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Verismic Software Launches Rebrand to Syxsense and New Product Offerings, Reinforcing its Mission to Strengthen Endpoint Security

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Verismic Software Launches Rebrand to Syxsense, Reinforcing its Mission to Strengthen Endpoint Security

The New Name, Syxsense, Expresses Company’s Focus on Protecting the Endpoint with Powerful AI-enabled Solutions That “Know All”

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. (November 4, 2019) – Verismic Software, a global leader in IT- and security-management solutions, announced today a comprehensive rebranding and repositioning of its products and messaging. This major initiative makes Syxsense the world’s first IT and security-solution provider to offer patch management, vulnerability scans, and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) capabilities in a single console.

Syxsense has created innovative and intuitive technology that sees-–and knows—everything, making it able to secure every endpoint, in every location, everywhere inside and outside the network, as well as in the cloud. Artificial intelligence (AI) helps security teams predict and root out threats before they happen—and to swiftly make them disappear when they do.

“Syxsense combines the power of artificial intelligence with industry expertise to manage and secure endpoints by stopping threats before they occur and neutralizing threats when they happen,” commented Ashley Leonard, CEO of Syxsense.

“By owning an IT management tool, IT professionals can patch to reduce the risk of a problem,” Leonard continued. “By owning an EDR tool, you can monitor a breach and quarantine a device. By combining both, Syxsense allows IT and security teams to eliminate many breaches by patching, track and quarantine potential breaches, and then remediate the environment after a security event—all in real-time.”

At the heart of the rollout is Syxsense Manage, a cloud-native offering that does the heavy lifting by collecting and collating a library of patches and updates. This allows IT professionals to deploy updates with AI-driven natural language and voice control. When the need arises, users have access to dashboards, query builders, and remote-control functions that provide insight into device health, inventory, and timelines allowing IT managers to troubleshoot and diagnose issues.

Syxsense Manage, therefore, becomes the IT managers’ “endpoint everything,” allowing them to see and manage all endpoints both inside and outside the network as well as in the cloud, with coverage for all major operating systems and endpoints, including IoT devices, physical and virtual devices, and all major cloud vendors. More importantly, they can complete day-to-day tasks and updates with ease and efficiency.

The companion offering, Syxsense Secure, brings together endpoint management and security for greater efficiency and collaboration between IT management and security teams responsible for protecting businesses from cyber-attacks. It is the only cloud-native product on the market that truly combines endpoint management and endpoint security into a single unified offering. What’s more, it is tailored to the exact needs of companies that have limited resources and consolidated IT management and security functions in the same department.

Syxsense Secure includes proactive, always-on monitoring for malicious processes, automated device quarantine, real-time alerting, and live data that delivers insights in real-time to provide even greater visibility into the health of all the endpoints across your network. It is built on endpoint management technology that creates a baseline defense against known threats by ensuring devices are current with the latest software updates and security patches. This provides total visibility into the enterprise and eliminates blind spots so security managers can immediately detect anomalies that indicate an imminent or active threat.

By analyzing endpoint activity, Syxsense Secure predicts threats before they become breaches. Built on real-time, always-on endpoint monitoring, when breaches do happen, Syxsense knows how the attack entered the environment, how it spread, which data, files, and devices were impacted, and whether the threat has been neutralized in its entirety to prevent future vulnerabilities.

“Organizations are now able to combine and strengthen cybersecurity and IT management across their enterprise, enabling IT-SecOps convergence and digital transformation, improving enterprise performance while reducing the cost of cybersecurity,” concluded Leonard. “The Syxsense Endpoint Security Cloud, the overarching platform for Secure and Manage, provides multiple industry-proven capabilities in a single dashboard to simplify cybersecurity management and better protect people, businesses and assets from evolving cyber threats.”

