Dropbox goes off to college with new Education service

Dropbox launched a new service on Tuesday to help graduate students, college faculty and staff collaborate on files while they’re at school. Schools can now pay $50 per user, per year for Dropbox Education, a version of the cloud storage company’s premium offering for organizations that’s tailored to the cost-sensitive education market. Dropbox is trying to sell more paid services, but its offerings have been aimed primarily at businesses. Dropbox Education will cost much less than the company's business plans, which typically run from $150 to $300 per user, per month.It’s a move that could give the company a bigger foothold in the lucrative education market at a time when Dropbox is working hard to expand its business beyond a large base of free consumer users. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worldwide mobile app market hits $34 billion

Remember a few years ago when everyone and his brother was scrambling to build a mobile app in a frantic gold rush to get rich quick? Well, there was plenty of real gold in them thar virtual hills, but as in most gold rushes, only few people actually struck it rich.Similarly, over time the nimble advantages of the early online prospectors have been overtaken by the giant companies that now largely own the digital world.At least, that’s my takeaway from IDC’s new Worldwide Mobile Applications Forecast, 2016-2020 study. According to the IDC research, “mobile device users installed nearly 156 billion mobile applications worldwide in 2015, generating $34.2 billion in direct (non-advertising) revenue.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel Stretches Deep Learning on Scalable System Framework

The strong interest in deep learning neural networks lies in the ability of neural networks to solve complex pattern recognition tasks – sometimes better than humans. Once trained, these machine learning solutions can run very quickly – even in real-time – and very efficiently on low-power mobile devices and in the datacenter.

However training a machine learning algorithm to accurately solve complex problems requires large amounts of data that greatly increases the computational workload. Scalable distributed parallel computing using a high-performance communications fabric is an essential part of what makes the training of deep learning on large complex datasets …

Intel Stretches Deep Learning on Scalable System Framework was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

How we built Origin CA: Web Crypto

At CloudFlare we strive to combine features that are simple, secure, and backed by solid technology. The Origin CA is a great example of this. You no longer need to go to a third-party certificate authority to protect the connection between CloudFlare and your origin server. You can now get a certificate to encrypt the connection between CloudFlare and the origin from CloudFlare directly with one click.

In certificate-based security, the most important thing is protecting the private key. We designed the one-click certificate dashboard to maximize private key security. Your private key is created client-side in your browser using the W3C’s Web Crypto API and only the public key is sent to CloudFlare’s servers. This security feature turned out to be a big win for usability as well as an interesting technical challenge.

Certificate authorities don’t need your private key

Most certificate authorities (CAs) specialize in one type of transaction: they take a certificate signing request (CSR) (and sometimes a fee) and in return they provide a signed certificate. A CSR is a way to tell a certificate authority what your public key is and to prove you have control of the corresponding private key. The certificate authority doesn’t Continue reading

6 traits engineers need to succeed as IT leaders

Engineers and developers often make the best IT leaders. Not only are they forward-thinking and tech-savvy, but they've already have the trust and the loyalty of your IT team and they know the ins-and-outs of a great culture. If you're looking for good IT leadership, you should start from within your own ranks, says Kathy Harris, managing director of technology executive recruitment firm Harris Allied. Not only will this foster greater trust and engagement, it can be a powerful recruiting tool for other elite talent, Harris says."Top people always want to work with other star talent. They understand that within that environment they can learn, grow and be challenged professionally. Including engineers and developers in your IT leadership also means there's someone at the table who understands the technology, the methodology, the quirks of your organization and the culture," says Harris. Here are six traits to look for in a great IT leader.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Public sector embraces bigger, longer outsourcing deals

Over the past five years, as outsourcing in the commercial sector has grown steadily but modestly, the annual contract value of outsourcing deals in the public sector has more than doubled, according to analysis by outsourcing consultancy ISG. Today, public sector outsourcing deals account for two-thirds of the annual contract value in the market overall.Much of the activity is happening in the U.S., which consists almost entirely of information technology work and driven in large part by Department of Defense spending, according to ISG. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, contending with the changes mandated by the Affordable Care Act, are also significant users of third-party IT services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 key requirements of successful big data projects

VANCOUVER, BC - Successful big data projects have five key requirements, says Amy Gaskins, a data scientist with more than a decade of experience designing and implementing data and intelligence projects for the private sector, government agencies and the U.S. military.In her keynote presentation at the Apache: Big Data North America conference in Vancouver on Monday, Gaskins stressed that five factors can make or break big data projects: Buy-in. It's commonly acknowledged at this point that big data projects need buy-in from senior leadership to succeed. But Gaskins says that's not enough. You need buy-in at every level, including middle management and workers themselves. "You need to get it from senior leadership, but also the middle and bottom. Why are we doing this? Everyone needs to understand." Urgency. "Is there an existential threat to your business or the mission if you don't do this?" Gaskins asks. Transparency. Do people both inside and outside the organization know what we're doing and why? Can it be repeated? Involvement of non-data science subject matter experts (SMEs). Non-data science SMEs are the ones who understand their fields inside and out. They provide the context that allows you to understand what Continue reading

