Copyright TechTarget - All rights reserved https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html Techtarget Feed Generator en Thu, 19 Feb 2026 05:47:06 GMT https://www.techtarget.com/whatis editor@techtarget.com <p>As mobile wallets become standard at checkout, businesses evaluating digital payment strategies should consider whether Apple Pay belongs in their offering. Consumer expectations around speed, convenience and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/contactless-payment">contactless transactions</a> continue to rise, particularly in mobile-first retail environments.</p> <p>Apple Pay is Apple's mobile payment platform that enables customers to complete transactions using an iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. For merchants, accepting Apple Pay can support smoother checkout experiences, enhance payment security and align with broader digital commerce modernization efforts.</p> <p>However, decision-makers should understand both the operational requirements and strategic implications before enabling it.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Are there drawbacks to implementing Apple Pay?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Are there drawbacks to implementing Apple Pay?</h2> <p>Not every merchant supports Apple Pay. This problem isn't specific to the Apple service -- Walmart, for example, doesn't accept any contactless payment method besides its own <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/digital-wallet">digital wallet</a>, Walmart Pay. For Walmart, this might be a way to encourage the use of its digital wallet and mobile app. <a name="_Hlk161154560"></a>For smaller organizations, reluctance to implement Apple Pay and other contactless payment methods might come down to the setup process.</p> <p>While the setup process is straightforward, it does require organizations to make sure that they have the right technology and, if not, purchase new technology. To accept contactless payments, organizations need to have point-of-sale (POS) terminals with near-field communication (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/Near-Field-Communication">NFC</a>) capability. IT teams must also confirm that their payment processor supports Apple Pay and take steps to meet software and security requirements. Before taking on this process, organizations should make sure that Apple Pay is a good fit for them.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> During Apple Pay transactions, vendors don't receive customers' actual card numbers, so they also don't have to deal with sensitive data in their payment systems. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Benefits of using and accepting Apple Pay"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Benefits of using and accepting Apple Pay</h2> <p>Most U.S. retailers accept Apple Pay, but its prevalence isn't the only reason to adopt the contactless technology. When considering why they should accept Apple Pay, organizations can look to customer experience, security and affordable setup.</p> <p>For retail and digital commerce leaders, the decision to accept Apple Pay typically centers on customer experience, fraud mitigation and checkout optimization.</p> <h3>Mobile payment methods can enhance customer experience</h3> <p>Contactless payment provides a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/Why-customer-journey-touchpoints-matter">smooth, efficient checkout experience</a>. For users to set up Apple Pay, they should open the Wallet app on their Apple device and add the information for any desired credit, debit or prepaid cards. After that, they can use that device to make payments anywhere that accepts Apple Pay -- online or in-store.</p> <p>When shopping in person, a customer can simply open the Wallet app on their device, select the card they want to use and hold the device near the NFC card reader for a few seconds to make a payment. When making online or in-app purchases, a customer can choose Apple Pay as the payment method, select the card they want to use and confirm the transaction.&nbsp;</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_to_make_a_payment_through_a_digital_wallet_app-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_to_make_a_payment_through_a_digital_wallet_app-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_to_make_a_payment_through_a_digital_wallet_app-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_to_make_a_payment_through_a_digital_wallet_app-f.png 1280w" alt="Diagram showing the steps to make a payment through a digital wallet app." height="262" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Digital wallet apps such as Apple Pay provide a simple checkout process. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>Because of this convenience, Apple Pay is the go-to choice for some users. Whether a customer just prefers the mobile payment option or left their physical wallet at home, accepting Apple Pay can help organizations ensure that the purchase goes through without difficulty.</p> <h3>Apple Pay's encryption system provides strong security</h3> <p>There are also some security benefits that come with using Apple Pay. For customers, Apple Pay ensures secure transactions by requiring user authentication. To authorize a purchase, customers must use their Touch ID, Face ID or passcode. If a user loses their device and has Apple's Find My feature turned on, they can place the device in Lost Mode to suspend Apple Pay rather than having to cancel their cards.</p> <p>Apple's policy of encrypting card data and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/tokenization">tokenizing</a> transactions is helpful for customers and vendors alike. When a user successfully adds a card to Apple Pay, their bank or card issuer will create a device-specific token for it, called a Device Account Number. Apple Pay uses this token to complete transactions, protecting bank account information. The Device Account Number is never stored on Apple servers or backed up to iCloud, and Apple doesn't have access to the original card numbers. This <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/Top-customer-data-privacy-best-practices">keeps customer data safe</a> and encrypted at every level. During Apple Pay transactions, vendors don't receive customers' actual card numbers, so they also don't have to deal with sensitive data in their payment systems.</p> <p>Because Apple Pay does not transmit primary account numbers to merchants, it can also reduce breach exposure and simplify PCI compliance scope compared to traditional card processing.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> For smaller organizations, reluctance to implement Apple Pay and other contactless payment methods might come down to the setup process. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <h3>Setup is affordable and flexible</h3> <p>Apple Pay comes with very few extra costs, if any. As long as an organization doesn't have to get new equipment or switch to a new POS system, there won't be setup fees to accept Apple Pay. When a customer pays with a credit or debit card through Apple Pay, the only merchant fees are those that would already be in place with a regular card transaction. Plus, if a customer <a target="_blank" href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/109304" rel="noopener">pays with</a> Apple Cash from their Wallet app, it's fee-free.</p> <p>Apple provides other services that businesses can consider in tandem with Apple Pay. When taking the steps to accept Apple Pay, organizations should also look into accepting it as an online payment option on their <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcontentmanagement/tip/CMS-and-e-commerce-How-they-differ-and-work-together">e-commerce sites</a>. For in-store purchases, some organizations could even implement Tap to Pay to use an iPhone as a payment terminal. This flexibility enables organizations of all sizes to offer a popular payment method to customers with relative ease and minimal costs.</p> <p>Of course, Apple Pay is only available on Apple devices, and not every customer is an Apple user. Organizations should also offer other contactless payment options, such as <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/Google-Pay">Google Pay</a>, to accommodate more of their customer base. Contactless payment methods all rely on the same NFC technology, so it's easy to set up both options.</p> <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">What business leaders should consider before accepting Apple Pay</h3> <p>Before enabling Apple Pay, leadership teams should look beyond basic setup and consider a few practical questions:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li><b>Do your customers expect it?</b><br>If a significant portion of your customer base uses iPhones, offering Apple Pay may reduce checkout friction.</li> <li><b>Will it improve the checkout experience?</b><br>Faster, contactless payments can shorten lines in stores and simplify online purchases.</li> <li><b>Does your current POS system support it?</b><br>Accepting Apple Pay requires NFC-enabled terminals and payment processor support.</li> <li><b>How does it fit into your broader payment strategy?</b><br>If you offer Apple Pay, you may also want to support other digital wallets to avoid favoring one user group.</li> <li><b>What are the security implications?</b><br>Apple Pay uses tokenization and device authentication, which can limit exposure of card data in merchant systems.</li> <li><b>Are there equipment or integration costs?</b><br>Merchant fees are typically the same as standard card payments, but hardware upgrades may be required.</li> </ul> </div> </div> <p><i><strong>Editor's note</strong>: This article was updated in February 2026 to improve the reader experience.</i></p> <p><i>Katie Fenton is associate site editor for TechTarget's Mobile Computing, Enterprise Desktop and Virtual Desktop sites.</i></p> </section> Apple Pay is widely used by iPhone customers. Businesses considering contactless payments should understand its impact on checkout speed, security and setup requirements. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/money_g1050046190.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/tip/Why-should-businesses-use-and-accept-Apple-Pay Wed, 18 Feb 2026 16:14:00 GMT <p>BYOD policies are no longer a fringe workforce accommodation. For many organizations, they are a response to cost pressure, hybrid work expectations and employee device preferences. The question for CIOs and CISOs is no longer whether employees will use personal devices for work, but whether the organization will govern that reality strategically.</p> <p>In a zero-trust, SaaS-driven environment, a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/BYOD-bring-you">BYOD</a> policy affects more than hardware budgets. It shapes identity controls, data segmentation, endpoint visibility and risk exposure. When designed correctly, BYOD can support cost discipline, workforce flexibility and sustainability goals. When poorly governed, it can expand the attack surface and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/How-to-manage-BYOD-security-policies-and-stay-compliant">complicate compliance efforts</a>.</p> <p>The following benefits explain why many organizations formalize BYOD policies -- and where leadership should evaluate the tradeoffs.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="7 benefits of implementing a BYOD policy"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>7 benefits of implementing a BYOD policy</h2> <p>BYOD policies deliver value across cost, workforce flexibility and sustainability -- but only when governance maturity keeps pace with access and data risks.</p> <h3>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lower upfront cost for hardware</h3> <p>The money saved from not purchasing a fleet of endpoints is perhaps the most obvious and easy-to-quantify benefit of a BYOD program. With BYOD in place, the burden of cost is shifted to the end users, but not in a way that drastically affects an end user's bottom line. After all, BYOD users will simply be adding functionality to the devices that they would own anyway.</p> <p>These cost savings are not only upfront but also on the timeline of a refresh cycle. Consider an example organization with an endpoint refresh cycle of three years. The organization will save hundreds of dollars by not purchasing a new device for each user operating a BYOD endpoint.&nbsp;Further, users would likely bring corporate-owned devices in for repairs if damaged, but the user will usually handle a damaged personal device.</p> <p>Some organizations could even consider passing on some of the savings to the end users by offering a BYOD stipend for a portion of the new device's cost if the device is truly critical to the user's day-to-day work.</p> <h4>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Increased employee satisfaction</h4> <p>This benefit is more difficult to quantify precisely, but users often report a better overall working experience if they don't need to carry around two smartphones -- or even laptops -- every day. Of course, each user might have a different preference for a device ownership program, but market research points to employees, in the aggregate, being more satisfied when they work using BYOD.</p> <p>Workforce surveys consistently show that employees prefer using familiar devices, particularly in hybrid and remote roles where mobility and convenience influence overall engagement.</p> <h3>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improve user productivity</h3> <p>Organizations that formalize BYOD often report productivity gains, largely because employees work faster on devices and workflows they already know.</p> <p>Familiarity reduces onboarding friction and shortens the time required for employees to become productive on new roles or projects. In distributed teams, eliminating device constraints can also reduce informal workarounds that introduce security gaps.</p> <p>Productivity gains, however, assume mature identity management, conditional access policies and data segmentation to prevent unmanaged data exposure.</p> <p>If a user is familiar with Apple devices, it might be difficult to adapt to using an Android smartphone or a Windows desktop. The same applies to someone familiar with Windows and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/Android-OS">Google Android</a> -- corporate-owned Apple devices might present a learning curve. Even if a user is used to Android devices, moving from a Samsung-manufactured device to a Google-manufactured device could prove challenging.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> In a zero-trust, SaaS-driven environment, a BYOD policy affects more than hardware budgets. It shapes identity controls, data segmentation, endpoint visibility and risk exposure. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <h3>4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A more connected workforce</h3> <p>Users that rely on their personal devices for work tasks are more likely to be able to access work materials at all times than users with a dedicated work device. If users have a dedicated work device, they are more likely to turn it off and put it fully away compared to an endpoint that also functions as a personal device.</p> <p>A BYOD program’s goal is not to trick users into checking their email and absentmindedly returning to work during their time off. However, in the event of timely tasks that need immediate approval or a work-related emergency, it's crucial to reach key employees immediately.</p> <p>In time-sensitive scenarios -- such as incident response, financial approvals or operational disruptions --&nbsp; consistent device access can improve responsiveness without requiring employees to manage multiple endpoints.</p> <p>These benefits are also present with corporate-owned personally enabled (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/COPE-corpora">COPE</a>) endpoints, but only if users adopt those devices as their primary personal devices, which isn't always possible.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mobilecomputing-byod_vs_cyod_vs_cope_vs_cobo-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mobilecomputing-byod_vs_cyod_vs_cope_vs_cobo-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mobilecomputing-byod_vs_cyod_vs_cope_vs_cobo-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mobilecomputing-byod_vs_cyod_vs_cope_vs_cobo-f.png 1280w" alt="A chart showing multiple device ownership options for businesses and their differences." height="426" width="560"> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <h3>5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Easier for employees to keep track of one device</h3> <p>The notion that one device is easier to keep track of than two is almost too obvious, but it's worth exploring why that is key for organizations. One of the dangers of allowing any smartphone -- personal or corporate-owned -- to access an organization's business data and internal services is the risk of that device falling into the wrong hands.</p> <p>From a governance perspective, formalizing BYOD reduces unmanaged device sprawl. Devices enrolled in mobile device management (MDM) platforms, equipped with remote wipe capabilities and governed through conditional access controls, provide more visibility than ad hoc personal device usage.</p> <p>A stolen or lost device can be catastrophic for an organization. Cybercriminals can gain access to internal data, change passwords to key accounts, view private communications and eventually elevate their privilege to access information beyond the user's permissions.</p> <h4>6.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Limit the reasons to use personal devices improperly</h4> <p>In an ideal world, organizations could prevent BYOD use until they deploy an official policy, but unfortunately, that isn't the reality. Whether for convenience or out of desperation in a time-sensitive situation, users will find workarounds to use personal devices if they truly want to.</p> <p>Many organizations still operate with informal or inconsistently enforced BYOD practices. A clearly communicated policy reduces shadow IT behavior and establishes guardrails for SaaS access, cloud storage usage and AI-enabled tools that may process sensitive corporate data.</p> <p>A well-communicated BYOD policy can mitigate both issues by providing a roadmap for securely handling work materials on a personal device.</p> <p>Formal governance helps prevent data from flowing between unmanaged personal apps and enterprise environments.</p> <h4>7.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Improve sustainability by limiting hardware-related emissions</h4> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/3-tips-CIOs-can-use-for-more-sustainable-device-management">Sustainability considerations</a> increasingly influence IT procurement decisions. Because most device-related carbon emissions occur during manufacturing and distribution, reducing enterprise-issued hardware can meaningfully affect Scope 3 supply chain reporting.</p> <p>When calculating the sustainability impact of endpoint policies, practices that reduce device purchases -- or extend device lifecycles -- improve sustainability outcomes.</p> <p>Issuing smartphones to users with a similar endpoint for their personal lives is a practice that significantly increases an organization's overall carbon emissions. As organizations look for ways to quickly reduce their emissions without overhauling their entire day-to-day operations, implementing BYOD programs can provide that value if the user base is on board.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Potential drawbacks of implementing a BYOD policy"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Potential drawbacks of implementing a BYOD policy</h2> <p>There are several reasons that organizations might not want to deploy a BYOD policy despite all the benefits that these programs offer. Managing these devices is one of the most common challenges associated with a BYOD policy.</p> <p>Organizations that adopt BYOD successfully typically pair it with zero-trust architecture, identity-based access enforcement, endpoint detection and response (EDR) tooling and containerization features that separate corporate and personal data.</p> <p>With a corporate-owned device, the organization gets to maintain full control of the device's settings and preset the device to block certain apps, functions or actions. However, a personally owned device presents more management challenges. Organizations can try to enact a comprehensive BYOD policy that gives them control over the device, but users might balk at this as an invasion of their privacy.</p> <p>Smartphone manufacturers have been adding BYOD-friendly features that separate a device's work and personal sides. Apple's User Enrollment feature allows organizations to control the aspects of an Apple device <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/tip/How-to-enable-User-Enrollment-for-iOS-in-Microsoft-Intune">that are within a managed Apple ID</a> via mobile device management (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/mobhttps:/www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/mobile-device-managementile-device-management">MDM</a>) while ignoring anything on the device that is associated with a personal Apple ID.</p> <p>Google <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/tip/How-to-create-a-work-profile-on-Android-devices">offers Android work profiles</a> to keep Android devices under the proper management while respecting user privacy. The organization gets to choose the apps and services to deploy on the work profile, and once the device is registered, the user can switch back and forth between the profiles as needed.</p> <p>Even with these controls, data leakage risks remain if identity governance, logging and monitoring practices are immature.</p> <p>There are also concerns about user preference and corporate culture when implementing BYOD. Some users might prefer a second device they can bring when needed but put away when they're off the clock.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="When BYOD may not be appropriate"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>When BYOD may not be appropriate</h2> <p>BYOD policies are not universally beneficial. Highly regulated industries, organizations managing sensitive intellectual property or enterprises with limited identity governance maturity may determine that corporate-owned devices offer stronger control and auditability. Leadership teams should assess regulatory exposure, incident response readiness and support capacity before expanding BYOD programs.</p> <div class="youtube-iframe-container"> <iframe id="ytplayer-0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g4TMM7FrmzI?autoplay=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;widget_referrer=null&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.techtarget.com" type="text/html" height="360" width="640" frameborder="0" loading="lazy"></iframe> </div> </section> BYOD can reduce hardware costs and improve workforce flexibility -- but it also expands governance, identity and security responsibilities. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/check_g1211896141.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/feature/Key-benefits-of-enacting-a-BYOD-policy Wed, 18 Feb 2026 15:06:00 GMT <p>Succession planning is the strategic process of identifying and developing internal candidates to fill key organizational roles to ensure <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdisasterrecovery/definition/business-continuity">business continuity</a> and the availability of effective leadership in the face of role transitions, departures or unforeseen events. CHROs must ensure their organization is carrying out succession planning so their company is prepared for the unexpected.</p> <p>Succession planning is relevant to all companies, large or small, for-profit or nonprofit. In fact, management experts suggest it should be on the radar of every organization because it can mitigate disruptions when employees leave or are promoted.</p> <p>Effective succession planning involves assessing potential staffing needs and creating long-term goals and strategies, including <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/leadership">leadership</a> development, to manage those gaps. CHROs must ensure HR is carrying out these steps.</p> <p>Furthermore, the plan helps ensure that the employees chosen to fill critical roles have the necessary skills, experience and knowledge to do so.</p> <p>Organizations may have both emergency and long-term succession plans. An emergency plan can be designed to be implemented in the event of sudden or unexpected changes to critical and/or high-level staff. A long-term plan takes a long-haul approach and helps businesses proactively plan for replacements systematically.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The strategic importance of succession planning"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>The strategic importance of succession planning</h2> <p>In a narrow context, <i>succession planning</i> refers to being ready to replace the company chief executive officer (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/CEO">CEO</a>) or executive director. CHROs are often involved with this process. In the event that one of these high-level positions suddenly becomes vacant because of business issues, resignation, illness or death, a succession plan ensures that there is already a method in place to fill that role. When used in a broader sense, the term can refer to replacing other members of the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/C-level">C-suite</a>, key leaders or board members, if necessary.</p> <p>The need to replace these important staff members might arise for various reasons:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Departure from the company to explore new opportunities.</li> <li>Retirement.</li> <li>Death, whether unexpectedly or following an illness.</li> <li>Inability to continue doing their job due to other commitments or challenges, such as illness, personal issues, etc.</li> </ul> <p>An organization might <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/feature/Learn-how-to-create-a-succession-plan">want a succession plan</a> to retain internal company knowledge, identify <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/upskilling">skills gap</a> training needs and invest in good employees. The process helps identify employees with the right skills and talent to fill the vacant position. In addition, these internal candidates are cross-trained to ensure that they can seamlessly slide into the new position, thus ensuring minimal disruption to the company's operations and strategic plans if needed.</p> <p>Succession planning ensures a business can continue running smoothly after an important role becomes vacant. It gives an organization time to prepare candidates with high potential to fill that role. The planning process is meant to create a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/talent-pipeline">talent pipeline</a> of successors that will keep the organization running with little to no interruption.</p> <p>During this time, potential candidates are evaluated, strengths and knowledge gaps are identified, and the selected candidate receives training in needed areas. In most companies, the board of directors plays a vital role in ensuring that succession planning occurs.</p> <div class="youtube-iframe-container"> <iframe id="ytplayer-0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3GkFDP_fwkY?autoplay=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;widget_referrer=null&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.techtarget.com" type="text/html" height="360" width="640" frameborder="0" loading="lazy"></iframe> </div> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What are the benefits of succession planning?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What are the benefits of succession planning?</h2> <p>When an employee in a critical or strategic position leaves a company, it usually has a ripple effect. At the very least, it can disrupt <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/business-process">processes</a> and workflows, affecting productivity and output. It can also lead to the following challenges:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Knowledge gaps.</li> <li>Weakened internal controls, leading to poor accountability and transparency, and in some cases, mismanagement and errors.</li> <li>Uncertainties about the company's future direction.</li> <li>Increased workload on the remaining employees.</li> <li>Downturn in employee morale.</li> <li>Customer churn.</li> <li>Increased employee turnover.</li> <li>Negative effect on stock prices.</li> </ul> <p>The hole created when a key employee leaves their position can be profound, even at lower levels. Replacing employees can be difficult, especially in industries with noted talent shortages and skills gaps.</p> <p>It can be a lengthy process to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/employee-onboarding-and-offboarding">onboard a replacement employee</a> and get them to full productivity. A lack of planning can especially damage smaller and family businesses, which often don't have surplus candidates to choose from and are wary of assigning key roles to personnel from outside the family. A well-thought-out succession plan can mitigate these issues.</p> <p>Companies that create, regularly evaluate and maintain updated succession plans can expect to garner these benefits:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Succession planning helps ensure business continuity, even if critical employees leave the organization. Other skilled employees can quickly fill needed roles, enabling business operations to continue uninterrupted and successfully.</li> <li>Management can monitor valuable employees and ensure that they are given the training to seamlessly take over a new role when needed.</li> <li>Supervisors and other senior staff can mentor employees, thus transferring their expertise and ensuring a ready pipeline of available candidates to fill critical positions in the future.</li> <li>Early and proactive succession planning helps save both time and costs because the time needed to find an employee's replacement after the employee has already left will cost the company time and money in addition to hampering the productivity and efficiency of other employees if a succession plan isn't in place.</li> <li>With many senior executives from the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/The-Great-Retirement-Boom-explained-What-you-need-to-know">baby boomer generation now retiring</a> or scheduled to retire in the next few years, succession planning helps ensure there are employees with the right skill sets to replace these executives.</li> <li>In a candidate-driven market characterized by a scarcity of talent for roles, candidates have more jobs to choose from. That means companies compete for the same candidates. This typically makes it difficult to attract, hire and retain desired candidates. Choosing internal employees using succession planning to fill vacant critical roles helps alleviate this problem.</li> <li>Succession planning helps an organization develop a reputation as a desirable talent destination. A company known for its succession planning efforts demonstrates that it is committed to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/employee-training-and-development">employee development</a> and career growth. This can help to attract talented, skilled individuals and reduce the HR cost and effort involved in recruitment and hiring.</li> <li>Succession planning has a positive effect on existing workers. It makes them feel valued and "seen" for future positions. It enables organizations to communicate their commitment to employees' career development and growth, boosting <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/employee-engagement">employee engagement</a> and workplace satisfaction.</li> <li>It helps to align HR and the vision for an organization and supports HR and managers in creating and supporting proactive programs for employee engagement, learning and career progression.</li> <li>Succession planning can help companies to meet their <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-DEI">DEI</a> -- diversity, equity and inclusion -- goals. Planners can identify suitable candidates from diverse backgrounds, thus maintaining equity and ensuring that the right people are available to fill key roles as needed.</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/Benefits-of-succession-planning"><i>Read a more detailed analysis of the benefits of succession planning</i></a><i>.</i></p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How does the succession planning process work?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How does the succession planning process work?</h2> <p>Depending on the size of the organization, its staff makeup, and business goals and objectives, the succession planning process can vary widely. However, the fundamental steps usually include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Identify significant challenges that might affect the business in the next few years. It's advisable to narrow this down to a specific period, such as one to five years.</li> <li>Assess key positions and individuals that support business continuity now and will be expected to do so in the face of future challenges.</li> <li>Decide which positions to focus on to help identify their potential successors.</li> <li>Identify the skills, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/core-competency">competencies</a> and knowledge that successors must have to successfully fill critical roles.</li> <li>Identify high-potential employees for the key positions.</li> <li>Assess the extent to which internal candidates can fill roles, likely with development; employees who will be familiar with <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/corporate-culture">company culture</a> and processes; and which roles HR should look externally for to find the right talent pool.</li> <li>Create learning and professional development processes that support the succession strategy, especially experiential development such as job shadowing and cross-functional moves.</li> <li>Capture and document key individuals' knowledge before they leave the organization. Add this knowledge to the successors' training plan.</li> <li>Create learning and development plans tailored to develop a wider talent pool for more expansive succession plans.</li> </ul> <p>It is also crucial to gain the support of key <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/stakeholder">stakeholders</a>, including the CEO or executive director, to oversee and guide the planning effort. It's equally important to determine <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/Top-succession-management-software-products">which HR software will be used</a> to support the succession planning strategy and process. Successful succession planning depends on the right mix of people, processes and tools<i> </i>to achieve these two goals:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Minimize the negative effect of staffing changes.</li> <li>Ensure that a pipeline of suitable candidates is readily available to step into important positions.</li> </ul> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_succession_planning_works-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_succession_planning_works-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_succession_planning_works-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_succession_planning_works-f.png 1280w" alt="An infographic showing four key steps in succession planning." height="501" width="559"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Succession planning requires a mix of people, processes and tools. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Best practices for succession planning"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Best practices for succession planning</h2> <p>Succession plans should fit into the company's larger <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/strategic-planning">strategic vision</a>, ensuring that future leaders are prepared to drive this vision forward. This alignment helps build a leadership team that is competent in operational execution, strategic thinking and long-term planning.</p> <p>While the top executive is a key factor in a company's performance, taking a wider lens to the concept of succession planning is increasingly seen as critical, particularly given the current <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/feature/7-talent-acquisition-and-recruitment-trends">challenges associated with talent management</a> in companies today.</p> <p>Here are more succession planning best practices to follow:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Be proactive.</b> Prepare for unforeseen instances where a high-level executive or critical resource suddenly leaves. Early preparation is vital to ensure the organization can keep operating normally.</li> <li><b>Clarify the roles included in the succession plan.</b> Clearly document the positions and the people involved in the plan. The positions included might be CEO, other C-suite positions, and additional critical, managerial or leadership roles.</li> <li><b>Engage stakeholders in the process.</b> Instead of overseeing everything, HR should enable the process and provide the necessary tools. The CEO and board should oversee the process and guide to ensure a comprehensive and implementable plan.</li> <li><b>Don't exclusively choose the employee closest in rank to the role that needs to be filled.</b> Other promising employees should be chosen if their skills are optimal.</li> <li><b>Start backward.</b> Before training an employee to fill a specific role, define the core skills, abilities and competencies needed for that role.</li> <li><b>Recruit senior staff to train successors.</b> Supervisors and other senior staff can mentor potential successors to transfer expertise and knowledge of certain roles and experiences.</li> <li><b>Give regular feedback.</b> Include evaluations of those who need to be developed further.</li> <li><b>Create individual development plans.