SigmaWay Blog

Gadgets or Gizmos as some refer to it have come a long way. Technology has evolved in so many ways helping man in different fields like medicine, lifestyle and entertainment to name a few. Gadgets are now available where it is possible to experience anything, anywhere through virtual reality. According to TIME Magazine, here are some shortlisted ‘Coolest Gadgets of 2016’ 

# HTC Vive Headset- You don’t just sit and experience while wearing the headset. Instead, through head-tracking technology and a pair of hand-held wireless controllers, you’re encouraged to interact with your environment, climbing ladders, painting the air, and even shooting zombies.

# Loop-Loop connects to online photo services via Wi-Fi, streaming your favorite pictures wherever you are.

# Ili Wearable Translator- The world’s first wearable translator, can connect two people have full conversations in separate languages, without the help of a Smartphone or even an Internet connection.

To know more, please read the article by John Patrick Pullen (Contributor in Time Mag.) -: http://time.com/4169302/ces-2016-coolest/

According to a recent study, Experts are saying that Excessive use of electronic gadgets is leading to hunched backs and high stress level among youngsters. Hunched back is a medical condition of exaggerated curving of the upper back.

This is condition is commonly being observed especially those who are between 9-18 years old due to weak abdominal muscles from years of sitting in a hunched postion. 

Orthopaedician are suggesting that it’s important to learn the correct way to sit, especially when using electronic gadgets. Simple exercises & practicing yoga improve spine flexibility and good body posture. So good posture in a day keeps the doctor away.

To know more, please read the article by The Health Site -: http://www.thehealthsite.com/news/are-you-hooked-to-your-smartphones-and-other-gadgets-doctors-say-it-can-give-you-a-hunched-back-ag0316/

Big data have existed since the time of the cave man existed in physical paper and other analog forms (stone, papyrus, tape) and was largely inaccessible. With the inception of Commercial Internet & new forms of commerce and social media, we can access information of "open source". Now technology can connect streaming and near real-time data to generate information very fast. Dynamic machine-learning algorithms can also help to discover hidden patterns and associations and graph databases has the ability to query and explore entities and their relationships in order to understand how opponent operates. It was also found that tools for geospatial analysis can help analysts to understand how events and groupings are related in space and time. To know more, please read the article by Mark Testoni (Writer at Homeland security today.us) -: http://www.hstoday.us/columns/critical-issues-in-national-cybersecurity/blog/big-data-analytics-from-forensics-to-foresight/d0c045fe32568eedefda4195d46472e6.html

Cybercrime is a continuous global threat to many industries. The risk associated with it is forcing the firms to spend large amount of money in hiring new technologies, devices and experts to combat it. Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is the leading source of information about the cybercrime and security breaches, according to which 100,000 incidents of cybercrime have been observed across many industries this year. When a business becomes a victim of cybercrime, its employees, shareholders and customers also get affected. The major attack patterns identified by the report are: insider and privilege misuse, denial of service (DoS) attacks and web application attacks.

To know more, please click on the following link: https://hbr.org/sponsored/2016/04/data-breaches-arent-just-an-it-issue

This game ball runner originated in London in September 2016. So what is it? It is a game where an individual is bombarded with balls and he/ she has to figure out what to do with them simultaneously. Some key takeaways from the game are: continuous improvement; self-organizing teams; challenge processes; theory of constraints; limiting WIP; Push vs. pull; Kanban. The game has a maximum of 20 players and minimum of 4. Read complete details here: https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2016/may/ball-runner-an-agile-game

Consistency plays a vital role in the company's culture. But lack of consistency can lead to harm in secured position. Some ways to improve culture lacking consistency are - talks not supported with supporting actions; people don't practice what they preach; change the quote from "we have to do something" to "we have to do the right thing"; have a consistently good team and train them well; prioritize the security of your customers. Read the complete article here: http://www.darkreading.com/operations/8-signs-your-security-culture-lacks-consistency-/a/d-id/1325286

One thing that startups must take into consideration is network monitoring. Even IT startups have failed to implement it. It's understandable that startups are on a tight budget, but there is free network monitoring solutions available as well. Network monitoring plays a vital role in company's online presence. It can do lots more than just providing security solution. It can help with project management, tracking customer insights, and system maintenance and also plays a vital role in network security that helps in preventing unauthorized access. Read the complete article here: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/byod-cloud/why-startups-cant-afford-to-take-a-pass-on-network-monitoring-71598

Marketing dances the fine line between pure numbers and human touch. No business of a subdivision of business can run without data. Similarly, marketing have been embracing big data to meet their needs as well. Now marketers can successfully judge who is a loyal customer and who is not. Using big data marketers has successfully identified potential customers, their demographics and ways to retain them. They can identify what the customers want and need which the competing company fails to deliver. Analysis of results has also become easier. Read the full article here: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/hosting-facts/how-big-data-is-transforming-marketing-for-good-71635

Agile and Waterfall, both are digital marketing processes. Agile marketing is more flexible, requires close interaction between teams (use open-ended approach) and encourages creativity. Its methods rely on real-time data in order to respond quickly. Digital marketing under it requires an updated on-line platform and also works on SCRUMS (short-term update meetings). In contrast, waterfall marketing is less flexible, favors sequential and clear work division. It requires huge data gathering. Unlike agile, waterfall works on long term approach in marketing. Waterfall logistics are slow but are very effective and finished with in stipulated time frame mainly because work is always in planned and organized way. To read more, click here:  

http://www.rokkmedia.co.uk/blog/whats-the-difference-between-agile-and-waterfall-marketing

Any movement or step taken by a business often becomes the headlines of the press, thus helping experts in accessing the risk factor.Risk exhibits a situation of danger or loss to a business. It is a fundamental factor that every entrepreneur takes into consideration while aiming for profits, thus it becomes necessary for every business to assess the risks involved in various activities. Most of the businesses use their quantitative data to evaluate and analyse their risk component on one hand. On the other hand, they also use information and articles released by the press for the same.

