DEV Community: Thanh (Bruce) Pham

Dark Data and why it matters in Big Data

Thanh (Bruce) Pham — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 03:54:24 +0000

Dark data refers to the data generated from regular business activities but are rarely utilized. They are not used to draw insights useful for decision making in the business. Instead, they to be retained, mostly for compliance purposes. Their handling and storage often translates to additional expenses and elevated risk of manipulation rather than offering increased value to the business.
Liability vs. potential
For most organizations, dark data remains a pressing issue. According to IBM, it is estimated that 90 percent of big data collected from multiple streams is dark data that never gets used. In most organizations, dark data generally lies idle in data archives due to lack of tools to enable their utilization, or generally finding no use of the data.
While the collection of vast volumes of dark data can have storage and cost implications for companies, while increasing risk of the data being compromised, those that have learned to handle and utilize dark data effectively find it pivotal in positioning them ahead of the competition. Business executives now realize the role of dark data in guiding business intelligence and innovation and, generally, guiding effective functioning of a business.
Taping the potential of dark data lies in the ability of businesses to employ dark analytics into their operations.
Dark analytics
CIOs and business leaders have been experimenting with dark analysis. This spectrum of analysis of dark data focuses on exploring the relationships and patterns lying in unstructured data. This way, developers grant businesses the ability to unearth customer and operational insights that may not be evident from analysis of structured data.
Dark data make up the larger proportion of data stored in business storage archives. While they often go underutilized, businesses can find them useful, especially for those seeking to improve customer satisfaction through personalized services. For some businesses, dark data provides them a gateway to the adoption of disruptive technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT).
How CIOs and CDOs can incorporate dark data into their data analytics strategies
A common theme cutting across most businesses is they have limited understanding of how to tap into the power of dark data, despite generating large volumes of data. Dark data, to them, is always an afterthought. For others, it is their sheer lack of power to employ necessary dark analytics tools.
CIOs, CDOs and IT teams should look to explore the value of unstructured business data and adopt the same into their data analytics strategy by:
Identifying the compendium of data under company management
The first step in realizing the value of dark data is having comprehensive documentation of compendium of data under company management. An audit of business systems and structures and how they function is the key to identifying data sources, types of data generated from them and why they are generated. Thereafter, CIOs and CDOs can develop a holistic strategic plan for the different data types from an organization.
Make use of what you can
As mentioned earlier, one of the main reasons businesses fail to utilize dark data is their limited understanding and unavailability of tools for dark analytics. However, instead of completely overlooking the compendium of dark data available, they can make use of elements of data they can exploit with the existing tools as they explore means of utilizing the remaining sets of data.
Another great strategy is to augment your existing data with outside data sources. This can be data from the market or competitors. This is a good strategy for enhancing the value of data under your management.
Demonstrate results
The value of a set of data lies in the ability to draw actionable insights from the same. CIOs should be able to create a strong business case for dark business data. One effective way of demonstrating the value of dark data is adopting new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and IoT. For instance, call logs, email respondents and web server logs can be useful for improving automated and personalized customer services.
In demonstrating results, the usefulness of dark data lies in its ability to deliver immediate value to business operations.
Curating data for integrity, privacy and data quality
Transforming unstructured data into digital formats requires thorough quality assurance checks for ensured quality and integrity of the data. The value of data lies in its accuracy and completeness. From the onset, clear frameworks for detecting and rectifying errors and addressing privacy concerns through data encryption should be put in place before the digitized data is adopted for utilization.
Periodic audits and database trimming
The utility of some data types have short lifespans. Businesses can adopt guidelines for data retention and disposal. Periodic audits and database trimmings ensures optimal use of data storage resources, by only retaining data that adds value to business operations.
Summary
Dark data largely remains unutilized in most organizations. However, they can be excellent sources of information that add significant value to how businesses operate.

Vietnam Software Outsourcing Industry

Thanh (Bruce) Pham — Sun, 13 Sep 2020 08:05:28 +0000

We live in the era of globalization. Nothing is limited to just one country. Many companies have people working on the same product in many different global locations. This can be done very easily by software companies.
Software development companies do not need all the programmers working on the same project to be in the same location.

They can easily share their progress and update the code via the internet.

Vietnam software outsourcing takes that advantages to become one of the pioneers in IT Outsourcing Industry today.

Let’s discover it together!

Why Vietnam for Software Outsourcing?

Every company wants to minimize its operating cost so as to increase their profits. This is where outsourcing comes in to play. Outsourcing gives companies access to cheaper and more diverse talent. Software outsourcing helps both the parties involved. It creates more jobs in developing countries at the same time benefiting the companies that outsource by making them huge profits.

