Archive for September, 2017

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Zoom.ai Acquires SimplyInsight

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 27, 2017 by itnerd

Zoom.ai announces the acquisition of automated data analysis and visualization startup, SimplyInsight. Zoom.ai will integrate SimplyInsight’s data-querying technology to continue redefining the modern workplace and increase employees’ efficiency.

SimplyInsight’s sophisticated natural language querying technology engine allows employees to request, analyze and visualize internal business data to quickly capitalize on hidden trends and improve organizational productivity. For employees, access to vital statistics can occur in minutes, driving critical business decisions and on-the-go optimization. SimplyInsight’s scalable insights are accessible through chat and connected to a company’s internal and third-party data tools. This acquisition uniquely positions Zoom.ai to advance their vision of a more efficient and data-driven workplace.

SimplyInsight founders Amanda Parker and Alexey Adamsky have joined the Zoom.ai team as part of the acquisition. Parker will be leading business development as VP Business Development & Partnerships, while Adamsky joins as Senior AI Scientist.

Zoom.ai makes this acquisition on the heels of its recent seed funding of $2.1 million and a noteworthy $100,000 win as Best Technology Pitch at OpenText Enterprise World 2017.

On average, Zoom.ai’s active users have gained 14% productivity, saving approximately 25 hours per month and $16,000per senior employee annually. Zoom.ai invites interested companies and professionals to acquaint themselves with these and more of Zoom.ai’s integrated capabilities at www.zoom.ai/demo.

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Schneider Electric Makes Announcements At The 2017 Innovation Summit

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 27, 2017 by itnerd

Schneider Electric is holding its marquee Innovation Summit from September 25-26 in Hong Kong. At the Summit, Schneider experts and world-leading industry thinkers will collaborate on ways to turn bold ideas into solutions on Powering the Digital Economy.

Innovation Summit Hong Kong will feature the EcoStruxure World Premiere, unveiling the latest innovations in EcoStruxure, Schneider’s IoT-enabled, plug-and-play, open architecture, which delivers end-to-end solutions in six domains of expertise – Power, IT, Building, Machine, Plant and Grid ­– for four end markets, Building, Data Centre, Industry and Infrastructure. EcoStruxure World Premiere includes an exclusive first look at the launch of three new solutions:

  • EcoStruxure IT, offering next-generation cloud-based Data Centre Infrastructure Management, providing visibility of real-time and predictive analytics, optimizing operations across IT and facilities
  • EcoStruxure Building, features a collaborative smart building platform and an open system architecture allowing developers and partners to interact, share data and develop apps, increasing efficiency up to 30 per cent and ensuring optimal comfort for occupants
  • EcoStruxure Industrial Software platform, which combines scalability and domain expertise to enable people and processes to work seamlessly together, enabling lowest total cost of ownership without compromising risk, data security, or performance requirements

Over 1,000 Schneider customers from across the globe will hear from more than 50 expert speakers, including Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and CEO, Schneider Electric and Cyril Perducat, Executive Vice President IoT & Digital Transformation, Schneider Electric. The event program will feature strategy talks and interactive deep-dive expert learning sessions with a diverse group of customers and partners, designed to further accelerate digital solutions. Attendees will also be able to visit the company’s Innovation Hub, a 1,000+ square meter showcase of the company’s rich portfolio of software, solutions and services. The Innovation Hub also features a Partner Village, which brings together its network of technology partners and start-ups, including Microsoft, Accenture, Cisco, Intel and Salesforce, showcasing their latest co-innovations.

With Innovation Summit Hong Kong, Schneider is also now expanding its COP21 sustainability commitments and its goal to become a carbon neutral company by 2030 into large events. Schneider is investing in a carbon offset project to compensate for all air travel and event construction related to the Summit. Sustainable event practices will be implemented throughout the event through managed climate control, focus on sustainable packaging and food and a reduced use of paper and waste. This sustainability commitment will be incorporated in all future editions of the Innovation Summit World Tour.

 

At this event, the company announced EcoStruxure IT, the first Data Centre Management as a Service architecture.

EcoStruxure IT revolutionizes DCIM by delivering a cloud-based architecture purpose-built for hybrid IT and data centre environments. The vendor-agnostic architecture delivers a new standard for proactive insights on critical assets that impact the health and availability of an IT environment with the ability to deliver actionable real-time recommendations to optimize infrastructure performance and mitigate risk.