</b> Plans will ensure that employees receive the specific attention needed to develop required skills. Managers should also give continual feedback.</li> <li><b>Have trial runs.</b> A trial run is when a potential successor assumes some of the responsibilities of the role they are inheriting. This practice will help the chosen successor gain valuable experience and be better prepared when they take on the role in the future.</li> <li><b>Get insurance.</b> In partnership firms, partners can get life insurance where the other partner is the beneficiary. Such cross-purchase agreements can help minimize the chaos that inevitably results from a partner's death and provide the funds the surviving partner needs to continue operating the business.</li> </ul> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/hrsoftware-employee_cycle.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/hrsoftware-employee_cycle_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/hrsoftware-employee_cycle_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/hrsoftware-employee_cycle.png 1280w" alt="A flow chart tracking the stages and associated activities throughout an employee's lifecycle with an organization." height="331" width="520"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Succession planning can help any organization mitigate disruptions when employees leave or are promoted as part of the employee lifecycle. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Succession planning for small businesses and startups"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Succession planning for small businesses and startups</h2> <p>Due to a limited internal talent pool, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/SMB-small-and-medium-sized-business-or-small-and-midsized-business">small businesses</a> and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/startup-accelerator">startups</a> often face distinct succession planning challenges. For these entities, it's crucial to focus on external talent acquisition strategies, develop partnerships with educational institutions for talent development, and consider the broader ecosystem of mentors and industry networks to support leadership continuity.</p> <p>For both kinds of organizations, early succession planning is crucial. Those in charge of HR at their company must also ensure their organization is carrying out these steps:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Build a strong team with diverse skills so members can help fill in the gaps left by a departing employee.</li> <li>Identify critical roles that must be prioritized during a transition or unexpected staffing change.</li> <li>Create a pool of internal -- or, more likely, external -- candidates to fill those roles.</li> <li>Document crucial aspects of the business, including <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/standard-operating-procedure-SOP">standard operating procedures</a>.</li> <li>Prepare potential successors with training, mentoring and timely <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcontentmanagement/definition/knowledge-management-KM">knowledge transfer</a>.</li> <li>Consider different scenarios to guide the planning and knowledge transfer process.</li> <li>Regularly review the plan with legal, financial and business advisors and update it as needed.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Succession planning in global and remote work environments"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Succession planning in global and remote work environments</h2> <p>The COVID-19 <a href="https://www.retaildive.com/spons/building-loyalty-in-a-post-pandemic-home-improvement-landscape/758469/">pandemic</a> significantly impacted succession planning, and it highlighted the need at any time for robust strategies to address the abrupt absence of key personnel and ensure business continuity in unpredictable circumstances, such as a sudden shift from in-person to remote work.</p> <p>Global and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/tip/Remote-work-communication-challenges-and-how-to-fix-them">remote work environments pose unique challenges</a> for succession planning, such as cross-border talent management and developing leaders who can lead virtual teams effectively.</p> <p>To address these challenges, forward-thinking companies use technology for virtual leadership development programs and ensure that succession plans are adaptable to accommodate the nuances of managing a geographically dispersed workforce.</p> <p>Additionally, using <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/10-HR-analytics-tools-that-can-optimize-your-workforce">advanced HR analytics</a> and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/machine-learning-ML">machine learning</a> has become pivotal in identifying potential successors and predicting future leadership gaps in a dispersed workforce. CHROs should ensure their company's HR staff is using the right technology to carry out succession planning.</p> <p>Tools such as SAP SuccessFactors, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchoracle/definition/Oracle">Oracle</a> HCM Cloud and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/Workday">Workday</a> provide sophisticated analytics capabilities. They enable organizations to assess talent potential, performance and readiness systematically, facilitating more informed succession decisions.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Different uses of the term succession planning"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Different uses of the term succession planning</h2> <p>It's important to note that <i>succession planning</i> is often used narrowly to refer to the CEO or executive director, or slightly more broadly to include board members, key leaders or the C-suite.</p> <p>However, extending the concept of succession planning to a broader range of employees is gaining widespread traction, especially through the use of HR software generally or talent management software specifically. Succession planning might also indicate the passing of company ownership onto employees.</p> <p>Sometimes, the term <i>succession planning</i> is synonymous with <i>replacement planning</i>. However, succession planning involves planning for filling critical roles when an employee leaves, whereas <i>replacement planning</i> refers to transferring ownership of a company to someone else.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Real-world succession planning examples"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Real-world succession planning examples</h2> <p>For several years before Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/Apple">Apple</a> in 2011, he had groomed his successor, Tim Cook, to take the top leadership role. This included Cook working a wide range of operational roles and directly with Jobs for CEO-specific experience. Cook also stepped in to lead daily operations twice when Jobs was on sick leave. Besides creating a succession plan for the top leadership role, Jobs founded Apple University in 2008 to provide a leadership curriculum based on Jobs' experiences and business savvy.</p> <p>The following are other examples of companies that created succession plans and successfully put them into practice:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Ford Motor Company.</li> <li><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchwindowsserver/definition/Microsoft">Microsoft</a>.</li> <li>P&amp;G.</li> <li>PepsiCo.</li> <li>Unilever.</li> <li>Walmart.</li> </ul> <p>Some of these companies groomed existing senior employees to take over the CEO position once the existing CEO retired. Microsoft is one example, with the transition of Steve Ballmer to Satya Nadella. Other firms created succession plans to fill in other senior positions, such as Unilever with its HR director and PepsiCo with its chief financial officer.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Integration of succession planning with other HR processes"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Integration of succession planning with other HR processes</h2> <p>HR departments, sometimes called the <i>human resources management</i> (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/human-resource-management-HRM">HRM</a>) department or <i>human capital management</i> (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/human-capital-management-HCM">HCM</a>), are typically a key driver in succession planning. However, support from top leadership and other stakeholders is critical to success.</p> <p>Succession planning is intricately linked with other HR processes, such as <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/corporate-performance-management">performance management</a>, learning and development, and workforce planning. This integration ensures a holistic <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/5-best-talent-management-software-systems">approach to talent management</a>, where performance data feeds into succession planning, development plans are tailored to prepare successors and workforce planning informs the strategic direction of succession efforts.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/whatis-hrm.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/whatis-hrm_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/whatis-hrm_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/whatis-hrm.png 1280w" alt="An infographic showing the four top objectives to address through human resource management." height="602" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The human resources management team often leads succession planning as part of a holistic approach to talent management. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p><i>For IT departments, succession planning must be an ongoing strategic priority, not an afterthought. Learn how to </i><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/How-to-create-an-IT-succession-plan-for-key-tech-roles"><i>create an IT succession plan for key tech roles</i></a><i>. </i></p> </section> Succession planning is the strategic process of identifying and developing internal candidates to fill key organizational roles to ensure business continuity and the availability of effective leadership in the face of role transitions, departures or unforeseen events. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/digdeeper/2.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/succession-planning Wed, 18 Feb 2026 15:00:00 GMT <p>Fixed wireless access, or FWA, is an efficient, reliable and cost-effective wireless networking technology designed to provide high-speed broadband connectivity to subscribers.</p> <p>FWA doesn't rely on traditional wired infrastructure, such as fiber optic, cable or DSL. Instead, it establishes radio links between two fixed points to provide internet connectivity. In simple words, FWA is a type of wireless broadband.</p> <p>Different wireless technologies, such as 4G LTE, WiMax and short-wavelength millimeter wave (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/definition/millimeter-wave-MM-wave">mmWave</a>) 5G, can be used to deliver FWA. 4G FWA has been around for decades. It offers high-speed internet connectivity within several miles of the base station and in speeds of several hundred Mbps, up to 1 Gbps.</p> <p>The advent of the latest cellular standard, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/definition/5G">5G</a>, has accelerated FWA adoption. 5G FWA is replacing 4G FWA because it offers higher bandwidth, lower latency and more reliability. According to the analyst firm Opensignal, FWA is the <a target="_blank" href="https://insights.opensignal.com/2024/06/06/5g-fixed-wireless-access-fwa-success-in-the-us-a-roadmap-for-broadband-success-elsewhere" rel="noopener">secret sauce</a> in telecom companies' efforts to make money from their 5G infrastructure, and it has grown faster in the U.S. than in other countries.</p> <p>Globally, FWA is replacing fiber optics. The June 2025 "Mobility Report" from mobile provider Ericsson predicted that the number of global active FWA connections will rise to 350 million by 2030 and that approximately 35% of new internet connections will be FWA.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How FWA works"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How FWA works</h2> <p>FWA works like a typical cellular network, with a radio link connecting a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter in a cell tower is referred to as the <i>base station</i>. The receiver, often referred to as <i>customer premises equipment</i> (CPE), is situated at the subscriber location and can be outside or inside the premises. The CPE is the main component of FWA responsible for performing all the necessary functions. An on-premises internet router connected to the CPE provides internet access through Ethernet or Wi-Fi to both stationary and mobile devices.</p> <p>Despite misconceptions, FWA isn't Wi-Fi, though it is one <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/The-4-different-types-of-wireless-networks">type of wireless technology</a>. Wi-Fi is designed to distribute internet connectivity inside homes or buildings, while FWA provides higher-speed network connectivity over longer ranges, with a different deployment model and use cases than Wi-Fi. FWA functions as the last-mile connection between the network operator and the subscriber. It complements Wi-Fi rather than replacing it.</p> <p>In contrast to how wired broadband employs traditional network cabling, such as copper wires, coaxial cables or optical fibers, FWA uses CPE to provide connectivity to a single premise. Even though FWA is a wireless technology, it's referred to as <i>fixed</i> because the transmitter and receiver operate in fixed locations, as does the CPE.</p> <p>CPE antennae can operate either in direct line of sight or without line of sight of the base station tower. Obstacles like buildings and trees can't weaken signals or prevent them from reaching the CPE. The strength of the FWA signal depends on a collection of factors, including antenna technology, CPE placement and hardware type, distance between the transmitter and receiver, coverage area, and cellular traffic.</p> <p>When operators place CPE in several locations, such as rooftop mounts, walls and poles, the setup is called <i>outdoor CPE</i>. The signal strength is stronger due to the direct line of sight. The signal strength of indoor CPE is weaker because of attenuation caused by physical obstacles, which presents a challenge for 5G carriers. Nevertheless, indoor CPE is more common in enterprises.</p> <p>The CPE uses built-in routers or connects to internal routers to provide broadband in different on-premises locations. Modern CPE has advanced features such as remote provisioning, security, management and IoT support.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_fixed_wireless_access_works-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_fixed_wireless_access_works-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_fixed_wireless_access_works-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_fixed_wireless_access_works-f.png 1280w" alt="Depiction of a fixed wireless access system, which includes a transmitter tower and an on-premises base station with signals emitting from the base station to the premises" height="301" width="559"> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="FWA features"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>FWA features<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/feature/Evaluate-top-5G-fixed-wireless-access-benefits"></a></h2> <p>FWA provides several benefits compared with other forms of wireless connectivity.</p> <h3>Faster deployment</h3> <p>FWA offers low deployment costs to service providers, reducing time to market and enabling quick revenues. Providers minimize upfront investment because there is no need to buy cables, acquire permits and hire technicians to deploy the network. Installation takes a few days instead of weeks or months.</p> <h3>Affordable rates</h3> <p>Copper-based networks typically incur high costs from materials, installation, maintenance and repair. With FWA, users pay a one-time cost to install CPE or rent it for a minimal fee. FWA lifecycle costs are typically lower than alternatives.</p> <h3>High speeds</h3> <p>5G FWA provides high-bandwidth connections at mmWave frequencies using <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/MIMO">multiple input, multiple output</a> technology, beamforming, network optimization and other advanced networking methods. FWA provides high-strength signals for fast network connectivity similar to wired broadband, but at cheaper rates. Additionally, mmWave 5G FWA enables cloud access, data storage and quick downloads.</p> <h3>IoT integration</h3> <p>FWA promotes rapid, cost-effective and secure IoT integration in several applications. It supports IoT sensors deployed in remote locations and<b> </b>enables faster IoT device communication, third-party integration, remote provisioning, control, monitoring and real-time updating.</p> <h3>Enterprise advantages</h3> <p>FWA benefits enterprises through rapid deployment, lower network infrastructure costs and faster speeds for both internet access and VoIP for internal and external communication. When enhanced with <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/network-slicing">network slicing</a>, it can provide high-bandwidth internet in multiple locations, cloud application support, low latency in voice packet transfer, improved audio and high-quality video conferencing.</p> <h3>Network security</h3> <p>Just as Wi-Fi enables users to set password protections, FWA gives users options to secure their networks and meet regulatory requirements to protect privacy. FWA CPE helps to ensure secure data packet transfer, authentication, control and protection against attacks.</p> <h3>Scalability</h3> <p>FWA is more scalable than wired network infrastructure. Adding base stations, deploying more CPE or using advanced CPEs with better hardware and software upgradeability are typical ways to extend coverage.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="FWA use cases"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>FWA use cases</h2> <p>One of the biggest reasons to use FWA is to access innovations like smart city technologies that don't work well on wired infrastructure. Other reasons for adopting FWA include wired network infrastructure limitations, the need to deliver connectivity to numerous locations in remote areas or difficult terrain, and having an eager subscriber base.</p> <p>FWA use cases include the following.</p> <h3>Remote areas</h3> <p>A common use of FWA is delivering wireless broadband to enterprises, educational institutions and residences in remote locations with a relatively low population and "teledensity." Such places are typically rural, suburban or disadvantaged areas lacking in modern conveniences like high-speed connectivity, healthcare access and business opportunities.</p> <p>Mobile network operators (MNOs) typically find it impractical to roll out broadband in these areas. Even when it's possible to deploy wired broadband, maintaining the infrastructure is challenging and expensive. MNOs implement FWA to provide last-mile, high-speed connectivity and enable enterprises to grow while lowering their cost of operations. Moreover, high-speed connectivity might enable people in small households to find remote work. One recent example of FWA deployment in such remote locations is Smith Island in Maryland, where FWA enabled the rural communities of the island to access 5G for the first time.</p> <h3>Temporary setups</h3> <p>FWA is a good choice for enterprises that move offices frequently. Configuring wired infrastructure in temporary locations increases the operating cost of a business. With FWA, customers pay a one-time cost to buy and install CPE on premises and get broadband connectivity at affordable rates. Enterprises can quickly implement FWA in new offices and unsubscribe when they move them.</p> <p>Moreover, locations with volatile weather often lose network access due to malfunctioning or damaged wired infrastructure. FWA can integrate seamlessly with wired networks and serve as an effective backup.</p> <h3>Construction sites</h3> <p>Construction sites typically have complex layouts and irregular placement of materials that are inhospitable to traditional wired networks. In addition, the most remote sites might lack LTE connectivity or provide poor-quality mobile communication.</p> <p>Construction sites can use FWA as a temporary option for months -- or even years -- to enable connectivity for effective communication, collaboration, project planning and management. Workers can access project information, such as designs, layouts and plans, more easily. Owners and stakeholders can monitor ongoing work. APTIM, a Louisiana-based engineering, construction and environmental services company, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/customer-success-stories/remote-internet-access/" rel="noopener">regularly uses</a> FWA for internet connectivity at its remote construction sites.</p> <h3>Canal cities</h3> <p>Cities that cross bodies of water can't count on wired infrastructure for all their networking needs. Internet access over Wi-Fi is often the most suitable option for heavily populated canal cities, such as Venice, Italy; San Rafael, Calif.; and Giethoorn, the Netherlands. Users can access the internet even when commuting in boats.</p> <p>While cities in developed countries offer free Wi-Fi in many areas, certain businesses might need more reliable options. That's where FWA is gradually gaining momentum. With FWA, businesses in canal cities can access networks faster with better on-premises coverage than city Wi-Fi can provide.</p> <h3>Islands</h3> <p>The most remote islands are often surrounded by hundreds of miles of water and have rugged mountains and extensive forests. FWA is one of the best ways to provide internet and improve safety with IoT sensors without spending exorbitant sums on wired infrastructure. Nevertheless, the presence of numerous physical obstacles leads to signal attenuation that makes it challenging to provide wireless service.</p> <p>Caribbean islands provide emerging examples of FWA's advantages as they start to deploy it, along with other mobile services, to boost connectivity between businesses and residents as well as support tourists.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Several industries can benefit from FWA"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Several industries can benefit from FWA</h2> <p>FWA can benefit numerous industries, including the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Educational institutions.</b> FWA can support e-learning and research as well as help maintain records of grades, attendance and schedules.</li> <li><b>Healthcare.</b> FWA enables telemedicine applications that provide healthcare access, doctor consultations and diagnosis in underserved areas.</li> <li><b>Retail.</b> Malls and restaurants can use FWA to offer on-site connectivity for customer engagement and faster payments.</li> <li><b>Manufacturing and logistics.</b> FWA can support inventory management, barcode scanning, fleet management, auditing and more.</li> <li><b>IoT-enabled sectors.</b> FWA supports IoT networks in many sectors, such as smart cities, agriculture, energy and utilities, manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, retail, and healthcare.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The business opportunity of FWA"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>The business opportunity of FWA</h2> <p>FWA is mostly a growth opportunity for mobile telecom service and infrastructure providers. The following categories stand out.</p> <h3>Internet service providers</h3> <p>One of the easiest ways to start with FWA is to become an ISP. Most service providers run FWA networks and bill them to users on a per-subscriber basis. Each subscriber is an independent user -- either an enterprise or a household -- paying monthly, quarterly or annual fees. Factors like fee structures, data allowances and speed vary by provider. ISPs can unlock new business opportunities by adding coverage. If they already offer 5G, they can easily add FWA to provide subscribers with a better internet experience. Verizon and T-Mobile are major players in the FWA market in the U.S.</p> <h3>OEMs</h3> <p>CPE is the main component of FWA. OEMs make 4G or 5G CPE devices and sell them to operators and ISPs. Nokia and ZTE are among the major players.</p> <h3>Chipset and module designers and manufacturers</h3> <p>CPEs contain chips, such as 5G chipsets, SIM cards, eSIMs and systems on a chip. The business opportunities lie in designing these chips and manufacturing them. Some companies specialize in design and hire contract manufacturers. TSMC, based in Taiwan, is a well-known contract manufacturer in the semiconductor industry. Qualcomm and MediaTek are two of the "fabless" vendors that design chipsets.</p> <h3>Software vendors</h3> <p>CPE FWA modules need software for many of their features, such as embedded system OSes, remote provisioning, network automation and secure connectivity. Cisco, Kigen and Fujitsu are among the well-known names in CPE software.</p> <h3>Full-stack services</h3> <p>Some of the above-mentioned companies, including Cisco and Qualcomm, not only sell CPE equipment but also license their platforms to others. Some ISPs become full-stack FWA service providers. They own the network, CPEs, software and all the licensing services. Local startups can stack these services to offer FWA at cheaper rates than competitors.</p> <p><i>Venus Kohli is an engineer turned technical content writer, having completed a degree in electronics and telecommunication at Mumbai University in 2019. Kohli writes for various tech and media companies on topics related to semiconductors, electronics, networking, programming, quantum physics and more</i>.</p> </section> FWA delivers wireless broadband internet to remote regions, temporary setups and other locations not suitable for wired networking. 5G has supercharged its growth. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/container_g1128254725.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/FWA-use-cases-for-next-generation-connectivity Wed, 18 Feb 2026 12:45:00 GMT <p>Amid the proliferation of health AI tools, it is up to healthcare systems to ensure their safe and effective adoption. Health system leaders must provide training and resources that ensure clinicians use these tools appropriately.</p> <p>From <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhealthit/news/366636493/Survey-A-third-of-US-hospitals-are-early-adopters-of-genAI">generative AI (genAI)</a> to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/healthtechanalytics/news/366632060/Hospital-adoption-of-EHR-integrated-predictive-AI-spikes">predictive analytics</a>, AI technology has become increasingly integrated into the clinician workflow. However, if clinicians do not receive adequate training, these tools can <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/healthtechanalytics/feature/Arguing-the-Pros-and-Cons-of-Artificial-Intelligence-in-Healthcare">threaten patient safety and clinical outcomes</a>.</p> <p>Developing training programs requires leaders to combine age-old best practices for introducing new technology into the clinical care setting with new AI-specific training approaches, including addressing clinicians' concerns around AI-based clinical decision-making.</p> <p>Here are six strategies for setting up effective training programs for AI clinical decision support: &nbsp;</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Glean insights from pilots and low-risk deployments"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Glean insights from pilots and low-risk deployments</h2> <p>Digital health pilots can provide a wealth of information about effective clinician training practices for AI-based clinical decision support technology. &nbsp;</p> <p>At Mayo Clinic, early and iterative clinician involvement in technology pilots is vital to determining training protocols.</p> <p>"Pilots are great opportunities for us to talk to our clinicians who are piloting the technology to say, if we were to roll this technology out more broadly, what type of training is best? Do we try to perhaps offer a quick worksheet, or do we need more hands-on training?" said Edwina Bhaskaran, chief clinical systems and informatics officer at Mayo Clinic, in an interview.</p> <p>This early clinician input also helps the organization translate vendor materials into clinical practice concepts and match its training resources to clinician needs, especially as the technology is scaled systemwide.</p> <p>NYU Langone Health also takes an early and iterative approach to clinician training. Paul Testa, M.D., the health system's chief health informatics officer, shared that before introducing any tool into the clinical environment, particularly AI-enabled ones, the health system runs them in the background first.</p> <p>"We watch how it behaves in the background for months at a time," he said in an interview. "And then we leverage the expertise of different individuals, our decision support physicians, our physician informaticists, our health informaticists, and partner with our rapid A/B testing group, our nudge unit, and other capabilities that we have to look at the impact in the background."</p> <p>Then, the health system runs alerts in real time to a subset of physicians. For example, if the tool is intended to support high-risk differential diagnoses in the emergency department, it is first tested with a small group of physician leaders who examine whether the alerts are accurate, timely and relevant, Testa said.</p> <p>This process not only enables clinician leaders to ensure that the AI tool is safe and responsible, but it also provides them with months of data that informs clinician training. Understanding how the tool operates in the real-world clinical setting allows leaders to create programs that align training with workflow.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Identify the relevant users &amp; physician champions"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Identify the relevant users &amp; physician champions</h2> <p>The changes that come with AI technology deployment can be overwhelming for clinicians. But having clinicians on the ground who are already using and championing these tools can help. &nbsp;</p> <p>Colin Walsh, M.D., associate professor of biomedical informatics, medicine and psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), shared that clinician champions have been essential to the go-live process for AI-based clinical decision support tools.</p> <p>"You put [the champions] right there when these things go live, so that if there are issues, people don't have to look around and struggle with who to ask. The person is sitting right there."</p> <p>In some cases, the clinical decision support tool is hyper-specific to one unit or specialty, which means training needs to be targeted to the relevant users.</p> <p>According to Testa, focusing training only on the clinicians who will be using the tool allows leaders to delve deeper into the 'why' behind the technology, which is essential for change management.</p> <p>"We do really high-touch [training] with those specific clinicians about the explainability and the why and how those tools operate," he said.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Combine theoretical training with hands-on experience"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Combine theoretical training with hands-on experience</h2> <p>Training for AI-based clinical decision support tools requires a mix of modalities, including learning modules and practical training. While learning modules are essential to provide a base-level understanding of the tool, hands-on experience is indispensable.</p> <p>At VUMC, hands-on training is provided in simulated environments that closely resemble the real-world clinical setting; however, these environments do not use sensitive patient data, Walsh noted. In these simulated environments, clinicians can use the tool as they would in their clinical practice, getting a feel for the technology and how it will impact their workflow.</p> <p>However, it is important to note that no matter how well-designed the simulated environment is, it cannot fully replicate the real-world setting.</p> <p>"There is nothing like the real thing because simulation environments always include, essentially, we control the individual's attention better because they know why they're there," Walsh said. "They have an hour set aside. Their pager's not going off 10 times. And then once you get into the real environment, there's someone tapping on their shoulder, there's a person asking a question, they're trying to use the tool. And so, there's nothing quite like it, which is why the combination approach ends up being important."</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Provide information on how the tool reasons/works"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Provide information on how the tool reasons/works</h2> <p>One of clinicians' primary concerns around AI-based tools in clinical care is transparency. Understanding how the AI models work, including the data they are trained on, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/healthtechanalytics/feature/How-health-systems-are-building-clinician-trust-in-AI">can increase clinician trust</a> and, thereby, tool adoption.</p> <p>Testa noted that clinicians at NYU Langone Health were more likely to dismiss an AI tool's alert when they didn't understand how the AI came to its recommendation.</p> <p>"They were just dismissed immediately, and clinicians went on using their own judgment," he said. "And we saw the dismissal rates actually drop, once we included in that first screen, the weights of the calculus of how that decision or how that nudge came about."</p> <p>"The most impactful way to inform and encourage mastery of these tools is to be transparent at every turn [how] the models are reasoning," he continued.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Mitigate resistance to change"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Mitigate resistance to change</h2> <p>In today's technology-driven healthcare landscape, clinicians are continually being asked to adopt new tools. To encourage engagement with training underpinning that adoption, health systems must create programs that empathize with the clinician's perspective.</p> <p>"It's important to understand the context of the pace of change that our clinicians are currently feeling, right?" Bhaskaran said. "And so, while we may be very focused on really innovative tools that are supporting clinical decisions, if you don't take a step back and appreciate the broader sense of the pace of change that individuals are facing, you kind of lose that portion of it."</p> <p>Having empathy for that broader pace of change will help leaders create training programs that don't feel cumbersome, she added.</p> <p>For instance, that empathetic lens led Mayo Clinic leaders to ensure that training is consistent, rather than one-off sessions. The health system has even launched a clinical systems communication newsletter that goes out on the same day every month, providing updates and resources.</p> <p>Testa echoed the importance of consistent communication with the clinicians, adding that AI office hours can help support clinicians as they adjust to changes in their workflow.</p> <p>Additionally, allowing clinicians to experiment with AI models is a major change agent. NYU Langone holds 'prompt-a-thons,' which are sessions where clinicians can prompt new AI models with blinded patient data so they can see how the tool works.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Assess tool adoption to inform training"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Assess tool adoption to inform training</h2> <p>Assessing tool adoption is critical to ensure the efficacy of training programs.</p> <p>According to Walsh, the gold standard for evaluation is using a mix of quantitative and qualitative measurements.</p> <p>"Before we turn anything on, understanding what quantitative metrics we hope are better after go-live compared to before is really important and often not done carefully," he said. "Qualitative measures matter a heck of a lot, too, which is that perception. What do people think about the tooling? How does that work? And then balancing that with, well, what actually happens to things that we can measure?"</p> <p>Once these metrics are identified, leaders can link the impact of training to the metrics, providing a pathway to assessing the training itself. Walsh noted that leaders could use the tool adoption and perception metrics to determine if a particular type of training was effective for a certain tool, or on the flip side, whether some training modules were unnecessary. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Bhaskaran also underscored the importance of these assessments, noting that Mayo Clinic examines tool adoption at the 90-day mark. Leaders track both quantitative metrics, like repeat uses of the tool by a single clinician, and qualitative metrics, like asking clinicians about their experience with the tool during leadership rounds. In addition, leaders examine themes in IT tickets submitted by clinicians.</p> <p>"So, if we see that we continuously have a ticket that's coming through where users don't necessarily have the amount of proficiency that we're looking for, we try to develop ongoing training to support those things that might be emerging," she said.</p> <p>NYU Langone Health similarly uses quantitative and qualitative metrics to analyze tool adoption and its impact, but Testa further highlighted the importance of doing these assessments across geographical locations. For health systems that span states and patient populations, assessing AI tool adoption and use can give leaders insight into training adjustments that may be needed for clinicians caring for vulnerable sub-populations.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Offer ongoing support &amp; refreshers"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Offer ongoing support &amp; refreshers</h2> <p>AI is evolving at a rapid pace, and as a result, training programs cannot remain static. However, Bhaskaran noted that while ongoing training is important, it shouldn't create barriers to workflow.