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Study puts cryptocurrencies market at triple the size of earlier … – New Atlas

Bitcoin is still leading the cryptocurrency world, but isless dominant than it was a few years ago (Credit: mdorottya/Depositphotos)

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin may seem to be the fad that keeps coming back every year or so, but a new study finds they may be much bigger than previously thought. Even before the price of Bitcoin hit new record highs in recent weeks, a landmark study out of the University of Cambridge found that cryptocurrencies are actively used by three times as many people compared to other estimates.

The Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study released this month is based on data collected between September 2016 and January 2017. It puts the estimated number of unique active cryptocurrency wallet users at between 2.9 million and 5.8 million.

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The nature of cryptocurrency can make it difficult to perform any sort of reliable census of users. A 2015 report from Juniper Research put the total user base at 1.3 million, but the new Cambridge report claims to provide some of the first hard data on the size of the industry.

The study is based on data gathered from over 100 cryptocurrency companies in 38 countries, providing a snapshot of an estimated 75 percent of all cryptocurrency activity.

"Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been seen by some as merely a passing fad or insignificant, but that view is increasingly at odds with the data we are observing," says co-author Dr. Garrick Hileman at Cambridge Judge Business School.

Other notable findings include the growth of new cryptocurrency Ether that is largely responsible for a dip in Bitcoin's dominance, which is down to 72 percent of the total cryptocurrency market from 86 percent just two years ago. It also finds that China and the United States dominate when it comes to the origin of much of the currency that is "mined" via a processor-intensive number-crunching process.

"Currently, the combined market value of all cryptocurrencies is nearly $40 billion, which represents a level of value creation on the order of Silicon Valley success stories like Airbnb," Dr. Hileman says in a foreword to the study.

Despite all that value, cryptocurrencies aren't making much of a dent when it comes to creating jobs. The study finds just a few thousand people are employed full-time in the industry.

Source: University of Cambridge [1], [2]

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Cryptocurrencies Help Stabilize Economies – Edgy Labs (blog)

Cryptocurrency has been a controversial solution to the economic problems several developed and developing countries are facing. Here we discuss both the risks and opportunities blockchain technologies bring. The Bitcoin Argument

Even the mere mention of Bitcoin evokes mixed response[s] among seasoned economists according to NewsBTS. There are those who call Bitcoin revolutionary, while others discredit its potential, calling it a giant pyramid scheme.

Watch Forbes Video: Getting Rid Of Pocket Money

However, in places like Venezuela where people are living off a government-issued stipend that equates to about $6 per month Bitcoin has proved to be much more reliable than national banks for handling day to day transactions.

According to Crypto Coin News, the Venezuelan government suddenly, unilaterally, [and] without any apparent due process declared 100 Venezuelan Bolivar notes (worth around two cents in October of last year) to be completely worthless in December 2016.

This problem was almost certainly compounded by the three highly variable exchange rates Venezuelans must choose from (the elite market, the common market, and the widely used black market).

The end result? Even the highest denominations of the bolivar are now so worthless citizens of Venezuela have taken to weighing (rather than counting) their bills.

But Venezuela isnt the only nation facing an imminent economic crisis.

According to Frisco dAnconia, a West African native and writer for Crypto Coin News, Zimbabwes inflation rate was estimated at an unimaginable 79.6 billion percent by as early as 2008.

This was the era where Zimbabwe bank notes varied from 10 to 100 Billion Zimbabwean dollars, dAnconia reflects.

By 2009, economic instability forced Zimbabwe to adopt the U.S. Dollar. However, without ready access to U.S.dollars, the Zimbabwean government created a strict daily withdrawal limit of just $50 per day.

Last year, the introduction of bond notes helped resolve hyperinflation somewhat but did nothing to fix the limited availability of currency. According to dAnconia, daily withdrawal limits are still in place, and (depending on the bank) those limits could either fall even lower (to $30 a day) or banks could close their ATMs altogether (now a common practice).

Remember, these arent the only examples of hyperinflation throughout history.

If you remember seeing wheelbarrows filled with cash from the Weimar Republic following World War I, you should be able to recognize just how quickly an economic problem like this can turn into a social, global, and political disaster.

Bitcoin isnt the only cryptocurrency out there; As of today, there are over 824 unique cryptocurrencies participating in the e-commerce market.

In fact, the total market cap for cryptocurrency stands at: $48,567,465,937USD

According to Forbes, many Venezuelans are turning to Bitcoin as an alternative. Some of the benefits of cryptocurrency they describe include:

That is not to say that Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) currently possess optimal economic scaffolding.