Key benefits include:

  • Global visibility across the hybrid ecosystem – from anywhere – with one tap access right from a smartphone
  • Device information, smart alarms and monitoring through open system collecting data from all devices regardless of vendor
  • Foresight into potential risks by leveraging global benchmarks and analytics in the EcoStruxure data lake
  • Ease of deployment through a convenient subscription model for any size environment
  • 24/7 remote monitoring with the Schneider Electric Service Bureau. In the event of an incident, the Service Bureau helps troubleshoot and ultimately reduces mean time to repair

 

EcoStruxure IT is the latest addition to Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure, its IoT-enabled, plug-and-play, open architecture, which delivers end-to-end solutions in six domains of expertise – Power, IT, Building, Machine, Plant and Grid – for four end markets, Building, Data Centre, Industry and Infrastructure. EcoStruxure is driving digital transformation for Schneider Electric clients globally, enabling them to be competitive in today’s digital economy.

Rolling out to select geographies over the remainder of 2017 and into 2018, highlights of EcoStruxure IT include:

  • EcoStruxure IT Expert – Expert delivers visibility across the hybrid environment from anywhere with one tap access direct from any computer or smart phone with the Mobile Insights application. Data centre and IT managers can benchmark performance against their own system or those across the industry for trend analysis, maintenance or failure prediction, efficiency comparisons and other measures.
  • EcoStruxure IT Advisor – Advisor addresses the need for greater system optimization and inventory management for enterprise and colocation users. This enables superior control, planning and prediction across all site locations – on and off premises. Failing equipment can be located and addressed easily, reducing time to repair, and can be supported by Schneider Electric’s 24/7 remote monitoring Service Bureau.

As a part of EcoStruxure IT, Schneider Electric continues to offer StruxureWare for Data Centers, a self-contained on-premises monitoring and operations management solution, suitable for data centre and IT deployments of all size and scale. Additionally, Schneider Electric offers a simplified process and tool for StruxureWare customers interested in migrating to the new EcoStruxure IT architecture.

As part of the launch, EcoStruxure IT was piloted in the U.S., benchmarking IT environments with more than 500 customers, 1,000 data centres, 60,000 devices and 2 million sensors. Customer feedback on the results of their EcoStruxure IT implementations affirm the growing need for a cloud-based data centre management solution.

More information on the capabilities and availability of EcoStruxure IT can be found here.

Finally, the company announced a new Global Family Leave policy that is industry-leading in its global scope and strengthens the company’s commitment to Diversity and Inclusion.

The policy will support Schneider Electric employees worldwide by providing paid personal time during moments when it matters the most, enabling them to better manage their unique life and work.

The policy features the following provisions as the global minimum paid leave standards:

    • 12 weeks for the primary parent (both natural birth and adoption)
    • Two weeks for the secondary parent (both natural birth and adoption)
    • One week for care for an immediate family member that either needs elder care or care for a serious health condition
    • One week of bereavement leave for a death of an immediate family member

In formulating the policy, Schneider Electric has actively chosen to define “leave” and “family” in an inclusive way, recognizing that definition of family, life and work are changing every day. By design, the policy includes key life stages for welcoming a new baby, taking care of sick or elderly family members, and mourning the loss of a family member. It also assumes an inclusive definition of family by extending an equal amount of parental leave to a parent by natural birth or adoption. Resources will be provided to Schneider Electric countries to ensure understanding and support of the new policy by managers and employees.

The policy will be deployed gradually, with 40+ countries including the U.S., Mexico, China and India, implementing by January 2018, and 100 per cent global deployment by January 2019. If a country’s legal requirement or current practice is more than the minimum standards, the higher standards will be followed. Eligibility within a country may vary based on local laws as well as current eligibility for the Schneider Electric benefits.

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StaffConnect’s Next Generation Mobile App Platform Transforms Employee Engagement

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 27, 2017 by itnerd

StaffConnect, has ushered in a new era of innovation in creating powerful employee experiences in the enterprise.  StaffConnect’s next generation StaffConnect Mobile App Platform version 2 (v2) features key bar-raising enhancements that transform the employee experience by enabling business, nonprofit and government organizations to better connect, communicate and engage with their entire workforce – including remote, non-desk employees.  The result is employees are more loyal, passionate and productive – leading to improved customer/client experiences, and consequently superior business outcomes.

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While the foremost authorities agree regarding the business criticality of employee engagement, prevailing research demonstrates that the world is in the throes of an employee engagement crisis.  In fact, according to a recent Gallop poll, a mere 13% of employees were found to be engaged. Unfortunately, the associated costs can be truly devastating. Gallop has stated that 65% of all lost customers can be tracked to a disengaged employee.  This issue is further exacerbated by what is now being referred to as the “forgotten workforce” i.e., non-desk employees.  Surprising, given that today non-desk employees make up over 80% of the world’s workforce, and in this digital age, the non-desk employee number is only expected to rise.