</p> <p>"It is hard because I think the number one thing that we are all fighting for is attention and time," she said. "So, we have to make sure that any ongoing support and refresher training bears that in mind. It needs to be [provided] at the point at which that learner needs it and how they need it."</p> <p>For instance, short, minute-long peer-to-peer videos have proved helpful at Mayo Clinic, particularly when clinicians need to be informed of a small update or new feature. Additionally, the process of how and where to find resources has been streamlined, so clinicians don't need to go to multiple files or websites to find the information they need.</p> <p>AI has the potential to ease clinician workflow and enhance patient care; however, effective training will ultimately determine whether these tools fulfil their promise or create new barriers to clinical care.</p> <p><i>Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers the virtual healthcare landscape, including telehealth, remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics.</i></p> </section> Health system leaders share advice for creating consistent and effective clinician training programs to ensure responsible use of AI-based clinical decision support tools. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/health%20analytics_a180336884.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/healthtechanalytics/feature/6-clinician-training-strategies-for-AI-clinical-decision-support Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:30:00 GMT <p>Windows 11 desktops might experience problems to the point that IT has little choice but to reinstall Windows. In some of these instances, an ISO file is the best option.</p> <p>Determining how and when to use the ISO repair can be a bit more complicated. As a Windows administrator, you should learn about the benefits of using an ISO file to repair a desktop and how to properly apply the ISO install.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Why use an ISO file to repair a Windows desktop?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Why use an ISO file to repair a Windows desktop?</h2> <p>There are several options for repairing a Windows 11 installation. Enterprise IT departments often resort to automatically reimaging the OS rather than attempting to repair it. Large organizations find this approach to be quicker and more cost-effective than repairing an ailing Windows system. However, if an organization lacks the infrastructure required to push a deployment image to a Windows 11 machine, repairing Windows 11 might be the best option.</p> <p>It's possible to repair a Windows 11 installation without having to resort to using an ISO file. To do so, click on <b>Settings</b> in the local desktop, and then make sure that the <b>System</b> option is selected. Next, click on <b>Recovery</b>, and then click the <b>Reset PC</b> button. From there, you can follow the prompts to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterprisedesktop/tip/How-to-perform-a-factory-reset-on-a-Windows-11-desktop">complete the Windows reset process</a>.</p> <p>Although this is often the preferred technique for repairing Windows 11, it does have one major shortcoming. If the problems that are occurring within the Windows 11 OS are happening as a result of hard disk corruption, it's entirely possible that the files used to reset and repair Windows might also be corrupt. The same also holds true if the system was <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/10-common-types-of-malware-attacks-and-how-to-prevent-them">damaged by a malware attack</a>. In these cases, there are no guarantees that the files needed to repair the OS are still functioning.</p> <p>Using an ISO file to repair Windows enables you to fix the problem using known-functional copies of the Windows system files.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How does an ISO repair install differ from a normal install?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How does an ISO repair install differ from a normal install?</h2> <p>An ISO file is essentially just a DVD image file. At one time, it was common practice to install Windows from an installation DVD. However, it's now somewhat rare for PCs to be equipped with DVD drives. An ISO file can take the place of a DVD, thereby negating the need for physical installation media. To use an ISO file to repair Windows 11, the faulty machine must be at least somewhat functional. In extreme cases where the desktop's issues prevent you from completing the repair process, you might be able to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterprisedesktop/tip/How-Windows-11-Safe-Mode-works-and-when-to-use-it">boot Windows 11 into Safe Mode</a> prior to attempting the repair.</p> <p>Regardless of whether you're installing Windows 11 from a physical DVD or from an ISO file, there's a significant difference between a normal installation and a repair installation. Typically, installing Windows results in a clean installation. Unless you're upgrading a prior version of Windows, the new Windows installation runs a default installation.</p> <p>In contrast, performing a repair installation reinstalls Windows 11 without overwriting anything important in the process. In other words, the Setup program does not format the system's hard disk. Windows 11 Setup also makes a concerted effort to preserve all the files, apps and settings that are present on the system. You should keep in mind that existing files, apps or settings could be what's causing the problem, so a repair install from an ISO file is not guaranteed to fix the problem.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Using an ISO file to repair Windows 11"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Using an ISO file to repair Windows 11</h2> <p>The first step of using an ISO file to repair Windows 11 is to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterprisedesktop/tip/How-to-create-a-custom-ISO-for-Windows-10">find an ISO file</a> that meets your requirements. Many organizations maintain a collection of ISO files that are readily available for such situations. However, if you do not have an ISO file at your disposal, you can download a Windows 11 ISO file <a target="_blank" href="https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11" rel="noopener">directly</a> from Microsoft. The nice thing about using the Windows 11 download site is that the ISO is based on the current Windows 11 release, meaning there probably aren't many updates that you need to install when you finish repairing Windows.</p> <p>As a best practice, it's a good idea to create a backup before attempting to repair Windows. Even though Windows 11 Setup is designed to preserve files, settings and apps, things can and occasionally do go wrong. It's also possible that the Setup process could end up deactivating your Windows license or other software licenses. As such, you might have to perform various cleanup tasks, such as entering a product key, when you're done.</p> <p>To get started, copy the ISO file to an empty folder on the computer that needs to be repaired. Next, right-click on the ISO file, and select the <b>Mount</b> command from the resulting shortcut menu. This causes the ISO file to be mounted as a virtual DVD drive. Windows assigns a drive letter to the virtual DVD drive, and all of the files contained within the ISO file are accessible through the drive mapping.</p> <p>With the ISO file mounted, double-click on the <b>Setup.exe</b> file. This causes Windows to launch Windows 11 Setup. Click <b>Next</b>, and Setup then performs a quick update check. When this check is completed, a prompt asking you to accept the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterprisedesktop/tip/What-do-the-different-licenses-for-Windows-11-come-with">Windows 11 licensing terms</a> should appear. At this point, an additional, more time-consuming update check might occur.</p> <p>It's possible to skip the update check to save time, but this is generally a bad idea. Skipping the update check can lead to a situation in which the ISO file is older than the version of Windows that is installed on the PC. When that happens, the only option is to either restart Setup and download the updates or to perform a clean Windows installation rather than repair the system.</p> <p>At this point, the computer should show a screen confirming the action that Setup is about to take (Figure 1).</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/windows_iso_repair_process_1-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/windows_iso_repair_process_1-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/windows_iso_repair_process_1-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/windows_iso_repair_process_1-f.jpg 1280w" alt="The dialog box from Windows 11 Setup indicating that the ISO is ready for installation." data-credit="Brien Posey" height="441" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Figure 1. The Windows 11 Setup utility showing the type of ISO install that the admin has chosen. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>Notice that Setup is indicating that it installs Windows 11 Pro and keeps personal files and apps. This means that Setup is going to attempt to repair the Windows OS, but it will also try to preserve all the files, settings and apps that presently exist. If you decide that you don't want to preserve anything and prefer to simply overwrite the old copy of Windows with a clean install, you can click on the <b>Change what to keep</b> link and select the <b>Nothing</b> option from the screen that appears (Figure 2).</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/windows_iso_repair_process_2-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/windows_iso_repair_process_2-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/windows_iso_repair_process_2-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/windows_iso_repair_process_2-f.jpg 1280w" alt="The option to choose what aspects of the Windows 11 system to keep after the ISO install." data-credit="Brien Posey" height="441" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Figure 2. Windows 11 Setup displaying the ISO install type options. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>There's also an option to keep only personal files but not applications or settings. All you have to do is make your selection and click <b>Next</b>, followed by <b>Install</b>. Setup does the rest.</p> <p>Many organizations rely on distributed workforces, diverse hardware fleets and limited on‑site support -- all of which make traditional reimaging workflows harder to execute consistently. Having a reliable, repeatable repair method that preserves user data and minimizes downtime gives admins a useful middle ground between full redeployment and time‑consuming manual troubleshooting. As such, ISO‑based repair installs help IT maintain stability without disrupting productivity.</p> <p><i>Brien Posey is a former 22-time Microsoft MVP and a commercial astronaut candidate. In his more than 30 years in IT, he has served as a lead network engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense and a network administrator for some of the largest insurance companies in America.</i></p> </section> Wiping and reinstalling with a clean install is the simplest way to fix a broken Windows 11 desktop, but an ISO file repair can help save some of the desktop's settings and files. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/pharma_g1358852671.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterprisedesktop/tip/How-to-repair-Windows-11-with-an-ISO-file Tue, 17 Feb 2026 14:00:00 GMT <p>Modern organizations are defined by digital availability, whether it's online shopping sites, informative resources or web app functionality. Downtime in any of these spaces can have negative effects in several areas:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Revenue.</li> <li>Customer interaction.</li> <li>Brand trust, reputation and market perception.</li> <li>Security posture.</li> <li>Compliance exposure.</li> </ul> <p>As such, IT leaders can no longer afford to view incident response as a mere IT operations metric; instead, it's a critical strategic business capability. Turning your <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/incident-response">incident response</a> structure into an efficient, systematic process characterized by shared visibility, repeatable practices and business-aligned decision-making is crucial.</p> <p>Use the following five topics as springboards to initiate changes to your organization's incident response stance, measuring success with the suggested KPIs.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Establish unified dashboards"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. Establish unified dashboards</h2> <p>Begin with visibility. Your IT team can't address issues it doesn't know about. Prioritizing a unified dashboard that spans on-premises and cloud-based resources helps you break down silos among monitoring, ticketing and alerting tools. The goal is to create a single operational view of active incidents and affected services, ensuring support teams have the data they need to recognize issues, correlate incidents and prioritize responses.</p> <h3>KPIs improved by unified dashboards</h3> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/tip/Essential-KPI-considerations-for-IT-operations-managers">Use the following KPIs</a> to establish the value of unified dashboards:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Improved mean time to detect.</li> <li>Improved mean time to acknowledge.</li> <li>Improved mean time to resolution (MTTR).</li> <li>Reduced incident reopen rate.</li> </ul> <p>The outcome is quicker, more confident decision-making during incidents enabled by real-time situational awareness. A unified dashboard helps avoid status meetings and manual updates by establishing visibility across IT, security and business stakeholders.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Add automation for faster detection and resolution"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Add automation for faster detection and resolution</h2> <p><i>Automation</i> remains the word du jour in the IT operations world, and it's no more apparent than with incident response and resolution. <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/tip/Tasks-to-automate-today-to-streamline-IT-operations">Automating repetitive tasks</a> saves operations staff time, enabling team members to focus on other essential work. It also speeds up responses to time-sensitive situations, enabling problems to be addressed and resolved more quickly than manual processes allow.</p> <p>The following are some key automation use cases:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Alert deduplication to reduce fatigue.</li> <li>Automated diagnostics and incident enrichment.</li> <li>Self-healing workflows for common issues.</li> <li>Automated incident routing to the appropriate team.</li> </ul> <h3>KPIs impacted by automation</h3> <p>Expect improvements to the following KPIs as your organization expands its automation practices in incident response and resolution:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Reduced MTTR.</li> <li>Reduced alert volume per administrator/support person.</li> <li>Reduced incidents for on-call support teams.</li> <li>Increased auto-resolved incident cases.</li> <li>Less time spent per incident.</li> <li>Improved <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/tip/Why-SLA-compliance-should-be-top-of-mind-for-IT-leaders">service-level agreement (SLA) compliance</a>.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Define clear and enforced escalation procedures"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Define clear and enforced escalation procedures</h2> <p>Although initial incident response processes might be smooth, incident escalation can become a quagmire of confusion and inefficiency. Unclear ownership, informal escalation paths and a reluctance to involve senior administrators and leaders create an imprecise, untrackable incident response environment.</p> <p>Effective escalation processes include multiple characteristics that establish clarity, continuity and efficiency. Consider the following structures:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Updated time-based escalation thresholds to improve resolution efficiency.</li> <li>Predefined on-call and backup roles that are clear and easy to find.</li> <li>Automated executive notification for business-critical incidents.</li> <li>Defined <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/10-types-of-security-incidents-and-how-to-handle-them">incident severity levels</a> with clear procedures, prioritization and escalation requirements.</li> </ul> <p>Relating severity levels with escalation requirements and time thresholds helps ensure the most qualified responders address the issue right away.</p> <h3>KPIs to track for effective escalation</h3> <p>Implementing the above escalation procedures should improve the following KPIs by reducing response friction:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Improved time to escalation based on a smoother process and better cross-team coordination.</li> <li>Reduced SLA and service-level objective breach frequency.</li> <li>Shorter incident durations, particularly for critical failures that are escalated more quickly.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Maintain documentation and institutional knowledge"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Maintain documentation and institutional knowledge</h2> <p>All too often, organizations treat documentation as an afterthought or a nice-to-have component. Instead, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/5-critical-steps-to-creating-an-effective-incident-response-plan">documentation is an essential strategic asset</a> and should be managed as such. First, accurate and reliable documentation speeds up troubleshooting, problem diagnosis and incident resolution. This is particularly true for recurring incidents, configuration problems or application issues. Second, it reduces reliance on individual experts who might be unavailable during the incident or who might take valuable institutional knowledge with them when they leave the organization.</p> <p>High-value documentation types include those frequently referenced by responders and those associated with automation. Use the following ideas to identify likely candidates for review:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Incident runbooks used by IT operations staff and other responders.</li> <li>Automation playbooks used by configuration management tools and incident response automation tools.</li> <li>Known error databases referenced by support staff.</li> <li>Architecture and dependency diagrams that enhance incident identification and impact.</li> <li>Post-incident reviews and corrective actions.</li> </ul> <h3>KPIs influenced by strong documentation</h3> <p>Documentation can significantly affect KPI measurements, generally improving the effectiveness of troubleshooting and incident resolution. This can include the following KPIs:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Improved time to diagnosis.</li> <li>Improved first-time fix rate.</li> <li>Reduced incident recurrence rate.</li> <li>Enables <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Best-entry-level-tech-jobs">junior engineers</a> to resolve more issues without escalation.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. Use intelligent incident prioritization to move beyond technical severity"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5. Use intelligent incident prioritization to move beyond technical severity</h2> <p>Business context is a critical component of effective incident response and prioritization. Technical severity -- such as CPU spikes, error rates and infrastructure alerts -- is only one factor in prioritizing responses.</p> <p>For example, a minor technical issue categorized as low priority can still affect customer-facing services, such as checkout processes or data input fields. Intelligent incident prioritization bridges the gap between minor technical problems and high-impact business issues. It ensures response teams are working on the right problems.</p> <p>Incident prioritization reflects the following areas of impact:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Customers.</b> Number of users affected.</li> <li><b>Revenue. </b>Lost transactions, billing issues or SLA penalties.</li> <li><b>Security and compliance risks.</b> Data exposure, reputational damage or noncompliance penalties.</li> <li><b>Service criticality.</b> Service dependencies and impact across the environment.</li> <li><b>Time sensitivity.</b> Peak business hours, seasonal demand or event-driven traffic for specific transaction types.</li> </ul> <p>The key is to address the incidents that matter most to the business, not just those that float to the top of the monitoring tools.</p> <h3>KPIs that indicate intelligent prioritization</h3> <p>Effective prioritization with an eye toward business-critical issues is reflected in the following KPIs:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Reduced incident duration for issues affecting the business.</li> <li>Improved customer-facing SLA adherence.</li> <li>Reduced executive escalations due to misprioritization.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="From reactive IT to operational excellence: Key takeaways"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>From reactive IT to operational excellence: Key takeaways</h2> <p>It's crucial to reframe fast issue resolution as a competitive advantage that affects strategic success, rather than viewing it as an <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/Examples-of-IT-department-goals">operational goal</a> or a standalone IT ops project. Changing the context to this level of importance enables resource allocation and establishes its priority.</p> <p>Organizations with an effective and rapid incident response structure combine these elements:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Unified visibility and dashboards.</li> <li>Automation, including configuration and incident response.</li> <li>Clear escalation paths.</li> <li>Strong documentation as reference material.</li> <li>Business-oriented prioritization that goes beyond technical severity.</li> </ul> <p>It's the combination of these practices that creates a resilient and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/feature/Predictability-emerging-as-enterprise-ITs-new-north-star">predictable IT ops environment</a>.</p> <p>It's time to assess your organization's current incident management capabilities and identify gaps that reduce response times and fail to align with business needs. Map the five points above to your organization to get started.</p> <p><i>Damon Garn owns Cogspinner Coaction and provides freelance IT writing and editing services. He has written multiple CompTIA study guides, including the Linux+, Cloud Essentials+ and Server+ guides, and contributes extensively to Informa TechTarget, The New Stack and CompTIA Blogs.</i></p> </section> Rapid IT incident resolution is a business capability driven by unified visibility, automation, clear escalation, strong documentation and business-focused prioritization. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/collab_a362306286.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/tip/Ways-to-achieve-rapid-IT-incident-resolution Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:37:00 GMT <p>Data visualization translates information into charts, maps or other graphics to show patterns, trends and outliers in a way that can be grasped quickly. The goal is to make complex data easier to understand and act on.</p> <p>Data visualization is a core component of both business intelligence (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/business-intelligence-BI">BI</a>) and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/data-science">data science</a>&nbsp;applications. It spans the data analytics process, from initial data exploration to communicating the final results. Visualizing data helps analysts find relationships in data sets, validate analytics models, track key performance indicators (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/key-performance-indicators-KPIs">KPIs</a>), then explain findings to business executives and other end users.</p> <p>BI and data science teams commonly embed data visualizations in interactive <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/business-intelligence-dashboard">business intelligence dashboards</a> and static reports. Visualization also supports more elaborate <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/data-storytelling">data storytelling</a>, which combines data, narrative and visuals to offer insights and inform decisions. In addition, business users often create visualizations themselves in <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/self-service-business-intelligence-BI">self-service BI</a> environments.</p> <p>Virtually every professional discipline relies on data visualization. Corporate executives monitor performance and inform stakeholders. Marketers optimize campaigns. Supply chain managers track shipments and manage inventory. Computer scientists explore advancements in artificial intelligence (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence">AI</a>).</p> <p>Without data visualization, the meaning of BI data would be less obvious to business users. It's central to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/advanced-analytics">advanced analytics</a>&nbsp;for similar reasons. When data scientists build predictive analytics or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/machine-learning-ML">machine learning</a>&nbsp;models, visualizing the outputs helps them monitor results and confirm that the models perform as intended more easily than interpreting raw numerical data. Visualization also plays a key role in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/big-data">big data</a>&nbsp;projects, where businesses need to understand large volumes of data.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Why is data visualization important?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Why is data visualization important?</h2> <p>Data visualization provides a quick and effective way to communicate information that's critical to decision-making in organizations.</p> <p>While business professionals have different areas and levels of expertise, well-designed visualizations make data analysis easier to understand, showing at a glance what is happening or has changed in a particular area. Executives, business managers and operational employees can act faster based on this visual evidence.</p> <p>Among other things, visualizations help businesses to:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Identify factors that influence customer behavior.</li> <li>Find products or services that need to be improved.</li> <li>Make information more memorable for stakeholders.</li> <li>Decide when and where to deploy specific products.</li> <li>Predict product demand, sales or revenue.</li> </ul> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/ba-data_visualization_timeline-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/ba-data_visualization_timeline-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/ba-data_visualization_timeline-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/ba-data_visualization_timeline-f.png 1280w" alt="Timeline of data visualization's progress throughout centuries" height="594" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The timeline depicting the history of data visualization starts hundreds of years before the introduction of modern technology. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Benefits of data visualization"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Benefits of data visualization</h2> <p>While data visualization serves many purposes, it also supports several ways organizations interpret and act on data, including:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Actionable insights.</b>&nbsp;BI dashboards and other data visualization tools help people absorb information quickly, gain better insights and take next steps faster.</li> <li><b>Exploration of complex relationships.</b>&nbsp;Modern analytics and visualization platforms reveal complex relationships across many variables to drive more data-based decisions.</li> <li><b>Clear storytelling.</b>&nbsp;Focused visuals and narratives maintain the audience's interest with information they can readily understand.</li> <li><b>Interactivity.</b>&nbsp;Users can drill into the data behind the charts for deeper analysis.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Data visualization challenges and disadvantages"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Data visualization challenges and disadvantages</h2> <p>While data visualization is meant to offer clarity, it can introduce certain risks, including:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Complexity.</b>&nbsp;Dense visuals obscure data insights. Without visualization training, there's an increased risk that analysts and business users will create cluttered designs or the wrong visual type for the data.</li> <li><b>Misinterpretation.</b>&nbsp;Users might draw incorrect conclusions if visualizations aren't fully clear or if they don't examine the data closely enough.</li> <li><b>Data privacy and security.</b>&nbsp;Organizations face risks related to both the security of data visualization platforms and compliance with data privacy regulations.</li> <li><b>Bias.</b>&nbsp;Visualizations and the data behind them should be scrutinized for signs of bias. Failing to do so could compromise the credibility of the analytics results.</li> <li><b>Environmental impact. </b>Visuals generated with AI often require massive computing power, which can increase energy consumption and affect corporate sustainability goals.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Data visualization, AI and big data"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Data visualization, AI and big data</h2> <p>Companies increasingly use machine learning and other AI tools to &nbsp;process massive amounts of data that can be difficult and time-consuming to sort through and analyze without their help. While these AI-driven analytics applications in big data environments offer new opportunities to present information to stakeholders, they also require new data visualization approaches.</p> <p>Conventional visualizations, such as pie charts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsoftwarequality/definition/histogram">histograms</a>&nbsp;and graphs, remain useful for summaries but are limited for large-scale data exploration. For deeper discovery, modern big-data platforms pair advanced visuals -- for example, heat maps and scatter plots -- with cloud-powered AI to automatically highlight trends or new opportunities that might otherwise remain buried in the data. This architecture keeps visual designs fast and clear, even when they're built on massive, streaming data sets.</p> <p>Despite their potential value, data visualization projects on big data platforms have drawbacks, including:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Information overload. </b>Complex visualizations can confuse users or lead them to make inaccurate conclusions.</li> <li><b>Technical maintenance. </b>Modern data pipelines require constant maintenance to prevent dashboards from breaking. IT teams must also monitor cloud costs.</li> <li><b>Lack of trust. </b>Without governance and transparency, AI-generated insights are opaque, making it difficult to gain user confidence in them.</li> <li><b>Need for advanced skills. </b>Creating sophisticated visuals requires specialized skills. In addition, business users need data literacy skills to understand complex analytics results.</li> <li><b>Data quality issues. </b>Manually checking data quality in big data systems is not feasible. Organizations need automated tools to identify quality and accuracy issues before data reaches dashboards.</li> <li><b>Hidden bias. </b>Even technically accurate visualizations can mislead users without proper context or when data sample sizes are small.</li> </ul> <div class="youtube-iframe-container"> <iframe id="ytplayer-0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vy1axaMB980?autoplay=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;widget_referrer=null&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.techtarget.com" type="text/html" height="360" width="640" frameborder="0" loading="lazy"></iframe> </div> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Examples of data visualization"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Examples of data visualization</h2> <p>&nbsp;Tables, bar charts, pie charts and other traditional data visualization methods are still widely used for their simplicity and accessibility. However, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/feature/8-top-data-science-applications-and-use-cases-for-businesses">data science applications</a> and data storytelling often demand more advanced visualization techniques, such as bullet graphs for tracking performance, heat maps for identifying patterns, bubble charts for analyzing relationships among variables and Sankey diagrams for visualizing flows and processes.</p> <p>Other types of data visualizations that continue to be popular include:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Line charts.&nbsp;</b>Among the most basic and widely used techniques, line charts show how variables change over time, making them ideal for trend analysis.</li> <li><b>Area charts.&nbsp;</b>A variation of line charts, area charts fill the space between the x-axis and a line with color or shading. This design shows both how data changes over time and the total volume of the values; different groups of values can also be compared. Some common examples of area charts include tracking population growth or total sales over a specific time period.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li> <li><b>Treemaps.&nbsp;</b>As the name suggests, treemaps use a tree-like structure to show hierarchical data and how the parts add up to the whole through nested and often color-coded rectangles. The space-filling design reveals patterns or outliers in complex data sets. One example of a treemap is a company's entire budget broken down by department, using different-sized rectangles to show the percentage given to each department.</li> <li><b>Scatter plots.&nbsp;</b>This type of chart shows the relationship between two different variables. Each observation is represented by a dot placed on the chart based on its values for the two variables: one on the x-axis and the other on the y-axis. Scatter plots are helpful to find patterns in data, such as correlations and outliers. For example, a scatter plot can show the connection between the number of hours studied on the x-axis and final test scores on the y-axis; an upward trend would indicate that more studying is associated with higher test scores.</li> <li><b>Population pyramids.&nbsp;</b>These use back-to-back bar charts to display a population's distribution by age, sex and other characteristics. They can show trends that identify demographic shifts driven by events, such as mass migrations or health crises. Business uses include analyzing spending by customer groups, planning retail locations and tracking workforce demographics.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Common data visualization use cases"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Common data visualization use cases</h2> <p>Across industries, teams use data visualization to see what has changed, why it changed and what to do next.</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Sales and marketing. </b>Interactive dashboards track real-time sales performance. Trend lines show customer engagement. Comparative charts highlight marketing campaigns with the highest ROI. Modern analytics platforms integrate AI to provide predictive forecasting that helps marketers anticipate future trends and optimize budget allocation.</li> <li><b>Healthcare.&nbsp;</b>Choropleth maps show health indicators across regions, such as heart disease mortality rates by state or county, to highlight geographic disparities. These visualizations help healthcare organizations and public health officials identify areas that require more resources. Hospitals also use data visualizations to help diagnose medical conditions and track patient treatments and outcomes.</li> <li><b>Financial services.</b> Finance professionals rely on data visualization to track asset performance and decide when to execute trades. Candlestick charts are the industry standard for visualizing price movements within a specified time frame to show market trends and reactions. In addition, visualized data helps banks analyze credit risks and customer portfolios.</li> <li><b>Insurance.</b> Insurers similarly use data visualizations to analyze policy risks and pricing when customers apply for coverage.</li> <li><b>Manufacturers.</b> Data visualization helps them plan production, monitor manufacturing operations and manage inventories of materials and supplies.</li> <li><b>Logistics.&nbsp;</b>Route optimization dashboards combine real-time data on traffic, weather and inventory to pinpoint the fastest and most cost-effective distribution paths. These visualizations help logistics organizations reduce delivery times, save on fuel costs and better manage their vehicle fleets.</li> <li><b>Travel.</b> Airlines use visualizations of data on ticket sales and flight occupancy rates to adjust flight schedules and plan crew assignments. Similarly, hotel chains track room occupancy and pricing data to guide marketing campaigns and promotions aimed at maximizing bookings.</li> <li><b>Politics.&nbsp;</b>A bivariate choropleth map visualizes voting patterns with demographic overlays showing income or education levels. Time series charts track trends in polling numbers and campaign fundraising to help politicians determine where their messaging yields the most results.</li> <li><b>Scientific research.</b> Scientific visualization turns complex data from experiments and other data collection initiatives into high-dimensional charts and 3D models. These provide researchers with clearer ways to present scientific findings, such as molecular structures or atmospheric changes.