WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: insights to remain buzzword compliant in the world of data management ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: I am not big on surveys other than for the guidance they provide about how people actually use their systems. Here, the survey sheds light on many of the features and use cases in BI.

WHY IT MATTERS: I find all these trends *very* theoretical, approaching mumbo-jumbo status, don't you?

WHY IT MATTERS: this report from gartner review the top 12 buzzword you need to master for your geek xmas cocktail conversations ;-) As often with these, they are very generic and could end up being very difficult to implement. Nevertheless they point in the right direction, globally.

WHY IT MATTERS: an detailed study of the job market in artificial intelligence and machine learning in Montreal. Along with stats and definitions, it defines and details 19 job descriptions that are related to AI. A reference to keep.

WHY IT MATTERS: the report is extensive and provides amazing insights into the most common security breaches. For example, the figure 22 shows that port 23 (telnet) and port 22 (SSH) remain most popular by far attack points. Many more insight in there...

WHY IT MATTERS: IOT is a key technology trend but as this survey shows its penetration remains small - and thus the future looks good.

WHY IT MATTERS: I reported in 2015 that Netflix + YouTube accounted for 55% of web traffic. Their share is down only because the other streaming video services are growing. Also interesting from this chart that HTTP (good old web browsing), now only accounts for less than 10%. This means video is the medium of choice, cable TV is on it's way out (so expect more growth) and 5G mobile coverage will be in high demand when it becomes available soon...

2015 reference is here: http://fmcs.digital/blog/netflix-youtube-55-of-internet-traffic/ 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

In today's eCommerce world, winners do not limit themselves to building great catalogs and payment processing experience. They actively analyze data to understand customer behaviour, to provide them with exceptional information to speed-up their shopping experience, but also maybe make them buy more or more expensive products. This is a great example of such a data analysis by grocery shopping leader instacart. It provides amazing insights into grocery shopping but also has open sourced the data for others to benefit.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Pretty much your whole life is online and digitize today. Your only protection from crooks is strong passwords that you never reuse. This article provides in depth discussion on the millions of passwords that are being sold for few dollars on the dark web. It should help you understand why this is important and what to do to be more secure.

An interactive chart that graphs 800 different jobs along with their automation potential - as estimated by McKinsey.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

If you are in school or just out of school, this chart should be of particular interest. For all the others, this is essential must read tooling when preparing strategy and planning for the future of your business unit, organization - large or startup.

Jobs with highest potential for automation represent opportunities for cost reduction, process improvements to reduce lead times, or creation of the automated tools and software that will replace them. For example:

• medical appliance technicians: 100% automation potential. If you are in this field your business plan should include major shift from human workers to robots. If employees are unionized, look at contract negotiation and employee retraining. If you build medical appliance, ensure your hard-software appliance includes the necessary components to make this automation simple and effective.
• sewing machine operators: 100% automation potential, 143K workers in the US. Replacing human by robot sewing machine is efficient but will require capital expenditures: has it been forecasted in your budgets? If that throws your business model out of whack, you have to think like a startup and "pivot" your company to a different yet adjacent space such as custom apparel design and fabrication.

And 798 other sources of inspiration.