As Forbes notes, cryptocurrency transaction fees can vary widely and (in the case of Bitcoin) are far too high to benefit developing nations. Platforms like BitSquare are free and decentralized, and there are not obvious transaction fees. However, banking fees and currency conversions will still eventually cost the buyer.

On the other hand, for some developed nations, Bitcoin is viewed as too volatile.

However, BTC News reports that cryptocurrency has already proven its capabilities in the African continent by making financial services accessible to the unbanked and underbanked.

A number of cryptocurrency critics, including economists and government officials, are weary of a hypothetical flaw in blockchain technology (the process that dictates cryptocurrency transactions) called a 51% Attack. There is also a worry that quantum computers will present a security danger to cryptocurrency systems, but this is also still a hypothetical.

According to Investopedia, this attack leaves market participants open to:

miners controlling more than 50% of the networks mining hashrate, or computing power. The attackers would be able to prevent new transactions from gaining confirmations, allowing them to halt payments between some or all users. They would also be able to reverse transactions that were completed while they were in control of the network, meaning they could double-spend coins.

Even though this attack is still theoreticalother similar hacks have been executed using Bitcoin in the past. As Joo Ian Wong, technology reporter for Quartz, remarks:

The history of bitcoin exchanges is Darwinian, marked by abrupt failures triggered by security breaches. If you run a big bitcoin exchange, its usually a question of when, not if, your defenses will be breached.

However, many cryptocurrencies have created potential workarounds to safeguard against excessive mining.

In fact, Coin Market Cap currently shows 380 cryptocurrencies that are not minable. Only 16 of the 824 known cryptocurrencies have been significantly mined in the past.

Moreover, mining and cryptocurrency exchange can be difficult for most people to execute in such a complex way. They must know how to manipulate bitcoin marketplaces and currency exchanges in highly intricate wayssomething the major population of a developing country would be hard pressed to find time to do.

Still, there are several possible solutions for improving global cryptocurrency security measures including:

Because the World Bank works largely with poor and developing countries, what this partnership could mean is that instead of working on an individual competitive scale for currency rates, these developing countries could pool their currency values and participate in a fairer economic market.

In addition to assisting developing nations to stabilize their currency, cryptocurrency could ease or prevent international conflicts.

In 2015, Greece was scheduled to rollout 1,000 Bitcoin ATMs in an effort to relieve their ongoing financial crisis.

However, that proposed rollout appears to have been either delayed or canceled altogether. Right now, there are only two Bitcoin ATMs available in all of Greece, according to Bitcoin ATM Radar.

In fact, The Guardian reports that negotiations between Athens and their creditors have come to a grinding halt. As Helena Smith reports that:

The possibility of Grexit, or euro exit, has re-emerged and bond yields have soared. The yield on two-year Greek government bonds has risen from 6% to 10% in less than two weeks as spooked investors have dumped their holdings. And the shrill rhetoric last seen at the height of the crisis in 2015 has returned.

As in the case of Zimbabwe, Argentina, and Venezuela, Greece could potentially pull itself back from the brink of disaster by incorporating cryptocurrency into their economy.

Since negotiations are at a standstill, working with the World Bank & the United Nations to set guidelines on the usage of cryptocurrencies could very well spell a fresh start for Greeces the Grecians turbulent economic and social climate.

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MCAP: The New Buzz in the Cryptocurrency World – NewsBTC – newsBTC

MCAP is a mining and ICO token launched by BitcoinGrowthFund (BGF) which is a Blockchain based Venture Capital Fund.

MCAP is a mining and ICO token launched by BitcoinGrowthFund (BGF) which is a Blockchain based Venture Capital Fund. BGF is a kick-starter where customers can own equity in the form of tokens in various investment opportunities.

BGF launched the sale of MCAP tokens on the 27th of April and took the Blockchain world by surprise by raising over $4 million in 10 days. The sale of MCAP tokens will end when we reach the sale cap or when the number of tokens released is exhausted. MCAP will be available to the public for trading on various platforms in the coming month.

The Blockchain community is showing a keen interest in our token sale and many members have been kind enough to offer their support and invest in our MCAP tokens.

As the public is slowly becoming more aware about the cryptocurrencies circulating in the market, more people have started investing in coins such as Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin etc.