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The science of data visualization"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>The science of data visualization</h2> <p>Data visualization is grounded in how humans process information. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, building on decades of collaborative research with colleague Amos Tversky, defined the concept of two systems of thinking in his book <i>Thinking, Fast and Slow</i>:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>System 1 (fast thinking).</b> Quick, automatic and intuitive processing that requires little conscious effort. We use it for everyday tasks, such as reading a sign, solving simple math problems, detecting aggression in voices and distinguishing between colors.</li> <li><b>System 2 (slow thinking).</b> Deliberate and logical processing that requires intentional mental engagement. This system is used for more involved tasks, such as solving complex math problems, preparing tax forms and parking in a tight space.</li> </ul> <p>Research published by MIT in 2025 shows that data visualization design choices convey social meaning and can shape levels of trust before people even check the data. For example, the MIT researchers found that highly polished data visualizations were often perceived as promotional and less trustworthy, whereas plain designs were perceived as more objective. The researchers suggested that designers must account for both cognitive processing and social meaning when creating data visualizations.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Data visualization tools and vendors"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Data visualization tools and vendors</h2> <p>In the past, data visualization was often limited to using Microsoft Excel to convert spreadsheet data into tables and charts. Modern <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/feature/Top-business-intelligence-tools-to-know-about">BI and analytics platforms</a>, such as Looker Studio, Power BI, Qlik Sense and Tableau, and open-source visualization libraries, such as D3, Matplotlib and Plotly, have transformed data visualization. These tools connect to governed cloud data to prepare it for analysis, then deliver interactive dashboards, reports, alerts and AI-generated insights.</p> <p>Many now have a variety of AI features, such as automated trend detection, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/natural-language-query">natural language querying</a> and predictive analytics driven by machine learning. Tools with generative AI capabilities, such as Tableau Pulse and Power BI Copilot, tell users what has changed in data sets and why.</p> <p>BI and data visualization tools typically integrate directly with cloud data platforms, such as Google BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks and Microsoft Fabric's OneLake. This architecture gives users a way to explore governed data in a unified environment that ensures KPI definitions are consistent across their organization.</p> <p>For guidance on tool purchases, buyers can consult the vendor rankings and analysis in Gartner Magic Quadrant and Forrester Wave reports on BI platforms. Some notable vendors listed in the 2025 versions of those reports include AWS, Domo, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Qlik, ThoughtSpot and Salesforce, which owns Tableau.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="New and emerging trends in data visualization"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>New and emerging trends in data visualization</h2> <p>Leaders want answers quickly, so visualization is moving from passive to active thanks to these technological advances.</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>AI</b><b>‑driven visualization. </b>Tools now turn natural language queries into charts and dashboards. This shift toward on-the-fly visual creation speeds up results for business leaders who would otherwise wait for data analysts to provide answers.</li> <li><b>Augmented analytics.</b> Tools automatically detect issues and trends, explaining them with quick visuals, so teams can act faster. Recent research from analysts and business schools finds that more enterprises are deploying agent‑style assistants that use governance as the guardrail to ensure answers are trustworthy.</li> <li><b>Real</b><b>‑time streaming dashboards. </b>Users can watch live KPIs with continuous updates rather than a daily refresh. As needed, they can click into a metric to see details and set rules, such as triggering an alert via Microsoft Teams when a threshold is crossed. This avoids the need for multiple tools and speeds response in areas such as <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/iotagenda/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT">IoT</a> monitoring, fraud detection and logistics tracking.</li> <li><b>Immersive visualization.</b> Augmented reality and virtual reality technologies help users <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nist.gov/information-technology/extended-reality" rel="noopener">explore</a> 3D or spatial data when static charts hide key relationships, such as factory layouts and geospatial routes. AR/VR lets teams inspect data at true scale, toggle layers and capture context for design reviews and fieldwork.</li> </ul> <p><i>Data visualization is a subset of the broader concept of data analytics. Learn the different ways in which&nbsp;</i><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/tip/366542263/8-ways-to-drive-business-value-with-advanced-analytics"><i>advanced analytics tools drive business value</i></a><i>.</i></p> <p><i>Former TechTarget editors Cameron Hashemi-Pour, Kate Brush and Ed Burns also contributed to this article.</i></p> </section> Data visualization translates information into charts, maps or other graphics to show patterns, trends and outliers in a way that can be grasped quickly. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/digdeeper/5.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/data-visualization Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:15:00 GMT <p>A data retention policy, or records retention policy, is an organization's established protocol for retaining information for operational or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/regulatory-compliance">regulatory compliance</a>&nbsp;needs. A comprehensive data retention policy outlines the business reasons for retaining specific data and what to do with it when targeted for disposal.</p> <p>In business settings, data retention is a concept that encompasses all processes for storing and preserving data, as well as the specific time periods and policies businesses enforce that determine how and for how long data should be retained.</p> <p>When writing a data retention policy, organizations must determine how to classify and organize information so it can be searched and accessed later and dispose of information that's no longer needed.</p> <p>Some organizations find it helpful to use a data retention policy template that provides a framework to follow when crafting the policy.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What are the goals of data retention?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What are the goals of data retention?</h2> <p>The goal of data retention for these businesses is to allocate enough time to extract needed value from data while keeping&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/data-privacy-information-privacy">data privacy</a>&nbsp;and security considerations in mind. Other reasons a business would prioritize data retention could include the need for future<b>&nbsp;</b><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/data-analytics">data analyses</a>.</p> <p>Whatever the reason, it's imperative that businesses properly manage their data for their own benefit and for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/compliance">compliance</a>&nbsp;requirements or for adhering to government regulations. Since businesses operate on many kinds of data, and the usefulness of certain data can wane over time, management and retention of such data can get complicated. While businesses can draft their own requirements for data retention, there are also legal considerations that depend on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/State-of-data-privacy-laws">factors such as geography</a>, for example. That is why data retention policies are necessary for handling all of this.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Why is a data retention policy important?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Why is a data retention policy important?</h2> <p>A data retention policy is part of an organization's overall&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/data-management">data management</a>&nbsp;strategy. A policy is important because data can pile up dramatically, so it's crucial to define how long an organization must hold on to specific data.</p> <p>An organization should only retain data for as long as it's needed, whether that's six months or six years. Retaining data longer than necessary takes up unnecessary storage space and costs more than needed.</p> <div class="youtube-iframe-container"> <iframe id="ytplayer-0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6r7ZwTwGqtc?autoplay=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;widget_referrer=null&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.techtarget.com" type="text/html" height="360" width="640" frameborder="0" loading="lazy"></iframe> </div> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What are the benefits of a data retention policy?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What are the benefits of a data retention policy?</h2> <p>There are numerous benefits to establishing a solid data retention policy:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li><b>Automated compliance.</b>&nbsp;With an established policy, organizations can ensure they comply with regulatory requirements mandating the retention of various types of data.</li> <li><b>Reduced likelihood of compliance-related fines.</b>&nbsp;Even if an organization retains all the data that's legally required, the organization must produce that data if it's requested by auditors. Retaining only the minimally required volume of data makes it easier and less time-consuming to locate this data, thereby reducing the chances that an organization is fined for its inability to produce data that's required to be retained.</li> <li><b>Reduced storage costs.</b>&nbsp;There's a direct&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/tip/How-to-handle-Google-Cloud-Storage-costs">cost associated with data storage</a>&nbsp;and reducing the volume of data that is being stored also reduces storage costs.</li> <li><b>Increased relevancy of existing data.</b>&nbsp;Data becomes less relevant as it ages, and a data retention policy removes irrelevant data that's no longer needed.</li> <li><b>Reduced legal exposure.</b>&nbsp;Once data is no longer needed, it's removed, eliminating the possibility that the data can be surfaced during legal discovery and used against the organization.</li> <li><b>Reduced risk.</b> A data retention policy ensures that older, potentially sensitive data that is no longer needed is disposed of properly. This can reduce an organization's attack surface while also reducing the severity of a data breach's affect.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What are data retention policy best practices?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What are data retention policy best practices?</h2> <p>When it comes to creating a data retention policy, every organization's needs are different. Even so, there are several best practices that organizations should adhere to when establishing a data retention policy:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li><b>Identifying legal requirements.</b>&nbsp;Organizations must determine the laws and regulations that govern their data retention requirements so those requirements can be incorporated into the data retention policy.</li> <li><b>Identifying business requirements.</b>&nbsp;Creating an effective data retention policy involves more than just complying with applicable regulations. The retention policy must also take the organization's business requirements into account. It could be that there are operational requirements that mandate retaining data for longer than what's legally required.</li> <li><b>Considering data types when crafting a data retention policy.</b>&nbsp;In any organization, some data is more valuable than other data. An organization should avoid creating a blanket data retention policy that applies to all types of data. Instead, the policy should specifically define the type of data that must be retained and establish retention requirements for each type.</li> <li><b>Adopting a good data archiving system.</b>&nbsp;If regulatory requirements require certain types of data to be retained for longer than the data is needed by the business, then consider adopting a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatabackup/definition/data-archiving">data archiving</a>&nbsp;system. A data archival system can help reduce the cost of storing archival data, while automating data lifecycle management (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/data-life-cycle-management">DLM</a>) and providing the tools to locate archived data.</li> <li><b>Having a plan for legal hold.</b>&nbsp;If the organization is involved in litigation, then it will likely need to pause the DLM process so the data that was subpoenaed won't be automatically deleted once it reaches the end of its retention period.</li> <li><b>Creating two versions of your data retention policy.</b>&nbsp;If an organization is subject to regulatory compliance, it will likely have to document its data retention requirements to satisfy regulatory mandates. This is a formally written document that can be filled with legal jargon. As a best practice, consider drafting a simpler version of the document that can be used internally as a way of helping stakeholders in the organization better understand retention requirements.</li> </ul> <p><iframe title="Traditional Data Lifecycle" aria-label="Table" id="datawrapper-chart-vjzkP" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/vjzkP/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="381" data-external="1"></iframe></p> <p> <script type="text/javascript">window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}});</script> </p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How do you create a data retention policy?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How do you create a data retention policy?</h2> <p>Creating a data retention policy is rarely a simple process, and some organizations might find it better to&nbsp;outsource&nbsp;the policy creation and implementation process rather than doing it internally. For organizations creating their own data retention policies, there are 10 basic steps:</p> <ol class="default-list"> <li>Decide who'll be responsible for creating the policy. This task won't usually be handled by a single person in the organization because it requires expertise in various areas. Typically, the data retention policy creation process is a team effort with members of the IT staff, the organization's legal department and other key stakeholders.</li> <li>Determine the organization's legal requirements. The policy must meet or exceed the requirements outlined in any regulations that apply to the organization. Identify the legal requirements upfront, as they'll be the foundation of the policy.</li> <li>Define the organization's business requirements. This means identifying various types of data and figuring out how long each data type should be retained. Typically, data is active for a period, then moved to archival storage and eventually purged from the archive as a part of the organization's DLM process.</li> <li>Determine who'll be responsible for ensuring that data retention is being performed according to the policy.</li> <li>Determine how to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatabackup/tip/Best-practices-for-backup-audit-preparation">perform internal audits</a>&nbsp;to ensure compliance.</li> <li>Decide the frequency with which the data retention policy should be reviewed and revised.</li> <li>Work with the organization's HR or legal departments to establish a means of enforcing the policy.</li> <li>Determine how the data retention requirements are implemented and enforced at a software level.</li> <li>Write the official data retention policy.</li> <li>Once the policy has been drafted, present the policy to key stakeholders for approval.</li> </ol> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Proper implementation of a data retention policy"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Proper implementation of a data retention policy</h2> <p>When implementing a data retention policy, organizations should consider the following policy factors:</p> <h3>Data backup</h3> <p>The operational reason for implementing a data retention policy involves proper data&nbsp;backup. An organization's backup data helps it recover in the event of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatabackup/definition/Data-loss">data loss</a>. A policy is important to make sure the organization has the right data and the right amount of data backed up. Too little data backed up means the recovery won't be as comprehensive as needed, while too much causes confusion.</p> <h3>Archival vs backup</h3> <p>A data retention policy should treat archived data differently from backup data. Archived data is no longer actively used by the organization but is still needed for long-term retention. An organization might need data shifted to archives for future reference or for compliance. Archives are stored on cheaper storage media, so they reduce costs and the volume of primary data storage. A user should be able to search archives easily.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/data_backup-archive_v_backup-f.png "> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/data_backup-archive_v_backup-f_mobile.png " class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/data_backup-archive_v_backup-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/data_backup-archive_v_backup-f.png 1280w" alt="Backup vs archive. " height="292" width="559"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Understand the three main differences between backup and archive. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <h3>IT and legal teams</h3> <p>For proper creation and implementation of a data retention policy, especially regarding compliance, the IT team should work with the legal team. The legal team will have a better idea of how long data must be retained by law, while IT is responsible for implementing the policy.</p> <h3>Be careful with the data retention policy</h3> <p>Just because a file was created decades ago doesn't mean it should be&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatabackup/tip/Increase-backup-efficiency-with-a-data-destruction-policy">automatically deleted after a certain time</a>. That old file could be an important contract the organization must retain, or it could contain other valuable information.</p> <h3>Automated data retention and deletion</h3> <p>A storage system can retain or remove data based on rules set up by IT. The use of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/metadata">metadata</a>&nbsp;is one way to figure out when a data object is scheduled for deletion or designated to a given storage location. Automated software moves old data to archives, which is especially helpful for organizations with large data volumes. Some software can automatically delete data based on age, outlined in a retention schedule. But administrators must be certain that deleted data serves no further purpose.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/whatis-metadata_use_cases-h.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/whatis-metadata_use_cases-h_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/whatis-metadata_use_cases-h_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/whatis-metadata_use_cases-h.png 1280w" alt="Metadata use cases. "> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Using metadata can be helpful as part of data retention policy. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Regulatory compliance and data retention"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Regulatory compliance and data retention</h2> <p>A data retention policy must consider the value of data over time and the data retention laws an organization might be subject to. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that it isn't financially possible to retain all information indefinitely. However, organizations must demonstrate that they only delete data that isn't subject to specific regulatory requirements, as well as use a repeatable and predictable process to do so. This means various types of information are held for different lengths of time. For example, a hospital's retention period for employee email would be different from that of its patient records.</p> <p>Although it's common for an organization to establish its own data retention requirements, certain data retention laws must be adhered to. This is especially true for organizations operating in regulated industries. For example, publicly traded companies in the U.S. must establish a data retention policy that is compliant with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/Sarbanes-Oxley-Act">SOX</a>) of 2002. This legislation was passed to restore public confidence in the financial sector after financial reporting scandals, such as that involving Enron Corporation, and to prevent fraud. SOX is comprehensive and has many implications, but one important implication to remember is that it mandates that businesses must retain financial reports for at least seven years, then dispose of them once they are no longer needed.</p> <p>Similarly, healthcare organizations are subject to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhealthit/definition/HIPAA">HIPAA</a>) data retention requirements, and organizations that accept credit cards must adhere to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/PCI-DSS-Payment-Card-Industry-Data-Security-Standard">Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard</a>&nbsp;data retention and disposal policy. For example, healthcare providers are required by HIPAA to retain patient data for at least six years on file, and certain companies might keep patient data for even longer.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/compliance-sox_data_retention.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/compliance-sox_data_retention_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/compliance-sox_data_retention_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/compliance-sox_data_retention.png 1280w" alt="SOX data retention mandates. "> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Meet SOX data compliance mandates in four steps. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>Simply retaining data isn't enough. Federal laws commonly require organizations in regulated industries to create a documented data retention policy.</p> <p>An organization must also consider the General Data Protection Regulation (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/General-Data-Protection-Regulation-GDPR">GDPR</a>), which went into effect in May 2018 and updated data protection laws across the European Union (EU). Mandates apply to personal data produced by EU citizens, whether the company collecting the data is in the EU, as well as any people and organizations whose data is stored in the EU. It's critical to have a data retention policy that explains which data is being held, why and where it's being held and for how long, as it relates to GDPR directives. Especially with a sweeping compliance regulation such as GDPR, only keep the personal information that's needed.</p> <div class="youtube-iframe-container"> <iframe id="ytplayer-1" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ilLEdbfzw-I?autoplay=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;widget_referrer=null&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.techtarget.com" type="text/html" height="360" width="640" frameborder="0" loading="lazy"></iframe> </div> <p>The most comprehensive framework encompassing data retention policies in the U.S. is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/California-Consumer-Privacy-Act-CCPA">California Consumer Privacy Act</a>. The legislation was signed into law in 2018 and went into effect beginning in 2020. It was followed by a subsequent amendment to the law, named the California Privacy Rights Act, effective in 2023, which states that businesses must not retain data for longer than needed to complete certain objectives. There is currently no fixed maximum retention period for how long businesses can retain data once it is no longer needed, but the legislation is meant to encourage ethical data use and storage.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Data retention policy examples"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Data retention policy examples</h2> <p>Length of time in a data retention policy ranges from minutes to years. Use a policy engine that involves multiple fields, such as user, department, folder and file type.</p> <p>A data retention policy should include email messages. Emails pile up quickly, and some take up a lot of space, so set a reasonable timetable for retention. As with the data retention policy, the IT team should work with legal on email retention schedule details.</p> <p>Regarding targets,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/object-storage">object storage</a>&nbsp;is a popular choice in a data retention policy, as it provides solid data protection at a moderate cost.</p> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/public-cloud-storage">Public cloud storage</a>&nbsp;is another common location for data that requires long-term retention. It's typically cheaper than on-premises storage, especially in infrequent access tiers. Cloud service providers offer off-site data protection, which is important in the event of a disruption to the organization's main data center. Speed of restore depends on the tier and size of the data set.</p> <p>In addition, tape continues to play a key role in long-term data retention. Infrequently accessed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/historical-data">historical data</a>&nbsp;finds a good home on tape, where it takes longer to restore than other formats. Storing data on tape for years is typically cheaper than storing it in the cloud and uses less energy than disk storage. Like the public cloud, tape also provides off-site storage.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What are some common data retention policy issues?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What are some common data retention policy issues?</h2> <p>Data continues to increase dramatically, not only in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/primary-storage">primary storage</a>&nbsp;but in backup data and archives as well. Backup takes a particularly burdensome toll when the same data gets backed up. A data retention policy is one way to reduce volume and eventually automate the process of retaining data sets.</p> <p>However, creating a data retention policy is complex. Setting a data retention schedule isn't cut-and-dry. Certain data sets require retention of different lengths of time for legal and operational reasons. Organizations will ultimately&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatabackup/tip/Compare-SaaS-data-retention-policies-from-4-major-providers">develop their own retention policies</a>&nbsp;to fit their needs. But they must be careful when doing so, especially when instituting an automated form of data retention.</p> <p>Storage can be a burden as well. That's why a good data retention policy is clear about the type of storage where retained data goes to optimize budget and space.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Proper data disposal"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Proper data disposal</h2> <p>When a protected record's age exceeds that of the applicable data retention policy, the record&nbsp;must be disposed of&nbsp;properly. It's often in an organization's best interest to dispose of old data, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2026/01/14/why-retaining-data-beyond-compliance-limits-increases-risk/">even if it doesn't have to by law</a>.</p> <p>Many organizations use an automated system, typically a dedicated archive software product, to securely delete data that no longer falls within the required data retention period. Automation ensures data is disposed of in the proper time frame without manual intervention. Some organizations might use their backup software's archiving functionality to automate data disposal.</p> <p><i>Data retention is a crucial aspect of data governance. While data retention can be beneficial and often mandatory, businesses should also be aware of the&nbsp;</i><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/tip/5-benefits-of-building-a-strong-data-governance-strategy"><i>top benefits</i></a><i>&nbsp;of enacting a comprehensive data governance strategy.</i></p> </section> In business settings, data retention is a concept that encompasses all processes for storing and preserving data, as well as the specific time periods and policies businesses enforce that determine how and for how long data should be retained. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/digdeeper/5.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatabackup/definition/data-retention-policy Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT <p>Given the current surge in enterprise data spurred by widespread investment in private AI initiatives, we must acknowledge that <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/tip/How-AI-workloads-are-reshaping-storage-vendor-strategies">traditional storage management is broken</a>. Data has long been vital to business operations. But now, in the AI era, data must deliver valuable insights to unlock greater efficiency in all areas of the business while fostering customer engagement and generating new revenue streams.</p> <p>Storage administrators face demands for greater scale and control over ecosystems that span multiple locations and cloud providers. Data locality, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/Ignoring-digital-sovereignty-CIOs-cant-afford-to">sovereignty</a>, security and performance are all becoming higher priorities. Success for data storage administrators is no longer just about ensuring cost-effective capacity and the protection of data; it is also about being superior data stewards, ensuring the optimal performance, optimization and control of data while providing the right teams with the right data when they need it. Despite these increased demands, storage administrators are not getting the help they need in the traditional sense.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>According to recent research from Omdia, a division of Informa TechTarget:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>69% of organizations agree that the complexity of their organization's IT infrastructure environment slows IT operations and digital initiatives.</li> <li>68% agree that data storage is a major pain point for their organization.</li> <li>85% of storage administrators agree that they have taken on new responsibilities (or are under pressure to) to support their organization's digital transformation goals or initiatives.</li> </ul> <p>While the rise in private AI investment is a catalyst for this need to rethink storage management, these complexity concerns are not localized solely to AI workloads or enterprise organizations pursuing private AI. The complexities of managing existing workload infrastructure, ensuring consistently optimized performance, ensuring availability and securing the environment steal cycles from administrators and create an opportunity cost to practically every business.</p> <p>Traditional simplicity is not enough. For decades, storage vendors have promoted their traditional simplicity features. Every system is easy to use, and yet complexity increases every year. The challenge is that, at scale, managing a vast multitude of disparate "easy" systems creates compounding levels of complexity.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Is AI to the rescue?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Is AI to the rescue?</h2> <p>Recently, nearly every major enterprise storage vendor, including Dell Technologies, HPE, IBM, Hitachi Vantara, NetApp and Pure Storage, has begun offering integrated AI capabilities within their infrastructure management and/or observability tools. The integration offers multiple opportunities to offload menial or mundane tasks from administrators. AI can offer provisioning and optimization recommendations; automate actions such as data provisioning, migration, or the application of data services; identify compliance lapses; and help diagnose the root cause of performance concerns or other issues.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> For storage buyers, evaluating the benefits of these integrated artificial intelligence capabilities must be a priority moving forward with new investments, given the potential for time savings. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>Some of these capabilities deliver real and valuable time savings, while other features provide another path to possibly the same outcome. For example, the ability to instantly diagnose and recommend fixes for performance concerns likely provides significant time savings, while asking the AI prompt to create a 10TB volume versus using existing scripts might not move the needle as much.</p> <p>For storage buyers, evaluating the benefits of these integrated artificial intelligence capabilities must be a priority moving forward with new investments, given the potential for time savings.</p> <p>Last week, for example, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/news/366639135/IBM-FlashSystem-adds-105-TB-modules-with-agentic-AI-smarts">IBM announced FlashSystem.AI</a>, comprising new integrated AI capabilities for its FlashSystem enterprise storage portfolio. While multiple vendors offer similar AI capabilities for storage management, IBM's recent FlashSystem.AI demonstration acts as an example of a tool possessing features that can improve the time-saving potential of AI.</p> <ol type="1" start="1" class="default-list"> <li><b>View Rationale</b> -- When the FlashSystem.AI makes a recommendation, such as where to provision a new volume or how, the administrator is provided a "view rationale" option. When the administrator selects this option, IBM's FlashSystem.AI automatically provides the charts and metrics used for the recommendation. The immediate presentation of the background rationale should improve the confidence of storage administrators, accelerating their adoption of the recommendations. In addition, this data also simplifies cross-team collaboration by automatically supporting the storage team with the justification behind the recommendations, if or when different tools in use by different teams have conflicting findings.</li> <li><b>AI-powered non-disruptive data migration</b> -- By using FlashSystem's integrated storage virtualization capabilities,&nbsp;FlashSystem.AI&nbsp;can recommend and facilitate non-disruptive migrations between FlashSystem systems, while also managing external heterogeneous storage. Continued performance optimization often requires data movement as demands change over time. While storage systems have provided agility features for some time, the collection and analysis of data to justify data movement often add another hurdle, stealing admin cycles and slowing optimization efforts. The integration of AI should make existing agility capabilities, such as those from IBM FlashSystem, more accessible and ultimately more valuable.</li> </ol> <p>With the bulk of the major storage players integrating AI functionality, it is imperative that IT decision makers include these capabilities in the storage evaluation process. Most importantly, focus on AI capabilities that can offload the most time-consuming activities, the breadth of operations available to be optimized by AI and the ability of the integrated AI to quickly instill confidence within the organization.</p> <p><i>Scott Sinclair is practice director with Omdia, covering the storage industry.</i></p> <p><i>Omdia is a division of Informa TechTarget. Its analysts have business relationships with technology vendors.</i></p> </section> AI initiatives have created a surge of data, making traditional storage management insufficient. How much can AI help solve the issue it is creating? https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/ai_a199952058.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/opinion/Can-AI-save-the-storage-admin Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT <p>The volume and variety of enterprise data collected for analytics and AI applications continue to increase. To gain valuable business insights from these complex data assets, organizations are also increasingly investing in data science tools and other data management and analytics technologies.</p> <p>For example, in a survey conducted by the Data &amp; AI Leadership Exchange in late 2025, 91% of chief data officers and other senior executives from 109 large businesses said their organizations are spending more money on data and AI initiatives. Ninety-seven percent said such investments are delivering measurable business value, according to a report on the annual survey <a target="_blank" href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62adf3ca029a6808a6c5be30/t/6942c3cb535da44088c2dbff/1765983179572/2026+AI+%26+Data+Leadership+Executive+Benchmark+Survey+Final.pdf" rel="noopener">published</a> in January 2026.