where new employees are unceremoniously pulled into a new reality—that the tools they use in their day-to-day lives as consumers are a world apart from the tools they’re expected to use in their working lives.But whereas it used to be a case of employees simply putting up and shutting up, increasingly employees are powerful advocates and potential change-makers—and organizations need to be ready to respond to their needs with tools that aren’t so abysmal to use.+ Also on Network World: A mobile-first strategy improves employee productivity, study finds + Of course, the traditional enterprise vendors, such as Oracle and SAP, realize this change is coming and are trying their hardest to deliver more user-friendly interactions. But as Clayton Christensen explained in his seminal book, The innovator’s Dilemma, this isn’t such an easy change to effect.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here