Containers vs. virtual machines: How to tell which is the right choice for your enterprise

Name a tech company, any tech company, and they're investing in containers. Google, of course. IBM, yes. Microsoft, check. But, just because containers are extremely popular, doesn't mean virtual machines are out of date. They're not. Containers Containers vs. virtual machines: How to tell which is the right choice for your enterprise Do you need a container-specific Linux distribution? Container wars: Interesting times ahead for Docker and its competitors The beginner's guide to Docker Yes, containers can enable your company to pack a lot more applications into a single physical server than a virtual machine (VM) can. Container technologies, such as Docker, beat VMs at this part of the cloud or data-center game.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Windows Store for Business finally opens for business

Microsoft introduced Windows Store for Business (WSB) last year as an enterprise app store solution for businesses to install Windows apps across their corporate PCs. Things have been a little slow, but that's about to pick up.Effective last week, Microsoft made it easier for developers to sell their apps to IT professionals by allowing them to sell organizational licenses to companies via WSB, giving administrators the ability to acquire, manage and distribute apps faster and easier.WSB is similar to the consumer Windows Store, with some differences. For starters, it is managed according to countries and regions to handle licensing and other local issues. Also, companies can make volume purchases, an option consumers don't always have.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amazon takes on YouTube, launches Amazon Video Direct

First Amazon took on Netflix, but now the company is taking aim at YouTube by launching Amazon Video Direct (AVD); it’s a self-service program for video creators to make their content available to Amazon customers, including those with Prime memberships – which is nothing to scoff at since Prime was estimated to be in about half of all U.S. households ... and that was before Prime started offering $9 monthly subscriptions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Geeky ways to celebrate Friday the 13th

You're in luckWe've cobbled together a slew of things for the geeky among you to do on Jan. 13 -- Friday the 13th that isth. And we suggest you do it up because you won’t get another chance until Oct. 13, 2017.Don’t miss the day!Mobile apps exist solely for the purpose of reminding you when Friday the 13th is coming up. Pocketkai’s free iOS app will remind you of the one to three Friday the 13ths coming up each year for the next 50 years. The Bogeyman’s Android app will do likewise, for the next 10 Friday the 13ths.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

High-demand cybersecurity skill sets

Back to one of my pet issues, the global cybersecurity skills shortage.According to ESG research, 46 percent of organizations say they have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills in 2016 (note: I am an ESG employee). By comparison, 28 percent of organizations claimed to have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills in 2015. That means we’ve seen an 18 percent year-over-year increase.So, there is a universal shortage of infused talent, but where are these deficiencies most acute? According to a survey of 299 IT and cybersecurity professionals: 33% of organizations say they have a shortage of cloud security specialists.  This makes sense, as it combines the shortage of cybersecurity skills with evolution of cloud computing. Other ESG research also indicates that large organizations are creating jobs for cloud security architects, so demand is especially high. Cybersecurity professionals should think about pursuing a cloud security certification from CSA or SANS as part of their career development plan.  There are more jobs than people, and enterprise organizations are tripping over each other to hire talent as quickly as they can.  28% of organizations say they have a shortage of network security specialists. To me, this really reinforces Continue reading

High-Demand Cybersecurity Skill Sets

Back to one of my pet issues, the global cybersecurity skills shortage.  According to ESG research, 46% of organizations say they have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills in 2016 (note: I am an ESG employee).  By comparison, 28% of organizations claimed to have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills in 2015, so we’ve seen an 18% year-over-year increase.So there is a universal shortage of infosec talent but where are these deficiencies most acute?  According to a survey of 299 IT and cybersecurity professionals: 33% of organizations say they have a shortage of cloud security specialists.  This makes sense as it combines the shortage of cybersecurity skills with evolution of cloud computing.  Other ESG research also indicates that large organizations are creating jobs for cloud security architects so demand is especially high.  Cybersecurity professionals should think about pursuing a cloud security certification from CSA or SANS as part of their career development plan.  There are more jobs than people and enterprise organizations are tripping over each other to hire talent as quickly as they can.  28% of organizations say they have a shortage of network security specialists.  To me, this Continue reading

H3C/Tsinghua Completes

A new IT behemoth has bellied its way up onto the beach. IDC has issued a press release: One year after the announcement of the subsidiary of Tsinghua Holdings, Unisplendour Corporation Limited’s plans to acquire 51% share of H3C Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s China-based server, storage and technology services business, the company finally completed […]

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