SigmaWay Blog

Some 2 billion people continue to live on less than $2 a day! Millions of women and girls around the world lack basic human rights. A slew of initiatives address these and other intractable social issues, yet often, even the most successful ones only address a fraction of the problem. The good news is that a number of cutting-edge leaders and organizations are shifting their focus to ask: "How can we help to have impact at a scale that actually solves the problem?" And they are finding that technology, particularly information tech, offers answers. According to Ray Kurzweil, Google’s director of engineering and a renowned expert on artificial intelligence, "Once any domain, discipline, technology, or industry becomes information-enabled and powered by information flows, its price/performance begins doubling approximately annually." This phenomenon opens up the potential for exponential growth in reach and impact.

Here are six ways that information technology is breaking through scale barriers:

·      Empowering with information.

·         Teaching and engaging.

·         Making matches.

·         Crowdsourcing hotspots.

·         Reaching the under-served.

·         Raise cash for good.

Abe Grindle, famous author, speaks about the ways technology is breaking the barriers to social change. To read more, visit the following link:

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3043761/techsocial/6-ways-technology-is-breaking-barriers-to-social-change

A hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment in which an organization provides and manages some resources in-house and has others provided externally. For example, an organization might use a public cloud service, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for archived data but continue to maintain in-house storage for operational customer data. The hybrid approach allows a business to take advantage of the scalability and cost-effectiveness that a public cloud computing environment offers without exposing mission-critical applications and data to third-party vulnerabilities. This type of hybrid cloud is also referred to as hybrid IT. The hybrid cloud has the potential to transform enterprise IT completely and shift the cost/benefit emphasis from cost to benefit.

Matt Watts, Netapp, speaks about how hybrid cloud can bring this transformation. To know more, please visit:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/netapp/2015/03/18/hybrid-cloud-cost-benefit/

The cloud services leader Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been challenged by the big daddy Google by announcing new storage partnerships with a number of companies for data backup (Veritas Technologies Corp./Symantec Corp.), on-premises appliances for data de-duplication (NetApp), encryption and compression (Iron Mountain Inc.), and offline disk storage and Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) solutions (Geminare Inc.). Google offers an Online Cloud Import service that can be used to migrate petabyte-scale data from other online storage services to Google Cloud Storage, the company said in a white paper about Nearline Storage.Nearline will enable users to easily back up and store limitless amounts of data at a very low cost and access it at any time in a matter of seconds, which has been positioned against the Amazon Glacier storage service.

To know more, please visit the following link:

http://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2015/03/16/google-nearline-storage-challenges-aws.aspx

Pure tag management software/solution has become omnipresent. Every company wants to own one. But it is a feature and not a product segment. So, the future of "tags" is shifting to data management. Most TMS providers are now engaging in unification platforms, by which all the data collected from various channels and devices can connect and interact. These can be utilized by marketers so as to reduce spending, and increase marketing efficiencies. The future of tag management is digital marketing. It gives marketer agility and ownership of their data. To know more about tag management and its benefits and the future challenges it faces, read the article by Contributor Hollis Thomases (veteran of the interactive marketing world) at: http://marketingland.com/future-tag-management-102355

The first milestone in cloud computing history was marked by the arrival of Salesforce.com in 1999, which is the pioneer of the concept of delivering enterprise applications via a simple website. . The next development was Amazon Web Services in 2002, started providing a suite of cloud-based services including storage, computation and even human intelligence through the Amazon Mechanical Turk.In 2009, as Web 2.0 hit its stride, Google and others started to offer browser-based enterprise applications, though services such as Google Apps. According to Dan Germain, chief technology officer of Cobweb Solutions, “The most important contribution to cloud computing has been the emergence of "killer apps" from leading technology giants such as Microsoft and Google. When these companies deliver services in a way that is reliable and easy to consume, the knock-on effect to the industry as a whole is a wider general acceptance of online services.” To know more about the history of cloud, go to: http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/A-history-of-cloud-computing

