The next big story in IT will be edge computing. Driven by better networking environments (5G effectively enabling zero latency, for example), and ongoing investment into AI and IoT deployments, edge computing will become the foundation for enterprise creativity and innovation.

Gartner predicts that by 2025, 75 per cent of all data will be created at the edge, where traditionally, only 10 per cent of data is created outside of the traditional data centre. That is a massive shift in the flow of data through the organisation for CIOs to contend with.

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Consuming technology via service models is nothing new. After all, Software-as-a-Service has been a valid business model since the 1960s. Now, however, with the disruption of the past 18 months driving businesses towards a decentralised IT environment, and the essential qualities of cloud to modern business transformation, there is a rapid acceleration in the adoption of all forms of as-a-service consumption. IDC expects that private cloud spending will continue to grow through the year as CIOs look to further modernise their environments and enable new ways of working.

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As the fourth industrial revolution gathers pace, spurred on by technological platforms such as 5G, organisations need to accelerate their use of – and innovation with – IT at an unprecedented rate.

The problem in doing that is that Australia faces an ongoing and deepening skills shortage. From a report on the ACS: “Last week, the National Skills Commission (NSC) published its first Skills Priority Occupation List, measuring the current and projected future demand for 800 jobs listed under the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO).

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“Digital transformation is not about technology”. This headline, published in the Harvard Business Review [HBR] in 2019, led an article that laid out a reality for technology that has accelerated in the years since. “What the members envision to be the future of the organisation drove the technology, not the other way around,” the author of the article wrote.

Transformation became an imperative simply to continue operations through social distancing and lockdowns as a result of the events of last year. As McKinsey noted, CIOs accelerated their transformation two, three or even as much as 10 years in the span of just one. What CIOs realised, quickly, is that the HBR author was right – successful transformation was not about carefully architecting a complete revision of the data centre. It wasn’t even about ownership of the technology. It was the strategy behind those investments – and finding the right people and partners to implement them – that was key.

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As CIOs drive on with transformation projects, they are rapidly coming up against another major problem: complexity. With more vendor relationships to manage and cloud services to juggle than ever, finding ways to simplify environments is rapidly becoming a key strategic priority.

The average enterprise is now managing more than 10 vendor relationships for each of its initiatives. Typically, an organisation will be leveraging at least five different cloud platforms. These solutions and services are adopted for the value they’re expected to bring into the organisation, but as the vendor pool grows, so do the risks, including:

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On the road to AR, Facebook snagged some attention this week with the arrival of its first smart glasses. As Apple inches toward the introduction of its own augmented spectacles, are there lessons here about what these things do and how they should work?

What Facebook's glasses do

First, let’s take a glance at Facebook’s smart glasses. They offer a pair of cameras to take photos and videos, boast a microphone and a speaker, and are controlled using a voice assistant.

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You’ve probably had this experience: You go online to research a purchase—like a riding lawnmower—and click around some manufacturer and retail sites. Within an hour, ads for riding lawnmowers start turning up on every website and mobile app you use. The blitz continues for days.

John Bruno can relate. The vice president of commerce strategy at e-commerce technology firm PROS remembers that when he went shopping for an engagement ring a few years ago, “I had to hide every device I own,” so a wayward ad wouldn’t tip off his wife-to-be.

This little bit of creepiness is brought to you by cookies, those little unassuming files buried so deep in the guts of our computers that most people wouldn’t even know where to find them. Web servers know where to look, though, and the information contained within them is what enables advertisers to follow you around like a stalker.

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Disclosure:  Most of the vendors mentioned are clients of the author.

This week’s Lenovo Tech World 2021 offered up one of the more exciting product announcements of late: the Lenovo ThinkReality A3 Smart Glasses. Though they had been previewed earlier this year at CES, this was their more formal coming-out party. 

The Lenovo smart glasses are available in parts of North America, Europe, and Asia, according to the company, with the ThinkReality A3 PC Edition priced at $1,499. The Industrial Edition, which is sold to enterprises, is available in a variety of bundles that include the A3 glasses. Pricing for the Industrial Edition is available here.

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Google's Chrome OS platform sure has come a long way.

From the early days, when Chrome OS was little more than an experimental "browser in a box," to today — with the platform powering first-class hardware and supporting a diverse range of productivity applications — Google's once-crazy-seeming project has turned into one of the world's most intriguing and rapidly expanding technological forces.

I've been covering Chrome OS closely since the start. I lived with the first Chromebook prototype, the Cr-48, and have used Chromebooks as part of my own personal computing setup in varying capacities ever since. I write about the field not only as someone who's studied it professionally from day 1 but also as someone who has used it personally that entire time, up through today.

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Apple's next event, titled "California Streaming," will occur on Tuesday, September 14 at 10 a.m. PT. It's expected that Apple will announce the iPhone 13, Apple Watch Series 7 and new set of AirPods. Potential new iPhone features include the ability to photograph stars at night, an always-on display and portrait mode videos. Macworld executive editor Michael Simon and Computerworld executive editor Ken Mingis join Juliet to discuss what rumored devices, software and features will be announced at the event. If you have any questions about Apple's September event, let us know in the comments. We'll respond during the live broadcast.