About Syxsense

Syxsense is the leading provider of innovative, intuitive technology that sees all and knows everything about every endpoint, in every location, everywhere inside and outside the network, as well as in the cloud. It combines the power of artificial intelligence with industry expertise to manage and secure endpoints by stopping threats before they occur and neutralizing threats when they happen. The Syxsense Endpoint Security Cloud always-on technology performs in real-time so businesses can operate free of disruption from security breaches that cripple productivity and expose them to financial risk and reputational harm. https://www.syxsense.com

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Enterprise Security Trends that Will Rule 2015

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From 3D printers that can replicate the intricate details of the human heart to wearable technology that tracks everything from blood pressure to incoming emails, 2015 shows great promise in becoming “Year One” of the new digital world order. But before we get too distracted, it’s worth paying attention to—and learning from—the past, which has consistently revealed where even the most established industry giants stumble: enterprise security.

Last year alone, the U.S. witnessed colossal data breaches in both the public and private sectors—from home improvement, to health care, to the entertainment industry—including the highly publicized Sony attack. While it may have been the latest wake-up call, the Sony scandal was by no means the most significant. A string of breaches, including Home Depot, Target, Goodwill Industries, Dairy Queen and JP Morgan, which single-handedly affected 76 million households and 7 million small businesses, sent shockwaves throughout the world.

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Enterprise Infrastructure

If 2014 was the year of the hack, it’s logical to conclude that 2015 will be the year of fighting back. As diligently as an enterprise works to innovate groundbreaking advances in products and services, so too must they implement enterprise security solutions. Recent breaches, including leaks of users’ personal data and credentials from popular services like Dropbox and Apple iCloud have once again identified cybersecurity as a harrowing issue that requires immediate attention from both users and enterprises. Rather than focusing solely on prevention, however, today’s enterprises are now proactively beginning to use monitoring techniques for quick identification of and response to any kind of potential infiltration before it occurs. This trend, say analysts at the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit—which takes a comprehensive look at the entire spectrum of IT security—will expand and evolve organizational roles to include a digital risk officer (DRO)

Read the full article on techzone360.com

Ashely Leonard pasword reset quote|

Common helpdesk complaints businesses face – and how to fix them

By Managed Service Providers, NewsNo Comments

Help your users help themselves!

Working on a helpdesk can give you a sense of deja vu when it comes to some of the difficulties you hear from users. If you have heard a problem once, you have heard it a thousand times.

Whether you are a newbie on the support desk or a seasoned pro, many helpdesk problems that clog up the helpline can easily be avoided or solved. In doing so, you can save time and money and concentrate on the more interesting and critical challenges.

Here are some of the most dreaded helpdesk issues that plague IT staff, and how they can be avoided.

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1. I can’t remember my password

Forgetting a password is by far the most common problem users call up the helpdesk with. The reason behind this (aside from people’s inability to remember several passwords, each requiring a lower case, an upper case character, a number, a symbol, etc.) is that people think calling the helpdesk is the easiest and most efficient way of solving their problem.

“Lost passwords and Active Directory password resets are still the leading cause of service desk calls,” says Ashley Leonard, president and CEO at Verismic. “A lack of education [and often business technology] can mean that some users will still see a helpdesk call as the easiest and quickest way to sort out their problem.”

He says helpdesks need a self-service password reset tool that allows end users to control and reset personal passwords without calling the helpdesk. “End users, including remote workers, should be able to reset personal passwords by correctly answering a series of private questions. In many cases, a password reset tool can reduce helpdesk calls by up to 40%.”

2. My PC is too slow

Is the user running umpteen applications at once? Other reasons could be that system scans have been scheduled for the wrong time of day when the user needs their computer the most.

Izak Oosthuizen, consultant at Exec Sys, says that to reduce the volume of the most common IT maintenance complaints, such as a slow PC or network, organisations should look to automate maintenance items as much as possible with increased use of automation tools.

“Try automating the following ongoing, critical support tasks, including security patches, apps such as browsers, the scheduling of regular disk defragmentation, temporary file deletion and enabling real-time scanning,” he says.

3. I can’t print anything!

It’s the call helpdesk people dread – the user cannot print anything. The obvious things to look for are to see if the printer is turned on, is loaded with paper (in the correct tray) and has enough toner or ink. The trick to making these calls go away is to have users check for these issues first before calling in.

