The Seamless Enterprise

Gartner calls it Data Deluge. McKinsey calls it Big Data. No matter the name, the flood of incoming data to an organization, and data captured from the Web, is doubling every 18 months says McKinsey in its August 2010 Quarterly Report. Web communities, and technologies for capturing and analyzing information, give organizations access to customer data as never before.       

How can the enterprise capitalize on all this captured data and knowledge within its organization? (more…)

First, to clarify: it is quite common for the terms “Web”, “Internet”, and “Cloud Computing” to be used interchangeably. They are indeed related, but they are also different. When we talk about the Internet, we are describing a network of networks. The “Web”, on the other hand, is a layer on the Internet, and is a user interface technology that makes the Internet usable. And finally, cloud computing, which has many definitions, is best described by Gartner as a style of computing where scalability and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are provided “as a service” using Internet technologies. These services are tracked and metered by use, which allows enterprises to pay for what they need.

In a recent webcast, Gartner says we are entering the age of the cloud and the mobile web. Here’s how these technologies are driving the enterprise IT strategy: (more…)

Several research companies just announced forecasts for the Unified Communications (UC) market. Infonetics Research expects the UC market to top $1 billion by 2013, and Wainhouse Research sees the UC industry growing to a healthy $30 billion market in just five years. Should we be surprised? Are enterprises integrating UC into their plans and budgets, despite constraints, and actually deploying UC solutions?

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It’s that time of year to look into the crystal ball and make predictions for 2010. One of my favorite forecasts is that by Gartner. What I find most interesting is that it’s the users of technology, who are driving these technology trends in a big way. Did you know…

…that in less than five years, the growth of enterprise data is projected to be 650%! And, 80% of that data will be unstructured. We are sending and accessing data like never before, and enterprises need a way to manage and store this explosion of data. Look to such technologies as virtualization, automated tiering, and data duplication. (more…)

The most famous four-segment square in the industry – the Gartner Magic Quadrant – had some most interesting findings about Unified Communications in its latest iteration. (more…)