We’ve hit that time of year when enterprise IT prepares to support teams as they upgrade all their Apple operating systems across smartphones, tablets, and Macs.

The need for a stress-free upgrade process is accompanied by refreshed demand for hardware upgrades, as new models of iPhones, iPads, the Apple Watch, and Macs appear. Are your employees prepared for the season? Is IT?

When do the new operating systems ship?

Apple will introduce its new iPhone 13 at a special event on Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET). The new devices will likely be available for pre-order three days later, on Sept. 17, with the hardware expected to ship and arrive in retail stores on Sept. 24.

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Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscribers always have the latest version of Microsoft Office — currently Office 2019. They also get more frequent software updates than those who have purchased Office 2019 without a subscription, which means subscribers have access to the latest features, security patches and bug fixes. But it can be hard to keep track of the changes in each update and know when they’re available. We’re doing this for you, so you don’t have to.

Following are summaries of the updates to Office 365/Microsoft 365 for Windows, with the latest releases shown first. We’ll add info about new updates as they’re rolled out.

Note: This story covers updates released to regular Office 365/Microsoft 365 for Windows subscribers. If you’re a member of Microsoft’s Office Insider preview program or want to get a sneak peek at upcoming features, see the company’s “Release notes for Office for Windows Desktop (Beta builds)” page.

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With new iPhones, AirPods and iPads imminent, Apple’s recent decision to make changes to the App Store and to permit developers of reader apps to sidestep the App store payments system may not be altruism. It permits Apple to compete.

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Smartsheet is a flexible spreadsheet-centric work management tool designed to track team projects. Launched in 2006, it has 9 million users (almost 1 million of them paid users) and is deployed by nearly 100,000 companies, ranging from Google and Netflix to the US General Services Administration.

Its success stems from its ability to appeal to a wide range of business users, specifically project managers, according to Chris Marsh, research director at 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence. For Bellevue, Wash.-based Smartsheet, this means combining a familiar spreadsheet format with richer work management and collaboration capabilities.

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The date has been announced: Microsoft will start offering Windows 11 on Oct. 5 to computers that fully meet its hardware requirements. But should you update?

With Windows 11, the decision isn’t so clear.

It might seem quaint, but once upon a time, customers used to line up overnight at the local tech store to get a copy of the latest and greatest Microsoft release. Now that we can update ourselves (assuming you have the right hardware), my recommendation is to hold off. It's best to ensure that any major bugs have been fixed before installing Windows 11 and to make sure your vendors will support it.

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Amid the coronavirus, 2020 was unpredictable in more ways than anyone would have expected. But one thing that stayed fairly constant was the steady flow of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) across the tech sector.

Global tech M&A deals last year totalled $634 billion, a 91.8% year-over-year increase, according to GlobalData. Among a late flurry of big deals was the $35 billion acquisition of Xilinx by Advanced Micro Devices and Salesforce's $27.7 billion acquisition of Slack.

As for whether 2021 will maintain last year’s pace, if the first part of the year is anything to go by, there will be no slowing of big deals across the industry, with silicon innovations and collaboration software already proving to be hot areas.

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Remote workers using Macs on high-cost capped data plans or in the field using a smartphone to get online may need to reduce the data they use. Here are some ideas to help you achieve that.  

Disable automatic macOS updates

For the purposes of this piece, I’ll assume you’ve already updated your Mac to the latest version of macOS. That’s the right thing to do, but it can devour your remaining data, which is why your should disable automatic macOS updates. Your Mac will automatically download and install macOS updates. That’s good most of the time, but as you come to the end of your monthly data allowance or when using a Mac to work from the middle of nowhere, it’s a potential no-no. This is how to disable automatic downloads on your Mac:

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Last week, when I wrote about the “Great Resignation,” I knew things were already bad. I mean, Gallup analysts reported almost half of America’s workers were looking for new jobs. I thought most of them were in lower-end jobs. I was wrong.

According to another recent worker survey, this one by Dice, the technology job site, almost half, 48%, of employees said they are likely to find a new job…in 2021. In other words, if you want to keep your top techies, you have little time.

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Hear ye, hear ye, my Chromebook-carrying comrades: Have I ever got the tasty new trick for you — er, for ye.

It's a super-handy shortcut you can add into your Chrome OS computer to fill a curious void and make your system significantly easier to use. Intriguing, wouldn't ye say?

Here's the thing: For all the progress Google's made with Chrome OS over the years — and to be sure, there's been plenty! — some extraordinarily simple-seeming feats have remained oddly unaddressed. We're just now getting a (still-buried) way to restore all of your apps and windows and avoid having that blasted blank browser window come up every time you restart your forkin' Chromebook, for example, roughly a decade into the platform's life.

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The rise of remote work is arguably the biggest change in how we work since the introduction of the networked PC. Yet so many unknowns remain.

When will pandemic-mandated remote work end? We don’t know.

What percentage of those now working from home will return to office work? We don’t know.

