Facebook just reached its billionth customer, and the resounding focus for the next billion is mobile, says CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It’s no surprise that more people every day are communicating and conducting business on smartphones and tablets.

Already, more mobile phones are being shipped around the world than computers. In fact, based on sheer numbers alone, almost everyone in the world has a mobile phone. There were one billion active subscribers in 2000, and almost six billion today. With a  world population of just over seven billion, the business opportunity for mobile is big. More...

It’s impossible not to notice the changing role of enterprise IT. While there continues to be a need for network management and expertise, IT is being called both to do more and to do things differently. How we live and work has fundamentally changed; for IT, these changes amount to a 180-degree turn in how they support and lead their organizations.

First, there is no perimeter to protect anymore. It wasn’t long ago that security was all about protecting the perimeter, limiting Internet access, and restricting mobile devices to an exclusive few. The thinking was that if IT could just guard the network perimeter and limit access, the company and its intellectual assets would be safe. More...

In a recent webinar, Gartner identified what it considers the most hyped emerging technologies for the coming year. Innovative and trendy for sure, this annual disclosure can give pause to even the most cutting edge IT groups. And that’s the point. More...

Gartner calls it the Nexus of Forces – the synergy of four platforms or movements that are happening all at once and depend on one another – Mobile, Social Media, Cloud, and Information. These forces are the future and the focus on which IT would be wise to devote resources and strategic thought.More...

CIO.com announced its annual 2012 winners  – 100 companies – all of whom are leveraging IT for big wins within their industry. Interestingly, these winners each have in common how they are leveraging technology to improve the customer experience, which is ultimately driving revenue and lowering costs. Here’s a sample: More...

Looking at the as-a-service smorgasbord, can you guess which one tops the list in terms of growth? Number one is Business Intelligence (and Analytics) as-a-Service (BIaaS).

BIaaS can trace its roots to "Big Data." Companies are striving to make sense of the ever-growing amounts of data – be it from sources such as company databases, CRM tools, and social media. Already a $12 billion market, says Gartner, business intelligence (BI) and analytics is big business – whether premises-based or in the cloud. More...

XaaS = Anything as-a-Service (some refer to it as "everything-as-a-Service"). The term is not new; it’s just that it is tangible today. Like a movie trailer that is released far ahead of the movie, XaaS has been talked about for years. I even found reference to XaaS from 2008, long before much of anything was in the cloud. The reality is that just about anything today can be done in the cloud. Just take a look, says Networkworld: More...

The term "shadow IT" refers to the adoption and use of technology without the formal approval or knowledge of the central IT organization. This is becoming ubiquitous throughout organizations. Today, information technology is pervasive, easy to use, simple to access, and inexpensive. For many business units, it is simply faster to purchase and implement solutions directly themselves. More...

The rapidly-growing mobile payments industry is expected to more than double in just two years from $171.5 billion to $617 billion in transactions by 2016, according to Gartner. Simply, mobile payments is an “umbrella term that refers to a wide variety of approaches such as: a smartphone equipped with a special chip; a credit card number stored in a phone app; or a key-fob size device that turns a phone or tablet into a credit card processor,” says USA Today. Though still in the early adopter phase, startups, carriers, and big businesses are investing heavily in this innovative space. More...

By now, most enterprises are dealing with implementing an evolving mobile strategy. Some are further than others in terms of penetration among employees. Much insight can be gleamed from these real-life  enterprise experiences. Here’s a look at some of the lessons: More...