</p> <p>A wide range of technologies can be used in <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/feature/8-top-data-science-applications-and-use-cases-for-businesses">data science applications</a>. To help data leaders choose the right ones to achieve their organization's business goals, here are 18 top data science tools, listed in alphabetical order with details on their features and capabilities. The list was compiled by TechTarget editors based on research of available technologies and market analysis from Forrester Research and Gartner.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Apache Spark"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. Apache Spark</h2> <p>Apache Spark is an open source data processing and analytics engine that can handle large amounts of data -- upward of several petabytes, according to proponents. Spark's ability to rapidly process data has made it a widely used platform since it was created in 2009, resulting in the Spark project being one of the largest open source communities among <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/feature/15-big-data-tools-and-technologies-to-know-about">big data technologies</a>.</p> <p>Due to its speed, Spark is a good fit for <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/continuous-intelligence">continuous intelligence</a> applications driven by near-real-time processing of streaming data. However, it's a general-purpose distributed processing engine that's equally suited for SQL batch jobs, such as extract, transform and load processes. In fact, Spark initially was touted as a faster alternative to the MapReduce engine for batch processing in Hadoop clusters.</p> <p>Spark is still <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/feature/Hadoop-vs-Spark-Comparing-the-two-big-data-frameworks">often used with Hadoop</a>, but it also runs standalone on top of other file systems and data stores. It features an extensive set of developer libraries and APIs, including a machine learning library and support for Python, Scala, Java, and R in addition to SQL. These capabilities make it easier for data scientists and analysts to develop Spark applications.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. D3"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. D3</h2> <p>Another open source tool, D3 is a JavaScript library for creating custom data visualizations in a web browser. Short for <i>data-driven documents</i>, D3 uses web standards such as HTML, Scalable Vector Graphics and CSS rather than its own graphical vocabulary. D3's developers describe it as a flexible tool that enables users to design dynamic, interactive visualizations.</p> <p>First released in 2011 and originally known as D3.js, the tool lets visualization designers use the Document Object Model API to bind data to documents representing the contents of a graphic; DOM manipulation methods can then be applied to make data-driven transformations to the documents. Animations, annotation capabilities and user-interaction features such as panning and zooming can be built into visualizations.</p> <p>D3 includes more than 30 modules and 1,000 visualization methods, making it complicated to learn. In addition, even basic charts might require significant coding -- and many data scientists don't have JavaScript skills. As a result, they might be more comfortable with Tableau, Power BI or another commercial data visualization tool, while D3 is used by data visualization developers and specialists who are also members of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/feature/How-to-structure-and-manage-a-data-science-team">data science teams</a>.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. IBM SPSS"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. IBM SPSS</h2> <p>IBM SPSS is a family of software for managing and analyzing complex statistical data and creating predictive models. It includes two primary products, IBM SPSS Statistics and IBM SPSS Modeler, plus several others that work with or incorporate them. IBM acquired the technologies when it bought SPSS Inc. in 2009.</p> <p>SPSS Statistics is a statistical analysis tool that helps users identify complex relationships, patterns and trends in data. It also supports <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/data-preparation">data preparation</a>, predictive modeling and forecasting. The tool includes a menu-driven UI, its own command syntax and sets of Python and R extension commands that add analytics capabilities beyond its built-in ones. AI Output Assistant, a feature added in 2025, interprets tables, charts and statistical outputs, generates data visualizations and summarizes analytics results.</p> <p>SPSS Modeler is a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/feature/Data-science-vs-machine-learning-How-are-they-different">data science and machine learning</a> tool that focuses on data mining and predictive modeling. It's designed for ad hoc analytics applications that combine data from multiple sources, while SPSS Statistics is geared toward regular reporting on specific data sets. SPSS Modeler includes a drag-and-drop UI and supports various types of machine learning algorithms. It also provides model management and deployment capabilities and can run R extensions and Python scripts for Spark.</p> <p>Users can export prepared data from SPSS Statistics to SPSS Modeler and run predictive models created in SPSS Modeler in the statistical analysis tool.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Julia"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Julia</h2> <p>Julia is an open source programming language used for numerical computing and data science applications, such as machine learning. In a 2012 blog post announcing Julia's initial release, its four creators said they set out to design a single language that met all their needs. A key goal was to avoid the need to write programs in one language and then convert them to another for execution.</p> <p>To that end, Julia combines the convenience of using a high-level dynamic language with performance that's comparable to statically typed languages, such as C and Java. Users don't have to define data types in programs, but an option allows them to do so. A multiple dispatch approach used at runtime also helps boost execution speed.</p> <p>The documentation for Julia notes that because its compiler differs from the interpreters in data science languages like Python and R, new users "may find that Julia's performance is unintuitive at first." But, it claims, "once you understand how Julia works, it is easy to write code that is nearly as fast as C."</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. Jupyter Notebook/JupyterLab"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5. Jupyter Notebook/JupyterLab</h2> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tutorial/How-to-use-and-run-Jupyter-Notebook-A-beginners-guide">Jupyter Notebook</a> and JupyterLab are open source web applications that enable interactive collaboration among data scientists, data engineers, mathematicians, researchers and other users. They're computational notebook tools used to create, edit and share software code, as well as explanatory text, images and other information. For example, Jupyter users can add code, computations, comments and data visualizations to a single notebook document, which can then be shared with and revised by colleagues.</p> <p>As a result, notebooks "can serve as a complete computational record" of interactive sessions involving various data science team members, according to Jupyter Notebook's documentation. The notebook documents are JSON files with built-in version control capabilities. In addition, users can render notebooks as static webpages for viewing by people who don't have Jupyter installed on their systems.</p> <p>Jupyter Notebook was the original tool -- it was initially part of the open source IPython interactive toolkit project before being split off in 2014. The loose combination of Julia, Python and R gave Jupyter its name, but in addition to supporting those three languages, Jupyter provides modular kernels for dozens of others. JupyterLab is a web-based UI added in 2018 that's more flexible and extensible than Jupyter Notebook.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="6. Keras"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>6. Keras</h2> <p>Keras is a programming interface that simplifies the use of several popular machine learning platforms by data scientists. It's an open source deep learning API and framework written in Python that runs on top of TensorFlow, PyTorch and JAX. Keras initially supported multiple back ends, then was tied exclusively to TensorFlow starting with its 2.4.0 release in 2020. However, multiplatform support was restored in Keras 3.0, a full rewrite released in late 2023.</p> <p>As a high-level API, Keras was designed to accelerate <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/feature/How-to-build-a-machine-learning-model-in-7-steps">implementation of machine learning models</a> -- in particular, deep learning <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/neural-network">neural networks</a> -- through a "quick and easy" development process, as the technology's documentation puts it. Keras enables data scientists to experiment during the model development process with less coding than other deep learning options require. Models can also be run on all the supported back-end platforms without any code changes.</p> <p>The Keras framework includes a sequential interface for creating relatively simple linear stacks of neural-network building blocks called <i>layers</i> with inputs and outputs, as well as a functional API for building more complex graphs of layers and writing deep learning models from scratch.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="7. Matlab"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>7. Matlab</h2> <p>Offered by software vendor MathWorks since 1984, Matlab is a high-level programming language and analytics platform for numerical computing, mathematical modeling and data visualization. It's primarily used by conventional engineers and scientists to analyze data, design algorithms and develop embedded systems for wireless communications, industrial control, signal processing and other applications. Users often pair it with a companion Simulink tool that offers model-based design and simulation capabilities.</p> <p>While Matlab isn't as widely used in data science applications as languages such as Python, R and Julia, it does support <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/AI-vs-machine-learning-vs-deep-learning-Key-differences">machine learning and deep learning</a>, predictive modeling, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/feature/6-big-data-benefits-for-businesses">big data analytics</a>, computer vision and other work done by data scientists. Data types and high-level functions built into the platform are designed to speed up exploratory data analysis and data preparation in analytics applications.</p> <p>Matlab -- short for <i>matrix laboratory</i> -- is considered relatively easy to learn and use. The platform includes prebuilt applications but also lets users build their own. It also provides a library of add-on toolboxes with discipline-specific software and hundreds of built-in functions, including the ability to visualize data in 2D and 3D plots.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="8. Matplotlib"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>8. Matplotlib</h2> <p>Matplotlib is an open source Python plotting library that's used to visualize data in analytics applications. Data scientists and other users can create static, animated and interactive data visualizations with Matplotlib. It works in Python scripts, the Python and IPython shells, Jupyter Notebook, JupyterLab, web application servers and various GUI toolkits.</p> <p>The library's large codebase can be challenging to master, but it's organized in a hierarchical structure that enables users to build visualizations primarily with high-level commands. The top component in the hierarchy is pyplot, a module that provides a state-machine environment and a set of simple plotting functions like those in Matlab.</p> <p>First released in 2003, Matplotlib also includes an object-oriented interface that supports low-level commands for more complex data plotting and can be used with pyplot or on its own. The library is primarily focused on creating 2D visualizations but offers an add-on toolkit with 3D plotting features.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="9. NumPy"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>9. NumPy</h2> <p>Short for <i>Numerical Python</i>, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/What-is-NumPy-Explaining-how-it-works-in-Python">NumPy</a> is an open source Python library that's used widely in scientific computing as well as data science and machine learning applications. The library consists of multidimensional array objects and processing routines that enable various mathematical and logic functions. It also supports linear algebra, random number generation and other operations.</p> <p>One of NumPy's core components is the N-dimensional array, or ndarray, which represents a collection of items that are the same type and size. An associated data-type object describes the format of the data elements in an array. The same data can be shared by multiple ndarrays, and data changes made in one can be viewed in another.</p> <p>NumPy was created in 2005 by combining and modifying elements of two earlier libraries. It's generally considered one of the most useful Python libraries due to its numerous built-in functions. NumPy is also known for its speed, which partly results from the use of optimized C code at its core. In addition, various other Python libraries are built on top of NumPy.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="10. Pandas"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>10. Pandas</h2> <p>Another popular open source Python library, pandas is used to manipulate and analyze data. Built on top of NumPy, it features two primary data structures: Series, a one-dimensional array that holds data of any type, and DataFrame, a two-dimensional structure that can contain columns of different data types and supports data manipulation with integrated indexing. Both accept data from NumPy ndarrays and other inputs. A DataFrame can also incorporate multiple Series objects.</p> <p>Created in 2008, pandas provides built-in data visualization capabilities and exploratory data analysis functions. It supports file formats and languages such as CSV, SQL, HTML and JSON. Additional features include data aggregation and transformation, integrated handling of missing data and the ability to quickly merge and join data sets.</p> <p>To optimize its performance, key code paths in pandas are written in C or Cython, a superset of Python designed to provide C-like performance. The library can be used with various kinds of analytical and statistical data, including tabular, time series and text data sets.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="11. Python"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>11. Python</h2> <p>Python is the most widely used programming language for data science applications and scientific and numeric computing, and one of the most popular languages overall. The Python open source project's website describes it as a high-level interpreted, interactive, object-oriented language with a simple syntax, built-in data structures, and dynamic typing and binding capabilities. Python also supports both procedural and functional programming, as well as extensions written in C or C++.</p> <p>The multipurpose language is used for a wide range of data-driven tasks, including data analysis, data visualization, AI, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/Compare-natural-language-processing-vs-machine-learning">natural language processing</a> and robotic process automation. Python includes an extensive library of functions and modules that can streamline application development, and thousands of third-party modules are available in the Python Package Index repository.</p> <p>Python 3.x is the recommended version for production use. Older Python 2.x releases can still also be downloaded from the Python website, but maintenance and technical support for the 2.x line ended in 2020.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="12. PyTorch"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>12. PyTorch</h2> <p>PyTorch is an open source Python library used to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/Compare-PyTorch-vs-TensorFlow-for-AI-and-machine-learning">build and train deep learning models</a> based on neural networks. It was designed to be easier to use than Torch, a precursor machine learning framework written primarily in the Lua programming language. PyTorch also provides more flexibility and speed than Torch, according to its creators.</p> <p>First released in 2017, PyTorch uses array-like tensors to encode model inputs, outputs and parameters. Its tensors are similar to NumPy's multidimensional arrays, which can be converted into tensors for processing in PyTorch, and vice versa. By default, PyTorch runs in an "eager mode" that executes computational operations immediately, an approach suited to model development. But operations can also be combined into computational graphs to deliver higher performance in production deployments.</p> <p>Other PyTorch components include an automatic differentiation package; a module for building neural networks; and ExecuTorch, a tool for deploying models on mobile phones and edge devices. In addition to the main Python API, PyTorch provides a C++ one that can be used as a separate front-end interface or to create extensions for Python applications. Users can run models built in PyTorch on CPUs, GPUs and custom hardware accelerators.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="13. R"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>13. R</h2> <p>The <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/R-programming-language">R programming language</a> is an open source environment designed for statistical computing and graphics applications as well as data manipulation, analysis and visualization. Many data scientists, academic researchers and statisticians use R to retrieve, cleanse, analyze and present data, making it one of the most popular languages for data science and advanced analytics.</p> <p>Thousands of user-created packages with libraries of code that enhance R's functionality are also available. One example is ggplot2, a well-known package for creating graphics that's part of the tidyverse collection of R-based data science tools. In addition, multiple vendors offer integrated development environments and commercial code libraries for R.</p> <p>R is an interpreted language, like Python, and it has a reputation for being relatively intuitive. It was created in the 1990s as an alternative version of S, a statistical programming language developed in the 1970s. R's name is both a play on S and a reference to the first letter of the names of its two creators.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="14. SAS"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>14. SAS</h2> <p>SAS is an integrated software suite for statistical analysis, advanced analytics, AI, BI and data management. Developed and sold by software vendor SAS Institute Inc., the platform helps users integrate, cleanse, prepare and manipulate data, then analyze it using different <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/feature/15-common-data-science-techniques-to-know-and-use">statistical and data science techniques</a>. SAS supports a range of analytics tasks, from basic BI and data visualization to risk management, operational analytics, data mining, predictive analytics and machine learning.</p> <p>SAS development began in 1966 at North Carolina State University. Its use began to grow in the early 1970s, and SAS Institute was founded in 1976 as an independent company. The software was initially built for use by statisticians -- SAS was short for Statistical Analysis System. But over time, the SAS platform expanded to include a broad set of functionality.</p> <p>Development and marketing are now focused primarily on SAS Viya, a cloud-based version of the platform that was launched in 2016 and redesigned to be cloud-native in 2020. Viya supports Python, R, Java, Lua and REST APIs for programming. It also includes built-in AI governance features and SAS Viya Copilot, a conversational AI assistant that uses Microsoft Foundry services to help users generate SAS code and build AI and analytics models.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="15. Scikit-learn"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>15. Scikit-learn</h2> <p>Scikit-learn is an open source Python machine learning library that's built on the SciPy and NumPy scientific computing libraries and Matplotlib for plotting data. It supports both <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/feature/Comparing-supervised-vs-unsupervised-learning">supervised and unsupervised machine learning</a> and includes numerous algorithms and models, called <i>estimators</i> in scikit-learn parlance. It also provides functionality for model fitting, selection and evaluation, as well as data preprocessing and transformation.</p> <p>Initially called scikits.learn, the library began as a Google Summer of Code project in 2007 and was publicly released in 2010. The first part of its name is short for <i>SciPy toolkit</i> and is also used by other SciPy add-on packages. Scikit-learn primarily works on numeric data that's stored in NumPy arrays or SciPy sparse matrices.</p> <p>The library's suite of tools also enables other tasks, such as loading data sets and creating workflow pipelines that combine data transformer objects and estimators. But scikit-learn has some limits due to design constraints. For example, it doesn't support deep learning or <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/reinforcement-learning">reinforcement learning</a>, and GPUs aren't supported by default. The library's website also says its developers "only consider well-established algorithms for inclusion."</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="16. SciPy"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>16. SciPy</h2> <p>SciPy is another open source Python library that supports scientific computing. Short for <i>Scientific Python</i>, it features a set of mathematical algorithms and high-level commands and classes for data manipulation and visualization. The library is organized into more than a dozen subpackages that contain algorithms and functions for different scientific computing domains. That includes areas such as data optimization, integration and interpolation, as well as clustering, image processing and statistics.</p> <p>SciPy is built on top of NumPy and can operate on NumPy arrays. But it extends beyond NumPy's capabilities by providing additional array computing tools and specialized data structures, including sparse matrices and K-dimensional trees.</p> <p>SciPy also predates NumPy: It was created in 2001 by combining multiple add-on modules from the Numeric library, one of NumPy's two predecessors. Like NumPy, SciPy uses compiled code to optimize performance. In its case, most of the performance-critical parts of the library are written in C, C++ or Fortran.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="17. TensorFlow"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>17. TensorFlow</h2> <p>TensorFlow is an open source machine learning platform developed by Google that's particularly popular for building deep learning neural networks. Like PyTorch, TensorFlow structures data inputs as tensors akin to NumPy multidimensional arrays. It supports the same two processing methods as PyTorch, but in reverse: By default, TensorFlow creates computational graphs to flow data through a set of operations specified by developers, while also offering an eager execution programming environment that runs operations individually.</p> <p>Google made TensorFlow open source in 2015, and Release 1.0.0 became available in 2017. TensorFlow uses Python as its core programming language and incorporates Keras as a high-level API for building and training models. Alternatively, a TensorFlow.js library enables model development in JavaScript, and custom operations -- <i>ops</i>, for short -- can be built in C++.</p> <p>The platform also includes TFX, a module initially called TensorFlow that automates the deployment of production machine learning pipelines. In addition, it supports LiteRT, a runtime tool for mobile and IoT devices. TensorFlow models can run on CPUs, GPUs and Google's special-purpose Tensor Processing Units.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="18. Weka"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>18. Weka</h2> <p>Weka is an open source workbench that provides a collection of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/machine-learning-algorithm">machine learning algorithms</a> for use in data mining tasks. Weka's algorithms, called <i>classifiers</i>, can be applied directly to data sets without any programming via a GUI or a command-line interface that offers additional functionality. They can also be implemented through a Java API.</p> <p>The workbench can be used for classification, clustering, regression, and association rule mining applications. It also includes a set of data preprocessing and visualization tools. Weka supports integration with R, Python, Spark and other libraries, such as scikit-learn. For deep learning uses, an add-on package combines it with the Eclipse Deeplearning4j library.</p> <p>Weka is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License. It was developed at the University of Waikato in New Zealand starting in 1992. An initial version was rewritten in Java to create the current workbench, which was first released in 1999. Weka stands for the Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis. It is also the name of a flightless bird native to New Zealand that the technology's developers say has "an inquisitive nature."</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Data science and machine learning platforms"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Data science and machine learning platforms</h2> <p>Numerous software vendors offer commercially licensed platforms that provide integrated functionality for machine learning, AI and other data science applications. These product offerings are diverse: They include machine learning operations hubs, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/Compare-top-AutoML-tools-for-machine-learning-workflows">automated machine learning platforms</a> and full-function analytics suites, with some products combining MLOps, AutoML and analytics capabilities. Many of the platforms incorporate some of the data science tools listed above.</p> <p>IBM SPSS Modeler, Matlab and SAS can also be counted among the data science platforms. Other prominent platform options for data science teams include the following technologies:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Altair RapidMiner.</li> <li>Alteryx One.</li> <li>Amazon SageMaker.</li> <li>Anaconda.</li> <li>Azure Machine Learning.</li> <li>BigML.</li> <li>Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.</li> <li>Dataiku.</li> <li>DataRobot.</li> <li>Domino Enterprise AI Platform.</li> <li>Google Cloud Vertex AI Platform.</li> <li>H2O AI Cloud.</li> <li>IBM Watson Studio.</li> <li>Knime.</li> <li>Qubole.</li> <li>Saturn Cloud.</li> </ul> <p>Some platforms, such as Dataiku and H2O, are also available in free open source or community editions. Knime combines an underlying open source analytics platform with a commercial Knime Business Hub software package that supports team-based collaboration and analytics workflow automation, deployment and management capabilities.</p> <p><b>Editor's note: </b><i>TechTarget editors updated this article in February 2026 for timeliness and to add new information.</i></p> <p><i>Mary K. Pratt is an award-winning freelance journalist with a focus on covering enterprise IT and cybersecurity management.</i></p> </section> Numerous tools are available for data science applications. Read about 18, including their features, capabilities and uses, to see if they fit your analytics needs. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/keyboard_g1140860048.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/feature/15-data-science-tools-to-consider-using Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT <p>DNS, widely termed the phonebook of the internet, translates human-readable domain names into numerical IP addresses, making it easier for users to access applications and websites. DNS is a bedrock technology. It permits everything from the transmission of emails and VoIP calls to the availability of public-facing products and applications. This article examines <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/DNS-functions-remain-vital-but-must-adapt-as-demands-shift">this vital protocol</a> and steps you should take to optimize DNS.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The ABCs of DNS"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i><a name="_gcmnwny8sbgq"></a>The ABCs of DNS&nbsp;</h2> <p>When you enter the URL of a website in your browser, e.g., TechTarget.com, your computer sends out a query to find the corresponding IP address. The query's first stop is the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/The-3-types-of-DNS-servers-and-how-they-work">DNS recursive resolver</a>, typically provided by your ISP.</p> <p>This resolver issues a series of requests to find the IP address, starting from the root server. Thirteen sets of root servers are available worldwide, each identified by letters A through M. Root servers don't really know the IP address you are looking for, but they can direct requests in the right direction through the appropriate top-level domain (TLD) server -- in our case, the TLD responsible for .com domains.</p> <p>The TLD then refers the query to the authoritative nameserver specifically delegated for the second-level domain (SLD) -- where the actual domain resides. This information is returned to the DNS resolver and then received by the browser. This process -- known as <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/The-role-of-name-resolution-in-networking">DNS resolution</a> -- typically takes milliseconds.</p> <p>If you've visited the specific site before, your browser will most likely have it cached locally in the stub resolver located in the DNS client running on your machine's OS. If not found in the cache, it will check the local hosts file for a manual mapping. If it is found, then the entire external resolution process will be skipped.</p> <p>DNS also plays a role in email delivery. When you send an email, your mail server uses DNS to look up the mail exchanger records for the recipient's domain. The MX records tell your server where to deliver the emails.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The need for DNS optimization"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i><a name="_jzn5842h54ox"></a>The need for DNS optimization</h2> <p>Unreliable DNS can severely affect productivity. Increased page load times result in higher bounce rates, which reduce conversions and SEO, ultimately resulting in revenue loss for businesses. For employees, DNS failures disrupt access, leading to an increase in IT support tickets and other operational issues.</p> <p>It's no surprise that attackers set their sights on DNS. A 2025 Forrester study <a target="_blank" href="https://efficientip.com/resources/forrester-2025-dns-security-report/" rel="noopener">reported</a> that 95% of companies faced DNS-related attacks within the past year, with incursions costing companies an average of $1.1 million per attack. The October 2025 incident that targeted AWS' Northern Virginia region's DNS management resulted in the provider being down for 15 hours, affecting various high-profile sites.</p> <p>Companies can employ the strategies below to optimize DNS performance and ensure resiliency.&nbsp;</p> <h3>Multi-region and multi-cloud deployment</h3> <p><a name="_rymlbhuuohsu"></a><a name="_zbodkdqy33zt"></a>Design your DNS architecture to run across multiple cloud providers and regions from the start. This approach will eliminate dependencies, maintain high availability, prevent vendor lock-in and enable compliance with <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/Data-sovereignty-compliance-challenges-and-best-practices">data sovereignty laws</a>.</p> <p>Consider multi-provider synchronization, where primary authoritative DNS zones are hosted in one cloud and replicas (secondary zones) in others (e.g., Azure DNS, Google Cloud DNS or Cloudflare). This setup can be synchronized with DNS tools for consistency.</p> <p>Geographical traffic distribution can be handled by Anycast routing, natively supported by most DNS providers. This steers incoming traffic to specific regions within cloud environments. For example, if users in Asia query your domain, Anycast may route to the nearest point-of-presence, which could be Google Cloud's Asia-South PoP (with the lowest latency).</p> <p>If that region or provider fails, the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/definition/BGP-Border-Gateway-Protocol">Border Gateway Protocol</a> reroutes to the next closest -- for example, AWS Asia-Pacific. Optionally, improve regional intelligence by using global server load balancing. Taking this step gives businesses near-100% uptime and prevents severe disruptions that affect revenue.</p> <h3>Load balancing and automatic failover</h3> <p>Implement load balancing with an active-active configuration that efficiently distributes traffic across a pool of healthy and active servers. No switch-over is required; if one server goes down, the others absorb the load seamlessly.</p> <p>Pair load balancing with a DNS failover strategy. <a name="_3tjre9dcmsx0"></a>DNS-based failovers continuously <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/Perform-a-network-health-check-with-network-testing">check the health</a> of application endpoints in a primary region, probing network reachability, response codes or even for specific content.</p> <p>Configure address and canonical names with failover policies that dictate switching these records to a secondary region if necessary. If an endpoint in a primary region fails, the DNS service detects this anomaly and updates the DNS record. Hence, traffic and other active processes are redirected from the IP address of an unhealthy server or data center to the IP address of a preconfigured standby server with <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdisasterrecovery/definition/data-replication">data (zone) replication,</a> typically located in a different geographical location.</p> <p>Validate periodically to ensure readiness for incident response. Load balancing and automatic failover complement each other: load balancing for day-to-day efficiency and failover for resilience during problems. AWS Route 53 offers native failover routing with health checks, while Cloudflare provides advanced load balancing with steering options.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How to manage DNS performance"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i><a name="_buzqwk8sbg2c"></a>How to manage DNS performance</h2> <p>Organizations can take the following steps to boost the performance of their DNS:</p> <h3>1. Choose a fast, reliable provider</h3> <p><a name="_jedmju2xbx0e"></a>Rather than stick to DNS servers provided by your ISP, which are often slow and unreliable, switch to a high-performance public or managed provider. Examples include Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) and Quad9 (9.9.9.9). Run a DNS benchmark for your location to know what's best.</p> <h3>2. Understand the time to live value</h3> <p><a name="_2zrfxtezwmc1"></a>DNS is incredibly efficient, but caching can make it even faster. When a DNS resolver finds the IP address for a domain, it stores this information for a certain period known as the time to live (TTL). When a query is made for the same domain within this TTL period, the resolver will respond immediately from its cache, bypassing the entire lookup process.</p> <p>It's important to be aware of trade-offs, however. A lower TTL value -- such as 60 seconds -- permits faster DNS propagation, speeding up failover events or migrations. This is because the client devices will query for updated records more frequently. But this increases query volume and can cause latency. A higher TTL value -- such as one to 24 hours -- will reduce the number of queries to authoritative servers, thus reducing the load and improving speed.</p> <h3>3. Integrate with content delivery networks</h3> <p>Consider using a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/definition/CDN-content-delivery-network">CDN</a> <a name="_t5czezlq5fgh"></a>as an authoritative DNS provider. DNS queries are distributed and resolved through the CDN's global network of edge servers. Assets are cached at the edge, thus reducing loads. This approach is recommended for applications with media-heavy content. Edge caching dramatically lowers delivery times and bandwidth costs.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How to secure DNS"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i><a name="_3jqrw13dluk9"></a>How to secure DNS</h2> <p>Because DNS is bidirectional, it carries data and can't be turned off, making it ripe for abuse. As a result, adversaries are constantly developing new ways to exploit it. Below are some methods to protect it.</p> <h3>Use DNSSEC to validate DNS data integrity</h3> <p><a name="_lmvqqv4mz5ii"></a>By default, DNS queries are funneled through <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/Why-does-DNS-use-TCP-Port-53-and-UDP-Port-53">UDP port 53</a>, which is in plain text and unencrypted, making it a prime target for malicious actors.</p> <p>Common attacks include <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/IP-spoofing">DNS spoofing</a> and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/cache-poisoning">DNS cache poisoning</a>:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>DNS spoofing.</b> Hackers sniff and impersonate your DNS server, intercept requests and respond with another IP address.</li> <li><b>DNS cache poisoning.</b> Bad actors insert false information into a DNS resolver's cache, redirecting users to malicious websites without their knowledge.