Big Data Adoption Trends in India

Big Data is fast becoming mainstream in Indian businesses. The data growth has led companies to look at technologies that help them efficiently and affordably manage their data.


EMC, the storage giant, has released the findings of a survey that asked IT decision makers in India for their perspective on the challenges and opportunities that Big Data and IT transformation - and related skills - can present to their companies. According to the company, the India results will be added among the thirty-six country-level survey results being collected through EMC Forum events taking place around the world between June and November 2013. Visit EMC Forum for a closer look at the India survey results and those of other countries as they become available.

Digital Business Incompetence to Cause 25% of Businesses to Lose Competitive Ranking by 2017

Digital business incompetence is expected to cause a quarter of businesses to lose competitive ranking by 2017, according to Gartner.. Gartner has conducted a survey of 151 participants who were intimately involved in making digital business strategy decisions or in locating, developing and acquiring talent for those digital business strategy endeavors. Ninety percent of respondents thought that competition for talent will make or break digital business success.

"The next decade will move beyond the notion of using technology to automate businesses and toward positioning technology as revenue builder, market maker and customer finder," said Diane Morello, managing vice president at Gartner. "When companies have those targets in mind, digital business becomes real. The impact of digital business will be undeniable: It will introduce new business models, cause industries to be 'digitally remastered' and change the way that businesses put great minds to work.

"Few things have jumped into the consciousness of business executives as quickly as digital business," continued Ms. Morello. "In our recent Talent on the Digital Frontier survey, roughly one in two participants say that their digital business strategy either is their business strategy or is at least an integrated part of that business strategy."

Executives Look the Other Way on Data Security question in the Cloud, Survey

Data security is a question in the cloud. Business executives still are clueless on the data security question in the cloud. They would rather show worry about the security of cloud-based applications, they are not deterred from using them to store their personal and professional data, and they are not losing sleep over their data and information, according to a recent survey from SafeNet Labs, the creator of SafeMonk.

When SafeNet Labs, a technology incubator initiative of SafeNet, Inc., asked hundreds of business professionals worldwide if they were worried about the security of the cloud-based applications or data stored in the cloud, 52 percent checked “Yes”; however, sixty-four percent of respondents said they still frequently use cloud-based apps to store their personal and professional data. Ironically, when asked what keeps them up at night regarding their data and information, more than half answered, “Nothing keeps me up; I sleep like a baby.”

Further examination of the survey data shows that the higher a person is on the corporate ladder the more they use file-sharing services like Dropbox, despite company policies against it (33 percent of C-level titles said “yes” versus 18 percent of associates). The majority of respondents, 59 percent, said they “wouldn’t be surprised” if they found out that their boss or executives were using file-sharing apps like Dropbox, despite a policy against doing so. In general, C-level executives (39 percent checked “Yes”) are less concerned about security in the cloud than associates (54 percent checked “Yes”).

Malware is Everywhere

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every device on earth--mobile or desktop—has a seer possibility of being infected by some sort of malware at one point of time in one form or the other. However, the propensity of a malware attack is a subject of dispute. Served in myriad, disguised forms, this keeps IT managers in every organization always on their heels the year round. Given the threat landscape becoming complex, it is important for organizations and individuals to understand the need to deal with malware threats in time. But it is seen that most organizations take these threats lightly. They are potential danger to a company's data and an individual's privacy.

Malware travels through a number of means such as malicious URLs, SMS phishing (also known as smishing), application downloads, file transfers, pen drives, advertisements, etc. Since the threat landscape has shifted to mobile because of increased usages of mobile internet through smart devices, malware threats on mobile platforms have seen a sudden spike.