Is remote work, on balance, good for business? Or bad? Nobody agrees.

But we have learned a great many things about not only remote work, but office work, too — and the whole way business has been conducted in the past few decades. Because of what we’ve learned, business will function far better in the future.

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Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana was one of the major additions to Windows 10 when it first came out. But it was launched back in December 2015, and it’s changed quite a bit since then. Over the years, it’s had new features added, and then others taken away. Depending on which version of Windows you’re using, it may be integrated directly into the Windows Search box, or run as an entirely separate app.

No matter which version you use, though, it’s a very useful tool and can do a lot for you, including alerting you to upcoming meetings; searching your PC and the web; telling you about the weather, news, and sports; and a lot more. To help you get the most out of Cortana, I’ve put together some of my favorite tips for using it — including using Cortana to manage your Google Calendar and to send you reminders.

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Australia IT spending to surpass $100 billion

Australia spending on IT is expected to close at about $100 billion in 2021. Research firm IDC expects total ICT spend for Australia to be $98 billion in 2021, while Gartner projects $103 billion.

In 2022, IT spending will continue but at a slower pace, with Gartner expecting a 5.9% growth, down from the 6.4% of 2021. Gartner expects total spending for 2022 to reach $109 billion while IDC predicts $100 billion.

According to IDC, telecommunication services, hardware, and IT services are the ICT areas that will generate greater revenue, but the areas expected to experience higher growth are software, IT services, and business services.

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In a surprise Friday announcement, Apple said it will take more time to improve its controversial child safety tools before it introduces them.

More feedback sought

The company says it plans to get more feedback and improve the system, which had three key components: iCloud photos scanning for CSAM material, on-device message scanning to protect kids, and search suggestions designed to protect children.

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Disclosure: The vendors mentioned are clients of the author.

Conversational AI is, at heart, a new interface in computing where the computer learns how to best work with a human rather than the reverse. While primarily focused for now on tele-sales, it has several other potential uses, including personal tutors or virtual bosses. Being a digital boss myself, this last may be particularly critical during the pandemic because those working from home can get distracted by things  that might not have been intrusive when in the office.

The thing that will make Conversational AI different from other AI implementations is understanding context. Were it tied to your browser and productivity suite, it would know if you’re working or have gotten sidetracked by another social media debate. (In the latter case, it should eventually know how to get you back to work — much like a good supervisor or boss might have done in the office. 

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With more than 20,000 pages of content and a global network of freelancers, Small Business Trends has some complex workflow challenges.

When it went looking for solutions to manage the creation and publishing of content, it found that commercial packages “could have cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars annually,” according to Executive Editor Shawn Hessinger. So the editorial team built its own application using Zoho Creator, which is one of a rapidly growing number of “low-code/no-code” development tools that enable people without a background in programming to create software that automates work processes.

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For all the ways travel is different these days, one thing hasn’t changed: Moving from one place to another can be a massive hassle. There’s plenty of room for inconvenience and error, and a journey rarely goes according to plan.

But while there’s not much you can do about the late departures, the surly gate attendants, or the smelly fella somehow always seated right next to you (a factor where your mask may come in extra handy, incidentally), there are some tech-centric steps you can take to make your next business trip a little less unpleasant.

Android's travel app selection has really taken off over the past few years, and the Google Play Store now boasts an impressive array of genuinely useful titles for the traveling professional. After putting numerous standout candidates to the test, these are the apps I'd recommend stowing on your smartphone and keeping at arm's reach whenever your work next has you hitting the road or flying the (allegedly) friendly skies.

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Microsoft announced the upcoming release of Windows 11 in late June and is now releasing preview builds to some members of its Windows Insider program. The new operating system is scheduled to begin rolling out on October 5.

The Windows Insider program is divided into three channels:

• The Dev Channel is where new features are introduced for initial testing, regardless of which Windows release they’ll eventually end up in. This channel is best for technical users and developers, and builds in it may be unstable and buggy.
• In the Beta Channel, you’ll get more polished features that will be deployed in the next major Windows release. This channel is best for early adopters, and Microsoft says your feedback in this channel will have the most impact.
• The Release Preview Channel typically doesn’t see action until shortly before a new feature update is rolled out. It’s meant for final testing of an upcoming release and is best for those who want the most stable builds.

The Beta Channel is currently receiving previews for the initial Windows 11 release, while the Dev Channel is testing potential features for Windows 11 updates beyond the initial October 5 release. The Release Preview Channel is not receiving Windows 11 updates; it is instead receiving builds for the next Windows 10 feature update.

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Microsoft never sleeps. In addition to its steady releases of major and minor updates to the current version of Windows 10, the company frequently rolls out public preview builds to members of its Windows Insider Program, allowing them to test out — and even help shape — upcoming features.

Microsoft numbers Windows 10 releases using a YYH1/YYH2 format, with the YY standing for the last two numbers of the year and H1 or H2 referring to the first or second half of the year. So the most recent version of Windows is officially referred to as Windows 10 version 21H1, or the May 2021 Update. The next feature update, due in the fall of 2021, will be version 21H2.

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