Key new StaffConnect Mobile App Platform feature enhancements include:

  • Chat– Seamless, secure, and easy-to-use workforce messaging
  • Directory – Seamless, secure and easy-to-search employee listing featuring employee profiles
  • Survey – Integrated and flexible survey tool, featuring enhanced employee voice features, for pulse and engagement surveys
  • Events – Company meetings, town halls, etc. promotion
  • Communities – Sophisticated user and group management

The new Management Console features:

  • User Management– View, upload and manage users to ensure only current employees can access the app.
  • Content Management– Powerful content management that allows admins to manage, edit and moderate app content.
  • Notifications – Utilize push notifications to enhance your internal communications and app engagement levels.  Target by group/dept., location, function and/or project.  Send real-time or preschedule.
  • Analytics – Measure the effectiveness of your communication channels with app analytics.  Gain valuable real-time insights, measure engagement, rank content, produce reports.

StaffConnect is offered in Standard, Professional and Enterprise Editions to meet each client’s business and budgetary requirements.

Unique to StaffConnect and a key differentiator from otherwise potential competitors is its AppSuccess, Best Practices Services. Now offered in three new and unique services bundles, Bronze, Silver and Gold, each package was designed from the ground-up to establish best practice content and communication strategies, as well as ensure smooth and successful platform implementation, fast adoption and ongoing success.

 

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Majority of students optimistic about AI’s future: OpenText

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 27, 2017 by itnerd

The 2017 Student Leadership Conference is happening this week (September 26-30) in Waterloo, bringing together student leaders from across the country for sessions on leadership, entrepreneurship and community development. During Tuesday’s opening ceremonies, Adam Howatson, CMO at OpenText, shared his career journey, and discuss artificial intelligence based on the results of a survey OpenText conducted on AI with the students at the conference.

The results show some of Canada’s most passionate student leaders have mixed feelings on AI and how it will impact their lives. Seventy per cent of students were highly or slightly optimistic about the role that AI could play in the world, but 49 per cent of the students surveyed were concerned that their future career might one day be automated or replaced by robots.

In a future where automation will likely play a much more prevalent role in daily work, students attending the conference are prepared. Forty-two per cent said they were taking concerns about automation and robotics into account when selecting an educational path. Similarly, 68 per cent said there were career paths and fields they would avoid because they are likely to be automated in the future.

While students may be avoiding certain career tracks, they do see value in AI and robotics, particularly in improving healthcare and curing disease, where 81 per cent felt it was a problem AI should address. Other areas where they saw benefit was in automating everyday tasks like cooking and cleaning (53 per cent) and improving the automotive industry (38 per cent).

A total of 327 students attending the conference answered the questions between September 8 and 18, 2017.

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Poll: Does iOS 11’s Do Not Disturb While Driving Have A Bit Of A Problem With It?

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 26, 2017 by itnerd

For the last couple of days, I’ve been driving a 2018 Mazda CX-3 so that I can write a review on it. But in the process of doing so, I have discovered a bit of an inconsistency with Apple’s new Do Not Disturb While Driving feature that showed up in iOS 11.

Now I have my iPhone connected to the infotainment system of the CX-3 via Bluetooth, and I have Do Not Disturb While Driving to only enable over Bluetooth. That works perfectly. But, I am also the owner of a Series 2 Apple Watch. I have found that while notifications other than VIP notifications appear to be suppressed on the Apple Watch, I can still use the Apple Watch to check my e-mail and read text messages. Not only that, I can use it to send text messages via dictation. That part is what got my attention when I thought about this because Siri doesn’t read back your text the way it does with Apple CarPlay. Thus you have to read what you dictated to ensure it picked everything up correctly. This means that if you do this while driving, you’re distracted (Though I will admit that while the Series 3 Apple Watch has Siri speaking to you, it doesn’t mean that this is any less distracting. If it is, it’s only marginally so). Yet you’re not touching your phone. I would think that Do Not Distrub While Driving should not only stop you from using your phone while driving, but it should stop you from using your Apple Watch while driving as well seeing as the watch is wirelessly tethered to the phone and many of the functions of the Apple Watch are driven by the phone. But perhaps I am looking at this wrong. Thus I am posting this to see what your thoughts are. Please take the poll below and let’s see what the wisdom of of the crowd is:

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In Depth: Jackpot Digital

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 26, 2017 by itnerd

You might not have heard of Jackpot Digital, but perhaps you might want to pay attention to them as this Vancouver based company has a very unique niche in terms of having the high ground when it comes to electronic table games and mobile games for casinos, cruise ships, and online operators. I did a In Depth report of their Jackpot Blitz product not too long ago. I had the opportunity to speak to company CEO Jake Kalpakian last week who related to me the path that the company took to get to where they are today.

