Inescapable Data: Harnessing the Power of Convergence [Hardcover]

Chris Stakutis (Author), John S. Webster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2005

* How "data everywhere" transforms business, technology, and the way you live * A pioneering look at grand, new efficiencies forthcoming As communications, computing, and data storage converge, data is becoming utterly ubiquitous...and that changes everything. In this book, two leading data management visionaries reveal how data transforms the way you do business, the technologies you use, the investments you make, the life you live, and the world you live in. Chris Stakutis and John Webster draw on interviews with nearly 50 leading experts: technologists, sociologists, entrepreneurs, consultants, researchers, media leaders, and futurists alike. You'll discover how today's "primordial soup" of wired and wireless gadgetry is quickly coalescing into something immensely more powerful, driving applications you thought were pure science fiction. You'll also gain deep insight into the profound implications of ubiquitous data capture: implications that touch everything from your bedroom to the battlefield: * The emerging "Connectivity Divide." Which side of the chasm are you on?* Inescapable data's technical components: Async communications, * pervasive computing devices, wireless, and XML * Global calendars, momentary enterprises: Transforming your life and business * Uncontrolled information availability: Its risks to your security and well-being * The future of technical infrastructure, grids, smart storage, and beyond * Radical, new modes of information delivery: Nonnumeric, nontextual, unobtrusive * Future tech: From holographic displays to fertility "wall clocks" * Your DNA on a chip: The heart of your personal health and wellness program A(c) Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

• How "data everywhere" transforms business, technology, and the way you live

• A pioneering look at grand, new efficiencies forthcoming

As communications, computing, and data storage converge, data is becoming utterly ubiquitous...and that changes everything. In this book, two leading data management visionaries reveal how data transforms the way you do business, the technologies you use, the investments you make, the life you live, and the world you live in.

Chris Stakutis and John Webster draw on interviews with nearly 50 leading experts: technologists, sociologists, entrepreneurs, consultants, researchers, media leaders, and futurists alike. You'll discover how today's "primordial soup" of wired and wireless gadgetry is quickly coalescing into something immensely more powerful, driving applications you thought were pure science fiction. You'll also gain deep insight into the profound implications of ubiquitous data capture: implications that touch everything from your bedroom to the battlefield:

• The emerging "Connectivity Divide." Which side of the chasm are you on?

• Inescapable data's technical components: Async communications,

• pervasive computing devices, wireless, and XML

• Global calendars, momentary enterprises: Transforming your life and business

• Uncontrolled information availability: Its risks to your security and well-being

• The future of technical infrastructure, grids, smart storage, and beyond

• Radical, new modes of information delivery: Nonnumeric, nontextual, unobtrusive

• Future tech: From holographic displays to fertility "wall clocks"

• Your DNA on a chip: The heart of your personal health and wellness program

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Chris Stakutis, IBM's CTO for emerging storage software, is a prominent data storage industry inventor, technologist, and visionary with more than twenty years of experience and multiple patents in data storage management. Stakutis created SANergy and served as CTO of IBM's Tivoli SANergy Group. He has held key roles at Mercury Computer Systems, Precision Robots, MIT Lincoln Laboratories, and many other technology organizations.

John Webster, Senior Analyst and Founder, Data Mobility Group, has published hundreds of papers and articles on information and storage management. He is a featured speaker at leading storage industry events.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: IBM Press (May 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131852159
• ISBN-13: 978-0131852150
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,876,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Want to understand modern technologies? Read this., September 1, 2005

By 

Susan S. McVey (Sunnyvale, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inescapable Data: Harnessing the Power of Convergence (Hardcover)

Do you ever look at our changing technology and wonder where we are all going and what the world will be like when we get there? This book does a good job of trying to answer these questions. The authors interviewed 50 technology leaders in a wide variety of industries as well as drawing on their own experiece, and distilled the information into a book that is very informative without requiring the reader to have a PhD. The book considers each industry or area of interest in turn, explaining what's going on now and what is likely to develop in the next few years. Some of the areas they consider are: warfare, security, home life, medicine, work, manufacturing, sports, entertainment, retail sales, data storage, supercomputers, and networking. You may view the technological future with the glee of a technophile or with anxiety about the world we're creating -- the authors are unabashed technophiles-- but whatever your views, this book will give you a good education about what's going on. I recommend it highly. [...]

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful data, May 17, 2005

By 

JL Davis (Chicago, IL, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inescapable Data: Harnessing the Power of Convergence (Hardcover)

This book provides fantastic insight into the power of data to make the lives of consumers better by improving the quality and appropriateness of their experiences as well as the level of customer service they encounter. At the same time, it recalls Scott McNealy's (Chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems) famous statement, "Privacy is dead. Get over it." Fortunately, as the book indicates, there are still ways to protect yourself from harm, if not from wide awareness.

The real life examples and numerous interviews with experts really make INESCAPABLE DATA come alive. It's a must read for those of us in the information industry and for those who are curious about how information is transforming our world.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winning with data, May 17, 2005

By 

Philip R. Reilly - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inescapable Data: Harnessing the Power of Convergence (Hardcover)

Chris Stakutis and John Webster can see the future. We are already immersed in an ocean inhabited by millions of species of data. For each of us some of these data organisms could be essential to our success in life. Even greater benefit can flow to individuals or systems from gaining insight in how to synthesize and analyze seemingly disparate data in new combinations to gain unique insights. These two clear thinking men are data cosmologists who have peered deeply into the far reaches of data space and found a new path to harness power to information. A valuable handbook for our data future.