</li> </ul> <p>DNS Security Extensions add a layer of cryptographic signatures to the DNS data, ensuring the information received is authentic and hasn't been tampered with.</p> <h3>DDoS mitigation and network traffic filtering</h3> <p><a name="_4df78uj5lxev"></a>Imagine a scenario in which the root name servers are <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/DDoS-mitigation-How-to-stop-DDoS-attacks">targeted by a DDoS attack</a>. If these servers get taken down or become slow to respond, the entire chain of DNS queries could be delayed or fail.</p> <p>While such a coordinated attack could, in theory, delay global DNS resolution, this scenario is unlikely to occur given the servers' massive Anycast distribution across hundreds of independent instances worldwide.</p> <p>Actual DDoS threats involve <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ddos/dns-amplification-ddos-attack/" rel="noopener">DNS amplification</a> or reflection attacks on authoritative or recursive servers, in which malicious actors spoof the victim's IP to obtain oversized responses from open resolvers, thus multiplying the traffic volume exponentially.</p> <p>To combat these attacks, employ a layered approach:</p> <ol class="default-list"> <li>Start with anycast absorption. This tactic will spread attack traffic and prevent a single point of overload.</li> <li>Implement <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/Implement-API-rate-limiting-to-reduce-attack-surfaces">rate limiting</a> to control the number of requests the DNS server can process within a period of time. A CDN adds an extra layer of security.</li> <li>Deploy traffic filtering to intercept DNS queries and evaluate them against threat intelligence to check if the destination site is safe before anything malicious can occur.</li> <li>Enforce policies to block inappropriate and unproductive sites. DNS filtering options range from public or free DNS resolvers, like Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 and Cisco Umbrella -- previously known as OpenDNS -- to enterprise-grade platforms such as Cloudflare Gateway.</li> </ol> <h3>Access controls and monitoring</h3> <p>Implement strict access controls and continuously monitor and detect misconfigurations, as well as identify suspicious activity, such as unauthorized changes. Optimize DNS by deploying <a name="_6ltpqyhx8ywd"></a>role-based access control on your authoritative DNS servers or DNS provider to restrict access to only designated sysadmins, developers or IT executives. Access should be unique, with multi-factor authentication enforced.<a name="_pewyl1yqy3id"></a></p> <p><em>Wisdom Ekpotu is a DevOps engineer and technical writer focused on building infrastructure with cloud-native technologies.</em></p> </section> The internet would be different today without DNS anchoring digital communications. Companies can take some basic steps to ensure they can protect and maintain this vital protocol. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/storage_g1197646065.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tutorial/How-to-optimize-DNS-for-reliable-business-operations Thu, 12 Feb 2026 17:30:00 GMT <p>The enterprise unified communications market continues to evolve. Whether that evolution includes architecture advancements using the cloud or new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/feature/9-most-useful-unified-communications-features-in-business">communications and collaboration features</a>, it's essential to know the options and understand which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/definition/unified-communications">UC</a>&nbsp;platforms are best.</p> <p>Informa TechTarget editors researched and identified some of the leading UC platforms and vendors and summarized their most prominent features so businesses can make informed decisions. Based on this analysis, here is an unranked, alphabetical list of 10 top platforms.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. 8x8 XCaaS"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. 8x8 XCaaS</h2> <p>Dubbed "<a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366567992/8x8-enhances-experience-communications-as-a-service-suite">experience communications as a service</a>," this fully cloud-deployed system delivers UC, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/contact-center">contact center</a> and API&nbsp;services under a single platform. Experience Communications Platform is ideal for businesses with large remote workforces, many of whom operate in call center and contact center roles. 8x8 Engage extends the functionality of the UC platform with AI and omnichannel support, designed to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/feature/The-ultimate-guide-to-contact-center-modernization">improve customer experience beyond traditional contact center capabilities</a>.</p> <p>UC-specific features for business phone users include unlimited calling; text messaging; fax; voicemail; call recording; call forwarding, transfer and parking; directory assistance; and call analytics. Collaboration capabilities include video meetings for up to 500 participants, integrations with productivity apps and one-on-one and team chats.</p> <p>A single platform for UC and contact center offers IT teams more in-depth reporting and analytics, as well as simplified security, compliance and privacy controls.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OmniPCX"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OmniPCX</h2> <p>OmniPCX Enterprise Communication Server is geared toward large enterprises. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) is one of a handful of vendors that offers a true end-to-end UC product to simplify the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/tip/4-benefits-of-deploying-managed-UC-services">ongoing management and support of its UC platform</a>.</p> <p>OmniPCX is highly scalable. Users can architect its centralized management interface to support multiple geographic locations. Its modular design lets companies select the components they need to power their UC requirements, including Session Initiation Protocol (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/definition/Session-Initiation-Protocol">SIP</a>) endpoints, video conferencing and softphone applications, as well as media gateways to connect the UC platform to external entities and third-party services, according to ALE.</p> <p>UC services can be deployed as VMs or by using dedicated hardware appliances. Each UC server can support up to 15,000 extensions. If required, ALE can cluster multiple servers to support more than 1 million extensions. OmniPCX also offers mobility features, such as the ability to have unique public switched telephone network (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/definition/PSTN">PSTN</a>) numbers among business phones, mobile headsets and softphones.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/tip/Review-these-hybrid-cloud-connectivity-best-practices">Hybrid cloud connectivity</a>&nbsp;is available using ALE's Rainbow communications platform, and contact center connectivity is available through ALE Connect.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Avaya Aura"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Avaya Aura</h2> <p>Avaya offers end-to-end UC functionality through its on-premises Aura platform, now part of the company's Communications &amp; Collaboration Suite, which incorporates contact center as a service and other collaboration tools. The company has integrated the telephony platform with cloud technologies, such as Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral, for businesses migrating to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/definition/hybrid-cloud">hybrid cloud</a>&nbsp;environments.</p> <p>The Aura platform includes multiple communication components so businesses of all sizes can use it. Aura is scalable and modular, integrating voice calls, video, live chat, file sharing, mobility and other services. The platform is underpinned by Aura Communication Manager, which delivers more than 700 real-time voice, video, messaging, mobility and other UC services.</p> <p>Aura Communication Manager is responsible for registering and maintaining all SIP endpoints, call routing, call queuing, prioritizing voice and video calls, and more. Avaya Aura also offers built-in conferencing and contact center platforms -- a good option for businesses with call centers and challenging conferencing requirements.</p> <p>Other Aura components include a session manager to help manage VoIP routing, SIP trunking and user and group profiles; a session border controller (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/definition/session-border-controller-SBC">SBC</a>) for terminating external SIP trunks; a presence server to help identify locations and statuses of employees; and an application enablement services server that offers advanced APIs and web services for third-party integrations. The company has partnered with Zoom to offer Aura and Zoom Workplace collaboration tools, including <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/news/366620859/Zoom-advances-AI-Companion-with-agentic-AI">AI Companion</a>.</p> <p>Avaya Aura also supports cloud enablement through the Avaya API Exchange to connect to third-party cloud services, including Microsoft Teams, Salesforce and ServiceNow.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Cisco Unified Communications Manager"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Cisco Unified Communications Manager</h2> <p>Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) is an end-to-end UC platform. It's tightly integrated with Cisco's communications and collaboration suite, Webex, and can be deployed in a hybrid or fully&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/definition/public-cloud">public cloud</a>&nbsp;architecture. Webex Suite supports calling, video conferencing, messaging and file sharing and provides AI functionality.</p> <p>CUCM can be tailored to support businesses ranging from a few hundred to 100,000 users. Businesses can opt for third-party SIP phones, but most deploy one of Cisco's IP phones, some of which include built-in video conferencing capabilities.</p> <p>Cisco Unified CallManager is the platform's foundation. It provides basic functionality, such as IP phone registration, call control, call routing and session management. Other features require add-on platform servers, including voice messaging, IM and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/tip/5-video-conferencing-trends-to-watch-in-2020">enterprise video conferencing</a>. CUCM can access cloud-based calling capabilities, such as AI receptionist and cloud PSTN, through Webex Calling Hybrid.</p> <p>CUCM accommodates mobile workforces with enhanced extension mobility. CUCM can also integrate with Cisco's hosted collaboration platform or Webex Calling for branch offices and remote workforces. Webex Suite supports Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Salesforce.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. Microsoft Teams"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5. Microsoft Teams</h2> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/definition/Microsoft-Teams">Microsoft Teams</a>&nbsp;offers a full range of UC services, including team chat, file sharing, video conferencing and VoIP calling with PSTN access. Teams licensing is available with the Essentials, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Teams Enterprise and Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 plans.</p> <p>Teams natively works with many of the other Microsoft 365 applications, such as Outlook, OneDrive, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and OneNote.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/Microsoft-Copilot">Microsoft's Copilot AI</a>&nbsp;functionality is designed to help automate tasks and improve collaboration through capabilities such as meeting recaps, chat integration and document creation.</p> <p>Organizations can access calling features through Teams Phone. Organizations can access Teams Phone through the Microsoft Calling plan, which provides a cloud-based phone system with PSTN access. Organizations that <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/tip/The-state-of-PSTN-connectivity-Separating-PSTN-from-UCaaS">want to maintain PSTN access</a> through their chosen carrier can opt for Direct Routing or Operator Connect.</p> <p>While Teams Phone is available in Dynamics 365 Contact Center, the platform is not offered with Teams. Organizations can integrate their contact center platform with Teams through <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/answer/How-do-you-enable-a-Teams-contact-center-integration">the connect, extend and power integration models</a>.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="6. Mitel MiVoice and MiCollab"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>6. Mitel MiVoice and MiCollab</h2> <p>Mitel Networks has become a formidable player in the enterprise UC space for large and small businesses. The MiVoice portfolio comes in several on-premises and cloud deployments geared to an organization's size, geographic location and number of users. Mitel also <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nojitter.com/digital-workplace/zoom-mitel-hybrid-cloud-communication-integration-now-available" rel="noopener">partnered</a> with Zoom to provide hybrid communications.</p> <p>MiVoice Business is a UC platform that combines telephony, messaging, video conferencing, mobility and contact center. The platform supports businesses of all sizes, up to 65,000 users. It also offers purpose-built integrations for vertical industries, including healthcare, hospitality, financial services and education.</p> <p>The MiVoice MX-ONE platform spans multiple sites and geographic locations, handling anywhere from 500 to more than 100,000 users. The SIP-based platform offers telephony, messaging, video conferencing and omnichannel contact center.</p> <p>Businesses can choose how they want to deploy the platform. Larger MiVoice platforms can be installed through proprietary appliance hardware directly from Mitel. Alternatively, the UC OS and services can be installed on standard x86 bare-metal servers or as a VM -- on-premises or in a private or public&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/definition/Infrastructure-as-a-Service-IaaS">IaaS</a>&nbsp;cloud. For multiple server environments, businesses can combine appliances, bare metal and virtual servers.</p> <p>MiCollab provides a single platform for collaboration services, including voice, video, chat and text messaging. MiCollab also offers a native integration with Microsoft Teams to extend collaboration and telephony features using Mitel's infrastructure.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="7. Mitel OpenScape Enterprise"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>7. Mitel OpenScape Enterprise</h2> <p>Mitel bolstered its UC and contact center capabilities by acquiring Unify (OpenScape Voice) from Atos SE. OpenScape Enterprise comprises a wide range of enterprise communications options for on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments. The main components include OpenScape Voice, Media Server, UC, mobility and video meetings, Xpressions for messaging, contact center, and SBC for SIP trunking.</p> <p>OpenScape is 100% SIP-compatible; businesses can use most enterprise-grade, SIP-compatible phones. The OpenScape Voice platform features sizable redundancy and scalability capabilities. It scales up to 100,000 users per system. Mitel claims the product can an unlimited number of users in a multisite <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mitel.com/products/openscape-voice" rel="noopener">deployment</a>. OpenScape Voice is delivered to customers as a Linux-based VM that must be installed in a hypervisor environment. Mitel doesn't offer appliances, nor does it support bare-metal installs. OpenScape Voice also integrates with Microsoft Teams through SIP trunking.</p> <p>With OpenScape UC, employees can connect with each other or customers via a desktop client, web client, voice portal or mobile client. Advanced UC applications, such as Mitel's mobile client, can operate within OpenScape UC to provide mobility features. With the mobile device client, users can perform video calls, access presence services and conference calls, set their preferred device and more.</p> <p>Like many other enterprise-grade UC platforms, Mitel's OpenScape Voice offers contact center features for businesses that require call center capabilities. OpenScape Contact Center is designed for midsize to large contact centers supporting up to 7,500 active agents in a multiserver deployment model or up to 1,500 active agents on a single server.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="8. RingCentral RingEX"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>8. RingCentral RingEX</h2> <p>RingCentral's UC platform offers messaging, video conferencing and phone capabilities. RingCentral's AI functionality adds intelligence capabilities across its cloud-based communications products. The SaaS-based RingEX business phone system, formerly RingCentral MVP, is offered in three service tiers, billed either monthly or annually:</p> <ol type="1" start="1" class="default-list"> <li><b>Core.</b>&nbsp;Each user gets access to unlimited U.S. and Canada calling, a business or toll-free phone number, text messaging, 100 toll-free inbound minutes, visual voicemail, shared line capabilities and meetings for up to 200 participants. The plan also includes a personal AI assistant for capabilities including meeting and call transcriptions, video highlights and meeting summaries.</li> <li><b>Advanced.</b>&nbsp;In addition to the features found in the Core tier, toll-free minutes are raised to 1,000. Business features such as extension calling, receptionist and administrator console, automatic call recording, advanced call routing and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/answer/Hot-desking-vs-hoteling-Whats-the-difference">hot desking capabilities</a> are available. Additional AI assistant features include summarizing, writing assistance and translation for both team chats and text messages.</li> <li><b>Ultra.</b>&nbsp;Users get access to everything in the Advanced offering, in addition to device analytics and alerts, business analytics, unlimited file storage and up to 10,000 inbound toll-free minutes each month. The plan also includes the same AI features as the Advanced plan.</li> </ol> <p>Add-on features are also available to all tiers, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nojitter.com/contact-centers/ringcentral-debuts-ai-receptionist-air" rel="noopener">AI Receptionist</a>, RingCentral Webinar, conference room equipment licenses, international phone numbers and push to talk. Business Phone can also be integrated into other RingCentral services, such as RingCentral Contact Center or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/feature/Overview-of-RingCentrals-RingCX-AI-powered-CCaaS-platform">RingCX</a>. The company has also partnered with Avaya to integrate its cloud services, and integrates its telephony capabilities with Microsoft Teams.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="9. Zoom Workplace"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>9. Zoom Workplace</h2> <p>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.zoom.com/en/blog/zoom-workplace-simplicity-ui-updates/" rel="noopener">Zoom UC platform</a> includes video conferencing, telephony, email, calendar, chat, and collaboration tools. SaaS-based Zoom Phone, which integrates PSTN calling capabilities, is available as an add-on to the Basic, Pro and Business tiers. It is included with the Enterprise plan. Zoom Phone is offered in four tiers:</p> <ol type="1" start="1" class="default-list"> <li><b>U.S and Canada Metered.</b>&nbsp;A pay-as-you-go model that includes metered domestic U.S., Canada and international calling, text messaging, access to U.S. and Canada phone numbers, and multi-device use, including supported desk phones and smartphone and tablet apps.</li> <li><b>U.S and Canada Unlimited</b>. This plan includes everything in the metered tier, with the addition of unlimited U.S. and Canada calling and metered international calling. An optional add-on is available for unlimited calling to 19 different countries.</li> <li><b>Pro Plus.</b> This plan includes everything in the US and Canada Unlimited plan and is bundled with Zoom Workplace Pro. It includes support for unlimited meetings up to 100 participants, AI Companion, team chat, email and calendar.</li> <li><b>Business Plus. </b>This plan includes everything in Pro Plus and additional capabilities, including unlimited meetings up to 300 participants, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/feature/How-to-use-virtual-whiteboards-on-Zoom-and-Microsoft-Teams">unlimited whiteboards</a>, scheduler, SSO and device management.</li> </ol> <p>Zoom Workplace also includes third-party integration with popular business applications, such as Salesforce, Slack and Microsoft 365. Toll-free numbers are also available. A custom version of AI Companion is available at an additional cost. Zoom Contact Center is an option for businesses that serve inbound and outbound call centers.</p> <p><b>Editor's note:</b><i>&nbsp;This article was updated in February 2026 to reflect the latest developments in UC provider platforms.</i></p> <p><i>Andrew Froehlich is founder of InfraMomentum, an enterprise IT research and analyst firm, and president of West Gate Networks, an IT consulting company. He has been involved in enterprise IT for more than 20 years.</i></p> <p><i>Kathleen Richards is a freelance journalist and industry veteran. She's a former features editor for TechTarget's&nbsp;</i>Information Security<i>&nbsp;magazine.</i></p> </section> Compare the latest architecture developments, as well as advanced communications and collaboration UC platform features, offered by the leading unified communication providers. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/container_g1074391400.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/feature/Explore-unified-communication-products-for-your-organization Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:00:00 GMT <p>The Finder utility in macOS is a helpful tool, but for enterprise use cases, it comes with drawbacks that might lead some to consider third-party file manager options.</p> <p>Most Mac users rely heavily on Finder when working with the files and folders on their systems, but advanced users might feel frustrated by its limitations and lack of advanced features. Even simple tasks, such as copying or moving files from one folder to another, can be unnecessarily cumbersome when performing bulk operations or working with large numbers of folders.</p> <p>Fortunately, there are several third-party file managers that can run on Mac computers. These third-party tools simplify common tasks and add advanced features that can streamline file and folder management. As a result, users can be more productive, and IT administrators can do their jobs more easily.</p> <p>There are many products on the market, however, and it's not always clear which one will work best for an organization's Mac users. IT decision-makers must explore the features of prominent offerings to find the right fit for their admins and end users.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What are the limitations of macOS Finder?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What are the limitations of macOS Finder?</h2> <p>Finder is the default file manager in macOS, and it provides many users with everything they need to interact with the files and folders on their Apple computers. But for more advanced users, Finder can lack many of the&nbsp;options available to other file managers, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterprisedesktop/news/252514540/File-Explorer-tabs-reappear-in-new-Windows-11-preview-build">including Windows File Explorer</a>&nbsp;and those in Linux. Finder also receives relatively few updates compared to other macOS apps or file managers, so the interface has changed little in recent years. Still, Finder has received various small, incremental improvements, such as Quick Look, tags and iCloud Drive integration.</p> <p>While Finder has some useful features, carrying out certain tasks can be unnecessarily difficult and time-consuming. For example, renaming multiple files or syncing folders can be daunting tasks if there are many files and folders involved. Even navigating the folder structure can be inefficient under certain conditions. Finder also offers limited capabilities for&nbsp;working with remote servers&nbsp;and cloud storage, as it lacks the built-in connectivity features available in many other file managers.</p> <p>One of the biggest limitations of Finder is its lack of advanced search capabilities. For example, the search function doesn't support case-sensitive searches or the use of regular expressions. It can also be a difficult or lengthy process to find files and folders when working with lots of data.</p> <p>Finder also offers limited management options, which can cause problems when reviewing large numbers of photos or videos. While the Quick Look and Gallery View features help with previewing the files, Finder doesn't make it easy to tag, sort or edit the metadata associated with large numbers of files.</p> <p>Some users also don't like how Finder adds .DS_Store files to all the folders it touches, including those on&nbsp;remote systems. In addition, it lacks a dual-pane mode, forcing users to navigate multiple tabs or windows to carry out simple operations. The lack of dual panes is one of the key reasons why working with files is sometimes so time-consuming.</p> <p>Some users have also complained that the file manager does not remember the last open folders or tabs when the Finder window is closed. To adjust this setting, users must navigate to Finder &gt; Settings &gt; General and select the <b>Recents</b> option from the drop-down menu under <b>New Finder windows show</b>.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_1-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_1-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_1-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_1-f.jpg 1280w" alt="The Finder Settings window in macOS." data-credit="Brien Posey" height="416" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Users can configure the behavior of a new Finder window. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>Because of the various issues with Finder, an organization might look for an alternative file manager, especially for users who are hoping to boost their productivity. Users that might benefit most include application developers, web admins, graphic artists or data stewards who work with large numbers of files. However, this puts an organization's decision-makers in the position of needing to find the best file manager to accommodate the specific needs of their Mac users.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5 best third-party file managers for Mac"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5 best third-party file managers for Mac</h2> <p>Third-party file managers can address many of the shortcomings of the macOS Finder, making it easier to search for files, manage files in bulk, and work with remote servers and services. Most include a wide assortment of features that can help increase productivity and improve UX.</p> <p>There are many third-party file managers available for Mac, and it can be difficult to choose one over the other. Five top file managers that IT admins might want to consider are Commander One, Crax Commander, Fman, ForkLift and Path Finder. These provide a good cross-section of the type of features to look for when researching the best file manager for an organization.</p> <h3>Commander One</h3> <p>Commander One from Electronic Team is a dual-pane file manager written in the&nbsp;Swift programming language. It runs natively on macOS systems, including Mac computers with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterprisedesktop/news/252521279/Apple-Mac-performance-features-boost-business-appeal">Apple Silicon M1 or M2 chips</a>. Commander One supports configurable&nbsp;hot keys&nbsp;for most actions and includes numerous options to customize the interface's appearance. It also provides a toggling option to view hidden files; includes a built-in process viewer and terminal app; and supports a large assortment of archive formats, including .zip, .RAR, .7z and .TAR.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_2-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_2-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_2-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_2-f.jpg 1280w" alt="The Commander One interface." data-credit="Brien Posey" height="418" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The Commander One interface. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>One of the strongest features of Commander One is its search capabilities. Users can specify case sensitivity, folder depth, file text or whole words. It's also possible to search within archive files or limit the search to text in a specific character format, such as Unicode, hex, UTF-8 or ANSI, and use regular expressions in searches for pattern-matching file content or file names. Commander One supports root user access to all system files and includes a built-in viewer to quickly access a file's content, even if it's in hex or binary format.</p> <p>Commander One also provides native connectivity to a wide range of remote servers and services, with support for FTP, WebDAV, OpenStack Swift, Amazon S3, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox and several other protocols and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/feature/7-cloud-storage-and-file-sharing-services-to-consider">cloud storage services</a>. The file manager lets users encrypt any of their online connections using 256-bit&nbsp;Advanced Encryption Standard, as well as mount iOS, Android or Media Transfer Protocol devices to transfer files.</p> <p>This file manager is well-suited to users who work with numerous files that are distributed across multiple network file servers or cloud storage services. These connectivity features can also make Commander One useful to admins maintaining websites and online tools.</p> <p>Commander One costs $29.99 for a personal license or $99.99 for a team license.</p> <p>Commander One's key benefits include the following:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>Dual-pane interface.</li> <li>Multiple options for connecting to cloud storage services.</li> <li>Advanced search features.</li> <li>Perpetual license.</li> <li>Integrated terminal.</li> </ul> <p>Commander One's key drawbacks include the following:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>No option to compare folders.</li> <li>No option to synchronize folders.</li> <li>The UI has a bit of a learning curve.</li> </ul> <h3>Crax Commander</h3> <p>Like the other file managers on this list, Crax Commander functions as a dual-pane browser. The tool's interface is fully customizable, and users can even change the color of files and folders based on their attributes.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_3-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_3-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_3-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_files_manager_3-f.jpg 1280w" alt="The Crax Commander interface." data-credit="Brien Posey" height="374" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The Crax Commander interface. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>Crax Commander can connect to various cloud storage services by way of several different protocols. The supported protocols include FTP, SFTP, SMB and AFP. Although there are other tools that support a wider <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/feature/12-common-network-protocols-and-their-functions-explained">variety of protocols</a>, Crax Commander does include several helpful features for power users. Among these features are advanced search capabilities, advanced file archive handling and even table data filtering.</p> <p>Crax Commander also includes a background file transfer service with a configurable queue, and it has a built-in file editor with syntax highlighting capabilities. Additionally, the tool can split and merge files, merge folders and create file checksums.</p> <p>Crax Commander costs $25.99 for a perpetual license. A free demo version is also available, but it offers limited functionality.</p> <p>Crax Commander's key benefits include the following:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>Dual-pane interface.</li> <li>Merging features.</li> <li>Perpetual license.</li> <li>Ability to compare files and folders by content.</li> <li>The editor's syntax highlighting capabilities are helpful for power users.</li> </ul> <p>Crax Commander's key drawbacks include the following:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>The demo version, which can only be used for 10 days, isn't a true free trial. Some features are hidden or blocked.</li> <li>Decision-makers might find that the online documentation isn't comprehensive enough.</li> </ul> <h3>Fman</h3> <p>Fman is unique in that, in addition to macOS, it can run on a variety of other operating systems. The supported OSes currently include Mac, Windows, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Fedora and CentOS.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_4-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_4-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_4-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_4-f.jpg 1280w" alt="The Fman interface." data-credit="Brien Posey" height="379" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The Fman interface. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>The product offers a clean and uncluttered interface. Rather than offering countless features, Fman focuses on giving users the basics. It might be best thought of as a dual-pane alternative to Finder.</p> <p>Despite Fman's simplicity, it might still be a good fit for some power users. Unlike the other file managers, Fman is extensible. There are numerous Fman plugins <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&amp;q=topic%3Afman+topic%3Aplugin&amp;type=repositories" rel="noopener">available</a> for download on GitHub, and users can even develop their own plugins. As such, Fman is perhaps the most customizable file manager on the list.</p> <p>Fman is available as a perpetual license and costs 39 euros ($46).</p> <p>Fman's key benefits include the following:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>Simple and clean UI.</li> <li>Easy-to-use design.</li> <li>Perpetual license.</li> <li>Community-developed plugins make it highly customizable.</li> </ul> <p>Fman's key drawbacks include the following:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>The lack of native features might disappoint power users.</li> <li>Because the plugins are community-developed, they lack support, and some could be buggy.</li> </ul> <h3>ForkLift</h3> <p>ForkLift from BinaryNights offers many of the same features as Commander One, but it also includes other advanced capabilities. Like Commander One, ForkLift supports configurable hot keys, displays hidden files and provides a Quick View feature. It also offers multiple options for archiving files, including the ability to encrypt those archives. Additionally, ForkLift provides a preview pane to quickly review file content, supports single-pane or dual-pane mode and includes a Quick Select feature to easily choose files from a directory.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_5-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_5-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_5-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_5-f.jpg 1280w" alt="The ForkLift interface." data-credit="Brien Posey" height="379" width="559"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The ForkLift interface. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>Another valuable component of ForkLift is the Sync feature, which makes it possible to synchronize new, updated or deleted files across local or remote folders, with support for both one-way and two-way syncing. The file manager also provides native integration with Git source control. This makes it easy to add, commit, push or pull files <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/An-introduction-to-Git-for-network-engineers">with the Git repository</a>. In addition, ForkLift simplifies remote connectivity through its&nbsp;support for multiple protocols&nbsp;-- such as FTP, SFTP and WebDAV -- and cloud storage services, such as Amazon S3, Google Drive and Rackspace Cloud Files.</p> <p>These features can be particularly helpful to users who need to access and sync numerous files across remote locations, such as web developers or admins, but power users can also benefit. For example, ForkLift makes it possible to control file transfers at a granular level, so users can limit download and upload bandwidth. Users can also open the terminal app to a specific directory, compare text or image files, set a preferred app to edit remote files and mount remote servers so they appear as local drives. There's an App Deletion feature to uninstall apps directly from the file manager interface as well.</p> <p>ForkLift is available as a perpetual license, with the price being based on the length of time for which upgrades are provided. A ForkLift license with one year of updates costs $19.95 for a single user, $29.95 for a family license and $69.95 for a small business license. If customers opt for a license that includes two years of upgrades, then the prices increase to $34.95, $49.95 and $119.95, respectively.</p> <p>ForkLift's key benefits include the following:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>Dual-pane interface.</li> <li>Perpetual license.</li> <li>Synchronization between local and remote sources.</li> <li>Ability to monitor tasks in real time.</li> </ul> <p>ForkLift's key drawbacks include the following:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>The sheer number of features might be overwhelming for less experienced users. The product is likely overkill for casual users.