Enterprise big data and analytics cuts through the hype to make sense of data collection, storage, management, dissemination and discovery technologies, all employed collectively as a means of realizing corporate efficiencies and uncovering business opportunities.
• Snowflake’s annual summit sees a slew of platform, data management, and partnership announcements.
• These enhancements bolster its competitive position, but the market remains crowded
At its annual summit in early June, Snowflake announced several enhancements to its data cloud platform, services, and partnership program. These announcements enhance its competitive position, making it more appealing to a wider range of user roles (such as developers) and industries.
Some announcements relate to better support for developers, with the inclusion of Java and Scala support in the Snowpark framework, which allows developers to build queries in their preferred programming languages and execute them on Snowflake’s cloud. Announcements also included support for user defined functions (UDF) in Java, greater ability to handle unstructured data, and support for SQL APIs.
• At IBM Think 2021, IBM released several capabilities that help customers craft what it calls an ‘intelligent data fabric’.
• IBM AutoSQL (Structured Query Language) for Cloud Pack for Data is designed to help streamline access to data stored in multiple locations.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer the shiny new toy on the market that it was a few years ago. Many organizations have by now dabbled with the technology, and a large number have rolled up their sleeves and deployed multiple AI projects. As enterprises mature in their adoption of the technology, they are eager to deploy AI at scale, moving beyond one or two limited implementations to applying machine learning (ML) to more tasks and making it available to a larger number of business units.
Prominent KubeCon themes included observability and service mesh.
New Relic and F5/NGINX made key announcements.
The open source software (OSS) community huddled up last week during KubeCon Europe, clearly affected by the past year’s strain on companies and DevOps teams, resolving to refine digitization via emerging technologies. Twice a year, KubeCon provides the industry with a developer-focused gauge of key trends and innovations related to app modernization, DevOps, and Kubernetes/container innovations. Continue reading “KubeCon Europe 2021: Key Themes Centered on Observability and Service Mesh”→
• Domopalooza focused on the key themes of data agility, data literacy, and intelligent action.
• Domo announced multiple new products and features, including native integration with Amazon Redshift, availability of natural language generation, DDX Bricks, and Domo Everywhere.
Domo held its annual Domopalooza customer conference at the end of March, hosting a high energy event that outlined three key themes: data agility, data literacy, and intelligent action. Data agility refers to the need for organizations to respond quickly and easily to shifts in data demand and to make data accessible to all (including employees, partners, and customers). It requires a data architecture that integrates disparate data sets into a unified view, enabling the seamless flow of information. Data literacy is about empowering knowledge workers with analytical confidence, so they feel comfortable making data driven decisions. Intelligent action relates to the need to make data easy to use and engage with (such as via visualizations), so that line of business users can quickly use the insights to guide decisions.
Digital acceleration implements short-term tactical changes over longer-term strategic projects.
Digital acceleration is a response to changing customer demands, not just COVID-19.
Digital transformation has been an industry catchphrase for some time now. Its definition is both vague and changeable, but it speaks to using technology to improve internal processes within an enterprise to deliver cost savings and/or improved performance. It encompasses a wide range of technologies including cloud, SD-WAN, collaboration, IoT, 5G, blockchain, AI, and SaaS.
However, there is a new buzz phrase on the block: digital acceleration. So, is there a difference between digital transformation and digital acceleration? The ‘helpful’ answer to that is ‘yes and no.’ The intentions of both digital transformation and digital acceleration are the same, as are the technologies involved. The big difference is in methodology. Continue reading “Digital Acceleration – For When Digital Transformation Is Too Slow”→
Businesses are resorting to shifts in investments in emerging high-value innovations to hasten their cloud journey.
We delve into how cloud rivals stack up in five key innovations: low-code/intelligent automation, developer tools/app architectures, hybrid/multi-cloud management, holistic cloud security, and edge computing.
This week, GlobalData released Part II on its analysis of the five most important innovations necessary for successful business transformations. This report specifically delves into how Microsoft, AWS, Google, and IBM stack up in key digitization technologies. Considering the pandemic’s unprecedented pressure on the global economy, prompting enterprises to accelerate and nail digitization initiatives, we determined that cloud providers’ strategies and solutions should be put under the microscope. (Please see “A Cloud Wars Comparison on Critical innovations (Part II),” March 9, 2021). Continue reading “Cloud Wars Under the Microscope: Leaders’ DevOps Strategies and Solutions”→
• Corporate initiatives to promote greater environmentally responsible polices have become increasingly important to a broader audience in recent years
• Accenture and Salesforce plan to bring to market services that help enterprises better track and measure progress in implementing sustainability initiatives, including those related to diversity and governance.
Initiatives that promote environmental sustainability have been making headlines. In the fall of 2020, the state of California declared it would ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks starting in 2035. At the end of January President Biden announced plans to replace all federal government vehicles with electric vehicles. And two days later, GM made front page news by announcing that it would stop manufacturing gasoline and diesel fueled cars and SUVs by 2035.
While announcements in the automotive space command widespread attention, efforts to promote greater sustainability are quietly being implemented in other industries as well, including the technology sector. Technology services providers have taken a two-pronged approach to promoting improved sustainability. As a first step, they have vowed to reduce their own carbon footprints, with many French IT services firms assuming a leadership role. Atos, a French IT services provider, has pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by 50% over the next five years, and to reduce the carbon emissions it influences by 50% over the next ten years. Similarly, France-based Capgemini has committed to being carbon neutral no later than 2025 and to be net zero by 2030. These IT services companies plan to reduce business travel, increase the use of renewal energy, utilize hybrid and electric cars, scrutinize supply chains, and participate in initiatives such as reforestation.
The second, and complementary, part of technology providers’ strategies is to help customers reduce their carbon footprints. For example, Capgemini uses AI and analytics to help companies analyze and optimize energy consumption and implement logistics solutions that reduce fuel consumption. Atos is making significant investments in sustainability and expects that decarbonization activities will generate a 1% revenue increase for the company in the three to four years post COVID-19. In 2020 the company acquired EcoAct, a 160 person strong carbon reduction strategy consulting firm. Atos plans to work with EcoAct to launch a global Decarbonization Excellence Center in H1 2021 and will work with customers on decarbonization assessments and roadmaps for achieving carbon neutrality, and will offer digital solutions that decarbonize business processes. Continue reading “Tech Services Providers Tackle Sustainability”→
An intricate combination of data analytics, predictive analytics, data visualization, AI, virtual reality, and gaming could make a decision simulator.
The idea has evidently been taken seriously enough to see serious if brief development within several vendors.
Take data analytics, predictive analytics, data visualization, AI, virtual reality, and gaming. Toss. The result could be a mess, but if developers skilled in each of these capabilities perform the ‘toss’ – either in a lavishly equipped lab or a garage – that mix might result in the game of the decade for decision makers. Continue reading “Prediction for the 2020s: AI, Analytics, VR, and Gaming Make a Decision Simulator”→
