Global Colocation Market Attains Maturity

Today, cost is major motivating factor when business owners approach a colocation provider. Likewise, the budgetary benefits of these strategies are only growing. Furthermore, a study carried out by “Infiniti Research” indicated that the colocation segment in the North America would grow at an annual rate of nearly 13.36 % during the forecast period of 2012 – 2016. While the “TeleGeography” ranks international operators in the colocation space, it confirms that competition level in the colocation industry differs majorly in terms of region and maturity level. In recent times, the aforementioned industry grows with reputed business leaders participating in mergers, acquisitions and collaborations.

Get a detailed Research in Colocation Industry at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/colocation-market

According to an article published in the “Data Centre Knowledge “the key market player “Equinix” reserves nearly 10 percent of the colocation segment , is planning on acquiring “TelecityGroup”. Moreover, there are assumptions that “Digital Reality”, second largest operator in the aforesaid segment will soon acquire Telx. The acquisition would not on only encourage consolidation but also an entry into the retail colocation market for Digital, popular in the wholesale data centre operator.  Besides this, colocation providers are also seen upgrading their existing their data centre offerings.

365 Data Centers disclosed that it has upgraded its data centres, to ensure speedy delivery, minimum latency and lower distribution cost of the content. Demand for rich content has triggered growth in the video and media industry worldwide. The CEO at 365 Data Centers, John Scanlon said “Each of these transactions furthers our commitment to facilitate the move of content and cloud services closer to the edge, which significantly improves the user experience. Our facilities offer a rich fabric of interconnection options to multiple distribution networks and are professionally managed to deliver 100 percent uptime. We will continue investing in strategic markets where we enjoy a competitive advantage and where the market is growing rapidly. In most cases, that means emerging Tier 2 cities in the U.S.,”

Apart from this Frost & Sullivan predicts that revenue for the colocation industry in United States would increase by 12 percent annually in 2017. Simultaneously, several colocation market operators are observing data center as their non-core functions best suited for enterprises specializing – thus increasing the demand of the colocation services. According to a report published by “Allied Market Research” titled “Global Colocation - Market Opportunities and Forecasts, 2014 – 2020” the colocation segment would see a CAGR of 9.1 percent during the forecast period 2015 to 2020. 

Source: https://blog.alliedmarketresearch.com/colocation-market-matures-worldwide-147

Agriculture technology innovation, education bring farming into the future

Salinas, on the central coast of California, is agriculture country. It’s even known for being the birthplace of author John Steinbeck whose Pulitzer-prize winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath” is about the plight of farmers during the Great Depression. But Salinas is also embracing the future and looking toward tech to take it there.

In Salinas, Carson Britz, the son of a farmer, brainstorms how sprinkler piping can become part of the shared economy.

Philippine agriculture, farming to benefit from innovative tech

MANILA, Philippines – There are a lot more opportunities to use technology to improve Philippine agriculture and farming, according to digital enterprise transformation consultant Winston Damarillo.

Damarillo, executive chairman of consulting firm Amihan Global Strategies (AGSX), said there is a lot more energy in the Global Shapers, the young version of the World Economic Forum, where many of the members are farmers.

Colocation: Make the Future of IT a Reality

The movement to colocation-or colo-is accelerating and will have profound implications for enterprises and service providers. Colocation involves renting space in a third-party data center and can also include a mix of hardware, software, and services. The tactic is surging at a 16% compound annual growth rate through 2020, from $25.70 billion in 2015 to $54.13. By 2018, 65% of companies’ IT assets will be off-site in colocation, hosting, and cloud data centers, according to IDC, while 33% of IT “staff” will be employees of third-party service providers.

“Colocation continues to be the bedrock for much of Cloud 2.0,” says Katie Broderick, research director, 451 Research. “The global colocation market is the physical (facilities and networking) underpinning of both enterprises’ off-premises computing, as well as hosting and cloud service providers’ value-add services.”

A big reason for colocation’s success is the opportunity to shift from a pricey CapEx (capital expense) budget line item to a much less expensive OpEx (operating expense) model. However there are a number of other benefits—and implications—to consider before going colo.

Top considerations when deciding to go colo—and picking the right partner—include location, pricing, security, and offerings. Location is key, because the facility has to be easily accessible by your IT staff, close to a power source, and should be in a safe area—i.e. hurricane belts, flood plains, and earthquake zones should be avoided.

Pricing is important because colo users are typically looking to lower their costs and make them more manageable from a budgeting perspective, i.e. usage-based pricing and monthly fees. Other factors that come into play include real estate, power, redundancy, and risk mitigation costs.

Read More@ http://www.cio.com/article/3087609/cloud-computing/colocation-make-the-future-of-it-a-reality.html

Google Exec Confirms Plans to Bring Voice Assistant to Third-Party Home Audio Hardware

Google’s Assistant won’t be limited to Google-made devices for long: The company is having conversations with home audio equipment makers to add the voice-powered assistant to third-party hardware, confirmed Google’s consumer hardware VP of product management Mario Queiroz Tuesday.

Queiroz made the comments on the sidelines of Google’s fall hardware event in San Francisco, where the company officially introduced its new Google Home smart speaker. Google Home is a bit like Google’s version of Amazon’s Echo speaker; the device allows consumers to launch music playback, ask for news and weather reports, query their calendar or even add items to their shopping list, all with simple voice commands.

Apple says new wireless technology is better than Bluetooth

Now that Apple has pronounced the end of the headphone jack, the company is aiming to prove that it can do better than the existing wireless options.

