IT Executive news

• The next 5 years in AI will be frenetic, says Intel's new AI chief

  10-05-2017 23:18
  
  Research into artificial intelligence is going gangbusters, and the frenetic pace won't let up for about five years -- after which the industry will concentrate around a handful of core technologies and leaders, the head of Intel's new AI division predicts.Intel is keen to be among them. In March, it formed an Artificial Intelligence Products Group headed by Naveen Rao. He previously was CEO of Nervana Systems, a deep-learning startup Intel acquired in 2016. Rao sees the industry movin
  
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• 21% off 32GB Centon Electronics Sport USB DataStick - Deal Alert

  10-05-2017 23:13
  
  Centon is offering their 32GB Sport USB 2.0 flash drive for just $1.37 more than their 8GB model with the current deal on Amazon. The Sport DataStick features a rugged rubberized casing and is designed to be waterproof up to 1.5M with a leakproof cap. If you're looking to pick up some inexpensive storage, see the discounted Centon Electronics Sport 32GB USB DataStick now on Amazon. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Desktop 3D printer presages the future of multi-layer circuit board design

  10-05-2017 22:35
  
  An Israel-based provider of 3D printing technologies and nano-inks is now shipping a desktop machine to beta customers that can produce multi-layer circuit boards.Nano Dimension's Dragonfly 2020 is a desktop 3D printer that can produce circuit board prototypes and small production runs, potentially reducing development time from weeks to hours, according to Amit Dror, co-founder and CEO of the startup.The Dragonfly 2020 uses an inkjet-like material deposition method followed by a heat-based curi
  
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• Comparing the performance of popular public DNS providers

  10-05-2017 22:25
  
  ThousandEyes, a network intelligence company with the ability to monitor performance from hundreds of vantage points across the Internet, has insight into a variety of services across the globe, including public DNS service providers.  In this article we’ll dive into our results from testing 10 of the most popular public DNS resolvers, with the goal of helping you make informed conclusions about your choice of provider. We observed a wide range of performance across different services
  
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• MSC Cruises uses wearables, mobile apps to power 'small city on the sea'

  10-05-2017 22:16
  
  MSC Cruises -- the world's largest privately-owned cruise liner -- will launch its latest vessel next month, promising to showcase investments in a range of digital technologies. Guests and crew members onboard the MSC Meraviglia will have access services that rely on mobile apps, facial recognition, IoT beacons, and wearable technology, all aimed at improving customer experience.It is part of a 20 million investment in technology for two ships -- the Meraviglia and the Bellissima, which is set
  
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• Gap explains how a retail customer can give back to OpenStack

  10-05-2017 22:13
  
  American retail giant Gap deployed its first OpenStack cloud in 2013, but now the vast majority of its forward-facing e-commerce platforms now run on the open source infrastructure.Eli Elliott, infrastructure architect responsible for private cloud at Gap, explained to Computerworld UK how the company's close partnership with Rackspace -- among other OpenStack vendors -- saw it build and develop from an isolated testing pipeline to running all kinds of workloads."We work pretty closely with Rack
  
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• Nvidia's new Volta-based DGX-1 supercomputer puts 400 servers in a box

  10-05-2017 21:15
  
  You won't need to buy a rack of 400 servers if you have one high-powered Nvidia DGX-1 supercomputer with a Volta GPU sitting on your desktop.The DGX-1 supercomputer -- which looks like a regular rack server -- gets most of its computing power from eight Tesla V100 GPUs.The GPU, the first one based on the brand-new Volta architecture, was introduced at the company's GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California, on Wednesday."It comes out of the box, plug it in and go to work," said Nvidia's
  
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• Microsoft's new tools help devs manage cloud deployments on the go

  10-05-2017 21:10
  
  Microsoft is making it easier for developers to manage their cloud deployments on the go, using a new mobile app and browser-based command line.On Wednesday, the company unveiled Azure Cloud Shell, which lets developers spin up a full-fledged terminal environment inside Microsoft’s cloud and comes with a set of preconfigured tools for managing deployments. Each user will have persistent file storage in their Cloud Shell, hosted in Microsoft Azure.Cloud Shells are accessible through the Mic
  
