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WHY YOU'LL NEVER BUY A 3D PRINTER

While 3D printer sales will experience healthy growth over the next four years, consumer machines remain a technology in search of a purpose, according to researcher IDC.

3D printers, materials and services in the U.S. grew by almost 20% in 2015 compared to the year before, representing $2.5 billion market. And 3D printer shipments are expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 16% through 2020, according to IDC's U.S. 3D Printer Forecast, 2016-2020.

Revenue from 3D printing hardware alone is expected to grow from $815 million last year to $1.96 billion in 2020.

The largest technology segment within the 3D printing market is fused filament fabrication or fused deposition modeling (FDM/FFF). Last year, FFF or FDM printers made up 76% of the 3D printers shipped in the U.S.

While the majority of those printers are at the low end of the market, the consumer  segment "has clearly not materialized as many had predicted," IDC said. That's pushing many 3D printer makers to shift toward producing higher-end machines aimed at the education and professional prototyping markets.

Shipments in the very low-end, where 3D printers sell for below $1,000, are still projected to grow more than 12% annually through 2020. But the market remains relatively small.

Read More http://www.itnews.com/article/3088949/3d-printing/why-youll-never-buy-a-3d-printer.html

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TECH JOBS REPORT: SECURITY, DEVOPS, AND BIG DATA STAY HOT

Foote's latest data suggests security and devops will remain in high demand for some time -- but cloud pay is starting to slip

If you're wondering what IT skill sets to acquire, security and devops are doing well in the job market. Pay for cloud skills, however, is eroding.

Research firm Foote Partners' latest quarterly IT Skills and Certifications Pay Indexdetermined that the market value for 404 of the 450 IT certifications it tracks had increased for 12 consecutive quarters. Market values rose for noncertified IT skills for the fifth consecutive quarter.

Foote's report is based on data provided by 2,845 North American private and public sector employers, with data compiled from January to April 1. (Noncertified skills include skills that are in demand but for which there is no official certification, Foote spokesman Ted Lane noted.)

Security skills command increasing salaries, with no end in sight

In the security space, Foote found that values for 76 certifications have been on a slow and steady path upward for two years, with an 8.7 percent average increase. The certifications' values have risen 6.3 percent in the past year. "Strong-performing certifications in the first three months of 2016 were those in IT security management and architecture, penetration testing, forensics, and cybersecurity," the report said.

Security needs will only grow as cybercrime and hacking continue to grow, Foote said. "Employers are becoming much more aware that they don't have the right people in their security," said David Foote, chief analyst at Foote Partners.

Devops demand gains serious traction

The report also finds devops gaining "serious traction," with companies looking to bridge the gap between developers and operations. The latest pay premium data for 2,745 employers shows a gain of 14.3 percent in average market value for devops skills in the past 12 months, with devops engineers in big demand. Foote's most recent data shows that devops engineers' salaries averaged $119,709, while lead devops engineers' salaries averaged $134,512.

Read More http://www.itnews.com/article/3086835/it-jobs/tech-jobs-report-security-devops-and-big-data-stay-hot.html

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Zuckerberg: 'I am not a lizard'

In his latest question-and-answer session, the Facebook co-founder answers oddball questions, including one about whether he's secretly a reptile. He also hangs out with comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

If you let anyone ask you a question, be prepared for doozies.

That's probably how Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg shrugged off a tongue-in-cheek message from a fan who was watching his Tuesday question-and-answer forum on the social network's live video service.

"Are the allegations true that you're secretly a lizard?" Zuck read. "I'm going to have to go with no. I am not a lizard."

Read More http://www.cnet.com/news/zuckerberg-facebook-lizard-arm-triathalon-jerry-seinfeld/

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SALESFORCE TARGETS 'CITIZEN DEVELOPERS' WITH NEW TOOLS AND TRAINING

If there's an overriding trend in the world of enterprise software lately, it's democratization, as tools previously reserved for experts are put in the hands of average users. On Tuesday, Salesforce.com climbed on board with new software, training and support services that aim to help more users -- not just professional developers -- build applications for the Salesforce platform.

