Author Archives: Matt Kapko

The IT world is going through an unprecedented transformation that impacts how enterprises operate and leverage opportunities within mobile, data and the cloud, according to Diane Greene, senior vice president of Google Cloud. Greene has been leading Google’s enterprise business since late 2015, focusing much of her attention on reorganizing Google’s approach to the enterprise market and the big customers it wants to win over.

“I’ve never seen the kind of growth that’s going on here,” she said this week during an appearance at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. Because of that, her biggest challenge is organizing and hiring for scale and she constantly has to declare just how serious Google is about becoming a force in the enterprise market.

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In less than a month since being sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump has struck an emotional chord with tech companies, generating an unparalleled unifying force of opposition. The Trump administration’s executive order banning all people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from the entering the United States has created a rift between political and business interests, and one that many technology leaders consider a threat to their very existence.

A group of 127 technology companies last week filed an official friend-of-the-court brief in the lawsuits opposing the administration’s executive order in Minnesota and Washington. Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Snap and Twitter are all on board, but there are some conspicuous absences. Enterprise leaders IBM and Oracle haven’t joined the effort and all of the major telecom and cable providers have held out thus far as well. Amazon was asked not to join the filing because it’s a witness in the original lawsuit, according to Mashable.

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MARINA DEL REY, Calif. — One of Hollywood’s youngest and smallest film studios is holding its own against the big conglomerates by taking a fresh approach to movie marketing, and that has increasingly put the company in close partnership with Facebook. STX Entertainment, the three-year-old studio behind “Bad Moms,” “The Boy” and “The Gift,” is working with Facebook to iterate and brainstorm marketing strategies for the dramatic and fast-changing landscape of film marketing, according to Amy Elkins, senior vice president of media and marketing innovation at the studio’s motion picture group.

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When Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver Antonio Brown broadcast his coach’s postgame locker room speech on Facebook Live last month it created a distraction and senseless controversy that followed the team the week leading to its loss to the New England Patriots. Brown apologized after he was admonished by his coach, but the damage caused by his negligent use of a livestreaming service was already done.

The episode was a well-publicized reminder that seemingly innocent activities on social media can pose real threats in the enterprise. Livestreaming is advancing as one of the core features of social media and analysts say IT professionals need to pay attention to the unique challenges it can impose on their organization.

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Apple and IBM’s program for iOS mobile app development in the enterprise is broadening its reach this year as more businesses pursue apps that can transform how their employees work, according to IBM. “We are engaged with more than 1,000 clients across the world,” says Mahmoud Naghshineh, IBM’s general manager in charge of the MobileFirst for iOS partnership with Apple.

IBM also plans to integrate Watson analytics and cognitive differentiation to its growing portfolio of iOS apps in 2017, according to Naghshineh. Once a new app is deployed and it becomes valuable for the business, the next step is to make it smarter, he says.

Hundreds of businesses have deployed apps to date and more are in development or at least in the sales cycle that leads to design and testing of new apps, according to Naghshineh. Changing the way people work, which was the original goal of Apple and IBM’s partnership, is also resulting in rapid digital transformation for many businesses, he says.

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Google today bolstered its G Suite of productivity apps with new controls and tools for IT professionals. G Suite administrators now have more access to control security key enforcement, data control with data loss prevention (DLP) for Google Drive and Gmail, and additional insights by connecting Gmail to BigQuery, Google’s enterprise data warehouse designed to enable SQL queries, according to Google.

All of the changes, which are live today, are designed to elevate G Suite for the enterprise, especially among companies that need more confidence in the controls they can maintain over corporate data, according to Google.

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Snapchat is a radically different app than it was five years ago when it burst on the social media scene. However, through all of its changes, the app continues to blend communication and entertainment unlike any of its competitors. The ephemeral — or short-lived — pictures and messages that Snapchat popularized has evolved into “stories” that can be shared in sequences or broadcast live.

Snapchat continues to lead much of the industry. Its most well-known features have been copied by the likes of Facebook, Instagram and others. If Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, is grappling with the same existential problems that dogged Twitter for so many years, it’s almost by design. Snapchat is comfortable with experimentation and willing to make big, abrupt changes to redefine what the app can deliver and signify to more than 150 million daily active users.

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Google this week is giving its long-forgotten voice and text communications service its first significant update in five years. Google Voice apps are gaining features and a cleaner design that match the look of Google’s other apps, according to the company.

Most of the new features are overdue and Google is simply catching up to similar services in the market. While you will likely be pleased with the refresh, the new Google Voice looks more like a reset than a leap forward.

Google Voice, which was released almost eight years ago, finally supports MMS on all platforms and most major carriers, according to Google. The new apps also support group messaging, in-notification replies, 3D Touch support for iPhone users and voicemail transcription in Spanish, the company says.

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Professionals looking to change jobs and pursue a better career path, might want to check out LinkedIn’s inaugural list of the “Most Promising Jobs of 2017” in the U.S. The professional social network analyzed its treasure trove of data to determine jobs with high median salaries, strong job openings with year-over-year growth, and jobs most likely to lead to career advancement.

[ Related: LinkedIn releases major website redesign ]

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