At its much-hyped event in San Francisco on Wednesday, the iPhone maker introduced a cordless earbud that it claims is more power efficient than Bluetooth devices. AirPods, as they're called, have their own communications chip, Apple's Senior Vice President Phil Schiller said on stage.

"It makes no sense to tether ourselves with cables to our mobile devices," Schiller said. "Until someone takes on these challenges, that's what we'll do."

The iPhone 7 will be the first smartphone without a headphone jack, marking Apple's latest effort to strip hardware from devices. There are plenty of Bluetooth options on the market, including from Apple's Beats business, but the products have been criticized for their high price and spotty quality.

Read More@ http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/07/apple-says-new-wireless-technology-is-better-than-bluetooth.html

Apple’s AirPods do use Bluetooth and they don’t require an iPhone 7

When Apple introduced its AirPods on Wednesday, the company went on and on about the new Apple-made chip on the inside, but said little about the technology that delivers the sound to the wireless earbuds from the iPhone.

It turns out Apple isn’t using some Bluetooth-like wireless technology, as rumors suggested, but rather Bluetooth itself.

Apple, Google remain most valuable brands

New Delhi: Silicon Valley is home to the two most valuable brands in the world. For the fourth consecutive year, Apple and Google topped the annual Interbrand Best Global Brands Report, released Wednesday.

The report estimated the value of brand Apple at $178.1 billion, up 5% from last year. Value of brand Google was estimated at $133.2 billion, an increase of 11% from last year.

Beverages brand Coca-Cola stood third in the list at an estimated brand value of $73.1 billion, a 7% dip in brand value from last year. The top 10 brands in the list included Microsoft, Toyota, IBM, Samsung, Amazon, Mercedes-Benz and GE.

According to the list by the global brand consultancy, the world’s five top growing brands included Facebook, Amazon, LEGO, Nissan and Adobe. Brand Facebook witnessed the maximum increase in value at $32.5 billion, an increase of 48%, followed by Amazon.com (33%), LEGO (25%), Nissan (22%) and Adobe (21%), according to the report.

Google’s Self-Driving Cars Have More Driving Experience Than Any Human

Seven years ago, Google started a project to pursue a futuristic idea: Develop cars with software so advanced that it could take over all the driving for humans. Today, not only are Google’s fleet of self-driving cars navigating complex conditions in four U.S. cities, an entire industry has exploded with startups and automakers clamoring to develop the same technology.

“In 2009 we were just this crazy research project working on a science fiction idea,” Dmitri Dolgov, head of Google’s self-driving technology, told Fortune. “And look at where we are today. ”

Google self-driving cars have logged 2 million fully-autonomous miles on public roads, 90% of which were on city streets, the company announced Wednesday. Considering the hours spent on the road, Google’s cars now have the equivalent of 300 years of human driving experience.

Text analytics and beyondText analytics and beyond

The term “text analytics” encompasses a broad and heterogeneous group of technologies that can add metadata to unstructured content; identify components such as people, places and events; and convert information to structured form so it can be analyzed by business intelligence (BI) solutions. The technology may employ statistical, linguistic and machine learning approaches to extract meaningful information. It can be used in a wide range of business purposes, from fraud detection to sentiment analysis. The push is increasingly toward more sophisticated interpretation of unstructured content that goes beyond what is currently considered text analytics.

According to Forrester, more than 200 companies are providing text mining or text analytics products, so it is a crowded market. The participating software products offer a variety of approaches to extracting actionable information from content that is generally recognized as accounting for about 80 percent of enterprise content. Those software solutions are becoming more intelligent. Rather than focusing on keyword searches or statistical analyses alone, they are incorporating a deeper understanding of language through greater semantic analysis and machine learning. That trend is moving text analytics well past the traditional approaches into the realm of cognitive computing. 

Broadening the Scope of Mobile Security

Most enterprises, when addressing mobile security, focus on securing applications, such as the devices' operating systems, or preventing the installation of malware. But the cybersecurity experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology say organizations should take a much broader approach to ensuring mobile security.

Referring to the need to address the risks posed by cellular networks and other elements of the mobile infrastructure, NIST Cybersecurity Engineer Joshua Franklin says: "There is this whole other side of a mobile device that has its own complex hardware, firmware, software and network protocols that need to be addressed." Franklin co-authored the recently released draft report, Assessing Threats to Mobile Devices & Infrastructure: the Mobile Threat Catalogue.

US Data Center Construction Update

September turned out to be a big month for big data center construction project announcements in the US. Facebook has finally decided to build in New Mexico, SAP is stepping into Colorado Springs in a big way, and data center providers Data Foundry and TierPoint are expanding their empires in Texas.

Here are the details:

New Mexico Scores $250M Facebook Data Center Build

After a tax-break war with the State of Utah, New Mexico has secured a commitment from Facebook to build its next data center in the Village of Los Lunas.

Is Infor up for sale?

Over the last few weeks investment in ERP software has been increasing. The latest rumour (Source:Reuters) is that Infor is the latest in a line of companies sold or resold. It seems like private equity firms believe that there is money to be made in ERP software. According to Allied market Research the global ERP software market is set to grow 7.2% each year until 2020 when it will reach $41.69 billion.

