Enterprises struggle to fill the cloud skills gap

According to a new study 94 percent of respondents find it at least 'somewhat difficult' to recruit candidates with the right technology and business skills for driving digital innovation. The report from AIOps platform company OpsRamp shows that over 60 percent of IT professionals say that a majority of their applications are either built or run using hybrid cloud architectures. This means organizations will need vastly different skills, technologies, and processes to run their infrastructure and operations over the next five years as they adopt a cloud-first posture. The report shows that 77 percent of enterprise IT teams are working… [Continue Reading]

The future of analytics: 6 predictions

Analytics have become an important part of the decision-making process for many companies in the past few decades, particularly with corporations using data assets as a core competency and point of origin. My work in the past few decades in the data and analysis field have brought forward six predicted trends to watch for in the near future: 1.  Deliberate data-culture initiatives Companies articulate openly their need to shift their organizations culture to become more data-inspired in decision-making related to strategic and tactical decisions. Now it seems they’re starting to put initiatives in place to encourage this shift and move… [Continue Reading]

Don't be a data dinosaur

In today’s pressurized environment, decisions not only have to be right, but they also have to be made quickly. But with so much information coming from numerous different sources, it can be hard to pinpoint the important data. Since its launch in 1985, Excel has undoubtedly transformed the way businesses operate. However, over 30 years later it has not evolved to meet the speeds and efficiencies of other, more automated, solutions. Recording, analyzing, categorizing and reporting thousands of changing data points back to stakeholders is far more complex than plugging numbers into a table. Consequently, the cutting-edge technologies of yesterday… [Continue Reading]

10 quick observations about Google Pixel Slate

Pixel Slate arrived at the Wilcox household on Nov. 28, 2018, from Google Store, with the order correctly fulfilled. Initial out-of-the-box reaction: "Oh". Underwhelmed. Nearly five days later: "Wow". The Chrome OS tablet is understated in all the ways that matter. My brain just needed a wee bit of time to appreciate the many nuances, rather than one obvious thing flipping the "ah-ha" switch. The Slate will finally complete my move away from Apple products, started in late July. The Chrome OS slab is set to replace iPad 10.5 and possibly could displace my beloved Pixelbook, as well. We shall see… [Continue Reading]

Amazon launches hardware compatibility checker to help PC upgraders

If you want a custom PC, there's a lot of fun to be had building your own rig -- or even just upgrading your off-the-shelf PC. But while you can save money as you create your perfect computer, there is the headache of ensuring that all of the components you buy are compatible with your system. While hardware compatibility is not quite the problem it was in years gone by, it can still be an issue. Help is at hand, however, albeit from an unlikely source. Amazon has launched a compatibility checking tool that will help you to buy the… [Continue Reading]

Google may pull the plug on Hangouts in 2020

Google is no stranger to killing off services, and it seems that one of its next victims could be Hangouts. Having split the chat tool into corporate-focused Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet, sources familiar with Google's plans say that the company is due to shut down the consumer version of Hangouts in 2020. The writing has been on the wall for a little while, but now the clock really is ticking... See also: Google Translate on the web gets improved looks and functionality Fast Pair makes it easier to pair Bluetooth headphones to Android devices via a Google Account Now… [Continue Reading]

Windows 10 fails to overtake Windows 7's usage share -- but it's very close

NetMarketShare reports on the state of the desktop operating system market on the first day of each month. In October, Windows 10 had edged closer to Windows 7, and I predicted that NetMarketShare would finally see Windows 10 emerge victorious in November. It didn’t. In fact, in November Windows 10 actually lost some usage share, dropping 0.14 percentage points. That puts it on 38.1 4 percent, down from the 38.28 percent high in October. The gap between the two operating systems still narrowed though, as Windows 7 also lost share, going from 39.35 percent to 38.89 percent, a fall of… [Continue Reading]