Mobile Website vs. Native Apps

 A mobile website is similar to any other website in that it consists of browser-based HTML pages that are linked together and accessed over the Internet (for mobile typically WiFi or 3G or 4G networks). The obvious characteristic that distinguishes a mobile website from a standard website is the fact that it is designed for the smaller handheld display and touch-screen interface.

Think of your mobile website as an introduction of your business and brand to the customer and your mobile app as the ultimate engagement tool you can have with a customer. Mobile websites inform the audience and mobile apps create a lasting relationship.

Advantages of a Mobile Website vs. Native Apps

If your goals are primarily related to marketing or public communications, a mobile website is almost always going to make sense as a practical first step in your mobile outreach strategy. This is because a mobile website has a number of inherent advantages over apps, including broader accessibility, compatibility and cost-effectiveness.

Immediacy – Mobile Websites Are Instantly Available A mobile website is instantly accessible to users via a browser across a range of devices (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, etc).  Apps on the other hand require the user to first download and install the app from an app marketplace before the content or application can be viewed - a significant barrier between initial engagement and action/conversion.

Compatibility – Mobile Websites are Compatible Across DevicesA single mobile website can reach users across many different types of mobile devices, whereas native apps require a separate version to be developed for each type of device. Furthermore, mobile website URLs are easily integrated within other mobile technologies such as SMS, QR codes and near field communication (NFC).

Upgradability – Mobile Websites Can Be Updated Instantly
A mobile website is much more dynamic than an app in terms of pure flexibility to update content. If you want to change the design or content of a mobile website you simply publish the edit once and the changes are immediately visible; updating an app on the other hand requires the updates to be pushed to users, which then must be downloaded in order to update the app on each type of device.

Findability – Mobile Websites Can be Found EasilyMobile websites are much easier for users to find because their pages can be displayed in search results and listed in industry-specific directories, making it easy for qualified visitors to find you. Most importantly, visitors to your regular website can be automatically sent to your mobile site when they are on a handheld (using device-detection).  In contrast, the visibility of apps are largely restricted to manufacturer app stores.

Shareability – Mobile Websites Can be Shared Easily by Publishers, and Between Users
Mobile website URLs are easily shared between users via a simple link (e.g. within an email or text message, Facebook or Twitter post). Publishers can easily direct users to a mobile website from a blog or website, or even in print. An app simply cannot be shared in this fashion.

Reach – Mobile Websites Have Broader ReachBecause a mobile website is accessible across platforms and can be easily shared among users, as well as search engines, it has far greater reach capability than a native app.

LifeCycle – Mobile Websites Can’t be DeletedThe average shelf-life of an app is pretty short, less than 30 days according to some research, so unless your app is something truly unique and/or useful (ideally, both), it’s questionable how long it will last on a user’s device. Mobile websites on the other hand are always available for users to return to them.

A Mobile Website Can be an App!Just like a standard website, mobile websites can be developed as database-driven web applications that act very much like native apps. A mobile web application can be a practical alternative to native app development.

Time and Cost - Mobile Websites are Easier and Less Expensive Last but certainly not least, mobile website development is considerably more time and cost-effective than development of a native app, especially if you need to have a presence on different platforms (requiring development of multiple apps).

Support and SustainabilityThe investment considerations of app vs website don’t end with the initial launch; properly supporting and developing an app (upgrades, testing, compatibility issues and ongoing development) is more much more expensive and involved than supporting a website over time.

When Does an App Make Sense?
Despite the many inherent benefits of the mobile web, apps are still very popular, and there are a number of specific use scenarios where an app will be your best choice.  Generally speaking, if you need one of the following, an app makes sense:

Interactivity/Gaming – for interactive games (think Angry Birds) an app is almost always going to be your best choice, at least for the foreseeable future.

Regular Usage/Personalization – If your target users are going to be using your app in a personalized fashion on a regular basis (think EverNote) then an app provides a great way to do that.

Complex Calculations or Reporting – If you need something that will take data and allow you to manipulate it with complex calculations, charts or reports (think banking or investment) an app will help you do that very effectively.

Native Functionality or Processing Required - mobile web browsers are getting increasingly good at accessing certain mobile-specific functions such as click-to-call, SMS and GPS. However, if you need to access a user's camera or processing power an app will still do that much more effectivley.
No connection Required – If you need to provide offline access to content or perform functions without a network/wireless connection then an app makes sense.

 

Augmented Reality in Nutshell

What is it?
The goal of augmented reality is to add information and meaning to a real object or place. Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality does not create a simulation of reality. Instead, it takes a real object or space as the foundation and incorporates technologies that add contextual data to deepen a person’s understanding of the subject. For example, by superimposing imaging data from an MRI onto a patient’s body, augmented reality can help a surgeon pinpoint a tumor that is to be removed. In this case, the technology used might include headgear worn by the surgeon combined with a computer interface that maps data to the person lying on the operating table. In other cases, augmented reality might add audio commentary, location data, historical context, or other forms of content that can make a user’s experience of a thing or a place more meaningful.

Who’s doing it?
Augmented reality has been put to use in a number of fields, including medical imaging, where doctors can access data about patients; aviation, where tools show pilots important data about the landscape they are viewing; training, in which technology provides students or technicians with necessary data about specific objects they are working with; and in museums, where artefacts' can be tagged with information such as the artefact's historical context or where it was discovered. Within the academy, educators are beginning to provide students with deeper, more meaningful experiences by linking educational content with specific places and objects. In many disciplines, field trips are part of the course; by supplementing these explorations with mobile technologies and data-collection devices (including digital cameras), the lessons can be extended beyond the field trip. In some cases, augmented reality technologies have been integrated into educational games. In MIT’s Environmental Detectives, for example, students learn about environmental sciences and ecosystems by finding clues and solving a mystery on the MIT campus using PDAs fitted with GPS devices.

How does it work?
A range of technologies can be used for augmented reality. Many augmented reality projects use headgear or a similar device that projects data into the user’s field of vision, corresponding with a real object or space the user is observing. In the case of a technical course on PC maintenance, for example, augmented reality might overlay a schematic diagram onto the inside of a computer, allowing students to identify the various components and access technical specifications about them. PDAs or other portable devices can use GPS data to provide users with context— including visual, audio, or text-based data—about real objects or places. Augmented reality is not merely a companion text or multimedia file but a technology designed to “see” a real object or place and provide the user with appropriate information at the right time. Augmented reality is designed to blur the line between the reality the user is experiencing and the content provided by technology.