The last year has seen several deals commence that should complete before the end of 2016. In December 2016 EQT made a bid for IFS, the Swedish ERP software company. While the initial bid saw only 84% snapped up, a revised offer was recently agreed with the hold out investor. This should see IFS taken private within a matter of weeks. Oracle made a bid for NetSuite, valuing the company at $9.3 billion in July. That purchase has since been delayed with one investor, T Rowe Price group saying that the bid is not high enough. In July this year Apax partners sold Epicor to KKR in a deal said to be worth $3.3 billion (Source: Bloomberg).

Official: Cloud computing is now mainstream

Cloud computing is so mainstream these days that maybe it should just be called “computing”. That’s what an IDC survey of 6,100 organisations in 31 countries, released today, indicates, with 68 per cent of respondents using public, private or hybrid cloud in their IT mix. This is a 60 per cent jump from 42 per cent of respondents doing cloud in 2015.

IDC reckons that just three per cent of the organisations have deploying cloud-optimised strategies resulting in "superior business outcomes".

And of this select “cloud-advanced” bunch, Ninety-five per cent have built a hybrid infrastructure that uses “multiple private and public clouds based on economics, location and governance policies”.

Gamification of the aviation sector

Restructuring IT systems in the aviation sector requires cross-disciplinary collaboration between experts from different organisations and countries. This isn't easy. Can help be found in the world of computer games?

The use of games mechanics for purposes other than pure entertainment is called gamification. In recent years the method has been used in different settings to boost user involvement and motivation linked to a variety of activities.
"In its simplest form this may just be hype, such as awarding points for things like filling out your time sheet before the weekend," says SINTEF researcher Erlend Andreas Gjære. "But our focus is on quite a different track," he says.
Together with researchers from Italy and Germany, Gjære and his colleagues at SINTEF are going to find out how aspects of games technology can be applied in a context somewhat out of the ordinary. Specifically – how to achieve the best possible adaptive solutions to changes in information security, safety, economics and organisation in the aviation sector.

Big data analytics and NLP: How health plans can make more money -- and keep it

Natural language processing is an emerging area that can help unlock value from the vast stores of unstructured data that account for as much as 80% of all clinical data. UPMC Health Plan does just that.

Big data analytics in healthcare has largely been about looking at claims, electronic health records (EHR) and other forms of structured data. Natural language processing (NLP) is an emerging area that can help unlock value from the vast amounts of unstructured data that are pervasive in healthcare. In the emerging era of value-based payments, risk adjustments may well determine the difference between profit and loss for the health insurance industry.

UPMC Health Plan, the health insurance arm of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), has deployed NLP-based technology and big data analytics to efficiently process millions of pieces of documentation to accurately identify risk adjustment possibilities and capture incremental revenue.

GERMANY PLANS FACIAL RECOGNITION AT AIRPORTS AND TRAIN STATIONS

Germany is planning to introduce facial recognition software to cameras at transport hubs as part of new anti-terrorism measures, the country’s interior minister has announced.

Thomas de Maiziere told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that the technology would be able to identify suspects following two attacks by Islamist militants in the past month.

“I would like to use this kind of facial recognition technology in video cameras at airports and train stations,” de Maiziere told the paper. “Then, if a suspect appears and is recognized it will show up in the system.”

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De Maiziere also suggested other security measures were being considered, adding: “We will have to get used to increased security measures, such as longer queues, stricter checks or personal entry cards. This is tedious, uncomfortable and costs time but I don’t think it’s a limitation of personal freedom.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been under increased political pressure to introduce stricter measures since the recent attacks, however, privacy advocates have criticized proposals for increased surveillance.

A spokesperson for Germany’s Green Party told DPA news agency that the plan was “half-baked.”

Read More@ http://www.newsweek.com/germany-plans-facial-recognition-airports-train-stations-security-attack-492740

Facial recognition - a powerful ad tool or privacy nightmare?

Whenever the future of advertising is discussed, thoughts often turn to the sci-fi image of a stalked Tom Cruise in Minority Report being recognised and served intrusive, personalised advertising as he tries to escape a futuristic city.

Hence, recent claims by Russian app FindFace that it could identify people in public by their profile picture on a Russian social media site were met with a combination of awe and concern. Such facial recognition could enable digital screens to tailor messages to each individual as they pass, meaning an end to brands wasting budget advertising the wrong products to the wrong people.

Bullish Forecast for Hadoop Services

Despite major market inroads being made by Apache Spark, a new forecast estimates the global market for the Hadoop big data framework will continue to grow at a healthy clip through 2021, fueled in part by growing enterprise demand for Hadoop services.

According to a market forecast released this week by Allied Market Research, the Hadoop market is expected to grow at a 63.4 percent compound annual growth rate over the next five years, reaching $84.6 billion by 2021. The sustained growth is attributed in part to accelerated Hadoop adoption in Europe, where annual growth rates are expected to top 65 percent.

The sustained growth of the Hadoop market stems largely from higher rates of adoption in North America, especially in the IT, banking and government sectors as enterprise big data strategies have been rolled out.

Read More@ https://www.datanami.com/2016/08/25/bullish-forecast-hadoop-services/

Bullish Hadoop Forecast Despite Spark Hype

Despite major market inroads being made by Apache Spark, a new forecast estimates the global market for the Hadoop big data framework will continue to grow at a healthy clip through 2021, fueled in part by growing enterprise demand for Hadoop services.

Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) Market to Reach $139 Billion, Globally by 2022

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, "World Software-Defined Data Centers (SDDC) Market", the global SDDC market is expected to generate revenue of $139 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 32% from 2016 to 2022. SDDC is a facility where all data center resources that include storage, networking, and computer are virtualized and delivered as a service. It leverages deployment, monitoring, and management of data center resources through automated software. Exponential growth of big data, increased demand for streamlined & automated data center operations, and cost efficiency has resulted in increased SDDC adoption, globally. On the contrary, factors that restrain the market expansion in certain regions include possibility of security threats and integration complexity.

THE NEW JAGUAR F-PACE RUNS JAGUAR’S HYPED INCONTROL TOUCH PRO INFOTAINMENT UNIT AND SO TO DOES THE UPGRADED XE, SO, IS IT ANY GOOD?

IN-CAR INFOTAINMENT AND communication systems are in a constant state of flux. And no sooner does one car maker reveal its latest tablet-esque system than another has released its system that’s either bigger or faster.

But it wasn’t so long ago that we never needed our infotainment systems to do much more than change the radio station from either AM to FM, or use a safe-cracker’s touch to finely tune a radio station.

And then along came sat-nav units and map book publishers began going broke. And now, the touchscreen units we have in even the cheapest of cars are able to connect with you phone and while all will stream the music on it, many, depending on the connectivity, will even be able to display the maps and more from your phone, read out text messages and even allow you to dictate a response.

Biometric technology replacing pins and passwords at StanChart

Voice recognition and fingerprints are replacing pin numbers and passwords at Standard Chartered as the UK-listed bank becomes the latest lender to introduce biometric technology.

StanChart, which operates mostly across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, will roll out the new service to some 5m mobile and telephone banking customers this year, allowing them to check bank balances and access investments without needing to remember multiple passwords.

The move comes as many of the world’s biggest banks expand digital investments in order to meet the rising demand for mobile banking, as the number of customers visiting branches declines.

Earlier this month, Barclays announced that all personal phone banking customers in the UK would be able to use their voice as a form of secure ID instead of answering security questions or remembering passwords. HSBC is planning to launch voice recognition and fingerprint ID in the summer while Royal Bank of Scotland is launching artificial intelligence to interact with staff, to help them assist their small business customers.

In Singapore, local banks have gone one step further and are collaborating on a service that will allow customers to make payments using their social media ID and mobile phone numbers instead of account numbers and sort codes.

StanChart’s moves are part of a plan unveiled by chief executive Bill Winters last November to invest $1.5bn in technology over three years and bolster the bank’s retail banking division.

Read More@ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/080a7d70-60ad-11e6-ae3f-77baadeb1c93.html#axzz4HetEMMHq

The future of DOOH is now: Pairing biometrics with digital signage

When "Diamonds Are Forever" came out in 1971, film buffs and James Bond fanatics got a sneak peek at a futuristic technology that is now so mainstream that many of us carry it around in our pockets as part of our smartphones: A biometric fingerprint scanner.

WORLD HYPERSCALE DATA CENTER MARKET EXPECTED TO REACH $71.2 BILLION BY 2022

According to a new report by Allied Market Research titled World Hyperscale Data Center Market, the world hyperscale data center market is expected to reach a revenue of $71.2 billion by 2022, with a CAGR of 20.7% from 2016 to 2022. Hyperscale data centers are most widely adopted by cloud service providers to house cloud-based resources and cloud services, accounting for a market share of around 63% in 2015. North America is the largest revenue-generating region for hyperscale data centers, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific in 2015.

Rio Olympics 2016: Medal hopes ride on technology

RIO DE JANEIRO: The seeds for many of the 25, maybe 30, medals the US track team hopes to win in Rio de Janeiro were planted at a training center in California with the help of technology originally designed for golf.

One of the many tools USA Track and Field makes available to its athletes is called "Track Man," a computerized tracking device that sports fans might recognize from watching golf on TV . In addition to golf balls, "Track Man" can trace the trajectory of shot puts and hammers to allow the athletes who throw them keep track of how high and far they go.

"Immediate feedback," says Phil Cheetham, senior sport technologist for the US Olympic Committee, when asked about the greatest benefit of the technology. "Immediate knowledge of results is proven to help you improve technique much more quickly than if you don't have the feedback."

Saddled with restrictive sponsorship rules and less-than-ideal earning potential, athletes have been lashing out for years against organizations such as the USATF for not plowing their profits back into the pockets of the people who put on the show.

Track Man and the program at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, are examples of how the federations are, indeed, trying to invest in athletes. Some of the investment comes in the form of direct cash into the pockets of the runners and throwers; other comes in training tools like Track Man and similar technologies that help sprinters and jumpers.

"Since I got here, I've improved over four feet," said Joe Kovacs, the 2015 world champion whose first coach was his mother. "It's been a combination of great coaching, awesome facilities and the technology we have."

Most notable among those who don't think USATF does all it can for athletes is 800-meter runner Nick Symmonds, who boycotted world championships last year over a dispute about what runners can wear in a sport where both athletes and institutions depend on shoe and apparel companies for most of their money. Symmonds was injured and didn't qualify for the Olympics, but he's hardly alone.

Read More@ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Rio-Olympics-2016-Medal-hopes-ride-on-technology/articleshow/53596891.cms

New facial recognition algorithm is so smart it doesn’t need to see your face

Facial recognition already posed serious problems for privacy advocates. Used by everyone from law enforcement to churches, the privacy concerns with facial recognition are very real, and they’re about to get a lot worse.

The ability to identify anyone just by analyzing an image of their face creates a severe imbalance of power from the common citizen to the people in charge. The ability to identify those whose faces are blurred or otherwise obstructed kills that balance entirely. Yet that’s exactly what algorithms like the ‘Faceless Recognition System’ (FRS) are aiming to do.

