Join us in exploring the world of modern development, evolving technologies, and the art of future-proof software
Summary: Despite its growth in the enterprise, cloud computing is still surrounded with misconceptions. These misconceptions can keep companies from the cloud, lead the wrong companies to the cloud, or trap businesses with a bad cloud vendor. Learn how to identify these misconceptions, and make more informed cloud decisions.
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Summary: Poised for rapid growth, Business Intelligence is also on the verge of some major changes. Driven in part by recent trends and development advances, the BI of the near future will shift dramatically from traditional BI solutions of the past. In this article, you’ll learn more about why BI is changing and where it’s heading.
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Summary: Typical dashboards are inflexible–displaying a pre-determined set of metrics in a pre-set layout. Learn how user-defined dashboards fix this problem, and could save your IT department hours of time.
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In an article last week, we explored the growing IT “Skills Gap” problem. Employers say they’re having more and more trouble finding qualified workers with modern skills.
Why?
While the reasons vary, one big complaint surrounding the issue is the idea that students aren’t learning the appropriate skills in college. They come out of school completely unprepared for the skills demanded by the business world.
While that might be the case, I believe it’s a two-part problem. On one hand, some schools teach outdated technical skills. But, on the other hand, many of the skills required in business only come with experience.
Take web application development for example. A developer might learn technical skill in college, yet be completely unprepared for the real world. He/she might breeze through school, yet struggle to adapt to development in business. Why?
Web application development in the business world is far more than technical skill. It’s about solving problems. It’s about creating solutions that adapt. It’s about communication. I’d say that the lessons a developer learns outside of school are arguably more important than the technical skills learned in school.
What lessons are those? We posed that question to some experienced developers, who delivered some excellent advice. I’ve outlined their input below, along with some of my own thoughts under each point. Sound good? Okay, here are 9 web development lessons you won’t learn in school, yet are critical to your success:
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9 critical lessons web developers won’t learn in schoolRead More »
Does your company rely heavily on spreadsheets? Would you like to learn how to better secure your spreadsheet data and make it 100x more useful to your business?
How? It’s simple. Move it to a database. Before I show you how, let me explain why this is so important. Moving your spreadsheet data to a database helps in a few specific ways:
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How to make your spreadsheet data 100x more usefulRead More »
Today, let’s explain another important term in the world of web application development: event-triggered messaging. What is it, why is it important, and how does it help your company? Let me explain.
Event-triggered messaging is a web application feature that involves automated email or sms messages sent on a pre-determined schedule, or based on application events. Messages can be triggered by any event, from customer interactions to changes in data and everything in between.
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A growing trend, “Shadow IT” is a term used to describe IT systems and solutions built and/or used inside organizations without the approval of the IT department. This could include anything from employees emailing spreadsheets back and forth to entire departments licensing third-party, cloud solutions behind IT’s back.
While the usage varies, one thing is certain: Shadow IT is growing.
Why does this happen? Why are employees bypassing the IT department with greater frequency? While this article explains a few reasons why Shadow IT happens, it usually boils down to a simple problem: The demand for IT solutions outweighs the supply. When that happens, employees seek out their own solutions.
Now, why is this a problem? Since Shadow IT usually happens on the sneak, IT departments don’t know where (or how much) it’s happening. This means they can’t monitor the spread of company data, and therefore–cannot secure any data involved in Shadow IT. What risks does this create? Steven Lowe, Founder/CEO of Innovator, LLC, sums it up nicely below:
“There are two risks from shadow IT:
1. Critical company information floating around outside of managed channels risks data inaccuracy, loss, and leaks. ‘Home-grown’ data systems may produce data that is inaccurate, lacking integration with IT reference data sources. Sometimes this may not matter, but sometimes it might. Mis-sending an email with the company payroll data attached as an unprotected spreadsheet may be a big deal, and it may not. It all depends on the data and the organization.2. Critical company information being shared only within a closed group risks missed opportunities and omissions. Data (and software) that IT doesn’t know about cannot be used to enhance organizational knowledge and processes. If IT doesn’t know the data exists, they can’t take advantage of it, and the company may miss strategic opportunities.”
All that being said, here’s the big question: How can businesses know whether or not they even have a Shadow IT problem, considering it’s practiced on the sneak? What signs and signals should IT leaders watch for to identify business users and departments practicing Shadow IT? While I’m sure there are more, I’ve rounded up 5 of the biggest signs that Shadow IT is alive and well in your company.
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