Why is it significant?
Because every object or place has a history and a context, making that content available to individuals interacting with those places or things provides a richer experience. To the extent that instructors can furnish students with a broad context for understanding the real world, students are more likely to comprehend what they are learning and to remember it later. Information can also come from students themselves. Students in an archaeology class might use an augmented reality system to capture their thoughts or impressions when working with artefacts. That content can then be made available to others during subsequent lab sessions, allowing them to have a deeper understanding of the subject matter and a richer learning experience. Augmented reality might also make higher education and specialized content more accessible to the general public, transporting lessons from the campus to the community.

What are the downsides?
Many augmented reality projects rely on specific or customized hardware, and the mechanisms that correlate data added by technology with the real world are often technically complex. Despite falling costs for hardware overall, augmented reality projects can be expensive to develop and maintain. Today’s augmented reality projects typically focus on individual users and may not lend themselves to team activities or group learning. In addition, augmented reality projects may resemble entertainment, raising questions about their pedagogical value. Educators must be careful to ensure that activities have educational merit and that students do not become infatuated with the technology alone.

Where is it going? 
Computing devices, especially wireless ones, are becoming more powerful and increasingly widespread. At the same time, costs for these devices are falling. As computing hardware—both wired and wireless—approaches ubiquity, new opportunities emerge to use technology to enrich individuals’ experiences of objects and places. Because all areas of academic inquiry benefit from background and context, augmented reality has the possibility of enhancing education across the curriculum. By exposing students to an experiential, explorative, and authentic model of learning early in their higher education careers, augmented reality has the potential to help shift modes of learning from students’ simply being recipients of content to their taking an active role in gathering and processing information, thereby creating knowledge.

What are the implications for teaching and learning?
Augmented reality is one way to bring experiential and location based learning to students by supplementing existing worlds rather than creating new ones. Augmented reality installations can be built to take advantage of existing or low-cost infrastructure. The use of nearly ubiquitous devices such as cell phones may permit rapid experimentation and evolution of augmented reality applications. By combining technology familiar to students with locations that students see as their own, augmented reality has the potential
to move learning out of the classrooms and into the spaces where students live. Encouraging informal learning that is easily accessible may prove particularly effective in engaging students, extending learning to spaces that might help them form connections with content, the locations that provide the context for it, and the peers that they share it with.

eCommerce Web Portal: Easy & Effective ways to improve User Experience

One of the easiest ways to improve the sales on an ecommerce website is to consistently improve the user experience of the online store. While many online stores try to compete on price, it is always more profitable to compete in user experience and win customer loyalty with an effective website.
The following results from a survey show the major reasons why customers do not complete their purchase from an ecommerce portal.

The following tips will help you develop a better user experience for your customers:

1. Website Performance
Performance of a website is crucial to retain a customer’s interest and his business. E-Commerce websites regularly fall prey to heavy websites which take long to load due to elements like JavaScript, images and other content. While it is recommended to keep website load time as low as possible, 1-2.5 second load times are considered acceptable for most visitors.

2. Consistent Branding
A consistent usage of branding elements conveys professionalism to a prospective customer. This is similar to running an offline store; you do not want your customer to feel that they are in a different shop every time they move from one floor to another. This means that your brand identity elements like logos, colors, etc. are consistent within the website and across all communication channels like email, social media and advertisements online and offline.

3. Simplified Checkout
While many strategists convince clients to simplify their checkout process to as few steps as possible, it is a delicate balance. Asking for too much information during checkout can annoy a customer, but asking for too little information can also make the customer feel that they have lost control of their shopping.
A big no-no in the checkout process is hidden charges. Customers expect to see what they are paying for in total, so, all costs including shipping & handling, taxes, etc should be conveyed before the final checkout.

4. Community Building
Product reviews build trust for an ecommerce website and increase interaction amongst customers. Reading reviews, good or bad about a particular product on an ecommerce store lets a customer take informed decisions on their purchase. E-Commerce giants like Amazon incentivize their customers to share their feedback with others with gamification of the process.

5. Search and Filter Options
The search and filter options are perhaps one of the most used functionalities of an ecommerce website, but are usually overlooked. Functionalities like auto-fill, product “quick view”, and checkbox based real time filters help customers find what they are looking for much faster than through conventional navigation menus.

6. Related Products
Related products on a product page engages customer to further browse your catalog and find what they are interested in. Having a related products module has been proven to reduce bounce rates on an ecommerce website.

7. Shipping Price and Return Policy
Upfront clarity on shipping prices and return policies increase the confidence of a customer. It empowers the visitor and assures them of the process that will be followed if they are not satisfied with their purchase. Clarity on shipping rates will reduce surprises in the check out process.

8. Security
More than 55% of customers believe that the lack of security or the perceived lack of it will influence their shopping behavior. A privacy policy link hidden in the footer of your website might not be the best way to convince these shoppers. Prominently feature your secure shopping credentials and hacker proof badges to convince customers that their payment information and personal data will not be compromised.

9. Social Media
It is not possible to discuss user experience without touching on the topic of social media. Social Media is the new internet; and to be profitable in this new media, companies should become more social. An overwhelming 83% of online shoppers believe that companies should not only have a social media presence, but should engage on these social platforms. Some immediate activities companies can do on social include

• Give customers the option to share products on social media platforms
• Provide a social shopping experience by connecting with social networks like Facebook providing insights into the products in a users’ immediate social circle.
• Engage with followers in your social media channels through contests, rewards and coupon codes.

10. Support and Contact Info
Customers do not pick up the phone to contact their favourite ecommerce store! It is important to prominently display contact options on your website. Real time chats, support tickets and email addresses along with social media are the most popular ways online stores enhance their user experience.

Conclusion
Improving the user experience cannot be done using checklists. Some of the general points mentioned above work in a majority of situations, but there are solutions that are unique to your website which can be only discovered by a UX consultant and the path to the perfect user experience requires constant tweaking.

 

For more information:

http://retailemall.com/blog/online-store-10-easy-ways-to-improve-user-experience/?goback=%2Egde_4558390_member_245041580

Excellent Article for Entrepreneurs - It is Spot on!

5 Things Founders Don't Talk About
5

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last week I had a dozen business founders over for beer and pizza to catch up and talk shop. It’s one of my favorite things to do, because I think when you get a group of fellow founders in a room together, there’s instant fraternity among them. People let their guards down. When surrounded by peers, Founders talk about things that no one else can appreciate or understand.

After enough vodka gimlets, the conversation gets very, very honest.