</li> </ul> <h3>Path Finder</h3> <p>Path Finder from Cocoatech is full of features to help increase user productivity, including configurable hot keys, file compression capabilities and a quick view option. It supports multiple connection protocols and cloud storage services, although not nearly as many as Commander One or ForkLift. On the other hand, Path Finder offers an interface and UX that more closely aligns with Finder than the other products. This might make it easier for some users to transition to.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_6-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_6-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_6-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/mac_file_manager_6-f.jpg 1280w" alt="The Path Finder interface." data-credit="Brien Posey" height="420" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The Path Finder interface. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>The product includes an easy-to-access favorites pane, provides native support for Apple silicon, integrates with Apple's&nbsp;AirDrop, supports file operations on iOS devices and includes one-click dual-pane file copying. It also offers a Secure Delete feature to control the number of file-deletion passes, and it provides an advanced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/definition/access-control-list-ACL">access control list</a>&nbsp;editor to configure file and folder permissions.</p> <p>Path Finder is well-suited to power users who regularly work with many files throughout the day. The Drop Stack feature, which lets users freeze drag and drop operations by placing files into a temporary stack, might be especially helpful for these cases.</p> <p>Developers and admins might also benefit from the product's many other capabilities. For example, Path Finder includes both a single-pane and dual-pane mode, supports bulk renaming, calculates file&nbsp;checksums, synchronizes folders, compares files, and integrates with&nbsp;Git and Subversion. Other useful features include file transfer controls, file tagging and filtering, an integrated terminal window and folder merging.</p> <p>Modules is another noteworthy feature, which gives users a way to display additional information about files and folders, or to perform additional actions without leaving Path Finder. Some of the available modules include Permissions, Processes, Size and Preview, though there are many others.</p> <p>Path Finder is available for purchase either as a perpetual license or as a subscription. A one-time purchase license costs $32.95. Subscriptions are available for $2.95 per month or $29.95 per year.</p> <p>Path Finder's key benefits include the following:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>Dual-pane interface.</li> <li>Availability as a subscription or as a perpetual license.</li> <li>Modules enable a highly customizable experience.</li> <li>The Drop Stack feature can help to simplify some bulk operations.</li> </ul> <p>Path Finder's key drawbacks include the following:</p> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li>The interface is complex and somewhat cluttered.</li> <li>There can be a steep learning curve, particularly for using the modules.</li> </ul> <p>As macOS continues to expand its footprint in corporate ecosystems, CIOs and IT leaders need tools that streamline workflows and integrate cleanly with existing platforms. The best Mac file manager for an organization is whichever one supports its users' productivity most. That varies depending on the user base and the organization's specific goals. To know if a tool is the right fit, evaluate how it affects support ticket volume, governance and employee experience.</p> <p><b>Editor's note:</b><i>&nbsp;This article was originally written by Robert Sheldon in March 2023. Brien Posey updated this article in February 2026 to reflect changes in the file manager market.</i></p> <p><i>Brien Posey is a former 22-time Microsoft MVP and a commercial astronaut candidate. In his more than 30 years in IT, he has served as a lead network engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense and a network administrator for some of the largest insurance companies in America. </i></p> <p><i>Robert Sheldon is a freelance technology writer. He has written numerous books, articles and training materials on a wide range of topics, including big data, generative AI, 5D memory crystals, the dark web and the 11th dimension.</i></p> </section> If the native macOS file manager is lacking, IT can look to third-party options for advanced features. These alternatives can help simplify file browsing and improve productivity. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/folder-files06.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/tip/What-are-the-best-file-managers-for-Mac-devices Thu, 12 Feb 2026 10:15:00 GMT <p>Incident response plans enable organizations to quickly and efficiently handle cyberattacks. The lack of such a plan increases the likelihood that an attack will cause significant operational damage to IT systems, networks and data.</p> <p>When developing an effective incident response strategy, a framework is essential. Industry frameworks can help an organization formulate an effective incident response initiative or update its existing initiatives.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What are frameworks and why are they important?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What are frameworks and why are they important?</h2> <p>An incident response framework is the foundation for building an incident response program. An ideal framework provides structure and guidance for addressing all incident response activities.</p> <p>For existing incident response programs, frameworks can ensure teams address relevant issues, such as staffing, administration, response playbooks, awareness and training, testing and resource identification.</p> <p>CISOs and cybersecurity teams responsible for developing a new incident plan and associated activities will quickly recognize the benefits of using a framework, especially when ensuring all the right boxes are checked.</p> <p>Properly used, a framework can be adapted into a variety of formal documents, including incident response programs, policies and individual plans. Organizations required to demonstrate compliance with both domestic and international standards and regulations should use specific frameworks when developing incident response programs and plans. From legal, operational and audit perspectives, using frameworks helps demonstrate compliance with these important requirements.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Key elements of an IR framework"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Key elements of an IR framework</h2> <p>Regardless of its source, an incident framework should include at least five specific components. Each standard and framework has its own nomenclature for these components, which generally follows the five-Rs structure.</p> <h3>Research</h3> <p>Before a cyberattack occurs, security teams should carefully examine all elements of the organization's IT infrastructure. A risk analysis determines which elements of the business are <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/How-to-fix-the-top-5-cybersecurity-vulnerabilities">most susceptible to attack</a>, the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/10-types-of-security-incidents-and-how-to-handle-them">types of security events</a> most likely to occur and the effects those events would have on the business.</p> <p>The research phase includes a review of measures to prepare for and respond to an actual attack. These include preparing policies and plans, deploying cybersecurity systems and software, training <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/incident-response-team">incident response teams</a>, performing threat hunting and penetration testing, patching software and testing cybersecurity plans.</p> <h3>Recognition</h3> <p>This stage occurs when an incident is identified. It could be an alert from an intrusion prevention or detection system, a firewall or an antimalware program, among others. Once an alert has sounded, the next stage is launched.</p> <h3>Response</h3> <p>In this stage,<b> </b>cybersecurity teams identify the nature and source of the threat, isolate it, analyze its potential impacts and decide the most appropriate response.</p> <h3>Resolution</h3> <p>In this stage, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/How-to-become-an-incident-responder-Requirements-and-more">incident responders</a> eliminate the threat or mitigate its severity so it no longer disrupts business operations. This is especially important in <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/How-to-recover-from-a-ransomware-attack">ransomware incident response</a>, where a rapid resolution might save the organization thousands or even millions of dollars in costs associated with recovering compromised systems, networks, files and databases.</p> <h3>Recap</h3> <p>Once the event has been resolved, it is essential to document how the incident response team handled the event from initial awareness to final resolution. Assessing what worked and what did not enables teams to identify areas for improvement in the incident process and to refine the incident response framework and incident response plan.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Incident response standards and frameworks"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Incident response standards and frameworks</h2> <p>There are several well-known incident response standards and frameworks. Some have their roots in government service, while others were developed for the private sector. Each approach can help develop an incident framework for enterprise cybersecurity requirements.</p> <h3>ISO/IEC 27035 series</h3> <p>The ISO/IEC 27035 series has three parts:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.iso.org/standard/78973.html" rel="noopener">ISO/IEC 27035-1</a> introduces incident management principles.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.iso.org/standard/78974.html" rel="noopener">ISO/IEC 27035-2</a> focuses on incident management preparation and planning.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.iso.org/standard/74033.html" rel="noopener">ISO/IEC 27035-3</a> describes how to respond to cybersecurity incidents.</li> </ul> <p>The series breaks the incident response process into the following five phases:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Planning and preparation.</b> Establish an incident management policy and create an incident response team.</li> <li><b>Detection and reporting.</b> Set up the processes, procedures and technologies required to detect and report the incident.</li> <li><b>Assessment and decision.</b> Create processes and procedures, and establish incident descriptions and criteria.</li> <li><b>Response to incidents.</b> Establish controls to prevent, respond to and recover from incidents.</li> <li><b>Lessons learned.</b> Learn from security incidents to improve overall incident management.</li> </ul> <p>Collectively, the series provides a comprehensive framework for incident response and incident management.</p> <p>"<a target="_blank" href="https://webstore.ansi.org/standards/iso/iso223202018" rel="noopener">ISO 22320:2018</a> Security and resilience -- Emergency management -- Guidelines for incident management" closely mirrors ISO 27035. It can serve as a standalone framework or as a complement to ISO 27035.</p> <h3>NIST incident response framework</h3> <p><a target="_blank" href="https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/61/r3/final" rel="noopener">NIST Special Publication 800-61</a> Rev. 3 was updated in April 2025 to reflect the modern incident response landscape and align with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0.</p> <p>The updated guidance identifies the incident response lifecycle in three sections:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Preparation.</b> NIST wrote that this phase is not part of incident response itself but part of the broader ongoing risk management process. It includes risk assessment and analysis, policy creation, system monitoring and the implementation of security tools and technologies.</li> <li><b>Incident response.</b> This stage involves detecting, responding to and recovering from a cybersecurity event.</li> <li><b>Lessons learned.</b> This step involves gathering feedback from all activities in all steps to identify improvements and adjust policies, processes and plans.</li> </ul> <h3>SANS incident response framework</h3> <p>SANS Institute, a private cybersecurity training, certification and research organization, published an incident response framework that has the following phases:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Preparation.</b> Review and codify security policies, perform a risk assessment, identify sensitive assets, define critical security incidents and build an incident response team.</li> <li><b>Identification.</b> Monitor IT systems, detect deviations from normal operations and determine whether they represent real security incidents. If an incident is discovered, collect additional evidence, establish its type and severity, and document everything.</li> <li><b>Containment.</b> Perform short-term containment, and then focus on long-term containment, which involves temporary fixes to enable systems to be used in production while rebuilding clean systems.</li> <li><b>Eradication.</b> Remove malware from affected systems, identify the root cause of the attack and take action to prevent similar attacks.</li> <li><b>Recovery.</b> Bring affected production systems back online cautiously to prevent further attacks. Test, verify and monitor affected systems to ensure they return to normal operation.</li> <li><b>Lessons learned.</b> Compile all relevant information about the incident and identify lessons that will help with future incident response activities.</li> </ul> <h3>CERT Incident Management Capability</h3> <p>Developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute and used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, the CERT incident management assessment addresses a broad spectrum of cybersecurity event response activities. Its incident response phases include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Prepare. </b>Establish a formal incident function, set up roles and responsibilities, develop procedures for incident response, and identify tools and key relationships for managing incident responses.</li> <li><b>Protect. </b>Establish measures to identify potential risks, threats and vulnerabilities; deploy upgrades, modifications and enhancements to security infrastructure assets, including firewalls, intrusion detection systems and antivirus; and develop a patch management process.</li> <li><b>Detect. </b>Balance proactive actions, such as monitoring and analysis, with reactive actions, such as event data gathering, to determine the nature of a suspicious activity.</li> <li><b>Respond. </b>Analyze the anomaly, launch mitigation and remediation activities, initiate event notification and begin post-event follow-up to determine how well the response activities performed.</li> <li><b>Sustain.</b> Maintain effective incident response activities, including program funding, training of response teams, reviewing and updating of controls, and post-event reviews to identify ways of improving incident response procedures.</li> </ul> <h3>Additional incident response frameworks</h3> <p>Consider the following incident response guidance:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>IEEE has research, guidance and frameworks, but no formal standards.</li> <li>IETF has standards and best practices for computer security incident response teams.</li> <li>The EU Agency for Cybersecurity developed incident response frameworks that are published via guidance documents, including "Good Practice Guide for Incident Management."</li> <li>"NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 3: Security and Privacy Controls for Information Systems and Organizations" is a key information security standard that includes requirements for incident response.</li> <li>Mitre ATT&amp;CK is a knowledge base of cybersecurity threat activities that can contribute to the creation of an incident response framework with guidance on incident detection, analysis and reporting.</li> <li>CISA has operational procedures and playbooks for planning and conducting cybersecurity vulnerability and incident response activities.</li> <li>CISA established the National Cyber Incident Response Plan, a public sector-focused framework providing guidance on responding to cyberattacks.</li> <li>"ISO 27001: Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection -- Information security management systems -- Requirements" is the global standard for information security management systems and aligns with ISO 27035 for incident response activities.</li> <li>The U.S. Incident Command System presents a structured approach to incident response and management. It is designed to enable collaboration among various federal, state and local government agencies.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How to create an incident response framework"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How to create an incident response framework</h2> <p>Organizations that already have an incident response framework in place should compare it to the standards and frameworks outlined above to ensure it aligns with good-practice guidance. Review and update the framework periodically to ensure it remains aligned with the standards.</p> <p>When developing an in-house incident response framework, consider the following steps:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Examine existing cybersecurity documentation, including policies, procedures, plans and reports.</li> <li>Establish a project plan and team to develop the framework.</li> <li>Gather and review existing frameworks. Select the document(s) that best fits the organization's requirements.</li> <li>If the framework is part of an enterprise cybersecurity initiative that needs to demonstrate compliance with a standard or regulation, use a framework that aligns with that standard or regulation.</li> <li>Prepare an initial draft framework for review.</li> <li>Carefully review the draft framework to ensure it aligns with existing cybersecurity policies, procedures and compliance requirements.</li> <li>Secure approval from senior management.</li> <li>Disseminate the framework to members of the cybersecurity team and the security operations center team.</li> </ul> <p>Once the framework has been completed and approved, formulate incident response program documents based on the framework. Review and update existing incident response activities if necessary.</p> <p>In situations where a formal incident response program needs to be developed, use the framework to do the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Initiate the incident response program.</li> <li>Create incident response policies and processes.</li> <li>Identify, secure and train <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/How-to-build-an-incident-response-team-for-your-organization">incident response team members</a>.</li> <li>Adopt tools and resources for incident response activities.</li> <li>Deploy systems for incident identification, event logging and tracking, and event response and reporting.</li> <li>Launch activities for threat hunting, pen testing and other forensic activities.</li> <li>Regularly patch critical software.</li> <li>Schedule and conduct incident response exercises and tests.</li> <li>Include incident response activities in weekly IT staff meetings.</li> <li>Establish a continuous improvement activity for incident response.</li> </ul> <p>Whether an organization develops its own homegrown framework or uses one or more of the documents mentioned here, be sure it addresses domestic and international compliance requirements.</p> <p>Most current standards and frameworks share a basic structure. Carefully review them to find one that best meets the organization's incident response requirements.</p> <p>Also note that while frameworks help, it is the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/5-critical-steps-to-creating-an-effective-incident-response-plan">approved incident response plan</a> that an organization uses to protect itself from cyberattacks.</p> <p><i>Paul Kirvan, FBCI, CISA, is an independent consultant and technical writer with more than 35 years of experience in business continuity, disaster recovery, resilience, cybersecurity, GRC, telecom and technical writing.</i></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </section> Frameworks provide the structure for an effective incident response program. Here's where to turn for guidance on what to include. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/check_g1205300933.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/Incident-response-frameworks-for-enterprise-security-teams Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:00:00 GMT <p>Traditional storage continues to struggle to keep pace with the growth of digital information. Limitations include physical structure, economic value and environmental impact. DNA-based data storage, on the other hand, is an emerging technology that addresses these issues by encoding digital information into synthetic DNA. Data is represented using the four nucleotides that form DNA, creating a biological long-term storage medium.</p> <p>Interest in DNA storage has increased as organizations confront exponential growth, rising data costs and the need to preserve data for decades. Today, DNA storage has moved from theoretical to early practical exploration due to advances in research, declining costs and backing from major technology companies. It is a potential option for ultra-dense, durable and sustainable data storage.</p> <p>The four DNA nucleotides are the basic building blocks of DNA. These units are used to encode information for DNA data storage. The nucleotides are:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Adenine (A)</li> <li>Cytosine (C)</li> <li>Guanine (G)</li> <li>Thymine (T)</li> </ul> <p>When sequenced into molecules, the four nucleotides act as an alphabet for encoding data.</p> <div class="youtube-iframe-container"> <iframe id="ytplayer-0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6rsr9IMo7-4?autoplay=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;widget_referrer=null&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.techtarget.com" type="text/html" height="360" width="640" frameborder="0" loading="lazy"></iframe> </div> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How DNA data storage works"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How DNA data storage works</h2> <p>DNA storage works by translating data into a biological format that can be synthesized and stored. DNA-based storage does not rely on living organisms. Instead, it uses chemical synthesis to generate the sequences. The process is complex, and organizations should explore it as a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatabackup/tip/Long-term-data-backup-options">long-term, archive medium</a>.</p> <p>The encoding process consists of the following steps for storing data:</p> <p>1. Data encoding: Translating binary data into sequences composed of the four DNA nucleotides. The sequences represent specific bit patterns.</p> <p>2. Error correction and redundancy: Data is protected before encoding using standard error-correction and parity.</p> <p>3. Writing sequences to synthetic DNA: Binary <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/bit-binary-digit">bits</a> are mapped to the four nucleotides, resulting in a long string of DNA sequences representing the original information.</p> <p>4. Creation of strands and synthesized molecules: Long DNA sequences are broken into segments containing payload, index and error-correction information. Segments are chemically synthesized into physical DNA molecules.</p> <p>5. Data storage: Storage facilities store the DNA sequences or molecules in containers under stable conditions. The containers do not need power or active maintenance.</p> <p>Retrieving data, unsurprisingly, reverses the encoding process. The high-level steps are:</p> <p>1. Data retrieval: DNA is read using sequencing technologies that interpret the order of the nucleotides, resulting in a digital representation of the original data.</p> <p>2. Data assembly and validation: Indexes order the DNA segments and apply error-correction algorithms to ensure integrity.</p> <p>3. Data decoding: The DNA sequences are translated back to binary bits, and the original file structure is reconstructed.</p> <p>The encoding and decoding processes are slower than standard read-write operations, so DNA data storage is better suited to long-term archiving scenarios than to dynamic storage requirements. View it as a complementary technology to traditional data storage.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Benefits of DNA storage"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Benefits of DNA storage</h2> <p>DNA-based storage offers multiple strategic benefits for long-term archiving and cost-effective storage. These benefits hold strategic appeal when discussing cold storage, data archives and information preservation.</p> <p>Key benefits include:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Extremely high storage density</b>: DNA-based storage consumes a very small amount of physical space while handling vast amounts of data. This feature offers an advantage in addressing rising storage costs and scalability.</li> <li><b>Longevity and durability</b>: DNA storage theoretically holds data for thousands of years without degradation. It does not require periodic refreshes or migrations to new media, further reducing costs and effort.</li> <li><b>Low energy requirements</b>: DNA storage requires no power to maintain its state. This characteristic enables long-term storage while meeting <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/tip/Tips-to-reduce-the-environmental-impact-of-data-storage">environmental impact and sustainability efforts</a>.</li> </ul> <p>More benefits might emerge as the technology continues to evolve, including media stability compared to existing technologies. These potential benefits drive enterprises and governments to invest in additional research.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Challenges and limitations of DNA storage"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Challenges and limitations of DNA storage</h2> <p>Various challenges exist with DNA storage, although the technology continues to evolve to address these barriers.</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Cost</b>: Writing data into DNA requires chemical synthesis, and retrieving it relies on sequencing technologies -- both of which are expensive.</li> <li><b>Accuracy/reliability</b>: Technical hurdles still remain concerning accuracy and errors. These concerns mean organizations require error correction and redundancy to ensure data integrity.</li> <li><b>Performance</b>: Writing and reading data is very slow, often requiring hours or days. This limitation keeps DNA storage in the realm of data archiving rather than daily operations.</li> <li><b>Integration</b>: Another challenge is integrating DNA storage into existing technologies and workflows, which rely on proven infrastructure and familiar practices. Since DNA storage requires synthesis and sequencing technologies, the approach requires a new technology layer.</li> </ul> <p>However, like all emerging technologies, innovators are addressing DNA storage challenges to bring it within the reach of mainstream business.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Uses today and leading vendors"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Uses today and leading vendors</h2> <p>Currently, DNA storage is typically found in experimental and research environments, with infrequent early commercial use. It suits scientific research datasets, historical/cultural archives and government records that must be preserved for long periods. Expect its ongoing evolution to bring it into business scenarios over time.</p> <p>Various technology companies fund research, build prototypes and publish reference architecture. These contributions demonstrate that DNA storage is a viable technology. The vendor landscape continues to emerge.</p> <h3>Recent advancements in DNA storage research</h3> <p>Recent advancements have accelerated DNA storage technologies toward real-world use. As expected, these advancements address some of the existing challenges and limitations organizations must overcome before integrating DNA storage into regular workflows.</p> <p>Advancements continue in the following areas.</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Encoding efficiency</b>: Algorithms continue to improve, enabling more digital information to be stored per nucleotide while reducing error rates. Not only do these advances improve data density, but they also make the storage technology more reliable.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li> <li><b>Automation and throughput</b>: New techniques for synthesis and sequencing reduce write and read times, and prices for these technologies continue to fall. These techniques also reduce manual labor.</li> <li><b>Hybrid storage architectures</b>: Data storage tools that enable DNA and traditional storage methods to coexist and work together improve efficiency and cost effectiveness.</li> </ul> <h3>Leaders in the field</h3> <p>The DNA Data Storage Alliance (<a href="https://dnastoragealliance.org/">DDSA</a>) is an industry consortium focused on developing, standardizing, and commercializing DNA-based data storage technologies. It is a key component of current research and development in DNA storage.</p> <p>Many companies are actively involved with DNA storage research through the DDSA. A few leaders include:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Microsoft Corporation's <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/dna-storage/">Microsoft Research DNA Storage division</a> -- A founding member of the DDSA with a focus on encoding digital data into synthetic DNA.</li> <li><a href="https://www.twistbioscience.com/products/storage">Twist Bioscience</a>/Atlas Data Storage -- A founding member of the DDSA, with a specialization in synthetic DNA production.</li> <li><a href="https://www.illumina.com/informatics/infrastructure-pipeline-setup/genomic-data-storage-security.html">Illumina, Inc.</a> -- A leading DNA sequencing and genome company participating in the DDSA and supplying DNA synthesis/sequencing technologies.</li> <li><a href="https://blog.westerndigital.com/dna-data-storage-the-next-chapter/">Western Digital Corporation</a> -- A leading storage manufacturer participating in the DDSA, exploring the integration of DNA storage with traditional media.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What IT and business leaders should watch next"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What IT and business leaders should watch next</h2> <p>DNA data storage is best viewed as an evolving, long-term strategic capability. Industries using data archiving will want to watch for specific signals that the technology has become mainstream enough to warrant investigation or the establishment of pilot programs.</p> <p>Likely commercial readiness signals include:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Declining costs for synthesis and sequencing.</li> <li>Alignment with industry standards and regulations.</li> <li>Vendor platform maturity and product offerings.</li> <li>Pilot programs in parallel industries, government, and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatacenter/tip/A-primer-on-hyperscale-data-centers">hyperscale environments</a>.</li> </ul> <p>By monitoring advances in DNA storage research and product offerings, IT leaders can proactively assess when and where this technology could fit into the organization's long-term storage strategies. DNA data storage might still be emerging, but its potential impact on information storage and preservation should make it a topic every forward-looking technology leader should keep on their radar.</p> <p><i>Damon Garn owns Cogspinner Coaction and provides freelance IT writing and editing services. He has written multiple CompTIA study guides, including the Linux+, Cloud Essentials+ and Server+ guides, and contributes extensively to Informa TechTarget, The New Stack and CompTIA Blogs.</i></p> </section> DNA storage is an emerging technology that has the potential to impact data storage in the long term. Learn more about how it works and its recent advancements. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/searchITOperations/it_systems_management/searchitoperations_article_020.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/feature/A-primer-on-DNA-data-storage-and-its-potential-uses Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT <p>Cloud compliance must be an IT leadership priority for 2026. Factors that drive this imperative include:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Ongoing and increasing reliance on cloud storage across organizations.</li> <li>Rising regulatory pressure and evolving data protection compliance requirements.</li> <li>Business impact of non-compliance (fines, reputational damage and operational disruption).</li> </ul> <p>These factors make <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/definition/cloud-compliance">cloud compliance</a> a security and governance issue for any organization that relies on cloud storage for standard files, backups and customer information.</p> <p>This article examines ways to ensure cloud-based storage solutions support an organization's regulatory compliance requirements.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Understand which regulations apply to the organization"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Understand which regulations apply to the organization</h2> <p>Defining compliance as a strategic, organization-specific responsibility allows the assignment of a data management team that includes legal, compliance and IT members. Begin by recognizing the specific regulations that apply to the organization.</p> <p>Compliance requirements vary by industry, geography and data type. Common regulations include:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).</li> <li>Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).</li> <li>Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/PCI-DSS-Payment-Card-Industry-Data-Security-Standard">PCI DSS</a>).</li> <li>California Consumer Privacy Act (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/California-Consumer-Privacy-Act-CCPA">CCPA</a>)/California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA).</li> </ul> <p>It's essential to map data types to applicable regulations, paying careful attention to storage locations. Remember that cloud service providers distribute data across data centers in different regions, impacting <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/Data-sovereignty-compliance-challenges-and-best-practices">data sovereignty</a> compliance.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Choose the right cloud storage provider"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Choose the right cloud storage provider</h2> <p>Evaluate cloud vendors beyond cost and service alone. Investigate storage compliance management and certification options.</p> <p>Specific points include:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Understanding how the shared security model applies to data storage compliance.</li> <li>Provider certifications and attestations.</li> <li>Transparency around data residency, audits, and security controls.</li> <li>Evaluating support for efficient and comprehensive regulatory reporting.</li> </ul> <p>Vendor selection criteria must include more than price and features. The risks associated with failing to comply with data regulations are too severe to ignore when choosing a cloud vendor.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Encrypt data at rest and in transit"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Encrypt data at rest and in transit</h2> <p>Encryption is a key pillar of data protection. Recognize that data exists in three states: At rest, in transit and in use. Encryption <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/Best-practices-to-secure-data-at-rest-in-use-and-in-motion">options exist for all three states</a>, and cloud storage encryption applies here.</p> <p>Most regulations, including GDPR, mandate encryption directly or imply its use as a best practice. Cloud storage vendors offer encryption at rest options to protect stored data even if unauthorized access occurs at the infrastructure level. Equally crucial is data-in-transit encryption, which reduces the risk of interception and tampering.</p> <p>Effective key management is crucial, including secure storage, rotation and access control.</p> <p>Enforcing encryption across cloud environments strengthens the overall security posture, reduces compliance risk and demonstrates due diligence during audits. This practice turns what's often considered a technical control into a measurable compliance advantage.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Implement role-based access control and identity management"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Implement role-based access control and identity management</h2> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/principle-of-least-privilege-POLP">The principle of least privilege</a> is a fundamental component of access control, stating that only the minimum necessary access should be granted to resources. Role-based access control (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/role-based-access-control-RBAC">RBAC</a>) and identity management practices support this principle.</p> <p>RBAC enables IT teams to assign permissions based on defined roles rather than individual user identities, reducing administrative complexity and minimizing mistakes that lead to excessive access and insider risk.</p> <p>Centralized identity management, combined with multi-factor authentication, enables stronger oversight and visibility.