The weekend review: Xbox One, OpenStack, and data analytics
This week on GigaOM Pro, our latest flash analysis proved to be the most popular piece of research content. Hot on the heels of last week’s Xbox One announcement, our own analysts fired up the survey machine and asked our readers for their initial thoughts on the new console, and looked ahead to the future of game consoles and the consumer market. The cloud and big data were also popular topics – no surprise, as we gear up for our sixth annual Structure conference later this month in San Francisco. Tickets are selling quickly, so be sure to register today and take advantage of your GigaOM Pro subscriber discount.
“Flash analysis: Xbox One” looks at the new Microsoft console, revealed during a May 21 event. In order to better understand how the Xbox One is being received by the larger tech community, Michael Wolf analyzes GigaOM reader survey responses to Microsoft’s first new console in nearly 7 years. While initial reactions were mixed (only a third of respondents felt the Xbox One was a strong successor to the Xbox 360), more than sixty percent of respondents noted that they planned to buy an Xbox One in the near future, although Wolf cautions that buyer interest is not necessarily an indicator of success or failure for the device. The report also analyzes the competitive and strategic differentiators that the Xbox One’s new features bring to the market, and goes on to gauge reader sentiment about the future of the console market at large.
Next, in “How big data analytics drives competitive advantage,” Benjamin Woo provides an overview of the evolving big data analytics market and ecosystem, something that is often referred to as “insight as a service.” As companies struggle to hire their own in-house data scientists, companies providing insight as a service provide a vital stopgap measure, providing actionable results and a breakdown of other key data points. Woo provides an overview of how businesses can best capitalize on this new breed of big data analytics providers, and what types of information may be best gathered.
Last, in “The new building blocks for IT: OpenStack, continuous delivery, and devops,” Jo Maitland looks at the growing challenges facing IT organizations, and specifically explores how OpenStack can be used as a cloud platform that supports continuous delivery and a devops approach to deployment. Maitland provides an overview of the OpenStack community, a brief case study, and a list of trends to watch and key takeaways for any enterprise interested in OpenStack as a cloud solution.
Also popular this week:
Survey: How apps can solve photo management
Where new opportunity lies in the mobile operating system space
Social networks will displace business processes, not socialize them