Some of the founders present had already grown and sold companies, while others had just gotten started. Despite the wide spectrum of business stages, the sentiments shared were universal — no matter what industries their businesses were in, or how much they had accomplished.

Being a Founder Is Lonely

You don’t hear this a lot publicly, but man, being a founder is a lonely affair. By definition, you don’t have a lot of peers. When people at your company go to lunch, they have a common theme — they can complain about management. But you are management. You can’t go to lunch and complain to anyone.

If you’re lucky, you have a spouse that truly understands what you do and can be someone you confide in. Few people are that lucky. This leaves most founders with no one to talk to at work and on one to confide in at home. Considering the incredible degree of personal emotion invested into a startup, it’s very difficult to be isolated when dealing with those emotions. Not an awesome feeling.

Being a Founder Is Riddled With Doubt

There are generally two types of founders — those who have no idea if things are going to work out, and those that are lying about it. None of us has a crystal ball. We have no idea whether or not what we’re doing is going to work. That’s part of being a startup founder.  But to the outside world, you need to project 100 percent confidence in your approach.

Building on a foundation riddled with doubt creates an anxiety funhouse of emotions.  There are only hints of positive progress, like signing up a new customer or launching a product. Beyond that, it’s just a constant stream of problems and challenges that rarely come with a prescription for fixing them. It’s incredibly draining and wears heavily on you.

Being a Founder Bankrupts You

On top of the emotional roller coaster comes an absolute torrent of debt and financial stress. Founders are the last to get paid, and by the time the company ever makes it to a point where it can start paying the founder, it’s typically at a cost of that can almost never be repaid.

You hear about founders cashing out for millions, an end that clearly justifies the means to get there. But what about the period in between? What does it mean to invest everything into a company and have no idea if it will ever come back? What does it mean to not be able to plan on ever having income, but knowing that you have serious looming expenses? It’s brutal.

These aren’t problems people like to share, but they exist. And they suck. Very few people will ever have a big payday, and even when they do, its comes long after you’ve already lost everything you had. People with steady paychecks would think that’s an insane path, and they would be right.

Failure Haunts You

The overarching theme to everyone’s story was that of pending failure. I think we tend to downplay the failure of a startup because “it happens all the time.” But so do car accidents — they just happen to be visibly damaging, and harder to minimize.

The problem with failure isn’t the failing itself, it’s the shroud of anxiety that precedes it.  It’s a constant reminder that you may have made a mistake, lost money, wasted time, and ruined your reputation. It haunts you endlessly, and it rarely stops when you have a breakthrough moment.

It Can Feel Inescapable

When things are going well, it’s great to be the founder. But when the ship is sinking, the captain has to go down with it. And that fact isn’t lost on any founder.

You don’t hear about too many startups where the founder leaves to get another job while the rest of the company sticks around to see if they will ever make it. Well, maybe in a venture-backed startup with lots of cash left over, but there aren’t  many of those out there.

More likely, if everything goes south, the founder will be the one left holding down the fort while everyone else flees. Employees can get other jobs, probably with better pay. But the founder’s name is on the office lease with three years left to go and zero revenue. Knowing you have set ties that cannot easily be broken weighs on you constantly.

These Conversations Need to Happen

As a group of founders, it’s always easier to talk about popular topics like customer acquisition or business development deals. It’s harder to talk about personal feelings, especially when they relate to failing.

But those personal feelings in many ways are the cornerstone of running a startup. We don’t struggle with technical problems, we struggle with emotional ones. And sometimes it just helps to know that we’re not the only people dealing with the anxiety of failure and doubt.

If that means taking more opportunities to combine good founders with a few delicious drinks, so be it.  These conversations need to happen.

Courtesy of YEC

Wil Schroter is a serial entrepreneur and fundraising veteran. At age 19 he started his first company, Blue Diesel, which merged with what is today inVentiv, a company that now generates over $1.8 billion per year in billings and has over 13,000 employees globally. Wil is currently the CEO and Co-Founder of Fundable, a crowdfunding platform for small businesses that allows them to raise capital online.

10 cool things you can do with Google's Android

1. Wake up to news, updates and information... without even touching the device
One of the biggest appeals of Android is the use of off-screen hand gestures. Simply move your hand across the screen to perform tasks and dismiss notifications. Of course, the voice control is also incredibly useful and Senti Wayk helps put both of those to great use.
It acts as an alarm clock and lets you activate the snoose mode by either saying the word "snoose" or just waving your hand across the screen. Its biggest advantage is delivering reports as soon as you wake up, reading out weather reports, meetings and appointments you have planned and even news items from your RSS feeds.
If one ever needed a wireless personal assistant, this is it.

2. Automate everything at will
Another highly under-utilised feature of Android is the ability to automate and execute tasks when certain conditions are met.
Suppose you want your smartphone to text someone as soon as you reach a new area, or even play songs as soon as you plug in your headphones. How about cutting off Wi-Fi and 3G usage when data usage gets to a certain limit or when your battery runs out?
Android features a lot of these tasking abilities but the Tasker app perhaps exceeds them all. The sheer amount of customisation makes it so that you can do anything and everything automatically. And like a lot of useful functions with Android, it's free.

3. Control your PC using your smartphone
Most people who use a smartphone do so to access their mail and other documents. However, wouldn't it be great if you could access your computer itself?
Apps like Virtual Network Computing do this, allowing you to remotely connect to your system and view your entire desktop on your smartphone display. You can perform functions such as converting files, mailing and much more.
Another interesting app is VLC Direct Pro Free which stream media to your smartphone. You can use this to watch media from your PC on your smartphone. Imagine travelling to work and being able to watch a movie sitting on your PC via remote streaming.

4. Add contacts to your home screen
Some functions of Android are incredibly complex and powerful. This one is incredibly simple but under-stated in its importance. If you press and hold on an empty space on your Android smartphone's home screen, you'll get a pop-up menu.
From there, select "Shortcuts" and then "Contact".
From there, you scroll through your contacts and decide whom to add. For Jelly Bean, you need to press the Menu button, select Widgets (located in the top right corner) and then slide over one page to select Contact.
From there, you can choose the contact you wish to add a shortcut for.

5. Taking measurements using your smartphone
Suppose you don't have any measuring tape on you. Using Smart Measure Pro, you can convert your camera's lens into a highly accurate measuring device. It features a long range of measurements and conversions so you can properly discern things.
It may seem a bit confusing at first, since you need to aim at the ground rather than the object in question to measure. For example, when measuring the distance from someone, you need to take a picture of his or her feet. But it supports a range of features such as Portrait Mode, measuring width and area, and much more.