FRS was a creation by researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Saarbrücken, Germany. The idea was to create a method of identifying individuals through use of imperfect - blurry or otherwise obscured — images. The system trains a neural network on a set of photos containing obscured and unobscured images before using that training to spot similarities from a target’s head and body.

It’s crazy accurate too. The algorithm is able to find an obscured face after seeing an unobscured version of the same face only once at a 69.6 percent accuracy rate. If the machine has 10 images of the person’s face, the accuracy rate climbs to 91.5 percent.

There are, however, limitations. For example, black boxes obscuring a person’s face drop the accuracy rating down to about 14.7 percent, but even that is three times more accurate than humans.

It’s not just one algorithm, either. Facebook has its own facial recognition algorithms that can reportedly identify users with obscured faces at an 83 percent accuracy rate. To do so, it uses cues such as stance and body type. The Faceless Recognition system, however, might be the first fully trainable system that uses a full range of body cues to correctly identify targets.

Read More@ http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/08/08/new-facial-recognition-algorithm-is-so-smart-it-doesnt-need-to-see-your-face/#gref

Infotainment test: best in-car entertainment systems reviewed

Who makes the best in-car entertainment and sat-nav systems? Our top 10 includes verdicts on Audi, Ford and Vauxhall systems

Digital technology has transformed the way in-car entertainment and information is delivered, and for many drivers nowadays their car’s ‘infotainment’ system is as important as its performance on the road.

Technology: facial recognition to eye scans and thought control

You stare at a ceiling light and it switches on. The same applies when you stare at the coffee machine or focus your eyes on the button showing your preferred washing machine cycle. You refocus on the “on” button and away it goes.

Snapchat Suit May Influence Facial Recognition Technology Controversy

The lawsuit against Snapchat brought by two Illinois residents is making its way to federal court in California-and eventually may help address controversies about the use of facial recognition technology.

The lawsuit focuses on Snapchat’s “Lenses” feature and whether it conflicts with the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The plaintiffs say it does, but Snapchat contends it recognizes objects, not “a specific face.”

“Snapchat’s proprietary facial recognition technology scans a user’s face each time he or she uses Lenses to send a snap or story and collects, stores and uses geometric data relating to the unique points and contours (i.e. biometric identifiers of each face),” the lawsuit filed initially in Los Angeles Superior Court said.

Under BIPA, Snapchat or another company cannot obtain someone’s biometrics unless it informs the person in writing; receives a written release from the person who provides informed consent; and publishes guidelines for destroying biometric identifiers, with these guidelines being available to the public, according to the lawsuit.

But Snapchat never informed its users in Illinois about “the specific purpose and length of term for which their biometric identifiers or information would be collected, stored or used,” the lawsuit contends. Snapchat also did not get a written release or consent from these users, nor did the company have publically available guidelines on when the identifiers would be destroyed, the lawsuit adds.

It further claims that Snapchat has created, collected and stored tens of millions and maybe hundreds of millions of face templates, as it estimates that tens of thousands of Snapchat users live in Illinois. Snapchat creates the templates using “sophisticated facial recognition technology” that can extract and analyze data from the “points and contours of users’ faces when they use Snapchat’s Lenses feature,” according to the lawsuit.

Read More@http://www.law.com/sites/articles/2016/07/26/snapchat-suit-may-influence-facial-recognition-technology-controversy/?slreturn=20160627082736

Precision farming – the way to go for Africa

Windhoek – It is not wise and sustainable to continue practising conventional agricultural methods, such as ploughing and loosening the soil before planting as it puts stress on land resources and is worsened by effects of climate change, says global agricultural experts who convened in Brussels, Belgium, last week.

Data Center SDN: Comparing VMware NSX, Cisco ACI, and Open SDN Options

The data center network layer is the engine that manages some of the most important business data points you have. Applications, users, specific services, and even entire business segments are all tied to network capabilities and delivery architectures. And with all the growth around cloud, virtualization, and the digital workspace, the network layer has become even more imporant.

Most of all, we’re seeing more intelligence and integration taking place at the network layer. The biggest evolution in networking includes integration with other services, the integration of cloud, and network virtualization. Let’s pause there and take a brief look at that last concept.

SDN is Coming. Is Your Workforce Ready?

SDN is moving into the data center at a rapid clip, but while deploying a new technology is one thing, getting people to use it properly is quite another.

According to market analyst IHS Inc., SDN revenues grew more than 80 percent in 2015 compared to the year earlier, topping $1.4 billion. The bulk of that came in the form of new Ethernet switches and controllers, although newer use cases like SD-WAN are on the rise as well and will likely contribute substantially to the overall market by the end of the decade.

This means that, ready or not, the enterprise network is quickly becoming virtualized, severing the last link between data architectures and underlying hardware. This will do wonders for network flexibility and scalability, but it also produces a radically new environment for network managers, few of whom have gotten the appropriate levels of training, if anecdotal evidence is any indication.

DATA CENTERS: MAKING THE BUSINESS AND CONSUMER WORLDS GO ’ROUND

Today, a connection to the Internet is absolutely critical. Many activities require network support, from checking social media and sending emails to video conferencing with colleagues and accessing an employer’s online tools. Each time you take part in processes like these, you’re using a data center to do so.

Asia Pacific drives leather goods market due to increases per capita, female employment: report

The leather goods market is expected to reach revenues of $94.7 billion by 2020, according to a new report by Allied Market Research.

