After over 12 years of leading Forrester’s research on agile and, from 2011, publishing a biennial Forrester report on the global state of agile adoption, we have just published The State Of Agile Development, 2025: It’s Still Relevant, With Benefits And Challenges. In this blog, I am just quickly highlighting some of the key takeaways to hopefully motivate you to go and read the full report if you are a Forrester client. So let’s go … Agile — The Disputed Champion Of Modern Business, Still Going Strong In times when everything changes so quickly and artificial intelligence, especially generative AI (genAI), captures the imagination of tech enthusiasts and professionals alike, one technology that remains a foundational pillar of the tech industry is agile. Consider the narrative of a tech startup navigating the tumultuous waters of market demands and rapid innovation. At their core, agile methodologies enable this team to remain adaptable, collaborative, and efficient. Drop that team in an enterprise and multiply the team by 10, and what happens? Can those 10 teams still strive together in the same way as the tech startup team? Well, yes and no. But the new report reveals a striking insight: Despite the buzz around agile’s supposed decline, a commanding 95% of professionals affirm its critical relevance to their operations. This statistic, coupled with the 58% of business and technology professionals prioritizing agile adoption, paints a clear picture: Agile is not just surviving; it’s still thriving and not going away, yet it does need improvement. Agile’s Journey And Collaboration Is A Testament To Resilience Agile’s resilience is underscored by its widespread and enduring adoption across many organizations. In fact, a significant majority, 61%, report deploying agile practices for over five years, demonstrating a strong enduring commitment to its principles over older methodologies such as waterfall, which continues to see a decline. This dedication to agile reflects a broader industry trend toward valuing collaboration and flexibility over rigid hierarchies and siloed organizations. Agile teams, characterized by diverse roles including developers, testers, and scrum masters, embody this shift toward a more inclusive and dynamic approach to product development. Our survey data also proves that organizations could achieve even greater success by fully embracing agile’s collaborative ethos, values, and principles and investing in the leadership necessary to guide this cultural shift. Leaders have to do more than just commit to agile; they must lead the change! Agile Leadership Requires Foresight And Emerging Tech Adoption Despite agile’s proven benefits, the data shows that organizations face challenges in scaling agile practices and fostering a culture conducive to its adoption. Proficiency levels among teams vary, with only 7% achieving full proficiency for great agile practices but quite a higher number just being average or good, indicating room for more improvement. Overcoming these hurdles requires a strategic blend of agile frameworks tailored to each organization’s unique needs, coupled also with a commitment to modernizing all angles of the organization with continuous learning and adaptation. Businesses are not immune to that change, and there is quite more to do there. Moreover, the integration of agile with emerging technologies like generative AI and TuringBots offers a promising avenue for enhancing agile’s impact even further. TuringBots, AI, and genAI-infused tools not only streamline routine tasks but also provide valuable insights that can refine sprint planning and project prioritization. With nearly half of the respondents already leveraging genAI in their agile practices, the future of agile seems destined to be intertwined with technological advancements, driving innovation and efficiency in software development. Agile Remains An Unshakable Foundation As the tech world continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, agile values, principles, and practices stand as testament to the enduring need for adaptability, collaboration, transparency, and speed. Agile’s widespread adoption and the challenges it faces reflect an approach that is not static but dynamic, one that clients need to continuously evolve and adapt to meet the demands of an ever-changing industry landscape. Will the integration of agile and AI technologies herald a new era of software development, one where efficiency, innovation, and quality are paramount? I hope it will. As organizations navigate the complexities of digital transformation, agile remains an unshakable foundation, guiding teams toward success in the age of AI and beyond. Over the years, our research has also shown that client organizations cannot make this transition alone — you need valuable partners to work with you. This is why I see the strong connection of this research with my recently published Forrester Wave™ evaluation of modern application development services, of which agile services are mandatory table stakes. Read the full report to access more data and understand our thinking behind it. Also, reach out to me ([email protected]) or schedule an inquiry or a guidance session to get help — I’m here to assist you. I also want to thank my great senior research associate, Merve Kandemir, for her dedication to this research and amazing work to get it published. source

