Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Tag: internet of things

  • Cloud computing’s walled gardens

    Cloud computing’s walled gardens

    I’ve spent the last few days playing with Microsoft’s Office 365 and its iOS Apps for a review for tomorrow’s Business Spectator.

    One thing that’s clear with comparing the various competitors in the online space is how all of them are trying to lock users into their own walled gardens.

    This the various web empires are tying to lock us into their worlds isn’t surprising – it’s been going on for some time – however now we’re seeing it becoming harder to keep out of making a choice on whose empire you have to choose.

    For the next generation of computers, this is going to be a challenge as the Internet of Things will be crippled should it turn out that one’s brand of smartcar won’t talk to your phone or intelligent garage door opener, let alone logistics chains breaking down due to an incompatibility somewhere in the process.

    The cloud computing industry has entered an interesting period where the big players are hoping to carve up the market for themselves; what the market thinks about this remains to be seen.

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  • Evangelism and the makers’ movement

    Evangelism and the makers’ movement

    The latest Decoding the New Economy interview is with Salesforce’s Reid Carlberg.

    During the interview with Reid we cover how the Internet of Things and big data is changing business and society along with the journey to becoming a software company’s evangelist.

    Reid has a fascinating story to tell about how the makers’ movement is evolving as big data and the internet of things develops.

    The interview is an insight into a winding career path and how Big Data and the Internet of Things is changing business and society.

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  • Moving from an industrial era to a data age

    Moving from an industrial era to a data age

    The last two weeks have been pretty hectic with Cisco, Salesforce and Microsoft events in Melbourne, as a result there’s a huge backlog of posts to put up.

    One of the interviews that has worked out is with Cisco’s Vice President for Globalisation, Wim Elfrink, which is up on the Decoding the New Economy YouTube channel.

    In it Wim covers how the next wave of upcoming nations, the TIPSS – Turkey, Indonesia, Poland, Saudi Arabia and South Africa – threaten to leapfrog the developed world and the opportunities for businesses in a world where everything is connected.

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  • Garbage In and Garbage Out

    Garbage In and Garbage Out

    UK tech site The Register reports that Google Flu Trends has been dismal failure with the service over-reporting the incidence of influenza by a factor of nearly 12.

    The reason for this problem is the algorithm used to determine the existence of a flue outbreak is that it relies on people searching for the terms ‘flu’ or ‘influenza’ and it turns out we tend to over-react to a dose of the sniffles.

    Google Flu Trends’ failure illustrates two important things about big data – the veracity of the data coming into the system and the validity of the assumptions underlying the algorithms processing the information.

    In the case of Google Flu Trends both were flawed; the algorithm was based on incorrect assumptions  while the incoming data was at best dubious.

    The latter point is an important factor for the Internet of Machines. Instead of humans entering search terms, millions of sensors are pumping data into system so bad data from one sensor can have catastrophic effects on the rest of the network.

    As managing data becomes a greater task for businesses and governments, making sure that data is trustworthy will be essential and the rules that govern how the information is used will have to be robust.

    Hopefully the lessons of Google Flu Trends will save us from more serious mistakes as we come to depend on what algorithms tell us about the data.

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  • Eliminating the donkey work

    Eliminating the donkey work

    Mulesoft founder and CTO Ross Mason worries about how companies are going to manage the data generated by the Internet of Things.

    “I don’t think we’re ready for the amount of data that these devices are designed to build up,” Ross observes in the latest Decoding the New Economy video.

    Ross’ aim in founding Mulesoft was to eliminate the donkey work in connecting IT systems and he sees the data moving between enterprise applications being a challenge for organisations

    “We have energy companies that have connected their smart grid systems to their back end systems and most of them delete almost all the data because of the cost of storing that much data without doing anything with it.”

    “Big data is still in the realm of we’re figuring out the questions to ask.” Ross states, in echoing the views expressed by Tableau Software founder Pat Hanrahan a few weeks ago.

    “There’s a little bit of hype around big data right now, but it’s a very real trend;” Hanrahan said. “Just look at the increase in the amount of data that’s been going up exponentially and that’s just the natural result of technology; we have more sensors, we collect more data, we have faster computer and bigger disks.”

    The interview with Ross covers his journey from setting up Mulesoft to the future of big data and software. It was recorded a few days before the company announced a major capital raising.

    Mulesoft’s elimination of software ‘donkey work’ is another example of how the IT industry is changing as much of the inefficiencies are being worked out of the way developers and programmers work.

    In many ways, Ross Mason’s story illustrates how the software industry itself is being disrupted as much as any other sector.

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