If it doesn’t appear to be an obvious answer then a connection problem could be the cause, i.e. the printer is not connected (or indeed the computer!)

David Weeks, channel strategies manager at N-able Technologies says that issues such as this can be resolved through a self-healing automation policy, which is typically implemented via the MSP’s remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform.

“Once the MSP has rectified the initial reactive issue, from there they can look at the subcategories that may have led to this issue occurring in the first place. If the print spooler is commonly filling up – why is this happening?” he says.

4. My mobile device isn’t syncing my emails?

According to Charlie Goulding, managing director of IT support firm Greencorn, this is quite common and quickly solved by ensuring that “push” is enabled on a phone so that new data is pushed to a user’s phone from the server.

“If you are using an Android phone, you may want to try removing all accounts on your phone, and then clearing all the data and cache files before shutting the phone down. Next, turn the phone back on and re-add your accounts. The ‘turning it on and off again’ method may sound overly simplistic, but it does in many cases solve syncing issues,” he says.

5. I can’t find anything in Windows 8

Windows 8 is a real departure from previous versions and some people find it difficult to get used to. Just remember that you can search for and find anything in Windows 8 using the top right search function, and that you can always get back to the last screen you were on by hovering at the top left of your screen – your active windows will pop up and you can select amongst them, says Goulding.

6. Why is the internet/network so slow?

The main cause of a user suffering slow internet access is usually down to malware or spyware. This is when you need your users to be honest with you and find out about sites they may have visited or applications they have downloaded.

Another reason why the internet or network may appear slow to the user could be because the user is connecting to the network via wireless. In an office building not everywhere will get a good signal, or could just be too far away from the Wi-Fi router.

7. My computer/application isn’t working!

In most cases, an application or hardware failure complaint is usually caused by a user’s lack of knowledge. Oosthuizen says that users must be “educated via scheduled training sessions; try creating a knowledge base for users and install workflow/procedures for complicated, propriety in-house software.”

8. I can’t log in!

Another common call to the helpdesk and reasons behind this range from the user leaving Caps Lock on when entering their password to an expired password that the user forgot to reset. Again, a self-service reset system should solve this issue.

Article published on techradar.pro

MSPs Need A Simple Systems Management Tool

By Managed Service Providers, NewsNo Comments

It would be easy to switch off when people start talking about cloud. The subject is not only worn out, but is one that means so many different things to so many people. As a result of that jaded confusion, there is a danger that some of the potential opportunities cloud presents could be missed.

MicroScope garnered opinions from across the channel about what cloud technology could offer resellers this year and where efforts would be best placed for those looking to grow their businesses. The good news is that there are plenty of suggestions, and with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 support ending in July, it is a good time to encourage those running on traditional setups to look at a hosted alternative.

Management of Systems
Ashley Leonard, president and CEO at Verismic, says the channel community, particularly managed service providers (MSPs), need to arm themselves with a simple, cloud-based systems management tool.

“PCs and laptops are not going away, despite the rush to adopt tablets and smart devices. PCs and laptops need managing, monitoring, patching and licensing. Windows 10 will likely create a flurry of upgrade work, application compatibility testing and roll-out,” he says.

“MSPs need a systems management tool that combines the cloud with agentless end-device setup, so they don’t need to deploy and maintain another piece of software at every customer site and on every PC,” he says.

Read the full article at Microscope.co.uk

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PCR MSP article|Ashley Leonard of Verismic

Race for free Windows 10 will create MSP windfall

By Managed Service Providers, NewsNo Comments
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Following the news that the new Windows 10 update will be free for a year, Ashley Leonard, president and CEO of Verismic, shares how he thinks this will affect managed service providers.

The latest figures from Netmarketshare suggest usage of the XP platform is dropping. Market share was 18.93 per cent in January 2015, down from 26.29 per cent in April 14.