In the recent months, the price of Bitcoin has gone from $954 to a little over $1500 and predictions are that by the end of 2017, Bitcoin will see an increase of nearly 150% of its price in March 17. Similarly, other cryptocurrencies such as Ether, Litecoin, Zcash etc. have also witnessed an exponential increase in their price.

We at Bitcoin Growth Fund have realised the potential profits which can be generated from mining and have developed an algorithm to calculate which cryptocurrency would be most profitable to mine at any given moment based on various parameters.

Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is the latest development in the market to raise funds for projects where companies raise money through tokens to invest in other avenues.

According to the recent article published in Forbes by Roger Aitken, the boom in cryptocurrencies by the end of 2017 will outpace bitcoin by a wide margin and their mining will yield substantial returns.

With MCAP tokens, our aim is to enable the average user to be able to earn huge returns in the long run by investing in one single coin rather than investing in multiple cryptocurrencies and hoping for their price to increase.

With the money raised through the sale of our MCAP tokens, BGF will invest in the mining of Bitcoin & other alt-coins along with investing in other ICOs. With the growing market cap and gradually increasing trading volumes of cryptocurrencies, our development team at BGF has developed algorithms to help us decide which alt-coin to mine at any time to get maximum profits.

Once released onto several trading platforms, supply and demand will be the only factors affecting the price of MCAP tokens. Our token is the best possible long term investment for customers as the MCAP tokens will surely yield huge returns and we hope to see the price of each of our tokens increase to $70 once the users start buying and selling MCAP tokens.

BGF is offering lucrative discounts to the early buyers of MCAP tokens. Kindly refer to the website link for more details.

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MCAP: The New Buzz in the Cryptocurrency World - NewsBTC - newsBTC

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What is Obsessive Cryptocurrency Disorder? The Merkle – The Merkle

People involved in the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency eventually exhibit traits of OCD. To be more specific, there are people who suffer from obsessive Cryptocurrency Disorder. Given all of the hype and excitement surrounding this industry, that is anything but surprising. However, it can cause quite some issues regarding mental health and reduce ones social life to a bare minimum.

Outsiders often underestimate the willpower it takes to not look at cryptocurrency trading charts all day. As soon as someone owns a Bitcoin or alternative cryptocurrency, they will want to keep tabs on the price. That is only normal, even though things may not change all that much over the course of a day. To be more specific, a lot of volatility has left the cryptocurrency scene as of late, although some currencies are still subject to massive trade swings.

Keeping track of a cryptocurrencyportfolios value is not all that difficult either. In most cases, it starts out by opening a separate tab on one of the computer screens where a chart is updating in real-time. Some traders and enthusiasts even dedicate a second or third monitor to cryptocurrency price charts to keep tabs on things. While that is not necessarily disturbing, it can affect productivity by quite a margin.

Mobile phones are also a great tool to keep track of a cryptocurrencys value. Multiple mobile exchange and trading apps exist, all of which have some form of API that can be used as a phone widget. Simply turn on your screen to see the current Bitcoin or altcoin price you are looking for. Once again, it seems innocent at first, but it quickly becomes second nature.

This is how Obsessive Cryptocurrency Disorder starts to manifest itself. When things like checking a coins price are part of your daily routine, it only is a matter of time until the urge to do so becomes overwhelming. Price watching is a disease, as one Reddit user aptly points out. It is difficult to not get swept up in all of the excitement when the candles turn green, or the despair when things head south.

In fact, a lot of cryptocurrency enthusiasts suffer from Obsessive Cryptocurrency Disorder, yet fail to recognize it. Being involved in Bitcoin and altcoins involves checking prices, which only seems natural to us. However, in some cases, it starts eating at peoples lives, costing them sleep, reducing their productivity, and even affecting their social life. while a large part of our society is always checking their phones, it has become problematic when someone keeps glaring at charts and mumbling to themselves, though.

Obsessive Cryptocurrency Disorder is just like any other thing people can get excited about, though. Grabbing for a phone, tablet, or any other electronic device to look up specific information or connect to the world has become a daily routine for most of us in this day and age of digitization. We need to find a way to deal with this new type of OCD, though, as it is not a healthy development by any means.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Enjoy 1TB of safe & reliable cloud storage with Zoolz [DEALS] – Android Community

Want to keep your data safe for all eternity? Get as close as possible with a lifetime of Zoolz Dual Cloud 1TB Storage, offered to Android Community readers at over 90% off the retail price. Cloud storage services are an effective way to backup your files and safeguard them from things like computer crashes. While thats great, most people still dont use cloud based storage because it can be prohibitively expensive year after year and you never know if security measures are kept up to date.

