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Does Observability Throw You for a Loop?

Our new mantra for managing and maintaining the health and functionality of our apps and environments is observability. Observability is the quality of software, services, platforms, or products that allows us to understand how systems are behaving. Without the new sources of data giving us insights, our modern cloud-native applications would be quite a challenge to monitor. Observability, that deep data, is the new fuel for our developer and DevOps engineers.

The duality of observability is controllability. Observability is the ability to infer the internal state of a 'machine' from externally exposed signals. Controllability is the ability to control input to direct the internal state to the desired outcome. While driving, observing a red stoplight means controlling our vehicle by pressing the breaks (or in some modern vehicles, having the brakes applied automatically for us).

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Getting To the New Future of Work

The year 2020 saw an unprecedented and transformative shift for the IT industry. The lockdowns forced us all to shutter our offices and work from home, which called for IT departments everywhere to rise to the occasion and use technology to become more agile, responsive, and resilient.

As we reach the end of the year, it becomes vital for us to look at how digital transformation is currently being implemented within organizations, and what businesses are doing to improve their IT infrastructure in 2021 and beyond. Constellation Research VP & Principal Analyst Dion Hinchcliffe explains the different models that organizations can adopt on their digital transformation journeys, such as online community or enterprise social network, and what the future holds for the IT landscape.

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Presto and Open Analytics

So you have multiple data sources and most of your data has ended up in the cloud, or will soon. It’s a mix of structured and unstructured, static and streaming, in many different formats, and often fractured across data warehouses, open source databases, proprietary databases, data lakes, document stores and object storage like Amazon S3. How best to unify access to that data and share it with internal and external applications and users to support the ever-widening variety of analytical and operational use cases?  

It sounds challenging, but there are several solutions. One option is to try and consolidate all the data by moving it into a monolithic (or yet another) database, cloud warehouse or data lake. But this is often impractical, time-consuming, and likely to increase cost, effort, and vendor lock-in. Let’s face it, adding another vendor to the mix is not high on the CIO’s to-do list.

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Digital Transformation and the Evolving Role of the CIO

In the tech industry, it’s important to stay up on what chief information officers (CIOSs) are thinking, what their goals are and what obstacles they encounter in meeting these goals. That’s why I make it a priority to keep in constant contact with CIOs and other IT leaders around the world, both through personal meetings and through Flexera research that solicits their input. One thing that’s crystal clear is that the CIO’s role is evolving at a rapid pace.

A few years ago, CIOs had command and control of the IT environment. Anyone who needed an IT resource had to first go through the IT department. CIOs ran their departments as cost centers and managing the IT budget was their primary concern, as they were under continuous pressure to do more with less.

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Is Agile Accountability an Oxymoron?

Despite what some people may think, accountability and Agile are not mutually exclusive.

How does your organization incorporate accountability? Is it part of your organization's value statement or part of your enterprise culture? Most companies and leaders I’ve worked with (Agile or otherwise) are not very good with accountability.

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CIO: My Dream Job Description

suit jacket
Are you cut out for being a CIO?

Job Description

The mission of our company's information systems director is to guarantee the proper functioning of the IT department and its alignment with the company's strategy and IT strategy. He will have to ensure that the relationship with the business lines is the best possible, in direct contact with the IT stakeholders, but will also have to act as an interface with the company's management.

You may also like: Transforming the Role of CIO With AI

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Making Safe Choices When Opting for Open Source in Your Business

Despite the popularity of OS software, one developer argues why open source could not be safe for your business.

Whether you are looking for a document management system or a development framework for your next business application, you might be considering open-source solutions. However, making the right choice that meets your requirements doesn't necessarily mean it's a safe choice.

Imagine a company is using a system (could be an ERP, CRM, DMS, ESB — the list goes on) for a couple of years, and that system relies on an open-source framework for that one day, for whatever reason, stops receiving maintenance updates, and the next version will be released under a different open-source license with more restrictions.

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3 Pitfalls Everyone Should Avoid with Hybrid Multicloud (Part 3)

The daily cloud hype is all around you, yet there are three pitfalls everyone should avoid.

From cloud, to hybrid cloud, to hybrid multi-cloud, you’re told this is the way to ensure a digital future for your business. These choices you’ve got to make don’t preclude the daily work of enhancing your customer's experience and agile delivery of those applications.

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Why Are CIOs Talking About Software Testing and Automation?

Like the "Great Debate," the "CIO Panel" is one of the most talked (and tweeted) about components of the Tricentis Accelerate agenda. It's back by popular demand next week at Accelerate SF. The fourth incarnation of this panel focuses on "The Automation Imperative." Leaders from BNP Paribas and T-Mobile will share their perspectives on why automation is key for innovating rapidly while continuously driving operational efficiencies — and you can join them in San Francisco or from your desk, via our livestream.

To give you taste of what's in store, here's a look at the CIO Panel from Accelerate SF 2018, which featured Andy Walter (Procter and Gamble) and Jennifer Sepull (Air New Zealand).

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Udacity and Google Introduce New (and Free) TensorFlow Course for Deep Learning

When HackerRank released its Student Developer Report last year, there probably weren’t too many devs out there surprised by the fact that more than half of all developers are largely self-taught, with almost 30 percent being entirely so. As the report explains, “computer science programs lag behind the pace at which technology evolves, [so] for skills that are growing in the industry today, students have to rely on self-teaching to learn.”

And as this piece from CIO explains, machine learning skills are among the most coveted by today’s tech companies. Unfortunately, however, “demand continues to outpace the supply of qualified talent for these emerging skills.”