Matt Kapko, Author at NetworkingNexus.net

Matt Kapko

Author Archives: Matt Kapko

Facebook details its 2016 open source accomplishments

Facebook added 54 new projects to its open-source initiative during the last six months. The company is on a mission to open source its code for software and hardware to encourage ongoing development from outside companies and engineers. "We build tools that enable engineers to work more easily across platforms, automate testing to catch problems sooner, and help improve the overall performance of our products," wrote Christine Abernathy, a developer advocate with Facebook's open source team, in a blog post. "We know from experience that collaborating with the open source community surfaces new ideas and solutions to the challenges that we face." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Taking a closer look at bots from Apple, Facebook and Google

"Bots" have been around for decades. Recently, however, it's become the norm for large technology companies to build, support and develop bots for a wide variety of uses. Because bots can be so many different things, it's often difficult to parse the bona fides from the wannabes — or even determine what bots do.What exactly are bots? "A bot is an autonomous machine interface that's built to serve a purpose that traditionally was served by a human," says Michael Facemire, a principal analyst with Forrester Research.Bots can stimulate human conversation, but their greatest strength lies in the capability to simplify business processes that don't require human intervention, according to Adam Fingerman, chief experience officer at Arctouch, a mobile app design and development company. "From a utility point of view, bots will have an even bigger impact on how we work than how we live," he says. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook, Google dominate list of top 15 mobile apps

Facebook and Google have a deepening duopoly of apps adult U.S. smartphone owners use, according to the most recent monthly "Mobile Metrix" report from web metrics company comScore. The two giants own and operate every one of the eight most popular apps, based on the number of adults who used them in May 2016. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

10 tech giants winning the talent war on LinkedIn

The 10 most sought-after U.S. companies that use LinkedIn to attract and retain talent are also technology pioneers. The professional social network says it analyzed billions of interactions between its 433 million users to rank the top companies based on the volume of job applicants, engagement between hiring companies and potential candidates, and employee retention. ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: How to lure tech talent with employee benefits, perks LinkedIn included only companies with more than 500 employees, and it based its ranking on interactions during the 12 months ending in February 2016. The company examined how often users viewed and applied for companies' job postings, the number of non-employees that attempted to view job postings and connect with the hiring companies' employees, and how long new employees stay on the job after they're hired.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple’s enterprise partnerships, big and small, start to pay off

Apple has been the target of recent criticism for its current pace of innovation. However, though the company's slow-and-steady approach to the enterprise may not be winning over financial analysts, it is proving to be an effective strategy for expansion into the business market. Apple set the stage for a formal courtship of the enterprise nearly two years ago, when it inked an alliance with IBM. Since then, the company has struck deals with Cisco and SAP to tap the strengths of these stalwarts in enterprise services and mobility, in additional to a number of smaller players. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google doubles down on the enterprise at I/O

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google this week made a concerted effort to highlight its growing presence in enterprise at its annual Google I/O developer conference. The company announced new development APIs for its Sheets, Slides and Classroom apps. It also unveiled a major update to its backend-as-a-service platform Firebase, a custom chipset for machine learning, and an API partner ecosystem with Salesforce, SAP and others.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Behind the scenes at Google I/O 2016

Google I/O 2016 kicks off in styleImage by Matt KapkoGoogle this week held its annual developer conference right next door to its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., at the massive, storied Shoreline Amphitheatre. More than 6,500 people attended the outdoor keynote address, which felt a bit like an early morning rave, complete with thundering bass, trippy imagery and ambient sound.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Popular messaging apps present real enterprise threat

Today's mobile device owners commonly use messaging apps to send selfies, command bots to order takeout and collaborate with their coworkers — sometimes simultaneously, and oftentimes via the same app. Nothing in particular precludes messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook's Messenger, Skype or Telegram from being used for work, play and everything in between. However, these consumer-focused apps are becoming the de facto software for corporate communication, and IT professionals have good reason for concern.As the distinction between enterprise and consumer messaging apps blurs, IT's needs and responsibilities are increasingly at odds with those of the workers it supports. Such a disparity can hinder workplace productivity and effective IT management.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Popular messaging apps present real enterprise threat

SAP design chief talks details of Apple deal

SAP isn't necessarily known for its design chops or world-class user experience, but the enterprise software giant hopes its new partnership with Apple can change that. "We felt that a partnership with Apple can take that to the next level, both with Apple's expertise in design, but also the ability to optimize those designs natively on iOS devices," says Sam Yen, SAP's chief design officer.Apple and SAP began exploring potential partnerships more than a year ago, according to Yen, and their respective CEOs met in late 2015 to start to formalize the deal. The goal of the pact is to rethink the entire mobile enterprise experience, according to Yen. Apple's iOS is widely used in enterprise, and "76 percent of all global business transactions are done on SAP systems," according to Yen, so it was a "no brainer" for the two companies to combine their strengths.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple’s SAP deal means more iOS enterprise apps

