Most global organizations have too many data centers in too many countries, according to Gartner, Inc (www.gartner.com). The research group said that in order for enterprises to save costs and optimize service delivery, they need a twin data center topology for each continent of major business activity.

"It's a fact that most global organizations run too many data centers in too many countries. This is normally the result of business expansion, either organically or through acquisition over many years," said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner. "While the logic of business growth makes sense, having too many data centers results in excessive capital and operational costs, an overly complex architecture and, in many cases, a lack of business-IT agility." 

Many companies have stated that having too many data centers inhibits their ability to respond quickly to business changes. This is because of...

The cloud-based security services market will be worth US$2.1 billion in 2013, rising to $3.1 billion in 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). The search group says that growth in cloud-based security will remain strong, but revenue opportunities will vary.

"The cloud-based security market remains a viable one, offering providers many opportunities for expansion," says Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner. "Encryption will be a new area of growth, but it remains a complex activity. The strongest interest will be in encryption products from cloud security brokers, which are relatively easy to deploy and have options for on-premises encryption management."

Gartner predicts that the top three most sought-after cloud services moving forward will remain email security, web security services and identity and access management (IAM). However, in 2013 and 2014, the highest growth is forecast to...

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the installed base of cellular M2M devices will approach 500 million modules by 2018, driven by more open M2M ecosystems and improved cloud-based APIs (application programming interfaces).

According to the report, the M2M space is seeing an increasing focus on the development of open platforms that simplify connectivity to a wide range of isolated devices through the cloud. It found that "Big Data" emerging from M2M service provision will, in time, allow for improved interrogation of M2M data, opening the door to new revenue streams for companies and M2M operators.
Towards the Internet of Things

The Juniper report found that M2M roll-outs have become increasingly global, with Mobile Network Operators facilitating M2M roaming and tailoring services and approaches to industry verticals.

"Mobile...

M2M connectivity will be embedded in more than 2 billion devices across nine key industries by 2018, but it will be cellular that will bring the bulk of the value and the connectivity revenues, according to ABI Research.

A new generation of smart devices is set to have embedded connectivity and manufacturers have a number of technologies to select to deliver network connectivity. ABI Research has examined the demand and appeal for M2M connectivity across cellular, satellite, fixed-line and short-range wireless technologies within nine key industry verticals. Each technology has specific advantages and appeal, but cellular is the best placed to deliver the most value, he

"Looking at demand for connectivity, while cellular will not have the highest number of connections, or the highest average revenue per connection, it will provide the greatest opportunity to drive the most overall value from those connections," says Jonathan Collins, principal analyst and author of...

Mobile authentication and encryption services for enterprises are growing dynamically with the saturation of cloud-based applications and BYOD trends, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Organizations are looking to maximize the benefits of these technologies while maintaining a level of security that satisfies compliance and the protection of corporate resources, according to the research group. These need to be further balanced against flexibility and manageability; without these guarantees, even the most secure solutions are useless.

For mobile encryption technology, this means effective key management. For authentication, it may be SSO or tokenless access. The field of application for mobile authentication and encryption services is wide, and the demands are varied.

ABI Research says an innovative market in mobile-specific services for authenticating users and devices has...

Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com) has lowered its outlook for NFC-based mobile payments to reflect the slow pace at which operators are pushing NFC payment services, limited NFC payment deployments by handset makers, and the continued slow adoption of contactless payments by retailers.

The research group estimates that 115 million NFC handset owners will spend just over US$48 billion using their NFC phones by 2017. Although that's a large amount, it represents a drop in the ocean of the multi-trillion dollar global retail sector. 

The healthy growth in sales of NFC handsets has yet to be matched by the adoption and use of handset based NFC payments services, with many mobile operators pushing back the launch of NFC-based mobile payment into the final quarter of 2013 or in to 2014 and beyond.

"With the exception of China, where we see some momentum from China Mobile...

By Rick Sutcliffe

The wave of Apple's future was supposed to be a simplification of the user interface, a de-skeuomorphism of visual elements, and a unification of MacOS and iOS. The most recent version of the latter went a long way toward this mark

However, MacOS 10.9, a.k.a. Mavericks, is, on the whole, a stay-the-course mild enhancement of Mountain Lion 10.8, nothing radical. Thos who want radical change will have to wait for MacOS 11.

