A blockchain acts as a digital distributed ledger of transactions or records. The ledger, which stores the information or data, exists across multiple participants in a peer-to-peer network. There's no single, central repository. Distributed ledgers technology (DLT) allows new transactions to be added to an existing chain of transactions using a secure cryptographic signature.

Worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is forecast to reach $11.7 billion in 2022, according to the latest global market study...

• Executive management, operations, and sales are the three primary roles driving Business Intelligence (BI) adoption in 2018.
• Dashboards, reporting, end-user self-service, advanced visualization, and data warehousing are the top five most important technologies and initiatives strategic to BI in 2018.
• Small organizations with up to 100 employees have the highest rate of BI penetration or adoption in 2018.
• Organizations successful with analytics and BI apps define success in business results, while unsuccessful organizations concentrate on adoption rate first.
• 50% of vendors offer perpetual on-premises licensing...

Many organizations are making the move to cloud-native platforms as their strategy for digital transformation. Cloud native allows companies to deliver fast-responding, user-friendly applications with greater agility. However, the architecture of the data in support of cloud-native transformation is often ignored in the hope that it will take care of itself.

With data becoming the information currency of every organization, how do you avoid the data mistakes commonly made during this cloud transformation...

With nine in 10 sales and marketing teams insisting that cloud-based business intelligence (BI) technology is necessary to the management of their strategies, it’s no wonder that the adoption has exploded in recent years. However, many businesses, especially small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are still lagging behind.

• Worldwide big data market revenues for software and services are projected to increase from $42bn in 2018 to $103bn in 2027, attaining a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.48% according to Wikibon
• Forrester predicts the global big data software market will be worth $31bn this year, growing 14% from the previous year. The entire global software market is forecast to be worth $628bn in revenue, with $302bn from...

• Employees would most recommend Dataiku, StreamSets, 1010 Data, Reltio, Looker, SAP, Google, Salesforce, Tamr, DataRobot, 

The rise of Alibaba Cloud, to become a major player in cloud infrastructure, is a fascinating one.

Between 2014 and 2016, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) saw the top right box change not one iota. Amazon Web Services (AWS) was out on its own, followed by Microsoft, then a gap to the rest. 2014 had a swarm of ‘visionary’ players, but by 2016 only Google remained to take third place.

Last year, however, things changed. The top right of course remained the same, but...

• Cloud BI adoption is soaring in 2018, nearly doubling 2016 adoption levels.
• Over 90% of sales and marketing teams say that cloud BI is essential for getting their work done in 2018, leading all categories in the survey.
• 66% of organizations that consider themselves completely successful with business intelligence (BI) initiatives currently use the cloud.
• Financial Services (62%), technology (54%), and education (54%) have the highest Cloud BI adoption rates in 2018.
• 86% of Cloud BI adopters name Amazon AWS as their first choice, 82% name Microsoft Azure, 66% name Google Cloud, and 36% identify IBM...

Cloud technologies are key to Hong Kong businesses according to a new report from SolarWinds – but containers, blockchain and robotics still have a fair way to go yet.

The findings appear in the company’s latest IT trends report, ‘The Intersection of Hype and Performance.’ The research polled 75 IT practitioners, managers and directors in Hong Kong – with the overall research quizzing more than 800 respondents across four continents – and found cloud and hybrid IT was the...

• $86bn was spent on security in 2017, yet 66% of companies have still been breached an average of five or more times.
• Just 55% of CEOs say their organizations have experienced a breach, while 79% of CTOs acknowledge breaches have occurred. One in approximately four CEOs (24%) aren’t aware if their companies have even had a security breach.
• 62% of CEOs inaccurately cite malware as the primary threat to cybersecurity.
• 68% of executives whose companies experienced significant breaches in hindsight believe that the breach could have been prevented by implementing more...

• 84% of marketing organizations are implementing or expanding AI and machine learning in 2018.
• 75% of enterprises using AI and machine learning enhance customer satisfaction by more than 10%.
• 3 in 4 organizations implementing AI and machine learning increase sales of new products and services by more than 10% according to Capgemini.

Measuring marketing’s many contributions to revenue growth is becoming more accurate and real-time thanks to...

The Internet needed a means to maximise its potential – and the solution would need to be highly adaptable and accepting of a wide variety of technology. Cloud computing has evolved with the information age.

The evolution of applications for cloud computing: A history

The Allied Telecom Group describes cloud computing as an interconnected network of remote servers; specifically, Internet-host servers that process and manage information, as well...

Many have lauded the latest phone from Google, the Pixel 2, applauding its ability to showcase the emerging capabilities of artificial intelligence. Not only does the virtual assistant sound more human than other competitors’ technologies, but it also does a better job of understanding commands and questions.

Still, there’s a 

Guided by senior executive goals for digital transformation, more organizations are increasing their use of cloud computing technologies. The typical multi-cloud mix includes a blend of public cloud, private cloud and traditional IT services. Finding the best-fit service mix starts with the business requirements.

The latest Global Cloud Index (GCI) 2016-2021 from Cisco focuses on the worldwide market outlook for enterprise data...

• Data scientist has been named the best job in America for three years running, with a median base salary of $110,000 and 4,524 job openings.
• DevOps engineer is the second-best job in 2018, paying a median base salary of $105,000 and 3,369 job openings.
• There are 29,187 software engineering jobs available today, making this job the most popular regarding Glassdoor postings according to the study.

These and many other fascinating insights are from Glassdoor’s 50 Best Jobs In...

• While 94% of supply chain leaders say that digital transformation will fundamentally change supply chains in 2018, only 44% have a strategy ready.
• 66% of supply chain leaders say advanced supply chain analytics are critically important to their supply chain operations in the next 2 to 3 years.
• Forecast accuracy, demand patterns, product tracking traceability, transportation performance and analysis of product returns are use cases where analytics can close knowledge gaps.

These and other insights are from 

• Big data adoption reached 53% in 2017 for all companies interviewed, up from 17% in 2015, with telecom and financial services leading early adopters.
• Reporting, dashboards, advanced visualization end-user “self-service” and data warehousing are the top five technologies and initiatives strategic to business intelligence.
• Data warehouse optimization remains the top use case for big data, followed by customer/social analysis and predictive maintenance.
• Among big data distributions, Cloudera is the most popular, followed by Hortonworks, MAP/R, and Amazon...

More than 20 announcements flowed at AWS re:Invent today, including updates on machine learning, databases and the Internet of Things (IoT) – not to mention a couple of big-name customer wins.

The theme for Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy was around builders. Unlike the previous year’s keynote, where it was about superpowers, this presentation had a slightly more mundane – and musical – approach.

Technology builders are like musicians, Jassy explained. Some guitarists may play...

Meg Whitman is to step down as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), bringing down the curtain on a six-year tenure and overseeing one of the largest corporate breakups of recent years.

Whitman had in July stepped down as chairwoman of HP’s board of directors, remaining chief executive of HPE, and had previously faced speculation about her role as the chief executive’s seat at Uber dramatically became available earlier this year.

Whitman’s replacement will be HPE president Antonio Neri, a 22-year HP...

Say hello to the Cloud Analytics Academy. The program, launched today by Snowflake Computing alongside Amazon Web Services (AWS), Looker, Talend and WhereScape, aims to help executives lead their organisations in data warehousing, BI, and more.

The curriculum is designed by Kent Graziano, Snowflake chief technical evangelist, with the partnering companies chipping in with their expertise.

There are three courses; the ‘executive fast track’ is the one-size-fits-all course with five sessions on key...