Michael Hickins

Remember 2019? That may have been the last time anyone wondered about the dangers of artificial intelligence. There’s no point restating the many ways the COVID-19 pandemic hammered people and organizations over the intervening year. Many organizations turned to digital tools to keep the lights on–in most cases accelerating tech modernization plans already in place. […]

When Dak Prescott made public his struggles with mental health, the star quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys was met with public statements of support—and some derision as well. To some people, it was a risible admission of weakness.  Prescott wouldn’t have faced negative reactions if he had been discussing a torn ligament or other physical […]

The long-term impact of COVID-19 will be written not just in the acceleration of remote work and the concomitant adoption of enabling technologies such as cloud, collaboration tools and video conferencing. This pandemic will also come to be seen as a moment when industries were forced to look outside their boxes and borrow ideas from […]

Cloud has inspired almost as much evangelical fervor as open source computing, particularly in the heady 2000s. The advent of cloud computing seemed to render traditional enterprise software vendors as out-of-date as telegraph operators. The monolithic process of releasing software every 18 months wasn’t fast enough for business, running your own servers became as fashionable […]

A plethora of cybersecurity breaches at both public and private sector entities over the past few months shows not only how far the industry has to go to shore up its defenses, but how much more sophisticated attackers have become, and how much more sophisticated they will likely get. Many businesses have now concluded–-correctly, most […]

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. –– At their company’s annual Media Days event earlier this month, Oracle executives offered some perspectives on cloud and cybersecurity issues affecting just about every enterprise with an IT system. And that means virtually every business on Earth. Edward Screven, Oracle’s chief corporate architect, participated in a fireside chat with Dorian Daley, Oracle […]

Given some of the current forces yanking the global economy to and fro, it’s probably fitting that the proverb (or is it a curse?) “May you live in interesting times” is said to have originated in China. Current trade tensions between China and much of the rest of the developed world—notably, but not exclusively, the […]

Enterprise IT long has been described as an expense center that eventually will cut costs. So it’s no wonder CIOs, CTOs and data center managers often wince at such statements and mutter: “My CEO doesn’t really want to hear that.” Back when I first started covering technology as a reporter in the late 1990s, much […]

News that so-called Gig Economy standard-bearer WeWork has pulled in another $3 billion in funding from Softbank Corp. may be creating the wrong impression about the economy. The so-called Gig Economy is defined as a labor market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. Ride-sharing, apartment-renting and […]

NEW YORK—Technology may be changing faster than even the most progressive organizations can absorb, if speakers at a recent Zebra Technology-sponsored event here at TED Talk headquarters have correct insight. Businesses are busily trying to build capabilities around artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies in a bid to grow market share, but time is definitely […]