The important changes are in the upgrade process itself. First, it is free to anyone who has Snow Leopard or higher (i.e. can access the Apple Store). This will increase adoption rates and customer satisfaction, and give IT departments at most organizations hissy fits, because they will not be able to prevent their user base from doing independent upgrades. Second, iWork is also free--at least if you are new to the eco-system, or you have a previous version of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers installed. But even...

New research from app tester SOASTA (www.soasta.com) shows which city in America has the highest smartphone and tablet adoption. It’s not the San Francisco Silicon Valley area. 

The home of Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and Google comes in at number six for smartphone adoption. It’s not New York either.  Out of 10 major metropolitan American cities, it’s the nation’s lowest in smartphone adoption.

The city with the highest smartphone adoption is… Dallas. Here’s the ranking:

Dallas – 76%
LA – 66%
Washington, D.C. 64%
Philadelphia 62%
Houston – 62%
San Francisco 61%
Atlanta – 60%
Chicago – 57%
Boston – 55%
New York – 48%
 
The city with the highest tablet adoption is… also Dallas. Here’s the ranking:
 
Dallas – 48%
Washington, D.C. – 43%
Chicago – 39%
New York – 39%
Boston – 38%
LA – 38%
...

Preliminary results from the IDC research group (www.idc.com) show that hat the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market increased 2% quarter-on-quarter but declined 12% year-on-year in 2013 Q3 to reach 27.8 million units, 1% lower than IDC's initial forecasts.

China posted modest gains compared to last quarter on the back of improved commercial spending there, but declines in a few big ASEAN markets and continued weakness in most mature markets offset those gains, keeping the overall region suppressed yet again in Q3.

"Sluggish economic activity, exchange rate volatility and fuel price hikes plagued markets in South East Asia, with Indonesia and Thailand bearing the brunt of this pressure," says Handoko Andi, research manager at IDC Asia/Pacific. "And there are still many risks ahead, despite a number of new products being launched towards the end of the year."

Lenovo did well in the seasonally high Q3...

A new Parks Associations (www.parksassociates.com) study finds that over 25% of CE buyers in U.S. broadband households use mobile commerce apps on their smartphone to help with an in-store purchase decision, including functions such as product research, barcode scanning, and interaction with a retailer or brand app.

The research group's data reveals that 43% of U.S. smartphone users purchased a good via their device in the last month. However, consumers, especially shoppers at Walmart, Target, and Best Buy, are starting to use their smartphones while shopping in stores. Walmart in particular encourages in-store shoppers to use its app, but Parks Associates reports that currently Target shoppers are more likely than Walmart shoppers to use mobile commerce apps when shopping at any store for a CE product.

"Consumers are using apps and smartphones to enhance their brick-and-mortar shopping...

Sixty percent of CEOs believe that the emergence of smart machines capable of absorbing millions of middle-class jobs within 15 years is a "futurist fantasy," according to Gartner's 2013 CEO survey. However, Gartner (www.gartner.com) predicts that smart machines will have widespread and deep business impact within only seven years through 2020.

"Most business and thought leaders underestimate the potential of smart machines to take over millions of middle-class jobs in the coming decades," says Kenneth Brant, research director at Gartner. "Job destruction will happen at a faster pace, with machine-driven job elimination overwhelming the market's ability to create valuable new ones."

CIOs must change their mission to address the proliferation of smart machines in a widening range of jobs and consider the impact this trend might have on their career paths and on increasing levels of unemployment, according to...

The Internet of Things (IoT) represents a new construct in the information and communications technology (ICT) world that is occupying the minds of IT vendors, service providers, and systems integrators as it represents huge potential for new streams of revenue and new customers.

International Data Corp. (IDC) has looked at the components, processes, and supporting IT and connectivity for the Internet of Things and expects IoT technology and services spending to generate global revenues of US$4.8 trillion in 2012 and $8.9 trillion by 2020, growing at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 7.9%.

"The momentum of the Internet of Things is driven by a number of factors. There is no doubt that business and consumer demand exists and will continue to expand for IoT solutions," says Vernon Turner, senior vice president of IDC's Enterprise Infrastructure, Consumer, Network, Telecom, and Sustainability Research. "I expect the current IoT use cases are just the tip of the iceberg...

