Kaiser executives highlight potential for interactive, preventive care through a brand new generation of mobile apps — but how one can get patients to opt in? Remote Patient Monitoring: 9 Promising Technologies (click image for larger view) A young mother, Aashima Gupta, was returning home to Oakland from a ski trip to the Sierra Nevada, when her husband, who was driving, complained of drowsiness. She found a map to the closest Starbucks on her smartphone, and the family turned off busy Interstate 80 to get coffee. In three minutes, they were there. She got her husband’s coffee and two cookies for sleepy kids within the back seat. They were back on Route 80 when she realized her seven-year-old daughter, with a nut allergy, was showing the hives round her mouth that were the 1st sign of an hypersensitivity. She was eating a cookie with nuts in it. With a start, Gupta asked herself, what had she done. How had she missed something she was always... Read More »

Over the past year, the genealogy site’s repository of family historical data has greater than doubled in size. Here’s how Ancestry managed its growth. Businesses often use — or overuse — the term “big data” to explain every kind of knowledge-related services, however the buzzword certainly applies with regards to Ancestry.com, a favored genealogy service that helps people dig up their family roots. A little over a year ago, Ancestry was managing about 4 petabytes of information, including greater than 40,000 record collections with birth, census, death, immigration, and armed forces documents, in addition to photos, DNA test results, and other info. Today the gathering has quintupled to greater than 200,000 records, and Ancestry’s data stockpile has soared from 4 petabytes to ten petabytes. According to Bill Yetman, senior director of engineering at Ancestry.com, the large data explosion brought about growing pains. “We measured every step in our process pipeline,” said Yetman in a phone interview with InformationWeek. “We started with academic algorithms that folk... Read More »

A cybersecurity framework for critical infrastructure owners is voluntary but becomes the de facto standard for litigators and regulators. Here’s prepare. Any company this is managing critical infrastructure within the US and disregards the Preliminary Cybersecurity Framework, issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in late October, does so at its own peril. The framework, that’s now in its final comment stage and thanks to be released in mid-February, lays out a fixed of comprehensive but voluntary cybersecurity practices. However, critical infrastructure owners should recognize that, if a company’s cybersecurity practices are ever questioned during a regulatory investigation and litigation, the baseline for what’s considered commercially reasonable is probably going to become the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. The Department of Homeland Security defines critical infrastructure companies broadly to incorporate banking and finance, communications, critical manufacturing, the defense industrial base, energy, emergency services, food and agriculture, healthcare, information technology, utilities, and transportation systems. These companies have to be prepared to document and demonstrate that... Read More »

Microsoft directors want Alan Mulally to shepherd the corporate through its restructuring while an insider is groomed for the CEO role, reports say. Speaking Tuesday on the company’s annual shareholder meeting, Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates said he has met with “lots” of CEO candidates, but that the choice committee just isn’t rushed right into a decision. a brand new report published the identical day reiterated rumors that Ford CEO Alan Mulally is front runner for the job, nevertheless it added a twist: Microsoft directors want Mulally to shepherd the corporate for under two or three years, and then a Microsoft insider would take over. If a two-step succession plan is within the cards, Gates maintained his poker face Tuesday. He confined his remarks to predictable topics resembling the complexity a better CEO will face and the progress the choice committee has already made. He also choked up, in a moment more characteristic of retiring CEO Steve Ballmer, as he said Microsoft is exclusive... Read More »

The $3.2 billion deal represents one in every of Google’s largest acquisitions CES 2014: 8 Technologies To Watch (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Making a big bet at the “Internet of factors” and at the value of connecting with customers beyond cell phones and tablets, Google on Monday said it has reached an agreement to obtain Nest Labs, maker of well-regarded network-connected thermostats and smoke detectors, for $3.2 billion. That’s $100 million greater than the corporate paid in 2007 for ad network DoubleClick, arguably the company’s most financially meaningful transaction. Nest Labs becomes Google’s second most costly corporate purchase (or third if inflation is considered). Its $12.5 billion deal for Motorola Mobility two years ago was its costliest acquisition. Google have been on something of a buying binge lately. It disclosed the acquisition of eight robotics companies in December and has acquired two companies to date in January, the opposite being mobile app maker Bitspin. Google CEO Larry Page welcomed Nest founders Tony... Read More »