Zoolz Dual Cloud 1TB Storage, however, is different. You pay once and once only for the service and then its yours for life. Youll never receive a subscription renewal notice and youll certainly never have to pay again to continue using it. Just backup your files and retrieve them as needed.

Of course, security is a big concern with online-based file storage and for good reason. Theres a lot of bad guys out there that would love the opportunity to steal your data and identity. With Zoolz Dual Cloud 1TB Storage, though, your information is kept lock tight. They use military grade 256-AES encryption to start protecting your files before they even leave your computer, for the safest cloud storage experience around.

With a lifetime subscription, youll receive 1TB of space with which to store all your documents, photos, music, videos, and more. Its simple to setup and even easier to use. And it even works across devices, so you can transfer a file from an Android smartphone to a Windows PC or even an iPad if you wanted to.

Its easier than ever to backup your data to the cloud. A lifetime subscription to Zoolz Dual Cloud 1TB Storage is just $29.99 this week at Android Community Deals.

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Poll: Is cloud storage enough to compensate for less onboard storage – MobileSyrup

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Aruba predicts a hybrid future for edge and cloud computing – The Internet of Business (blog)

Internet of Business appraises the first day of Aruba Networks Atmosphere EMEA 2017conference, currently underway at Disneyland Paris.

The theme at this years Aruba conference, which kicked off today atDisneyland Paris, is The Innovation Edge. Predictably, the focus is on the future of edge computing, but this year, theres the added importance of IoT to consider, according to executives at the HPE-owned wireless networking specialist.

Opening the conference, Wired MagazineEditor-at-Large David Rowan asked the audience, What makes innovators tick?

His speech was peppered with examples to which attendees might aspire, from Elon Musks The Boring Company, for creating underground tunnels for transportation, to Amazons PrimeAir drone delivery arm.

But while both technologies couldchange peoples lives, if they ever get off the ground, otherbusinesses have more modest plans forinnovation and operations improvement that could still make a big difference to their own productivity and profitability.

Either way, time is of the essence, Rowan stressed. Things will never move this slowly again, he said. The point being, with the speed at which technology is moving, every business must be prepared to innovate or die.

And innovate is exactly what most businesses are looking to do, analyst house IDCs group vice president, Thomas Meyer came on to assure attendees. In fact, two-thirds of businesses are looking at digital transformation to increase efficiencies and improve productivity, he said, citing IDCs FutureScape report for 2016.

The most important technologies in this process, Meyer said, will be cloud computing and IoT. IDC is predicting that spending on IoT will hit $1.3 trillion by 2020, while two-thirds of enterprise IT infrastructure will be spent on cloud-based offerings by the same point.

Read more:Are we edging closer to IoT Edge Computing?

In fact, IoTs benefits are already being experienced by early adopters, said Aruba founder Keerti Melkote. I keep hearing IoT is coming, he said. And, to be honest, six months ago I was like yes, Ive heard about this, its a lot of marketing, but is it real? And from what Im seeing now, it is real.

There is IoT happening now in many different ways. Everything that manufacturers are building now is getting connected, and these are things that are going to get connected to your network. You may or may not know about it, but theyre going to ask for an IP address or if you have a Wi-Fi network they will simply connect using a password.

Melkote admitted that this security challenge has meant Aruba has had to do its own innovating just to keep up. Until a few months ago when it acquired network security company Niara, HPE Aruba did not have the technology to detect which devices were on the network or the ability to monitor the behavior of those using the devices to establish whether they posed a threat. Now it can.

Read more:SAS, Cisco claim first platform for IoT analytics at the edge

But the theme of innovation did not end there. Melkote touched on the next innovation in IoT that everyone is talking about: edge computing.

At the end of last year, Peter Levine, a partner at venture capitalist firm Andreesen Horowitz, spoke about the end of cloud computing. Levine suggested that all data processing would soon be moved onto devices, such as driverless cars and drones, at the edge of the network, limiting the clouds use to providing storage.

Melkote agrees that the currently centralised things architecture, which is largely controlled by the cloud, will soon be localised at the edge, due to the latency requirements of most IoT applications. Buthe did not go as far as sounding the death knell for cloud computing. Instead, he suggests the future will see ahybrid model where edge-based processing and cloud-based modelling come together. 2020 will be the year of edge intelligence and cloud working together, he said.

Its an interesting prospect, and one that Aruba promises to expand on throughout the remainder of the conference.