6. Gesture mode for visually impaired users
External apps are fun and all for utilising wave gestures. However, what if you're visually impaired and need to use the entire smartphone?
This is where Google's new Gesture Mode comes into play.
Available with Jelly Bean, Gesture Mode uses voice output, gestures and even inputs via Braille to help properly guide users through the interface. There is even output available via USB and Bluetooth devices.

7. The knowledge graph
Google pushed this new update through for PC-based search. Now, it's available on Android as well. When conducting searches on specific topics, such as people, places, books, movies and more, Google will look for data relevant to the search.
For example, Google a popular movie and you'll find information to the right of the screen which showcases a short summary, cast of characters -- along with the actors' real names -- and other movies people search for in the process.
It's great for finding something similar to your interests.

8. Access notifications and apps without unlocking your phone
Suppose you're in a hurry and don't want to needlessly unlock your phone.
From the lock screen itself you can slide from the top of the screen to the bottom. This will open the notifications tab and show you any new messages or updates you may have. If you press on a specific item, it will open that app right away. You can also customise your lock screen for numerous shortcuts to different apps.

9. Taking screenshots with the device
A long awaited feature for Jelly Bean has been the ability to take screenshots of whatever is happening on the home screen.
The shortcut for doing so is to hold the power button and volume down key. This will take a screenshot of whatever your home screen currently has displayed. You can then edit, crop and even share the photo among friends.

10. A softer night browsing experience
For those who use their smartphones in the dark, with no external background light, viewing text on screen can be a harsh experience for the eyes.
Google has introduced the means to invert colours on the browser for easier reading. Go to Settings and then Accessibility. Scroll down from there to find "Inverted Rendering". This transforms the browser to showcase white text on a black background.

Work from Home: Ways to Ensure its Effectiveness

Marissa Mayer found herself at the center of a controversy when she issued a mandate that all Yahoo employees must work in one of the company's offices. Many people saw this as an indictment against the telework movement, which has become a mainstream option in recent years thanks to the explosive growth of mobile and cloud technologies that allows many professionals to work anyplace they have Internet access. As Yahoo played damage control about the decision, describing the decision as necessary for Yahoo's situation and not a value statement about remote workers, a picture began to emerge of wide scale corporate dysfunction.

As it turned out, Mayer made the decision because many Yahoo employees that were allowed to work from home simply weren't working -- and they weren't bothering to hide it. Mayer discovered the breadth of the situation by looking at VPN logs and discovering that remote workers weren't even connecting to Yahoo's corporate network. While the rest of world debated Mayer's decision, a number of Yahoo employees publicly praised the decision because they knew their colleagues were shirking their duties.

Mayer's decision may not have been a statement about the value or challenges of managing a remote workforce, but it definitely shows what can go wrong with a telework program and the drastic actions that it can take correct the situation. That brings up a big question for managers (and employees): What steps can you take to prevent your team, department, or company from developing a Yahoo-like dysfunction while embracing the flexibility and other advantages telework offers?

First and foremost -- telework isn't right for everyone. Understand that not everyone is well suited to working remotely and that some jobs don't lend themselves to a remote worker model. Depending on your business or department, the corporate culture, or even the type of work that you do may not be ideal for teleworking. An honest assessment of your organization's mission, the various teams and departments, individual employees and job roles is the first step in planning a successful telework experience. While management can do a good job in these assessments, employees themselves can offer invaluable insights in assessing themselves and their duties and should be part of the process.

Deny telework requests for business reasons only. If you need to deny telework (initially or after having previously approved it), you should be able articulate the business reasons for that decision. Personal preferences should not be a reason to deny telework options for individuals or teams.

Have clear goals. There are plenty of documented advantages to telework -- increased productivity, employee satisfaction, less downtime because of commuting, potentially easier access to clients or services, a lower carbon footprint, cost savings on office space, and a better overall attitude because people aren't fighting through traffic to get to the office. However, you should have a defined sense of what you want to a telework program to accomplish or how it will benefit your company. That knowledge helps you tailor the program to your needs, and to develop criteria and metrics for determining if the program is successful or how it may need to be tweaked.

Start with a pilot program. Shifting to a telework model is a major undertaking. As with many workplace and technology changes, you should test the waters before planning for a company-wide or departmental initiative. The pilot will let you test whether or not your presumed needs and support systems -- such as hardware, remote access technologies, and employee training -- are in fact effective enough.

Develop consistent policies for working remotely. These policies should include input from HR, legal, and even employee unions or bargaining units, all of which are major stakeholders shaping how and when employees work outside of the office. Be sure that the policies spell out employee and manager responsibilities, general expectations, and cost-sharing options that you may employ to compensate employees for establishing and managing a home office (wired or mobile Internet access, hardware, security and anti-malware software, mobile devices and service, or even space rental outside the home). Any employee requesting to work remotely should fully understand and agree to the terms and to any disciplinary actions if they fail to meet those requirements.

Provide training. Education and training is a big factor in successful telework programs. That education can be technical (how to use various devices and secure remote access technologies), it can focus on collaboration models for distributed workforces, it can cover workspace safety issues like ergonomic models to reduce repetitive stress injury, and it can tackle HR issues like feedback and conflict resolution. Any question that a manager or employee might have about the program or its policies should be communicated before the program ramps up.

Include in-office staff in policies and training. Setting guidelines about how in-office staff should interact with remote team members can help ensure smooth interactions and help resolve any ruffled feathers that in-office workers may feel about not being able to work remotely. Make sure division of labor is equitable regardless of who's in the office and who's working remotely to ensure a sense of fairness on both parties.

Create a criteria list of what remote employees need.  This could mean smartphones, personally owned computers, specific apps, VPN functionality, Internet access, a dedicated landline or VOIP line for phone and/or fax, and even hours that a remote worker is expected to be working or available. Then make sure that workers have these things already, or that the company can provide them.

Encourage employees working from home to set work/life boundaries. Establishing a real home office (ideally with a door that can be closed for quiet and so work is out of sight at the end of the day) is one of the most important boundaries to set. Also ensure workers understand that while telework does add flexibility and time with family, it shouldn't be a wholesale replacement for child care or elder care.

Redesign performance review processes. A big challenge in remote work programs is the lack of the day-to-day interaction and feedback that's common in an office. Even measuring engagement on a daily basis can be difficult. Often organizations need to create a new range of performance metrics to assess remote employees and may even need to create a different schedule for performance reviews to ensure issues don't fall through the cracks.

