SMAC - A New Wave of Technology for Marketers

For a Marketer,  before the arrival of digital era the marketing wasn't as complex as its now days are, the sheer reason is the limited numbers of channels and mediums to reach the consumers. However with the evolution of internet & cloud which we favorably calls - digital age, the marketing is more exhaustive and intriguing because the channels of marketing are becoming almost limitless.

• Online Presence - Websites, SEO, SEM, Videos, Mobile Apps
• Social Medea tools - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, FourSquare, Linkedin
• Printmedia, newspaper, TV News, RSS..

Perhaps, this list goes on & on, with every week I see a new social platforms and tools being launched for new age of users

SMAC - Is the new wave of technology targeted for digital marketers. Given stack of technologies encompass the combined use of social, mobile, analytic & cloud computing. I believe the marketers who conceptualize the use of these 4 technologies together as a one stack can drive higher Customer Engagement, Greater Innovation & Exponential Growth in the opportunities unlike in previous waves personal compute & internet revolutions.

These should be also viewed as a set of complementary technologies, where :

Social - Context Comes before the conversation and transpires into  “Engagement”

Mobile - Brings the “Always On” effect with multiple devices; channels

Analytics  Drives “Actionable Insights”

And Last but not least Cloud makes it “Real Time” & “Flexible”

As a marketer you always think through your marketing strategy and all this through with a limited budgets. Technology is the back pockets tools for a marketer of today's times. He banks on it heavily, and effective use of technologies can take marketing efforts to different levels. SMAC will be a great tool set for a marketer to drive his marketing campaign effectively.

Virtual desktops, An idea of office in the box

Desktop virtualization is software technology {Desktop as a Service} that separates the desktop environment and associated application software from the physical client device that is used to access it. Desktop virtualization can be used in conjunction with application virtualization and user profile management systems (Active Directory, LDAP), now termed "user virtualization," to provide a comprehensive desktop environment management system. All the components of the desktop are virtualized, which allows for a highly flexible and much more secure desktop delivery model. This approach supports a more complete desktop disaster recovery strategy as all components are essentially saved in the data center and backed up through traditional redundant maintenance systems.

Typically, software products that deliver desktop virtualization solutions can combine local and remote implementations into a single product to provide the most appropriate support specific to requirements. Virtualization is employed to present independent instances to multiple users and requires a strategic segmentation of the host server and presentation at some layer of the host's architecture. The enabling application software is called a hypervisor. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is a desktop-centric service that hosts user desktop environments on remote servers and/or PCs, which are accessed over a network using a remote display protocol. A connection brokering service is used to connect users to their assigned desktop sessions. For users, this means they can access their desktop from any location, without being tied to a single client device. Since the resources are centralized, users moving between work locations can still access the same desktop environment with their applications and data. For IT administrators, this means a more centralized, efficient client environment that is easier to maintain and able to respond more quickly to the changing needs of the user and business.

Virtualization Desktop Infrastructure empowers deployment of remote desktop services architectures that provide employees the flexibility to work anywhere, while allowing them to seamlessly access their corporate windows desktop or application environment running in the datacenter from a range of devices. This increases flexibility of access for remote desktops and applications, delivering personalized, consistent, and secure experiences for users, while also improving compliance through centralized control and access to confidential data. VDI facilitates optimal use of hardware and associated applications can be run seamlessly on virtual interfaces.

Conceptual technology stack using VMware vSphere platform showing desktop virtualization. Citrix is another probable choice to setup virtual desktop infrastructure.

Internet of Things

By 2025 almost all household appliances from washing machines to cooking range to cars would be connected with Internet. With this evolution, one thing, which will definitely change for the user, would be their behavior & usage patterns while interfacing with them.

The appliances connected to the Internet can be easily being operate-able by the consumers. This is going to be great user feature and allow remote management of appliance sitting almost anywhere. For manufacture it is equally a great way to remotely manage and provide support/guidance or maintenance services at much effectively at any given hour of the day.

Some other big facet of this whole connectivity and connectedness is, the data stored on these devices, which will be available to manufacture almost near to real-time basis or offline basis.

While some producers have already begun forming on this integration and launched products in the market, others have taken up jumping onto the wagon of smart appliances

For Information technology this is sounding to open new avenues for analytics & big data.

This connected era of the Internet of things would definitely lead to give tremendous push to new ideas & innovations in the near future and will insure a life fully armored with smart appliances

Time to watch & get on to it.