AI innovation can free employees from mundane, repetitive tasks and allow them to focus on the work that matters most, increasing job satisfaction and pushing productivity to new heights. According to our recent survey on business trends, 89 percent of those with access to automation and AI-powered tools feel more fulfilled because they can spend time on work that truly matters.1

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central brings the power of AI to small and medium-sized businesses with features that help companies work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better. Let's explore some of the ways that AI in Business Central is improving how work gets done, including: more

It's an opportunity to search for answers as the world struggles with increasingly extreme water challenges highlighted in the recent IPCC report. Water is a precious finite resource, essential for life. For Microsoft, water management is critical to operations such as those needed to cool our datacenters and operate our buildings globally. And that is why, in 2020, Microsoft announced its commitment to become water positive by 2030 and joined the Water Resilience Coalition. Getting to water positive goes beyond reducing water-use intensity and replenishing water sources; it's also about providing people across the globe with access to water and sanitation services, engaging in public policy and driving innovation. more

The Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, a non-profit committed to growing inclusion and access for entrepreneurs worldwide, today announced a new collaboration with Microsoft Entrepreneurship for Positive Impact, which supports entrepreneurs working to solve our world's most pressing challenges by providing access to technology, expertise, visibility and connections. Together they will expand educational programming and resources available to the Center's global community. more

From deadly risk of hurricanes to lightning storms to flooding, there's a critical need for a high-accuracy weather forecast tool. To meet the needs of our users, we decided to build our own weather forecast system in Microsoft Start.

Using industry-leading machine learning, AI and other innovative technologies over the last two years, Microsoft built one of the world's leading weather forecasting capabilities. In a new, independent study commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by ForecastWatch comparing the top global weather providers, Weather from Microsoft Start was named the most accurate weather forecasting service. more

Why spend time having your best people architect a solution that already exists - and has been proven in the market - when a vendor has solved the same problem hundreds of times? Or so went the prevailing view.

But the growing pressure for differentiated customer experiences and highly efficient business operations has led many companies to prefer custom solutions that can fully adapt to their modern organization - and help them stand out from the competition. more

One of the key advantages of the cloud is cost savings, and yet cloud costs are on the rise and overspending by as much as 70% is commonplace, according to Gartner. Much like gyms make their money off members who never actually use the equipment, cloud providers profit from those who underutilize their resources. That's a problem for financial leaders and IT leaders trying to govern digital transformation costs and tighten their budgets in response to economic pressures. With cloud spending doubling every four to five years, it pays to cut cloud costs.

But how do you get a handle on your corporate cloud spending? more

To shed light on the latest trends in hybrid work, Unisys commissioned a research study in partnership with HFS Research. The study, called From Surviving to Thriving in Hybrid Work, surveyed more than 2,000 employers and employees in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Australia to identify the most significant drivers of workforce motivation and productivity, as well as C-Suite priorities for investment in workplace technologies.

By examining the perspectives of C-Suite executives and employees, this study provides valuable insights for IT leaders navigating the hybrid work landscape. Here's a snapshot of what we found. more

Technology has not remained immune from that disruption, with significant challenges faced ranging from privacy and accountability concerns to growing sustainability and regulatory mandates. But the opportunity technology presents remains positive despite a lack of certainty and reliability. Cloud and digital communications continue to show unfaltering growth, and pressure to innovate using finite financial resources is increasing the drive for more effective governance.

With that in mind, I've pulled together a list of the top ten areas I think IT leaders are likely to be drawn to - and that businesses need to prioritise - in 2023:... more

Nothing lasts forever in IT, and that includes your organizational structure.

Deciding on whether to scrap or keep existing infrastructure of any stripe isn't easy. A complete rebuild can be disruptive, time-consuming, and risky. And if the initiative misses its goal, or runs over budget, the CIO's job may be at stake.