OS upgrades to Windows 7 will be common in 2015 as customers come to realise support for XP has been stripped away, leaving them adrift.

Windows 8/8.1 has not been popular with all users, which could also prompt those XP and 7 users to actually jump to Windows 10. For a limited time only, one year, Microsoft has also said 10 will be a free upgrade, which makes this upgrade jump even more likely.

In any scenario, a flow of OS upgrades stretches IT resources not just through OS rollout, but through testing, fixing, repackaging and preparing existing applications for the new environment. It really is no small feat deploying applications.

Read More on PCR…

About the author Ashley Leonard, President and CEO of Verismic.

||MSPs patch management article|

Microsoft Patch Tuesday: Are Those Critical Patches Really Critical?

By Patch Management, Patch TuesdayNo Comments

MSPs have the opportunity to position themselves as the authority on patch management for their customers, both in terms of making the best use of time available and patch prioritization.

Downtime. One word to strike fear into the hearts of even the hardiest of IT managers. Avoiding downtime at pretty much all costs is the name of the game now. However, with the reliance on Microsoft (MSFT) products, there is inevitably going to have to be some downtime to roll out patch updates to keep systems secure.

The problem: The more updates there are, the longer the downtime isMSPs patch management article needed to update and install patches. For customers this can be a challenge, but for IT service providers and Managed Service Providers, this can be a real headache. Invariably, your customers have a very limited window when systems can be taken offline to install patches. This is all well and good when there’s a only a few patches, such as in January’s update, but when there are a large number (generally eight or more), this can be a real challenge…Read more of Ashley Leonard’s article published on The VAR Guy

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Lessons From ESOS Energy Legislation In The UK

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Originally Published on TechCrunch.com

The U.K. recently announced compliance guidelines for the government’s new Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), a mandatory energy assessment and energy-saving identification scheme in response to the requirement “for all Member States of the European Union to implement Article 8 of the Energy Efficiency Directive.”

The objective of ESOS is to reduce energy consumption, help address climate change, increase energy security and improve the competitiveness of U.K. businesses. The scheme, which came into force in July 2014, applies throughout the U.K. to enterprises of 250 or more employees and to enterprises under 250 employees, which have an annual turnover exceeding €50/$63.71 million and a balance sheet exceeding €43/$54.78 million.

The scheme calls for mandatory audits — required every four years and administered by the Environment Agency — intended to trim excessive energy use as a means to cut carbon and pave the way for increased business profitability, competitiveness and security, while mitigating organizational energy waste.

In short but not-so-simple terms, qualifying businesses are required to a) measure total energy consumption, accounting for 90 percent of usage across all buildings, transport and industrial activities; b) conduct energy audits to identify cost-effective, energy-efficient recommendations; c) ensure that the ESOS assessment has been conducted or reviewed by a board-level director and approved by a lead assessor; and d) report compliance to the Environment Agency by December 5, 2015.

While the ESOS audits are mandatory, certain caveats exist—as there is no obligation to implement these energy-saving measures internally identified in the audit, which is expected to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of £17,000/$27,200 on average in the first instance and £10,000/$16,000 for each subsequent audit.

Though the legislation’s notable feature appears spineless by failing to require businesses make any of these recommended changes to save energy, participants must demonstrate an authentic and rigorous attempt to examine opportunities for reducing energy use and have these findings reviewed at the board level. With this considerable investment of time and money, companies will likely be motivated to implement measures recommended in the audit which, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, could lead to on average a savings of £56,400/$90,240 per year, per business.

In order to encourage compliance as soon as possible, the government will impose penalties for various infractions, which could include fines of up to £50,000/$80,000 and/or an additional £500/$800 for each day an organization is out of compliance. Furthermore, the governing bodies also have the authority to publish (i.e. publicly shame) the names of non-compliant businesses.

The Challenge to Measure and the Burden of Proof

While companies may find motivation for implementing the recommended energy-saving measures of the audit solely for financial benefit, the ESOS directive is as much about enforcement as it is about the need for companies to understand power consumption. Uncovering pockets of energy waste requires appointing personnel familiar with the scheme; the only other option is to outsource, adding to the challenges for some companies to comply by deadline.

