June 20, 2016

Analytics Chalk Talks: Data Warehouses—Past, Present, and Future

We’ve got cloud, we’ve got mobile, we’ve got social media data, we’ve got machine data, sensor data. All these different sources. The data’s growing. In so many presentations on big data, you’ll see slides talking about the petabytes and zetabytes of data that you’ve got to be able to process to be able to handle the new world. But to me, that’s missing the point. You want to know why data warehousing is really, really relevant going forward, and why 70 percent of CIOs are increasing in their data warehousing spending. It’s because it’s not the volume and velocity of data that’s the problem. As that grows, we can just increase our hardware, increase our scale to be able to handle that. The problem is the increasing complexity that comes with the variety, the heterogeneity of data. We’re being asked to relate and integrate this data.


Writing for a Mobile Audience: 4 Things to Remember

Studies show that the experience of reading on a mobile device is different from the experience of reading on a larger screen. On traditional screens, eye-movements tend to start at the upper left corner and move right and then down. On mobile devices, eye-movements tend to stay in the center of the screen. So the way people are engaging your text on a mobile device is fundamentally different than the way they engage content on a larger screen. Your mobile content writing needs to reflect this reality. Long headlines can take up most of the screen on a small mobile device. You want to create short and strong headlines that grab attention without taking up the whole screen. Short headlines are easy to scan and digest on a mobile device.


Machine learning is the new Big Data

Now that the Big Data has landed and people are trying to figure out: How do I store it and manage it? What am I going to do with it, and at what velocity and to what end? That’s why at this Discover, we really need a big bat across the company and shiny neon lights around what we are referring to as applied to machine learning,” Veis said. “And it’s not an if; it’s a when andhow, because there’s no other way to tackle the amount of data hitting organizations.” ... “In that the technology itself, the computational assets that you can put at it and the ability to make it accessible, so it’s not just for the few but for the many,” Veis explained. “We are really taking ML and AI and making it for the developer. It’s not that the data scientist is still not key, but it’s now about going from fine china to everyday ware.”


What happens to those free Windows 10 upgrades after July 29, 2016?

The free upgrade offer never really applied to large businesses that run Windows Enterprise editions. For those customers who also have purchased Software Assurance for those volume licenses, the Windows 10 upgrade offer is, if not free, at least already paid for. The decision of whether and when to upgrade is driven by business needs, not by the cost of an upgrade license. In the new "Windows as a Service" model, Microsoft says it plans to deliver two or three new releases each year. The Anniversary Update is the first release in the Redstone update series, and it's scheduled to arrive at more or less the same time that the original upgrade offer ends. Another Redstone feature update is scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2017.


IT Talent Biggest Roadblock to Digital Transformation

IDT reports that cross-functional knowledge is important for digital transformation. In the study, 88 percent of respondents said "extensive business-related knowledge on the IT side is crucial for developing a digital transformation strategy," but they're experiencing major gaps across departments. Fifty-eight percent say their IT executives have the right knowledge for digital transformation, while only 27 percent said their business executives had the same level of technical knowledge. "The business and IT leaders need to come together to create a single strategy driven by business goals that provides overall guidance which the entire organization can support," says Troester. As a result, new job titles are emerging, targeted at blending the line between business and IT, according to Harry Osle


Why IT Must Pursue an Information Governance Plan

The "State of Information Governance" report defines IG as "the activities and technologies that organizations employ to maximize the value of their information while minimizing associated risks and costs." To support this, the research reveals that most companies are issuing formal data use policies and requiring employees to identify data that is confidential. They're also training staffers on data storage and archiving. In addition, findings break down organizations into those which are "high performing" on IG, and those which are not. While overall adoption rates among both are strong, high performers are more likely to deploy email and file archiving, while issuing formal use policies. "Information is both the lifeblood and the bane of any business, no matter its size, industry or location," according to the report. "Enterprises collect and analyze data from a myriad of internal and external sources to improve business efficiencies and decision-making processes.


Will Fintechs Kill the FICO Score?

"The rumors of the demise of the credit score have been greatly exaggerated, “credit analyst John Ulzheimer said. “It's still the best risk-assessment tool in the market and is used ubiquitously across all mainstream lending-decision platforms."  Yet the discussion at the Future of Fintech conference, and other public comments lately by industry players, leave the strong impression that change is underway. Mike Cagney, the chief executive of the online lender Social Finance, announced in January that SoFi has become a “FICO-Free Zone,” meaning it no longer factors FICO scores into its loan-qualification process. Instead, the company considers potential borrowers’ employment history, track record of meeting financial obligations and monthly cash flow to determine if they are creditworthy.


4 Popular Fintech Topics and What You Should Not Miss

Blockchain, as a pure platform technology, will maybe able to cut out the middlemen (or middle companies) everywhere. Because of that, many fintech entrepreneurs and experts constantly discuss topics such as: What does Blockchain matter? What are the various Blockchain concepts – sidechains, hyperledger, public or private blockchain? Who are the major players? What are they building or what sectors are they targeting? What is the investors’ perspective on blockchain startups? What are the latest notable blockchain startups? It’s time to become part of the digital revolution and join the network and platform-emerging world.


1 in 5 European banks would buy fintech startups

Regardless of which approach the banks take, there is no denying that we’ve entered the most profound era of change for financial services companies since the 1970s brought us index mutual funds, discount brokers and ATMs. No firm is immune from the coming disruption and every company must have a strategy to harness the powerful advantages of the new fintech revolution. The battle already underway will create surprising winners and stunned losers among some of the most powerful names in the financial world: The most contentious conflicts (and partnerships) will be between startups that are completely reengineering decades-old practices, traditional power players who are furiously trying to adapt with their own innovations, and total disruption of established technology & processes


HPE looks to move data between computers at the speed of light

HPE calls its photonics chip module X1, and it is still in early testing. In the future, attaching a fiber optic cable to computers will be as easy as attaching Ethernet cables, said Michael McBride, director at HPE's silicon design lab. Ultimately, the connector technology and cables will be used in The Machine, HPE's new server design that focuses on processing by using storage and memory. The transfer range of X1 is about 30 to 50 meters. HPE also showed off other silicon photonics technology that can transfer data at distances up to 50 kilometers at 200Gbps (bits per second). Light is already being used as a long-range data transfer mechanism in large telecommunications networks. Intel is also working on silicon photonics modules and is expected to ship them later this year. It isn't clear if HPE is working with Intel on its technology.



Quote for the day:


"An approximate answer to the right problem is worth a good deal more than an exact answer to an approximate problem." -- John Tukey


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