Month: January 2014

UC Year in Review: Hosted Services and Mobility Lead in 2013

by , posted in Communicate
Cindy Whelan
Cindy Whelan

Summary Bullets:

  • 2013 UC announcements from service providers led with hosted PBX, UCaaS and mobility solutions.
  • UC options for SMEs grew as carriers focused on adding BYOD and contact center features to solutions.

U.S. Tier 1 providers AT&T, Sprint and Verizon began launching their Cisco HCS and Microsoft Lync-based solutions for U.S.-based large enterprises and multinationals in 2011, and in 2012, we began to see UC options emerge for U.S. medium businesses and small enterprises (companies with 50-500 employees, defined as ‘mid-market’ for the remainder of this post).  While there are many premises-based SIP trunking solutions in the market today, much of the activity in 2013 centered on expansion of hosted UC solutions and the addition of mobility and contact center capabilities.  Continue reading “UC Year in Review: Hosted Services and Mobility Lead in 2013” →

The Cloud Is Out There… But Is It the Same to Everybody?

by , posted in Cloud Enable
Steven Hill
Steven Hill

Summary Bullets:

  • Tech vendors have been sending mixed and confusing messages to consumers about the cloud at every level.
  • Surely, there must be a better way of marketing cloud offerings that separates consumer cloud services from IT cloud initiatives.

My position about the cloud from day one had nothing to do with hyping the ‘wonder’ of the cloud, focusing instead on the broader philosophical changes that cloud technologies bring to IT in general: for example, the elegance and simplicity of choosing whatever resources you need from a tidy little menu and having them available on demand.  Reducing spin-up times from weeks to minutes, now that’s magic.  I come from a computing background of building everything from scratch, because I am an old nerd and that was pretty much the only way to get things done, so I cannot help but be a rabid fan of elegance and simplicity.  Of course, that degree of simplicity always has a price and we are paying that now in the form of competing standards and inconsistent terminology, making it difficult for IT managers and consumers alike to understand their options.  Instead of making the conversation easier, this makes it more complex. Continue reading “The Cloud Is Out There… But Is It the Same to Everybody?” →

Mixing the Perfect Big Data Elixir for IT Professionals in 2014

by , posted in Big Data
Brad Shimmin
Brad Shimmin

Summary Bullets:
• How should enterprise IT go about supporting and maybe even driving data and analytics projects in 2014?
• Familiarity with the likes of YARN, NoSQL, Python, ETL among many tools and tactics will help IT succeed with big data both this year and in the years to come

Welcome to 2014. Time for a fresh start and of course a look at how the enterprise data and analytics market will evolve as the new year unfolds. Frankly, you don’t have to look very far on the ol’ interweb to see numerous predictions and prognostications from yours truly and many, many others. Here’s a short list for those keeping score at home: Continue reading “Mixing the Perfect Big Data Elixir for IT Professionals in 2014” →

A New Wave of Android Devices Is Coming to the Workplace; IT Security, Are You Ready?

by , posted in Mobilize
Paula Musich
Paula Musich

Summary Bullets:

  • Android devices are an increasingly rich target for mobile malware writers, which makes securing those devices as they are used in the workplace a key element of any BYOD or COPE program.
  • IT security pros should insist any BYOD program require the most up-to-date mobile OS versions and ensure the anti-malware protections included in any MDM or MEM deployment are top notch.

Now that all smartphone and tablet Christmas presents are making their way into the enterprise, it is important to examine the security protections put in place to secure their access to enterprise applications and data.  Beyond authentication, passwords, remote lock and wipe, and other basic security measures provided in enterprise mobile management suites, anti-malware for those mobile endpoints is a key element that should be carefully scrutinized.  Continue reading “A New Wave of Android Devices Is Coming to the Workplace; IT Security, Are You Ready?” →

Make Speaking on SDN a 2014 Resolution

by , posted in Network
  • Mike Fratto
    Mike Fratto

    The true value of SDN lies in the benefits it can provide across a number of IT environments, but determining that specific value is difficult at best and requires context that only you can provide.

  • Make a point of extending the discussion about SDN at conferences and take the time to share your experiences and concerns with your IT colleagues; everyone will reap benefits far beyond the price of admission.

The SDN discussion really needs to move beyond the technology that powers it and towards the value it provides to enterprise IT. Thankfully analysts, press, and technical bloggers are all starting to talk about the value that SDN provides in addition to technology and I think we’ll see much more in 2014. Continue reading “Make Speaking on SDN a 2014 Resolution” →

Why AT&T Sponsored Data Isn’t the End of the Internet as We Know It

by , posted in Network
Brian Washburn
Brian Washburn

Summary Bullets:

  • AT&T Sponsored Data has a strong corporate applications angle. Annoying mobile ads may be a concern, but it’s not out to destroy the Internet.
  • If AT&T Sponsored Data seems a product of wireless data caps set too low, competition and market forces – not regulations – should correct that.

On January 6th, AT&T debuted its Sponsored Data service. The service is a way for businesses to let AT&T’s wireless customers access content of the business’ choice on their mobile devices, across AT&T’s 4G network for free. In this case, “free” means that AT&T Mobility customers don’t count Sponsored Data transfer volumes over AT&T’s 4G network against their monthly bandwidth caps. AT&T Sponsored Data has some initial sample applications and intriguing possibilities. A colleague, Kathryn Weldon, published a business services report about Sponsored Data that is accessible to subscribers of Current Analysis content here: AT&T Helps Business Customers Engender Loyalty via Sponsored Data Service, Jan. 6, 2013). Continue reading “Why AT&T Sponsored Data Isn’t the End of the Internet as We Know It” →

And Away We Go: 2014 Begins with a M2M App Development Platform Acquisition

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize
Kathryn Weldon
Kathryn Weldon

Summary Bullets:

  • As Current Analysis forecasted in our December predictions report (see Enterprise Mobility and M2M Predictions for 2014: Growth Industries That Excite the Service Provider Imagination, December 10, 2013), 2014 is expected to be a year that will see consolidation in the M2M market, especially when it comes to the large number of small application development platform (ADP) vendors.
  • As the first of such acquisitions in the new year, PTC’s acquisition of ThingWorx is an interesting one; companies not generally thought of as M2M/IoT players are clearly figuring out how to add services and solutions to their portfolios to target or take advantage of the growing market for connected machines.

PTC has long been a prominent provider of solutions to manufacturers, beginning with its industry-leading CAD/CAM software in the ‘80s, which has since evolved to a portfolio for product lifecycle management (PLM), computer-aided design (CAD), application lifecycle management (ALM), supply chain management (SCM) and service lifecycle management (SLM).  As connectivity is becoming an increasingly important part of manufactured goods, it makes sense that PTC would want to integrate solutions to allow its customers to build ‘smart’ machines that can be remotely monitored and serviced and to capture real-time performance data about them to improve their operations. Continue reading “And Away We Go: 2014 Begins with a M2M App Development Platform Acquisition” →