A number of trends lately has helped in shaping the Big Data. But, digital transformation is one of the key ones of all. It is being predicted that it might change the ways of data science profession in the years to come. Key features like flexibility, access to expertise, data security, etc. has helped it overcome most of the challenges. Many are saying that data transformation is the next major phase of Big Data. Find out more at: 

https://www.smartdatacollective.com/digital-transformation-unexpected-renaissance-age-of-big-data/

According to authors, the implication of big data is the quantity is paramount, the returns generated do not match the quantity of data generated. Experts point out, it is not per se the data that should be big, but the primary factor that counts is the diversity of data, the amount of richness they provide and the focus on accelerating human understanding of data , which has the potential to create output subject to increasing returns. More data retards innovation, the speed of experimentation and iteration. However IT teams helps in bringing order to chaos, in data and analytics, by managing data infrastructure, such as data warehouses and production processes . Data scientists, who’re occupying the space between IT and business consumers , have made enormous strides in getting grip on their data, analyzing and acting on it, thereby avoiding imbalance. Read more at https://aitrends.com/big-data/three-big-data-developments-no-one-is-talking-about/

So you have heard of these 2 brothers (Chetan and Rishi), but you didn’t know how they re-built the success of their family business. So Chetan did Bachelors in petrochemical engineering, & MBA . Rishi did Bachelors in Science and Business Administration. But they came to re-built their family business of manufacturing ceramic tiles, Kajaria Ceramics Limited. It was an year of 2000, IT revolution in India had just started, and Rishi started an online platform Floortoroof.com to combine the agents all over country. After their visit to China, they found out, they can easily import and sell the tiles into India, of course they have to cut off certain costs. Also to expand Chetan added partners to increase their reach to the local market. Also with introduction of SAP and IT integration, Rishi transformed day to day business. And it turns out all in favor with the highest profitability margin of over 18 percent and now it is all set to open a new plant in Rajasthan. Read more at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/296656

Organizations are now shifting their data on cloud. This creates a problem for IT in terms of security and handling, because security teams needs strong visibility, control and threat protection for cloud applications.    

Microsoft Azure is an open, flexible, enterprise-grade cloud computing platform. Microsoft Azure’s part Cloud App Security makes it possible for IT to set up application discovery and check with the existing security. Since there are numerous applications it is not always possible for IT to know the risk of running an App. But cloud app security gives a risk score(based on prior examination, certificates and information) to most of the App .It gives IT department the same control as their internal software as they can also track how the App is being used through Connecting.

To know more: http://www.infoworld.com/article/3055849/saas/dont-overlook-saas-the-original-cloud-option.html

Some of the pros for executing data driven marketing efficiently are:-

1. Joint collaboration with IT department and marketing team is the key to achieve efficiency.

2. Hiring an industry analyst, professor or data scientist to review the data before publishing is necessary to check accuracy.

3. Planning the data collect and analysis before starting the project will help immensely.

4. It is important to focus on what the data means and what are its implications.

5. In order to increase exposures create strong relations with media and analyst (to find out what kind of data suits best for them) before publishing the data.

6. Company should decide whether they want to invest in product growth or data marketing.

7. If the company doesn't have data they don’t need to invest in costly data gathering procedures. Inexpensive tools are easily available.

To know more, read article by James A. Martin on the link : http://www.cio.com/article/3052442/marketing/how-to-do-data-driven-marketing-right.html?page=2

We all have heard Time is money. Speed is one of the most important factors which determines cost in IT industry. So here are the five actions which will increase speed and productivity and will result in great potential success.

1. Integrated service play.

2. Establish a new strategic intent driven by business rather than function.

3. Reorganize the computer structure by making cross functional teams that work across different disciplines.

4. Invest in the appropriate and technologies.

5. Consider options for renting with technologies like cloud. Read the full article here: http://www.cio.com/article/3022757/it-strategy/5-moves-to-make-your-it-group-more-responsive-to-business-demands.html

Big data is an emerging phenomenon. Nowadays, many organizations have adopted information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) in business to handle huge amounts of data and gain better insights into their business. Many scholars believe that Business Intelligence (BI), solutions with analytics capabilities, offer benefits to companies to achieve competitive advantage towards their competitors. But this journey of increasing adoption of analytics requires much more thinking with an organization.

1. Promotion of decision making based on business outcomes: 

Investment should focus on implementation of analytics rather than infrastructure. Great companies link analytics to results to ensure gains.

2. Data –led decision making: 

Adoption of analytics should be encouraged and intuitive decision making should be discouraged.

3. Technology and business move together: 

Capabilities are built by amalgamating data, technology and business talent.

Therefore, decision makers should realize the importance of big data analytics in improving their business. Changes should be created in organizations for successful adoption of business analytics.