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• Google search results will cure your boredom with a local events calendar

  10-05-2017 21:09
  
  We all know Google search is the best way to find news, concert clips, and funny cat GIFs, but when it comes to local happenings, it can be hit or miss. But a new feature baked into Google’s search tools on your phone is designed to fill up your social calendar.In the latest update to the Google app on Android and iOS (as well as anywhere else you can find a search bar on your phone), you should begin seeing a new interface for local events. For example, when you search for “concerts
  
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• Tesco uses AI to stock shelves, route drivers with Google Assistant

  10-05-2017 20:49
  
  Tesco is starting to incorporate machine learning algorithms across the business, from internal applications such as driver routing to customer-facing apps like integration, with Google's home assistant device.First, the online grocery and clothing seller had to lay the groundwork for machine learning techniques to be brought into the organisation, and this meant getting its data lake in order so that near to real-time data could be used by the developers and data scientists within the company.S
  
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• VMware unveils the latest nervous system for enterprise IoT

  10-05-2017 20:18
  
  The internet of things seems tailor-made for management headaches. Having thousands of tiny devices distributed across a city or a company is hard enough. Then there's the whole infrastructure supporting them, including network connections and edge gateways.Some big players, including General Electric, Nokia, and Cisco's Jasper division, have products and services for running all this. Now VMware is taking on the challenge with VMware Pulse IoT Center, a solution that draws on two platforms the
  
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• Hottest news from OpenStack Summit

  10-05-2017 20:18
  
  OpenStack Summit convenes in BostonImage by OpenStack Twice a year the OpenStack community gathers for its Summit in which users, vendors and the programmers that build the open source IaaS cloud computing software talk about OpenStack’s progress and plan future releases. This week than 5,000 attendees from 63 countries descended on Boston and more than 100 sponsoring companies released myriad products and services. Here are some of the highlights.To read this article in full or to leave a
  
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• IBM's new PowerAI tools automate image recognition

  10-05-2017 20:00
  
  IBM is trying to remove some of the complications related to image recognition with new tools to automate critical machine learning tasks.A major update of the company's PowerAI tools has a feature called AI Vision, an auto tuner that makes it easy to identify and classify pictures. It will also speed up image recognition by breaking down tasks over multiple clusters.AI Vision plays a big role in automating machine learning by creating a tuned model, said Sumit Gupta, vice president of mach
  
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• 5 reasons to give Fitbit Blaze a second look

  10-05-2017 19:48
  
  In the 14 months since my Blaze review, Fitbit’s fitness watch has continually risen in my estimation thanks to a handful of compelling new features. Also, Blaze was recently named the best wearable for corporate wellness programs, based on a new study from health analytics company Springbuk.So, if you disregarded Blaze in the past, it’s worth taking a second look — though note my word of caution at the end of this post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please
  
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• Microsoft takes its databases worldwide with Cosmos DB

  10-05-2017 19:26
  
  Developers will have an easier time scaling their applications to meet global needs with a database product Microsoft updated on Wednesday. Called Cosmos DB, the service lets developers store data that can be replicated across any of the company’s 34 Azure public cloud regions.Cosmos is an expansion of DocumentDB, a managed NoSQL database service that Microsoft launched in 2015. Its key innovation is a feature that lets developers pick between five consistency models that range from "stron
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How CIOs are helping upgrade the way people sell

  10-05-2017 19:02
  
  Every aspect of business is evolving to meet the growing demand for automation. The pressure on companies to reduce costs or increase profit margins has never been greater, and technology is one of the biggest drivers. As artificial intelligence (A.I.) technologies improve, more and more processes that used to take time and resources are completed quickly and at minimal cost. Companies are constantly evaluating what functions can leverage automation to increase output and save money. Proces
  
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• Amid fight with Apple, Imagination's Series8XT GPU faces challenges

