The consultants Mckinsey highlight the four ways Big Data can generate value for any industry: First, Big Data generates value by making information transparent and relatively easy to use. Second, by creating and storing more transactional data in a digital form, organizations can gather more accurate and detailed information –from inventories to days taken off work–, thus improving performance. In fact, […]
The Apache Hadoop system is the software (open source) most commonly associated with Big Data. Is designed to handle hundreds of computers from individual servers, each offering local computing and storage. It works as a framework that allows large volumes of data to be processed through groups of computers using simple programming models.
Almost no company in the world today conceives cloud services without the existence of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), those connectors that enable the use of data and services by third parties with no cost or scalability problems.
Companies and institutions are coming together to develop smart cities as international meeting points and business hubs. Barcelona, New York, the Australian government or the EU for example have been using APIs to drive connected cities. Rudolf Giffinger, one of the world's leading experts in urban development, defines smart cities using six clearly separate criteria: economy, mobility, environment, administration, way of life and residents. Most cities in the world assess their characteristics as smart cities based on these values.
Data chains are the new value chains. Big Data is a concept that describes the large volume of structured and unstructured data which currently floods the business world. However, what really matters is what you do with the data rather than how many they are.
Incorporating solutions, tools and features that harness data analysis is becoming a must for innovative businesses. In this article we examine four of the many ideas that are in the market right now.
Cellphones are increasingly being used to make financial transactions. It is estimated that by 2019 the total value of the mobile payments made worldwide will exceed one thousand billion dollars. Coupled with the growth of mobile banking, the smartphone is set to become the most important bank branch ever. We review the latest trends in mobile payments.
The open banking revolution has only just begun. The arrival of the PSD2 payment directive has laid the foundations in European territory, and it also highlights the United Kingdom's drive with the initiative promoted by the Competition and Markets Authority. But how is open banking tackled outside the Old Continent? We review the initiatives in 8 countries around the world.
There are many tools today available for testing mobile apps. Some of them are specific for iOS or Android environments and others suitable for any kind of operating system, both for testing with real users and for automatic tests.