Yet, as any IT leader knows, when technical infrastructure fails to meet enterprise needs, hampering productivity and innovation, it's often time to rebuild from scratch. The same can be said for how IT operations, workflows, and teams are structured. Knowing when it's time for a wholesale reorg requires even more from an IT leader than knowing when the bits and bytes have worn out their shelf life. more

Critical thinking is the ability to effectively analyze information and form a judgment. While IT leaders can certainly benefit from critical thinking, many are unaware of this skill or how to properly use it.

Critical thinking is imperative for IT leaders, says Skip Benamati, a professor of information systems and analytics at Miami University. 'IT tends to be at the heart of both innovation and creative problem solving in organizations,' he notes. 'This often finds the organization looking to IT to think through issues and opportunities that are unique and less familiar or addressing issues and opportunities that have not been addressed before.' more

In 2023, CIOs are at a crossroads with what some may consider a company's most valuable asset - its data.

On the one hand, data is extremely useful for decision-making, targeted marketing, and optimizing business performance. But on the other hand, data can be a source of risk. Data breaches can be devastating, improper data storage is a huge liability, and new regulations punish those who botch data privacy and compliance.

As overwhelming as data management may seem against this backdrop, it's possible to keep data safe while fully calling on its benefits.

Here are four key challenges CIOs face in 2023 and ways to resolve them. more

Failed drive data recovery biz Secure Data Recovery has produced a report giving its experience of hard disk drive life expectancy from 2,007 damaged and defective drives it has received for data recovery purposes.

Author and content writer Timothy Burlee writes that it calculated the power-on hours number, 'calculated from when the user first started the device to its arrival at our facilities.' It also 'computed the current pending sector count for failed devices. The current pending sector count refers to the number of damaged or unusable sectors the hard drive developed during routine read-and-write operations.' It excluded drives that failed from non-predictable events such as electrical surges, malware, natural disasters, or accidental mishandling. more

Blockchain spans various industries, from real estate, insurance, health care, and education to data management. Even localities like Utah and South Korea plan on exploring blockchain technology for voting. Known for its cybersecurity benefits and cryptocurrency, blockchain promises operational efficiency and time-saving.

Anyone who has moved across the country (or to another country) understands inefficiency and slowness. For example, moving from the east to the west coast of the United States requires setting up a forwarding address, opening bank accounts, setting up electricity, finding a new doctor, acquiring a driver's license from your new state, and much more. more

The folk at Gartner have produced a Market Guide for Full Stack HyperConverged Infrastructure Software which looks at three well-known suppliers: Microsoft (Azure Stack HCI), Nutanix and VMware (VMware Cloud Foundation); and three less prominent suppliers: ArcherOS, Sangfor Technologies, and SmartX. They say this is not an exhaustive list. We note that HCI systems from Cisco (HyperFlex), HPE (Alletra 5000 and SimpliVity), Quantum (Pivot3) and Scale Computing (HyperCore) are not included. Neither are the VxRail and PowerFlex systems from Dell. more

Artificial intelligence and machine learning already deliver plenty of practical value to enterprises, from fraud detection to chatbots to predictive analytics. But the audacious creative writing skills of ChatGPT have raised expectations for AI/ML to new heights. IT leaders can't help but wonder: Could AI/ML finally be ready to go beyond point solutions and address core enterprise problems?

Take the biggest, oldest, most confounding IT problem of all: Managing and integrating data across the enterprise. Today, that endeavor cries out for help from AI/ML technologies, as the volume, variety, variability, and distribution of data across on-prem and cloud platforms climb an endless exponential curve. As Stewart Bond, IDC's VP of data integration and intelligence software, puts it: 'You need machines to be able to help you to manage that.' more

With the recent launches and enhancements to product lines from NetApp and Pure Storage, QLC flash storage has pushed itself further into the spotlight.

QLC is quad-level cell flash storage, and allows for much higher capacity and density in solid-state drives (SSDs).

In this article, we'll define QLC flash, look at what what's driving its adoption, and examine the use cases it is good for. more

The announcements come just a month after Google unveiled its search chatbot Bard and less than a week after Bloomberg reported that a new internal Google directive 'requires generative AI to be incorporated into all of its biggest products within months.'

