Editor’s note: Traction Watch is a new column focused obsessively on growth, and is a companion to the DEMO Traction conference series, which brings together high-growth startups with high-potential customers. The next DEMO Traction will take place in Boston on September 16, 2015. Growth companies can apply to present, or those similarly obsessed can register here to attend. This is the fourth in a series of posts profiling the Spring 2015 Demo Traction Champions. Talkdesk was named a Traction Watch: Smart Data Champion. Read more about the winners in “Traction Watch: Meet The Spring 2015 DEMO Traction Champions.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A consumer rights group wants the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to address growing online privacy concerns by requiring websites to honor do-no-track requests.Consumer Watchdog filed a formal petition on Monday calling for new FCC rules forcing companies like Google, Facebook, Pandora and Netflix to respect do-not-track requests from a visitor’s browser.While some websites do honor the requests, there’s no regulation requiring them to do so, and many do not, noted John Simpson, Privacy Project director at the organization. Many available tools for online users block targeted advertising based on online tracking, but don’t block data collection, he said. Specific regulations that require websites to honor a do-not-track request and spell out penalties if it’s not “are essential,” he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
WAN evolution has been on the mind of IT leaders for decades. Historically though, network managers seemed comfortable to just “talk the talk” when it came to actually moving away from a traditional hub and spoke, MPLS based network. The problem statement seems to be fairly well understood. Traditional WANs are expensive to run, offer little in the way of flexibility, are hard to secure and network managers typically have little visibility into the types of applications and traffic patterns that traverse the network. So, why haven’t more organizations evolved from a legacy network to something more current, like an Internet based WAN? The answer lies in the expression “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.” Despite all the pain, the high cost and the static nature of traditional networks, they’re what we know. Whenever I talk to a network manager about the topic, interest is high, but so is the skepticism about whether an Internet based WAN could really support a businesses needs. This is why so few of us want to be like Captain Kirk and “boldly go where no WAN manager has gone before”.To read this article in full or to Continue reading
CEOs’ priorities are different from the rest of us when it comes to tech.
For one thing, half of U.S. CEOs worry more about new industry entrants from the technology sector disrupting their businesses, than adopting devices as a strategy, according to a recent survey from analysts PricewaterhouseCoopers, or PWC.Strategic importance
CEOs aren’t getting over-excited about devices. Investment is being made, but more CEOs thought cybersecurity was strategically more important to them that mobile, IoT and wearables, the survey found.
Mobile gets barely half of CEOs’ attention. Only 55 percent of those polled reckoned mobile tech for engagement with customers is strategically “very important” to their enterprise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Carriers around the world are converging on 2017 as the year to turn off their GSM networks, with three operators in Singapore announcing Monday their plans to reuse their GSM spectrum for other services.The end of GSM will free up more bandwidth for faster 3G and 4G network technologies—but will also force users of older connected devices that depend on GSM networks to upgrade or replace them.On Monday Singaporean operators M1, Singtel and StarHub became the latest operators to set a timetable for turning off their GSM networks. They will do so on April 1, 2017, following in the footsteps of Telstra in Australia, which plans to do so by the end of 2016, and AT&T in the U.S, which will flip the switch on Jan. 1, 2017.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As Spark faithful gather this week, IBM puts down its betThe hugely popular Hadoop framework for processing big data sets is getting some serious competition from alternative platform Spark, the Wall Street Journal reports, and thousands of the upstart’s acolytes are expected at the Spark Summit in San Francisco this week. IBM is getting behind the Apache open-source project with an investment worth hundreds of millions of dollars in software developers and technology, the New York Times says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
E-commerce giant Alibaba Group is preparing to launch a Netflix-like subscription video service in China, as the company expands into more entertainment ventures.Alibaba isn’t the only player aiming to launch a paid video subscription service in the country. Netflix has recently talked about entering the market, although the company still needs to receive Chinese regulatory permission.The companies would be entering an already competitive market, full of local companies offering video streaming services, many of them for free. Youku Tudou, for instance, is one of the biggest players in the market, and streams both Chinese and foreign TV shows, in addition to producing its own content. Alibaba has acquired a stake in Youku Tudou.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules went into effect Friday, after an appeals court denied multiple requests to delay them while the agency faces 10 lawsuits challenging the regulations.The rules prohibit broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing Internet traffic and from charging website owners and providers of Web-based services for prioritized traffic. The rules also reclassify broadband from a lightly regulated information service to a more heavily regulated telecom-style service, although the FCC voted to exempt broadband providers from many of those common-carrier rules.Here are four things to watch for as the rules go into effect and the lawsuits go forward:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Twitter CEO Costolo steps downEmbattled Twitter CEO Dick Costolo will leave his post atop the micro-blogging company on July 1, bowing to intense pressure from investors disappointed with slow revenue growth and the failure to turn a profit. Co-founder and Chairman Jack Dorsey will serve as interim CEO while the company looks for a new boss; Costolo will remain on Twitter’s board of directors.Oculus launches a consumer Rift headset, Xbox controllerIn advance of the E3 gaming expo next week, virtual reality headset maker Oculus on Thursday took the wraps off a consumer version of its Rift headset, which will ship next March with a wireless Xbox controller. The company also showed prototypes of two ring-shaped controllers that will let players interact with objects in games like they might in real life.