6 Awesome Social Media Innovations In 2015

The World is a much more compact place today, largely owing to the advent of Social Media.We can get in touch with someone thousands of miles away within a second. But Social Media sites today are so much more than just tools for connecting people. Marketing, advertising, latest news updates, are all available via social media at the drop of a hat. But as is true with Darwinism, nothing can survive without updates or adapting to the times.

Following are the innovations and latest eye-catching features in the most popular social media sites in 2015:

1. Facebook – On This Day

So how have you evolved over the years? You can get a very clear idea about how cool or uncool you were a few years ago, or feel nostalgic looking at the photographs from that very day a few years ago. But mostly you’d ask yourself embarrassingly – “Did I really write that?”

2. Facebook - Video Calling on Messenger

Last year when Messaging on Facebook became an IM application, it kept up with the other bigwigs in the industry. So, now when WhatsApp, Viber and other IM App developers have rolled out Voice Calling on their platforms, how can Facebook stay behind? Lo and behold, they’ve gone one step ahead, you can now video call your contacts on Facebook. Doesn’t that make you happy?

3. Twitter – Mandatory Log in / Sign-up

Gone will be the days where you could sneak a peek at your favorite celeb’s latest photo, or a witty tweet without logging in to twitter or signing up for it. It is intellectual property, after all. One must pay, or in this case, sign in, to view it. NO freebies anymore.

4. Twitter – While You Were Away

Everyone would love to be online 24X7, but it isn’t always possible, is it? Say you’re following Manchester United vs. Liverpool, and Liverpool lead 3-0 at half time. You go out for a chore and are offline for the second half, and twitter greets you again when you’re online. The “While you were away” feature gives you all the updates you may have missed while you were offline. Final Result: Manchester United 4 – 3 Liverpool.

5. LinkedIn – Pulse

LinkedIn Pulse is a great way to show off to the world your content management skills. Professional Content, on the world’s largest professional network, curated by professional designers. There’s just one word for all this – Smart.

6. LinkedIn – Magic Mirror

This ingenious update, collates all your personal data on LinkedIn, runs a complex algorithm that combines your facial features, interests, future goals, certifications, and presents to you the career you were born to do. How is it any different from Aptitude tests, you ask? Well, it shows you a photo of yourself working as the person you were meant to be. Yes, it’s Harry Potter’s Mirror of Erised – LinkedIn Version.

Want to know more about awesome innovations in the world of technology? Log on to www.koenig-solutions.com and get the best of the IT World at your fingertips.

The Importance of SAS Certification Training

Big Data and Business Intelligence are domains that shall go hand in hand for a long time. BI pioneers SAS, and MapR – The most trusted server provider for Google and Amazon Technologies – have recently signed a pact to further the efficacy of Big Data. This post takes a look at what this new partnership entails for the end user.

1.       More Jobs: With both Big Data, and Business Intelligence and Analytics on the rise, US Bloomberg and Forbes report that the two domains shall account for over $6.3 Billion by 2018 in revenue, thereby creating over 1 million jobs in the fields of Data Analytics, Hadoop Programming, Business Analysis, Content Development, etc.

2.       High Paying Careers: With Technology conglomerates such as IBM, Microsoft, and SAP planning to go all out with their BI and Data Analytics strategies, a huge upswing in the average salaries of personnel engaged in these domains is expected. According to Forbes reports,a median salary of $90,000 for non-administrative positions, and $120,000 for managerial personnel represents the huge demand foreseen for skilled help in these domains.

3.       Technology Trends: Big Data, along with BI, ranks among the top 5 in technology trends for 2015. BI skills, knowledge, and expertise will be in huge demand over the next few years, and professionals with the requisite know-how are sure to drive immense benefits from the situation.

Microsoft Azure: Your Window to the Cloud of opportunities

Being located centrally, yet being present globally is the unspoken rule at most organizations, and hence, to maintain their success, these organizations have put all their faith into Cloud Solutions, and have been reaping dividends. 

One of the major proponents of Cloud services in the world today, is Microsoft. With AZURE, their cloud-based Application platform, providing users a Cloud Operating System, integration with .NET services, and database services (SQL Azure), Microsoft has turned the tide in its favor by giving its users a plethora of cloud-based benefits to enjoy.

So, let’s take a look into the Azure framework and the assurance that it provides to users worldwide.

What is Microsoft Azure?

Azure, launched in February 2010, is Microsoft’s cloud-computing infrastructure and platform. Owing to its robust nature, Azure can be used as both PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-service). Most cloud services provided by other organizations mainly serve as an IaaS, which means that companies can gain access to infrastructure (Physical Hardware – power, networking and cooling) present in a data center. Azure provides the infrastructure facility as well as serving as a Platform to develop, deploy and manage applications. As mentioned above, Azure offers customizable Cloud OS, database, web servers and coding environments, in addition to integration with other Microsoft services like Visual Studio and .NET platforms.