To comply with the new ESOS regulations, businesses will have to track their power usage to its source – the device actually employing the power.

When it comes to IT, the vast majority of businesses lack the technology to accurately track such energy consumption. Measuring the energy consumption of a Macbook Air compared to that of a Dell Desktop PC, for example, will prove to be difficult. While some organizations already have the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) in place, allowing IT administrators to manage large groups of Windows-based computer systems, SCCM lacks the capability to provide the accuracy the ESOS audits will require.

Utilizing power-management solutions, with consistently updated content databases of makes and models currently in use, allows companies to reference the power consumption of each device, along with the actual power usage when on and off.

Though the U.K. has been relatively slow to implement PC power-management technology, mostly due to tax incentives, perhaps by example, U.S. rebates — which often cover the cost of implementation for this type of technology — will encourage something similar in the U.K. Of course, taking into consideration that the U.S. wastes an approximate $2.8 billion in PC energy every year, the U.K. may need to take a more effective approach to energy security.

Is Legislation the Answer and Will the U.S. Take Note?

There is little doubt that the ESOS regulations will be effective, considering the measures the government set in place to assuage potential resistance or roadblocks. Recognizing the additional administrative pressure placed on energy managers with ESOS — which will have many similarities to existing U.K. policies — the government is proposing that enterprises be allowed to utilize data from other schemes, such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme.

Of the 7,000-plus businesses required to participate, as many as 6,000 are already in the CRC scheme and have reported substantial savings from implementing measures as simple as installing motion-sensor lights in hallways and stairwells. The government estimates that the net benefit of the new ESOS policy will be around £1.9/$3.04 billion between 2015 and 2030, based on a conservative prediction that only 6 percent of potential energy-saving opportunities identified will be implemented. However, real benefits for businesses are likely to be two or three times greater than those estimates suggest.

Although energy efficiency in the U.S. has been a buzzword for years, when it comes down to it, the U.S. continues to rank lower than the U.K., Germany, Italy, Japan, France and Australia. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, even China and India have fared better on the list than the U.S. — as American energy regulations for power conservation have been particularly scarce in recent years.

In fact, Congress hasn’t passed a major measure since the 2007 legislation targeting ethanol; and in May 2014, Congress blocked yet another energy-efficiency bill that could positively impact the environment, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and save citizens billions of dollars a year by 2030.

Although the Obama administration and the now Republican-dominant Congress continue to be at odds over legislation that not only addresses energy efficiency but also regulates it, the U.S. has seen substantial progress at a state level toward more energy-efficient practices, particularly in the top-ranking states of Massachusetts and California.

Ideally, a partnership between U.S. government and industry is essential for an energy policy to have a significant impact on the future of businesses and the environment. However, this achievement won’t be cheap or easy. The state-by-state approach indicates great strides in U.S. energy efficiency and environmental stewardship, but at what cost to businesses?

As the U.S. continues to rank among the top three energy consumers in the world, mandatory legislation may be the only real solution — with the U.K.’s ESOS as the litmus test.

CMS innovative product|

Verismic Awarded Most Innovative Product of the Year 2014

By Awards, NewsNo Comments
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Verismic is pleased to announce we have been awarded Most Innovative Product 2014 for Syxsense. 

Ashely Leonard, CEO said “It has been an exciting year for us with the launch of Syxsense, being recognized as one of the Top Innovative Products of 2014 is a great way to end the year.”

The Best in Biz awards honours companies teams, executives and products for their business success and is the only independent business awards program judged by members of the press and industry analysts.

One of this year’s judges Mark Huffman, Consumer Affairs said “In the Internet age, it has never been more important to ensure your customers have a positive experience and, should there be a problem, to address it. These companies “get it,” and that’s not only good for them, but good for customers too.”

Why IT should be the department of “now,” not the department of “no.”