The advantages of outsourcing will only become possible by outsourcing to the right country. Although India has been forever known as the outsourcing location, the Indian market is reaching saturation point leading companies to look at other South-East Asian countries like Vietnam. Vietnam is on the road to becoming the next India. There are many reasons why outsourcing to Vietnam is favorable.

Population:

The main advantage of outsourcing to Vietnam is its young population. Around 70% of the population in Vietnam is under the age of 35 and around 45% are between the ages of 15 and 35. This means around half of the population is fit for joining the workforce. So the sheer number of people looking for a good employment is pretty high. Vietnam also has a literacy rate of 97% which means that almost all of the population ready for employment is also educated.

Education Level:

In addition to the fact that Vietnam has a pretty high literacy rate, it also has around 280,000 college or university graduates every year. Every year, the education system sends out 280,000 students who are ready and searching for an employment. Out of these 280,000 graduates, 30,000 to 40,000 have graduated in the field of Information and Communication technology. They are prime candidates for software outsourcing companies looking for fresh talent.

IT Specialized Schools:

Companies looking to software development outsourcing company want graduates who are specifically trained in Information and Communication Technology. There are more than 250 colleges or universities that offer courses in the field of Information and Technology. In addition to this, there are also 187 vocational schools that offer Information and Technology related courses. The students have an opportunity to receive education in subjects that will help them in pursuing a career in software development. So if more companies outsource to Vietnam, more students will decide to take the career path becoming a software developer.

Hard-Working People:

Every company needs a workforce that is hardworking and eager to be with the company. Hard-working employees make the company progress faster. They can help finish projects faster. This will, in turn, allow companies to pursue more innovative projects on a tighter timeline. This also allows companies to survive in today’s competitive world. In the world we live in, it has become very important for companies to churn out new technologies faster than their competitors. A hardworking and eager workforce also boosts the overall morale of the company. It also ensures that they inspire each other and work better with each other.

Low Cost:

The cost of hiring a developer in Vietnam when compared to the cost of hiring one in America is significantly lesser. You can hire a Vietnamese developer for 90% of the cost of an American developer. Since the main aim of outsourcing is cost reduction and the main location for outsourcing till now has been India, the costs also should be compared to that of an Indian developer. A Vietnamese developer costs 30% less than an Indian developer. So not only does Vietnam have better literacy rate than most of the other developing countries, it also costs less to outsource to Vietnam than those countries. This is a magic combination for companies looking to outsource, better talent and lower cost.

Stability:

Egypt was a prime location for outsourcing a few years back, but then the unstable political climate in the country set it back. Sri Lanka also has had many internal struggles. Vietnam does not have any instability politically. It has had a stable political climate for the past 30 years with the same party in power. It also has had a stable economic growth. Vietnam’s GDP growth rate is around 7.4%. This is pretty high for its geographic location. Around 90% of the population is Vietnamese and they also do not follow any religion. This means there are almost very little reasons for any ethnic or religious conflicts in the country. Since the region is stable politically, economically, religiously and ethnically, it is also much safer for the western counterparts to travel to Vietnam for training or any other such office related purpose.

Big Investors:

There are many big players in the tech industry who have already invested in Vietnam. Intel, IBM, Fujitsu, Foxcon and Canon are just a few such names. When more companies invest in outsourcing to a country, the infrastructure in the country also develops accordingly. This makes it even better for more companies to outsource to Vietnam. This is a cycle where more companies outsourcing to a country also makes it easier for more companies to outsource to the country. Since some big player like Intel and IBM have already started outsourcing to Vietnam, they have laid the groundwork and helped set up the basic infrastructure. They have also piqued the interest of the citizens for working in an IT company. Any new company that wants to outsource to Vietnam only needs to exploit this ripe situation.

All of the above are very good reasons for software companies to outsource to Vietnam. Any Vietnam software company only stands to gain from this decision.

Having 10 years in Software Outsourcing Industry, we hope our sharing is valuable for you.
Located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with the power of 150 software engineers, Saigon Technology has customers worldwide like Canada, USA, Singapore and Australia. We provide software outsourcing services in the fields of healthcare, e-finance, transportation, media and many more. You can be assured that Saigon Technology will provide you the cost-effective solution and high quality Software Outsourcing Services.
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Popular Web Development Technologies

Thanh (Bruce) Pham — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 03:45:37 +0000

