Image: Supplied SAP has announced that its Cloud Platform is now also offered as a multicloud environment, which will allow customers to develop and run apps via their choice of infrastructure providers. Customers will be able to use Amazon Web Services (AWS), in general availability; Microsoft Azure, under public preview; and the demo showcase of Google Cloud, in addition to full multicloud support through the SAP Cloud […]
In partnership with TechCrunch, The Europas Conference & Awards, is a different kind of tech event which features main-stage speakers and panels as well as smaller breakout sessions on key subjects for startups. The Europas conference is followed by a glittering awards based on voting by expert judges and the industry itself. Voting is now live, so please go and vote! The awards are editorially led, with […]
Technology and media confluence sets #AJTechSummit top trending on social media for two days May 11, 2017 – Doha, Qatar Held under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al-Thani, Chairman of Al Jazeera Media Network, AJMN’s “Future of Media – Leaders’ Summit” concluded today at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Doha. The Summit, the first of its kind in the region, prominent figures and […]
The titans of the commodities industry are daring to believe the worst is over but are braced for an increasingly uncertain outlook as “me-first” protectionist policies threaten to destabilise global trade. Those were two of the key themes to emerge from the sixth Financial Times Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne last week. The head of Cargill, the world’s biggest agricultural commodities merchant, called on the commodities industry […]
The commodities trading house Trafigura and a bank are testing blockchain as a way to settle deals in the US oil market, a sign of the potential for digital technology to change how barrels of crude are bought and sold. Blockchain is the electronic ledger originally built to underpin bitcoin markets. Promoters say it will lead to cheaper, more secure ways of settling all kinds of transactions, […]
Alibaba has joined forces with AusPost, Blackmores, and PwC to explore the use of blockchain technology to combat food fraud. The Chinese ecommerce giant said the goal is develop a “Food Trust Framework” to help improve integrity and traceability on its global supply chains. Australia was chosen to be the test bed for the new framework. Alibaba believes blockchain, best known as the technology behind bitcoin, is […]
Education technology in the classroom is a waste of time and money. This is the dominant debate at the fifth Global Education & Skills Forum (GESF). Introducing the motion, moderator Dino Varkey, Chief Executive Officer of GEMS Education, said education technology spending globally will reach US$19 billion by 2019, according to Fortune magazine. At that cost, expectations of measurable returns are increasing. “While many sing praises of […]
IBM IBM and Wanda Internet Technology Group have agreed to form a new joint venture to bring IBM Cloud services to China. On Sunday, the two companies announced the plans in Beijing, which includes the formation of Wanda Cloud Company, a JV which will push Wanda into the public cloud business. Based on IBM’s cloud platform, Wanda’s new offerings will focus on Chinese enterprise customers seeking to […]
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss | NEW YORK NEW YORK The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday denied a request to list what would have been the first U.S. exchange-traded fund built to track bitcoin, the digital currency. Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have been trying for more than three years to convince the SEC to let it bring the Bitcoin ETF to market. CBOE […]
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt | NEW YORK NEW YORK Investors are betting market regulators will approve what would be the first U.S. exchange-traded fund to track the price of bitcoin. From investment funds to wealthy individuals and even a Las Vegas strip club, the bitcoin ETF is generating a lot of buzz for a financial product. The surge in interest in the digital currency is […]
The Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, a global fintech fund managed by venture capital firm Quona Capital, has secured $141 million in capital contributions from a consortium of institutional investors including Accion, MasterCard, and JPMorgan Chase. The Washington-based fund will invest in “inclusive fintech” startups that improve the accessibility and quality of financial services in emerging markets including sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia, with a particular focus […]
Credit: Mærsk Line IBM and Maersk will partner to use blockchain technology to conduct, manage and track transactions in the shipping supply chain. The companies said they collaborated on creating blockchain tools for cross-border transactions among shippers, freight forwarders, ocean carriers, ports and customs authorities. According to Maersk and IBM, the blockchain effort, built on the Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger platform, will aim to replace paper-heavy […]
