Existential Threats Posed by Connected Technology -- Leaky Operating Systems & Intrusive Apps

In today’s connected world, operating systems and apps are designed to enable the OS and app developer, including those from adversarial countries, to monitor, track and data-mine the end user for financial gain, posing numerous cybersecurity and privacy threats to the end user, including the end user’s employer.

Years ago, while working at Giga Information Group, several analysts got together and created a service we loosely referred to as “events,” and then wrote about what we had captured as best practices over the years. With companies now going back to having in-person analyst events, I thought it would be handy to cover some of those best practices again to help companies improve the quality of their events.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

Threats posed by nation-state hackers and intrusive apps are a result of “tech-based hybrid warfare” being waged by China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and other bad actors worldwide who are exploiting vulnerabilities within operating systems and popular apps that are distributed by Google, Apple, & Microsoft.

– By Rex M. Lee

The rapid pace of change. Velocity. Many use those terms to describe what everything about business feels like today. Despite the global pandemic slowing down parts of the economy, the transformation to digital seems all the more obvious and more critical. The time to wait is over, and now is the time to act. While engaging in digital transformation quickly and with purpose is absolutely necessary for most businesses, doing so with overly rosy expectations of express returns and swift transformations might prove more the first step toward failure than the first step toward success.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Digital transformation is a business strategy. It is not innovative. Many organizations already operate as digital businesses. Most organizations migrating to a digital strategy do so to catch up with their peers. Businesses that do not adopt the latest technology will become less relevant over time as consumer and business-to-business markets move to digital engagement models.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Despite still high digital adoption rates, our latest Digital Sentiment Survey finds that consumers are uncertain about the future. But clear opportunities for digital growth exist for companies that know where to look.

- Neira Hajro, Klemens Hjartar, Paul Jenkins, and Benjamim Vieria 

Analysts like to categorize. As reported in a 2016 Wall Street Journal article, Korn/Ferry categorized CIOs into four groups: Commercial, Transformational, Innovative, and Technology-oriented. I think those categories have dated. But more importantly, CIOs are not defined as much by their traits as by their circumstances. In an ideal model, perhaps every role in every company perfectly aligns skills, proclivities, personality, and aspirations to the work. But ideal models don’t exist. 

Let's dive into what type of CIO you want to be…

– Dan Rasmus, Serious Insights

Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference, WWDC 2022 announced several updates to chips, devices, and all of the operating systems. We explore the more important announcements below and analyze their impact on users and the market.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Let’s talk about how HPC and supercomputing are changing and how NVIDIA’s efforts are functioning to create a better world. This is all from Ian Buck’s (VP and GM of NVIDIA’s Accelerated Computing) keynote at ISC22.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

I received an evaluation copy of TripIt Pro several months ago. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the first trip after that. And the one after that as well. But I have had time to explore the latest version of TripIt Pro, which now sits ready to support a trip in July 2022. Earlier versions of the service proved valuable in trips across the globe. TripIt offers value before trips and during them. The services insights help subscribers realize how many adventures they have shared. A free version will serve for most, while a Pro version at $49 will likely find more than one way to pay for itself.

– Dan W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

There have been a lot of discussions about bad store practices of late in which Apple ends up consistently in the hot seat for overcharging for services that are provided by the application developer, not Apple … In contrast, Microsoft has announced it will charge if you use Microsoft’s more reasonable financial services but, if you choose to implement a store from inside your app, you can do that for free. Thus, with Microsoft, you pay for the service you get and, as is generally the case in the real world, if you do it yourself, you don’t have to pay a “tax” to anyone for that privilege.

Let’s talk about the difference between Microsoft and Apple’s market approach in the context of this, admittedly, rather obvious better approach to building revenue.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

Doesn’t IT own the policies around which technologies and systems get deployed? Not always. If your organization does, then this post may not be relevant to you. If your organization delegates authority to lines of business and business units for non-centralized IT, then you will want to read on.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Cisco had an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) event this week and one of their practices, focused on creating a 360 Ecosystem, is in sharp contrast to Dell’s Concept Luna in terms of approach. But the two approaches aren’t contradictory and could be layered to create an even more sustainable effort from both firms. Cisco is arguably the leader in ESG across the segment largely because they are, as a company, the most focused on making progress on a variety of fronts including homelessness and working with governments at scale to improve communications and governance strength.

