AI Processors Go Mobile
At its iPhone X event, Apple devoted a lot of time to the A11 processor’s new neural engine that powers facial recognition and other features. The week before, at IFA in Berlin, Huawei announced its latest flagship processor, the Kirin 970, equipped with a Neural Processing Unit capable of processing images 20 times faster than the CPU alone. The sudden interest in neural engines is driven by the rise of deep learning. These specialized processors are designed specifically to crunch the complex algorithms used in artificial neural networks faster and more efficiently than general-purpose CPUs.
Legacy Networks ‘Holding Back Cloud And Digital Transformation’
Riverbed Technology has announced the results of the its survey, which explores the impact both legacy infrastructure and next-generation networks have on cloud adoption and digital transformation.The global survey, which includes responses from 1,000 IT decision makers across nine countries, revealed an incredible level of agreement that legacy infrastructures are holding back their cloud and digital strategies.
Google Rolls Out Android Zero-Touch Enrollment For The Enterprise
Google on Thursday is adding a new way for businesses to deploy Android devices, enabling them to have the devices configured before they’re shipped to employees. “Zero-touch enrollment” eliminates the need for useres to configure devices manually and ensures corporate policies are in place. “Support is also much easier, with no extra steps for end-users; they just sign in and get access to their work apps and data,” product manager James Nugent wrote in a blog post.
Artificial Intelligence A Potential Wakeup Call To Enterprise App Fatigue
App fatigue is hardly a new phenomenon. Between mobile devices, desktop computers and tablets, consumers are working with dozens of apps, toggling from one to another to access information and complete tasks. In the enterprise, this phenomenon is beginning to be a problem: Employees are wasting time bouncing from one work app to another, attempting to piece together data from each, says David Lavenda, co-founder and vice president of Marketing and Product Strategy at Harmon.ie, a company that deploys topic computing in an effort to address this problem.
Microsoft Updates Azure AI-Assisted Cloud Services For Streaming Media
Microsoft’s artificial intelligence technologies are spreading far and wide across its product portfolio. During the International Broadcasting Convention 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands Sept. 14-19, the software giant showed off an updated version of Video Indexer, an AI-enabled cloud service that allows media companies to extract information from their video content and make it searchable, among other capabilities.
BlackBerry Teams With Fleet Complete To Push Radar IoT Platform
BlackBerry and telematics company Fleet Complete announced a reselling partnership that will help push BlackBerry’s Radar IoT logistics platform to more freight and shipping companies. Released in 2016, Radar is an asset tracking system that aims to give fleet managers an aggregate view of operations in near real-time.
Salesforce Updates Sales Cloud With Einstein AI Forecasting
Salesforce.com has several big improvements planned for its Sales Cloud CRM platform, driven by the company’s Einstein AI software. The new features are designed to deliver a “next generation of Sales Cloud” that includes better sales forecasting and insights into individual and sales team’s performance, company executives told eWEEK.
Will AI Destroy – Or Create Jobs?
Not everyone sees artificial intelligence as the destroyer of worlds, or in milder cases – destroyer of jobs. Many people, particularly Millennials, are confident AI will instead create new jobs in the future. That’s is according to a new report by analyst firm CCS Insight, which found that many workers believe AI will automate mundane work tasks and boost productivity and collaboration applications.
Tech Industry Must Secure Against ‘Unintended Consequences’
The path to disruption is paved by unintended consequences, Telstra group executive of Technology, Innovation and Strategy Stephen Elop has said, with the tech industry needing to secure machine-learning and artificial intelligence (AI) applications against unconscious biases and breaches of security and trust. Speaking during the annual Telstra Vantage conference in Melbourne on Thursday, Elop said caring, creative, and supervisory roles will be the only ones to survive the rise of automation and AI.
Dell EMC, Microsoft, HPE Named Leaders In Digital Transformation
The global digital transformation market is expected to more than double, exceeding $493 billion, by 2022. That’s according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets, which predicts a compound annual growth rate of 19.1 percent. The market is worth $206 billion today. Dell EMC, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise are listed among major vendors in this market. Others include Cognizant, SAP, Adobe Systems, Accenture, Capgemini, IBM, Oracle, Google, and CA Technologies.
Google To Spend $1.1B To Acquire Part Of HTC’s Mobile Team
Google will pay HTC $1.1 billion in cash for part of HTC’s mobile personnel as the internet search giant steps up its hardware ambitions. The companies didn’t say how many HTC employees will move to Google under terms of the deal, but said many of them are already working to develop Pixel phones. In a separate agreement, Google will receive a nonexclusive license for some HTC intellectual property.