Leather luggage and goods are also being propelled by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5 percent during the five-year period between 2015 and 2020. The “World Leather Luggage and Goods Market Opportunities and Forecasts 2014-2020” report attributes this growth to factors such as an increase of per capita income, a higher tourism rate and evolving fashion trends.

Allied Market Research’s report examines the leather luggage and goods market in regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and LAMEA (Latin America, Middle East and Africa). Key brands analyzed in the report include Coach, Prada, Samsonite, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Kering, Delsey, Christian Dior, Tumi and VIP Industries.

Data Traffic Control Issues Help Drive Exploding SDN Market

The worldwide software-defined networking (SDN) market is expected to reach $132.9 billion by 2022, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 47% from 2016 to 2022, according to a new report published by Allied Market Research titled "World Software Defined Networking Market.”

The growing need for efficient management of data traffic and centralized control of networks has encouraged communication service providers to adopt SDN, the report says. Implementation of SDN has increased significantly across industries because of growing network complexity, the demand for cost and time efficiency and the need for flexibility in network infrastructure.

Shoptech’s tracker tools fuel growth in CT, abroad

As the operations manager for Berlin precision tool and fixtures manufacturer Sirois Tool, Andre Nadeau is concerned with efficiencies.

"In manufacturing, it's important to have a snapshot of your jobs," Nadeau said. "It helps us understand how far along a job is, how much time we've spent and our costs."

For many 21st-century manufacturers, that snapshot is increasingly being created by Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, which tracks business resources — cash, materials and production capacity — and the status of business commitments, purchase orders and payroll. That in turn, has fueled an ERP industry that's projected to expand by more than 7 percent annually and grow to $41 billion by 2020, according to Allied Market Research, a global research firm.

Managed IT security services firms resell cloud-based offerings

Managed service providers are reselling security as a service offerings from third-party providers to expand their service portfolios in the IT security arena.

Bret Laughlin leaves little doubt that partnering with third parties has enabled BrainTrace, the managed IT security services firm he founded, to offer what he considers to be the best enterprise-level security technologies to non-enterprise companies. One of those technologies is cloud-based active breach detection from Eastwind Networks, which BrainTrace signed on with a few months ago.

While Laughlin considered acquiring technology, when he found Eastwind, "it was a perfect fit." He particularly liked that it has "very fast search capabilities and keeps lengthy logs, and we believed with its combination of machine learning and human resources using that type of data … we could provide best overall service to our clients."

Global Commercial Telematics Market is Expected to Reach Around $ 49.12 Billion, by 2020

According to a new report by Allied Market Research entitled, “Global Commercial Telematics Market”, the global commercial telematics market is expected to reach $49.12 billion by 2020, at an estimated CAGR of 18.4 % during the forecast period (2014-2020).

Telematics are information and telecommunication products that combine computers and telecommunication services for transferring large amounts of data in vehicles in real-time. Commercial telematics market includes the telematics used by light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles. All major automotive manufacturers across the globe are now concentrating on developing and implementing the Telematics concept into their vehicles. Vehicles manufactured today offer unique connectivity solutions for better monitoring and tracking.

Preparing for the future with software-defined networking

Bringing agility and scalability to telecommunications, software-defined networking is the radical transformation that will enable today’s explosive data growth to continue.

With video conferencing, dynamic cloud workloads and unified communications, network traffic is growing at an astonishing rate. Data traffic on the AT&T wireless network grew more than 150,000 per cent between 2007 and 2015 and this is only the beginning.

We expect new applications, like the Internet of Things, 4K video, virtual reality and augmented reality, to push bandwidth demand even higher in coming years.

This explosion of data is already outpacing the capacity of the traditional telecommunications network. For more than a century, telecoms networks have been based on specialized, single-purpose equipment, including routers, switches and other custom-built network devices.

To add capacity, we had to add more equipment. This worked well when the majority of data was voice traffic, which increased gradually and predictably. Today, however, we simply cannot build the physical infrastructure quickly enough. We need a new way to build and manage our data networks.

Read More@ http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/600852/preparing-future-software-defined-networking/

Tech terms explained: What is….NFC? Forget cash, the contactless future is here

NFC is the convenient way to pay for goods using your smartphone instead of cash or cards. Here’s everything you need to know about this new technology.

In the ever-changing world of high-tech gadgets and gizmos, a whole load of jargon is thrown our way that many of us don’t necessarily understand.

The Future Of Situational Awareness

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has kicked off its Squad X Core Technologies program in a bid to try and improve soldiers and Marines situational awareness in treacherous and degraded environments.  Major Christopher Orlowski, DARPA program manager for Squad X, says the program aims to augment troops physical senses via acoustic and visual senses.

DARPA has therefore awarded phase-one contracts to nine defense companies: Helios Remote Sensor Systems, Kitware, Leidos, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Scientific Systems Company Inc., Six3 Systems, Inc., SoarTech and SRI International, according to Hackread.

Each of the nine companies are meant to work in one of the four research areas which include precision engagement, non-kinetic engagement, squad sensing and squad autonomy.

In precision engagement, DARPA is looking for guided munitions capabilities that could be fired from current weapons platforms, Orlowski explained. In non-kinetic engagement, the agency is looking for technology that is able to ‘disrupt enemy command and control, communications and use of unmanned assets at a squad-relevant operational pace’. Squad sensing wise means technology that can sense and detect potential threats 1 km away. Squad sensing was focused on primarily identifying humans and unmanned systems within the environment and then determining whether or not those were threats.