Since February 2010, Azure has gone through a variety of changes and is now equipped to serve a range of diverse requests. 

• Building Websites: Developing a site while making use of a variety of web application and launch frameworks(asp.net) or open source options like WordPress. 

• Virtual Machines: If one requires additional computing capacity but doesn’t wish to overcrowd their own datacenter, they can use Azure services to run virtual machines on the cloud that house either Windows or Linux OS. 

• Mobile services: Azure employs features that radically quicken mobile application development. Coupled with it being open source (and Windows removing the mandatory requirement of having a “live” profile to access Microsoft applications), authentication is achieved through other Social Media channel accounts.

• Big Data: Azure can also be used to provide a platform for data warehousing and improving business analytics through BI (Intelligence) solutions involving enormous data amounts (Exabytes, Petabytes).

The ERP Battle : SAP V/S The World

In this age of rapidly evolving technology, information flows into the systems from all corners, sometimes in a way popularly known as “Organized Chaos”. That’s where an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system comes in, to streamline this flow of information. But therein lies another dilemma. Which ERP system should an organization choose? More often than not, the reply would be “SAP ERP”. 

So, what makes SAP ERP better than the other ERP systems in the market? 

Here are some advantages that a SAP ERP system enjoys over other ERP systems:

1. SAP ERP consists of a vast array of modules, and a huge spectrum of functionalities which are NOT present in other ERP applications. For instance, Fleet Management, and Investment Management.

2. Specific Technical functionalities and modulesare in fact included within the core competencies of SAP.Most other ERP applications can’t boast of similar competencies, or at the least, can’t say that the technical modules are contained within the ERP solutions. This makes SAP ERP systems an obvious choice for some specific industries. Ex: Variant configuration and Automobile industry.

3.SAP understands the requirements of and demands for special processes for each industry and thus has come up with industry specific solutions (Columned under SAP IS, viz. SAP IS Aerospace & Defense, SAP IS Automotive, SAP IS Banking etc.). This is unheard of from other ERP applications.

4. SAP mirrors the trends of the world and regularly releases enhancement packages for each of its modules, thereby overcoming the redundancies or (if at all) any bugs in the previous packages. The regularity of these upgrades makes SAP ERP systems foolproof and gives it a greater edge over its competitors.

5. Financial benefits of SAP ERP systems are innumerable. Major ones include:

·         Reduction in sales order processing costs

·         Reduced time to calculate selling price

·         Increased Cash Flow (one-time event)

·         Reducing the number of days sales outstanding (DSO) by freeing-up capital (I.e., reduced working capital; free cash flow)

·         Increased revenues due to less stock outages (reduction in lost sales)

·         Reduction in distribution costs.

·         Reduction in freight costs

6. Owing to advantageous points that SAP ERP systems enjoy over other ERP applications, career prospects rise exponentially if one gains knowledge and expertise of SAP systems.

In light of all the aforementioned advantages, it becomes all the more beneficial if one does gain a substantial amount of knowledge with respect to SAP ERP applications. 

Koenig Solutions, the leading IT Training Company in the world, offers the latest, the most pertinent and certified SAP ERP courses requisite to succeed in today’s world. Learn more about the courses that Koenig offers here: www.koenig-solutions.com

Ethical Hacking 101

Who is an Ethical Hacker?

An Ethical hacker or a “White-hat Hacker” is someone who“hacks” into the system of an organization or an individual for ascertaining potential dangers on their network.

What does an ethical hacker do?

An ethical hacker attempts to hack their way past the system security, finding any weak points in the security that could be exploited by other hackers (Black Hat Hackers).

The organization uses what the ethical hacker finds to improve the system security, in an effort to minimize, if not eliminate, any potential hacker attacks.

But what if the hacker’s feet waver? Are there any regulations a hacker should follow?

In order for hacking to be deemed ethical, the hacker must obey the following rules.

1.      You have permission to probe the network and attempt to identify potential security risks. It is recommended that if you are the person performing the tests that you get written consent.

2.      You respect the individual's or company's privacy and only go looking for security issues.

3.      You report all security vulnerabilities you detect to the company, not leaving anything open for you or someone else to come in at a later time.

4.      You let the software developer or hardware manufacturer know of any security vulnerabilities you locate in their software or hardware if not already known by the company.

What benefits apart from securing their networks do organizations derive from Ethical Hackers?

A hacker knows exactly how another hacker would try to compromise the network and hence would be armed with the appropriate defense techniques to prevent further breaches.

