InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

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Given the challenges that clients face today keeping pace with the exponential growth of their transactional data, we at IBM believe a new approach to delivering and managing data services is needed. We believe that clients should be able to stand up new database systems in hours, deploy new data stores in minutes, grow databases without the need for application change and be able to manage database systems easily, with less resource and skill required. We believe clients would prefer to spend more time working with their data, and less time working on their data infrastructure.

Hype surrounding Big Data is strong enough that some organizations may feel pressured to pursue investments that can’t be clearly justified from an ROI perspective. IT must be wary and avoid the trap of rushing into Big Data, because a poorly conceived strategy can fail to deliver the considerable benefits that Big Data offers.

Social media have quickly become a dominant form of digital communication, leaving many businesses struggling to figure out how to maximize their value. Don't head into 2013 without knowing how your company can get the biggest benefits from social media data and analysis across its operations, from finance to sales and beyond.

When a company is processing a customer order, claim, loan, contract, audit, or benefit, exceptions happen. How companies deal with those exceptions can mean the difference between a happy customer or employee or one that walks away – and tells other friends and business associates about their negative experience. In fact, with the speed and reach of social media, it is imperative that all exceptions are escalated and resolved as quickly and as simply as possible. Putting the process into the end users' hands via an automated case management solution such as IBM Software's Advanced Case Management (ACM) can help companies not only improve customer service but gain other benefits such as increased sales, reducing customer churn, and a reduction of fraud.

Enterprise IT faces a big security challenge from two forces every day: continuous software updates pushed to end users automatically, and proliferation of smart devices (think BYOD) with their own unique software configurations and update practices.

Diverse IT tools and platforms often result in siloed processes for management and security/compliance.

Jamie Gotch, CEO and co-founder of Subatomic Studios, shows how his studio leveraged the power of Autodesk' 3ds Max' to achieve huge success with their 2D tower defense games, Fieldrunners and Fieldrunners 2. Jamie discusses the rationale of choosing to build a game creation pipeline around 3D technology and what kind of hurdles this can help game designers overcome. He then shows the workflow for artistic assets including: their in-house 3D engine, an artistic pipeline using 3ds Max, and a set of custom tools created to automate the iteration and integration of artistic assets into the game. Experienced as a programmer, artist, and entrepreneur, Jamie brings a holistic and informed perspective on how to create compelling games to succeed in this dynamic market.

To secure your organization, it is no longer enough to protect the perimeter - sophisticated attacks are bypassing traditional defenses, IT resources are moving outside the firewall, and enterprise applications and data are becoming distributed across multiple devices.

When planning mobility projects whether for business to employee (B2E), business to consumer (B2C), or bring your own device (BYOD), the scope and impact on IT is often underestimated as are many of the potential benefits. Changing the endpoint impacts everything from the network to device management to applications.

Feel like your software delivery team gets productivity paralysis? Join our support group and hear Carolyn Pampino, a certified “ALMopath” (and IBM IT Software Delivery strategist), share how to recognize the signs and symptoms that your team may be suffering from a treatable “disorder.” Learn about the “treatments” available through effective application lifecycle management (ALM) for disorders like “Post Traceability Stress Disorder” triggered by exposure to projects lacking tools for real traceability resulting in experiences such as trying to find out if that darn requirement was ever implemented or tested or what plan items went into the build last night?? Or “Information Attention Deficit Disorder” which can keep you from completing tasks because the information you need is coming so fast and scattered in numerous places you can’t figure out what's important or relevant and what’s not. There is hope and we can help!

Windows 8, iOS 6, Android 2.x+. Can you keep 'em straight, much less figure out which are best for your enterprise? Join Ahmed Datoo, SVP Products at MDM leader Zenprise, for a side-by-side look at the major mobile platforms. Learn the "so what" of their enterprise features in the context of your organization's enterprise mobility requirements.

Most enterprises focus their security strategies – and their security monitoring practices – on minimizing the risks posed by end users, customers, and/or business partners. But such strategies may overlook one huge source of risk: the IT department itself. Every day, IT staffers make changes to systems access controls, firewall settings, router port configurations, and many other administrative tools that may impact the security and compliance posture of the organization.

It is critical for IT decision-makers to choose the right enterprise middleware platform for their organization. Middleware plays a strategic role in everything from the time-to-benefit for new IT services to the efficiency with which optimal performance can be maintained for existing ones. IT decision-makers therefore have to factor all kinds of attributes into their middleware choices—including technical features, ease of use, infrastructure resource utilization and licensing costs.

It is a balancing act and your clients expect you to make the correct decision and "do the right thing" 100% of the time regarding their personally identifiable information (PII).

Deployment and management of servers can be a time-sucking task that paralyzes IT productivity and consumes too much technology budget at the expense of strategic initiatives.

IT organizations struggle with the daily tasks of provisioning and de-provisioning users, updating access privileges and applying automation when configuring users.

IT organizations are inundated with analytics data, emails with PDF attachments, spreadsheets and even digitized voice messages. The sources of data have multiplied beyond the control of today's systems.

Storing and protecting the data that exists in the cloud is a critical part of an efficient and secure cloud deployment. Effective data management requires highly reliable/high performance storage systems along with data protection, recovery, and security. $625 Billion can be saved by US businesses over the next five years by using clouds and 60% of CIOs now plan to adopt cloud, but you can’t do anything on the cloud without storage.

Be a part of the audience that attended the premier IT industry event of the year - Information On Demand 2012. Held recently in Las Vegas, the event assembled many of the world's leading authorities on big data, data management, data warehousing, database systems, information integration and governance. Register today to access top video highlights from the live keynote address, "Managing Information in the New Era of Computing."

Enterprise Linux Server - More utilization, less complexity and costs. Underutilized data center assets can quickly run up costs. On top of the space and energy they require, there's the additional administrative and software expenses. The more components you have the more complex your system can become.

Government's huge variety of responsibilities including defense, national security, social programs, taxation and much more, both require and generate massive amounts of data. The volume, variety and velocity of this data is increasing at a rapid pace. The ability of government to manage this big data is critical to the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations and therefore to the health, safety and security of the populations they serve.

Join Chris Poulin, Chief Security Officer at Q1 Labs, an IBM company, to hear how security intelligence - delivered via next-generation SIEM and log management technology – provides the visibility needed to detect anomalies inside and outside your organization. With risk coming from all directions, including an increasing number of insider theft cases, targeted hacktivism, and the evolving complexity of external vulnerabilities; the pressure to protect IT resources and gain better network and application visibility is only getting more intense.

Do a quick Google search on "network outages" and you'll see how they have affected and continue to affect companies of all shapes and sizes. These stories illustrate how network outages hit the business hard; lost revenue, impacts to brand, customer satisfaction, employee productivity losses…this list goes on.

Are you ready for the coming Cyber War? Attacks against financial institutions and other critical commercial institutions are just the beginning. The big question is how are they doing it? These sophisticated cyber attacks are resource-intensive for cyber criminals. So, they are now using advanced evasion techniques (AETs) to protect their investment and stay under the radar. And recent testing has proven that most network security is unable to stop AETs.

In financial services, optimizing customers’ digital experiences can increase acquisition, cross-sell products, improve customer retention and decrease support costs. In this Webcast, you will see how best-in-class website designs drive business results, and how new smart content and product strategies are being launched.