Read more at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6d3a/508a0f788b40273498283e86c62ac39cc84f.pdf

In a dynamic business environment every organization is seeking profit maximization & risk mitigation approach, the article talks about the latter, in uncertain business environment business leaders at time of complex & critical decision making take decision on the basis of intuition (gut feeling) rather than holistic analysis of situation. Even with data backed decisions there is a narrower approach attached in form of point estimates & averages. In this article a new approach Prescriptive Analysis is used where business are simulating probabilities to reduce risk that helps in robust analysis. This approach gives us broader perspectives showing us a range of possibilities & helps in better decision making.Read Full article at :- Target=_blankhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/gartnergroup/2016/03/24/use-prescriptive-analytics-to-reduce-the-risk-of-decisions/#465f9994785b

If in 1 line I have to summarize the importance of article it will be, the solution is not limited to just analyzing a data, but also making sure it’s understandable & is communicated wisely to the end user for decision making. In the digital world huge amount of data is recorded every second, organization massive amount of time of monetary resources to analyse the data to churn out valuable information for decision making purpose, but unless & until these analysis are communicated in a right manner that could be understandable to the, otherwise its will be a sheer waste of valuable resources of organization. In this regard the article talks about “Info graphics” & the latest innovation in this field that can amalgamate business intelligence with narrative sciences.Read Full article :- http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/01/21/why-management-dashboards-and-analytics-will-never-be-the-same-again/#4cce3b7c3963

Who doesn't love a fancy website with nice animations and images? But one thing which must be kept in mind is that no matter how great landing page you create, until it has a small loading time, it will not help in the growth of your business. A fast and responsive website is the key to success. Avoid having a lot of images and animations on your website as it just slows down your website and will make it impossible for customers to access your complete website.  Choose your platform wisely according to the domain of your website. There are many platforms easily available over the web. One more thing to increase your business is to keep in mind that website should be accessible seamlessly between cross platforms. Read the complete article here: : http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/hosting-facts/web-design-will-be-an-important-step-for-your-business-to-bloom-72900

IT managers are concerned about the heat hazards inside a data center, but what about outside hazards? Climate trends are increasingly affecting the IT operations. Weather related disturbances lead to grid outages which affect its efficiency. The need for disaster recovery tools are raising. But it's not budget friendly to maintain two data centers. So people have shifted their focus to DRaaS i.e. Disaster Recovery as a Service. It leads to less infrastructure management. Read the complete article here:  http://www.computerworld.com/article/3048467/disaster-recovery/for-it-climate-change-means-preparing-for-disaster.html

Manufacturers are slowly beginning to appreciate and accept the idea of putting portions of their ERP systems onto the cloud. Although most still shows resistance to the idea, but they are keeping an eye on the cloud market, maybe for potential future use. There can be various approaches which manufacturers can adopt. One can be use a hybrid combination of cloud based ERP and traditional ERP.  Others can use a private cloud for ERP.  Reports state that in certain scenarios, cloud based ERP would really make sense for manufacturers.  In situations where - Global companies want a two-tier ERP strategy; smaller organizations that can't afford on premise cloud; new manufacturing business   that start from scratch and many more. Read the complete article here: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3043778/enterprise-applications/manufacturers-resistance-to-the-cloud-is-weakening.html

Earlier, whenever an employee was hired, a lot of paperwork generated which required hours of works by managers. They had to file them, record them and place them securely. And whenever a need arises to have a look at that document, one will find herself in the midst of piles of document, searching for it. But now processes have changed. But now, whenever an employee is hired an email is sent to the person providing her a link where she can upload her documents which is equivalent to the paperwork done before. This saves time, space and is prone to fewer errors. This system is recoverable in case a document is lost. Cloud has made HR's life significantly easier. Read the complete article here: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3049420/cloud-computing/how-the-cloud-is-transforming-hr.html

Small business enterprises (SBE) have a large  contribution as compared to the large business enterprises (LBE) in  the economy of a nation. Personal Asset is something of value that a person or a business, whether small or large owns.On one hand, assets and resources of a small business enterprise have been proved to be an important source of support to them, through which credit accessibility becomes more convenient for them. But on the other hand, price fluctuations of the assets of SBE and financial institution’s lending policies make the differences for these SBE in accessing the credit.

Read the whole article at: http://www.frbsf.org/community-development/files/moon_john.pdf

Organizations are now shifting their data on cloud. This creates a problem for IT in terms of security and handling, because security teams needs strong visibility, control and threat protection for cloud applications.    

Microsoft Azure is an open, flexible, enterprise-grade cloud computing platform. Microsoft Azure’s part Cloud App Security makes it possible for IT to set up application discovery and check with the existing security. Since there are numerous applications it is not always possible for IT to know the risk of running an App. But cloud app security gives a risk score(based on prior examination, certificates and information) to most of the App .It gives IT department the same control as their internal software as they can also track how the App is being used through Connecting.

To know more: http://www.infoworld.com/article/3055849/saas/dont-overlook-saas-the-original-cloud-option.html