This issue of AnalystPerspectives Weekly Scan covers analyst commentary from the week ending January 17, 2014.

Google acquires Nest and sets its sites on the connected home.  Analysts offer their insights on this and more in the Acquisition and Mobile & Broadband sections:

• Google's Motives to (Acquire) Nest | ABI Research - Wed, 15 Jan 2014  
• Google's Nest Acquisition Will Force the Internet of Things Privacy Discussion | Forrester - Wed, 15 Jan 2014 |Fatemeh Khatibloo
• Google's Buying a Nest and Building One | The Enterprise Strategy Group - Tue, 14 Jan 2014  
• Google Bets On Internet Of Things And Connected Home, Not Just Data From Our Nest | Forrester - Tue, 14 Jan 2014 |Frank Gillett
• Google Steps Into the "Connected Home," Acquiring Nest for $3.2 Billion | IDC Insights - Wed, 15 Jan 2014 |Adam Ajzensztejn

Big data continues to carry information and analyst conversations. Here are some of this week's with more in the Data, Big Data and Digital Assets section:

• What executives should know about open data | McKinsey & Company - Wed, 15 Jan 2014  
• Data is the Currency of the Information Revolution | TDWI - Tue, 14 Jan 2014  
• Big, Bad Data? | Cutter Consortium - Tue, 14 Jan 2014 |Ken Orr
• The Elephant in the Room – Master Data and Application Data | Gartner - Tue, 14 Jan 2014 |Andrew White

IBM announces plans for Watson, and analyst share their views here and in the Enterprise Applications section:

• IBM Bets a Billion to Mobilize Watson Business Unit and Monetize Cognitive Computing | Ventana Research - Mon, 13 Jan 2014 |Jill Ventana
• News Analysis: New #IBMWatson Business Group Heralds The Commercialization Of Cognitive Computing. Ready For Augmented Humanity? | Constellation Research - Sun, 12 Jan 2014 |R "Ray" Wang
• IBM's New Watson Group to be a $2 Billion Dollar Boon to Conversational Commerce | Opus Research - Thu, 16 Jan 2014 |Dan Miller

Here are more headlines that caught our attention:

• The Cloud Is Out There… But Is It the Same to Everybody? | Current Analysis - Mon, 13 Jan 2014 |Steven Hill
• The New Year in SAP-land: Selling Customer Success (Part I) | EA Consulting - Tue, 14 Jan 2014 |Josh Greenbaum
• A Very Telling Antivirus Metric | Securosis - Thu, 16 Jan 2014  
• The Year of…the Platform? | Beagle Research Group - Wed, 15 Jan 2014 |Denis Pombriant
• Gartner Executive Programs Survey of More Than 2,300 CIOs Reveals Many Are Unprepared for Digitalization: the Third Era of Enterprise IT | Gartner - Tue, 14 Jan 2014  
• IT Quality Assurance Role Passes Test of Time | Computer Economics - Tue, 14 Jan 2014  
• Shadow IT is not just the CIO's problem – it is the CFO's problem | IDC Insights - Thu, 16 Jan 2014  
• Apple's Very Different BYOD Philosophy | Securosis - Thu, 16 Jan 2014  
• Pay with iTunes: Apple (Finally) Declares Intention to Enter Mobile Payments | Opus Research - Fri, 17 Jan 2014 |Greg Sterling
• Opening up open data: An interview with Tim O'Reilly | McKinsey & Company - Wed, 15 Jan 2014  
• The Limits of Gamification in the Workplace | Gartner - Tue, 14 Jan 2014 |Brian Burke