On Target: Embedded Systems

VDC Embedded Jama Software Webinar

How to Understand Requirements Management to Develop and Deliver Faster For Embedded Systems Developers, Time to Market is Critical. Learn the No. 1 Strategy to Develop and Deliver Faster. During this free webinar on Wednesday, July 23 at 1:00pm ET / 10:00am PT, VDC Research analyst André Girard and Jama Software co-founder Derwyn Harris will present on the growing necessity for requirements management (RM) tools in the face of today’s increasingly complex code bases, distributed development teams, and stricter budgets. OEMs are facing constant pressure for innovation even with tight budgets, and they are dedicating more of their resources towards... Read more →

IoT Necessitates Changes in Both People and Technology

The requirements of the devices composing the Internet of Things are changing rapidly. The embedded market no longer consists of dedicated-purpose devices that may or may not be connected. Engineering organizations and deploying enterprises must now design scalable system topologies that can integrate new devices and adapt to the IoT’s evolution. While these next-generation systems are required to facilitate downstream device/node management as well as efficient upstream data transfer and analytics, they must also do so dynamically, allowing for more intelligence and flexibility in node role and workloads within sub-network architectures. This recognition of a need for change in legacy... Read more →

eBay Response to Data Breach Shows the Company Still Doesn’t Get It

This month’s major data breach news comes courtesy of hackers who accessed eBay’s user database by using valid credentials pilfered from eBay employees. The hackers apparently had access to eBay’s entire database of 145 million active users during the months of February and March 2014. The information accessed included passwords in encrypted form, as well as names, email addresses, shipping addresses, and dates of birth all in plaintext. eBay’s user database was apparently accessible to the hackers because they logged in using genuine eBay employee credentials. But why should that give the hackers unfettered access to the entire user database?... Read more →

Got Ugly Code? Test to See if Quality Runs Deep

In today’s celebrity culture, inner beauty isn’t always a valued trait. But when it comes to embedded software development, beauty is truly on the inside. High quality, well-designed and reliable products necessitate high-quality and highly secure embedded software. Development Testing is one of the most effective ways to achieve this. Development Testing is a rapidly emerging category, including a set of processes and software, designed to easily find and fix quality and security problems early in the development cycle, as the code is being written. All this serves to dramatically improve time to market, reduce development costs and improve customer... Read more →

M2M World Congress – London – Highlights from Day 1 of 2

VDC’s CEO Mitch Solomon is participating in M2M World Congress (one of the industry’s larger M2M-centric conferences) this week in London, and sent in the following post from the field. First off, the event is oversold and is standing room only, a testament to building interest in M2M (…and perhaps the strong promotional efforts of its producer). The day consisted of roughly a dozen presentations and panels, covering a broad landscape of topics. Speakers were largely from major wireless carriers, primarily European. Below are a few key insights (…derived from a much longer list), just hours after the last session... Read more →

Don't Water-Scrum-Fail.

Agile is a great weapon available to OEMs to fight the challenges inherent in device development today. It is not, however, a silver bullet. In a recent post, we explored how Agile projects are still finishing behind schedule, despite favorable comparables against standard V-model workflows. The truth of the matter is that Agile projects are subject to many of the setbacks as traditional ones. They can and will fail. It is more important than ever for engineering organizations to recognize what specialized or unique implementation strategies they need to use to increase their chance's for long-term success with Agile. Many... Read more →

Help ~ Someone Hacked my Toaster!

In the PC world, security issues are generally well understood and often even addressed by the masses. It’s a different story in the M2M and embedded market. Recognition of security risks and the number of steps taken to address security vary across each level of the embedded ecosystem - by industry, manufacturer, component supplier, and end user. The potential impact of consumer device security failures extends across the Internet of Things ecosystem - far beyond traditional mobile and consumer devices. Thankfully, the general public appears to be catching on. Results from our consumer survey confirm that a growing number of... Read more →

3 Steps to Automate Your Way to Agile

In a recent VDC View, I wrote that "software engineering is broken." Although our industry continues to deliver new and innovative products, too often projects miss the mark. Late. Buggy. Unprofitable. We all hate these words, but hear them repeatedly. Enter Agile. We all know that Agile enables software organizations to continuously deliver working software faster to customers (internal or external). This helps software teams to not only deliver products faster but also in tune with the changing market needs. In practice however, organizations still struggle to get the full benefits of Agile methodology because they have not fully automated... Read more →

VDC to Present Embeddy Awards Live at Design West

Want to see the latest technologies and tricks for embedded engineering? Head to Design West next month in San Jose, CA! Contact us ASAP to schedule a meeting VDC will be attending the Design West/ESC conference from Tuesday April 23 through Thursday April 25. At the show, we will be presenting our 9th annual Embeddy Awards. The winners will be announced Live during Thursday's morning keynote session. So how can your company win the Embeddy award? To be considered, First, fill out this on-line form: http://svy.mk/WU0abA You must also schedule a meeting with VDC to discuss the announcement that you... Read more →

Feeling Insecure?

Then come see my presentation on secure device development best practices at Embedded World! The device development landscape is changing rapidly. The potential cost of security risks looming on the horizon is already causing many OEMs to reevaluate their engineering solutions and processes. I will discuss some of the steps you can take and products you should use when building next generation connected devices. When: 3:00 pm CET Where: Embedded World - Nuremberg, Germany Want to meet at Embedded World? Please contact us if you would like to meet up while in Germany. We are interested in speaking with vendors... Read more →