Another important aspect is the fact that a hacker would not charge as much money as a network security specialist would, but would more often than not, secure the network in a specialized fashion.

Great! So, how does one learn more?

Come to Koenig! We’re the leading IT Training Company in the world and offer the Certified Ethical Hacking (CEH) v8 course. To learn more, visit our website - http://www.koenig-solutions.com/

Koenig Offers a Free Lesson on Cisco Technologies

Koenig Solutions, the number one offshore IT training company, is scheduling a free of cost interactive webinar on this topic. Subject matter expert from the industry will speak on the topic, titled Cisco Technologies.  The webinar will be held on your computer screen on 26th April, 2014 from 2:00PM to 4:00 PM. Those interested can register here.

About Cisco Technologies

Cisco is a foremost retailer in offering various business oriented solutions. It covers multiple technologies: routing, switching, security, wireless and voice. Cisco Associate-level certifications are allied with growing business job roles. These alignments will facilitate students to pursue advanced technology certifications in a fast track mode. Cisco offers a variety of IT training, certification, and testing courses to IT professionals, employees, partners, and students.

Agenda

In this interactive Webinar, Cisco expert will discuss about the fundamentals, changes and scope of Cisco Technologies, products, and network solutions.

Presenter Profile

This webinar will be conducted by Mr. Maruthi Halavi, who is a Sr. Corporate Trainer at Koenig Solutions Ltd. He has more than 5 years of core industry work experience in conducting a number of training sessions. He also has in-depth knowledge of Routing & Switching, Security and Voice. His professional qualification includes: CCNA, CCNP, CCNA VOICE, CCNP VOICE, CCNA security, and CCNP security.

Top 3 Technology Trends in 2014

The technology world is zooming ahead at such a fast pace that every new technology is becoming seemingly 'old' within a few months of its launch. In the mobile era, where almost every device is wireless, trends change as soon as another new technology pops up. Koenig Solutions, a leading IT training company, brings you the Top Three Technology Trends of 2014 to look out for.

Integrating Public & Private Clouds

Organizations offering cloud services must make provisions for future integration and interoperability with hybrid cloud infrastructures. Hybrid cloud services are inching towards the more dynamic from their static service infrastructures. Therefore, it is imperative for enterprises to be prepared with the environment needed to support Hybrid Clouds.

Smart Machines

Smart devices will not be limited to your PDA or mobile phone. The Smart machine era is going to be the most disruptive one in the history of IT evolution. Consumerization will also fuel this technology which will build upon contextually aware, smart intelligent systems that can perform tasks with the same or even better dexterity than a human. So get ready, Artificial Intelligence is going to drive your cars in the near future.

3-D Printing

The 3-D printers market is set to grow 75% in 2014. Organizations have started realizing the value of 3-D printing as a cost effective tool to streamline prototyping, improving designs and reducing costs. It is a very powerful technique for prototyping applicable in various industries including architecture, engineering, construction, aerospace, medical, automotive, military, biotechnology, fashion, education and many more.

Koenig India strives to add new and latest IT courses to its portfolio from time to time to keep students and working professionals always in tune with the changing times.

How to Tame the Google Hummingbird

For those of you still wondering what the recent Panda release did to your website, here's another update from the stables - Hummingbird. Thankfully, this creature has not disrupted any rankings (not that we know of). Although it wasn't formally announced by Google, Hummingbird came into effect sometime around the end of August or beginning of September. The main objective of this release is to handle more complex search queries.

The prime focus of Google here is inspired by the tendency of users to put conversational searches. Rather than returning page results which contain those words, it will return exact answers to those queries. Here's what you can do to make the most of this update:

Add Q&A-style Content

Users are looking for answers on the internet, so if you can adapt your site accordingly it will be conducive to attract more traffic. Using a Question-Answer format can help your website garner higher rankings. While it doesn't mean that you need to rewrite the whole content, you can follow a "How to" approach when creating blogs or articles.

Implement Schema Markup

Useful snippets such as star ratings, product price, total savings, recipe preparation time etc tend to highlight some aspect of your data and thus boost your content. Google identifies these highlighters using a schema vocabulary. It's a question of how you implement this for your industry type.  

Mobile Friendly

Another helpful practice is to make your website mobile SEO friendly to accommodate a large percentage of users who access web on their smart phones. Hummingbird also lays special emphasis on catering to the needs of mobile audience. Therefore, creating a mobile version of your website that offers fewer images, simple navigation and faster load time can help you quickly gain points with Google.

These simple strategies will help webmasters reap significant benefits and optimize their online endeavors to be more successful and fruitful in future.  

Koenig Solutions, a renowned IT training firm, offers various courses including SEO, PPC etc. that help professionals further hone their technical skills and always stay ahead in these rapidly changing times.