What Developers Can Learn from Apple’s iOS Woes
Apple’s decision to delay new features in iOS to address performance and quality issues is a setback for the company, but it also holds valuable lessons for software developers and dev teams about the environment we work in today. A recent report said Apple plans to pull back on several new iOS features until next […]
The ‘Mad Men’ Approach to Pitching DevOps
It’s been said that the mark of a good salesman is having the ability to sell ice to an Eskimo. And, if you’re familiar with the 1960s-era T.V. hit “Mad Men,” you know that ad exec Don Draper could do just that. His character was debonair, brash and unapologetic—but one hell of a businessman. So, […]
NASA/JPL Tech-Incubation CEO Talks Artificial Intelligence, Part II
This is the second installment of a two-part Q&A series on artificial intelligence (AI) with AJ Abdallat. It covers AI’s potential significance to computing; how AI affects jobs; the employee specializations needed to fuel AI; big data; and cultural challenges in the enterprise. Be sure to check out Part 1 as well. AJ Abdallat is […]
Age or Experience: Which is Better in Hiring a DevOps Engineer?
In such a rapidly shifting space as the DevOps talent market, many employers find themselves challenged with deciding what type of DevOps engineer to hire. Do I choose the junior talent with all the energy in the world and is eager to learn anything at the click of a deployment? Or, do I push the […]
Hopes and Fails in DevOps 2017
At the end of 2016, DevOps enthusiasts and evangelists alike predicted and even declared 2017 as “The Year of DevOps.” DevOps evangelist J. Paul Reed put more eloquently when he said in an interview with TechBeacon, “2017 will be the year that DevOps is finally declared 1.0 stable.” However, not all predictions came to fruition […]
NASA/JPL Tech-Incubation CEO Talks Artificial Intelligence
AJ Abdallat is a serial entrepreneur who worked on artificial intelligence (AI) projects and commercializing smart sensors at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from 1998 until 2011. Later he founded, launched and ran several spinoff companies from Caltech/JPL, doing AI work in support of the space program and various […]
5 Key 2018 Tech Predictions for the C-Suite
The most important digital trends for C-level business leaders to consider in 2018 relate to digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance and cybersecurity. Read on for insights and predictions about why these topics will matter so much to C-suites in 2018. Prediction 1: Digital Transformation—All Aboard! […]
What is an Agile IT Organization?
Agile IT is the new sexy. Don’t get me wrong. It has always been around. But with the rise of digital transformation, it has taken on a renewed urgency. For example, Domino’s Pizza has repeatedly said that the reason it was able to beat the competition was a result of its investment in building a […]
Outsourcing DevOps? Here’s What to Look For
DevOps synthesizes methods, processes and tools with the goal of improving your company’s velocity at which you deploy applications, which serves your customers better. Teams using DevOps best practices and tools to create production software are much faster than organizations using traditional infrastructure management and software development methods. In 2016, RightScale’s “State of the Cloud […]
5 Biggest Ways to Fail at DevOps
The mission of DevOps is simple: Ship software, do it frequently, do it well and reliably. Repeat. Repeat. Every day, more organizations are turning to DevOps to deliver more frequent software releases, with the result that agile software delivery is gaining traction quicker than expected. Just how rapidly it is being adopted was revealed in […]
K’NEX’s Big Shift Online
The tagline for U.S. construction toy maker K’NEX is “Building Worlds Kids Love.” Today, the multinational toy seller, which was founded in 1992, estimates that 90 percent of its interaction with consumers is digital, and K’NEX generates about 30 percent of its revenue online. By 2020, K’NEX expects those online sales to top 50 percent. […]
The Impact of DevOps and Continuous Testing in 2018
At its core, DevOps is meant to touch an entire organization; however it’s heavily weighted in the software development life cycle (SDLC). That’s why DevOps is going mainstream in 2018. Companies are making the business benefits of DevOps a top priority—it’s all about delivering value to the customer faster through maximum automation of the release […]
DevOps Gets More Exciting in 2018
As 2017 winds down and the IT industry prepares for 2018, there are a number of DevOps trends that everyone should be keeping their eyes on. It’s not so much that something incredible and explosive is expected in the new year. Rather, 2018 will be a time when DevOps starts to mature alongside other trends […]
Strap in, CIOs: Analysts Predict Wild Ride for 2018-2020
Digital transformation is the underlying theme of many of the 2018 and beyond IT predictions made recently by analyst firms Forrester, Gartner and IDC. Technologies such as cloud, AI, data analytics, big data, blockchain, IoT, conversational interfaces, DevOps and cybersecurity will also force CIOs to perform a juggling act. The rapid evolution of these technologies […]
OECD Report Shows U.S. Leads in IoT, Lags in Robotics
A newly published report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reveals the state of digital technology adoption, development and related research when it comes to digital transformation, manufacturing automation and providing skill sets for workers that will help carry them in the future. The “OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2017” found […]
Research Firms Agree, Cloud Growth Continues to Soar
Investment in all the various types of cloud computing has gone gangbusters in recent years, and for good reason: Cloud computing helps to cut cost, shorting time to market, provides unrivaled scale and reliability. This will only continue as enterprises continue to divest from on-premises infrastructure over the long term while seeking to scale the […]
Machine Learning Is Working for CIOs, Vendor Survey Finds
AI’s time has finally come, if a new survey commissioned by ServiceNow is to be believed. Its results showed that nearly 90 percent of CIOs are at least dabbling with machine learning, with 53 percent calling it an area of strategic focus for their companies. What’s more, almost 70 percent of the CIOs surveyed say […]
Executive Buy-in May Be Preventing DevOps Success
A common misconception in the executive suite is that an organization can reap all the benefits of DevOps without fully embracing the change necessary. That’s understandable, given that a DevOps transformation is a lengthy, costly disruption for companies of all sizes. DevOps requires businesses to transform, from team organization to culture to development processes. This […]
Break the Rules and Win at Digital Transformation
The rules of the game have changed. In today’s digital world, it’s not about the big eating the small. It’s the fast that beat the slow and the nimble that outmaneuver companies constrained by old systems and business models. What’s more, the finish line is always moving. The rapid pace of innovation and disruption means […]
Quality Culture, DevOps Forge Better Connections Between IT, Lines of Business
The automation of software development does not obviate the need for a collaboration between IT and the lines of business, or the development of a culture of quality on the part of the development team. Achieving that quality culture requires more than a change in mindset as developers seek to align quality with the speed […]
Study: CIOs Want a Chief Data Officer
Quick, what does CDO stand for? Before you say chief digital officer, think again. A new study points to the chief data officer as the more important of the two titles, finding 82 percent of CIOs believe there is a compelling case to hire a CDO in most organizations. The survey, commissioned by Experian Data […]
Don’t Let Cultural Debt Bring Down Your Business
Businesses today are faced with myriad challenges to innovate and optimize. In doing so, we often need to make decisions that borrow against the future. This can come in a tangible form, such as taking money from investors to fund growth, or in more inconspicuous forms, such as making tradeoffs in technical decisions. When we […]
Digital Transformation: Thrive, Not Just Survive
My conversations about innovation and the enterprise have afforded me an intimate understanding of the technological challenges companies are facing. Chief among these concerns, regardless of industry or sector, is digital transformation. Just the other day, a C-level financial executive came to me seeking guidance on this topic. He said his company was on a […]