In an effort to expand its presence in the enterprise market, Apple this week announced another major partnership with a business-software giant. In a wide-ranging deal with SAP that's set to begin later this year, Apple will work alongside one the stalwarts of enterprise to develop more native iOS apps, as well as an SDK for SAP's HANA cloud platform. The SDK is designed to let SAP's more than 2.5 million developers build native iOS apps that can tap into SAP systems and access data in real time. The agreement also includes a plan to establish a new "SAP Academy for iOS," a place where SAP customers and partners can meet in person to design apps for iPhones and iPads and received related training. Apple and SAP engineers will work together to build apps, and the concept is similar to Apple's IBM MobileFirst for iOS initiative.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A look at Apple’s rise in the enterprise with IBM’s help

Apple's credibility in the enterprise has never been stronger. During the 22 months since the company inked a once unthinkable alliance with IBM, Apple turned a corner with IT professionals by simply extending its established strengths in consumer user experience, interface design and hardware to the market, which it hasn't historically prioritized."To a certain degree it's one of those successful partnerships that's a well-kept secret," says Van Baker, research vice president at Gartner. Both companies currently take a generally low-key approach to their MobileFirst for iOS initiative, and without splashy efforts to drum up interest or highlight momentum, much of the related activity happens behind the scenes, he says. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Is Apple’s walled garden showing signs of erosion?

Apple has long benefitted from a perception that its devices and the software that powers them are more safe and secure than the competition, but last year's high-profile iCloud hack and a recent large-scale malware attack bring Apple security into question. Earlier this month, Apple suffered a potentially catastrophic security lapse when malicious code injected into a counterfeit version of Xcode, the company's app development toolset, made its way into hundreds (and perhaps thousands) of apps from Chinese developers. The malware affected hugely popular apps, including WeChat, which was eventually pulled from the App Store. Apple failed to detect and stop the malware from entering its "walled garden" and gaining access to an untold number of customers' iOS devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Most Apple devices lack proper security for the enterprise

Nearly half of all U.S. employees use at least one Apple device at work, but most of those gadgets lack common security protocols required by many enterprises, according to a new survey commissioned by Centrify, a company that sells enterprise security and management software for Apple products.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Free security tools you should try Last month, Centrify asked 1,004 business professionals about how they use computers and smartphones in the workplace. Respondents used a total of 1,309 Apple devices at work, including 191 Macs, 387 iPads and 731 iPhones, according to Centrify. All of the respondents were employed full-time at companies with at least 20 employees, from various industries including healthcare and financial services, according to Centrify.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CIOs say AppleCare for Enterprise is lacking

Apple's budding partnership with IBM culminated in the release of AppleCare for Enterprise, the company's business-specific support service, but for the vast majority of organizations that use Apple products the initiative is nothing more than a glorified Genius Bar. CIOs and IT professionals welcome Apple's recent interest in the enterprise, but many are still unclear on the levels of support and services the consumer giant offers — and few are satisfied with Apple's commitment. AppleCare for Enterprise, which is roughly 8-months-old, includes 24/7 phone and email support for all Apple hardware and software, on-site service from IBM, next-day device replacement, a designated account manager and one-hour response times for urgent issues. These services are virtually unattainable for most business customers because many don't have relationships with both Apple and IBM, a requirement for the support services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IT pros say Google slowly infiltrating enterprise, education

Google's impact on the enterprise market may not have been obvious at its annual I/O developers conference in San Francisco last week, but the implications of the company's growing involvement and interest in business applications are strong. Google's suite of apps for work and education continue to help organizations cut costs while improving communication, productivity and collaboration across teams. + ALSO: 9 most important announcements at Google I/O 2015 +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to use Google’s new privacy and security tools

Google stores, manages and sometimes sells an astonishingly large and complex amount of user data. Unfortunately, that digital information isn't always kept secure or private, but Google puts some degree of control in the hands of its users. To offer you a little more control, Google this week rolled out an updated online hub designed to help manage privacy settings, called My Account, as well as a pair of tools that streamline the process of safeguarding user data.A brief history of Linux malware The My Account hub gives Google users more context on how and where their information is shared, when they can opt to remain private and the types of ads they see on Google or elsewhere online. Google redesigned My Account to display its many user settings in a more intuitive way, and the Security Checkup and Privacy Checkup tools show users how to control and manage some of the data they share with Google.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Enterprise tech a no-show at Google I/O

A parade of top Google executives cycled on and off the stage for more than two hours yesterday at the company's annual I/O developer conference in San Francisco, but because Google is involved in so many projects and markets, the company barely scratched the surface of what it is up to. For example, driverless cars, easily Google's most popular moonshot project, weren't even mentioned until the closing minutes of I/O keynote address. Cloud computing and Google+ weren't mentioned at all. Neither were Google’s plans for the enterprise.+ ALSO AT GOOGLE I/O: Google hypes Android M, Android Pay, Google Photos at I/O 2015 +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Android for Work pushes Google further into enterprise

Google's push into the enterprise gained steam last week when the company finally launched Android for Work, a containerization platform and standalone app for older Android devices that lets IT administrators create separate corporate and personal workspaces on Android smartphones and tablets.Android for Work is Google's latest attempt to address two of Android's most significant challenges for IT: security and fragmentation. The latest version of Android, v5.0, known as "Lollipop," now supports separate spheres for personal and work. Devices running older versions of the OS can access some of the same features in a separate Android for Work app.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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