The news also appears in advance of Microsoft's highly-anticipated virtual 'Future of Work with AI' event this Thursday. Thanks to comments last week by Microsoft Germany CTO Andreas Braun, that event is rumored to include the release a multimodal GPT-4, as well as a ChatGPT upgrade for Microsoft 365 applications such as Word and Outlook. more

GPT-4 is the newest version of OpenAI's language model systems. Its previous version, GPT 3.5, powered the company's wildly popular ChatGPT chatbot when it launched in November of 2022.

Also: GPT-4 unveiled: ChatGPT's next big upgrade is here

GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), a type of language model that uses deep learning to generate human-like, conversational text. more

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fast becoming a mainstay in our business operations. In fact, according to IDC, over the next three years, governments and businesses around the world will invest more than AU$723 billion in AI. Meanwhile, AI technology is projected to be integrated into 90% of the most cutting-edge enterprise applications by 2025.

Already, it's beginning to transform everyday life. Just look at ChatGPT, the chatbot developed by OpenAI. It's currently taking the world by storm, putting the power of AI into everyone's hands. While it's undoubtedly an exciting time to be alive with all these technological advancements, it's vital to keep a pulse on the human component of technology, ensuring everyone benefits. more

The goals of this quest may vary. Maybe the hope is to boost customer engagement, improve operational efficiencies and unify AI and data workloads. Perhaps the goal is higher growth, more revenue streams and real-time insights.

But the quest for AI Nirvana has never been just about AI. It's about going beyond harnessing it in specific applications to implementing it at scale, generating value across the organization. more

Implementing AI at scale is about artificial intelligence becoming a core component of any go-to-market product, he explained.

'It means there is no notion of a bolt-on AI,' he said, 'which by definition is not a behavior of AI at scale because in that context AI is not fundamental to the proposition you are building.'

Wells Fargo is not quite there yet, he emphasized. But Mehta believes that the company is at a point where it knows what it needs to do. more

Aflac has been forced to accelerate its digital transformation, including artificial intelligence (AI), as the pandemic severely challenged the company's traditional in-person, independent agent/franchise business. The trick, however, has been choosing the best AI use cases among competing priorities, says Shelia Anderson, who joined Aflac as CIO last July.

'We're thinking about the business challenge and outcomes we're looking for,' she told VentureBeat. more

This week we're just going to launch straight into an enthusiastic "TGIF" - the abbreviation for Thank God It's Friday - for reasons that will become apparent after we introduce you to a reader who we'll Regomize as "Hal".

"I had just gotten a job in Florida working as an in-house on-site tech support rep," Hal told On-Call.

It wasn't a happy job. "People really did not like tech support because they were a bit snobbish and off-putting." Well, that'll do it. more

The upcoming 6G wireless communication system promises to be a hundred times faster than its predecessor and will offer near-instantaneous connections, completely changing the way we live, work, and interact with our environment.

However, some experts believe it's still too early to discuss 6G in detail.

'We have not completed the deployment of 5G yet,' Ha Min Yong, chief development officer of SK Telecom, told CNBC last week. 'I don't think it's mature enough to talk about 6G seriously . it's already a bit too early.' more

ERP systems are used to provide transparency into the entire business process by tracking all aspects of production or distribution, financials, and back office. These expansive systems act as a central hub for end-to-end workflow and data. A variety of departments can view the information recorded by ERP systems to ensure the correct procedures are taking place.

ERPs are used by manufacturing and distribution companies. Instead of using standalone products (which may not properly integrate) in each separate department, ERP systems provide cohesiveness from the beginning to end of all business processes. This assists in the expansion and growth of a company. While ERPs cover a wide range of functionality within themselves, they may integrate with CRM software and PSA software products. Users may also choose to integrate standalone products to form a unique ERP system. Others might solely select specific modules from an ERP system that are sold uniquely to best match business needs, instead of purchasing the entire suite. Some project-centric companies may run similar project-based ERP systems that do not focus on product manufacturing but still offer an end-to-end business solution. more

With inflation now a persistent problem, most companies are looking to trim budgets where they can. For some, this includes money allocated for ERP modernizations.