Read More@ http://i-hls.com/2016/05/the-future-of-situational-awareness/

Smart wallet shuns NFC in favor of in-house magnetic flux tech

From smart cards to smartphone-based payment services, we've seen plenty of high-tech digital wallets vying for the attention of tech-savvy consumers. The Spendwallet is the latest of the bunch, an all-in-one device that opts for an in-house magnetic field technology instead of NFC.

Wells Fargo unveils Android wallet for NFC payments and ATM transactions

Wells Fargo has built a new mobile wallet that enables customers to carry out NFC-based in-store payments as well as ATM transactions with their Android handsets. 

How big data is changing the face of healthcare

We are living in a world dominated by data and its usage. Compilation, assessment, analysis and the systematic usage of available data to improve services forms the bedrock of many industries today. Data mining and data analysis, as it is called, hugely support the functioning of a large number of industries. Prominent among them are online sellers and retail outlets which examine and analyse every footfall and use the information to improve their performance and service delivery.

With the onset of big data analytics, things have not quite been the same in the field of medicine too. Much like in many other industries, this tool today is being used to revolutionise healthcare, improve delivery, systematise research and achieve better diagnosis.

Can IT keep up with big data?

Though IT and its functions and responsibilities have changed over the years, there's one area that remains consistent: IT primarily focuses on major enterprise applications and on large machines—whether they are mainframes or super servers.

When IT deals with big data, the primary arena for it is, once again, large servers that are parallel processing in a Hadoop environment. Thankfully for the company at large, IT also focuses on reliability, security, governance, failover, and performance of data and apps—because if it didn't, there would be nobody else internally to do the job that is required. Within this environment, IT's job is most heavily focused on the structured transactions that come in daily from order, manufacturing, purchasing, service, and administrative systems that keep the enterprise running. In this environment, analytics, unstructured data and smaller servers in end user departments are still secondary.

Is Hadoop losing its spark?

A 2015 survey by Gartner Inc. revealed that only 18 percent of respondents expressed their desire to either try out or adopt Hadoop in the next few years. However, this report is not the only one which suggested that Hadoop’s star is fading.

Newer big data frameworks such as Spark have started to gain momentum and, according to the Apache Software foundation, companies are running Spark on clusters of thousands of nodes, which the biggest cluster encompassing nearly 8,000 nodes. Although many people rushed into writing Hadoop’s obituary, market research firm MarketAnalysis.com announced in its June 2015 report that the Hadoop market was projected to grow at an annual rate of 58 percent, surpassing $1 billion by the year 2020.

Rise of the robots is sparking an investment boom

In warehouses, hospitals and retail stores, and on city streets, industrial parks and the footpaths of college campuses, the first representatives of this new invading force are starting to become apparent.

“The robots are among us,” says Steve Jurvetson, a Silicon Valley investor and a director at Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX companies, which have relied heavily on robotics. A multitude of machines will follow, he says: “A lot of people are going to come in contact with robots in the next two to five years.”

The arrival of the robots — and their potentially devastating effect on human employment — has been widely predicted. Now, the machines are starting to roll or walk out of the labs. In the process, they are about to tip off a financing boom as robotics — and artificial intelligence — becomes one of the hottest new markets in tech.

After growing at a compound rate of 17 per cent a year, the robot market will be worth $135bn by 2019, according to IDC, a tech research firm. A boom is taking place in Asia, with Japan and China, which is in the early stages of retooling its manufacturing sector, accounting for 69 per cent of all robot spending.

Although the amount of money flowing into a new robotics industry is still at a relatively early stage, all the lead indicators of the innovation economy are pointing up. Patent filings covering robotics technology — one sign of the expected impact — have soared. According to IFI Claims, a patent research company, annual filings have tripled over the past decade. China alone accounted for 35 per cent of robot-related patent filings last year — more than double nearest rival Japan.

Read More: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5a352264-0e26-11e6-ad80-67655613c2d6.html#axzz48LVbg0C1

US watchdogs probe mobile security

The US authorities are to investigate the security of mobile devices, and in particular the way in which software updates are distributed.

The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission are looking to “better understand, and ultimately to improve” practices. To this end, letters have been sent to operators asking about procedures for reviewing and releasing updates, and to eight device makers about how patches are issued to address vulnerabilities.

“There have recently been a growing number of vulnerabilities associated with mobile operating systems that threaten the security and integrity of a user’s device, including ‘Stagefright’ in the Android operating system, which may affect almost one billion Android devices globally”, a statement said.

Infotainment upgrade takes center stage with 2017 Land Rover Discovery Sport

In the two years that have progressed since Land Rover launched the Discovery Sport line in the US (replacing the aging LR2), plenty of advancements have been made in terms of in-car technology. Thus, in updating its midsize utility vehicle for 2017, Land Rover's focused nearly entirely on technology.

BlackBerry offers lawful interception for devices, but no backdoors

Wants to differentiate from rivals offering end-to-end encryption.

Mobile device maker BlackBerry is taking a different tack in the encryption debate, saying its smartphones have lawful interception capabilities for government surveillance purposes.

BlackBerry chief operating officer Marty Beard told the FedTalks government information technology summit in the United States that the company takes a balanced approach on interception.

According to Fedscoop, which first reported Beard's remarks, this approach differentiates Blackberry from its competitors, who are "all about encryption all the way."