Read more:Hewlett Packard Enterprise Edges IoT closer to mass adoption

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Aruba predicts a hybrid future for edge and cloud computing - The Internet of Business (blog)

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How cloud can neutralise the telephony hot potato – Cloud Tech

Telephone systems and PBXs (private branch exchange) have historically been a hot potato in a business; an important service for users needing firm ownership and the most obvious bucket thrown into being that of the traditional IT team. This IT team is often frustrated that they do not have the telecoms experience to know what they are dealing with.

Over the years I have lost count of the times the IT team has commented both from customers and businesses I have worked within of struggling with the telephony component, lacking skills, experience and understanding of the ethos of this historic comms world. The telco world, its approaches and components, are very different to the IP based world that traditional IT is used to operating within. Often these historical telephony deployments are also creaking, having through accident and sometimes design, been configured in weird and wonderful ways that now no one is familiar with or has the time to unpick. So, IT are keen to have someone else own the problem, but find there is nowhere else to locate it in the business.

In 2017, a vast number of firms still sit in this camp, faced with the challenges of supporting and maintaining telephony systems, often based on ageing technology and bolted together from varying suppliers to achieve delivery of provisioning, PBX, desktop devices and IP interfaces with todays modern world of softphones and PC and mobile based technologies.

Often the biggest challenge is when something breaks and the IT team has to circle around, reacting to fix an issue none really has the confidence or experience of. This same team has to maintain, monitor and manage not only telephony, but the breadth of IT services and solutions serving the business.

The challenge with telephony over email services or most typical IT services, for example, is that it is real time and any degradation in packet quality is seen immediately from both ends of the spectrum, caller and recipient. Send an email that gets delayed and more often than not neither end notices as it is seen as a transient communication method. A phone call is immediate real time two-way communication, where any degradation in service results in packet loss and obvious call quality issues to those on the call. Thus, have an issue on your PBX and find your breadth of users complaining about mid call line drops, sound quality (hissing or crackling) or issues making or receiving calls.

This situation is exaggerated quickly when you have multiple sites with local PBXs and issues to manage on a wider scale. In todays demanding world to support customer demand for high quality service and response, and staffs need for more flexibility to work anytime, anywhere on any device a new approach is essential.

As we have seen in the CRM world, once cloud has proven its disruption it will grow fast

So along came VoiP and cloud telephony to deliver the common benefits of cloud from better resilience (uptime and performance), removal or reduction in capital costs, faster deployment, easier upgrades and scaling of usage.

In todays world, there is rarely a logical reason to deploy a traditional physical PBX. As we have already seen in the CRM world where now 50% of all new deployments globally are cloud based and expected to soon reach 70% of all sales once cloud has proven its disruption it will grow fast.

So with cloud telephony, much of the challenge for the IT team in managing the telecoms for the business is taken away by the cloud provider, except the administration, provisioning and configuration of policies for the business.

The bigger question is: should this even be with the IT team? Take Salesforce as a business application platform. Is this managed by IT? They may have been involved in the initial procurement, providing a security review, a technical approval for fit for the business network and security models, but the day to day management revolves around the business needs. Provisioning and decommissioning users, configuring data presentation (fields, reports, dashboards), managing business rules, helping users this falls under a Salesforce Administrator / team.

So is telephony not an extension of this? A business service that should the technical complexity and implications be removed (using a cloud provider) is better placed being owned and managed by a business services admin as opposed to a technical IT support team.

Now take another thought initiative and consider integrating your telephony and CRM, having customer and prospect data supporting the logic of voice interactions.

Imagine being able to inform a sales user that should a key customer be marked as Gold category then their calls will automatically be put to the head of inbound call queues. That any new sales opportunity in the CRM over a target threshold value will automatically get priority support during their trial experience and bypass automated call recording triage processes. That if you put an account in your teams name that any of their inbound calls will automatically go to the sales rep allocated and then the call group for your team only.

The business and customer benefits are obvious in this day of a heightened buyer dynamic expecting and demanding high quality customer service.

To enable this should it not be easy and intuitive for the same Salesforce Admin / team to manage the customer telephony in alignment with the CRM system? Embedding the cloud telephony end to end inside of Salesforce itself is long overdue. This allows the utilisation of the same security model and all rich data to create a non-technically managed, customer centric phone system that is as flexible as Salesforce itself.

Telephony has been in the hands of the technical IT team out of necessity, not choice. Now you can choose to put it where it belongs, in the heart of customer-centricity land aligned with customer service and sales.