Adoption rates for Ethernet services are soaring, propelled by superior cost effectiveness, high-bandwidth scalability, greater availability, and overall flexibility for connecting to cloud and datacenter virtualization applications. According to new a forecast from International Data Corporation (www.idc.com), total U.S. Ethernet revenue will increase from US$6.2 billion in 2013 to $10.1 billion in 2016.

Enterprises across all major verticals are utilizing Ethernet services for domestic and international wide area network (WAN) and metro area connectivity, as well as for access to other services, such as connecting to the Internet, IP VPNs, and cloud service providers, says the research group. The primary drivers of Ethernet adoption among U.S. enterprises are high-bandwidth applications, such as datacenter inter-connectivity, disaster recovery/business continuity, and data storage replication. Enterprises rank security...

Nearly half of large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments by the end of 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). In the past three years, private cloud computing has moved from an aspiration to a tentative reality for nearly half of large enterprises.

Hybrid cloud computing is at the same place today that private cloud was three years ago; as actual deployments are low, but aspirations are high. When it comes to drivers of private cloud computing, while cost is always an important consideration, a business case for private cloud cannot rely on lower costs as the primary justification. 

"Virtualization reduces capital expenses, and standards and automation reduce operational expenses," says Thomas Bittman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "However, taking the next step of adding usage metrics, self-service offerings and automated provisioning requires investment in...

Carrier Wi-Fi started to gain momentum in 2013 driven by increasing data demands and new Wi-Fi advancements. Cable operators are enthusiastically adopting the technology as an entrance into the wireless market. ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) forecasts Carrier Wi-Fi access point shipments in 2018 to reach 9.7 million with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for 70% of that number.

In the U.S., a very successful model was deployed by Cable WiFi: an alliance formed of five of the biggest cable operators in the country including Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cablevision, Cox, and Time Warner Cable. Customers of any of the alliance members can roam seamlessly in the biggest Wi-Fi network in the U.S. with more than 150,000 hotspots.

"While it is a great marketing strategy allowing Cable operators to retain their customers and enhance the service, Cable WiFi also shows that monetization is a...

The perceived level of maturity attached to organizations' privacy activities has decreased since 2011, as many organizations deem their existing privacy activities to be inadequate, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) The survey found that 43% of organizations have a comprehensive privacy management program in place, while 7% admitted to "doing the bare minimum" regarding privacy laws.

"More than a third of organizations still 'consider privacy aspects in an ad hoc fashion' and it is surprising that so many companies are saying that they are not conducting privacy impact assessments before major projects," says Carsten Casper, research vice president at Gartner. "Sixty-two percent do not scan websites and applications, or conduct an organization-wide privacy audit every year. Organizations must put these activities on their to-do list for 2014."

These results are based on 221 respondent...

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) predicts the number of type-1 or type-2 smartphone virtualization activations will grow 20 fold by 2018, exceeding 8 million devices. Worldwide, activation rates will exceed 114% YoY [year-over-year] with North America and Western Europe seeing the greatest number of smartphone activations. The Asia-Pacific region will see the largest growth increasing nearly 50 fold by 2018, or 165% CAGR [compound annual growth rate] growth YoY.

"The mobility management space continues to amaze as it seems new enterprise mobility solutions emerge daily, says ABI Research senior analyst Jason McNicol. "The latest solution now involves virtualization, where a type-1 or type-2 hypervisor is used to create two distinct profiles on the user’s mobile device, work and personal. This kind of virtualization solution provides IT complete control over the enterprise workspace while the personal side...

According to TBR’s "2Q13 Business Intelligence Software Vendor Benchmark," the business intelligence (BI) software market will surpass US$40 billion by 2018 as vendors expand and integrate portfolios to capitalize on customers’ BI software investment plans.

TBR research shows customers’ BI software consumption patterns are maturing and broadening, with customers moving from stand-alone tools to packaged BI applications and then to analytic complements of business applications. TBR market sizing projects an average 4% year-to-year annual revenue growth between 2013 and 2018 -- a slowdown from the double-digit growth rates of 2011 and 2012 that reflects the rising maturity of this market and the extent to which customers can extend BI software deployments.

The projected 2013 growth for the BI software market shows the market is at an inflection point: Revenue grew by double digits across the start of the year, fueled by IPOs around high-interest segments including data...

By Rick Sutcliffe

"Hi Nellie." I didn't need to turn around. The sound of her cowboy boots and a certain air of eau de geek that pervades her space tipped me to her presence.

