IDG Contributor Network: John Deere leads the way with IoT-driven precision farming

Did you know that one in seven people in the U.S. depends on food banks to survive?Or that one out of six children—roughly 100 million—in developing countries is underweight?Hunger is a global problem.Natural resources are limited. How do you grow more food on the same amount of land? Lower the cost of food production?Lane Arthur tackles this challenge every day for John Deere's Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG). Arthur is ISG’s director of digital solutions, and his team develops IoT and data driven solutions for farmers. Arthur is amazing! He has a Ph.D. in genetics and development from Columbia University in addition to a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Georgia. He recently explained how IoT-based precision agriculture increases crop yields by optimizing land, seed and fertilizer usage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Liveblog: How News UK Centralized Cloud Governance

This is a liveblog of the AWS re:Invent session titled “How News UK Centralized Cloud Governance Using Policy Management” (DEV306). The speakers for the session are Joe Kinsella from CloudHealth Technologies and Iain Caldwell of News UK/News Corp EMEA.

Kinsella kicks things off by indicating that the session will attempt to tackle the burning question: how does one maintain the agility that brought you to the cloud in the beginning, but enforce the proper level of governance and control? Kinsella and Caldwell then spend a few minutes on introductions before diving into the content of the session.

Caldwell starts off the session content with a review of News Corp’s use of AWS. News UK is currently running 69% of their workloads in the public cloud, with an aim to hit 75% by July 2017. Before they started their journey to the public cloud, News Corp ran a “global application assessment”—and Caldwell believes that this was critical to the success News Corp/News UK has seen so far. News is using a wide variety of AWS services: EC2, S3, VPC, Direct Connect, Route 53, CloudFront, CloudFormation, CloudWatch, RDS, WorkSpaces, Storage Gateway.

When prompted by Kinsella, Caldwell indicates that EC2 instances were the Continue reading

A peek inside Amazon’s cloud – from global scale to custom hardware

Amazon Web Services brings on enough new server capacity every day to support the entire operations of Amazon the online retail giant when it was an $8.5 billion enterprise in 2005. Every day.That was just one of the insights that Amazon Web Services' Vice President and Distinguished Engineer James Hamilton shared during an opening night keynote at re:Invent, Amazon’s user conference for its IaaS cloud platform. Hamilton provided an internal glimpse of operations that run the company’s cloud business, from its global network of 14 regions down to the custom-made silicon that run its servers, in many cases revealing information that was not previously public.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

33% off Seagate Expansion 4TB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 3.0

The Seagate expansion desktop drive provides extra storage for your ever-growing collection of files. Instantly add space for more files, consolidate all of your files to a single location, or free up space on your computer's internal drive to help improve performance. Setup is straightforward; simply plug in the included power supply and USB cable, and you are ready to go. It is automatically recognized by the Windows operating system, so there is no software to install and nothing to configure. Saving files is easy too-just drag-and-drop. Take advantage of the fast data transfer speeds with the USB 3.0 interface by connecting to a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port.  This drive receives 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where its typical list price of $199.99 has been reduced 33% to $99.99. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sanders launches new attack on offshore outsourcing

Former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce legislation to discourage companies from relocating jobs offshore. The legislation would punish offshore decisions with loss of tax breaks and government contracts and impose an "outsourcing tax" on firms that proceed nonetheless.The proposal, announced this weekend, singles out United Technologies for its decision to close its Carrier Corp. manufacturing plant in Indianapolis and relocate operations to Mexico.[To comment on this story, go to Computerworld's Facebook page.]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: GitLab rocks version control

If you’ve spent any time evaluating software version-control systems, you have undoubtedly looked at GitHub Enterprise and Bitbucket Server, two big names that offer both on-premises installs and a SaaS option. You also should have run into GitLab, an open source project backed by the company of the same name. GitLab is available in a free community edition, paid enterprise and hosted editions, and a free SaaS offering that includes the enterprise features. Though less of a household name, GitLab is a compelling alternative to its more popular rivals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Oracle cuts management, messaging specs in Java EE 8

Oracle is making good on plans to cut management and messaging improvements from the next version of enterprise Java.The company is axing Management 2.0 and Java Message Service (JMS) 2.1 from the Java EE 8 road map. Also, Oracle is investigating a possible transfer of the MVC functionality planned EE 8 to another community member or organization.[ The big 4 Java IDEs reviewed: See how Eclipse, NetBeans, JDeveloper, and IntelliJ IDEA stack up. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's Application Development newsletter. ] "These changes are consistent with the revised Java EE road map presented at the JavaOne 2016 conference in September, in which Oracle proposed to remove these JSRs from Java EE 8," Oracle's David Delabassee noted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tech Forecast 2017: IT sharpens its focus

Tech executives are optimistic as they head into 2017. One of the biggest reasons for the hopeful outlook is the fact that business and IT are finally on the same page, with planned technology projects and overall strategic business goals closely aligned for the upcoming year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Who’s on your IT security dream team?

Getting the gang togetherImage by ThinkstockLast month, I presented you a chamber of horrors—the worst people you meet doing IT security, many of them your friends and, sadly, co-workers. But I don't like to dwell on the negative! So I asked a slew of IT pros about the best people, the ones they want on their side when facing down the toughest security challenges. There are a number of important roles to fill, and I'm not just talking about job titles: I mean attitudes, and abilities that verge on superpowers. IT security is a team sport, so who do you want on your team?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Who’s on your IT security dream team?

