Your competitive edge: How AI/human cooperation empowers market research
In 2019, global private investment in AI technology reached $70 Billion, representing a massive buy-in from start-ups and big corporations alike. From self-driving cars to advanced medical diagnosis, the potential for AI to shift the very foundations of our lifestyles is growing.
And yet, 65 percent of companies have not seen business gains from their AI investments. That potential, it seems, is being stymied. But why?
How DevOps can better communicate with the business
Business leaders rely on business intelligence. This is underpinned by the hard work of their DataOps teams who ensure the complicated connections of the data science BI processes keep flowing. Given the centrality of data to the whole process, the technical team cannot be expected to manage this without getting business leadership to first understand just what effective DataOps entails. In failing to do so, friction grows as strategic direction meets the physical limits of technology, time, skills, and budget. The fundamental promise of big data and data processing is to provide organizations with the insights to make more intelligent decisions. Yet, only infrequently do we see organizations focusing on how they can collect their data as much as they focus on how they can act on it. In other words, they don’t give due consideration to the data they have about... well... collecting data. This appears an oversight given how much of a game-changer these insights can be in terms of operations, reliability and optimizing resource use.
Before diving into how we can collate and make use of this data, however, it is instructive to look at what kind of inputs can be collected on data processing and storage. These, if used properly, can drastically improve processes and improve workload management.
Machine learning is your secret weapon for customer acquisition
If you’re looking for a strategy to get ahead when it comes to customer acquisition, machine learning can be your secret weapon. While machine learning does fall under the larger category of artificial intelligence (AI), it’s a bit more specific and can be extremely effective technology to pair with your customer and prospect database. True AI can think for itself like Lieutenant Commander Data from Star Trek. Machine learning, however, can automate tasks and apply predictive analytics that drive meaningful growth.
Machine learning is the AI focal point for your customer relationship management (CRM) tool and can be the key to boosting your customer acquisition.
Preparing for Covid-19 and beyond
The threat of a global pandemic is alarming, but at least in this case, IT has some advance notice to prepare for the worst-case scenario. You do not want to be caught without a plan if local governments institute a quarantine or local schools are closed for several weeks. And even if we avoid a pandemic -- fingers crossed -- the planning you did won’t be in vain.
It’s important for every organization to always have a plan to deal with disasters large and small, whether it’s flooding, inclement winter weather or a particularly bad cold that sends half your team home. Here are the steps you should take to put together your plan and prepare for a potential pandemic.
CCPA is a journey, not a destination
It’s been over a month since CCPA was implemented and businesses are struggling to comply. Smart organizations, however, know that compliance doesn’t have to be a sunk cost; in fact, it can be used as a competitive differentiator. Instead of playing catch up with global, national, and state data privacy regulations, businesses should consider implementing broad policies and protections for consumer information that will prepare the organization for any future legislation.
For all the criticisms of GDPR -- and there are many -- the EU legislation set an important precedent for data privacy laws internationally. Businesses that are already GDPR-compliant are in a good position to satisfy requirements from new national and state data privacy laws.
The IT manager's role in physical security integration
When I started my 10-year career in IT, it was common in smaller companies to see IT departments managing physical security. IT teams knew when new staff were onboarded and offboarded, and access control was just another task to add to their processes. While larger organizations had IT departments as well, they also may have leaned more on a facilities department or even dedicated physical security staff.
Since then, the worlds of physical security and IT have converged. While some of this system has stayed the same, there’s been one major change: regardless of who’s in charge of managing physical security, IT is involved by either owning the system or individual parts of it -- tasks like network or server provisioning, database management, backups and firmware upgrades. Enterprises are starting to understand this convergence and that they must take a more active role in security and where it fits in the organization’s overall strategy. Teams responsible for security -- both physical security and IT -- will face increased calls to work together and address their companies’ ever-evolving security needs.
Industrial cybersecurity put on notice as state-sponsored attacks persist
The continuing conflict among nations around the globe has been fueling a surge in state-sponsored cyberattacks.
Magnallium, a known advanced persistent threat (APT) group linked to Iran, has allegedly been trying to hack the US power grid by password-spraying private networks to potentially gain entry into this critical infrastructure. The act is believed to be part of a possible retaliation by Iran against the US in response to the escalation of military hostilities between the two countries earlier this year. Israel also recently reported to have thwarted hacking attempts on airport systems and planes of world leaders attending the World Holocaust Forum.
To grow, you need a strategic approach to automation
Businesses are embracing automation. But you’re most likely to find it thriving in discrete pockets throughout the organization, rather than integrated into every process. One initiative might automate the routing of customer emails to the right agent, while another might help the payroll team process timecards faster. Whilst these solutions to point problems are innovative, their limited scope means they fall short of full-scale automation.
For proof, consider that only 17 percent of businesses have scaled their intelligent automation technologies, according to a recent report from HFS Research, and 90 percent aren’t taking an integrated approach. If organizations want to grow their business, it’s critical they abandon working in silos in favor of a strategic, holistic approach to automation.
