When Google announced in 2012 that they were bringing Google Fiber to Kansas City, my father called me and said he was interested. As an information technologist, I was excited. I told the “old man” that Google Fiber was going to change everything. Last month, Google Fiber finally came to my parents' neighborhood, and I made the six-hour drive to visit the house I grew up in.
Google has already rolled out its fiber-optic technology for residents in specific areas of Kansas City – on both sides of the state line. High-speed Internet and TV services have come to many of the city’s “fiberhoods” – a neighborhood which has pre-registered for Google’s network in order to get its service.
The fiber has been installed in twelve areas of Kansas City, Kansas and in two areas of Kansas City, Missouri. The installation is in progress in many more areas of the Kansas City metropolitan.
There was a time when marketing firms had to treat everyone like generic off-brand mac & cheese. Sure, they could make certain assumptions based upon average consumers, but real, personalized customer offers and promotions just weren't possible. That time, however, has passed. These days, brands are able to gather data about individual customers from before any sort of interaction even begins to take place. Through information sources such as web browsers, social media, surveys, customer reward programs, transaction data, etc., it is possible to gather massive amounts of data regarding the personal preferences of millions of potential customers.
Businesses have seen the value of data for years. Thus, businesses have collected survey, transaction and marketing data all with the hope that by analysing it they can improve their business processes and become more profitable. The problem is that some companies end up paying more than the data is actually worth, due to poor business practices or relying on a data warehouse that simply can't keep up with today’s influx of data. For business leaders who find the following five signs familiar, it may be time to switch to big data as a service, such as Qubole, to get the most out of the data they collect and the money they spend.
Those who dismissed cloud computing a couple years ago as a passing fad are quickly learning that the cloud is here to stay. Just like Twitter and Facebook evolved from a college student “fad” to key marketing tools, cloud computing is a viable business solution. CIOs and CTOs who embrace the cloud and create a plan for their company’s transition to the cloud will provide a valuable asset to their company. Those who don't will soon fall behind and find themselves replaced by someone who knows how to incorporate the cloud.
It doesn't matter how much data you can store or process if your analysis isn't yielding valuable business insights. Yet it seems many businesses tend to put all of their time and resources into storing and maintaining their data rather than improving their analysis process. These are seven warning signs that you may have fallen into the data collection trap and are not gaining the insights that you need and want.
Acquia, a Drupal solutions provider, announced today that it has received a second Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Authorization to Operate (ATO) for federal customers using Acquia Cloud. FISMA compliance provides a path for government agencies to develop next-generation digital experiences with Drupal that incorporate the web, mobile and social communities.
"The real problem we're up against is not technology, it's that management DNA in companies.... When you concentrate the responsibility for innovation at the top, you're holding your capacity to change hostage. It disempowers the little people."
- Gary Hamel, quoted by Lucas Mearian, The next corporate revolution will be power to the peons, Computerworld, June 4, 2013.
"The last thing you want your IT department to be is a joke because you waited too long to make changes. The easiest thing in the world to do is to play it safe, but it's probably not the best strategy for your professional development or the bottom line of your organization. You have to push new technologies that are going to propel your company forward or you risk being the IT equivalent of a company that waited too long to move to the next generation of technology."
- Ron Miller, "What your IT department could learn from Sony's disruption", CITEworld, May 17, 2013.
