Technology Strategy & Implementation Insights
Boost business success via insights on emerging trends in digital transformation and IT strategy; practical frameworks you can apply; and guidance from the world’s experts in leadership, IaaS, investment prioritization, operational excellence, sustainable innovation, change management, enterprise agility, and applying emerging technologies.
Software Development: Can Technology Help Us Automate the Work?
Many technologies exist today that have the potential to change the manner in which we get work done. Currently, the software developer job is heavily labor-intensive. Yes, we use software tools to perform many of the repetitive tasks; however, for the most part, the programming job is performed by highly talented individuals who specify, design, code, and test complex pieces of code and make them work. We have attempted to automate such tasks, but we can best characterize current efforts as assistance (helping workers by providing guidance and information) rather than automation (replacing humans with machines). In this Executive Update, we identify 20 technologies that have the potential to alter this picture in both the near and long term.
Achieving Data Democratization
Years ago, I started down the track of data democratization upon reading some Cutter Consortium Executive Reports, where the authors generally posited that if you want to manage an asset better, you must manage the data around the asset better. That may be all you have to do. But since we have to manage our companies through data, we need lots of people to do it. Hence, we need data democratization. In this Advisor, we explore how organizations can achieve data democratization.
Cloud Computing As a Utility
As in the early days of the electric utility, all major cloud providers started off with a “vertically integrated” direct sales model (i.e., they also played the role of cloud supplier). However, several major cloud providers have started supporting sales through an indirect sales channel, leveraging specialist partners to reach out to the many different industries that could benefit from cloud services. They have allowed those channel partners to step into the billing chain, thus creating a more unique cloud supplier role, much like those electricity suppliers that stepped into the billing chain between electricity providers and electricity consumers.
AI & Machine Learning in the Enterprise, Part IX: AI Platform Preferences
As part of an ongoing series on artificial intelligence (AI) in the enterprise, in this Executive Update, we turn specifically to AI development platform preferences, including open source and commercial providers’ development tools and AI-as-a-service platforms.
Winning the LOB Challenge: Finite State Machines to the Rescue
My colleagues and I have visualized a line-of-business (LOB) application as a collection of finite state machines (FSMs) that model subjects and their interactions with each other. This immediately brings some much-needed structure to our application, while at the same time allowing it to be perfectly extensible. This structure will help us to automate the generation of LOB apps, as the problem now simplifies to specifying FSMs.
Top Intriguing Business Technology & Digital Transformation Strategies Articles for 2018
Here are the Business Technology & Digital Transformation Strategies articles that garnered the most feedback from Cutter Members and clients in 2018. Look for these lists from each of our four practice areas, and rediscover Cutter’s most intriguing articles of the year!
Twice the Product in Half the Time
With twice the product in half the time™ being a generic goal for industry, what exactly is going wrong in today’s industrial environment? What stops or delays improvements in product delivery, despite embracing practices from Lean and Six Sigma? Why does it take years to get a new product out of the manufacturing plant? This Executive Update explores the “why” of these questions and deep-dives into the solution.
Is a Hybrid Cloud Strategy for You?
Many organizations are now focusing on a hybrid cloud strategy: moving part of their IT capabilities to the cloud, while maintaining core elements in-house, hosted on-premises. The hybrid model enables organizations to optimally allocate their resources while keeping their current IT infrastructure operating at low risk. A hybrid cloud strategy not only prepares an organization for the future but also protects its investment today. In this Advisor, we describe hybrid cloud and look at its benefits, including security and compliance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.