Technology providers are still forecasting growth this year, according to recent Forrester data, signaling that companies still plan to invest more than last year.

Spending growth, however, is decelerating, with Forrester estimating the rate will slow from 7.4% in 2022 to 5.4% this year due to impacts from interest rate hikes, low GDP growth, high inflation and energy costs. more

IT operations (ITOps) is the process of managing, maintaining, and providing support for the IT infrastructure of an organization.

Having access to skilled IT operations personnel, along with the tools and platforms they need to do their jobs, is critical for business success.

Core ITOps responsibilities include maintaining operational infrastructure, coordinating and monitoring IT services, investigating and resolving IT issues, planning and managing IT investments, and assessing and reporting on IT performance. more

For this iteration, we combined Workstream collaboration with collaborative work management, employee communication applications, and general social/intranet products. These products share similar buyers and dynamics, making it logical to present them together. However, we do showcase separate growth rates for each sub-market and their trends.

The forecast is interesting this year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic's upheavals, which accelerated remote collaboration in many ways. While some of the sub-markets reverted to their prior trajectory, collaborative work management is best positioned to sustain its new path. more

IT operations and DevOps serve closely related needs at many modern businesses. Yet, although there are many similarities between the two roles, there are also important differences, and it would be a mistake to conflate IT operations with DevOps.

This article breaks down the similarities and differences between IT Ops and DevOps by explaining what each type of role does; how they compare in terms of processes, tools, and culture; and how to decide whether your business needs IT operations, DevOps, or both. more

However, beyond traditional EAM systems, many organizations, from manufacturing and business to school systems, are implementing IT Asset Management (ITAM) systems and reporting impressive results in their operations. ITAM ensures an organization's assets are accounted for, deployed, maintained, upgraded, and disposed of when the time comes. Simply put, it's about ensuring that an organization's valuable items, tangible and intangible, are tracked and used.

For example, located north of Minneapolis, the St. Francis school district encompasses over 700 employees and 4000 students from kindergarten to senior high. Situated away from the city center, the district is spread across eight buildings that unite the surrounding suburban communities and takes pride in being the heart of community life. Its relentless focus is streamlining operations and leveraging technology for an excellent learning experience. more

Most IT operations teams can't rely solely on open source tools to manage the provisioning, monitoring, administration, and other tasks at the core of their workflow.

But in many cases, open source tools can address the bulk of IT operations work. And given that open source tools are generally lower in cost and more flexible than proprietary alternatives, they're an important resource for ITOps teams to leverage. more

Web applications are the top vectors attackers use to pull off breaches. According to Verizon's "Data Breach Investigations Report" (PDF), Web applications were the way in for roughly 70% of all breaches studied.

After conducting more than 300 Web application penetration tests, I see why. Developers keep making the same security missteps that create vulnerabilities. They often don't use secure frameworks and try to write security code and authentication processes themselves. more

The post-pandemic reality. Macroeconomic turbulence. Explosive technology innovations. Generational shifts in technological expectations. All these forces and more drive rapid, often confusing change in organizations large and small.

With every such change comes opportunity-for bad actors looking to game the system. Cybersecurity cannot stand still, or the waves of innovation will overrun the shores. more

Passed by Congress with hopes of deterring corporate fraud, improving financial disclosures, and protecting both investors and whistleblowers, SOX holds CEOs personally responsible for any errors made in accounting audits.

Now in its twenty-first year, many organizations believe the compliance work has improved their internal control financial reporting (ICFR), though the cost of being SOX compliant continues to rise.

For those who will need to go through a SOX compliance audit, here is an idea of what can be expected to take place. more

DirectDefense, Inc., an information security services company, today released its "Security Operations Threat Report" which identifies the top threats in 2022 and what's already trending for 2023. Using its proprietary ThreatAdvisor software, DirectDefense evaluated the managed services activities logged for its clients last year.

