Utility computing is now a reality.  Just as the National Grid allows businesses to access electricity at the flick of a switch (rather than owning, manning and running their own generators), the cloud allows similar economies of scale to be applied to IT infrastructure.

The cloud is, however, not floating in the atmosphere or an unseen cyber dimension. It is found in purpose-built bricks and mortar or, more likely, concrete and steel data centers down here on earth. With an estimated US$128 billion spent on data centers worldwide in 2012, data center provision is big business in itself. [1]

Train stations are complex environments full of information that help travellers get from point A to point B. Because they cannot be simply replaced with a new version, developing a positive user experience in such settings (many of which are over a hundred years old!) can be challenging. One way to make travellers’ lives easier is to improve the station signage, and that’s exactly what we were tasked with by Swiss Federal Railways.

Many employers responded to the disruption caused by ‘consumerization’ of the IT workplace by embracing the ‘Bring Your Own Device’ trend. Essentially, BYOD has been promoted by three factors: (1) consumerization; (2) user frustration with devices procured by work; (3) desire to carry only one device.

BYOD has been successful in addressing these factors. Employees want the ease of carrying one device, and they want to decide what device to use. Understandably, very few companies can afford to give up on security, and employees are not ready to relinquish control of their personal devices. But BYOD comes with its own set of limitations:

I am regularly being asked questions like ‘when will tablet ownership overtake PC?’ or ‘how long before everyone has a smartphone?’ The truth of what is happening with ownership of connected devices is far more complicated, so without the benefit of a crystal ball, here are some trends that we’re identifying in our research that could indicate what we can expect to happen in the near future.

Approximately 90% of all electronic data that has ever existed has been created in the last two years. Businesses are generating and holding rapidly growing volumes of data, and from a wider range of sources than ever before. As technology is increasingly leveraged to support business growth (either through customer interactions or manufacturing process management), the associated data is collected and stored, creating ‘Big Data’.

Presently, a myriad of Big Data solutions are offered by the industry’s major players (Hadoop, IBMC et al), and it is a sector which, according to many analysts,  will be worth more than US$40 billion in five years’ time.

With mobile technology taking over many aspects of our lives, a shift to mobile is also occurring in the video game industry. While consoles have traditionally been king, mobile devices are quickly becoming the go-to platform for gamers.

Mobile games have many benefits (from price to convenience), but have typically been reserved for the casual gamer. Hardcore gamers (i.e., people who routinely play complex games for extended periods of time), on the other hand, tend to prefer consoles due to their graphical power and dedicated controllers.

2013 has been branded ‘the year of 4G adoption’ – 4G being the fourth-generation mobile internet infrastructure. With a rising trend in businesses adopting mobile working strategies, it is clear that consumers and businesses alike will be looking to explore the benefits that this latest technology brings to the market. But while these benefits are seemingly compelling, adopting 4G represents a significant financial investment for businesses, with increased tariff and data consumption charges likely to be scrutinized heavily by any Finance Director.

There’s no question that mobile is the new frontier in healthcare communications and marketing. And savvy health marketers are tuned into getting mobile right. Take Pfizer’s Pfizer Pro app—a highly intuitive resource for HCPs; or Galderma’s Epi-Tracker, which allows patients to keep photo journals that they can share with their doctors.

According to USA Today, about 40,000 MMAs (mobile medical applications) are available for Android and iOS—and exponential growth is predicted. Yet the question remains: What is the return? And what will be lost if a manufacturer does not put the next big app on doctors’ and patients’ plates?

In the course of recent spring cleaning, my husband came across home videos taken when our children were very young.  We actually still have a VCR hooked up to our TV, so we watched them, much to the amusement of our now young-adult offspring.

When I relayed the story to people, the response was interesting, but not in the way you might expect. It was all about archival integrity, not sentiment. One person said I should get the tapes converted to digital format for safe-keeping. Someone else wondered “whether personal and social records will stand the test of time now that they are not physical. Will photos and videos stored electronically last for a century or more, as paintings, printed photos and cine-film have?”

The past four decades have seen extraordinary transformations in consumers’ lives – and the pattern of dramatic change continues. DVDs are giving way to YouTube and Netflix, which are reinventing the relationships between viewers, media brands, and content. And in the workplace, “cradle to grave” has given way to “work for hire,” with assumptions about employment and retirement continuing to evolve.