  10-05-2017 19:00
  
  The graphics processor in Apple's upcoming iPhone could have been based on Imagination's new PowerVR Series8XT GT8525. Instead, the two vendors are locked in an open battle, and Imagination is threatening legal action against Apple, which is developing a homegrown GPU.The last few months haven't been smooth for Imagination Technologies, which this month said it was planning to sell its MIPS and Ensigma processor businesses. Apple likely won't be a customer for the new Series8XT GPU, which is bas
  
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• Kaiser CIO shares IT lessons for the future of healthcare

  10-05-2017 18:58
  
  SAN MATEO, CALIF - Kaiser Permanente hospitals crossed an important threshold last year when 52 percent of its patient interactions were digital. That’s a dramatic change from the traditional in-person doctor or nurse visits, but Kaiser CIO Dick Daniels said it was inevitable.“The consumer is in the driver’s seat. On-demand everything is a resounding drumbeat where people expect services 24 x 7 and pay for what they use,” Daniels said during his keynote address at the CIO
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Gaming: iOS and Android both stink

  10-05-2017 18:45
  
  iOS and Android have long battled each other for mobile supremacy, and that includes gaming. But which one is better? A writer at MakeUseOf believes that iOS is the superior gaming platform and he shared why in a recent post.Dan Price reports for MakeUseOf:
  But which operating system is best for mobile gaming? The industry is huge, especially among casual gamers. Estimates suggest almost one billion people played a game on their smartphone at least once in 2016.If you’re one of those billi
  
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• Bot-generated comments swamp FCC, urging overturn of net neutrality

  10-05-2017 18:02
  
  Some supporters of a U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to repeal its recent net neutrality rules have apparently resorted to dirty tricks.An apparent bot-generated campaign has posted more than 83,400 comments on the FCC's website supporting the agency's plan to gut its own net neutrality rules.A handful of people whose names are on the bot-generated comments have denied making the comments, according to a report by ZDNet. The 83,400 comments, filed to the FCC's comment system bet
  
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• Microsoft finally bans SHA-1 certificates in Internet Explorer and Edge

  10-05-2017 17:51
  
  The Tuesday updates for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge force those browsers to flag SSL/TLS certificates signed with the aging SHA-1 hashing function as insecure. The move follows similar actions by Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox earlier this year.Browser vendors and certificate authorities have been engaged in a coordinated effort to phase out the use of SHA-1 certificates on the web for the past few years, because the hashing function no longer provides sufficient security against spo
  
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• Opera 45 goes social with sidebars for Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Telegram

  10-05-2017 17:44
  
  The Opera browser is reborn thanks to the power of messaging. Opera (the company) recently announced that the latest version of its browser is adopting some messaging features from Neon, an experimental version of Opera. The new features include built-in support for Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and WhatsApp in Opera 45.There’s nothing particularly special about Opera’s versions of the messaging programs. WhatsApp is just WhatsApp Web that everyone already uses, while clicking the Fa
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How the US Army is using OpenStack to train cyber soldiers

  10-05-2017 17:21
  
  The United States Army Cyber School (USACYS) is using open source technologies like OpenStack to prepare soldiers for cyber warfare. The college was set-up roughly two years ago and while the organization is part of the government and the U.S. military, it’s essentially an educational organization.Major Julianna Rodriguez (Director) and Chris Apsey (Deputy Director) of the Cyber Technical College at the U.S. Army Cyber School delivered a keynote speech at OpenStack Summit detailing ho
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why management is key to leveraging the power of big data

  10-05-2017 17:15
  
  As big data continues to expand, companies are faced with both new opportunities and challenges. Businesses can uncover new insights or strategies with big data, but they have to take care not to be overwhelmed by the mountains of information. As any data expert can tell you, a smaller amount of organized, smart data is much more useful compared to an ocean of unstructured data, especially given the increasing costs of data storage.Big data thus requires proper management which ensures that the
  
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• BrandPost: Businesses should see GDPR as springboard to better data management

  10-05-2017 17:12
  
  Some businesses are keeping their heads in the sand while others are fearful of what’s ahead, but the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) could, in reality, be a force for good.On one hand, the new obligations threaten punitive fines for non-compliance, poor accountability and data breaches. The new rules apply to all organizations that deal with the personally identifiable information (PII) of EU residents. This covers both employees and consumers of the services they pr
  
