Business

Business

Android L Keeps Business and Home Separate

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When Android L arrives later this year, it may put an end to the days of carrying separate devices for work and leisure. The mobile platform now boasts the ability to separate data on a single handset or tablet.

How It’s Been Done, So Far:

Historically, there’ve been five ways to access your business and personal accounts without having to carry two phones:

1. Virtual Machines

Created by software your employer installs on your personal phone. Mobile Device Management (MDM) software like Microsoft’s System Centre can control settings on your phone, making sure your security set-up is safe for work.

Virtual machine software like VMware’s MVP permits a phone to maintain a separate business environment with its own apps and settings, distinct from personal data. A phone within a phone.

2. Remote Desktops

Similar to a virtual machine, there are apps (e.g. LogMeIn Ignition on Android) that let a smartphone have access to a Mac or PC. You can see and control programs running on the faraway computer.

Business

Security and the Cloud

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There’s been a lot of talk in recent years surrounding security and the cloud and it was something that delayed initial traction in the market until reasonably recently. However, as more and more businesses have made the transition, it’s clear that faith in cloud services has grown.

Despite a recent Ponemon Institute study, which found that moving to the cloud could triple the cost of a data breach, there’s still plenty of evidence to suggest that the cloud is much safer than many business premises.

45% of Network Attacks Due to Malware

A recent study by NTT Group found that businesses are still not doing enough when it comes to securing the company network. In fact, it was found (somewhat worryingly) that many businesses don’t even have the most basic protection, such as antivirus software and vulnerability scanning, in place.

Business

Data is Meaningless Without Analysis

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There’s value in organisations being able to analyse social media information and compile profiles to better target their customers. But creating, documenting, and retrieving vast amounts of data is one thing. Understanding it is an entirely different matter.

Context is Key

Measuring ‘likes’ or searching for keywords and phrases is pretty straightforward – a “sentiment analysis”. You might be tempted to develop a marketing strategy directly derived from this.

But there’ll always be examples of impulse buys, or snap decisions in the heat of the moment. And data samples may include information that’s not so easy to quantify – like pictures or videos.

In fact, the majority of actions will be based on the context surrounding them. Brand A might cost less, but B offers greater satisfaction. The sports car looks great, but what about the kids? And so on.

If a data analysis tool can’t provide further context around the solutions it offers, it’s at best, an expensive waste of time.

Business

Prepare for your New Quantified Employees

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The “Quantified Self” movement has emerged with the rise of wearable devices like Fitbit, Jawbone Up and Nike Fuelband. These gadgets help people monitor their daily health: activities like steps taken, stairs climbed, sleep, and water consumption.

Some devices deliver health tips through a corresponding smartphone or desktop app. The idea being that the more we know about ourselves, the healthier we can be.

Not only are we monitoring our bodies, we’re slapping instruments on everything else. Homes are being monitored by tools like Nest.

Then, there’s social media. Facebook encourages us to post data about where we are, what we’re doing, and who we’re with. When you Tweet, you broadcast your location, what you’re reading or thinking, and often your photograph.

In the Workplace?

The movement has seen organisations begin using data and insights from personal tracking apps given to their employees (or which they’re encouraged to sign up for).

Business

10 Reasons Why Your Business Should Consider Chromebooks

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Modern businesses have a huge amount of choice when it comes to technology products these days. The power of the cloud means that less storage space on the device is needed now, which further increases choice. It’s possible now to work on wafer thin devices that need very little in terms of power, or of course you can choose to have a laptop or a device that’s powered almost entirely by the cloud.

What IS a Chromebook?

Chromebooks are lightweight laptop computers which run on Chrome OS, an operating system made by Google. Designed primarily to be used online, they’re best suited to professionals who already use services like Gmail and Google Docs.

The Chrome OS

Chrome OS is similar to Windows or Mac OS X, but sits on a Linux platform. It’s

Business

How the Cloud Brings You Better Workers

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The cloud has helped to bring businesses around the world closer together. Cloud storage has made documents that would otherwise have to be downloaded immediately available, and cloud computing has brought familiar software to offices that would otherwise have to go without. But perhaps the greatest impact of the cloud on businesses in the future is how it is changing the shape of our workforces.

Everyone’s Local

Whereas in the past businesses were restricted in their hiring by both their location, and their budget for relocating the talent they wanted, cloud services like storage and remote desktops mean that it’s now possible for employees to work from practically anywhere as long as it’s got a data connection and they have a device capable of accessing it.

Remote working like this used to be a burden for businesses, as it often served as a disruption to regular operations. However, now that it’s possible to unify all documents and software in the cloud, there’s no disruption

Business

Overview of Amazon Cloud

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As more and more businesses move towards doing their business on the web, it’s important that the infrastructure is in place to handle the challenges that kind of move presents. When you’re not dealing locally with one another, or even with physical objects, there’s a huge amount to take into consideration. How long does a file take to transfer? How is someone going to have access to the right software? Will there be enough processing power available to the user when they need it?

These are all problems that cloud companies are now racing to answer, and cloud infrastructure is set to be big business in the future. Very few companies understand this better than Amazon; whose cloud services are among the top services available today for businesses looking to take themselves to the next level.

Amazon Cloud listed by Gartner as a leader in the ‘infrastructure as a service’ (IaaS) section of their Magic Quadrant report for the third time in three years. They also listed Amazon Web Services (AWS) as having the best complete vision and ability to execute of all others in the magic quadrant. If you needed more evidence of Amazon cloud’s prowess, you need only consider that the Amazon website itself, which received 164 million unique visitors in the USA alone, runs on AWS.

Business

2014 Facts about the Cloud

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Cloud computing is something that’s here to stay. The legacy of the cloud has been debated for some time but now businesses are embracing this new technology at a faster rate. The cloud allows a business to free up its employees with bring your own device policies and remove them from tethered PC options.

There are plenty of reasons to jump on board the cloud bandwagon but there are likely still some areas of cloud computing (and its benefits) that remain unclear to some businesses. According to a recent study, one of the most important reasons to shift to cloud computing is to connect employees through a multitude of computing devices – ones that they already use.

The cloud is simply about removing traditional restrictions on data and making it readily accessible on multiple devices with no decrease in functionality. This better-connected world is becoming more and more commonplace. So, let’s consider some of the other benefits of cloud computing and some that you may not have thought of before.

Here are some cloud predictions for 2014.

Business

5 Really Useful Productivity Apps on Android

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We recently wrote a blog post about the security problems on the Android OS. Many consider Android to have quite an issue with malicious coding and malware but that’s really not the case. So, in the spirit of becoming reacquainted with the mobile OS here are 5 apps to help increase your productivity.

Increasingly, smart phones are used as portable computers with nearly all of the functionality of a laptop or even a tethered PC. The proliferation of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies ensures that more and more employees are joining the burgeoning ranks of the mobile, transient workforce.

With Android being the most used mobile platform we thought we’d help you out and save you some time. So, without further ado, here are our choices of the top five productivity applications available on the Android OS.

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