Digital Lifescapes

Technology will continue to displace humans in job roles that can be automated. For certain, business and government leaders will have a choice -- accept progress and prosper, or wait for the inevitable outcome of regression. Historically, while most of the Luddites eventually concede, it's a complicated scenario. By 2020, smart machines will be a top five investment priority for more than 30 percent of CIOs, according to the latest market study by Gartner. That being said, with some smart machines moving towards fully autonomous operation for the first time, balancing the need to exercise control versus the drive to realize benefits is crucial. As an example, Google’s self-driving car project team may discover that pursuing full autonomy is neither possible nor desirable in smart machines. "Human beings are still required as the final point of redundancy in an autonomous vehicle, so a fully autonomous car requires a steering wheel should a driver be required to take con...

As more business communication infrastructure moves online, it eventually becomes the target of someone that will attempt to negatively impact that enterprise. Computer crime is a growing threat to corporations and individuals who are increasingly dependent upon the Global Networked Economy. Mobile devices with internet access amplifies that commercial dependency, and the greater potential for harm. The growth of at-risk online commercial database access via the public internet will increase the cost of data breaches to $2.1 trillion globally by 2019 -- that's almost four times the estimated cost of these IT security breaches in 2015, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. That being said, their latest findings indicate that the majority of these new security breaches will likely come from criminal access to existing IT data centers and associated network infrastructure. While new threats targeting mobile devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) are being...