Digital transformation pushes big banks into application outsourcing

Large application outsourcing transactions in the banking sector hit a record five-year high last year, according to a recent report by outsourcing consultancy Everest Group. There were 54 new big application outsourcing projects in the sector with a total contract value of $5.9 billion in 2015—an increase in volume of 45 percent and in value of 25 percent over the previous year.[ Related: How to turbocharge digital transformation ]Financial institutions tend to outsource applications around three different dimensions, says Jimit Arora, partner at Everest Group There are systems to run the business which are outsourced for cost reduction and efficiency reasons. There are systems to manage the business, which may involve issues of regulatory compliance or cybersecurity and are driven by cost or penalty avoidance. And there are systems to change the business, which are efforts to drive revenue growth by introducing new products and services more quickly.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pokémon Go just redeemed Google Glass’ failure to launch augmented reality

Google Glass was supposed to be a device that made augmented reality (AR) into a viable, useful, popular technology. But we all know how that turned out: Instead of inspiring people to see the world in new ways, Google Glass convinced everyone that AR was a useless, awkward, socially invasive technology of interest to only so-called “glass-holes.”+ Also on Network World: How Google Glass set wearable computing back 10 years +Instead, a silly smartphone game for kids is doing what Google Glass failed so miserably at: making AR fun and involving, if not exactly useful.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Stuff The Internet Says On Scalability For July 15th, 2016

Hey, it's HighScalability time:


That little smudge on Jupiter is North America (size comparison). 

 

If you like this sort of Stuff then please support me on Patreon.
  • <2%: percent of total U.S. electricity consumption used by data centers; $4.99: hourly wage of Amazon Turkers; 8,072: cores in Cassandra cluster; .5: new reward for slaving away in the Bitcoin mines; 11: source code for the original Apollo guidance computer; 10 inverse femtobarns: number of collisions recorded by the Large Hadron Collider; 34 bps: using MEMO to send molecular messages through the air; 200 MB: record for storage in DNA; 10,000+: 3D printed parts are used in a Rolls-Royce Phantom; $43.6bn: IaaS revenue to triple by 2020; 

  • Quotable Quotes:
    • @PokemonGoApp: To ensure all Trainers can experience #PokemonGo, we continue to add new resources to accommodate everyone. Thank you for your patience.
    • @balajis: Pokemon Go is a classic overnight success, 10 years in the making. Ingress database, Google Maps, the Pokemon brand…
    • @avantgame: The math of Pokemon Go is pretty amazing. 21 million players in ONE week, playing 43 minutes on average a day.
    • @icecrime: Does Pokemon Go have generics?
    • Continue reading

Worth Reading: thinking about big data — part two

In Part One of this series of columns we learned about data and how computers can be used for finding meaning in large data sets. We even saw a hint of what we might call Big Data at Amazon.com in the mid-1990s, as that company stretched technology to observe and record in real time everything its tens of thousands of simultaneous users were doing. Pretty impressive, but not really Big Data, more like Bigish Data. —I, Cringely

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MIT researchers: Network pros could learn a lot from ants

How ants decide where to move their nests may hold lessons for computer scientists seeking efficient ways to gather data from distributed networks of sensors, according to MIT researchers.It turns out that the frequency with which explorer ants bump into each other as they wander around looking for a new home for their colony is a pretty good indicator of how many other explorer ants are investigating the same site.+More on Network World: What’s hot at Cisco Live | Hungry ants knock out FiOS service … again +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

MIT researchers: Network pros could learn a lot from ants

How ants decide where to move their nests may hold lessons for computer scientists seeking efficient ways to gather data from distributed networks of sensors, according to MIT researchers.It turns out that the frequency with which explorer ants bump into each other as they wander around looking for a new home for their colony is a pretty good indicator of how many other explorer ants are investigating the same site.+More on Network World: What’s hot at Cisco Live | Hungry ants knock out FiOS service … again +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US pumps $400 million into next-generation wireless research

The U.S. National Science Foundation will spend more than US$400 million over the next seven years to fund next-generation wireless research in an effort to bring super-fast mobile service to the country.U.S. officials hope the investments, announced Friday, will speed up the county's move to next-generation 5G mobile service, potentially offering speeds of 10Gbps, and allow for a rapid expansion of the internet of things. The next-generation mobile services will enable self-driving cars, an "always on" IoT, smart cities, new virtual reality offerings, and video to aid police, firefighters, and emergency medical responders, said John Holdren assistant to President Barack Obama for science and technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

