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.

Big Data and Hadoop Development 2016

What is Big Data?

Let’s demystify this concept. Simply put, Big Data can be defined as the compilation of huge datasets that can’t be processed making use of conventional computing methodologies. It is neither one single tool nor a procedure. It rather engages multiple areas of technology and business.

Big Data Management & It’s Significance

For companies of every size, data management has gained an added dimension over the years. From being considered as a core competency today it is viewed upon as a crucial differentiator that holds the key to verify market winners. In the recent times, the government bodies as well as Fortune 1000 organizations have immensely benefited from the enhancements brought upon by the web pioneers. Furthermore, these companies are also outlining fresh and revolutionary practices and re-estimating the present strategies to review the methods in which they can convert their businesses with the usage of Big Data. This attempt has made them realize the basic nature and importance of Big Data. Forward thinking organizations today have understood that Big Data indicates a harmonious blend of innovative initiatives and technologies that involves data that is fast-changing, extremely varied and colossal.

However, in this highly developed and high-tech era, that makes it possible for companies to realize the real utility and value that Big Data management entails. For instance, modern day retailers have the choice to keep a track of user web clicks in order to recognize and outline the customer behavioural trends. This in turn allows them to ideate better and enhance their existing marketing and promotional campaigns, pricing structure as well as the stockage. The utilities are able to track the levels of household energy usage and forecast the energy outages and also emphasize on effective consumption of energy. Even government bodies and brands like Google using Big Data management can track and spot the surfacing of disease outbreaks through the social media signs. Furthermore, leading oil and gas corporations can derive the result of sensors in drilling devices in order to arrive at secure and effective drilling decisions.

The Big Data Benefits

Therefore, some of the visible core benefits of Big Data across multiple industry verticals usually include:

Making use of important data in social media platforms like the preferences and product awareness of customers, product organizations and how the retail companies are planning production

Marketing agencies are efficiently utilizing the vital data that is stored in social networking sites like Facebook and constantly updating their know-how about their campaign responses, promotions as well as the advertising channels

Hospitals make use of big data concerning the previous medical history of chosen patients in order to offer fast and improved service

Read More: http://www.smartdatacollective.com/node/365113

5 Massive Trends Firing Up Technology Stocks In 2016

Technology stocks outperformed the stock market this year. Some massive trends should continue firing up the tech sector in 2016 and beyond.

The Technology Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund (XLK) and Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) — the two largest tech ETFs — both returned about 3% in this year while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) lost 0.7%, according to Morningstar. The biggest drivers in both ETFs were Microsoft (MSFT), +19% gain year to date; Facebook (FB), +33%; and Alphabet (GOOGL), +43%. Apple (AAPL), the biggest holding in both ETFs, shed 2%.

First Trust Dow Jones Internet ETF (FDN) rallied an eye-popping 21% this year. In addition to Facebook (FB) and Alphabet (GOOGL), it has to thank Amazon (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX) for its outsized pop. The online retailer and video streaming service rocketed a mind-blowing 114% and 142%, respectively, in 2015.

iShares North American Tech-Software (IGV) surged 10% this year. Microsoft (MSFT), +19% year to date; Adobe (ADBE), + 26%; and Salesfore.com (CFM), +30%, led the charge.

Based on fourth-quarter estimates and actual results earlier this year, the technology sector’s sales growth was almost nonexistent at +0.1%, according to FactSet. But it was superior to the S&P 500 (SPY)’s, 3.4% dip. The tech sector is on track to grow earnings by 3.5% for 2015 while S&P 500 (SPY) earnings fall 0.5% .

Read More: http://www.forbes.com/sites/trangho/2015/12/20/5-massive-trends-firing-up-technology-stocks-in-2016/

Technology can keep people in touch

This is the fifth in a series about how technology affects child growth and skill development.

Q: What are some positive effects of technology on child growth and skill development?

A: The Washington Post released a survey of teens in 2012 stating they have incorporated social media sites and texting into their daily lives but still prefer face-to-face communication. They believe these social media technologies have enabled them to keep in touch with more friends, to get acquainted with other students at their schools and to connect with students with whom they share interests. One in five stated using social networking helps them feel more popular, confident and sympathetic toward others.

This national study of more than 1,000 youth between 13 and 17 years of age by the child advocacy group Common Sense Media generally contradicts the myth that using social media is harmful because of the risks of bullying by peers, isolation, online predators and the release of private/personal information. However, the report talked about “Facebook fatigue.” Forty-one percent of cellphone users said they are addicted, and 36 percent would like to return to a time before Facebook was invented.