What is the requirement of the IT certification skill? It is a recognized benchmark based on standardized skill, which shows a person's knowledge and dedication on a particular technological platform. This certification helps to group the person with a selected group of individuals. Having an IT certification gives a person an edge over others when it comes to hiring. In a volatile economic environment it helps a person to retain his/her job. Also helps a person to climb up the corporate ladder in his/her career. With the help of the certification a person can join a group of unique members which will improve his/her networking skills. It also enhances professional credibility. In some cases, organizations require certified associates and staff, so having a certificate will also be helpful for the company. In some scenarios, customers only want to work with companies that have certified individuals. Earning an IT certification on a new product can make a person a subject matter expert in his/her organization. Certifications may be the best way of rewarding one's efforts. IT certification ensures that corporate professionals are up to date with existing and new technologies. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297740/certifications-benefits/page/1

Internet of things (IoT) is helping in monitoring the weather by gathering as much data as possible about the weather so that some idea is obtained about how the weather is evolving in different regions. IoT provides detailed data and makes it feasible to locate hundreds or even thousands of sensors per square mile in populated areas. Many weather forecasting apps are also available. One such app comes from Weather Signal, a brainchild of Open Signal, producing a live crowd source weather map which can be viewed by anyone. The BloomSky Tian is used for a more consistent set of measurement in weather forecasting. It uses Wi-Fi to connect to a home network and also has a camera to take pictures. Both these options are there for consumers, but IoT options are also there for civic and professional use. One such option is available from Envirologger. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297673/monitoring-weather-internet

Communication has evolved a lot since the discovery of telephones. The invention of smartphones and OTT (over the top) messenger apps, along with the emergence of social networks, have changed the face of communication. At the same time, improvements in collaborative technologies have sent video-conferencing through the early motions of commoditization, making it a reality for businesses of all sizes. Now the time has arrived to move from Unified Communications to Universal Communications. While unified communications has been focused on integration and streamlining of all the communication and collaboration tools within a business; universal communications is about making communications possible anywhere, between anyone and nearly across any device. The main factors driving the emergence of Universal communications are changing work life balances, social networking, and constantly improving devices, changing uses of synchronous vs. asynchronous and mainstreaming of the cloud. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/perspective/297528/journey-unified-universal-communications

Many instant messaging technology platforms are available today such as WhatsApp, WeChat, BBM, iMessage, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and Skype which are targeted for consumers. Microsoft Lync, Cisco Jabber, etc are generally for the enterprises and have a cost linked with them. The global market is forecasted to grow from USD 267 million in 2005 to USD 1.2 billion in 2014, for enterprise instant messengers. Instant messaging by nature encourages people to be brief and to the point, which saves time. Apart from saving time, another benefit is the positive impact it has on geographically separated offices. It helps in bridging locations, encouraging new global business structures. Replacing phone calls with instant messaging also reduces cost. Many felt that instant messaging was less intrusive than a phone call due to the ability to see if a co-worker was busy or not prior to sending a message. Instant messaging also enhances the ability to multitask. IM has started to change the dynamics of Indian enterprises and helped to increase the efficiency and productivity. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/perspective/297504/instant-messengers-changing-dynamics-indian-enterprises

What are the problems faced when migrating multiple IT services to the cloud?  Inconsistent service attributes: Service attributes include security, reliability, availability, scalability, quality of service (QoS), support, and service level agreements (SLAs).  They determine how well a service will perform and how much time and energy will be required. Crosstalk: This can happen when multiple services compete for the same resource, such as bandwidth or network router processing power. Cloud services money pit: Each cloud service provider must charge a minimum monthly fee to cover its infrastructure costs which becomes excessive as the number of services and the number of providers increases. User friction frown: While single sign-on can alleviate a small portion of the redundant task "friction" caused by multiple IT services, keep in mind how much aggravation your users may experience. However moving to cloud computing can lower capital expenses, lower onsite management and upgrade costs, global service consistency, virtually unlimited scalability, and better support for remote and mobile workforces. Read more at :

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297554/headaches-multiple-cloud-services

