Technology

How to Maximize AI's ROI - Without Getting Sucked into a Money Pit

Details: Written by Jeb Horton

As AI revolutionizes industries, one major question looms: How can businesses ensure solid returns on their investments without falling into financial traps? Concerns about AI's return on investment (ROI) are valid.

The Definitive Guide to Turning your Business and Data Center into an AI Factory

Details: Written by Octavian Tanase

AI factories and foundries moved into the popular lexicon when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang used these terms in his recent keynote address. Traditionally, foundries transform raw materials into basic components, and factories assemble products.

The Harsh Truths About Cybersecurity

Details: Written by Ernest Solomon

The pandemic compelled organizations to focus on their security postures as threats evolved globally. Consequently, CIOs realize they can't address cyberattacks with a "one size fits all" approach. Instead, security strategy is considered a holistic journey where enterprises use tactical measures in combination with a long-term vision to ensure that each initiative provides a building block for a future-ready environment.

To explore this critical topic, I participated in a panel at the Leadership in Tech Summit: Priorities for Turbulent Times. Along with Melissa Carvalho, RBC's Global Cyber Security Vice President and Negin Arminian, Menlo Security's Cybersecurity Strategy Senior Manager, we examined the harsh truths facing the modern enterprise. Watch our panel discussion video: https://youtu.be/CXeDn1JMiXI

Strategic Insights Report: Evolving Cybersecurity Essentials

Details: Written by Jeff Ishii

Organizations expect their CIOs to protect enterprise data and technology assets from the growing volume of cyber threats. Unfortunately, the speed at which cyber-attacks emerge poses tough challenges for resource-constrained IT departments.

Coffee, Chat, and TV: AI is the Enabler of the Human Experience

Details: Written by Paul Lewis

If you ever get a chance, I HIGHLY recommend talking to people.

Not just people around you *most* of the time, like your immediate or extended family, or the nosy neighbor, or the mail professional who happily delivers package upon package of online orders to your porch on what seems to be an hourly basis.

The NEXT Big Thing

Details: Written by Nasheen Liu

I didn’t go to Vegas looking for the next big thing. I went as a Canadian media delegate to attend Hitachi NEXT, Hitachi Vantara’s annual smart data conference. The event brought together 10,000 people with the goal of sharing insights and knowledge about data, the new currency for the digital economy.

Reducing Friction with DataOps

Details: Written by Paul Lewis

Businesses are intolerant of inefficiency of any kind, especially if it takes the form of people, process, or technological bottlenecks. Businesses expect their day-to-day operations, their hierarchies and organizational structures, their supply chains, and their IT operations to run as smoothly and efficiently as possible… to be frictionless.

Canadian Thought Leaders Share Insights to Prepare for Digital Disruption

Details: Written by Jeff Ishii

On February 27, more than 120 companies gathered at Activate Digital 2018 in the heart of Ontario’s technology innovation corridor. We were presented with material that explains how digital transformation will fundamentally change our businesses. The conference also allowed us to interact with Canada’s leading IT thought leaders. The event was hosted by Long View Systems and included 15 technology partners.

SmartONE – Smart Communities, Smart Cities and IOT

Details: Written by Ted Maulucci

There are many articles, conferences and general banter about Smart Communities, Smart Cities and IOT. – AND - I am not complaining, because it is an area of great opportunity and a place where North America lags much of the world in implementation. Any attention is good attention, as far as I am concerned, and it is an area where I would love to see flourishing activity.

A Glimpse into the Data-Driven Future: Interview with Paul Lewis, CTO, Americas at Hitachi

Details: Written by Peter Carr

In this interview, Paul Lewis, Chief Technology Officer, Americas at Hitachi, discusses how organisations will apply data driven strategies to effectively compete in the future. Paul’s background as a leading technology practitioner, considering the needs of consumers and how organisations apply technology to meet those today, strongly influenced his comments.

Click the photo below to watch the interview

IoT Survival Guide for CIOs

Details: Written by Jeff Ishii

Fifteen senior IT leaders representing a dozen industries gathered at a roundtable in Toronto to tackle the thorny issues associated with the Internet of Things (IoT). The event was produced by the IT Media Group and the sponsor was Salesforce. The conversations uncovered high interest in the topic, yet most companies are not adequately preparing for IoT. This article will describe why IoT should be on your corporate agenda, the barriers preventing companies from embarking on the IoT journey, and strategies CIOs can use to thrive in the new IoT world.

Digital Transformation - Data Analytics and the Dissolution of Baggage Carts

Details: Written by Paul Lewis

I play the flute. Well, if you’ve got it, flout it.

How long is this flight? 6 hours ?!? I don’t want to complain for that long.

Show me a normal person; and I’ll show you a person you don’t know very well.

If there was a list of things that would make me feel more comfortable, lists would be at the top.

Cloud Integration & the CIO

Details: Written by Dave Carey

While Cloud continues to gain momentum in most organizations, it still brings with it a number of challenges, one of the biggest being integration with on-premises applications. We’ve heard plenty of comments regarding integration issues at IT Media Group Master Series Roundtables across the country, and a great many surveys, reports and articles in the public domain point to the organizational damage they do.

For example, a survey by research firm Dynamic Markets entitled “Cloud for Business Managers, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly” found that one in two organizations abandoned a Cloud application in the three years prior to the survey due to integration problems, and 54% of businesses missed project deadlines in the six-month period prior to the survey due to Cloud integration problems.