Face time is critical. It's important to keep human contact with remote workers. While planning a team meeting in which everyone attends physically may not be feasible, you should make efforts to get team members together when possible, be that at conferences, team or company retreats, or by invitation to social events. Even if those opportunities are infrequent, they help cement relationships and team dynamics in much the same way that seeing longtime friends and family members helps to strengthen bonds that are maintained mostly by email or Facebook.

Actively checking in is mandatory. Even if you can only check in by phone or video chat, ensuring that you do so on a regular basis is extremely important to keep team members motivated and feeling like they're part of a team. Many experts suggest checking in with each remote team member at least once a week. You can even promote deeper engagement by using social tools across a team, which can be something as simple as a web forum or wiki, mainstream media tools -- a Twitter list, Facebook group, Google+ circle -- or a full featured enterprise social platform.

Encourage long distance employees to make use of flexible offices or coworking spaces. Working solely from home can be isolating in a personal as well as a professional sense. Using flexible rented office space or coworking spaces can combat that isolation, offer a professional setting for meeting clients, and even expand networking opportunities. Likewise, you should try to keep some space in the office for remote employees to use on occasion -- after all telework isn't an all or nothing proposition.

Consider hiring or assigning a telework coordinator. Telework programs represent a unique mix of stakeholders -- IT, HR, corporate policy makers, finance, building or facilities management, managers, and the remote workers themselves. Assigning someone who can be an intermediary for all those stakeholders as well as a go-to person for resolving problems can keep a telework program running smoothly.

Provide forums for managers of teleworkers. Often times problems and opportunities associated with a remote workforce will impact multiple teams. Providing managers a forum -- be it an actual web forum, an email list, social platform, or regular meetings -- to discuss challenges and ideas and to learn from another can help avoid problems and capitalize on opportunities.

Review effectiveness of the telework program and related policies on a regular basis. A telework initiative is far from static. Changes in staff, corporate culture or policy, and technology will impact that the program in large and small ways. Reviewing its effectiveness, limitations, costs, and opportunities at least once a year can ensure ongoing success.

Address problems as soon as they're identified. It's virtually impossible for any business initiative to function without glitches or problems and a telework program is no exception. While all these tips can help you avoid problems, some issues may be unavoidable or beyond the scope of anything you could anticipate. Dealing with trouble immediately is always better than procrastinating and letting things fester, but it can be absolutely essential with a remote workforce. Being outside of the office and often working by themselves, remote workers don't see evidence of a problem being discussed or addressed in the way that employees in an office do. Not hearing the scuttlebutt or being able to vent frustrations with coworkers means that small issues can seem bigger than they are, and major issues can be easily overlooked -- both of which are recipes for disaster.

Microsoft vs Google

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Microsoft, Google, and Apple: Which one faces doom in 2017?

Last week Gartner released yet another report predicting what the market for computing devices will look like in 2017.

And tech pundits have run with it, churning out one sensational headline after another: Microsoft will be obsolete, its influence is fading fast, it is sliding into irrelevance. And my favorite, “Gartner May Be Too Scared To Say It, But the PC Is Dead.” One could write a pretty good parody of the Monty Python “dead parrot” sketch just using the headlines.

There are two problems with what happened last week.
First, it’s Gartner, which has a track record of being spectacularly wrong with its predictions. Like the time in 2006 (and no, that is not a typo) when Gartner asserted that Apple’s only path to success was to quit the hardware business completely and license the Mac to Dell. Or the rolling forecasts in 2009 that started with Gartner projecting the “sharpest unit decline in history” and ended up with a report of “the strongest growth rate [in PC shipments] in seven years.”
Now, in fairness to the analysts who wrote this report, I think they have identified some likely trends. Sadly, those genuine insights are getting lost because they’re surrounded by tables full of numbers that are so specific as to be ludicrous.
But even if you take their numbers at face value, you need to actually understand them. With a few exceptions, most of the quick-and-dirty rewrites of Gartner’s press release got the story exactly wrong.
And that’s the second problem. All those reports focused on one shiny thing and ignored everything else in the report. Here, I’ve used my virtual yellow magic marker so you can see Gartner’s data as superficially as all those bloggers did:

Right. The market for conventional desktop and notebook PCs is declining, because people increasingly value mobility in the devices they use to perform basic computing tasks. So, Gartner predicts a 20 percent decline in demand for big, desk-bound PCs and conventional notebooks, most of which are heavy devices that remain on a desktop full time.
But what’s that line right below the highlighted one? What’s an Ultramobile?
The good folks at Gartner helpfully defined the term for CNET last summer:

Gartner describes the combination of ultrabooks and the MacBook Air as "ultramobile notebooks." Typically, ultramobile laptops are under 3.5 pounds and less than 0.8-inches thick.

In other words, these are lightweight PCs, typically with keyboards and trackpads, powered by the same operating systems used on those heavier desktop and conventional notebook models. Microsoft’s two-pound Surface Pro is a perfect example of this type of lightweight PC/tablet. So are hybrid Windows 8 devices like HP’s Envy X2, Samsung’s 500T and 700T, and even Dell’s 3.3-pound convertible XPS 12. Ultrabooks and MacBook Airs, which are the equivalent of PCs and MacBook Pros in every dimension except weight and thickness, are counted in that line too. In other words, some PCs are getting considerably lighter, but they’re still PCs.
So let’s redo Gartner’s numbers, this time combining the PC and Ultramobile lines.

Wow, that’s a completely different story. Large, heavy, general-purpose PCs are becoming less popular, but demand for lightweight devices that can still function as general-purpose PCs is soaring. If you do the math, you’ll see that the increase is projected to be about 881 percent from 2012 to 2017. That phenomenal growth rate in the Ultramobile category means that overall, the number of shipments of devices running desktop operating systems (like Windows and OS X and even Chrome OS) will probably increase by 5 percent between 2012 and 2017.
At an average of about 340 million devices per year, that means roughly 1.7 billion new PCs (including 250 million or so in the Ultramobile category) will reach the market between 2013 and 2017, also known as the Windows 8 era. Not exactly a dead category.
If you trust the numbers, that is, which is a pretty big if.
(A side note from that CNET story: Last July Gartner said it expected about 10.7 million ultramobile units to ship in 2012. Gartner’s final tally for the year was 9.8 million, more than 8 percent lower than its projection just six months earlier. Likewise, last July they projected that the number of ultramobiles shipped in 2013 would be “about 17 million.” Nine months later, they’ve revised that projection upwards to 23.6 million, a change of about 39 percent in just nine months. Think about that before you get too transfixed by the detailed projections for 2014 and 2017.)
And what about that "obsolete,” “irrelevant,” “fading fast” Microsoft?
Well, again, if you trust in Gartner’s numbers enough to write a “Microsoft is doomed” blog post, you really need to look at all the numbers. Here, let me help.

