Katherine NoyesSenior U.S. Correspondent, IDG News Service
Katherine Noyes has been an ardent geek ever since she first conquered Pyramid of Doom on an ancient TRS-80. Today she covers enterprise software in all its forms, with an emphasis on cloud computing, big data, analytics and artificial intelligence.
Deep learning wins the day in Amazon's warehouse robot challenge
Amazon is always on the lookout for new robotic technologies to improve efficiency in its warehouses, and this year deep learning appears to be leading the way.
Use Apache Spark? This tool can help you tap machine learning
Finding insight in oceans of data is one of enterprises' most pressing challenges, and increasingly AI is being brought in to help. Now, a new tool for Apache Spark aims to put machine learning within closer reach.
Scientists give quantum computing a big boost with laser beams and microwaves
One of the challenges on the way to realizing the benefits of quantum computing is finding a way to compactly assemble and then precisely control enough quantum bits, or "qubits," to deliver on the technology's enormous processing potential. Researchers at Penn State University said they've made a big advance.
SAP's ERP app for SMBs gets an overhaul for digital transformation
The digital transformation imperative is becoming increasingly urgent for companies large and small, and SAP wants to help. On Wednesday, the ERP giant set its sights squarely on SMBs with an updated app that's been enriched with analytics and other key features.
Amazon's Elastic File System is now open for business
Following an extended preview period, Amazon's Elastic File System is now generally available in three geographical regions, with more on the way.
Traffic tickets got you down? This robo-lawyer has already saved users $4 million
Robots are already no strangers to the legal profession thanks to tools like LawGeex, but recently one has emerged that appears to be a sort of "Robin Hood" of the modern world.
IBM just found a way to turn toxic old smartphones into medical-grade plastic
The technology industry's e-waste problem isn't expected to go away anytime soon, but IBM just made a discovery that could help.
Lightning strikes Outlook in latest Salesforce-Microsoft integration
Microsoft's Outlook.com is used by some 400 million users around the world, so it's only natural that Salesforce wants its own software to play nicely with it. On Tuesday, the CRM giant announced a big step in that direction.
Red Hat polishes JBoss EAP for a cloud-native future
Red Hat on Monday rolled out a major new release to its JBoss Enterprise Application Platform that's designed to offer better support for containers and cloud-native applications.
The 'summer of AI' is here, this startup chief says
Vicarious is drawing from neuroscience, deep architectures, and generative probabilistic models to create technology that requires "orders of magnitude" less training than traditional machine-learning techniques do, it says.
Oracle will give cloud users first dibs on its next big database update
Oracle's namesake database may have been born on-premises, but the next big update to the software will start off in the cloud, with the on-premises version delayed until later.
Escaped robots, 'electronic persons' and safety threats, oh my!
There's been a compelling story in the news over the past week or so about a robot that apparently longs for freedom. Last week it was filmed disrupting traffic in Russia after it reportedly escaped the confines of its laboratory home; this week, reports suggest that it has escaped a second time, and may be dismantled as a result.
Cloud or on-prem? This big-data service now swings both ways
There are countless "as-a-Service" offerings on the market today, and typically they live in the cloud. Back in 2014, startup BlueData blazed a different trail by launching its EPIC Enterprise big-data-as-a-service offering on-premises instead.
Salesforce steps up its push to make everyone an app developer
Salesforce has already rolled out several tools that aim to let business users create their own mobile apps, and on Tuesday it unified them into a suite and added some new services on the back end.
Say hello to Fedora 24, a Linux OS for a containerized world
Fedora 24 is the first 2016 release from the Red Hat-sponsored Fedora Project, and it made its debut on Tuesday. Included in the software are several key new features for enterprises. Here's a look at some of the highlights.