瑞銀非常榮幸能成為太陽馬戲團（Cirque du Soleil）世界級鉅作《KOOZA》香港站的主贊助商。由娛樂製作公司 Great Entertainment Group 及 Mast International 攜手合作，太陽馬戲團自2018 年後首次重臨香港，並以香港作為其傳奇亞洲巡演的首站。從 2025年5 月 21 日起，觀眾將可在中環海濱活動空間的大帳幕內欣賞驚心動魄的精彩表演。 《KOOZA》於 2007 年首演，以驚險震撼的表演呈現太陽馬戲團的原創特色，包括高空雜技，奇幻角色、奢華服裝、豐富多彩的佈景、滑稽幽默的小丑藝術以及激動人心的現場配樂。《KOOZA》的演出充滿驚險、刺激、歡笑和奇幻元素 ，帶給觀眾一系列無間斷的歡樂。演出將為你娓娓道來主角The Innocent（天真）在The Trickster（魔幻師）的注視下探索一個奇幻世界的故事。 瑞銀投資銀行亞太區主管高橋太一表示：「我們很高興地宣佈太陽馬戲團重返香港，為這個充滿活力的城市帶來歡樂。瑞銀致力於回饋社區，為香港帶來獨家體驗。作為國際和本地文化無縫連接的亞洲中心，我們深信香港是舉辦世界知名活動的理想舞台。」 圖片説明 Great Entertainment Group 首席執行官Randy Bloom (左) 及瑞銀投資銀行亞太區主管高橋太一(右)與太陽馬戲團（Cirque du Soleil）演員合照。 LinkedIn Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp The post 瑞銀為太陽馬戲團（Cirque du Soleil）鉅作《KOOZA》香港站贊助商 appeared first on VeriMedia. source

Learn more about IDC’s research for technology leaders OR subscribe today to receive industry-leading research directly to your inbox. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the technology markets. IDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG Inc.), the world’s leading tech media, data, and marketing services company. Recently voted Analyst Firm of the Year for the third consecutive time, IDC’s Technology Leader Solutions provide you with expert guidance backed by our industry-leading research and advisory services, robust leadership and development programs, and best-in-class benchmarking and sourcing intelligence data from the industry’s most experienced advisors. Contact us today to learn more. Bob Multhaup is an adjunct research advisor with IDC’s IT Executive Programs (IEP), focusing on IT business and financial management. He has had extensive experience as a CIO, including serving as the divisional information officer for two Sandoz divisions, as vice president of IT for Henkel N.A., and as vice president of IT for Cognis Corp. In these positions, Bob worked in Europe managing large international IT organizations, developing strategic IT plans, aligning IT to business goals, and consolidating global IT costs and organizations. source

By Christopher Cole ( January 22, 2025, 8:10 PM EST) — The Federal Communications Commission has proposed reworking two portions of the 900 megahertz band that cover a total swath of 10 MHz to make room for potential broadband use…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Perplexity has launched an aggressive bid to capture the enterprise AI search market, unveiling Sonar, an API service that outperforms offerings from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic on key benchmarks while also undercutting their prices. The move signals a significant shift in the AI landscape, as Perplexity — now valued at $9 billion — directly challenges larger competitors by making its real-time, web-connected search capabilities available to developers and enterprises. The company’s dual-tier strategy — offering both a lightweight Sonar service and a more robust Sonar Pro version — targets different segments of the growing AI integration market. Perplexity’s Sonar Pro outperforms major AI competitors in the SimpleQA benchmark, which measures response accuracy. (Credit: Perplexity) Sonar’s real-time advantage: Bringing fresh data to enterprises Zoom has already integrated Sonar into its AI Companion 2.0 product, allowing users to access real-time information without leaving video conferences — a capability that could reshape how businesses conduct remote meetings and research. The pricing structure appears to be designed to disrupt the market. Sonar’s base tier costs $5 per 1,000 searches plus minimal token fees, while Sonar Pro, despite higher token costs, offers doubled citation density and multi-search capabilities for complex queries. What sets Sonar apart is its real-time web connection, a feature absent in many competing APIs that rely solely on training data. This approach could prove particularly valuable for enterprises requiring current information, although it may face challenges in applications requiring deterministic outputs. Perplexity’s two-tier API offering shows the feature differences between Sonar Pro (left) and the base Sonar service (right), with Pro featuring enhanced citation capability and support for complex queries. (Credit: Perplexity) Disruptive pricing: Affordable AI search for the enterprise market The launch comes at a pivotal moment in the AI industry, when companies are increasingly seeking ways to integrate AI search capabilities into their products. With recent benchmarks showing Sonar Pro achieving an 85.8 F-score on the SimpleQA benchmark — significantly outperforming GPT-4o and Claude — Perplexity appears positioned to capitalize on growing enterprise demand for accurate, citation-backed AI responses. The timing of this launch comes as Perplexity demonstrates significant market momentum, having just secured a $500 million funding round led by Institutional Venture Partners, which valued the company at $9 billion. This strategy could prove particularly effective as enterprises increasingly prioritize AI tools that provide verifiable, current information over black-box solutions. For technical decision makers, Sonar’s launch represents a new option in the AI toolkit, particularly for applications requiring real-time information access and citation tracking. However, the true test will be whether Perplexity can maintain its performance edge and pricing advantage as larger competitors inevitably adjust their strategies. source