The company started out doing online poker games in the late 1990’s. But they were approached by a company named Pokertek to first do a wireless poker product for Carnival cruise lines, but later to do a next generation electronic poker table that was intended to offer a variety of poker games. The company ended up building the software part of this product and license it to Pokertek with the hopes of getting a piece of the licensing pie when they served it up to Carnival. Along the way, PokerTek was sold to Multimedia Games of Austin, Texas in 2014 who was then promptly bought by a company named Everi. Now Everi had other lines of business and electronic table games didn’t fit with their core business. Thus Jackpot Digital bought it and the table product developed into what is now Jackpot Blitz. One of the cool things about this product is that Kalpakian is not only targeting the casino industry with it, but he’s also targeting places like Newfoundland which is the home to video lottery terminals. The reason being is that this product requires no human interaction (read: you don’t need a dealer) and can be tailored to fit a variety of use cases. It also covers a wide demographic from baby boomers to millennials. The latter is a focus for Kalpakian.

One thing that Jackpot Digital has going for it is that they have a unique product that effectively makes them the only game in town. Thus, while some Canadian companies have a struggle breaking into the US market, Jackpot Digital doesn’t because those who are interested in what they have to offer chase them. That’s a unique position to be in and likely accounts for the fact that they’re growing. Another point, it’s not just US customers who are interested in their products, they’re seeing interest globally. The net result is that they’re number one in this market. But that’s not enough for Kalpakian as his goal is to extend their number one status so far that nobody can touch them. That’s a lofty goal, but given everything that I’ve seen, it’s reachable.

All of the above is are very good reasons to keep an eye on Jackpot Digital. That’s going to be very easy as they are a publicly traded company. They’ve clearly got technology that people want, and stand every chance of being Canada’s next great success story.

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Review: Apple macOS High Sierra

Posted in Products with tags on September 26, 2017 by itnerd

Apple releases a new operating system every year. Sometimes the company makes massive changes. Other times it’s bug fixing and performance tweaking with only a handful of changes. macOS High Sierra is the latter. At least, that’s what Apple would have you believe. The fact is, that there are significant changes under the hood that make this worth installing.

The first reason to install macOS High Sierra is the new APFS (Apple File System) file system. It replaces the 20 or so year old HFS+ (Hierarchical File System) file system by bringing the following to the table:

  • Built-in encryption and support for full disk encryption
  • Snapshots, which used to record the state of your storage device based on points in time, helpful for backups
  • Space sharing, which makes it easier to resize and mange different partitions
  • Faster performance
  • The ability to better manage very large storage capacities and files

Here’s the catch. At present you need an SSD installed to leverage this feature (though support for Fusion Drives and spinning disks will be coming at some point in the future). And as I have noted previously, you’re going to get this new filesystem on your SSD whether you want it or not. Apple also says that the time to convert to APFS may vary based on the size and speed of your disk, the speed of your Mac, how much free space you have, and whether the volume is encrypted or not. In my case the total time to upgrade to High Sierra took almost five hours. Now I did check to see if I had any pre-existing issues with the SSD in my MacBook Pro which had about 230GB of data on it, or the OS, and there were none. Thus I am unable to explain this result. I will be running an upgrade on my wife’s MacBook Pro this weekend so I will get a chance to see if this was a fluke and I will update this post with the results. Once it was installed, here’s what I noticed:

  • I got 2.1GB in disk space back.
  • Opening applications felt a touch faster

So on the surface it seems that APFS does make a difference. Your mileage may vary.

The next difference that you’ll see is in Apple’s Safari web browser. It now stops videos from auto playing. Something I know that annoys a lot of you who are reading this. Second, is Intelligent Tracking Prevention. This stops sites from tracking you and displaying ads based on where you’ve been on the web. While advertisers won’t like this, you will. There’s a bunch of performance and functionality improvements that are along for the ride as well that make this a better browser overall.

Photos is the one app in High Sierra that gets the most changes. For starters it’s a better organization tool via tweaks to the sidebar and toolbar, drag-and-drop organization, imports history, improved accuracy with the People album, and more. The Edit mode is redesigned with better access to tools, Live Photo support, and there are also new filters. Photos also has new Project Extensions, so you can use third-party services to create websites, books, etc. There’s so many changes with Photos that I could do a separate review on Photos alone. So I will simply say that you should try it and I think you’ll love it.