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s been two years since Google first disclosed Project Loon, and while the company continues to keep most details of the project secret, the technology and challenges behind it are slowly coming into focus.Loon is an ambitious attempt to bring the Internet to the roughly 5 billion people on the planet who are out of range of existing networks. The project involves suspending cellular access points under high-altitude balloons to provide Internet access to those on the ground, an idea that sounds elegantly simple but was anything but.A series of recent presentations and talks by Google X employees have revealed some of the technical and commercial challenges the company faced in realizing Loon, and in nearing its target cost of $10,000 per balloon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A U.S. appeals court has denied requests by several broadband providers and trade groups to delay the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules while they challenge the regulations.The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday denied 10 requests to delay the implementation of the rules. The court’s denial of the stay requests means the new net neutrality rules will go into effect as scheduled Friday, even as 10 lawsuits against the rules go forward at the appeals court.The groups requesting a stay of the rules “have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review,” a panel of three judges wrote Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A project developer who raised more than US$122,800 on Kickstarter to create a new board game has been charged by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission with using the money for personal equipment, moving expenses, rent and licenses for a separate project.Erik Chevalier, doing business as The Forking Path, asked for money from individuals to produce a board game called The Doom That Came to Atlantic City, but cancelled the project more than a year after the May 2012 funding campaign, the FTC said in its first consumer-protection complaint involving crowdfunding.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee has voted to require the Federal Communications Commission to suspend new net neutrality rules until a series of lawsuits challenging the regulations are resolved.The action by the House Appropriations Committee’s general government subcommittee Thursday comes too late to stop the new rules from going into effect as scheduled Friday. The requirement could force the FCC to suspend the rules in the coming months though it’s unlikely that President Barack Obama, a strong supporter of net neutrality rules, would sign the appropriations bill requiring a delay of the regulations.The net neutrality rules, which classify broadband as a regulated telecom service, will go into effect Friday unless a U.S. appeals court decides at the last minute to delay the rules, as requested by several broadband groups.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Workers bringing Internet of Things (IoT) devices to work could add to future enterprise vulnerabilities, a new report says.
RAND Corporation’s latest study on cybersecurity delves into how a growing number of connected devices will add to an enterprise’s “attack surface.”
The researchers say that device protocols, of the kind used by IoT, probably won’t have gone through the same vulnerability testing as traditional software does.
And that coupled with lean start-up mentalities by developers of IoT will create devices where security is an afterthought. Devices will be functional, but “riddled with security vulnerabilities,” the report reckons.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Despite the tech industry's best efforts over the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has only slowly begun to gain a foothold in consumer markets. Consumers do, however, still represent a massive opportunity for IoT, and the companies in this space will be paying close attention to consumer acceptance of the technology.Today, machine-to-machine company ThroughTek released results from its recent consumer survey on the IoT and smart home technology. The survey was conducted last month by research firm YouGov, and included 1,181 U.S. adults.See also: Smart home hacking is easier than you think
Consumers appear to be growing more optimistic about the IoT in the near future. Thirty-one percent said they believe a "fully connected smart home" will be achievable in the next year, while 60% say it's possible within five years, according to the survey.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google wants in on this “smart cities” thing tooGoogle has launched Sidewalk Labs, a New York-based company that will develop technology to make urban transportation and government more efficient, as well as lower the cost of living and cut energy use. The search giant is a little late to the party: Cisco, IBM and Microsoft are already heavily invested in this space, and the European Union has a major Smart Cities initiative as part of its Digital Agenda.Ebay, PayPal scrutinized for claiming robocall rights in user agreementsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Group shotImage by FacebookOutgoing and incoming Cisco CEOs John Chambers and Chuck Robbins weren’t the only attractions at the annual Cisco event in San Diego this week, though they did seem to be everywhere (Chambers in center, with blazer).RELATED: Cisco boosts cloud software, lines up ISVs to write Internet of Everything servicesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When you’re not liking your friends’ photos on Facebook, you’re likely to soon have more opportunities to buy stuff.Facebook is expanding its partnership with Shopify, which helps businesses create online storefronts. Facebook has been testing buy buttons in the News Feed and on businesses’ Pages since last year, with select merchants participating. The new arrangement, announced Wednesday, means that a wider variety of businesses will be able to place buy buttons for their items in Facebook users’ feeds and on Pages.Shopify is describing the expanded service as a beta test with a group of U.S.-based Shopify merchants. The company did not name merchants, but it did publish an image of a Facebook post by jewelry designer Joseph Nogucci, with buy buttons in its posts for bracelets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
SAN DIEGO -- Cisco this week enhanced its cloud software and lined up a roster of ISVs to create services for the company’s Internet of Everything initiative.Cisco added security, management and support for more hypervisors to its Intercloud Fabric software, an application that connects private, public and hybrid clouds together for workload mobility. Cisco also enlisted 35 software developers – including Citrix, F5, Cloudera, Hortonworks and Chef -- to build services for the Intercloud and offer them through an Intercloud Marketplace.Areas ISVs will target include development platforms for production applications, containers and community-based open source programs; big data and analytics; and IoE cloud services, such as network control, performance, security, data virtualization, energy management, and business services like collaboration and consistent portals from Cisco’s Services Exchange Platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here