There aren't enough trained developers to create apps for the business world, the company says, so it wants to help users in all parts of the organization make their own. More than 2.8 million developers have already built some 5.5 million apps based on the company's customer relationship management software, it says, and at its TrailheaDX developer event in San Francisco, it made several announcements to expand that further

The Summer ‘16 release of Salesforce's Lightning development platform, for instance, includes more than 200 new features for both expert and nontechnical developers.

Lightning’s component-based architecture makes it easier to combine app elements using drag-and-drop software. Now, new Lightning LockerService, Lightning Inspector and Lightning CLI tools give professional developers broader capabilities for building custom components. Other tools make it easier for anyone, including "citizen developers," to create apps without needing to know coding, by mixing and matching custom and standard components. Within Lightning App Builder, for example, users can create and edit Lightning Record Pages, customize Home Pages for different user profiles and assign filters to a report chart component using visual tools

Read More http://www.itnews.com/article/3080847/salesforce-targets-citizen-developers-with-new-tools-and-training.html

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Salesforce picks AWS as preferred public cloud provider

Salesforce has named Amazon Web Services as its preferred public cloud provider for services like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and App Cloud, expanding an existing partnership to provide the back end for the software-as-a-service provider.

AWS already hosts several Salesforce services like Heroku, SalesforceIQ, and the recently announced IoT Cloud. This latest deal will help Salesforce to expand internationally without having to build its own data centers in order to comply with local data sovereignty laws.

That's important as Salesforce tries to pick up more customers in countries that have strict requirements about where data is stored. Salesforce isn't the only company to turn to AWS in this capacity: Dropbox will store data with AWS in Germany starting later this year.

The news means that Amazon, already the public cloud leader, will be getting money from one of the biggest success stories in the SaaS market. It comes at a time when Amazon is locked in a tight battle with other providers, including Microsoft and Google.

Read More http://www.infoworld.com/article/3075499/cloud-computing/salesforce-picks-aws-as-preferred-public-cloud-provider.html

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Apple hires mobile encryption pioneer amid encryption debate

Apple has rehired a mobile encryption pioneer as it continues to face pressure from governments wanting access to user data stored on iPhones.

Jon Callas most recently worked as a co-founder of Silent Circle, which produced the security-minded Blackphone and has joined the iPhone and iPad maker in an undisclosed capacity, Apple revealed to Reuters. Callas is a veteran of the security industry who also co-founded PGP Corporation.

He first worked at Apple from 1995-1997, then again from 2009-2011. He has two patents to his name from that second stint that are both focused on full-disk encryption, something that Apple uses in its smartphones, tablets and computers.

Read More http://www.itworld.com/article/3074926/apple-hires-mobile-encryption-pioneer-amid-encryption-debate.html

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Microsoft makes final, aggressive Windows 10 upgrade push

Microsoft has begun the final push in its upgrade offensive against consumers and businesses running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Microsoft has launched the final push in its nine-and-a-half-month upgrade offensive against consumers and businesses running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Last week, Microsoft switched the automatically-offered Windows 10 upgrade to a "Recommended" download that in turn scheduled the upgrade process unless the user interfered

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How Fiorina failed to use analytics to succeed in business and politics

The current presidential election showcases how Carly Fiorina failed to use tech to her advantage, writes columnist Rob Enderle. The inability or desire to learn the tools your company sells or that assure employee loyalty leads to failure in both business and politics.

One of the fascinating things about watching a technology CEO run for office is the fact they never really seem to learn how to use the technology they sold. Before running for office both Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman ran companies that had impressive analytics capability, yet it was President Obama who used analytics to capture the presidency. It doesn’t seem that any of the candidates learned his trick. You would think Fiorina, given that she worked on McCain’s campaign and saw the results and led HP, which provided enterprise class analytics tools, would have been able to at least match Obama. Apparently not.  

I think this also showcases the danger associated with tech CEOs who don’t understand what they sell and don’t understand how layoffs work against their long-term goals.    

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