In Nice attack, government’s official terror alert comes too late

"Take cover," the French government warned people in Nice via its official terror alert app.But the alert came almost three hours after police shot the driver of a truck as he plowed through crowds gathered on the waterfront late Thursday to watch a firework display celebrating France's national holiday.The System to Alert and Inform Populations (SAIP) app, introduced last month, is supposed to provide more timely and informative warnings than the existing nationwide network of sirens and radio messages. The ministry began working on the app after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, finally putting it into service on June 8.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

In Nice attack, government’s official terror alert comes too late

"Take cover," the French government warned people in Nice via its official terror alert app.But the alert came almost three hours after police shot the driver of a truck as he plowed through crowds gathered on the waterfront late Thursday to watch a firework display celebrating France's national holiday.The System to Alert and Inform Populations (SAIP) app, introduced last month, is supposed to provide more timely and informative warnings than the existing nationwide network of sirens and radio messages. The ministry began working on the app after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, finally putting it into service on June 8.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Blockchain-based OS for banks surfaces, could shake up retail banking

Some banking software is so old that programmers have had to come out of retirement to fix glitches in the code and integrate it into mobile phone device interfaces. That’s if the banks could find the poor guy, who's probably out fishing somewhere, or if he’s still alive.Yet banks haven’t wanted to invest in from-scratch, well-documented re-engineering. It’s too expensive—bankers prefer to count money than spend it—and it’s difficult to justify a new back end to owners because code is so invisible. Banking code has thus stagnated and gotten patched when necessary, or possible, despite fraud and cyber theft.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Blockchain-based OS for banks surfaces, could shake up retail banking

Some banking software is so old that programmers have had to come out of retirement to fix glitches in the code and integrate it into mobile phone device interfaces. That’s if the banks could find the poor guy, who's probably out fishing somewhere, or if he’s still alive.Yet banks haven’t wanted to invest in from-scratch, well-documented re-engineering. It’s too expensive—bankers prefer to count money than spend it—and it’s difficult to justify a new back end to owners because code is so invisible. Banking code has thus stagnated and gotten patched when necessary, or possible, despite fraud and cyber theft.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco patches serious flaws in router and conferencing server software

Cisco Systems released patches this week for several vulnerabilities in its IOS software for networking devices and the Cisco and WebEx conferencing servers.The most serious vulnerability affects the Cisco IOS XR software for the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 6000 Series Routers. It can lead to a denial-of-service condition, leaving affected devices in a nonoperational state.Unauthenticated, remote attackers can exploit the vulnerability by initiating a number of management connections to an affected device over the Secure Shell (SSH), Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) or Secure FTP (SFTP).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco patches serious flaws in router and conferencing server software

Cisco Systems released patches this week for several vulnerabilities in its IOS software for networking devices and the Cisco and WebEx conferencing servers.The most serious vulnerability affects the Cisco IOS XR software for the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 6000 Series Routers. It can lead to a denial-of-service condition, leaving affected devices in a nonoperational state.Unauthenticated, remote attackers can exploit the vulnerability by initiating a number of management connections to an affected device over the Secure Shell (SSH), Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) or Secure FTP (SFTP).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco patches serious flaws in router and conferencing server software

Cisco Systems released patches this week for several vulnerabilities in its IOS software for networking devices and the Cisco and WebEx conferencing servers.The most serious vulnerability affects the Cisco IOS XR software for the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 6000 Series Routers. It can lead to a denial-of-service condition, leaving affected devices in a nonoperational state.Unauthenticated, remote attackers can exploit the vulnerability by initiating a number of management connections to an affected device over the Secure Shell (SSH), Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) or Secure FTP (SFTP).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM Quantum Computing Push Gathering Steam

For the first time access to cutting-edge quantum computing is open free to the public over the web. On 3 May 2016, IBM launched their IBM Quantum Experience website, which enthusiasts and professionals alike can program on a prototype quantum processor chip within a simulation environment. Users, accepted over email by IBM, are given a straightforward ‘composer’ interface, much like a musical note chart, to run a program and test the output. In over a month more than 25,000 users have signed up.

The quantum chip itself combines five superconducting quantum bits (qubits) operating at a cool minus 273.135531 degrees …

IBM Quantum Computing Push Gathering Steam was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

IDG Contributor Network: The Pokémon Go effect on the network

Imagine sitting courtside at game seven of the NBA finals without having to pay the reported $99,000 someone spent on two tickets last month. Or imagine watching that same game in the stadium, and live statistics pop up on your connected glasses that show a certain player is approaching a triple-double—without having to take your eyes off the action. If you think either seem unrealistic, you probably didn’t think you’d be bumping into people chasing virtual Pokémon around the streets, did you? + Also on Network World: Amazon CTO says cloud can help crashing Pokemon Go +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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