Your daily digest of “All Things Big Data” gathered, collected and researched by your very own 10Fold Big Data Practice team.
Big Data
Every industry has been affected by big data in one way, or another. The hotel and hospitality sector caters to millions of travellers daily which has sparked their operators to turn to advanced analytics solutions for guidance about how to keep their customers happy. Many customers are seeking different experiences with different spending habits, and big data analytics has helped operators quickly make this distinction. Analytics has also helped hotels with yield management, or the process of ensuring each room attracts the optimal price, as well as improving overall customer satisfaction.
Last week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Vice President Joe Biden moderated a panel of scientists from around the world regarding cures for cancer. During the panel, they discovered to find a cure, they need better ways to collect, harness and analyze Big Data. Biden said, “Tapping this treasure trove of information is vital to speeding the pace of progress towards cancer cures.” One of the panelists, David Agus provided an example for which Big Data can be vital: the ongoing effort to understand a gene P53, which promotes cancer resistance. However, some of the major issues oncology researchers face in using Big Data are that medical data is not standardized platforms and patients are concerned with privacy and security issues surrounding their personal data. Biden acknowledged that solving the Big Data challenge may require cooperation between professionals across many disciplines, but he is hopeful that this will help find the cure.
How Big Data And Analytics Are Changing Hotels And The Hospitality Industry – Forbes
Here Are The Sticking Points For Biden, Big Data And Cancer Moonshots – Forbes
IoT
Seebo, an Israeli startup that offers an IoT end-to-end platform to help companies launch smart products faster, has closed $8.5 million in Series A funding. Seebo’s platform is aimed at helping smaller companies build and support connected products. Seebo’s clientele industries include toys, children’s products, health, wellness, sports equipment, furniture, electronics, travel equipment, baby products and fashion.
Another Israel-based company, Altair Semiconductors, has been acquired by Sony for $212 million. Altair owns modem chip technology and related software for LTE mobile devices. Sony hopes this move will strengthen its presence in the IoT market, as more devices and appliances are coming equipped with chipsets and connection to the web. The chipset incorporates elements such as an on-chip power management unit, integrated DDR memory, and a low-power MCU subsystem with security framework for customer-developed applications. With this acquisition, Sony is hoping to make component devices that have sensing and communication capabilities, as well as LTE solutions.
Seebo Raises $8.5M To Help Bring Your IoT Product To Life – TechCrunch
Sony Acquires IoT Chipmaker Altair For $212M – InformationWeek
Self Service and Enterprise
UK based communications company, BT Group is pitching a new SDN-based service to business customers, which serves as a stepping stone in the transition to full SDN and NFV capabilities. The operator claims the SDN-based service will allow customers to benefit from better network performance, and give them insight into the performance of their applications, without having to spend more on bandwidth. BT is also working on developing a self-service capability that will allow customers to control their SD-WAN through BT’s portal.
BT Enters SD-WAN Fray With Cisco – Light Reading
eCommerce
A major exploit was found in the Open Source eCommerce platform, Magento, that allows hackers to take control of both the admin and the server. It is unknown if this exploit was used prior to the disclosure, but now that it is published, users are encouraged to update their platform immediately.
Major Vulnerability in Magento eCommerce, Update Immediately – The Sem Post
SDN
Big Switch Networks is seeking to build success by making its products free. The SDN company is rolling out a free edition of its Big Monitoring and Big Cloud fabric software to encourage upgrades to their “beefier” and commercial versions. The company has also revealed new releases of paid versions of its products. These updates come on the heels of the company’s $48.5 million in Series C funding. Big Switch also announced two additions to its board and claims it is growing 300% annually, closing multiple deals in excess of $1 million. The company hopes to keep that momentum up by offering a free version of $25,000 worth of its software.
Big Switch frees up its SDN – Network World