Business Technology Roundtable

The scale of fraud targeting U.S. federal government programs has reached staggering proportions, demanding immediate attention from policymakers and technology leaders alike.  Recent findings from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveal that federal government fraud losses range from $233 billion to $521 billion annually – representing 3 to 7 percent of federal obligations. This massive drain on public resources demands innovative solutions and a fundamental shift in how government agencies approach fraud prevention. If fraud was stopped, the savings could eliminate the annual Social Security Trust Fund deficit, and support the departments of Homeland Security and Commerce, with enough left over to fund most of the food assistance programs run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Growing Sophistication of Fraud The challenge has grown particularly acute in recent years, with fraudsters becoming increasingly sophisticated in their approaches. During the pandemic, we...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption is accelerating globally, transforming business and government. However, a new study by Cisco Systems reveals that while intentions to adopt AI are rising sharply, actual abilities to effectively leverage these technologies continue to lag. An overwhelming 97 percent of business leaders state that the urgency to deploy AI technologies has increased significantly or somewhat at their organizations in just the past six months. This mounting urgency is coming from the top-down, with over 50 percent saying it is being driven by their CEO and board of directors. Meanwhile, the C-suite is being tasked to prepare for action. As a result of this mounting pressure, 95 percent of organizations now have an AI strategy in place or under development. Looking ahead, 84 percent believe AI will have a major impact on their business operations. New AI Deployments Underway Many organizations have already started an AI deployment, prioritizing IT infrastructure and d...

Guided by senior executive goals for digital transformation, more organizations are increasing their use of cloud computing technologies. The typical multi-cloud mix includes a blend of public cloud, private cloud and traditional IT services. Finding the best-fit service mix starts with the business requirements. The latest Global Cloud Index (GCI) 2016-2021 from Cisco focuses on the worldwide market outlook for enterprise data center virtualization and cloud computing services. Today's digital business is enabled by a Hybrid IT infrastructure that supports the deployment of cloud-based solutions. Driven by the surging enthusiasm for digital reinvention projects, data center traffic is growing fast. The market study authors forecast global cloud data center traffic will reach 19.5 zettabytes (ZB) per year by 2021 -- that's up from 6.0 ZB per year in 2016. Globally, cloud data center traffic will represent 95 percent of total data center traffic by 2021, compared to 88 per...

Hybrid IT is a catalyst of progressive organizations. In fact, two-thirds of surveyed leaders say a blend of traditional and cloud infrastructure enables a strategic competitive advantage, according to a market study by the IBM Center for Applied Insights . That said, savvy leaders are using hybrid cloud to power their digital transformation agenda, going beyond cost reductions and productivity gains. They’re also using cloud as a foundation for next-generation initiatives -- such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cognitive Computing. New Insights into Emerging Cloud Trends According to findings from the latest Cisco Global Cloud Index (GCI), cloud service traffic is expected to rise 3.7-fold -- that’s up from 3.9 zettabytes (ZB) per year in 2015 -- to 14.1 ZB per year by 2020. The ongoing growth of cloud computing is being partly driven by the increased migration to hybrid cloud architectures that support the evolving demand for combining IT systems of record and systems of...

The world of business is changing. Disruptive shifts in power are forcing everyone to question the established status quo. In particular, savvy chief executives are tasking IT organizations to help create compelling customer experiences, support new business models and adopt agile operational processes. That's why the vast majority of IT and business leaders are joining forces on the organizations’ most pressing commercial needs and wants. They seek an open and flexible business technology foundation that's an enabler, rather than an inhibitor, to meaningful and substantive workflow progress. Forward-thinking executives believe cloud services can empower them to achieve their strategic business outcomes. Moreover, they want their whole leadership team to collaborate across the business, developing a comprehensive IT strategy that utilizes existing infrastructure investments and the elasticity of cloud services. Innovation: Opportunities vs Challenges Meanwhile, CIOs are...

So far, 2014 has turned into a banner year for CIOs that have invested the time and effort to plan for hybrid cloud services, while building strong strategic relationships with their Line of Business leadership. Their approved capital investment budget spend is on-track and operational expenses are contained, as planned. Savvy senior executives across the globe continue to make selective investments in new business technology. In fact, there could be a moderate IT infrastructure spend over the next 12-18 months, which will likely increase the demand for open source software and professional services as new cloud service projects are approved. Worldwide IT spending is now forecast to increase by 4.5 percent in 2014 at constant currency, that's according to updated projections from the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). By and large, this enterprise growth is still being driven by smartphones, apps and the mobile cloud. Aside from mobility related inv...