</p> <p>Regular access reviews and auditability are crucial for verifying effective identity management and access control by providing clear evidence that data stored in the cloud is governed, monitored and aligned with compliance requirements.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/7_key_steps_for_a_cloud_audit-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/7_key_steps_for_a_cloud_audit-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/7_key_steps_for_a_cloud_audit-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/7_key_steps_for_a_cloud_audit-f.png 1280w" alt="Steps for a cloud audit. " height="330" width="559"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Find out the seven steps involved in an effective cloud audit. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. Implement data classification and retention policies"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Implement data classification and retention policies</h2> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatacenter/tutorial/252524087/How-to-implement-file-classification-in-file-servers?Offer=ab_MeteredFormCopyEoc_var3">Data classification</a> and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchDataBackup/tip/Increase-backup-efficiency-with-a-data-destruction-policy?Offer=ab_MeteredFormCopyEoc_var3">retention policies</a> are crucial to maintaining regulatory compliance for cloud storage. Regulations such as GDPR require organizations to understand what data they collect, where it is stored and for how long. Without this capability, organizations could face compliance violations and security risks.</p> <p>Classification examples include sensitivity, regulatory categories and business value. These classes enable access restrictions, encryption standards and other protections. Retention policies strengthen data protection and reduce storage costs by ensuring organizations don't store data longer than required. Data classification and retention policies demonstrate proactive data governance and cloud compliance.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="6. Maintain visibility into cloud storage usage"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>6.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Maintain visibility into cloud storage usage</h2> <p>Maintaining visibility into data storage, whether cloud or on-premises, is critical to compliance and effective data management. Cloud storage continues to become more distributed, so it's easy to lose track of where data resides, who accesses it and how it is used. This lack of visibility increases policy violation risks and unauthorized access, leading to breaches and compliance violations.</p> <p>Critical factors include centralized monitoring, logging and reporting across all cloud storage environments. Such strong visibility simplifies compliance reporting, supports audit readiness and ensures that cloud data usage aligns with compliance, security and data protection standards.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="7. Centralize compliance policies across cloud environments"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>7.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Centralize compliance policies across cloud environments</h2> <p>Maintaining compliance controls becomes increasingly complex as organizations adopt <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/feature/Multi-cloud-vs-hybrid-cloud-and-how-to-know-the-difference">hybrid and multi-cloud</a> strategies. Disparate cloud platforms typically have different native security tools, configurations and reporting mechanisms, making centralized compliance and security reporting difficult. Data protection gaps could emerge, weakening cloud compliance efforts.</p> <p>Centralized compliance policies across cloud environments offer many advantages, including:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Consistent data protection.</li> <li>Effective access control.</li> <li>Encryption for data at rest and in transit.</li> <li>Enforceable retention standards.</li> </ul> <p>Centralized compliance management ensures that regulatory requirements are applied uniformly, regardless of where data is stored. This approach reduces operational overhead, improves visibility and simplifies governance.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="8. Manage third-party and vendor risks"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>8.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Manage third-party and vendor risks</h2> <p>Third-party vendors often need access to cloud storage to support business operations, but this access also multiplies compliance and security risks. Regulatory standards hold organizations accountable for how partners and vendors access and work with sensitive data.</p> <p>Organizations must define clear vendor due diligence processes, including security controls, compliance certifications and data protection practices. Ongoing monitoring is required, as vendor risk changes over time. Contractual agreements should clearly define compliance responsibilities, data-handling requirements and incident response obligations. Proactively managing third-party risk reduces the likelihood of compliance violations and ensures data protection standards extend beyond internal teams.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="9. Continuously review and stay current with compliance standards"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>9.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Continuously review and stay current with compliance standards</h2> <p>Like other compliance and organization-wide structures, cloud storage is not a standalone project but an ongoing operational discipline that evolves alongside industry standards, regulations, security practices and cloud storage technologies. Failing to treat data storage compliance as a continuous improvement loop causes organizations to fall behind quickly and exposes them to security and regulatory gaps.</p> <p>Various practices that help avoid these gaps include:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Regular compliance reviews.</li> <li>Risk assessments.</li> <li>Internal standards assessments.</li> <li>Cloud storage configuration validation.</li> </ul> <p>Most essential is monitoring regulatory updates and changes across cloud storage environments, recognizing that physical storage locations can span regions and differing data residency requirements.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Wrap up"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Wrap up</h2> <p>Start turning cloud storage compliance into a competitive advantage by aligning it with business strategy and positioning it as a driver of trust, security and resilience. A proactive approach enables IT leadership to manage cloud risk rather than react to it, potentially avoiding penalties or damages.</p> <p>&nbsp;<i>Damon Garn owns Cogspinner Coaction and provides freelance IT writing and editing services. He has written multiple CompTIA study guides, including the Linux+, Cloud Essentials+ and Server+ guides, and contributes extensively to Informa TechTarget, The New Stack and CompTIA Blogs.</i></p> </section> As cloud compliance becomes increasingly important in 2026, follow these 9 steps to ensure regulatory compliance. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/LeMagIT/hero_article/Cloud-blue-AdobeStock_253306630_Shutter2U_cloud_hero.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/tip/Ways-to-ensure-regulatory-compliance-in-cloud-storage Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT <p>Talent acquisition and recruitment are being affected by some major trends for 2026. CHROs and other C-suite leaders who work with HR should make sure they are aware of these trends so they can plan accordingly.</p> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/feature/Advantages-and-disadvantages-of-using-AI-in-HR">AI is currently at the front</a> of almost every software vendor's strategy, with vendor conversations about their recruitment software kicking off with the software's range of AI capabilities. However, not all AI features can address real-world challenges. Meanwhile, skills-based workforce management is taking shape at many organizations.</p> <p>Here are eight ongoing and emerging trends that every CHRO should consider when creating&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/10-steps-for-developing-a-recruiting-strategy">their recruiting strategy</a> in 2026.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. AI and automation"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. AI and automation</h2> <p>AI-powered recruitment is becoming increasingly popular for talent acquisition, but candidates are getting smarter about how to use AI, which brings a new set of challenges for recruiting teams.</p> <p>AI takes many forms, and CHROs and CIOs must understand how AI can help their company. An organization's AI strategy should include how HR managers and recruiters will use AI for recruitment and acquisition. The company's current ATS vendor should offer AI capabilities, but senior HR leaders need to ensure that their vendors are adding features that will actually <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/feature/How-companies-can-avoid-a-poor-candidate-experience">improve recruiting practices</a> and not just excite industry analysts or check a box.</p> <p>For example, a company's current ATS might include AI-assisted job description writing, but if the organization already has a job description catalog and HR employees are not regularly creating new job descriptions, this feature might not be useful. On the other hand, a feature that can quickly and accurately screen candidates and provide feedback can potentially reduce time spent on candidate screening. A CHRO can use that candidate screening tool to demonstrate that HR is using new technology to drive efficiency and create business value.</p> <p>However, AI brings new challenges as well. Multiple lawsuits have been filed that claim that some AI recruiting tools are biased, and a lawsuit was recently filed against AI hiring company Eightfold. The lawsuit claims that it is unfair that applicants cannot learn about the information that Eightfold's AI tool finds about them online.</p> <p>Also, some candidates are using AI to apply to a large number of jobs in a short amount of time, which leads to a massive volume of applications for recruiters to sort through. Some companies now reject all candidates that apply within the first few hours of a job being posted, assuming that the early round of applications was created using AI-based applications software.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_hr_vendors_will_use_generative_ai-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_hr_vendors_will_use_generative_ai-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_hr_vendors_will_use_generative_ai-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineimages/how_hr_vendors_will_use_generative_ai-f.png 1280w" alt="Graphic listing how HR software vendors will use generative AI." height="342" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The humanlike communication abilities of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are improving the responsiveness and accuracy of numerous HR software functions, including recruiting. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Skills-based hiring"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Skills-based hiring</h2> <p>The emphasis on skills in workforce management, workforce planning and talent acquisition is changing how organizations hire. Skills-based hiring is hiring candidates based on their competencies and demonstrated abilities instead of prior roles and qualifications.</p> <p>Skills-based hiring can include using specific measures and assessments to identify and quantify candidate skills, and AI plays a big role in these processes. For example, a candidate skills test might use AI to evaluate the prospective worker's performance.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Data-driven decision-making"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Data-driven decision-making</h2> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/10-HR-analytics-tools-that-can-optimize-your-workforce">Analytics has been a growing trend</a> over the last few years. Cloud adoption and enterprise software vendors' focus on data applications – driven mainly by the need to feed AI models -- have led to enterprise-grade HR analytics becoming more accessible and more relevant, which can lead to better decision-making.</p> <p>Analytics can help CHROs identify strengths and weaknesses in the company's talent acquisition processes and reduce the cost of talent acquisition. Also, talent analytics can help CHROs demonstrate the effectiveness and ROI of recruiting software investments.</p> <p>Analytics can provide recruiters with such metrics as the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Source of hire.</li> <li>Time to fill</li> <li>Time to hire.</li> <li>Age of job or how long a job has been open.</li> <li>Offer acceptance rate.</li> <li>Cost per hire.</li> <li>Quality of hire.</li> <li>Vacancy cost, which is how much it costs the organization while the position remains vacant.</li> <li>Diversity-related statistics.</li> </ul> <p>Predictive analytics, another category of tools that is gaining popularity, can help recruiters predict future trends such as estimated candidate performance, time to fill, interview acceptance probability and candidate tenure.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. Employer branding"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5. Employer branding</h2> <p>Employer branding has emerged as a prominent recruitment trend in recent years.</p> <p>Employer branding showcases a company's culture, values and work environment. Many job seekers look beyond salary and benefits because they are seeking an employer that <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/Why-sustainability-improves-recruitment-retention">aligns with their personal values</a> and offers a fulfilling work experience, such as providing career development opportunities.</p> <p>A strong employer brand can significantly improve a company's ability to attract top talent, reduce turnover and improve overall employee engagement. It can also reduce recruitment costs because prospective employees might seek out the company instead of recruiters having to identify candidates.</p> <p>CHROs should ensure HR allocates time to crystallize their company's employer brand and then pursues strategies such as compiling employee testimonials and creating a strong social media presence.</p> <p>Employer branding is just as relevant for small and mid-sized companies. Smaller companies can differentiate themselves by emphasizing their unique strengths and showcasing their opportunities for personal and professional growth.</p> <div class="youtube-iframe-container"> <iframe id="ytplayer-0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tBaq3J2-AHk?autoplay=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;widget_referrer=null&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.techtarget.com" type="text/html" height="360" width="640" frameborder="0" loading="lazy"></iframe> </div> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="6. Pay transparency"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>6. Pay transparency</h2> <p>Pay transparency continues to be a major topic worldwide. Many employers are now obligated to disclose salary ranges, either in job postings or upon request, and are prohibited from asking candidates about their current salary.</p> <p>These rules affect the pay information that companies must store in their HRIS and add to job postings. They also affect how recruiters can discuss pay with a candidate.</p> <p>CHROs should consider implementing bias and ethics training to ensure unconscious bias does not influence offers made to candidates and recruiters do not breach regulations when discussing pay.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="7. Internal mobility"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>7. Internal mobility</h2> <p>Companies are increasingly shifting toward internal hiring and upskilling and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/reskilling">reskilling</a> their current employees. Pursuing this strategy can reduce risk because leaders already know how an employee performs, and it enables an organization to shape an existing employee into the ideal candidate.</p> <p>Shifting to a new role within the same company can be popular with employees as well, as they might see it as a way to gain new skills and experience without having to seek out a new job.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="8. Changing workforce demographics"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>8. Changing workforce demographics</h2> <p>The demographics of the workforce are set to change considerably in the coming years because of AI and the impending retirement of baby boomers, among other factors. AI agents may replace some entry-level jobs and administrative roles that carry out repetitive tasks.</p> <p>Baby boomers' retirement could lead to a loss of employee knowledge if the proper knowledge capturing is not carried out. Developing talent, so younger employees can fill roles as older employees retire, is also important.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Executive conclusion"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Executive conclusion</h2> <p>CHROs, CIOs and other C-level leaders need to ensure their strategies account for recruiting and talent acquisition trends so their companies are not left behind in the marketplace.</p> <p>Leaders must be aware of the value and risks of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/Will-AI-replace-HR-The-answer-is-complicated">using AI for recruiting</a> and ensure that their company's recruitment strategies support skills-based hiring. Data can help HR leaders make better decisions, and topics such as employer branding and pay transparency remain crucial for organizations.</p> <p><i>Luke Marson is a principal architect and part of the management team of a global SAP SuccessFactors consulting partner, where he focuses on SuccessFactors Employee Central, extensibility and integration technologies. </i></p> </section> Employer branding, internal mobility and AI use in recruiting -- by both recruiters and candidates -- are among the trends recruiters and talent acquisition teams will face in 2026. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/ComputerWeekly/Hero%20Images/Fotolia-talent-compass.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/feature/7-talent-acquisition-and-recruitment-trends Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT <p>Big data management and analytics tools are transformative technologies for companies of all sizes across various industries. For example, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/The-ultimate-guide-to-big-data-for-businesses">big data environments</a> give retailers detailed insights into their entire supply chain. Manufacturers can monitor and manage all the production equipment in their factories. Marketers in these and other industries can analyze every customer touchpoint, from website visits to phone calls, emails, chats and purchases.</p> <p>Yet there are still lots of questions -- and confusion -- about how to get the most out of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/feature/Building-a-big-data-architecture-Core-components-best-practices">big data architectures</a>. The following are six best practices that data management and analytics leaders should adopt when their organization decides to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/feature/15-big-data-tools-and-technologies-to-know-about">invest in big data technologies</a>.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Focus on business needs, not the technology"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. Focus on business needs, not the technology</h2> <p>Thanks to big data technologies, data management and analytics teams can handle data volumes and complex analytics applications that previously were beyond all but the most advanced companies and government agencies. However, organizations can get carried away by the technology, assuming that there must be an advantage to using any new tools or capabilities.</p> <p>For example, many businesses want to implement <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/tip/Examples-of-real-time-analytics-for-businesses">real-time analytics applications</a>. Analyzing data in real time as it's created and updated enables organizations to gain immediate insights into customer behavior, market trends and operational performance. But two business-related problems often make that a challenge:</p> <ol class="default-list"> <li>Data is generated and collected at a level of detail that many business users don't require.</li> <li>Even if big data systems deliver actionable real-time analytics, business processes and workflows don't enable users to make decisions at that pace. As a result, the actions of business executives and workers lag behind the data analysis.</li> </ol> <p>This mismatch between the flow of data and the cadence of business decisions can overload users with information that just gets in their way as they try to do their job. It also leads to unnecessary spending on analytics technology, when less immediate "right-time analytics" might better suit business rhythms.</p> <p>Big data is a valuable business asset, but it may well be a wasted one without <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/feature/8-big-data-use-cases-for-businesses-and-industry-examples">strong use cases to justify deployments</a>.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Incorporate AI into big data applications in sensible ways"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Incorporate AI into big data applications in sensible ways</h2> <p>The ways AI is transforming data management and analytics processes should <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/How-do-big-data-and-AI-work-together">factor into big data strategies</a>. For example, AI tools can automate data preparation tasks and extract insights from text, images and other unstructured or semistructured data. Generative AI chatbots enable users to explore and analyze data through conversational natural language queries. They can also suggest issues to investigate in data sets and recommend appropriate data visualizations.</p> <p>However, we see the same pattern with AI as with real-time analytics. Agentic AI is a particular case in point. It's a technology with great promise: AI systems that <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/feature/Real-world-agentic-AI-examples-and-use-cases">autonomously explore data, execute tasks and deliver insights</a> without explicit human direction. Vendors are embedding AI agents into data platforms and analytics tools, and numerous organizations have launched pilot and proof-of-concept projects. Yet many of those projects have failed to reach production use.</p> <p>Organizations that do well with agentic AI treat it as a tool for achieving desired business outcomes. They identify specific analytics workflows where agentic automation can deliver measurable business value, then redesign those workflows to accommodate how agents function rather than just replace existing human activities with AI ones.</p> <p>It's the same with incorporating other AI technologies into big data applications. Data management and analytics leaders should first ask about business needs, current pain points and how AI could streamline internal processes and improve decision-making. Technology choices follow from the answers they get.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Collect lots of data for both current and future analytics uses"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Collect lots of data for both current and future analytics uses</h2> <p>While the massive data volumes commonly collected in big data systems enable new types of analytics applications, data scientists and analysts often feel overwhelmed by all that data. Swamping even experienced analytics professionals with more data than they can comfortably work with certainly isn't something you should do. Indeed, many data lakes where big data is stored have become more like swamps, with sprawling data sets that are difficult to manage and analyze effectively.</p> <p>However, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/feature/Big-data-collection-processes-challenges-and-best-practices">collecting and using all that data</a> doesn't have to be a problem. Data science teams can use AI tools and machine learning algorithms to analyze big data volumes that are too large for conventional analytics techniques. The case for broad data collection grows stronger based on how AI learns. A large data repository provides the context that enables AI models and agents to understand an organization's business well enough to recommend useful actions.</p> <p>Data can also still be valuable even if it isn't used immediately. A <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/feature/How-to-build-an-enterprise-big-data-strategy-in-4-steps">comprehensive big data strategy</a> collects data both to support business decision-making now and to be available for future analytics use cases and scenarios. Down the road, for example, data scientists might find patterns in consolidated streaming data sets that help them detect business problems or opportunities.</p> <p>But don't collect data indiscriminately or manage it haphazardly. While storage is relatively cheap, managing large amounts of data requires time and attention. Data sets without solid lineage documentation or <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/feature/Proactive-practices-for-data-quality-improvement">data quality controls</a> due to a lack of data management resources are potential liabilities. Use input from business leaders to focus the collection process on data with immediate or expected future value, excluding data deemed not useful.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Apply rigorous controls to track and manage data"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Apply rigorous controls to track and manage data</h2> <p>Big data is typically diverse, with a variety of structured, unstructured, and semistructured data types. For example, audio files of customer support calls might be stored in a big data environment alongside related product images, documents and social media content, as well as business data such as transactions and account records. Big data systems also commonly contain data from sensors, emails, videos, logs and external data sources.</p> <p>This varied data also has diverse uses. Most organizations don't identify all the possible use cases for their big data environments in advance. Even if they do, they can't develop all the required analytics applications simultaneously.</p> <p>This reality initially made data lakes attractive. They enable raw data to be stored in native formats and structured as needed for specific analytics uses. Yet the promise of data lakes proved difficult to fulfill in practice. Heightening the swamp effect, organizations often lose track of what their data lake contains. Many also can't reliably track where data originated, how it was ingested or how it's been transformed.</p> <p>Newer data lakehouse architectures address these issues by combining the storage flexibility of data lakes with the more rigorous data management functions of traditional data warehouses. Open table formats, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/opinion/Why-Apache-Iceberg-is-essential-for-modern-data-lakehouses">such as Apache Iceberg and Delta Lake</a>, add transactional consistency and data versioning to previously ungoverned data storage. Data managers can maintain audit trails, enforce access controls and evolve schemas without disrupting analytics operations.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. Govern data for regulatory compliance and increased usability"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5. Govern data for regulatory compliance and increased usability</h2> <p>In today's regulatory environment, strong data governance isn't optional. Organizations face a growing number of general data security and privacy laws, such as the EU's GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act. Some companies also must comply with industry regulations, such as HIPAA, which protects healthcare information in the U.S.</p> <p>AI regulations are also <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/feature/AI-regulation-What-businesses-need-to-know">now a factor to consider</a>. For example, new provisions of the EU AI Act scheduled to take effect in August 2026 require qualifying organizations deploying AI systems classified as high-risk to meet a set of data governance and management requirements, as well as risk management and human oversight obligations. Similar laws are progressing in many other jurisdictions.</p> <p>As a result, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/data-governance">data governance processes</a> that support regulatory compliance efforts are an essential component of big data strategies. However, effective governance does more than just ensure an organization doesn't break the law. Well-governed data is also a better resource for analytics applications.</p> <p>Partly, this is a matter of confidence. If data is carefully administered within a governance framework, data scientists and analysts feel freer to explore and experiment with new analytics scenarios that could spur business innovation. Data that's properly defined, cataloged, secured and managed is also easier to work with and more likely to produce accurate analytics results.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="6. Balance cost, data sovereignty and other issues in the cloud"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>6. Balance cost, data sovereignty and other issues in the cloud</h2> <p>In most enterprises, the cloud is now the default IT infrastructure model for new systems and applications. But cloud deployments pose new data management issues, especially when big data environments span multiple cloud providers and geographic regions.</p> <p>While multi-cloud strategies offer resilience and the ability to choose data platforms and tools that best fit individual applications, they can increase processing costs and complicate data governance and management. Data sovereignty is also now a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/Data-sovereignty-compliance-challenges-and-best-practices">pressing concern in many cloud implementations</a>. Governments worldwide are asserting jurisdiction over personal data within their borders by mandating local storage and restricting cross-border data transfers, among other measures. Local restrictions are also being applied to the data used in AI applications.</p> <p>As a result, a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/definition/hybrid-cloud">hybrid cloud approach</a> isn't merely convenient but necessary for many organizations. In hybrid deployments, cloud systems are often used for most applications, while on-premises infrastructure is used for data workloads that must remain local due to privacy or AI regulations and applications running on hard-to-replace legacy systems.</p> <p>Data and IT leaders should balance all these factors -- data needs, cost efficiency, regulatory compliance, operational resilience and the flexibility to adapt systems and applications as business requirements change -- when they design cloud-based big data environments.</p> <p><b>Editor's note: </b><i>This article was updated in February 2026 for timeliness and to add new information.</i></p> <p><i>Donald Farmer is a data strategist with 30-plus years of experience, including as a product team leader at Microsoft and Qlik. He advises global clients on data, analytics, AI and innovation strategy, with expertise spanning from tech giants to startups.</i></p> </section> These best practices can help data leaders create an effective big data strategy that meets an organization's analytics needs and delivers valuable business benefits. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/searchSAP/hardware_infrastructure/sap_article_015.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/tip/6-essential-big-data-best-practices-for-businesses Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:46:00 GMT <p>Planning for an ERP implementation is often difficult, and selecting the right implementation approach is an important part of that process. COOs, CFOs and other members of the C-suite who work with ERP software must ensure their company chooses the right approach to help ensure success.</p> <p>Two potential approaches are the big bang approach and the phased approach. Each comes with pros and cons, so COOs, CFOs and others must ensure project leaders are considering organizational needs, the project budget, the timeline and required resources when selecting one. Project leaders should also consult the project team, the vendor, the implementation partner and key stakeholders.</p> <p>Here's more about the big bang approach vs. <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/definition/phased-rollout">the phased approach</a> and the pros and cons of each.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The big bang approach"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>The big bang approach</h2> <p>Pursuing the big bang approach can result in major rewards, such as reducing the need to integrate old systems, but doing so brings risk as well.</p> <h3>The pros</h3> <p>When a project team follows the big bang approach, the team configures the entire <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/feature/Checklist-for-success-after-your-ERP-software-go-live">ERP system before go-live</a>. The goal is to implement the entire ERP system and any supporting applications all at once, including migrating data and sunsetting the old systems right after go-live. The major benefit of this approach is that the project team completes the process in one phase, so employees can start using all the new functionality immediately.</p> <p>With the big bang approach, the project team doesn't have to integrate old systems. Ideally, the team will only need to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/Post-go-live-The-true-test-of-a-software-vendor">provide post go-live support</a> as employees start using the new system and potentially discover issues.</p> <h3>The cons</h3> <p>However, the cons of a big bang ERP implementation are significant. Pursuing the big bang approach results in a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/feature/How-to-prevent-scope-creep-in-your-ERP-implementation">project with very large scope</a>, which increases the risk of problems with cost, timeline and resources.</p> <p>With the big bang approach, employees must wait until the entire implementation is complete to use the new ERP system, so they can't give feedback about the system that could potentially help the project team.</p> <p>If the project team discovers significant issues during a big bang implementation, it may have to pivot and move to a phased approach. If this is the case, it would have to redo many planning exercises, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/feature/How-to-avoid-unrealistic-ERP-implementation-timelines">including determining new timelines</a>, budgets and resource requirements. These unexpected planning activities will also negatively affect the project timeline because team members will have less time for implementation work.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The phased approach"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>The phased approach</h2> <p>The phased approach to an ERP implementation involves less overall risk but can still lead to problems, such as a potentially negative experience for employees.</p> <h3>The pros</h3> <p>The phased approach brings several benefits to the ERP implementation process.</p> <p>With the phased approach, the project team <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/tip/5-ERP-implementation-best-practices-CIOs-should-know">implements the ERP system</a> in multiple phases, so company employees can access new functionality after each phase. Employees can give feedback about the new ERP system as the implementation progresses, which could potentially help the project team plan for future phases. For example, employees may ask the project team to implement certain functionality as soon as possible.</p> <p>In addition, using the phased approach leads to smaller scope. The project team can more easily estimate the tasks and dependencies, budget, and required resources, and the smaller scope of the phases makes it easier to recover from unexpected issues.</p> <p>Another advantage of the phased approach is that the project team depends on key resources for less time, which reduces the risk that a team member will leave the project before a phase is complete.</p> <h3>The cons</h3> <p>However, the phased approach has its disadvantages as well. While it helps reduce risk, the scope of one of the phases can still be very large. For example, the team may implement much of the new ERP system's foundational functionality in the first phase, which would include implementing many features to make the new ERP system viable. The scope of that phase would likely be sizable.</p> <p>However, if the team implements too few features during the first phase, employees may feel dissatisfied with the new system, which could negatively affect adoption. Employees may also feel dissatisfied if the phased approach requires them to continue using old systems until the team has implemented needed functionality in the new ERP system.</p> <p>In addition, the team may need to plan for and perform integration work to support old systems.</p> </section> COOs, CFOs and others who work with ERP must ensure their company makes the right choice when selecting the big bang approach vs. the phased approach for an ERP implementation. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/competition_a110169470.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/tip/Big-bang-vs-phased-ERP-implementation-Which-is-best Wed, 11 Feb 2026 15:00:00 GMT 60 webmaster@techtarget.com