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 …
Make Shadow IT a Part of Your Digital Transformation Strategy
Shadow IT defines any technical concerns that fall outside the realm of your organization’s standard technologies, such as software and devices. It is often implemented without company approval or subsequent control—but that doesn’t mean you should look the other way. Despite the concerns we’ve seen countless times over the past few years, shadow IT is becoming a bigger part of …
Mastering the Management of Complex Cloud Environments
Cloud environments continue to get more complicated as businesses evolve. Most businesses now use at least one public cloud and one private cloud. Research indicates that most businesses probably use a combination of three to four, and some are even introducing fog or edge computing to the mix. Management of this complex cloud environment has proven to be difficult, and …
Five Things Startups Can Learn from Digital Transformation
Digital transformation has many market leaders scrambling to adopt new tactics and reshape their company cultures to mirror the leanness, flexibility, and agility of successful startups that are rocking the commercial boat. Recently, several industries have experienced major disruptions due to startup companies making waves and striking out against the status quo. Digital transformation hinges on a few key concepts, …
Modern Marketing Meets Modern Technology: Greatness Ensues
Marketing isn’t what it used to be. Sure, the Brand Bowl takes place adjacent to the Super Bowl each year, but if you are a business owner, leader, or marketer, it is safe to say that your role is changing. For the doomsayers, this change is scary. In fact, there are countless pundits out there proclaiming a sentiment of doom …
The Silent Killers of Productivity: Social Media and Mobile
In a recent article written in partnership with Microsoft, I discussed a number of ways technology can help improve productivity for your business. But what happens when technology actually becomes a hindrance to keeping things moving? Enter the silent killers of productivity: social media and mobile. In the most recent Office Small Business Academy Webcast, “Work Smarter: Productivity Tools for …
The Ethical Side of Artificial Intelligence
Once upon a time, the biggest threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI) was that it might create robots who would steal parts of our human workload. But today, as AI becomes even smarter—in many cases able to read social queues and emotions even better than humans—many are starting to worry AI could take over humanity altogether. Stephen Hawking once said …