"What'ya workin' on?"

"This column."

"Still into self referentialism as always, so no doubt you'll quote us quoting us."

Lest we get tied up in logical knots, I ignored this sally. "So what's got your shirt in a knot today, Nellie." She rarely visited unless she wanted to sound off about something.

"Remember what I said the first time I came into your office?"

"That was back in the early 80s. Sure I remember. You put your boots up on my desk and proclaimed you could break into any computer in the world? Of course I remember it. I believed you. Still do. So?"

"So what do you think about all this fuss over the NSA reading people's mail and files down in the Excited States "

"And around the world to boot? Seems a lot of tempest over a...

Call it a tipping point -- more than half (51%) of the U.S. population (ages 13 to 54) now watches TV programs or movies using streaming video at least once a week. Connected TVs, mobile devices, videogame consoles, and streaming services such as Netflix have helped turn a “tecchie” phenomenon into a mainstream entertainment source.

According to a just-released GfK report, "How People Use Media: Over-the-Top TV 2013," the weekly streaming audience for TV and movies in the US has risen from 37% three years ago to 48% in 2012, and edged over the halfway point in the past year.

Tablets and smartphones are playing emerging roles in this transformation; 5% of consumers now use a tablet to watch streaming video of TV programs or movies on a weekly basis, while 4% use a smartphone. Among those who watch TV or movies on tablets or smartphones, three in five say they access such content through an app, while one-third stream directly from a website; the breakdown for...

The next five years will see a major shift towards smartphone- based mHealth, where hardware attachments link to companion app on the smartphone, according to a new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com).

The report forecasts that by 2018 there will be 96 million users of app-enabled mHealth and mobile-fitness hardware devices, up from 15 million this year. In the healthcare sector, app-enabled mHealth will be used to enable services ranging from remote patient monitoring to mobile ultrasound services.

However, Juniper Research found that it will be the mFitness sector that will experience strongest growth in the short and medium term. According to the report, this growth will be driven by a motivated target market, an increasing demand for lifestyle consumer applications and a diversifying array of attachments. App-enabled mFitness will therefore reach maturity much more...

The growth of Bluetooth v4.0 (Smart and Smart Ready) devices has been phenomenal, from zero shipments in 2010 to over one billion shipments in 2013, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). This speaks to the desire for ultra-low power wireless technology across the industry.

"Today, Bluetooth v4.0’s success has been largely due to its rapid adoption in smartphones, media tablets, and other portable electronic devices," says Peter Cooney, practice director of the research group. "This is the first stage in the growth cycle for the latest version of Bluetooth and points to the rapid growth that OEMs expect for Bluetooth Smart Sensors."

Bluetooth Smart node devices accounted for less than 10% of total Bluetooth v4.0 devices shipped in 2012. However, as device vendors have embraced the technology a wider ecosystem of vendors have gained confidence in v4.0 and it’s emerging as the key wireless...

According to a new research report by Berg Insight (www.berginsight.com), telecom operators had deployed more than seven million carrier-grade Wi-Fi access points worldwide at the end of 2012. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5%, the installed base is forecasted to reach 15 million units by 2018.

Making use of Wi-Fi in unlicensed spectrum is an increasingly attractive solution for mobile operators. Virtually all new smartphones now have Wi-Fi connectivity as standard and a majority of smartphone owners already use Wi-Fi at home and at work. The installed base of Wi-Fi enabled handsets is forecasted to grow from nearly 1.5 billion units at the end of 2012 to more than four billion units in 2018.
 
Mobile network equipment vendors and mobile operators are now quickly reversing their skepticism towards Wi-Fi as the rise in mobile data traffic necessitates investments in...

Most collaboration applications will be equally available on desktops, mobile phones, tablets and browsers by 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Currently, a variety of apps and services for mobile content access, collaboration and productivity enable employees to collaborate in real time and work more effectively, but the fragmentation of options creates complexity and challenges for the IT organization, says the research group.

"In the past, collaboration on mobile devices meant interaction through wireless messaging and voice calls," says Monica Basso, research vice president at Gartner. "Today, smartphones and tablets have larger screens, touch-based user interfaces (UIs), location support, broad network connectivity, enhanced cameras and video support, voice over IP (VoIP), and so on. Such features enable a range of applications -- both traditional and new -- for employees to better...