Many teens expressed weariness from the constant pressure from texting and posting on social media. Teens have mixed feelings about digital communication and online technology. Research about the developmental and behavioral effects of technology on youth is scant.

Teens still favor texting in communicating online, with two-thirds stating they text everyday. Facebook is the preferred social site over Twitter, Google and MySpace. More teens think social networking helps their friendships than those who feel it does not — 50 percent vs. 4 percent. Half of all the teen respondents surveyed preferred real-life communication.

Our collective embrace of the Internet, social media sites and mobile-mediated devices is obvious in public places. Most individuals are connected on media to others, not talking to the person or persons with whom they are sitting. Dr. Keith Hampton, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania and principal author of the Pew Research study “Social Networking Sites and Our Lives,” articulated concerns about technology and social relationships.

Read More: http://www.hdnews.net/lifestyle/community/technology-can-keep-people-in-touch/article_8fa055a0-f093-5ef4-99b3-bbbca54fd48e.html

The rise of robots, virtual reality coming soon

Virtual reality and robots could soon become more commonplace in U.S. homes if recent predictions for 2016 play out.

Technology improvements, new gear rollouts and lower costs are expected to spark greater interest in virtual reality technology from Facebook's Oculus, Google as well as Sony, HTC and others, according to Juniper Research.

Two consumer devices are already available: A VR headset made by Oculus for Samsung Galaxy smartphones, and Google Cardboard, which works with any smartphone. Juniper expects those devices and competing gear to get even more popular over the next five years.
"The technology is now poised to transform the entertainment industry, including games and video, in the next few years, whilst offering the potential to quickly expand into other markets such as industrial and healthcare," according to a recent Juniper report.

"We might get to a point where there's enough ubiquity of virtual reality where you can really build a company in this market today," Box CEO Aaron Levie said in an interview with CNBC. Levie's firm sells enterprise software for content management and file sharing.

There are already more than 200 companies developing virtual reality technology including hardware and software, and they're worth a combined $13 billion, according to research from VB Profiles.

Read More: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/11/the-rise-of-robots-virtual-reality-coming-soon.html

How data center vendors and operators can maximize their facilities’ performance

Power usage effectiveness has been an important metric in the data center world for some time now. Companies running data center facilities typically strive for the lowest PUE they can achieve in order to reduce their operating costs and promote their green environmental credentials.

In an earlier article, my colleague Srikanth Murugan demonstrated how to cut through the marketing hype of competing claims about PUE performance. I would now like to take the subject a little further and focus on the economics of PUE and how data center vendors and operators can maximize their facilities’ performance.

Selecting the ideal location

Stable power grids, low energy prices and year-round access to “free cooling” drove a number of large Internet companies to build data centers in the Nordics where conventional wisdom dictated they could most easily achieve extremely low PUE values. Google in Finland and Facebook at The Node Pole in Sweden are two such examples. However, increasingly relaxed data center temperature and humidity ranges – as defined by ASHRAE – have now made low PUE deployments possible for a much wider range of geographical locations.

Cooling developments

A key area of technical development here are evaporative indirect free air cooling systems, now available from an increasing number of cooling technology suppliers. Using an evaporative cooler, dry outside air of 32 degrees can still be used to cool down air in the data center to 22 degrees, thus delivering meaningful savings from reduced electricity needed for powered cooling.

Even more exiting from an economic perspective is that for some locations this enables the use of outside air for cooling all year round, resulting in a lower maximum PUE and bringing significant capital expenditure savings.


Read More: http://www.rcrwireless.com/20151208/opinion/reality-check-the-economics-of-data-center-power-usage-effectiveness-tag10

Apple, Google and Microsoft: weakening encryption lets the bad guys in

Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Twitter, Facebook and 56 other technology companies have joined together to reject calls for weakening encryption saying it would be “exploited by the bad guys”.

After Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook’s claims that “any backdoor is a backdoor for everyone”, the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents 62 of the largest technology companies worldwide, said: “Encryption is a security tool we rely on everyday to stop criminals from draining our bank accounts, to shield our cars and airplanes from being taken over by malicious hacks, and to otherwise preserve our security and safety.”

The debate over encryption, which has become the bedrock of the internet used by almost every transmission that needs to be secure and increasingly those that don’t, has erupted after the terrorist attacks on Paris.

The Information Technology Industry Council’s chief executive, Dean Garfield, said: “Weakening security with the aim of advancing security simply does not make sense.”


Tech industry groups urge US to avoid policies that would weaken encryption
 Read more
End-to-end encrypted communications mean that only the sender and receiver can view the contents of the message, which governments say has put intelligence services at a disadvantage.

Read More : http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/23/apple-google-microsoft-weakening-encryption-back-doors