Q: Why should I care about the Internet of Things, right now?
A: The Internet of Things (IoT) is going to be the most gamechanging
IT initiative since cloud or mobile computing. Its
transformative power is tremendous. Just take a look at Uber, the
on-demand car service that runs on an IoT architecture. By using
information such as driver and passenger location, Uber connects
the dots between someone looking for a ride and a willing driver.
Smartphone sensors send tons of information to the cloud, broken
down by time zones and geographies. Once it’s in the cloud, all that
information is processed by algorithms, not only to match up drivers
with passengers but also to manage price dynamically, based on
supply and demand and location.
Uber may have turned the cab business upside down, but what’s
the take-away for technical professionals? A lot more Ubers, in
other industries, are on the horizon. That’s why technical
professionals need to act with urgency by planning now rather than
waiting for IoT solutions to be foisted upon them. By making the
right decisions regarding architecture, platforms, vendors and
strategy, you’ll be ahead of the disruption rather than reacting to it.
Q: How will analytics impact data management?
A: Analytics are what make big data work for enterprises. They
automatically take insights gleaned from algorithms and put them into
action. Soon businesses will be valued not just on their revenue
growth, but on the quality of their digital analytics that will be at the
core of customer interactions. Think about my earlier mention of
Uber, a company that runs on an IoT architecture and that, in
essence, is a digital business. Within the next five years, businesses
like that will be far more common.
Take for example car manufacturers like Ford and Honda. Their
vehicles will generate telemetric information, which in turn will be
used in analytics alerting customers to critical maintenance
information. Granted, some analytics will be mundane while other will
be substantial, maybe even spectacular. This is what you should be
considering, right now: “How do I analyze big data? How do I
integrate these analytics into my existing systems, and how can
those analytics help transform the business?”
Q: What are containers? What tools are used to build and
deploy them?
A: Over the past 18 months, containers have become a hot topic in
the data center. Why? Increased agility. Offering a type of
virtualization, containers allow developers to compress and
streamline their development cycles by solving the problem of how
to get software to run reliably from one computing environment to
another — from desktop to test environment to production.
Benefits to the business are significant — getting software and
services to market that much faster. Using containers also can be a
tremendous boon to organizations that are struggling to adopt
DevOps practices. In terms of building and deploying, many IT
organizations use Docker, a container management framework that
gives developers accessibility and ease of use.
Q: What are some of the hot issues in security today?
A: The controversy between Apple and the FBI has most recently
grabbed attention. Should Apple help law enforcement hack an
iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists? Historically, Apple
has used encryption to protect customers’ personal data, even
putting the data out of Apple’s own reach. It boils down to
authentication. Once Apple “breaks authentication,” then that
software is out there in the wild and anyone can break into any
phone. Regardless of the outcome, technical professionals will be
grappling with new challenges to identity and access management.
Keep in mind that security is a broad area with many other pressing
issues. One of the big ones is security information and event
management (SIEM), an approach that provides a holistic view of IT
security. SIEM tools have reached mainstream adoption, but many
challenges remain. Security architects are realizing that to avoid
ineffective deployments requires an ongoing organizational
commitment and a set of operational practices. Running SIEM is
more than just a project “to do and forget.”
Culled from www.gartner.com
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