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Cloud computing seems to often get used as a catch-all term for the big trends happening in IT.

This has the unfortunate effect of adding additional ambiguities to a topic that's already laden with definitional overload. (For example, on a topic like security or compliance, it makes a lot of difference whether you're talking about public clouds like Amazon's, a private cloud within an enterprise, a social network, or some mashup of two or more of the above.)

However, I'm starting to see a certain consensus emerge about how best to think about the broad sense … Read more

It's dangerous for those of us in the tech industry to naively take what we see playing out in our workplaces every day as a mirror of the wider world. High-tech workers are often more technically savvy and likely to be early adopters. High-tech employers are likewise more inclined to let employees use the tools of their choice. And high-tech companies as a group are, almost by definition, far closer to technology adoption's leading edge.

Which raises the question of whether all the personal gadgets from smartphones to tablets to laptops that appear to be an increasingly integral … Read more

In early June, market researcher IDC cut its forecast growth for PCs in 2011 from 7.1 percent to 4.2 percent. Gartner Group, another IT analyst firm, had earlier trimmed its numbers. Meanwhile, Apple iPad sales continue to skyrocket, with 183 percent growth compared to the year-ago quarter. Android tablets remain more of a mixed bag when it comes to gaining buyers, but they'll gain traction over time as well.

Those numbers would seem to lay out the case for a post-PC world rather starkly. Especially when you consider that they don't even consider phones which, in … Read more

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--One of the reasons I like to attend events like the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is that they're opportunities for a reality check. Vendor confabs can sometimes feel like a bit of an echo chamber that is a bit disconnected from what IT departments are really doing or, at least, the pace at which they're doing it.

To be sure, the companies attending and speaking at events like this symposium tend to be more leading edge and forward-thinking than average. Even so, I was still a bit surprised at how strongly most of the end-user panelists … Read more

The idea of convergence, of one device replacing several, has long been a popular theme in forecasting high-tech gadgetry. It's also something that doesn't happen as often as predicted.

Some of the reasons relate to design and technology. It's hard to make a multitool as elegant for each individual function as specialist devices are. A form factor that's optimized around, say, being a phone demands serious technical compromises when it comes to a totally different function, such as taking a picture. And rapidly evolving technology means some functions in a device are inevitably behind the technology … Read more

A recent multiple-city speaking tour in Asia gave me the opportunity to gain some real-world insight into traveling with an iPad rather than my usual laptop and Kindle.

The business part of the trip was something of a whirlwind and then I was taking vacation for about a week. So I figured that if I weren't going to be creating or editing documents, I might as well keep my luggage as light as possible.

My experience was mixed.

On the positive side, the iPad is a great device for watching video and playing casual games. Crammed into an economy … Read more

Large research organizations use models to codify their findings in something approaching a consistent way. The downside is that they sometimes seemingly try to pound square pegs into a round hole--which is to say applying a standard methodology to things that are so different that they're hard to compare in a standardized way.

Gartner's "Hype Cycle" is an example. The underlying concept is pretty simple. New technologies enter the market, become the subject of breathless hype, fail to immediately live up to the most breathless hyperbole, start to therefore be perceived as failures, and finally become … Read more

Some of the early commentary about the Apple iPad dismissed it as just a big iPhone or iPod Touch.

Today, I am listing the applications I find most useful on my iPad and comparing them with my iPhone favorites. And I must say that I'm struck by how different the two lists are.

My iPhone sits in my pocket as I'm out and about, often in at least somewhat unfamiliar cities. I want to know which restaurants, which Wi-Fi hot spots, and which ATMs are nearby. I want to listen to music, glance at the news headlines, or … Read more

The apps make the iPhone. So every time an acquaintance picks one up, just about the first thing they ask is: "What apps should I get?"

This is my current list of apps you might want to download. It's tailored to my use case, which is that of a fairly frequent business traveler and social media user. To the degree your profile is different; your mileage will vary. I've left off games--a post topic of its own--but I've included some honorary mentions that are good and innovative, but which I just don't find myself … Read more