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• Windows 10's 500 million devices snub Cortana, impacting Microsoft's AI push

  10-05-2017 17:00
  
  Windows 10 has hit a milestone: 500 million devices have installed it, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced Wednesday in his keynote opening the company’s Build 2017 developer conference. Another number, however, is more troubling: Just a fraction of those devices frequently use Cortana, Microsoft’s digital spokesperson for its push into artificial intelligence.Just 141 million devices, or about 28 percent of Windows 10 users, use Cortana monthly. That stands in sharp contrast to wh
  
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• Microsoft’s Visual Studio tackles serverless computing, Mac dev

  10-05-2017 17:00
  
  Microsoft today is advancing its Visual Studio IDE in several areas, including serverless computing and development on the Mac.For serverless computing, the company’s Azture Functions Visual Studio beta lets developers integrate Azure Functions into development flows, said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president for Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise group. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott said the company would be “doing a bunch of things to make it easier to manage the entire life cyc
  
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• Microsoft's big data solves golf's mysteries in the Arccos Caddie app

  10-05-2017 17:00
  
  If the Arccos Caddie app can solve the mystery of the golf swing with big data, perhaps big data can solve other world problems, too. That's why Microsoft featured this app at Build 2017, to show off the data-crunching powers of its Azure cloud service. According to Arccos, the Caddie app sources a wealth of data. It already knows how far you can hit a ball with each club, based on your history. It then correlates that information with more than 386 million geotagged points across 40,000 co
  
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• Microsoft brings customization to its pre-built AI services

  10-05-2017 17:00
  
  Microsoft is doubling down on its cloud AI services for business customers with a fleet of new offerings aimed at helping companies deal with video and unique problems not solved by its off-the-shelf cognitive services.New services announced Wednesday include a new Video Indexer service that will provide customers with automated captioning, sentiment analysis, custom face recognition, object detection, optical character recognition and keyword extraction of videos they provide. The tool is built
  
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• Cortana's coming to your living room via HP, Intel partnerships

  10-05-2017 17:00
  
  Two more hardware manufacturers are lining up behind Microsoft’s new Cortana-powered appliances: HP and Intel, indicating that Microsoft is turning to its tried-and-true PC partners to usher Cortana into the living room.Microsoft announced support from both companies at its Build conference in Seattle on Wednesday, though what each company will eventually manufacture isn’t known. According to Microsoft, the company signed a partnership with HP to build products, and with Intel to pro
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Snowden argues for cloud control at OpenStack Summit

  10-05-2017 16:58
  
  Edward Snowden, NSA whistleblower and current president of the Freedom of Press Foundation, joined OpenStack Foundation COO Mark Collier on stage at OpenStack Summit (via video conference) and delivered his keynote speech in the form of a Q&A.Snowden might have sounded like a misfit at an open source conference that’s all about building cloud, but he removed all such doubts by drawing a very clear distinction between the public cloud and open source private cloud.He took aim at pu
  
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• Cisco patches critical IOS security fault found after CIA WikiLeaks dump

  10-05-2017 16:47
  
  Cisco this week said it patched a critical vulnerability in its widely deployed IOS software that was disclosed in the WikiLeaks dump of CIA exploits earlier this year.Cisco had in March issued a “critical” security advisory for the IOS software that runs on some 300 models of its Catalyst switches and other networking equipment.+More on Network World: FBI/IC3: Vile $5B business e-mail scam continues to breed+Cisco this week wrote: “A vulnerability in the Cisco Cluster Manageme
  
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• 11 tips to create a must-see webinar

  10-05-2017 16:40
  
  Webinars continue to be a good way for companies to engage with prospects and generate revenue. But you can’t just decide to have someone, even if it’s the CEO, chat about a topic a couple of days beforehand, post a notice on your website and/or social pages and expect hundreds of people to tune it.To have a must-see webinar, one that’s well attended, engages viewers and makes them want to find out more about your company, requires careful planning and marketing, as outlined in
  
