Big data is still young, but as top technology companies experiment and work with it, it is possible to glimpse into its future. The endgame of all this data aggregating and analyzing, of course, is insight — succinct answers to business or commercial questions. The more insights we generate, catalog and play off of each ...

The world of investment management is no stranger to predictive gimmicks. There is always some enterprising broker or analyst telling investors he or she has uncovered the way to predict tomorrow’s stock spikes tonight. It’s usually hot air — there are too many variables for a human’s mind to calculate. But what about a machine’s ...

The use of container technology to fold one area of IT into another, and into another yet, is a game-changing process for tech professionals and vendors alike. The main benefits of consolidating technology through containers and application program interfaces include the democratization of development — making development easier for those without specialized skills — and the shortened timeline for ...

Technology applications can stand or fall on the facility of the user interface. Some household names like Google rose to the top of the heap largely because they were just one or two clicks easier to use than competitors. Video and virtual reality games must focus on user interaction even more obsessively. Increasingly, creators strive ...

Talking to industry analysts and technology workers, the question of industry-specific IT comes up a lot — industry cloud or industry analytics, for instance. Health insurance companies desire plug-and-play technology built for their models, their problems, their goals — not for the fashion or restaurant industries. Right now, few companies can deliver this type of ...

Technology is usually considered a hyper-specialized field in education. It is usually considered unnecessary to inject advanced technological study anywhere it has not been certified as indispensable. But as the “high” in high tech inches even higher by the day, some say we need greater democratization of tech education to produce citizens and employees with ...

When folks in Silicon Valley talk about how technology can change the world, it is not usually assumed that they are talking about affecting social or political change. But why not? The ways in which technology can disrupt systems don’t have to end with things like ride sharing and room rentals. Some now say that ...

The internet has put almost limitless stores of information literally at people’s fingertips. Online encyclopedias, free college-level courses, massive open online courses and the like are making it possible to gain usable knowledge and skills without leaving home. With this said, why do such poor levels of education persist in some developing nations? Some say ...

There are seemingly so many lofty promises about what big data will accomplish for businesses; out of the bunch, the one that most tantalizes companies is the ability to get within a hair’s breadth of their customers through copious data collection and creative analytics. Some consumers hearing these reports are beginning to say, “Funny, I don’t ...

What draws 16,000 guests from 83 countries to Houston, Texas, for Grace Hopper’s Celebration of Women in Computing? Surely, being part of a premier event for women in technology is part of the attraction. But there are other, more universal reasons; this year’s event renders a cardiogram of tech innovation’s beating pulse across many industries. ...