There are other features that make this a worthwhile upgrade:

  • High Sierra now has support for VR headsets
  • Apple’s new Metal 2 API has support for external GPU hardware, which could mean you can boost your MacBook’s graphics performance by using Thunderbolt to hook up an external box with a top-end graphics card. Something that’s popular on the PC side of the fence. There’s also support for machine learning which should help Siri be a better virtual assistant.
  • Two new file formats that are now supported in High Sierra are High Efficiency Video Encoding (HEVC) for video and High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) for photos. In fact, an iPhone that is on the same iCloud account as a Mac running High Sierra will automatically use the latter by default.
  • Siri gets a new voice and some more intelligence.
  • There are tweaks to iCloud to support the new Family Sharing feature as well as sharing files to non-iCloud users. Something that iCloud desperately needed to compete against services like DropBox.

So is there a reason that you shouldn’t upgrade to High Sierra? Frankly, other than this security hole, if your Mac support High Sierra (which any Mac that ran Sierra will), then this is a worthwhile upgrade. Just take my advice on what to do before you upgrade and you too can leverage the performance tweaks that High Sierra brings to the table.

UPDATE: I installed macOS Sierra on my wife’s MacBook Pro which also has a Samsung SSD in it. While I did get it to install, it took three hours and the installer crashed right at the very end. That forced me to reboot it a couple of times to bring it back to life. That’s not something that I recommend, but I was left with very little choice. Everything worked properly and I will keep an eye on it over the next few days.

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BREAKING: Equifax CEO “Retires” In The Wake Of Epic Pwnage

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 26, 2017 by itnerd

It seems that the heat is too much for Richard Smith who up until a few minutes ago was the CEO of Equifax. Because he’s suddenly “retired”:

The retirement is effective Tuesday, according to the statement. Mark Feidler, a current board member will serve as Non-Executive Chairman. Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr., president of company’s Asia Pacific region, has been appointed as interim CEO.

I guess he decided to get out and chances are that if he “retired” he’d get paid a nice pile of cash. All in the wake of the most epic pwnage the world has ever seen. Hopefully this doesn’t stop him from being called in front of the public flogging known as a congressional hearing to explain how hand why things went so horribly sideways.

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BREAKING: Zero Day Bug In macOS High Sierra Can Facilitate Password Theft [UPDATE: Fixed]

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 25, 2017 by itnerd

On the day that Apple decided to drop it’s latest and greatest OS which is macOS High Sierra, comes this bombshell from Patrick Wardle who a former NSA hacker who now serves as chief security researcher at ‎Synack:

Let me translate this for you. He has a proof of concept attack using an unsigned app that exploits a hole in macOS High Sierra that facilitates the theft of any or all of your passwords that are stored in the Keychain app.

Yikes!

Now Apple hasn’t responded to this zero day threat, but to be frank it has to respond. This is not a trivial issue and this can be a major threat to anyone who upgrades to this OS which was released an hour ago as I type this story. The other side of the fence is that because it requires the use of an unsigned app to get pwned, being careful should keep you safe. But regardless of which side of the fence you happen to agree with, Apple needs to get a fix for this out there now. Until then, you have to question if upgrading to Apple’s latest and greatest is a good idea.

UPDATE: This is now fixed. Details here.

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Deloitte Pwned…. Secret Emails & Plans Exposed

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 25, 2017 by itnerd

The Guardian has details on yet another epic hack. This time it’s consulting firm Deloitte who got pwned by hackers. And the way that the hackers got in screams of amateur hour in their IT department:

The Guardian understands Deloitte clients across all of these sectors had material in the company email system that was breached. The companies include household names as well as US government departments.

So far, six of Deloitte’s clients have been told their information was “impacted” by the hack. Deloitte’s internal review into the incident is ongoing.

The Guardian understands Deloitte discovered the hack in March this year, but it is believed the attackers may have had access to its systems since October or November 2016.

The hacker compromised the firm’s global email server through an “administrator’s account” that, in theory, gave them privileged, unrestricted “access to all areas”.

The account required only a single password and did not have “two-step“ verification, sources said.

So, let me simplify this for you. The administrator account allows a user to do anything they want. Usually, this account is disabled, or has some sort of strong protection such as two factor authentication to ensure that this exact scenario does not happen. Those protections were clearly not in place. Thus they got pwned. Another issue is the fact that the attackers had access to this email system for months. So who knows what they got away with? Finally, the time it took to disclose this is problematic. There really needs to be more transparency on that front.

Here’s what’s ironic about all of this. In 2012, Deloitte was ranked the best cybersecurity consultant in the world. But clearly in the five years since that award, things have slipped at the firm.

Pity.

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