By NewsNo Comments

In the short span of a decade, innovative electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, and Internet engagement channels have made an indelible impact on everyday life, revolutionizing the means and speed in which people communicate, socialize, and purchase goods and services. Combining the personal and business use of high-tech devices and applications, however, is a more recent phenomenon that’s blazing an irreversible trail

While the growing movement of versatile devices in the workplace provides flexibility and offers a range of options to increase employee productivity, it puts the modus operandi of back-office technology in peril, leaving IT departments precariously teetering on the edge of falling from hero to zero.

The Driving Force Behind Advancing Technologies
The consumerization of IT, coupled with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), is more than just a trend. Steered by a younger, more mobile generation of employees—raised with connected devices and uninhibited by the notion of work/life balance—BYOD is the driving force behind the inspiration of advanced technologies with the potential to make the workplace more efficient and employees more productive. Yet, this same force that is driving technology in a direction of infinite possibilities is also at work in an opposite direction, significantly impacting IT administrators who feel pressured to protect their technology universe with black-hole policies where nothing is allowed to pass through nor escape.

From the outside, some see IT departments as having a reputation for using “no” as the default response to newer technology or operational requests, whether to buy more time or as a genuine attempt to protect company policies and procedures. Although not an ideal or sustainable solution, IT departments may be at risk of becoming marginalized within enterprises as the speed of technology surpasses the speed of IT response. As today’s employees can walk into a store, buy a phone, and access company email within minutes, bypassing IT completely, a “no” from IT often only results in an unproductive and unnecessary game of cat and mouse—inevitably ending in frustration and internal conflicts.

Contrary to popular belief, IT does not intentionally oppose innovation, forcing employees to search for covert means to bypass IT and ultimately risk company security. However, the onus will invariably fall on IT administrators—whose survival depends on a willingness to adapt—to search for solutions that redirect policy-based collaboration and mitigate shadow IT, rather than identify new ways to block users from accessing sensitive information and connecting to company networks.

While providing unmatched technical expertise, IT departments face unique challenges and important decisions, particularly in relation to their shifting roles within the organization, along with employee demands regarding accessibility and flexibility. Bridging the chasm will require administrators to not only provide a common goal and a starting point from which all players have an equal advantage, but also transform from a technology provider to a technology partner. In other words, IT must evolve from the traditional department of “no” to the supportive and collaborative department of “now.”

Harnessing the Power of the Cloud
Traditional IT provisioning is often a slow and manual process, while new cloud-based solutions are automated, allowing for increased flexibility, improved agility for administrators, and enhanced efficiency that helps support a mobile workforce. With cloud management, organizations can cost-effectively support and manage a range of endpoint systems, from desktops to virtual workspaces, while improving access to vital applications and databases. In addition, these advanced solutions optimize performance and support virtualized environments without adding complexity, allow administrators to quickly find and fix infrastructure issues, provide end-to-end performance monitoring and configuration management, minimize disruptions, and reduce time, cost, and risks during migration to new environments.

As new cloud technologies emerge, collaboration between IT and the business is essential. To seize an expanded role while keeping pace with innovation, IT teams must take the lead and assume the position of driver and trusted advisor—allowing organizations to create competitive advantages by utilizing cloud solutions to solve complex technology challenges.

While many enterprises already employ a hybrid of on- and off-premise solutions, how many end users have Dropbox or Box and utilize Salesforce or Office 365? As this major shift occurs—with or without the consent of IT—organizations are bound to question if the IT department is an enabler or roadblock to innovation.

Collaboration and Innovation
By determining where and how IT departments can best support the enterprise and enhance the productivity of employees, they are sure to foster a culture of collaboration and innovation. Ultimately, this protection of the organization’s most valuable assets will secure IT’s place and guide companies through the next wave of new technology.

Ashley Leonard is the president and CEO of Verismic Software and a technology entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in enterprise software, sales, operational leadership and marketing, including nearly two decades as a successful senior corporate executive and providing critical leadership during high-growth stages of well-known technology industry pioneers. Verismic Software, Inc. provides cloud-based IT management technology and “green” solutions focused on enabling greater efficiency, cost-savings and security control for users, all while engaging in endpoint management.