The challenge of obtaining visibility into cloud security
Digital criminals are increasingly pivoting to the network after initially attacking an endpoint or publicly accessible cloud. Indeed, a network foothold enables attackers to move laterally to more valuable cloud workloads. They can then steal their target organization’s sensitive information and monetize it in whatever way they deem fit.
Many of us are fighting back against the threat of lateral movement by augmenting our visibility over the network. However, we’re constantly running into challenges in the cloud. When using AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) or Azure Virtual Networks (VNets) to detect threats in network traffic, for instance, we’re missing packets’ application-level context. We thus can’t detect the malicious activity that hides within them. In this post, we will discuss why achieving visibility into the cloud continues to pose a challenge. We’ll then explore how we can gain the requisite level of visibility in the cloud.
3 ways to be more adaptable to change
One of the biggest things an organization can do to stay afloat and thriving in our current competitive landscape is to be readily adaptable to change. In contrast, one of the biggest mistakes I often see organizations make is not having a strong enough grasp on their IT infrastructure to do so.
This means that when a problem arises, decision makers will often act out of instinct and make changes that then create further problems or cause unexpected side effects. Once you can quickly and properly survey the technological and/or organizational landscape you’re working with, being adaptable to change can be almost effortless. Below are a few tactics to help you remain adaptable to change and avoid potential catastrophe in the face of an uncertain market.
Optimizing cost and availability when running SQL Server on AWS EC2
If you’re thinking about moving your SQL Server instances to the cloud, there are a lot of good reasons to choose AWS EC2. AWS offers a wide range of purpose-built systems, so you can easily find one that will support your organization’s particular needs. It has a global reach, with 69 availability zones in 22 geographically distinct regions around the world.
Building out a SQL Server infrastructure designed for high availability (HA) or disaster recovery (DR), though, can be costly. Are there ways to take advantage of AWS EC2 to reduce those costs? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is how much money you can save using AWS EC2 depends on the choices you make when configuring for HA and DR.
Windows as a Service: A method of life cycle management
A moment five years in the making is here. Support for Windows 7 officially ended on January 14. While not every enterprise has completed the migration to Windows 10, it is the operating system IT teams must focus on moving forward -- and it means big changes in how they operate. "Set it and forget it" is done. At the same time, the pain of migrating thousands of endpoints over to an entirely different OS is too, replaced instead by a new method of ongoing life cycle management.
We’ve entered the era of Windows as a Service. This is not just clever marketing but rather a genuine shift in how new Windows features are introduced and updates are conducted. Essentially, this model requires delivery of new features twice a year and security updates every month. Feature updates also receive ongoing quality updates over the course of either 18 or 30 months, replacing what previously occurred over the course of several years. The new model translates to a continuous rollout of Windows through internal testing. As with any major change, Windows as a Service has its pros and cons. Let’s dive in.
Selectively revealing yourself to the world -- Privacy in the 21st century
Fifteen years ago, if you wanted to join Facebook (then The FaceBook), you needed a valid college email address and the site did not offer much more than study group meetups or a place to chat and share pictures with high school friends. Today, Facebook is a juggernaut with roughly 2.5 billion monthly active users -- and as one of the world’s largest ad platforms, the amount of data it has on its users is staggering. But in 2018, the Cambridge Analytica breach profoundly shook users’ confidence in the social network -- and the entire tech industry as well. Since the scandal, there have been Congressional hearings, lawsuits, antitrust concerns and even the complete demise of Cambridge Analytica. But the questions did not end there -- consumers began to question how all big tech used their data. Why does Google track people’s location even if they have turned tracking off? Is Alexa recording my private conversations?
Thanks to the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the endless stream of data sharing scandals since, consumers are more aware of their online privacy and are beginning to question how companies are monetizing their data. Let’s look at how the rise of social media created this data economy, the tech industries attempt to regulate itself and how the U.S. government is woefully unprepared to address modern privacy challenges. How do we progress in a world where every detail of our days are tracked?
Election scams get creative and voters take the bait
The upcoming US presidential election is wrought with emotions. That makes it the perfect ruse for email scams targeting citizens, politicians, and government organizations. While election phishing is the top concern, there are a host of other scams that are making the rounds.
Your favorite politician -- or the one you’re most likely to vote for -- needs money to successfully run their campaign. Hackers are relying on our devotion not only to politicians but to our affiliated political party to lure us into a trap.
Can technology help employees with their mental health?
Mental illness in the workplace is a costly problem for employers. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that depression and anxiety cost the global economy $1 trillion per year in lost productivity. Productivity problems can have a trickle-down effect, impacting everything from company culture to employee retention -- and the problem is getting worse, not better. Studies show that mental illness diagnosis rates are rising, particularly among adolescents and young adults.
As this problem grows, employers must establish policies that identify mental illness in the workplace, reduce the on-the-job stressors that exacerbate the problem, and create a more supportive environment that helps employees to work through their hurdles. Here are a few ways that organizations can accomplish these goals with technology.
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