Let’s explore that this week.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

The metaverse arms race is really picking up speed and new announcements are being made all the time. The most recent development is the coming together of two great tech worlds: the Metaverse and the cloud. That’s because of tech company Nvidia, which has led the switch to move its metaverse over to the cloud, where it can be more easily accessed. The question remains: will the rest of the metaverse do the same?

– TGDaily

Digital transformation isn’t a project. It isn’t just a concept either. Digital transformation is the foundational act of IT. All other activity stems from the ongoing shifts in technology, policy, and practice. This post offers 4 to-dos that don’t appear on most CIO to-do lists, at least not yet.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Want to show off with the coolest looking earbuds around? Read Serious Insights’ latest earbud review to see if the sound from these new GravaStar Sci-Fi-inspired earbuds lives up to their looks. 

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

AMD and Mercedes may be one of the most powerful and interesting technology racing partnerships currently in existence. AMD had a prior partnership with Ferrari, but it seemed to be more of a marketing relationship than an operational one. This time, the AMD relationship highlights one of the market advantages in terms of server performance, making it more powerful than the earlier effort. It showcases how these things both should and should not, be done.  

Let’s talk about AMD, F1 racing, and Ferrari this week.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

HP was once one of the leading innovators in high-end video conferencing and collaboration with its Halo video conferencing effort. It was the first to wed high resolution video conferencing to a service that could link two sites at opposite ends of the world in a seamless experience. However, it failed and was sold to Polycom. Polycom was acquired by Plantronics, which had also been developing market-leading sound solutions for video conferencing rooms. Now, HP has acquired the combined entity which had been renamed Poly.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

The landscape of docking stations has changed significantly over the last several years. USB-C docks now predominate for laptops and desktop computers. This post from Serious Insights offers guidance on what features to look for and how to choose a USB-C dock.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Comic-Cons return in 2022 with a vengeance. In 2021 some cons wandered into the tepid social waters of a Covid world with their few celebrity guests sequestered behind negative test paywalls for photos and autographs. The large stages were dark, and the cheering crowds murmured behind masks as they wandered the greatly diminished show floors.

But the biggest of cons returns full steam on July 21-24, 2022, after its abbreviated Thanksgiving 2021 outing. Comic-Con International in San Diego is back, and with it, the opportunity for tech professionals to learn from the event in ways they might not consider.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Microsoft hasn’t cornered the PC business tablet market with it's Surface line. The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable combines Lenovo design excellence with several innovations and makes for a great computing experience. The thin, light, solid performer should be considered by anyone looking for a Windows computer, but who also wants the flexibility of a tablet that actually performs and behaves like a tablet.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Anybody who owns a Macintosh knows the name OWC, or their longer moniker, Other World Computing. Found in 1994 by Larry O’Conner, OWC is a premier maker of Macintosh storage and connectivity peripherals, drivers, and other accessories. The company enterprise-level hardware to those looking to maximize quality and performance in areas like multimedia editing. Dan had the opportunity to talk with Larry last week about innovation. His insights offer food for thought to entrepreneurs, technology leaders, and fellow CEOs.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

The home of Sam Spade, Frank Bullitt, and Harry Callahan, San Francisco is engrained in my mind as a town of hard-boiled private eyes and no-nonsense detectives. That’s probably about as far away from the city’s current vibe as can be, but I’m still a sucker for Bogart’s cadence, McQueen’s mastery of a Mustang, and Eastwood’s legendary question, about how lucky you feel. Now while I didn’t burn rubber up and down the embarcadero, I made sure I put some miles on the soles of my shoes in a city I was inexcusably unfamiliar with, and of course that meant hitting a few local watering holes and culinary gems. 

– Richard Healy

Orlando, FL hosted Enterprise Connect March 21-24 as an in-person and hybrid experience. Dan talked with vendors and sat through sessions to come up with his The Top 5 Takeaways from Enterprise Connect 2022, which include too much innovation, shared canvases, employ control, AI, and the metaverse.

By Daniel W. Rasmus

The return to offices has forced many managers to confront new team dynamics in meetings with some staff joining in shared spaces while others remain virtual. That’s not the only fear created by returns to the office. Daniel W. Rasmus identified 12 Hybrid Work Fears Managers Must Face as the next reality. He looks at planning, motivation, finding time to reflect, how to innovate and other challenges that all of us will likely face at one time or another over the next several months.