Ismail, a 20-year-old Emirati, has rarely ever stepped into a bank branch. “You won’t believe I haven’t visited my branch for over a year. All my transactions are done online,” he says, as he clicks an app on his phone to make a payment. “I just paid my bill and that’s how it works for me. All the services are at my fingertips and I save immense […]
Image by Arafat Uddin (Creative Commons) The financial services industry is undergoing digital disruption and change. Insurance, as part of that industry, also faces new opportunities and challenges. To explore these issues, I spoke with the CIO for Information at Swiss reinsurance giant, Swiss Re. Rainer Baumann handles the data and tools that experts inside the company use to understand and evaluate a broad range of insurance […]
Stock photo SoftBank, Sprint, and TBCASoft have revealed plans to create new solutions which introduce blockchain technology into the telecommunications industry. On Friday, the companies announced their intentions to “aim” for a technology partnership which will jointly develop blockchain technology for telecommunication carriers. In a press release, the firms explained that the heart of the research and development of a new blockchain solution relies on TBCASoft, which […]
Yesterday´s Future is Today´s Reality. In the area of Business applications, cloud seems to be all over the place. But it has many facets which all have its right to exist, though it´s a fatal misunderstanding to see cloud simply as an alternative technical deployment option. From the new millennium SaaS models that have been adopted, initially with huge appetite in dedicated Line of Business areas. We […]
Researchers from North Carolina State University, Boston University and George Mason University have developed a Bitcoin-compatible system that could make it significantly more difficult for observers to identify or track the parties involved in any given Bitcoin transaction. Bitcoin was initially conceived as a way for people to exchange money anonymously. But then it was discovered that anyone could track all Bitcoin transactions and often identify the […]
Dubai, 12 February 2017 Emirates NBD (DFM: EmiratesNBD), a leading bank group in the region, held its tenth Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Bank’s Headquarters. At the AGM, a review of the year ended 31st December 2016 was presented. Commenting on the business environment, Emirates NBD Chairman, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said, “The UAE continues to stand out as a resilient and […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of magazine publishing. I’m the Editor-in-Chief of a brand that stubbornly features “magazine” in its name, so this should come as no surprise. Although PC Magazine ceased publishing a print version in 2009, thousands of subscribers continue to pay for our Digital Edition. The question is, with an almost infinite amount of free content online, why pay for it? […]
By Anna Irrera | NEW YORK NEW YORK Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O), Bosch Ltd (BOSH.NS) and several other companies, have set up a consortium to work on how blockchain can be used to secure and improve “internet of things” applications, as sectors beyond finance seek to benefit from bitcoin’s underlying technology. The group, which also includes Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK.N), Foxconn Technology Group, security […]
IBM wrapped up 2016 with a better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings report Thursday, despite seeing revenue drop for the 19th consecutive quarter. CES 2017 recap Big trends, top products, and wackiest tech On the CNET Stage at CES 2017, ZDNet and TechRepublic editors wrapped up the show with a discussion of the most important trends and product categories at this year’s CES. The company reported net income of […]
Blockchain has moved on from its Bitcoin past and is being touted as an effective and inexpensive way to safeguard data, with one Singapore-based vendor launching its first blockchain-based authentication tool. Because it provides a shared replicated “immutable” ledger, blockchain can facilitate a “single source of truth” and a secure, tamper-proof system of record, according to Alan Lim, Asean practice lead for IBM Blockchain and Bluemix Garage. […]
Chatbots, collective intelligence and blockchain are some of the big technology trends that will change the way entrepreneurs run their businesses in 2017, says Klaus-Michael Vogelberg, chief technology officer at Sage. Vogelberg sees six major trends in 2017 that could make a big difference to the way business builders will work in 2017 and beyond. 1. Chatbots and autonomous interfaces Autonomous interfaces, such as chatbots or digital […]
Wikimedia Commons IBM has announced a new partnership with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a study designed to determine whether blockchain technology can be used to keep medical data transfers safe from theft or exploit. The tech giant announced the collaboration between IBM Watson Health and the FDA on January 11. The research initiative is a two-year agreement between the FDA and IBM which […]