Digital State of Mind

Details: Written by Nasheen Liu

As a parent of a teenager, I have lived in digital frustration for a few years now. I found myself constantly anxious from watching my daughter being consumed by virtual communications around the clock. My husband and I tried all sorts of methods to correct this extreme “phenomenon”; unfortunately, nothing worked. While this was hardly a unique behaviour for her generation, it was daunting for me to be supportive of such an unhealthy and unproductive life-style. My mind couldn’t stop drawing parallels to “when I was growing up…”

So I have to admit that I am a late-boomer on the digital front. I prefer the pleasure of flipping pages and inhaling the aroma of a real book. I didn't have the urge to own smart devices and become connected to the Internet of things. I didn't open any social media accounts, except for LinkedIn, until I decided to use them as tools to spy on my daughter. The information I gathered from my spying was surprisingly useful. Putting data and context together, I felt like I had a better handle of my daughter’s mind and her circle of influences.

Why BYOD has CIOs pining for a security blanket

Details: Written by Dave Carey

When The IT Media Group hosts its CIO Master Series roundtables, participants are often struck by how similar their challenges and approaches are with respect to the issue being discussed. At our recent Toronto roundtable, “Securing Information in a Mobile World”, not so much.

Most of the conversation was around BYOD, and it was readily apparent that organizations are all over the map on this issue, with financial institutions leading the way on seriously controlling their BYOD environment, while other organizations range in response from fairly strict control to trying to hold back the BYOD tide while deciding what to do about it. Many organizations are piloting point solutions, but an affordable homogeneous solution that provides blanket security wherever the device goes and whatever end point form factor it reaches is still the stuff of dreams.

Great wearable devices you didn’t see at CES

Details: Written by Dave Carey

Sometimes we tech writers get advanced peeks at digital gadgets that the general public – and yes, even CIOs – won’t have a chance to get their mitts on for months or even years. That was never more evident than at CES earlier this month when a phalanx of large and serious-looking men – Navy SEALs, I took them to be – escorted me and a few fellow scribes into a highly restricted area that CES producers won’t even admit exists; the place where tomorrow’s tech toys strut their stuff today.

This year, Fortress Future, as we call it, housed some jaw-dropping prototypes of wearable technology that I’m prevented by non-disclosure to speak about. But hey, these NDA breaches take years to work their way through the courts, and I’m not going to live forever.

And besides, when I think about my CIO readers, who must somehow find ways of riding herd on this stuff when it’s strapped, clipped, inserted or otherwise affixed to those legions of fresh-faced young employees strolling through the company doors, I feel a certain obligation to spill the digital beans, so to speak.

Loblaw’s Big Data Play

Details: Written by Dave Carey

Loblaw and Shoppers logos Make no mistake about it, Big Data played no small role in the recent $12.5B acquisition of Canada’s largest retail pharmacy chain, Shoppers Drug Mart, by Canadian retail giant Loblaw. And while there have been many mergers and acquisitions involving actual Big Data companies in recent years, the Loblaw deal is perhaps the biggest Canadian corporate merger to have been driven, to a significant degree, by Big Data itself and the means of obtaining that data.

What Loblaw covets is Shoppers’ Optimum loyalty program, which market research firm Environics ranks as the second most popular in the country, with 10 million members. That means detailed data on the shopping habits and preferences of 10 million Canadians, many of whom are in key demographic categories: teens and twenties, interested in Shoppers’ extensive cosmetics and personal grooming lines, and seniors, a growing demographic fueled by the aging Boomer generation.

UOIT conference showcases many sides of Innovation

Details: Written by Dave Carey

Innovation 2013 conference icon A wealth of dynamic new ideas and technologies were front and centre at the recent Innovation 2013, a one-day conference produced by the University of Ontario Institute of Technology’s (UOIT) Faculty of Business and Information Technology in association with One Million Acts of Innovation, a non-profit group working to stimulate Canadian innovation by connecting people and sharing inspiring ideas. The IT Media Group was UOIT’s media partner for the event.

About 140 business leaders, IT executives, faculty and students gathered at UOIT’s Oshawa, Ontario campus in mid-June for a slate of thought-provoking presentations and workshops.

Montreal Transit taps SAP and data analysis to create loyal customers

Details: Written by John Pickett

Toronto: June 5, 2013 -- A pilot project for an innovative loyalty program launched by the Montréal Transit Commission or STM (Société de transport de Montréal) takes advantage of mobile technology and real-time data analysis to deliver personalized offers and information to riders based on their profiles and preferences.

Pierre Bourbonnière, Director of Marketing for STM, together with Marc Aboud, Managing Director, SAP Canada Inc., described the program and its origins at an Economic Club of Canada breakfast session.

STM experiences an annual net increase in ridership of about 2%. This is made up of about 15% new riders offset by about 13% drop-off of previously regular riders.

Big Data in the Real World

Details: Written by John Pickett

Last year was, so the pundits declare, the year of Big Data. Certainly, the hype reached fever pitch and continues today. Big Data stories and forecasts appear almost daily across the pages of every publication or web site that relates to technology or business. Inevitably, following the hype are the naysayers, ”More data just means more noise,” and the vendors who can’t pass up a good buzzword so they label everything as having some kind of Big Data relevance.

Moreover, every discussion of Big Data includes the total of every element of digital data generated and stored throughout the world. For example, the oft-quoted stat from IBM, "Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data,” or perhaps a more easily digested, but no less gobsmacking stat, “90 per cent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years."