[Data from Table 2 in this report, with RIM's tiny numbers added to the much larger "Other" category. I added percentages and trendlines.]
Wait, what? That same Gartner report says that Microsoft will struggle in 2013 and 2014 but then will dramatically increase its share of the overall market by 2017?
Exactly. Here’s what Gartner said in their summary press release:

In the shares of operating systems (OSs) in device sales, the shift to mobile and the fight for the third ecosystem becomes more evident. Android continues to be the dominant OS in the device market, buoyed by strong growth in the smartphone market (see Table 2). Competition for the second spot will be between Apple's iOS/Mac OS and Microsoft Windows.

I think that sounds about right.
Apple isn’t interested in winning market share at any costs. They want the high-margin customers. Microsoft is doing its best to build new-format devices that can work well in corporate environments where management is important. Android and Windows are both fighting aggressively to win share in emerging markets. The real loser is “Other.”
And before you start high-fiving Google over their complete dominance, it’s worth noting that Google’s direct share of the Android ecosystem might be a lot smaller than either of its two rivals. As my colleague Jason Perlow pointed out last week, the open nature of Android is a great blessing and an even greater curse for Google. Samsung, the largest maker of Android devices in the world, “will diverge from Google's OS and become a legitimate fork.” So will Amazon.

ZTE, Lenovo, and Huawei service primarily a domentic market in China, and will run their own weird domestic builds of Android with state-approved social networking software to keep the Chinese government happy...
This leaves us with no less than four, five, or six distinct forks of Android. Google as represented on Nexuses or Google Experience devices; Amazon; Samsung; HTC/Facebook; and whatever weird beast ends up running for domestic Chinese use. And BlackBerry 10's Dalvik implementation.

If you strip away the sensational headlines, the real story is pretty prosaic. The worldwide market for computing devices is changing rapidly, and three ecosystems (one of which is highly fragmented) have excellent prospects of becoming large enough to be taken seriously over the next five years.
Unless things change, which they always do.
Now go ahead and spin a clickbait headline out of that story. I dare you.

Check detail: http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-google-and-apple-which-one-faces-doom-in-2017-7000013637/

Mobile Industry In 2013

As we enter 2013 it’s only fitting to present a few predictions for the sector that’s become as important to established tech as technology itself to the makers of cars, consumer goods and services. With a little help from analysts, entrepreneurs and researchers, here are 10 forecasts on the big changes we’ll see for telecommunications and mobile technology in 2013:

1. HTML5 will make a comeback, helping to make smartphones cheaper.
HTML5 is a new web standard letting apps run on any mobile operating system (iOS, Android, etc.) through a web browser. Though it kicked off a while ago, the infrastructure wasn’t ready, says Tomer Kagan, chief executive officer of Quixey, a search engine for mobile apps. “But HTML5 will make a comeback because of the release of Firefox and Tizen.” These are open-sourced, mobile operating systems that Mozilla and Samsung, respectively, are expected to launch in 2013. That could lead to cheaper smartphones, since HTML5 apps can run on these systems with no need for a browser, and they are cheaper for developers to build. “The costs of running a developer community and app store also go away,” says Kagan. On top of that, “more users internationally will have access to a greater web than ever before.” Essentially, as other mobile operating systems compete against the 90%-marketshare of Android-and-iOS, more developers will push to make apps work across different platforms, using HTML5. One caveat: apps created natively for Android or iOS still tend to perform faster than those on HTML5, meaning the walled gardens or “ecosystems” of mobile-operating systems and native apps may continue for at least a couple more years.

2. Companies will continue to launch dark, rectangular slabs of plastic.
Surprise! Device makers will keep bringing out the same, tried and tested form factor for smartphones: dark, plastic slabs in roughly three sizes of phone, “phablet” and tablet. “There will be new launches of the same, boring form factor,” says Jefferson Wang, a mobile consultant with IBB Consulting. Manufacturers will still make incremental innovations. “The finish doesn’t have to be matt plastic,” says Wang. “It could have a texture or a gloss or different finishes.” That said, Samsung has long been rumored to be working on foldable AMOLED screens that wrap around the borders of a smartphone, so it could also release something along those lines in 2013.

3. A few firms that were late to the mobile game will launch their own phones.
One of the big criticisms made towards Facebook has been its slow move into mobile, but multiple reports suggest the company is working on launching its own Facebook-branded phone in collaboration with HTC, and it’s likely under pressure to finally put something out in 2013. Microsoft and Amazon have reportedly contracted Foxconn, the sprawling Taiwanese manufacturer of iPhones and other handsets, to manufacture their own smartphones for a launch in 2013. Meanwhile a large Internet company with mobile ambitions could buy a struggling device maker, a la Google‘s purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2011. Among the possible targets: HTC, LG, Sony Mobile, Research in Motion and Nokia, who would most likely be bought out by its partner, Microsoft.

4. Wireless technology will give new life to products that were almost killed by smartphones.
Remember watches? Point-and-shoot digital cameras? Day planners? We don’t see very much of these products anymore because they’ve been replaced by smartphones, with their confluence of multiple services into one piece of plastic. But some of these old industries are coming back from the brink by incorporating the same wireless technology we find in smartphones, says IBB’s Wang. Expect to see more wireless-enabled wearable devices in 2013, including watches that track your fitness levels, (like the bluetooth-enabled smart watch that Apple and Intel are reportedly working on) or digital cameras that can connect to to the web and take a better photo than your smartphone can. In 2012 Samsung launched its 16-megapixel, Galaxy digital camera that runs on Android and edits photos, then uploads them directly to Facebook. Devices mainly need to support a mobile operating system like Android, thus allowing them to connect to web protocols. “Even fabric can have wireless capabilities that change based on your emotion and physical state,” says Wang.

5. Samsung will continue to dominate.
The world of mobile devices has had its kings in global sales, innovation and the high-quality products, with Motorola, Nokia, RIM and most recently Apple each having their few-years reign. But Samsung rose through the ranks in 2012, dethroning Nokia as the world’s biggest mobile phone maker, and it will continue to dominate the world of consumer mobile products in 2013. It is reaping the benefits of Android’s growth in most major markets outside of the U.S., and its strong distribution channels, good relationships with carriers and varied price range will help keep the company on top.

