Read Like an Analyst: Containers, Cybersecurity and Startups that Matter

The Read Like an Analyst series gives you a peek into the industry moves and countermoves that generated the most conversation around the company’s Keurig these past few weeks.

This edition focuses on containers, cybersecurity, disruptive innovators and more.

Containers

Containers are a hot topic in the tech industry especially with recent developments at Microsoft and VMware. But that’s not all you need to know.

• Mayfield Fund Managing Director Navin Chaddha makes some predictions for startup opportunities as containers gain popularity.
• Scott Johnston, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Docker, lays out five things every CIO should know about containers.
• “Docker has changed its security status to “It’s complicated”” Jérôme Petazzoni says in his presentation on Docker, Linux Containers (LXC), threat levels, and security recommendations.

Cybersecurity

More bad news met with more innovative solutions.

• Ars Technica reports that the National Security Agency is warning US agencies and businesses to prepare for quantum computing to gain the ability to crack the “cryptography protecting virtually all e-mail, medical and financial records and online transactions.”
• “There will be a symphony of failure,” James Mickens pronounces in this funny and insightful presentation on the dismal future of computer security.
• Check out ten of the scariest hacks revealed at Black Hat and DEF CON.
• CIO examines lessons learned from the Office of Personnel Management data breach, the hacking of the Houston Astros, ransomware resume phishing and the CEO money transfer spoof.
• Netflix is “the first major web firm to openly dump its anti-virus,” according to Forbes. Does this spell the death of the anti-virus industry?
• Did Kaspersky Lab use fake malware signatures to trip up competitors’ products? Two former employees say “yes,” Kaspersky Lab says “no.”
• The fifth anniversary of Intel acquiring McAfee has brought reflection on a “transformed threat landscape.” A recent report examines the threats McAfee expected five years ago in comparison to the reality of what happened. This article distills some of the most interesting findings.

Startups that Matter

This year’s hot lists for trends, startups and startup hubs.

• This “Global Technology Trends & Startup Hubs” presentation covers this year’s hot tech trends, notable initial public offerings, top 10 global startup hubs and more.
• Check out this downloadable list of “The Best Enterprise Cloud Computing Startups to Work for in 2015.”
• Time to start making pivot tables, Forbes lets you download this handy table of the “Top 100 Data Analytics Startups of 2015” with stats on growth scores, stage, last funding, total funding, and location.

Metrics

Metrics always matter. Always.

• Are you using the right metrics when evaluating startups and new SaaS plays? This list can help you make an informed decision.
• “The most important skills in analytics are not technical skills. They’re thinking skills,” says Marketing Professor Florian Zettelmeyer, head of the data analytics program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Find out what business leaders should know about data analytics with this guide.
• Harvard Business Review offers some do’s and don’ts for  “How To Work Confidently with Numbers People.”

Internet of Things

IoT raises as many questions as it does funding rounds for startups.

• This article ponders home security in the age of the Internet of Things.
• Datameer CEO Stefan Groschupf puts the industrial IoT into context with this guest VentureBeat article.
• Does the Internet of Things require a new dedicated network?

Grab Bag

Check out these pieces on the important tech trends and industry developments that didn’t fit into other categories.

• This recap contains solid musings on the VMworld conference.
• This Drunken Data post claims that VMworld is merely a conference where “the lead vendor fills the room with noise about being a movement and its ecosystem partners have a simple role: fixing all of the things that the lead vendor breaks.”  It’s a rare post that gets to use the phrase “bull-pucky.” Worth a read.
• GitHub’s top programming languages reveal the rise of open-source.
•  This article claims, “Ten years  are all the disk-dominated datacenter could have left – before flash memory elbows out traditional magnetic drives as the main storage medium.”
• Computer Weekly delves into a recent Gartner report finding that the hybrid cloud computing model is still 2-5 years away from achieving mainstream adoption.
• Techworld talks Google’s DeepMind and the Daily Mail and lays out “Everything you need to know about deep learning and neural networks.”
• With more and more tech industry analysis offered for free on the web, Michael Coté examines changing analyst culture.
• Single Grain has a roundup of 40 resources for SaaS companies. The list includes the most successful SaaS sectors, growth hacking and the fragmentation of SaaS- and that’s just the first three links.
• Meet “nine NoSQL pioneers who modernized data management.”

Signup for our newsletter so you won’t miss out on any future Read Like an Analyst posts.