To know more- http://analyticsindiamag.com/successful-adoption-of-analytics-the-journey-from-good-to-great/

63% of IT pros said that they would not consider a candidate for employment if they saw one to five social media comments about that company and 68% IT leaders said they would not consider a candidate if they saw a single negative social media post about his or her current employer, as seen by the TEKsystems survey. Social media plays a very important role in IT hiring. 68% IT leaders use social media to search for candidates and 82 percent use it to screen them. LinkedIn was rated as the top source for finding prospective employees. Facebook was second with 9%. 75% of IT pros rely on social media with 67% citing LinkedIn as the best source for finding jobs. Facebook came in second at 12%, followed by Google Plus at 7%. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297739/social-media-matters-hiring

 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/

Cloud solutions can help businesses lower total costs and transition from a fixed cost structure to a variable one while freeing up critical IT resources for strategic initiatives and innovation. In case of Cloud applications cloud providers are responsible for the maintenance, operations, and bandwidth of the software and not the cloud customers. Finally, cloud applications are accessed through standard web browsers, providing scalability and agility to the customer. Unlike traditional on premise software applications, cloud applications are located and managed remotely and built with a single code-base customized to the company's needs. Some advantages of cloud computing are: Increased speed in responding to unforeseen events, Easy to get the latest updates, adoption is quick and simple, improved information security, deployment time decreases from years to months, lower risk with subscription based cost model. Increased strategic agility, short deployment times, lower risk and costs - the advantages of cloud computing are compelling. To know more, go to: http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/cloud-computing/6-benefits-of-cloud-computing-032893 

Cloud computing includes using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet as opposed to a local server. This helps schools and educational systems to manage their content in a simpler way and it helps to cut IT cost. In fact, it is said that within one year, cloud computing in K-12 schools is expected to consume a quarter of the entire IT budget; four years from now, that figure will grow to 35 percent. Benefits of cloud to students and educators:

Storage: The Cloud allows its users to store almost all types of content and data including music, documents, eBooks, applications, photos, and much more

Accessibility: Any data stored in the Cloud can easily be accessed from almost any device including mobile devices such as phones or tablets.

Collaboration: Because the Cloud allows multiple users to work on and edit documents at the same time, it enables effortless sharing and transmission of ideas.

Resource and Time Conscious: With the availability of content online, it is no longer necessary for teachers to spend time and resources printing or copying lengthy documents or lesson plans.

Assignments: Cloud allows teachers to post assignments online. Students are able to access these assignments, complete them, and save them in a folder to be reviewed later.

See more at:http://www.pearsonschoolsystems.com/blog/?p=1507#sthash.Mmt9pOFt.dpbs

Digital enterprise, associated with the design, development and delivery of innovative products and services through online channels, is the result of a long, multi-year journey that includes cloud computing as a vital component. Saugatuck Technology analyst Mike West in a recent post says Business and IT leaders still have plenty of work ahead of them — even if they are well along in their cloud implementations. With its inherent ability scale, as well as providing immediate, on-demand access to the latest solutions and approaches, cloud provides ready-to-deploy environments for creating and delivering the innovative business strategies and products that are part of digital enterprise.  A separate Saugatuck survey of 203 enterprises finds at least 60 percent are now creating and delivering new digital products and services to customers and nearly 70 percent are enhancing or updating traditional products and services as a digital experience. Most organizations are still in the early stages of their digitization efforts, but Saugatuck expects digital enterprises to accelerate over the next three to five years. The ability to effectively deploy cloud will shape the speed at which enterprises go digital. Digital business success depends on “the availability and utility of increasingly powerful and flexible cloud-enabled, and cloud-delivered, technology and business services,” Guptill analyst at Saugatuck states. To know more go to: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2014/06/29/are-digital-business-and-cloud-computing-joined-at-the-hip/

Cloud computing can help companies reduce their e-waste in several ways. John Biggs of TechCrunch recently discussed the effect that a design change of Apple’s devices would have on the amount of e-waste.The company will switch from its current 30-pin port (the rectangular outlet that connects iPods, iPhones, and iPads to docking stations and chargers) to a smaller 9-pin or 19-pin port. According to Biggs 45 million devices will become “partially” obsolete as a result of this minor change. The United States throws away about 3 million tons of e-waste every year, including about 30 million desktops, 12 million laptops, and 30 million computer monitors. The amount of e-waste increases year-to-year at the highest rate (5%) of any category of trash. E-waste accounts for 20-50 million tons or 5% of all the world’s solid waste. With cloud computing  companies no longer have to purchase, repair, or replace hardware for an on-site IT infrastructure when they sign up for cloud-based solutions. They will not have to dispose of all of their obsolete or broken servers, storage devices, networking hardware, and cables every year. Second, cloud hosting companies utilize hardware more efficiently. They can host multiple applications and infrastructures per server. As a result, cloud hosting providers purchase relatively small amounts of hardware and fully utilize their servers, storage devices, and networking hardware before disposing of them. Third, companies that adopt cloud-based solutions do not have to frequently repair or replace their end-user hardware such as desktops, laptops, keyboards, mice, and monitors. To know more about reduction of e-waste using cloud computing visit:  http://www.onthenetoffice.com/blog/2012/08/e-waste/

Construction managers are looking for increasing efficiency and reducing costs. In a construction company there is a need for good project management software for contractors to cut costs on some areas and make products affordable. But, there are so many packages that it is difficult to choose. In this article, Jenifer Whitmire (a professional web content writer) writes how to choose good project management software for contractors. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.manufacturing.net/articles/2012/04/wrongly-doing-design-for-six-sigma

Digital technology has evolved largely over the last decade. It can change the future of a organization. For digitalizing businesses, companies should follow some necessary steps. To know more on the digitalization process of business, go through the article by Dion Hinchcliffe, an expert in IT and business strategy.

http://www.zdnet.com/businesses-have-digitized-but-not-transformed-7000027190/

The IT enterprise field is slowly going to a saturation point. But, this sector is still facing competition. To know more on the growth areas in IT sector, go through the article by Dion Hinchcliffe, an expert in IT and business strategy.

http://www.zdnet.com/the-enterprise-products-with-disruptive-potential-for-2014-7000027859/