6. So will Foxconn. 
It’s well known that sales of tablets are on track to overtake those of desktop PCs and even laptops. So who’s benefiting? Taiwan-based Foxconn is one of the world’s biggest mobile handset manufacturers, producing devices for Apple, Dell, Nokia and Sony, with recent reports suggesting it is now prepping phones for Microsoft and Amazon. The company will also continue to benefit significantly from orders from Apple, whose supply chain partners are reportedly working through the traditional Chinese New Year holiday to keep up with demand for the iPad Mini and iPhone 5.

7. Microsoft and (especially) Research in Motion will struggle to sell phones.
Smartphone sales continue to be a two-horse race between Android and Apple’s iOS, with Microsoft’s Windows Phone and RIM’s BlackBerry fighting for third place in mobile “ecosystems.” RIM’s future will rest largely on the fate of it’s forthcoming BlackBerry 10 phone, launching in January 2013 and offering a new “peek-and-go” method of interacting with a device. But Microsoft stands a better chance of staying firmly in the No. 3 spot, thanks to the support of several large device manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung and HTC. These firms are keen to see Windows Phone push back against Google’s dominance with Android, something Nokia CEO Stephen Elop alluded to when he first partnered Nokia with Windows Phone. Windows Phone’s colorful tiles are are also being marketed everywhere, from music videos, to “Gossip Girl,” to billboards. But pressure is also coming from smaller challengers:

8. Dark horses will challenge the third ecosystem.
Smartphones are becoming as much about software as they are about incremental changes to the shape of their rectangular shape. That leaves room for upstart companies to develop new operating systems and launch phones, challenging Microsoft and RIM by taking fourth place in the mobile OS rankings. One dark horse is Tizen, the forthcoming open-source mobile operating system that the Linux Foundation is developing with Samsung and Intel. The other is Mozilla’s Firefox OS, an open-sourced mobile operating system. Research firm Strategy Analytics expects Firefox OS to capture 1% of global smartphone shipments in 2013, by targeting entry-level smartphone users, but it could end up taking more. The Finnish mobile company Jolla is also preparing to launch its open-sourced mobile OS Sailfish in 2013, a descendant of the Meego OS that Nokia abandoned in favor of Windows Phone, and will start by launching a phone in China.

9. Carriers will lose more control to software providers.
 Network providers like AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone were once the kings of mobile telephony, each with their own, profitable empire, a one-stop-shop for subscribing to a mobile phone and  broadband. Now their power is being circumvented in all sorts of ways: new players like FreedomPop are providing cheaper WiFi access for the home, mobile messaging companies like WhatsApp and GroupMe are eating away at their SMS revenues. Meanwhile, Internet giants know far more about users than the providers like AT&T, who were once king of user information like billing and network habits. Now Facebook, Apple, Google and smaller app developers are collecting nuanced details like location data and address-book info, and across a wider breadth of people (more than a billion in the case of Facebook).
 In the coming years, carriers will maintain their crucial advantage of providing spectrum for calls and data connectivity through 3G and 4G. But even that may see some encroachment from the likes of Google. The company is already experimenting with its one-gigabit fiber network in Kansas City, offering lightening-fast broadband and TV services. Who knows if in 2013 Google doesn’t buy spectrum (it has reportedly been in talks with the Dish Network) and experiment on a small market like Kansas City. It might be hard to imagine Google becoming that big, but “there is a collision course between the Internet and the mobile space,” says IBB’s Wang. We’ll always need network carriers like AT&T, but signs point to them going the way of regulated utilities like your electric and water company, rather than service providers that know everything about you.

 10. Big demand for big data
 It’s a little cliche to include “big data” in a list of 2013 predictions, but a few companies will successfully take advantage of the need to contextualize the glut of data and web-enabled apps that run on mobile devices according to Juniper Research. In so doing, they’ll be able to make valuable predictions of consumer behavior — notwithstanding a host of privacy concerns.

 11. Bonus prediction: The definition of “mobile” will broaden. 
 Today the smartest machine in many homes, besides a desktop computer or laptop, is a smartphone. Everything else from the TV to the toaster, are dumb by comparison. But that’s changing, as more devices are enabled with wireless connectivity as per prediction No. 4. The smartphone is also becoming the hub for them all — used to turn off the lights or control the temperature of a house. More devices will go mobile, augmenting the very definition of the term, and the smartphone will become increasingly important as the “mothership” that controls them all.

BYOD - Bring Your Own Device

Bring your own device (BYOD) (also called bring your own technology (BYOT), bring your own phone (BYOP), and bring your own PC (BYOPC)) means the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned mobile devices (laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their workplace, and use those devices to access privileged company information and applications.

BYOD has resulted in data breaches. For example, if an employee uses a smartphone to access the company network and then loses that phone, untrusted parties could retrieve any unsecured data on the phone. Another type of security breach occurs when an employee leaves the company, they do not have to give back the device, so company applications and other data may still be present on their device. It is important to consider damage liability issues when evaluating BYOD. If an employee brings their personal device to work, and it is physically damaged through no fault of their own, is the company responsible for repair or replacement?

Pros

Business: A business that adopts a BYOD policy saves money on high-priced devices it would normally purchase for employees. Employees may take better care of devices they view as their own property. Companies can take advantage of newer technology faster.

Employees: Employees who work for a business with a BYOD policy can decide on the technology they wish to use, rather than using whatever the company chooses. This may improve morale and productivity. Exclusive control of features is given to the employee.

Cons

Business: Company information is often less secure than it would be on a company-controlled device. (Security professionals have called it 'bring your own danger' and 'bring your own disaster'.) Even though the cost of hardware investment can probably be reduced, there is administrative effort and therefore administrative costs. The effort can be much higher for BYOD-devices, because hardware is not fully controlled by IT department (integration into corporate network, incident resolution, etc.). The company may have to pay for employee devices' phone service, which they use outside company time. BYOD is an extreme case of the end node problem.

Employees: Due to security issues, employees often do not have true full control over their devices, as the company they work for must ensure that proprietary and private information is always secure. It is an out-of-pocket expense for employees. They may be responsible for repairs if their devices were damaged or broken at work. Businesses that fall under compliancy rules such as PCI or HIPAA must still comply when using BYOD.
The Ten Commandments of BYOD

1. Create Thy Policy Before Procuring Technology
2. Seek The Flocks’ Devices
3. Enrollment Shall Be Simple
4. Thou Shalt Configure Devices Over the Air
5. Thy Users Demand Self-Service
6. Hold Sacred Personal Information
7. Part the Seas of Corporate and Personal Data
8. Monitor Thy Flock—Herd Automatically
9. Manage Thy Data Usage
10. Drink from the Fountain of ROI
 

Developing Website using WordPress: Pros & Cons

Developing Website using WordPress

When starting out with your online business you probably want to set it up as cheaply as possible, and this includes the setting up of your website too. WordPress is often the platform of choice for those just starting out online, without the budget to hire someone to create a website for them, it offers the cheapest and most versatile option.