Last week, my dentist invited me to join their loyalty program. It’s official: The loyalty program is the “go-to” customer relationship marketing tactic. Most global consumers belong to at least one loyalty program, including 90% of online adults in the US, in Europe-5 (88%), and in Australia (93%). According to Forrester’s Consumer Benchmark Survey, 2024, 54% of US online adults agree that loyalty programs influence what they buy, and 64% agree that programs influence where they make purchases. Most agree that loyalty programs make them feel more connected to the brand. To keep members engaged in their program, loyalty marketers must appeal to what consumers really want: Financial rewards. Year after year, consumers rank monetary benefits like instant discounts, loyalty currencies, and exclusive deals from partners at the top of their list of loyalty program perks. Points and discounts are the hallmark of loyalty programs for a reason. They incentivize customers to join and drive incremental behavior that benefits the brand. VIP treatment. Members prioritize financial benefits regardless of region, but they also want a loyalty program that makes them feel special. B2C marketers can do this by providing members with exclusive access to benefits such as limited-release products, first access to deals, and member-only events. Simple loyalty experiences. With so many memberships, it’s easy for consumers to feel overwhelmed by all the rules, offers, and benefits. Maximize consumer participation in a loyalty program with intuitive experiences and personalized updates. For more insights into how consumers feel about loyalty programs, check out our recently published data overview. Questions? We’d love to help you with your loyalty initiatives. Connect with us by scheduling a guidance session. source

Pretty much all of the tech giants offer cloud storage nowadays. However, you can easily find yourself shelling out serious money to store your digital data. As a more affordable alternative, Koofr is earning some serious plaudits. This innovative platform lets you upload and access your files with no size limit, and you can even hook up your other online accounts. In a unique offer from TechRepublic Academy, you can pick up a lifetime 1TB subscription for only $129.97 with coupon code KOOFR to be used at checkout. That’s a massive 84% off. Cloud storage is really an essential tool in running any business. Whether it’s simple spreadsheets, promo videos, company logos or even customer data, having a secure online backup of your files is vital. Putting your files in the cloud also means you can work on any device. About Koofr Cloud Storage Koofr provides these benefits and more. This platform allows you to upload and view files on pretty much any device with a browser. This means you can log in on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome laptops along with iOS and Android mobile devices. You can even connect via WebDAV. Koofr’s desktop app makes it easy to manage your data, with smart features like duplicate removal and batch file renaming. The service uses absolutely no trackers, and you can easily connect other online accounts to import your files. Another useful feature for businesses is the ability to share files via custom branded links. This means you can easily go above the file size limit on your email, with the ability to share the same link over and over again. Order today for only $129.97 with code KOOFR to get your lifetime 1TB subscription, normally sold for $810. Prices and availability are subject to change. source

Donald Trump’s big AI announcement has turned heads on both sides of the Atlantic. Trump revealed this week that OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle have formed a joint venture — called Stargate — that will invest $500bn in AI infrastructure. The companies said $100bn of the funding was available immediately. The rest would be deployed over the next four years. Trump billed Stargate as “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history.” He added that the project would ensure “the future of technology” is in the US. Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, had another bold prediction. He said the venture would drive  “artificial superintelligence.” The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! European tech leaders echoed the sentiment — but fear that the continent will become beholden to American power. David Villalón, the CEO and co-founder of Spanish AI startup Maisa, exemplified this blend of excitement and alarm. “This massive investment shows that the next stage in the growth of AI — Artificial Superintelligence — is no longer a fringe concept but an inevitable reality requiring unprecedented investment in infrastructure, akin to laying down the tracks for the next Industrial Revolution,” he said. Villalón added that the transition requires powerful new computing capacity. Stargate will bring a big dose of this to the US. European tech leaders have called for the continent to react “Without large-scale capital commitments and a bold approach to AI infrastructure, Europe risks surrendering its future to global players who control the fuel of tomorrow,” Villalón said. Europe’s AI worries Villalón pointed to the example of his home country. He believes Spain has “immense potential” in renewables, but needs a major funding boost to remain globally competitive and strategically independent. “Spain is spending peanuts on vacuous publicity AI projects, while ignoring, or not understanding, what’s needed — compute,” he said. Similar anxieties have reverberated across Europe. Jan Marquardt, the CEO of German startup Zivee, warned that AI companies need strong infrastructure, big funding, and minimal regulation, “all of which is available in the USA — and not in Europe.” Christian Klein, the CEO of German tech SAP, added that Stargate should be “a wake-up call” for the continent. Villalón shares their concerns. “To use a football analogy, Europe is currently in the relegation zone while USA and China — with their budgets, quality and ambition — are operating in the Champions League,” he said. source