Editors note: Find out more about Natterboxs latest announcement with regards to Salesforce here.

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Autonomous Driving Market Focuses on Artificial Intelligence and … – PR Newswire (press release)

Global Autonomous Driving Market Outlook, 2017, recent research from Frost & Sullivan's Automotive & Transportation Growth Partnership Service program, finds that the global autonomous driving market will be worth $83 billion by 2025. The study examines the top trends in the automated driving market, including developments like growing usage of driver assistance, new solutions, robot taxis, cognitive cloud computing, and adoption of mechanical light detection and ranging (LiDAR) for perception improvement.

Click here for more information on the Autonomous Driving market and to speak to us: https://goo.gl/1izEYn.

"Concerns surrounding legislation, system reliability issues, and incompatible infrastructure limit the opportunities for OEMs looking at automated driving," noted Venkitaraman. "Nevertheless, the journey from human-operated to completely autonomous cars is a progression, and pioneering semi-automated vehicles will be an important milestone toward achieving level 5 automated vehicles."

For now, fast-tracked innovation from startups and technology leaders in automated vehicle technologies will force OEMs, technology providers and disruptors to partner with, acquire or upgrade R&D to stay competitive. Key growth trends and opportunities expected in the global automotive driving market this year include:

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion

Global Autonomous Driving Market Outlook, 2017 MCCA-18

Contact: Jana Schneborn Corporate Communications Europe P: +49 (0)69 77033 43 E: jana.schoeneborn@frost.com

http://www.frost.com Twitter: @Frost_Sullivan or @FS_Automotive Facebook: FrostandSullivan Linkedin: Future of Mobility A Frost & Sullivan Forum

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To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/autonomous-driving-market-focuses-on-artificial-intelligence-and-cognitive-cloud-computing-300454010.html

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OpenStack Foundation cites ‘capabilities, compliance and cost’ as Summit kicks off – Cloud Tech

The latest OpenStack Summit has kicked off in Boston, with the Foundation naturally being tooled up with news and announcements for attendees.

Jonathan Bryce, executive director of the OpenStack Foundation, spoke of the three Cs capabilities, compliance, and cost with organisations becoming more sophisticated in their approach to workload placement across public and private clouds.

Each of these Cs was exemplified by a company working with OpenStack in that area. GE Healthcare presented the benefits of their private cloud as a service in partnership with Rackspace for compliance, while the US Army Cyber School was cited for saving money through OpenStack. For capability, Verizon outlined how it was leveraging OpenStack for Virtual Network Solutions, a product which focuses on edge computing and the Internet of Things for compute, network, and storage.

The foundation also announced it had elected China Unicom and FiberHome Telecommunication technologies as gold members. The two companies both demonstrate[d] OpenStacks strategic value for networking and large-scale service providers, the company said.

Recent headlines in the press have not been entirely kind to OpenStack. As reported by Fortune last month, Intel cut funding on an OpenStack initiative it launched alongside Rackspace, resulting in job losses for the latter.

Yesterday, Rackspace announced it was collaborating with Dell EMC to deliver OpenStack private clouds with the behemoth conglomerate providing the compute and storage side. Rackspace also took the opportunity to scotch the recent press cuttings in a blog post authored by Scott Crenshaw, SVP strategy and product.

Clickbait headlines aside, the facts are clear: OpenStack deployments are growing, he wrote. It is becoming a standard cloud platform for corporations of all sizes, which are consistently growing their usage of OpenStack. That trend is [borne] out at Rackspace, where were seeing dramatic growth in our customers usage of OpenStack.

Crenshaw cited a Forrester Research report from December last year which argued OpenStack had become a de facto standard platform for the private cloud market. While admitting the initiative had seen a couple of false starts, he added that those who were willing to take the plunge will reap rewards.

OpenStack marks the point where open source infrastructure software became too complex to be delivered as traditional software distribution, he wrote. To successfully harness the power of open source innovation, the vast majority of users will consume open source infrastructure as a service, which is, after all, the way cloud was meant to be used.

Some of the vendors who havent crossed this chasm are indeed exiting the OpenStack business. Rackspaces billion server hours of OpenStack operational experience is probably an insurmountable lead, Crenshaw added.

The negative headlines came amid a recent user survey from the foundation which said OpenStack was capturing 44% more deployments and input from 22% more organisations than one year previously. Far from being in danger of demise, OpenStack has become the catalyst for a rich and vital transformation in the way the world consumes open source infrastructure, said Crenshaw.

You can read the full Rackspace post here.

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