Pros:

•It’s free
•Fast to setup
•Easy to learn
•Lots of plugins and templates available so you don’t need to be a PHP guru or designer to have a nice looking site with lots of features.
•Easy to modify page templates allowing you to customize the presentation layers to your heart content
•Large and active open source community community of people developing add-ons, plugins, themes frequently
 •Easy to host with simple requirements

Cons:

• Many of the themes have a tendency to look the same or similar.
•PHP’s track record for security is pretty bad.
•Database queries may be very heavy
•It isn’t a full CMS product – which is fine for a lot of sites – but if your site is moving a long way away from something based around a blog then you might find it starts to creak a bit!

Cloud Data Management System: Modern superset of an RDBMS

Modern superset of an RDBMS

A CDMS is a modern superset of an RDBMS designed to meet the needs of modern, 21st century applications and deployment infrastructures.
In addition to delivering the full range of RDBMS capabilities, including SQL, ACID transactions, and supporting all of the tools and APIs that come with them, a CDMS must:
• Support modern datacenter hardware and management frameworks,
• Meet peak workload demands,
• Handle structured and unstructured datasets, and
• Support non-SQL paradigms.
In particular, a CDMS must embrace modern dynamic and flexible cloud computing environments.

Elastic Scale-out for Extreme Performance

A CDMS must deliver capacity on demand by adding or deleting computational and storage resources in a running database. A CDMS must be able to elastically scale out to very high transaction volumes – in the millions of transactions per second (TPS) – and web-scale database sizes – in the petabytes of data – by the addition of real or virtual machines, networks and storage systems to a live database. A CDMS must also scale in gracefully when resources are no longer needed.

Single Logical Database

No matter how complicated the application a CDMS must present its users the view of a single, logical, consistent and always available database. A CDMS must shield users from having to employ explicit partitioning, sharding or caching techniques to achieve massive database scalability. The CDMS must obviate or encapsulate these complexities, so that a developer or administrator can focus on using the database no matter the scale or complexity.

Run Anywhere, Scale Anywhere

A CDMS must be able to run on any infrastructure from single machines to private clouds, public clouds and combinations of the above. It must be able to run in a heterogeneous environment incorporating different machines, virtual machines, operating systems, or network infrastructures. A CDMS should excel on enterprise and commodity hardware equally.

Nonstop Availability

A CDMS must be capable of running continuously – for months or years – without failing or being made unavailable for maintenance.
A CDMS cannot have a single point of failure. It must presume infrastructure failure and be self-aware to detect it, handle systems changes and recognize extreme events like network partitions. It should remain available, or if impossible then fail in a graceful and consistent fashion. It should be able to decide how to react to network partitions, either by failing some portion of the system or understanding how to reconcile changes when the network is stabilized.
A CDMS must support live rolling upgrades of hardware, operating systems and CDMS versions, and must support dynamic changes to schemas and other database administration tasks without shutting down CDMS availability.

Dynamic Multi-tenancy

A CDMS must be dynamically multi-tenant. It must be able to manage large numbers of databases on a finite set of resources, and be able to reassign resources to databases as needed. A CDMS must be able to hibernate inactive databases and wake them on demand.

Active/Active Geo-distribution

A CDMS must be able to run concurrently in multiple datacenters to support geographically distributed workloads, always-on applications, and for disaster recovery. A CDMS must deliver active/active operations with transactionally consistent semantics, work across and between Wide Area Networks and understand how to localize activity or caches.

Embrace Cloud

A CDMS must integrate and run in a cloud environment, and be designed to support cloud-scale performance requirements while being resilient against the inherent concurrency and latency challenges. It must be able to provide transactions per second (TPS) and load rate guarantees and maintain those rates as latency spikes and concurrent load grows. It must support cloud management frameworks and integrate with modern cloud stacks.

Store Anywhere, Store Redundantly

A CDMS must be able to store the data anywhere: Locally, remotely, in a datacenter or on a public or private cloud. A CDMS should also be able to store the data in whatever storage system is appropriate: on a directly attached file system, a local Key/Value store or on a cloud-based storage service. It should be able to store all data redundantly in multiple locations, simultaneously and with transactional consistency, using a heterogeneous mix of storage locations and storage technologies.

Workload Mix

A CDMS must be flexible in the kinds of workloads it supports, and efficient in running different workloads concurrently. It should be able to support highly scalable web-facing applications with primary requirements that include high transaction throughput, web-scale concurrency and very low latency. It should be able to support enterprise applications that involve complex transactions and a more even mix of reads and updates. It should be able to support analytical applications, with a premium on un-cached reads and long-running queries. A CDMS should also support logging-style applications with a focus on sustained appending of data.
A CDMS must be able to perform backups without taking the system down, and run analytical queries without interfering with transaction processing.

Tunable Durability Guarantees

A CDMS must allow a user to define infrastructure reliability constraints that control the trade off between durability guarantees and database performance. A user must be allowed to define whether a transactional commit means that the data is safely written to storage in one place, written to storage in K places, written to storage in M non-collocated places, stored in RAM in N places, or something else.

Distributed Security

A CDMS must have enterprise class security at system level and database level, including:
• Authentication and access control of machines before they are accepted into the trusted group,
• Authentication and access control of database processes before they are allowed to participate in a particular database,
• Encryption of all communications between machines, and
• Database-level security for users of the database.

Empower Developers & Administrators

Empowering Developers:
• A CDMS must support rapid application development and frictionless application evolution,
• It should be easy to use, without time-consuming requirements for provisioning of database servers, or inflexible schemas that slow down application development,
• It must be integrated with modern programming languages and APIs, database development tools and application development frameworks,
• It must support flexible schemas with user-defined types in order to provide a clean layer for arbitrary language integration that is agnostic to row or column orientation. A CDMS should enable users to easily update and redefine data as their applications change.

Empowering Administrators:
• A CDMS should provide a single secure point of administration for all its databases and resources. It should make it simple to automate logging, auditing, profiling, process management and resource allocation,
• It should enable policy-driven, zero-admin services that manage the system as a whole,
• A CDMS should also support the separation of database administrators and systems administrators as roles using this single point of management as these roles are more distinct in a cloud environment.