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

There are many lists that recommend what a new CIO should do within the first 100 days. Dan has read many of them and discovered gaps in the advice. His article, Ten Things No One Tells You About Your First 60 Days as CIO looks not at the first 100 days, but the first 60—and really the first 30. CIOs know they don’t have as much runway as pundits give them. Dan hones back the advice to critical items that others gloss over or miss. Read Dan’s candid, challenging advisory article here and engage with him in the article’s comments section. 

– Daniel W. Rasmus, Serious Insights

Last week I attended the IBM event with Fast Company on its hybrid cloud solutions. IBM is unique in that it often populates events like this with customers who talk about how IBM’s solutions are used rather than the far less interesting performance metrics of new hardware, software, or networking solutions. This use of customers to create content is far more compelling than the usual vendor talking head, and, in terms of credibility, people who use a technology are far more credible than those who sell it. In short, IBM’s use of customers to tell the story has for some time been a best practice.

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

Next week is NVIDIA’s big GTC event, and there will be a ton of content on AI, the metaverse, digital twins, simulations, graphics, and super-computing. It is also the definitive event on autonomous vehicles and robotics, and this is all happening during the Russian attack on the Ukraine which provides an interesting and troubling context to the future of safe driving. I’m specifically talking about the ability to avoid accidents and hostile areas even if you are out of range of a wireless network or that network is no longer functioning.  

– Rob Enderle, The Enderle Group

TechTalk Summits is proud to announce our partnership with The Enderle Group. The Enderle Group provides an unparalleled look inside breaking technology events to identify the core reasons that buyers and builders of technology should care. Rob Enderle will be providing dedicated content to TechTalk Summit clients.

TechTalk Summits is pleased to be working with Serious Insights to bring thought leadership content to our clients. Founder Daniel W. Rasmus is the former head of thought leadership marketing for Microsoft Office and was a Vice President of Research at Forrester Research.

New York City, the culinary beating heart of the US of A. My favorite city. The city of constant hustle, attitude, and grit. If someone outside of this country asked me to see a picture of America, I’d show them a picture of New York. The Ear Inn is the oldest bar in NYC and they’ve been filling glasses since 1817, even during prohibition. Located inside the historic James Brown house built in 1770, this is always my first stop in the city.  

– Richard Healy

It is impossible not to be impressed by Chicago. That skyline flirting with the edge of Lake Michigan never gets old. The unmistakable rattle of the L weaving through skyscrapers, like the blood flowing through the veins of this truly great, tough metropolis. Chicago doesn’t apologize for what it is. Chicago doesn’t have to. 

– Richard Healy

Forgive me for lumping both cities together, neither one deserves that. My time in Baltimore was so short that I only had half a night to really see the city. I did have some crab cakes, but I feel like that they were a tad phony. Perhaps I just don’t understand the crab cake attraction. Most likely I just haven’t had them at the right place. Well, I’ll have to remedy that next time I’m in Baltimore. 

– Richard Healy

Canada, the country closest and yet more alien to me than some an ocean away. I know nothing about Canada and that is entirely my fault. Toronto is just about an hour flight and yet I had never thought once about heading north. Perhaps that’s solely on me, perhaps it’s an American notion to not give our northern neighbors a thought when it comes to international travel. I dropped in midday on a Thursday for a brief trip… 

– Richard Healy

Virtual Events Reach Southeast Asia and India Audiences, Spanish Speaking IT Professionals

Boston, MA, Nov. 5, 2020 – TechTalk Summits today announced it has again expanded its roster of events for IT professionals and executives into Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries plus India. Prompted by the increased growth and popularity of virtual events, the company also debuted its first dual language event for Spanish-speaking technology teams.

New Format to Feature Analyst Research for Attendee Executive Tech Professionals

Boston, MA, Aug. 5, 2020 – TechTalk Summits today announced the addition of the Commercial IT Analyst Series to its expanding roster of events for IT professionals and executives.

IDC has responded to the challenges of the recent pandemic and its associated costs on the global business market with comprehensive research on strategic technology decisions that will flatten the curve toward recovery.