Of the hundreds of thousands of alerts managed, DirectDefense investigated 100% of them and acted on or dismissed 77% so that only 23% needed client collaboration to close the event, saving over 1.1 million hours in alert investigation time for clients while providing 7x24x365 monitoring. more

Data breaches can have serious consequences for individuals, businesses, and organizations. The compromised data may include personal information such as names, addresses, social security numbers, credit card details, or login credentials. Such information can be used for identity theft, financial fraud, or other malicious activities. Here is the monthly edition of famous data breaches in February 2023.

In addition to the financial and legal consequences, data breaches can also damage the reputation of the affected organization, leading to a loss of trust among customers and stakeholders. As a result, many organizations invest significant resources in securing their data and preventing breaches from occurring. more

Organizations monitor their computer networks for a host of reasons - from gaining insight into availability, performance, and failures, to identifying potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exploits. In the process, they often collect more data than actually needed on employees, customers, prospects, vendors, and more. The prevailing attitude is that because the data exists, is easy to capture, and relatively cheap to store, why not collect it? But given the expansive capabilities of today's technology, combined with how integrated it is in every aspect of our lives, there's a danger of either purposefully or inadvertently collecting unnecessary and private data. more

As system administrators contend with a rapidly changing threat landscape and the need to remain agile in the face of innovative cyber criminals, manually reading advisories, reviewing listed products and versions, and evaluating risk and potential actions is burdensome, at best.

In the world of cybersecurity, time itself can be a risk. Administrators and security professionals need to be able to initiate vulnerability remediation swiftly. They also need to be able to rely on software and hardware vendors to disclose security vulnerabilities in a timely and accessible way. more

Data is pivotal for everything, from generating machine learning models, refining user experiences and even supporting new data-centric services. But although data is a clear backbone to many enterprises, there is no clear winner regarding which database to use.

Large organizations often find themselves supporting different database styles, from relational databases to NoSQL and distributed SQL. And as organizations continue to adopt multiple databases, safely managing the processing and storage of data becomes more challenging to enact at scale. more

If you think about switching to Linux, you will come across hundreds of Linux distributions or 'distros'. Each Linux distribution has its unique features, strengths, and weaknesses.

They offer users a choice of unique features, tools, and interfaces to cater to different needs. The choice of the right Linux distribution can be overwhelming if you want to compare it with Arch Linux.

In this article, I will focus on Arch Linux, one of the most popular Linux distributions and compare it with other popular Linux distributions. more

However, if you're here, you're unsure which one to pick.

In this guide, we'll explore Linux Mint vs. Ubuntu. We'll look at different aspects to ensure an impartial comparison, including ease of use, flexibility, security, reliability, and support.

Let's get started. more

Cloud cost management, an as-a-service adoption problem that has simmered for years, is commanding greater attention in 2023 amid rising cloud prices and economic uncertainty.

Industry reports indicate IT organizations have elevated the task of keeping cloud expenses in check. Technology managers have consistently cited reining in cloud expenses as an issue since at least 2016. While the apparent lack of progress suggests a failure to address the problem, fiscal necessity could inspire action this year. Service providers offering cloud optimization and associated tools could see an influx of business in the coming months. more

According to the State of Multi-Cloud Management survey report, 98% of respondents have workloads running in the public cloud. Of course, while nearly all organizations have workloads in the public cloud, it doesn't follow that all of their workloads are in the cloud. In fact, only 13% said that more than three-quarters of their workloads are running in public clouds. The majority - 78% - have between 26% and 75% of their workloads in public clouds. This means that the remaining workloads must be in non-public-cloud environments. In other words, most organizations are managing a hybrid cloud infrastructure. Specifically, the same study found that, on average, 17% of enterprise workloads continue to run on premises while 22% are in a private cloud. more

The open source PyTorch project is among the most widely used technologies for machine learning (ML) training. Originally started by Facebook (now Meta), PyTorch 1.0 came out in 2018 and benefitted from years of incremental improvements.

In September 2022, the PyTorch Foundation was created in a bid to enable more open governance and encourage more collaboration and contributions. The effort that has paid dividends, with the beta of PyTorch 2.0 going into preview in December 2022. PyTorch 2.0 benefits from 428 different contributors that provided new code and capabilities to the open source effort. more