Getting the gang togetherImage by ThinkstockLast month, I presented you a chamber of horrors—the worst people you meet doing IT security, many of them your friends and, sadly, co-workers. But I don't like to dwell on the negative! So I asked a slew of IT pros about the best people, the ones they want on their side when facing down the toughest security challenges. There are a number of important roles to fill, and I'm not just talking about job titles: I mean attitudes, and abilities that verge on superpowers. IT security is a team sport, so who do you want on your team?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

8 tech startup trends to watch in 2017

According to a set of intelligent humans interviewed for this story, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are going to help drive the tech economy in 2017.When CIO.com posted a query on Help a Reporter Out, a site designed to help journalists connect with sources, asking about startup trends to watch in 2017, the overwhelming majority of respondents pointed to AI. This coming year and beyond, AI will help companies "disrupt sectors that haven't been fully disrupted," says Anthony Glomski, principal of AG Asset Advisory, a financial advisory firm. "AI is in its beginning stages with massive potential impact."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

8 tech startup trends to watch in 2017

According to a set of intelligent humans interviewed for this story, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are going to help drive the tech economy in 2017.When CIO.com posted a query on Help a Reporter Out, a site designed to help journalists connect with sources, asking about startup trends to watch in 2017, the overwhelming majority of respondents pointed to AI. This coming year and beyond, AI will help companies "disrupt sectors that haven't been fully disrupted," says Anthony Glomski, principal of AG Asset Advisory, a financial advisory firm. "AI is in its beginning stages with massive potential impact."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

2017 security predictions

From W-2 scams to WordPress vulnerabilities, ransomware, business email compromises, DDos attacks and allegations of a hacked presidential election -- 2016's been a hell of a year in cybersecurity, and it's not over yet.There's no reason to believe 2017 will be any better. If anything, it could be even worse as cybercriminals continue to push social engineering, find new ways to deliver malware, crack vulnerable databases and leverage mobile technology to find ways to get inside corporate defenses and target individuals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

2017 security predictions

From W-2 scams to WordPress vulnerabilities, ransomware, business email compromises, DDos attacks and allegations of a hacked presidential election -- 2016's been a hell of a year in cybersecurity, and it's not over yet.There's no reason to believe 2017 will be any better. If anything, it could be even worse as cybercriminals continue to push social engineering, find new ways to deliver malware, crack vulnerable databases and leverage mobile technology to find ways to get inside corporate defenses and target individuals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Report: Most cybercriminals earn $1,000 to $3,000 a month

Most cybercriminals make between $1,000 and $3,000 a month, but 20 percent earn $20,000 a month or more, according to a recent report.The data is based on a survey conducted by a closed underground community, said report author Andrei Barysevich, director of advanced collection at cybersecurity firm Recorded Future."We actually saw criminals who made way more than that, $50,000 to $200,000 a month," he said. "This is what they keep, this is not revenues, but pure profit. This is what they can spend on loose women, fast cars and nice clothes."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Report: Most cybercriminals earn $1,000 to $3,000 a month

Most cybercriminals make between $1,000 and $3,000 a month, but 20 percent earn $20,000 a month or more, according to a recent report.The data is based on a survey conducted by a closed underground community, said report author Andrei Barysevich, director of advanced collection at cybersecurity firm Recorded Future."We actually saw criminals who made way more than that, $50,000 to $200,000 a month," he said. "This is what they keep, this is not revenues, but pure profit. This is what they can spend on loose women, fast cars and nice clothes."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Liveblog: Automating Cloud Mgmt and Deployment

This is a liveblog of the AWS re:Invent session titled “Automating Cloud Management and Deployment for a Diverse Enterprise Application Portfolio” (DEV319). The speakers for the session are David Lowry and Amul Merchant, both from Infor Global.

Merchant kicks the session off with a brief overview of Infor and its cloud strategy. Infor’s CEO, Charles Phillips, was quoted from AWS re:Invent 2014 as having said, “Friends don’t let friends build data centers.” Merchant spends a pretty fair amount of time (too much time, in my opinion) explaining Infor and Infor’s offerings, with only minimal references to how this affects or is affected by the core topic of the presentation. He makes numerous references to “the DevOps toolset” that Infor uses, but does not provide any details or information on said toolset. Instead, the information shared is far too basic for a 300-level session.

After 15 minutes, Lowry takes the stage to talk about the DevOps toolset. The key principles Infor used in building/selecting tools were:

  • Automate end-to-end
  • Use AWS services wherever possible (this ties the tools closely to AWS)
  • Minimally Viable Product (MVP) first, then expand

Some of the tools Infor uses:

5 apps to gamify your personal and work lives

Gamify your personal and work livesImage by ThinkstockIf you're struggling with motivation or productivity at work, the answer might lie in gamification. Gamification turns your boring to-do list, mundane chores or healthy habits into a role-playing (RPG) game where you can earn points, collect badges and level up. If you've ever used a fitness tracker, it's the same concept -- you can earn badges and rewards for your workouts and healthy lifestyle goals to help you stay motivated. PokemonGo, designed as an augmented reality game, even managed to gamify walking for a lot of players, with researchers at Stanford and Microsoft suggesting it helped significantly increase physical activity for users. Gamifying your life might be the answer to staying motivated, productive and to develop new habits; these five apps will help you make your everyday to-do list fun again. <A HREF="https://habitica.com/static/front" TITLE="Habitica website" TARGET="_blank">Habitica</A>Image by HabiticaTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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