BriefingsDirect Podcasts

The so-called great resignation has anywhere from half to two-thirds of U.S. workers looking for something other than their current situation. Whatever the percentage, there’s no question that workers across the board have and continue to quit in droves. And whether the exit is due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the culmination of decades of various trends, or some combination, the bottom line is that...

Way back in 1996, when web browsing was novel and central processing still ruled the roost of enterprise IT, The Open Group was formed from the merger of the Open Software Foundation and X/Open. This October marks the 25th anniversary of remarkable achievements in the technology standards arena by The Open Group. Beginning with a focus as the publisher of the single UNIX specification technical st...

In the last BriefingsDirect sustainable business innovation discussion, we explored how operational resiliency has become a top priority in the increasingly interconnected financial services sector. We now expand our focus to explore the best ways to anticipate, plan for, and swiftly implement the means for nearly any business to avoid disruption. New techniques allow for rapid responses to many o...

The speed and complexity of microservices-intense applications often leave their developers in the dark. The creators too often struggle to track and visualize the actual underlying architecture of their distributed services. The designers, builders, and testers of modern API-driven apps, therefore, need an ongoing and instant visibility capability into the rapidly changing data flows, integration...

The rapidly expanding use of application programming interfaces (APIs) to accelerate application development and advanced business services has created a vast constellation of interrelated services -- often now called the API Economy. Yet the speed and complexity of this API adoption spree has largely outrun the capability of existing tools and methods to keep tabs on the services topology -- let...

Today’s diversity of hybrid IT models and environments demands that IT services and support accommodate more digital variables than ever. This burgeoning complexity and the fast-changing dynamics of digital businesses are pushing enterprises to seek a complete and holistic way to support all their technology -- from every edge to every cloud -- in one bold stroke. That’s the market driver behind a...

Bringing broader awareness of security risks and building a security-minded culture within any public or private organization has been a top priority for years. Yet halfway through 2021, IT security remains as much a threat as ever -- with multiple major breaches and attacks costing tens of millions of dollars occurring nearly weekly. Why are the threat vectors not declining? Why, with all the too...

Self-awareness as an individual attribute provides the context to better understand others and to find common ground. But what about self-awareness of entire generations? Are those born before the mass appeal and distribution of digital technology able to make the leap in their awareness of those who have essentially been Born Digital? Does the awareness gap extend to an even more profound disconn...

The last few years have certainly highlighted the need for businesses of all kinds to build up their operational resilience. With a rising tide of pandemic waves, high-level cybersecurity incidents, frequent technology failures, and a host of natural disasters -- there’s been plenty to protect against. As businesses become more digital and dependent upon end-to-end ecosystems of connected services...

While the use of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) for IT security may not be new, the extent to which data-driven analytics can detect and thwart nefarious activities is still in its infancy. As we’ve recently discussed here on BriefingsDirect, an expanding universe of interdependent application programming interfaces (APIs) forms a new and complex threat vector that strikes...

The burgeoning use of application programming interfaces (APIs) across cloud-native computing and digital business ecosystems has accelerated rapidly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Enterprises have had to scramble to develop and procure across new digital supply chains and via unproven business-to-business processes. Companies have also extended their business perimeters to include home workers as...

Thinking of IT security as a fortress or a moat around your compute assets has given way to a more realistic and pervasive posture. Such a cybersecurity perimeter, it turns out, was only an illusion. A far more effective extended-enterprise strategy protects business assets and processes wherever they are -- and wherever they might reach. As businesses align to new approaches such as zero trust an...

As businesses plan for a future where more of their workforce can be located just about anywhere, how should they rethink hiring, training, and talent optimization? This major theme for 2021 and beyond poses major adjustments for both workers and savvy business leaders. The next BriefingsDirect modern workplace strategies discussion explores how a global business process outsourcing leader has sho...

The clear and present danger facing businesses and governments from cybersecurity threats has only grown more clear and ever-present in 2021. As the threats from runaway ransomware attacks and state-sponsored backdoor access to networks deepen, too many businesses have a false sense of quick recovery using traditional business continuity and backup measures. That’s because the criminals are increa...

The tumultuous shift over the past year to nearly all-digital and frequently at-home work has amounted to a rapid-fire experiment in human adaptability. While there are many successful aspects to the home-exodus experiment, as with all disruption to human behavior, there are also some significant and highly personal downsides. The next BriefingsDirect work-from-home strategies discussion explores...

The next BriefingsDirect Voice of Innovation discussion explores how services and support for enterprise IT have entered a new era. For IT technology providers, the timing of the news couldn’t be better. That's because those now consuming tech support are demanding higher-order value -- such as improved worker productivity from hybrid services delivered across many remote locations. At the same ti...

Now that hybrid work models have been the norm for a year, what’s the long-term impact on worker productivity? Will the pandemic-induced shift to work from anywhere agility translate into increased employee benefits -- and better business outcomes -- over time? The next BriefingsDirect workspace innovation discussion explores how a bellwether UK accounting services firm has shown how consistent, s...

Cyber attacks are on the rise, harming brands and supply chains while fomenting consumer and employee distrust -- as well as leading to costly interruptions and service blackouts. At the same time, more remote workers and extended-enterprise processes due to the pandemic demand higher levels of security across all kinds of business workflows. Stay with us now as the next BriefingsDirect discussion...

The next edition of the BriefingsDirect Voice of Innovation video podcast series explores new and innovative paths for businesses to attain digital transformation. Even as a vast majority of companies profess to be seeking digital business transformation, few proven standards or broadly accepted methods stand out as the best paths to take. And now, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need fo...

The next BriefingsDirect data strategy insights discussion explores the payoffs when enterprises overcome the hurdles of disjointed storage to obtain global data access. By leveraging the latest in container and storage server technologies, the holy grail of inclusive, comprehensive, and actionable storage can be obtained. And such access extends across all deployment models – from hybrid cloud, t...

This BriefingsDirect Data Strategies Insights discussion series, Part 2, explores the latest technologies and products delivering common data services across today’s hybrid cloud, distributed data centers, and burgeoning edge landscapes. New advances in storage technologies, standards, and methods have changed the game when it comes to overcoming the obstacles businesses too often face when seekin...

The next BriefingsDirect data strategies insights discussion explores how consistent and global storage models can best propel pervasive analytics and support digital business transformation. Decades of disparate and uncoordinated storage solutions have hindered enterprises’ ability to gain common data services across today’s hybrid cloud, distributed data centers, and burgeoning edge landscapes....

The next BriefingsDirect digital business innovation discussion explores the growing importance of contingent workforces. As more businesses look to external workforces and services to satisfy their skills and information technology (IT) needs, the ability to manage those workers and services is lagging. Even as upward of 42 percent of workforce spend is now going to external workforces, many orga...

Businesses, schools, and governments have all had to rethink the proper balance between in-person and remote work. And because that balance is a shifting variable -- and may well continue to be for years after the pandemic -- it remains essential that the underlying technology be especially agile. The next BriefingsDirect worker strategies discussion explores how a partnership behind a digital wor...

The next BriefingsDirect digital business innovation discussion explores how companies need to better understand and respond to their markets one subscriber at a time. By better listening inside of their products, businesses can remove the daylight between their digital deliverables and their customers’ impressions. Stay with us now as we hear from a customer experience (CX) management expert at S...