Best infotainment systems - ultimate guide to in-car tech

We rate 10 of the top infotainment set-ups on the market

Around 73 per cent of British adults don’t understand how to use all of their car's features, according to research by BookMyGarage.com. That may sound like a case of ‘don’t know, don’t care’, but at the same time 54 per cent bought their particular vehicle because of the systems it offered.

So, if people are tempted by hassle-saving gadgets but can’t work out how to use them, what's the point? We teamed up with tech site Alphr.com to put the kit to the test to establish whether it's user-unfriendly or simply that owners have all the gear but no idea.

Is the internet becoming less secure?

There’s been no shortage of scandals surrounding internet security within recent months. A seemingly endless stream of websites appear to be hacked, with companies such as vTech, Ashley Madison and TalkTalk, to give a few high-profile examples, having their databases compromised.

These security breaches have been detrimental to the image of these companies. TalkTalk was perhaps hit the hardest, with 101,000 customers leaving on the back of the hacking scandal.

NVIDIA Extends Their Datacenter Performance Lead In Neural Network Computing at #GTC16

At NVIDIA NVDA +0.62%’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC) 2016 in San Jose, California the company announced products based on their latest GPU architecture, code-named Pascal. This conference is traditionally attended by some of the leading researchers in GPU-accelerated compute technologies and over the past few years has become increasingly focused on Deep Neural Networks (DNN). DNNs are the latest key to artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing. Incredible strides have been made over the last three years in AI thanks to Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Companies like Google GOOGL -0.20%, Microsoft MSFT -0.17%, IBM IBM -0.07%, Toyota, Baidu and others are looking at deep neural networks to help solve many of their complex analytical and data-rich problems. NVIDIA is helping these companies  to harness the power of their GPUs to accelerate the deep learning these systems need to do. Thanks to NVIDIA’s early involvement in deep neural networks research and their latest GPU hardware, the company is in the driver’s seat right now when it comes to delivering silicon to accelerate deep neural networks.

The rise of the micro-data center

The recent 451 Research London conference threw up some interesting thoughts on how data centers might develop over the next few years, where micro-data centers – down to and including the ‘Bring Your Own’ variety – could play an important role.

Some interesting thoughts came to the fore during the recent `Business of Cloud, Data Center and Hosting Summit’ run by analyst firm 451 Research. While the background was painted from sets of figures based on solid research of trends in cloud usage across the cloud services marketplace, the best thoughts were of the still-arguable, ‘we-reckon…’ variety.

Encryption software a growing market for resellers to capitalise on

Demand for encryption software is increasing, with Asia Pacific leading the growth charge thanks to the growing penetration of cloud computing and increasing workforce mobility in the region.

Allied Market Research says the global encryption software market – where key players include Symantec, Sophos, McAfee, Check Point Software Technologies and Trend Micro – is expected to reach US$2.5 billion by 2021, registering a compound annual growth rate of 14.2% between 2016 and 2021.

How The 'Internet of Things' Impacts Security

The range and number of “things” connected to the internet is truly astounding, including security cameras, ovens, alarm systems, baby monitors and cars. They’re are all going online, so they can be remotely monitored and controlled over the internet. But many have security or privacy holes. Here’s what to look for to keep yourself safe online.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices typically incorporate sensors, switches and logging capabilities that collect and transmit data across the internet.

Encryption: A Matter of Human Rights

Government attacks on the encryption of online communication threaten human rights around the world, warned Amnesty International in a briefing published today as tech giant Apple challenges the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in court over an order to provide software to bypass iPhone encryption.

The briefing, Encryption: A Matter of Human Rights, which is Amnesty International’s first official stance on encryption and human rights, says that people everywhere should be able to encrypt their communications and personal data as an essential protection of their rights to privacy and free speech.

Dell could announce the sale of its IT services unit to Japan’s NTT for $3.5 billion as soon as Monday

Capping a process that began late last year, Dell could announce as early as Monday the sale of the company’s IT services unit to Japan’s telecom conglomerate NTT for $3.5 billion, sources briefed on the process tell Re/code.

What Is a Robot?

The year is 2016. Robots have infiltrated the human world. We built them, one by one, and now they are all around us. Soon there will be many more of them, working alone and in swarms. One is no larger than a single grain of rice, while another is larger than a prairie barn. These machines can be angular, flat, tubby, spindly, bulbous, and gangly. Not all of them have faces. Not all of them have bodies.

And yet they can do things once thought impossible for machine. They vacuum carpets, zip up winter coats, paint cars, organize warehouses, mix drinks, play beer pong, waltz across a school gymnasium, limp like wounded animals, write and publish stories, replicate abstract expressionist art, clean up nuclear waste, even dream.

Robotics Researcher Says Autonomous Technology Is 'Absolutely Not Ready' For Widespread Use

Self-driving cars seem to be just about all the auto industry can discuss lately, but at least one robotics expert thinks it’s time to slow that roll a little bit. While a Duke University researcher and is all for autonomous technology, she said it’s far from ready for widespread deployment.

The future of big data is very, very fast

There are only two certainties in big data today: It won't look like yesterday's data infrastructure, and it'll be very, very fast.

This latter trend is evident in the rise of Apache Spark and real-time analytics engines, but it's also clear from the parallel rise of real-time transactional databases (NoSQL). The former is all about lightning-fast data processing, while the latter takes care of equally fast data storage and updates.

The two together combine to "tackle workloads hitherto impossible," as Aerospike vice president Peter Goldmacher told me in an interview.