Nowadays bridges are not inspected visually but by teams of engineers who dangle beneath the bridge on cables or look up at the bridge from an elevated work platform because it has a few problems associated with it like it is a slow, dangerous, expensive process and even the most experienced engineers can overlook cracks in the structure or other critical deficiencies. the process comes with a lot of loopholes. A new detection system has been developed by Babak Moaveni, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Tufts School of Engineering, smart sensors which are attached permanently to bridge beams and joints, can continuously record vibrations and process the recorded signal. Changes in the vibration response can signify damage, he says. A wireless system that would use autonomous flying robots (quad-copters) to hover near the sensors and collect data while taking visual images of bridge conditions, is also being developed. The drone-like robots would transmit data to a central collection point for analysis by Moaveni in collaboration with Tufts Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Usman Khan. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297556/iot-prevent-bridges-collapsing

Today's databases should be flexible and should be able to deliver extreme performance and handle humongous data volumes. So database architects have come up with NoSQL, NewSQL alternatives to relational database management systems (RDBMS). In order to choose among these three, there has to be a fundamental understanding of all the three technologies. RDBMS can handle thousands of transactions per second but the new face of online transaction processing (OLTP) in scenarios such as real-time advertising, fraud detection, multi-player games, and risk analysis, to name a few, involves close to a million transactions per second -- a pace that traditional RDBMS has problem in dealing with. These problems can be addressed by NoSQL and NewSQL. NoSQL database management systems store data in a variety of formats. Most NoSQL products discard ACID performance to achieve data storage flexibility. NewSQL, retain both SQL and ACID, but they overcome the performance overhead of RDBMS. In order to choose the type of database the following questions have to be answered-To what extent do you rely on data in terms of storage, processing, and analysis? How important are the scale, flexibility, and performance aspects of a DBMS? What is your level of investment in incumbent technologies? Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297462/choose-nosql-newsql-rdbms

There has been a transformation in the lighting industry it is moving from fluorescent to LEDs. The Internet of Things is helping the lighting industry. Increasing efficiency in lighting would save billions of dollars as lighting consumes 461 billion kWh of electricity in a year. LEDs can provide that efficiency, along with a number of other benefits. Energy efficiency is the main force behind the industry wide transition to LEDs. Initial cost of replacing may be high but in the long run it will save substantial amount of money. This problem of high initial cost has been addressed by companies like Philips, by offering lighting-as-a-service. Philips covers the initial installation costs. But offering lighting-as-a-service for something like a commercial building creates challenges as lighting is metered with other equipment in the building  and it is difficult to measure the amount of power light is actually consuming and making cost benefit analysis somewhat  speculative. All the problems associated with lighting can be addressed with the help of Internet. One way to solve the problem is to use Power over Ethernet (PoE) networks, where the Ethernet switch provides a centralized environment where metering and monitoring can take place. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297464/iot-enables-lighting-service

Any rupture in the Contact Center can be expensive and damaging so it is worth to approach these matters in the right way. Security is a journey and corporate companies must mesh up with technologies that support it. At the same time with security, friendly culture is appreciated. Some of the key points towards it are following: Security starts at the top: Security experts should be included in the planning before important decisions specially like signing contracts are made. Context is king: Business documentation should be made in a clear way. Caveat Emptor: Vendors are an important link and they can create a whole set of tensions. Experience shows that a well-planned security network saves money and improves economics. Last of all every organization should be honest and lower risks and improve financial conditions. Read more at: http://www.callcentertimes.com/Home/tabid/37/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/395/CategoryID/1/NewsID/795/Default.aspx

 Amazon CloudWatch Logs is a service that  helps us to watch, accumulate, and access our system, application, and practice log files from Amazon EC2 instances. e.g., we can monitor request logs for specific literal terms  or calculate the number of occurrences of a literal term at a particular location in log data (such as "404" status codes in an Apache access log). When the term we are penetrating for is found, CloudWatch Logs reports the data to an Amazon CloudWatch metric that we specify. We can then recover the linked log data from CloudWatch Logs if, for example, the count of "NullReferenceExceptions" exceeds its normal range. Following are the steps to arrange Amazon CloudWatch Logs with AWS OpsWorks. Step 1: Create Recipes. Step 2: Extend the AWS IAM Role.Step 3: Create an OpsWorks Stack. Step 4: Add a Layer. Step 5: Add an Instance. Step 6: View your Logs. Read more at: 

http://blogs.aws.amazon.com/application-management/post/TxTX72HFKVS9W9/Using-Amazon-CloudWatch-Logs-with-AWS-OpsWorks

