Open Systems. DBMS 2018, Volume 26, Number 4

COVER FEATURES

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TOOLS
The Path to DevOps
IT in businesses is now entirely a team activity. While we still need experts with deep technical knowledge, we must focus on how to get people from all disciplines working together effectively.
Erik Doernenburg (erik@thoughtworks.com), head of technology, ThoughtWorks.

The Rise and Evolution of Agile Software Development
This article provides a historical overview of agile’s main focus areas and a holistic synthesis of its trends, their eVolution over the past two decades, and agile’s current status and likely future.
Rashina Hoda (r.hoda@auckland.ac.nz), senior lecturer, University of Auckland; Norsaremah Salleh (norsaremah@iium.edu.my); associate professor, International Islamic University Malaysia; John Grundy (john.grundy@monash.edu), senior deputy IT faculty dean, Monash University.

PLATFORMS
Using Apache Ignite for Machine Learning Tasks
Traditional storage cannot be expanded indefinitely or even fast enough, which is especially critical for machine learning tasks in cases where there is more data than a single device could hold. So in order to support big data workflows, scale-out distributed storage and in-memory processing architectures are increasingly used.
Yuri Babak (ybabak@gridgain.com), Head of Machine Learning R&D Department, GridGain Systems.

OS FORECAST
Transform or Be Left Out: OSJ 2019 “Big Seven” Forecasts
Open Systems.DBMS Journal outlines seven digital era technology trends that would dominate in 2019.
Natalya Dubova (dubova@osp.ru), Science Editor, Open Systems.DBMS Journal (Moscow).

BLOCKCHAIN
AI and Blockchain: A Disruptive Integration

AI and blockchain are among the most disruptive technologies and will fundamentally reshape how we live, work, and interact. The authors summarize existing efforts and discuss the promising future of their integration, seeking to answer the question: What can smart, decentralized, and secure systems do for our society?
Thang N. Dinh (tndinh@vcu.edu), assistant professor, Virginia Commonwealth University; My T. Thai (mythai@cise.ufi.edu), professor, University of Florida.

SECURITY
Blockchain: The Emperor’s New PKI?

Public key technology has always held the elusive promise of a universal digital identity system that makes paper obsolete, but attempts to do this have never measured up. Although some countries use digital identification via public key and electronic ID cards, there is no widespread movement towards this kind of solution. Blockchain technology seems like an odd savior, especially because its main use to date has been for digital cash with anonymity features. A verified identity is nearly the opposite of anonymity, so what does blockchain have to do with it?
Hilarie Orman (hilarie@purplestreak.com), security consultant and president, Purple Streak.

DBMS
Russian Scientific Data Lake

Present-day scientific experiments generate hundreds of petabytes of data, with its handling requiring innovative approaches. One of the options for data storage and processing is the federation of compute resources, or the data lake model.
Alexei Klimentov (alexei.klimentov@cern.ch), Head of Lab, Kurchatov Institute, Brookhaven National Laboratory; Andrei Kiryanov (andrey.kiryanov@cern.ch), R&D Center Department Head, St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute Named After B. P. Konstantinov (Gatchina); Andrei Zarochentsev (andrey.zar@gmail.com), Fellow, St. Petersburg State University.

A Single Point of Access to All Corporate Data
To date, any corporation owns vast and diverse arrays of variously structured data, which cerate inefficiencies when lacking a single point of access. The issue could be addressed by using a data mart.
Sergei Gorshkov (serge@trinidata.ru), Director, TriniData.

OPINION
Robotic Automation: A Cure-All or A Pain?

There is no doubt that the development robotics in general, as well as of various-purpose robots and their intelligence in particular is a very promising and exciting research area. But is that research truly relevant for the present day, or should we be really talking about the work for the future, possibly a very far-off one?
Sergei Kolesnikov (pmp5080serge@gmail.com), independent consultant (Moscow).

WORLD
Mikhail Shura-Bura: “Any Program Could Always Be Shortened by One Line of Code”

A hundred years ago, a patriarch of Russian software programming was born. He was rightfully called a patriarch informally for his out-of-the-box approach to work and the ability to bring projects of national scale to fruition.
Mikhail Gorbunov-Posadov (keldysh.ru/persons/gorbunov.html), Department Head, Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics (Moscow).

OS ACADEMY
Why a Business Would Create its Own University?

Digital transformation means not only large-scale changes in economy, education, and labor market, but also changes in employee training demands. Corporate universities are becoming increasingly proactive in their relationships with the business, turning into providers of comprehensive training solutions. Sberbank's corporate university is no exception.
Irina Sheyan (rrisha@osp.ru), Science Editor, CIO Magazine Russia (Moscow).

Balancing Scientific Research and Practice
Established as recently as in 2014, the Computer Science Department of Higher School of Economics has already gained a solid reputation and popularity among prospective students. What benefits can the young CS department offer compared to well-established academic institutions, what and how it teaches, and where its graduates are welcome?
Natalya Dubova (dubova@osp.ru), Science Editor, Open Systems.DBMS Journal (Moscow).

Towards New Wins — with AI
The September and October issues of Computer (IEEE Computer Society, V. 51, No. 9, 10 2018) cover the topic of AI use horizons for the mankind and aspects of winning and losing in the IT industry.
Alexander Tyrenko (shoorah@osp.ru), reviewer, Computerworld Russia (Moscow).