Stories by Robert L. Mitchell

Big data technologies and practices are moving quickly. Here's what you need to know to stay ahead of the game.

I have had a smart thermostat and Wi-Fi security cameras in my home for about a year. While using these (and researching my article The Internet of Things at home: Why we should pay attention), I started to wonder if the task of managing smart devices could quickly get out of hand.

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium turned to cloud-based analytics when it needed a way to better predict how many visitors would be coming on any given day. With 65% of its expenses dedicated to payroll and attendance swings that ranged from 1,200 to 5,000 people per day, finding a way to ensure that staffing levels corresponded to attendance levels represented a huge opportunity for savings. "We live and breathe by attendance at the gate," says Donna Powell, business and administrative services manager at the Tacoma, Wash., facility.

Some of the world's largest businesses say their Cobol application infrastructure, running on state-of-the-art big iron, still delivers a powerful competitive advantage. The challenge going forward will be staffing it.

The use of 3D printing for finished goods is about to disrupt manufacturing and supply chains in a big way. Here's why, and here's how IT will be critical to that transition.

What businesses know about any given individual is a lot. But what are companies doing with that data? Not as much as you might think -- at least not yet. Companies are getting more sophisticated, however.

The Internet of Things is producing a lot of interesting consumer products that have the potential to lead to important enterprise tools. Here is a basic overview of the concept, together with examples of available products and what they offer.

Working in IT at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is great for all the reasons you'd expect.

Some ne'er-do-wells steal test questions and answers, and cheaters buy that information, share answers in chat rooms, pay other people to take tests for them and bring a range of technologies and techniques into test centers to gain an edge.

With hidden malware on the rise, the online advertising industry may finally have to get its governance act together.

Squeezing software cost savings from virtualization projects is tricky for lots of reasons, but can be particularly challenging when it comes to Oracle databases. Here's why, and some tips to help.

As CIO at Boeing, Ted Colbert is no stranger to the Internet of Things. For more than a decade, the aerospace giant has deployed thousands of communications-enabled smart devices to sense, control and exchange data across the factory floor, on the battlefield, and within the company's 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Online tracking is on the rise, but efforts to create a practical Do Not Track policy have slowed to a crawl. Meanwhile, users and browser companies are taking matters into their own hands.

Who says privacy is dead? While it's true that marketers, the government, data aggregators and others are gathering and analyzing more data than ever about every individual, you can still exert some control over what's out there, who's tracking you and what they do with that information.

As mobile device management continues to morph, consider what's 'good enough' for what you need right now -- and don't neglect the user experience, whatever else you do.