If you're an executive that's concerned about the high-cost of proprietary software, you're not alone. If your IT team pushes back whenever Line of Business leaders ask them for feature enhancements that goes beyond the limits of the commercial software packages they've licensed, then you already know that frustration. Are you wondering if there's an alternative to this legacy business technology scenario? Consider Open Source Software (OSS) and follow in the footsteps of the previously enlightened. North Bridge Venture Partners recently announced the results of the eighth annual investigation into OSS trends. The latest market study findings point toward the increased role that OSS solutions have in today's enterprises. "Open source is enjoying a proliferation that starts with a growing number of new developers at the grass roots. Many then go on to join enterprises who themselves are engaging in open source projects," said Michael Skok, genera...

Senior executives have been waiting for actionable insight from the mass of information that their IT departments already gather about their customers. But many have become very impatient -- because they want to see results, now. Do you anticipate that data analytics and real-time visualization will advance next year? Ovum expects a significant wave of business technology ramp-ups in 2014, in response to the market demand . They predict a growing third-party vendor and IT services ecosystem that creates Big Data and Fast Data tools and solutions for the enterprise data warehousing and applications markets. This growing trend is occurring as SQL and Hadoop platforms are diversifying, adopting multiple personalities, and providing overlapping functions. According to Ovum’s latest market study, SQL queries can now be run against Hadoop, and many SQL databases will be able to handle JSON document-centric queries. And as silicon-based storage -- DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) and...

When you follow the proven methodologies of the market leaders, and deploy business technology for competitive advantage, you can fine-tune your current online business processes, improve operational performance and increase productivity . But if this is the extent of your efforts to date, then I have good news for you -- we now know that there's huge upside potential for new value creation that's far greater than we ever imagined. The Internet of Everything ( IoE ) is expected to enable global private-sector businesses to generate at least $613 billion in global profits in 2013, according to the "IoE Value Index" study released by Cisco. The report -- announced via a global TelePresence event that connected more than 10 international locales -- found firms that optimize the connections among people, process, data and things will generate the largest profits. The study of 7,500 global business and IT leaders in 12 countries reports that the United States, Chi...

The term Big Data is going to become a key part of the forward-looking business technology debate among informed, proactive and ICT savvy executives. But what's really driving the growing demand for meaningful solutions? While most companies are collecting, storing and analyzing data, they continue to struggle with both the business and IT challenges of Big Data -- more data is not necessarily better. Enormous amounts of data are being generated daily by smartphones, sensors, video cameras, smart meters, and other connected devices, adding to the huge store of information from traditional sources. This "data avalanche" represents a potential gold mine of insights, but a new study commissioned by Cisco reveals that IT professionals and businesses are challenged to extract strategic value from their data. The Cisco Connected World Technology Report ( CCWTR ) surveyed IT professionals across 18 countries to examine the IT readiness, challenges, technology gaps, ...

In 2013, IT buyers will be looking for increased stability and better ways to prepare for the next five years in their business cycle, according the the latest market study by Ovum. "The fact that we live in very uncertain times makes investment decision-making even more difficult. With continuing instability across the global markets and even in locations with historically robust growth -- such as China and India -- the outlook for IT services in 2013 is unpredictable," said Jens Butler, principal analyst, IT Services at Ovum . Oven believes that business leaders will be looking for greater reliability in their IT usage and -- as a consequence -- seeking stability, capability and accessibility among their external service providers . Growing Trend Towards Cloud Applications Moreover, Ovum has published three "Trends to Watch" reports on cloud computing -- which reveals that 2013 will see managed cloud services continue to grow rapidly. Their Private and...

Big Data applications have gained new momentum in the marketplace, as the benefits of working with larger and larger data sets enables analysts to spot key business-related trends. International Data Corporation ( IDC ) released a worldwide forecast of Big Data opportunities, noting that the market is expected to grow from $3.2 billion in 2010 to $16.9 billion in 2015. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40 percent -- or about 7 times that of the overall Information and Communications Technology (ICT) market. "The Big Data market is expanding rapidly as large IT companies and start-ups vie for customers and market share," said Dan Vesset, program vice president, Business Analytics Solutions at IDC. IDC believes that for business technology buyers, opportunities exist to use Big Data solutions to improve operational efficiency and to drive innovation. Use cases are already present across industries and geographic regions. "There are also Big D...