This post is sponsored by Samsung. All thoughts and opinions are my own. In the boardroom or on the street, first impressions matter; technology can help you make good ones, setting you apart from the crowd. Wearables, for instance, provide utility and functionality while letting those around you know you’re up to speed and dedicated enough to leverage tech tools to …
Your Printer: The Security Weak Spot You Forgot About
A printer seems innocuous most of the time, but last year’s DDoS attack showed us that any connected device could fall prey to hackers. Every business has at least one printer connected to a network, and some have more than that. The printer in the corner could be the security weak spot you haven’t thought about protecting. Printers, scanners, and …
SMACtalk Episode 75: Exploring the Future of Artificial Intelligence with Dr. Rob F. Walker
In this week’s episode of SMACtalk, hosts Brian Fanzo and Daniel Newman had the opportunity to speak with PegaSystems VP, Rob Walker, an experienced executive in the machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) that also happens to hold a PHD in the space. While the show has covered the gambit of technology topics, this was one of the very first SMACtalk episodes that focused on the future …
Blockchain 101: How This Next Big Service Will Change The Future
If you thought the cloud wars were already tense, you were right. But the rise of blockchain is pushing that war to a whole new height as giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM rush to bring Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) to the cloud environment. Will BaaS become the key differentiator in the competition—or will a whole new technology race in to disrupt …
Microsoft Partners With LaLiga to Reimagine the Fan Experience
I don’t gush often, but I have to confess, I am an all-out soccer junkie. Now, other than the fact that I have modestly insulted the world’s most popular sport by referring to it in “American,” let’s just say when I hear digital transformation and Soccer in the same sentence, my ears perk up. This passion that I have for …
It’s All About the Tech: Employee Advocacy Tools
Employee advocacy programs are like untapped marketing gold that can help build brand awareness and even drive revenue to your company. To ramp one up successfully, consider using one of the many tools that can put your employees to work for your brand, and measure the success of their efforts. First, though, are you familiar with employee advocacy programs? Employee …
Future of Technology: Moving Towards Hyperconvergence
Hyperconvergence, put simply, is an environment where all storage and computing components work together from a single vendor. In 2016, hyperconverged systems grew in popularity as more businesses merged software components and hardware architectures to create simple, scalable results. Gartner predicted that the hyperconvergence industry would be up to $5 billion by 2019. However simply we’d like to define hyperconvergence, …
Top Five Digital Transformation Trends in Retail
This week, I launched a new series focused on the biggest digital trends impacting various industries. First up was healthcare, where technology is gifting patients with greater access to quality care through telemedicine—and arming caregivers with even more life-saving tools like wearables, predictive data, and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). Now we move to retail, where a similar wave …
The More Things Change—Thinking Forward for Your Organization
It’s estimated that 65 percent of preschoolers today will grow up to fill positions that do not exist right now, making it crucial for organizations to flex their creativity as they prepare for new opportunities. What’s essential for today’s companies is to build for multiple possible futures, attract newcomers based on forward-thinking infrastructure, and connect individuals and teams with purposeful …
Transform Your IT Department with IT-as-a-Service
The as-a-service model supplies businesses with scalable, consumption-based services to increase speed and agility while driving revenue and reducing costs. As businesses have turned towards Software as a Service (SaaS), Video Conferencing as a Service (VCaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and even Cloud as a Service (CaaS) to lower costs and increase agility, it makes sense that IT as …