The tasks done for the development of the websites for hosting through the internet is known as web development, and the technologies used in this case are known as Web Development Technologies. It is a broad concept that includes several processes like web designing and development of web content. The process in Web Development Technologies consists of server-side or client-side scripting and configuration of security in the network.
Web development can also be termed as website development. It is basically the coding that enables the website to function correctly as per the client’s requirements. Web Development Technologies ranges from creating normal text pages to complicated web applications, electronic business applications, and other social networking applications.
If you’re planning to develop your website, you need to know about the popular web development technologies you can use for your website. So, to help you out, here we are going to discuss the top 5 web development technologies.
Types of Web Development Technologies:
Client-Side Coding/ Scripting:
Client-side scripting code exists in the HTML page of the client. The traditional use of client-side scripting is to validate data, navigate pages, and perform formatting. It is usually the source code that is processed on the browser of the client instead of the web-server. It allows the user to make faster and well-responsive web applications.
Any visitor can view client-side scripting just by clicking the “view source” from the taskbar menu. Some of the most popular client-side scripting technologies are as follows:
HTML:
HyperText Markup Language or HTML is one of the most popular Web Development Technologies that is used to create web pages. Its work is to depict or portray the web page structure. HTML consists of a list of elements that are the building blocks of the HTML pages. These instruct the browser the different ways to display content.
The tags represent the various elements of the HTML code. The browser does not display the HTML tags, but the browsers use them to interpret the content of the page.
CSS:
CSS or the Cascading Style Sheets allow you to format the layouts of web pages. CSS is used to determine styles of the text, table size, colors, layouts, and other format-able contents of a web page. It also allows the adaption of the presentation to several screen-sized devices or printers.
It is flexible, and a lot of works can be saved because CSS can control the layouts of different web pages all at once. CSS files are used to store external stylesheets.
JavaScript:
JavaScript programs the behavior of the web pages, and it is a well-known scripting language. It is not only used in the web pages but also utilized in many servers, desktop programs, and non-browser environments.
On the occurrence of any event, JavaScript is used to design how the web page behaves. JavaScript is a prototype-based, multi-patterned scripting language that is powerful and upholds directive, functional and object-oriented programming styles.
Ajax:
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML or Ajax is a dream tool for the developers, as without reloading the web page, it can be updated by Ajax. After a page has loaded fully, Ajax can request and receive data from a server. Even in the background, sending data to a server can be done. XML might be used by Ajax to transport data, but transferring it as plain text is equally common.
Ajax reduces the in-between traffic travels of the server and client. As Ajax takes less time to respond, performance and speed get boosted. The most significant advantage of using Ajax is that it provides an instant and proper form of validation.
Server-Side Coding/ scripting:
Unlike the web development technology of client-side scripting, web server interprets or executes the server-side scripting. Common people or visitors cannot view or access the server-side scripting. It is a website designing method that runs the processes or the user requests in the originating server. It helps in providing an interface to the user to limit the proprietary data to get accessed.
The script source code is kept under control by the server-side scripting process. It is required to store or access persistent data, like the information of a user profile. The most popular server-side scripting technologies are discussed below.
PHP:
Personal Home Page or PHP is a scripting language of the server. It is a strong and powerful tool that is used for making interactive and dynamic web pages. PHP is very much popular and is widely used. It is free, and also an adequate alternative to its competitors like ASP.
PHP is an interpreter, which is generally used on Linux web servers. The combination of PHP with MySQL is a cross-platform that can be served on the UNIX platform after being developed in Windows.
ASP:
ASP was introduced as the first server-side coding language for Microsoft. The Active Server Page or ASP is an HTML page that may have one or more scripts. Microsoft Web Server processes it before sending the page to the user.
ASP includes programs that usually run on the server; basically, the work is tailoring a page for the user. Computer coding is enabled to be processed by an internet server. When the browser requests an ASP file, the ASP engine reads and processes the code in the file and gives back the outcome to the browser.
Perl:
Perl was introduced first as a general-purpose programming language to manipulate texts. But now, it is used for an immense number of works such as web development, GUI development, system administration, programming of a network, and much more.
Perl, being a stable and cross-platform programming language, possesses the best characteristics from languages like BASIC and C. It supports Unicode and is also Y2K compliant. Private and public sectors use Perl for solving critical web development projects.
Python:
Python is a high-level and general-purpose programming language that can be used in the development of desktop GUI applications, web applications, and website development. As it takes care of common programming tasks, it allows the user to focus on the core functionality of the application.
Python’s simple syntax tool enables the user to keep the code base readable and the application maintainable, thereby resulting in the reduction of program maintenance cost. Modules and packages are also supported by Python, which encourages code reuse and modular programming.
Conclusion:
The latest tools and technologies allow web developers to build more powerful and dynamic websites. As the web development industry is a growing trade in the modern world, it is not the end. More is yet to come. However, with the use of the aforementioned web development technologies, you can get your dream website.
So, what are you waiting for? Research and decide what type of website you need and design your dream website with the latest technology. And if you’re seeking a web development company whom you can trust, Saigon Technology is the best option. For more information, visit the website here: https://saigontechnology.com/