Oracle Unveils “Universal Credits,” License Mobility For Easy Cloud Consumption
Oracle CTO Larry Ellison has unveiled a set of programs designed to make it easier for customers to move to the cloud and consume cloud services. With the new “Bring Your Own License” program, customers can use their existing software licenses for Oracle platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings, including Oracle Database, Middleware and Analytics. The new program is similar to Oracle’s offering that lets customers bring on-premise licenses to its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).
Hitachi Launches Vantara, Aims To Target IoT, Data Center, Cloud, Analytics
Hitachi is creating a separate company to focus on big data and technology infrastructure in a bid to grab digital transformation business. The entity, called Hitachi Vantara, unifies a series of enterprise units including: Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, And Pentaho.
Google Debuts Tez App To Make Mobile Payments As Easy As Cash
Google has announced the release of Tez, a mobile app designed to replace cash as a quick and easy method of payment. Recently, the tech giant said on the Google Asia blog that Tez is a “simple and secure way to pay for things, big and small, online and offline.” According to Caesar Sengupta, VP of the Google Next Billion Users team, the app has been developed with Indian users in mind.
Salesforce Updates Sales Cloud With Einstein AI Forecasting
Salesforce.com has several big improvements planned for its Sales Cloud CRM platform, driven by the company’s Einstein AI software. The new features are designed to deliver a “next generation of Sales Cloud” that includes better sales forecasting and insights into individual and sales team’s performance, company executives told eWEEK.
Google Adds Natural Language Support To Enterprise Search Tool
Google has added support for natural language processing in its Cloud Search tool for customers of its G-Suite collection of cloud-hosted productivity apps. The new feature allows office workers to use intuitive, natural language commands to search for documents, files and other content in their organizations.
Adobe, Microsoft Roll Out Joint Solutions
Adobe and Microsoft recently delivered their first set of joint solutions to help enterprises transform their customer experience with Adobe Experience Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Dynamics. Adobe Sign, the e-signature service in Adobe Document Cloud, is now Microsoft’s preferred e-signature solution across the company’s portfolio, including the 100-million monthly commercial active users of Microsoft Office 365.
SAP Hybris Travel Accelerator Ready For Airline Industry
SAP Hybris Commerce, the German business software maker’s cloud-enabled enterprise e-commerce and customer-engagement platform, is removing roadblocks between airlines and today’s mobile- and web-savvy travelers. The company announced on Sept. 19 that it had released a new version of its Travel Accelerator for Hybris Commerce that carries an International Air Transport Association (IATA) New Distribution Capability (NDC) level 3 certification.
Veritas Can Reach APAC Customers Via GDPR
With the deadline for compliance nearing, the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) offers opportunities for data management vendors such as Veritas Technologies to reach out and grow their enterprise customer base in Asia-Pacific. Many businesses in the region remained uncertain about how the new laws would impact them and how they could ensure compliance, said Gurpal Singh, senior market analyst at IDC’s Asia-Pacific software research group.
Enterprise IT Security Planning: Five Ways To Build A Better Strategy
Those buzzwords recommended for building a successful digital business, such as flexibility, agility and openness, don’t always fit nicely with more sober requirements like the needs of a corporate security policy. So, how can IT leaders create an approach to information security that is fit for the modern business? ZDNet speaks to five experts about the key issues CIOs face.
Customer-Facing Tech To Drive Digital Transformation In Retail
The PwC report, “CEO Viewpoint 2017: The Transformation of Retail,” says retailers have put digital transformation (DX) as their number one priority in 2017, with 69 percent of executives planning to increase DX investment over the next year. Market research firm Frost & Sullivan says its new report, Digital Transformation in the Global Retail Sector, takes a step further by revealing how retailers plan to make this happen.
US Air Force Plots IT Overhaul, Aims For Cloud
The US Air Force, in the midst of a series of cloud migrations designed to overhaul its aging IT infrastructure, has awarded a $1 billion contract to Dell EMC, Microsoft, and General Dymanics. The USAF moved core services such as email over to the cloud earlier this year, but the armed services branch is now stepping things up with what’s described as the largest ever federal cloud-based unified communications and collaboration contract. The technology will serve up to 776,000 users in the Air Force, Defense Logistics Agency, and US Army Corps of Engineers.