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Data analysts want data in their data warehouse. When transaction-optimized databases were used for warehousing analysts would replicate data from manufacture systems into the data warehouse at the cost of change throughput. Analytics data warehouses are usually loaded numerous times each day, but often clients want to revive data every hour, every minute. This post outlines best practices for using Amazon Redshift for micro-batch loading and is planned for data architects, data modelers, and DBAs. Any data model can be laden via micro-batching, but data prepared as a time series is often ideal for this type of loading. To make the COPY command as capable as probable, ask it to do as little as promising . Read more at:

http://blogs.aws.amazon.com/bigdata/post/Tx2ANLN1PGELDJU/Best-Practices-for-Micro-Batch-Loading-on-Amazon-Redshift

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The company's mobility tools was revealed at AWS Summit 2014 is tainted by Amazon Cognito, an individuality and data harmonization tool. Cognito allows developers to generate requests that authenticate consumers through community login sources. Other products in AWS mobility store include Mobile Analytics, a way for developers to collect and analyze app handling with reports delivered within an hour of data being sent to the application. While AWS is considered the leader in communications as a service, it is far from a domestic name in mobile app development. Amazon also debuted the Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK), which permits Apple iOS, Google Android and Fire OS developers to contact Cognito and Mobile Analytics, along with Simple Storage Service and DynamoDB. Amazon Simple Notification Service was enhanced as well, with the capability to fling announcements to iOS, Android and Kindle Fire devices. So, it assists Amazon to play pleasant with developers.. Read more at:

http://searchaws.techtarget.com/news/2240224295/AWS-mobility-swings-for-the-fences-only-gets-to-first-base?track=NL-1839&ad=894899&asrc=EM_NLN_31820948&uid=15754525&utm_medium=EM&utm_source=NLN&utm_campaign=20140721_What+do+you+know+about+the+cloud+and+SOA%3F_msargent

Mobile or portable application testing is both a decisive and a intricate component of mobile function development. It is essential to have a clearly defined and intense mobile testing strategy and structure. The chief mechanism of a mobile application test approach has safety; presentation; usability; and practical and nonfunctional testing across numerous strategy, browsers and platforms. A whole mobile test strategy must include testing across differing system connection speeds and physical areas, as well as tackle the exercise of Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G links. Testing has to tackle such issues as OS optimization, screen brightness and CPU, memory .  Read more at:

http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/tip/Creating-and-implementing-a-mobile-testing-strategy?asrc=EM_ERU_31171427&utm_medium=EM&utm_source=ERU&utm_campaign=20140704_ERU%20Transmission%20for%2007/04/2014%20(UserUniverse:%20943652)_myka-reports@techtarget.com&src=5268354

World Cup 2014 is scientifically more advanced. The world has advanced in every feature so does the sport. It is the most scientifically sophisticated football tournament. The referee has used a spray to draw circle around the ball when a foul is committed. The line or the circle vanishes after sometimes, it is actually the water-based substance used to create the foam. Three processor image cameras used to determine the objects and do all the work of tracking real time data .This help to find out how many miles a participant runs and the velocity. It also track the ball location. The fans are also benefitted along with players from these advances. other technologies such as goal line technology, some hi-tech cameras to arrest the actions closely, the official page World Cup FIFA app, boots made from man-made resources, advanced football kits. Read more at: 

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/experience-most-high-tech-world-cup-ever

 According to a survey of 900 business and IT executives from 70 countries by IBM Institute for Business Value study, Eighty percent of respondents are evaluating the impact of their analytics investments, 60 percent already have predictive analytics capabilities, and "leaders" who were perceived to be proactive in engaging analytics in their organizations were more than two times likely than average to have formal career paths for analytics professionals.The next generation of IT workers will work in highly automated environments that combine both in-sourced and out-sourced technologies that businesses will expect to get immediate value from. “We hire many of our people right out of college," said the CEO of a healthcare cloud analytics vendor. The intuition behind is that the company already possessed the internal analytics expertise to train these recruits, and the added advantage of hiring freshers is that it also gives the company an opportunity a to train these recruits in to customer service that is valuable to the company. To know more about this, go to: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/big-data-analytics/better-training-in-search-of-next-generation-it-workers/