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• Why Amazon is putting Alexa everywhere

  10-05-2017 16:32
  
  NEW ORLEANS -- Amazon has quickly built a commanding lead on voice-enabled digital assistants, but the company’s vision for bringing Alexa to connected devices as diverse as light switches, automobiles and household appliances is just getting underway. Amazon’s plans for Alexa are more widespread than any device category or the constraints of Amazon’s own hardware aspirations, Steve Rabuchin, vice president of Amazon Alexa, said at last week’s Collision conference.“
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How open data is connecting the smart city to people

  10-05-2017 16:32
  
  Demands on a city’s resources and services are increasing everywhere and developers are responding with an evermore sophisticated approach. As technology transforms the way we interact with transport, health, retail, education and everything else within the lived environment, the data and devices we use to communicate in this landscape will become even more important.Recently, a United Nations report stated that by 2030 two-thirds of the world’s population will be urban. This will pu
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why ‘never enough’ is the right mindset for emerging tech

  10-05-2017 16:30
  
  The pace of innovation is accelerating and fast-tech adopters could leave you in the dust.Recently, PwC conducted a global survey of more than 2,200 executives which showed that most companies are no better prepared in 2017 to adopt emerging technologies than they were a decade ago [Disclosure: I am a principal at PwC]. In many ways, companies are running in place, particularly in their exploration and implementation of emerging technology. Despite digital’s importance to business suc
  
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• 18 things you should know about using Linux tools in Windows 10

  10-05-2017 16:23
  Last year Microsoft added an unusual new feature to Windows 10: Linux support. The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) — sometimes called Bash on Windows — is “Microsoft’s implementation of a Linux-compatible infrastructure that runs atop and within the Windows kernel,” senior program manager Rich Turner tells CIO.com. That means running Linux binaries without leaving Windows.“Bash on Windows offers a toolset for developers, IT administrators and other tech prof
  
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• 10 coolest smartwatches of 2017

  10-05-2017 15:47
  
  Cool smartwatches? Yes, really.Image by Apple, Asus, Casiolooking to enter the smartwatch space in 2017 one piece of advice, it would be, simply: don’t.” Guiding Tech asks: “Will smartwatches ever catch on?”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Cunning hack attacks built-in Windows anti-malware software

  10-05-2017 15:44
  
  Malware attacks rarely have a bright side, but it appears that Microsoft moved very quickly to squash a dangerous hack directed against Windows Defender, the operating system’s built-in security software. Chances are good that if you’re running Windows 10, Microsoft has already patched your computer through its automated updated process.You can easily find out by checking “Windows Defender Settings.” (Simply type that phrase into Cortana and you’ll see the right pag
  
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• The ShapeScale 3D body scanner shows exactly where you're gaining and losing weight

  10-05-2017 15:00
  
  You may not want to buy the ShapeScale 3D body scanner unless you’re comfortable in your own skin. Using infrared depth sensors and a high-res camera, ShapeScale can create an amazingly accurate 3D image of your physique, from your bulging biceps to corpulent love handles. It’s now available for pre-order on the ShapeScale website for $499, and rest assured it’s been created for good, not evil.Sure, the technology will give you an exacting view of all your fleshy flaws. It
  
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• Check Point boosts cloud-security education to help IT security pros stay relevant

  10-05-2017 14:35
  
  Check Point is investing heavily in educating IT pros about the cloud, not only to promote their own cloud security products but to give potential customers the skills they’ll need to keep their jobs as their employers move more and more resources to public cloud providers.Check Point“We try to explain how to be relevant in the cloud,” says Itai Greenberg, head of cloud security for Check Point.A lot of old-school IT security workers need to learn about how cloud infrastructure
  
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• EU plans further e-commerce antitrust investigations to empower consumers

  10-05-2017 14:04
  
  E-commerce businesses may face further antitrust investigations, the European Union's top competition watchdog has warned.The European Commission hopes these investigations will lead to more choice and lower prices for consumers, online and off. It has just wrapped up a two-year study of business practices that raise competition concerns in the e-commerce sector, and published its final report on Wednesday."Certain practices by companies in e-commerce markets may restrict competition by unduly l
  