Artificial Intelligence is virtually everywhere, whether enterprises have an AI strategy or not. As AI capabilities continue to get more sophisticated, businesses are trying to capitalize on it, but they haven’t done enough foundational work to succeed. While it’s true that companies have been increasing their AI budgets over the last several years, it’s become clear that the ROI of such efforts varies significantly, based on many dynamics, such as available talent, budget, and a sound strategy. Now, organizations are questioning the value of such investments to the point of pulling back in 2025.  According to Anand Rao, distinguished service professor, applied data science and artificial Intelligence at Carnegie Mellon University, the top three challenges are ROI measurement, realization, and maintenance.   “If the work I’m doing takes three hours and now it takes a half an hour, that’s easily quantifiable, [but] human performance is variable,” says Rao. “The second way is having a baseline. We don’t [understand] human performance, but we are saying AI is 95% better than a human, but which human? The top-most performer, an average performer, or the new employee?”  When it comes to realizing ROI, there are different ways to look at it. For example, if AI saves 20% of five peoples’ time, perhaps one could be eliminated. However, if those five people are now spending more time on higher value tasks, then it would be unwise to let any of them go because they are providing more value to the business.  Related:Why Every Employee Will Need to Use AI in 2025 The other challenge is maintenance because AI models need to be monitored and maintained to remain trustworthy. Also, as humans use AI more frequently, they get more adept at doing so while AI is learning from the human, which may increase performance. Enterprises are not measuring that either, Rao says.  “[T]here’s a whole learning curve happening between the human and the AI, and independently the two. That might mean that you may not be able to maintain your ROI, because it may increase or decrease from the base point,” says Rao.   Anand Rao, Carnegie Mellon University There’s also a time element. For example, ChatGPT-4 was introduced in March 2023, but enterprises weren’t ready for it, but in six months or less, businesses had started investing systematically to develop their AI strategy. Nevertheless, there’s still more to do.  [T]he crucial fact is that we are still in the very early days of this technology, and things are moving very quickly,” says Beatriz Sanz Saiz, global consulting data and AI Leader at business management consulting firm EY. “Enterprises should become adept at measuring value realization, risk and safety. CIOs need to rethink a whole set of metrics because they will need to deliver results. Many organizations have a need for a value realization office, so that for everything they do, they can establish metrics upfront to be measured against, whether that is cost savings, productivity, new revenue growth, market share, employee satisfaction [or] customer satisfaction.”  Related:Demand and Supply Issues May Impact AI in 2025 The GenAI Impact  While many enterprises have had plenty of success with traditional AI, Kjell Carlsson, head of AI strategy at enterprise MLOps platform Domino Data Lab, estimates that 90% of GenAI initiatives are not delivering results that move the needle on a sustained basis, nor are they on track to do so.   “[M]ost of these organizations are not going after use cases that can deliver transformative impact, nor do they have the prerequisite AI engineering capabilities to deliver production-grade AI solutions,” says Carlsson. “Many organizations are under the misconception that merely making private instances of LLMs and business apps with embedded GenAI capabilities available to business users and developers is an effective AI strategy. It is not. While there have been productivity gains from these efforts, in most cases, these have been far more modest than expected and have plateaued quickly.”  Related:What Happens if AI No Longer Has Access to Good Data to Train On? Though GenAI has many similarities to driving business value with traditional AI and machine learning, it requires expert teams that can design, develop, operationalize and govern AI applications that rely on complex AI pipelines. These pipelines combine data engineering, prompt engineering, vector stores, guardrails, upstream and downstream ML and GenAI models, and integrations with operational systems.   “Successful teams have evolved their existing data science and ML engineering capabilities into AI product and AI engineering capabilities that allow them to build, orchestrate and govern extremely successful AI solutions,” says Carlsson.  Kjell Carlsson, Domino Data Lab Sound tech strategies identify a business problem and then select the technologies to solve it, but with GenAI, users have been experimenting before they define a problem to solve or expected payoff.   “[W]e believe there is promise of transformation with AI, but the practical path is unclear. This shift has led to a lack of focus and measurable outcomes, and the derailment of plenty of AI efforts in the first wave of AI initiatives,” says Brian Weiss, chief technology officer at hyperautomation and enterprise AI infrastructure company Hyperscience. “In 2025, we anticipate a more pragmatic or strategic approach where generative AI tools will be used to deliver value by attaching to existing solutions with clearly measurable outcomes, rather than simply generating content. [T]he success of AI initiatives hinges on a strategic approach, high-quality data, cross-functional collaboration and strong leadership. By addressing these areas, enterprises can significantly improve their chances of achieving meaningful ROI from their AI efforts.”  Andreas Welsch, founder and chief AI strategist at boutique AI strategy firm Intelligence Briefing, says early in the GenAI hype cycle, organizations were quick to experiment with the technology. Funding was made available, and budgets were consolidated to explore what the technology could offer, but they didn’t need to deliver ROI. Times have changed.  “Organizations who have been stuck in the exploration phase without assessing the business value first, are now caught off guard when the use case does not deliver a measurable return,” says

The US government is doing something positive around IoT security. With the launch of the US Cyber Trust Mark program, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized a program and developed rules that bring forward a voluntary labeling standard to inform consumers about the cybersecurity impact of wireless IoT devices they may bring into their homes. Consumer IoT devices are scattered everywhere, from doorbell cameras to smart appliances, baby monitors, and streaming devices. And unless consumers take the time to review all the available information online about what these device manufacturers are doing with regards to cybersecurity, they have no idea how a given device manages aspects such as authentication, cryptography, data security, or even device lifespan. This new labeling program gives buyers a quick view on the label of the key cybersecurity functions and a QR code (still need to be careful with those!) that can provide details on how the device manufacturer is addressing the security of the device and the associated data. You may be thinking, “Paddy, this is a good step for consumer devices. How does this impact the security of my business?” That’s a great question. What does the home network of your employees look like? Unless you are security-conscious by nature (or experience), segmented home networks that isolate different devices into their own secured grids are rarer than properly segmented business networks. Compromised IoT devices on the networks of your home/hybrid workers can be used to attack the business devices that your remote employees are attaching to the same home network. Even if you have no remote employees and you don’t allow BYOD laptops, you still must consider mobile device security. Unless every employee has a cell tower in their backyard and/or unlimited data on all mobile device plans, a majority of employees will still connect their smartphone to their home network to save mobile data charges and have a better experience using these mobile devices. While deploying mobile threat defense solutions onto the mobile devices accessing your business resources is a great way to reduce the impact of a compromised IoT device in this manner, security is all about layers, and having more secure IoT devices is a way to assist here. Within your business networks, how many consumer-grade smart appliances are connected? Refrigerators, coffeemakers, microwaves, or even smart assistants litter the networks of many businesses because of their availability and ease of replacement. This type of device labeling can provide security and risk leaders with more details on the impact of these devices on the overall cybersecurity posture of the corporate network. When it comes to commercial IoT devices, there are other initiatives around the world, from guidance to regulation, and within certain markets, there are other requirements and standards that need to be met, such as in healthcare or related to connected vehicles, but like any standard, guideline, or regulation, these should all be seen as the floor to establishing your secured IoT device environment, not the ceiling. With IoT security listed as one of Forrester’s top 10 emerging technologies for 2024, we have a lot of research initiatives going on to bring you, S&R practitioners and leaders, more insight on how to better protect your business when it comes to IoT devices. If you are looking to better protect your organization’s IoT assets, whether they are on your corporate network or your employees’ home network, please schedule an inquiry or guidance session with me to discuss further. source