Information Technology

When you look at the greatest technological advances of the past several decades, it's clear that software has taken the lead. While hardware continues to improve, get smaller and do more with less, it's software that has enabled feature-rich operating systems that can exist on an interface barely larger than your hand. Hardware has maintained a more or less consistent form. It's no wonder then that many corporations are still painfully in the dark ages when it comes to the increase in the BYOD ecosystem. As the new Apple Watch and other smart watches begin to hit the scene, it's going to become increasingly difficult for network engineers to keep company networks secure.

It sound simple, give your employees the opportunity to bring their own devices to work. The company can perhaps be less aggressive in their cyclical replacements of hardware and your employee is happy because they don't have to lug around two devices, theirs and yours. I absolutely like the concept of Bring Your Own Device. But implementing BYOD and benefiting from BYOD isn't so easy. As an IT manager, it scares me that the employee's device may have control over the company's software and device. As an employee, it scares me even more that company's software could control my device and have access to my personal data. At the end of the day, this only goes well if you have established a good BYOD policy for your business.

The year is still young, but it is already a busy one for software startup, Altocloud. The Mountain View, California company just announced $2 million seed funding and the commercial availability of its predictive communications platform for customer sales and engagement. The funding, led by Delta Partners, Digicel Group and ACT Venture Capital, brings Altocloud’s total funding to $3 million. Altocloud's new platform intelligently identifies the optimal online visitors and delivers tailored chat, voice, video and content so customers get the information and help they need at exactly the right moment.  

The workplace can be hectic during the month of January, especially given the fact that employees arrive back at work with their fancy new devices. New laptops, mobile devices, and smartphones are among common gifts given and received over the holidays. For companies that use a “Bring Your Own Device” system, this surge in technology changes can present some difficult challenges.

When you think of all the major technical trends discussed lately (e.g. cloud computing or mobile,) you may have noticed another one beginning to throw itself into the conversation, virtualization. While virtualization has been around for more than a decade, we're only just beginning to unleash its true potential.

Over the years, I've made it an unwritten policy not to sensationalize bug fixes and security vulnerabilities in content management systems. While there may be great interest in such stories, I believe such stories have a tendency to cause more harm than good. When sensationalized, such articles tend to cause customers to address security concerns with emotion instead of logic which is never a good thing. So, when the security vulnerability known as "Drupageddon" broke and Drupal developer Bevan Rudge posted "Your Drupal website has a backdoor", I knew this story was going to eventually reach mainstream media.

Big data and social media, individually and together, are changing the world in so many different ways. Not only are Facebook and Twitter some of the biggest developers in big data technology, but the information they gather is so important to so many different companies.

One of the more important ways that big data and social media are changing the world landscape is through their effects on Human Resources (HR). They totally change how companies do business. Big data in the cloud is making it easier and more affordable than ever for companies to implement big data technology.

Acquia, a commercial software company that provides enterprise level products, services, and technical support for the open source Drupal social publishing system, recently reached another milestone confirming their company’s ability to deliver secure hosting services for government web sites and online communities. Today, the company announced that it has received a FISMA Authorization to Operate (ATO) for Acquia Cloud.

Although, I like to consider myself unbiased when I blog about content management systems, it is no secret that Drupal holds a special place in my heart. Drupal was one of the first CMSs I used that didn't "dead-end" me on a project I was required to support. Over the years, the Drupal community has treated me well, even during those times when I was very wrong in my judgment of Drupal. If Drupal was not a part of my world, I'm not sure I would even be blogging about content management systems. Drupal is the open source standard for which I judge other CMSs.