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• Versa brings multiple functions to software-defined branch networks

  10-05-2017 14:00
  
  Branch sites are ideal places to make networking simpler and less expensive. There's often little or no IT expertise there, and it's harder to justify costs because only a fraction of a company's business happens at a given branch.Yet the rise of software-defined WANs and branch offices, designed to scale back the expense and complexity of far-flung networks, has left some parts of the problem unsolved, according to SD-WAN startup Versa Networks.For one thing, replacing branch appliances for eac
  
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• 5 tips to uncover a company's culture before accepting a job

  10-05-2017 13:02
  
  You might think the perfect job is one that fits your skills, comes with the right salary and offers you the best benefits, but the evaluation doesn't end there. There's one more thing to consider, and that's whether or not you'll fit in with the company culture, which can differ greatly among companies.But you don't have to wait until you've gone through onboarding to parse out the company culture, according to Tom Gimbel, founder and CEO of LaSalle Network, a professional staffing and recruitm
  
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• With security awareness, money talks

  10-05-2017 13:00
  
  According to a recent report, academics have been analyzing brainwaves of computer users to improve how they are alerted to cybersecurity dangers. I’m sorry, but getting users to pay stricter attention to security isn’t brain surgery: It’s all about money and job security. Come to think of it, job security itself is all about money, which makes money the only carrot and the only stick that IT needs.That report, courtesy of Bloomberg BNA, said, “Many co
  
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• Business first and IT second

  10-05-2017 13:00
  
  How does the CIO of the largest member-owned health insurer in the nation ensure that IT is driving member value? That’s what I asked Steve Betts, CIO of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a $30 billion healthcare plan serving nearly 15 million members across five states. As Betts describes, he uses a combination of organizational design, shared metrics, and purpose-driven goals.Martha Heller: How have you created a proactive, consultative IT organization at HCSC?When I joined the com
  
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• Top DRaaS companies to watch

  10-05-2017 12:26
  
  Forrester Research recently released its report naming Sungard AS, Bluelock, IBM and iland as the top disaster recovery-as-a-service companies.With enterprises expecting their network up at all times, backup and recovery are key to keeping things running smoothly with no downtime. With ransomware waiting to pounce the minute a user clicks on a link, companies rely on network recovery in a matter of minutes not days.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Start-up unveils 3D printer that can build carbon fiber, Kevlar, fiberglass parts

  10-05-2017 12:01
  
  Start-up Impossible Objects on Tuesday unveiled its Model One 3D printer, which it claims is the first such printer that can build parts from composite materials including carbon fiber, Kevlar and fiberglass.The Northbrook, Ill.-based company said its technology can compete with injection molding "in terms of speed and price" to create production parts.[ Further reading: The march toward exascale computers ]Because of the composite makeup, customers will be able to customize a part's proper
  
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• HP's Elite x2 is the Surface Pro 4 update we wish Microsoft would make

  10-05-2017 12:00
  
  HP's Elite x2 could be the right Surface clone at the right time. On Monday, Microsoft's Panos Panay crushed our dreams (and those of many others, no doubt) when he said there'd be no Surface Pro 5 in the near future to replace the rapidly aging Surface Pro 4. C'mon, Microsoft, it's been 18 months—only Apple can string its users along for years!Enter HP's Elite x2 1012 G2. Announced Wednesday, it'll ship in July with a starting price of $1,099. Read on to see how it off
  
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• Excel 2016 cheat sheet

  10-05-2017 12:00
  
  Share this story: IT folks, we hope you'll pass this guide on to your users to help them learn the Excel 2016 ropes.Microsoft Windows may get all the press coverage, but when you want to get real work done, you turn your attention to the applications that run on it. And if you use spreadsheets, that generally means Excel.The current version is Excel 2016, released in late 2015 when the entire Office suite was upgraded. But although you may have upgraded to the latest version, you might be missin
  
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