Nov2014, Software Magazine

|NetworkWorld|

Network World: 8 tech buzzwords that you need to know

By NewsNo Comments
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Impress your friends at this year’s holiday gatherings by dropping a few of these terms

By  | Network World | Nov 17, 2014 3:00 AM PT

Buzzwords are a fact of life in the technology profession. Whether you’ve been in the industry for 30 years (remember WYSIWYG?) or for five (netiquette, anyone?), it’s a good bet you’ve incorporated techspeak into your everyday conversation, maybe without even knowing it.

As the global data tsunami continues to build, and a new wave of technologies from the consumer world hits IT, it’s not surprising that the buzzword count has surged. Here’s a look at eight of the hottest buzzwords being used today.

1. IoT (Internet of Things) or IoE (Internet of Everything)

The IoT is the chatty network that’s formed when the devices and “things” we use in our everyday lives – automobiles, thermostats, appliances, fitness bands, even toothbrushes – talk to each other through embedded technology and Web connectivity. While this term has been around for at least a decade, it’s only recently that the general public has fathomed its impact on our lifestyles.

“In the not too distant future, consumers will be able to tell their house to turn on the lights, unlock the doors, open the garage and report on how much milk is left in the fridge, all from the comfort of their car on their commute,” says Jeff Remis, branch manager of the IT division at the Addison Group.

“As technology continues to evolve, the more connected and automated every aspect of our lives will be.”

As a result, IoT is almost always brought up when industry pundits discuss “disruptive” technology trends. “Working for Ericsson, I hear this almost every day. With ideas like connected vehicles, M2M, and so on, this is very relevant,” says Samuel Satyanathan, director of strategy and engagement at Ericsson.

With the number of wireless connected devices exceeding 16 billion in 2014, according to ABI Research, which is 20% more than in 2013, some prefer the term “Internet of Everything.” “This is just an expansion of the “Internet of Things” to emphasize that everything is becoming a connected device, from mobile phones, appliances and cars, to animals,” says Ken Piddington, CIO at MRE Consulting. Indeed, ABI forecasts the number of connected devices will more than double from the current level, to 40.9 billion in 2020.

2. BYOE (Bring Your Own Everything)

Of course you’ve heard of BYOD, or “bring your own device,” which is the trend among businesses to allow employees to use their own personal mobile phones, tablets and laptops for work. But with the growth of mobile devices, including wearable technologies, some say the new umbrella term will be BYOE, or “bring your own everything,” Piddington says.

Already, Cognizant Technology Solutions has coined the term BYOHD, or “bring your own health device,” referencing the growing number of embedded or wearable devices that enable patients to collect data on vital signs, genetics, health history, fitness levels, activity levels, body-mass index, sleep patterns and more.

3. Dual Persona

Thanks to BYOE, another buzzword making the rounds is “dual persona,” which refers to mobile phones that enable people to maintain separate environments for personal and business use on the same device. “Users can have both a work and home profile simultaneously, and by separating these two personas, they can segment and protect personal and corporate data,” says Ashley Leonard, president and CEO of Verismic Software, a global provider of IT management solutions delivered from the cloud.

4. Wearables

When Google first released its plans for augmented reality glasses, or Google Glass, it was met with skepticism and a healthy number of parody videos. Even today, the device is seen by many as “odd but interesting,” as one blogger puts it. Still, while commercial success eludes most forms of wearable technologies today, the idea of wearing devices that would automatically consume, share, transmit, analyze and present vital information to or about us is no longer seen as a joke.

“This is a very trending development at the moment, from health devices to new mobile technologies, and is seeing rapid expansion and advancement,” Leonard says.

The wrist has been deemed the most realistic place for a wearable to be worn; witness the assortment of activity trackers and smartwatches that have made their way to the market from industry heavyweights like Samsung, Sony and Apple. However, it seems no area of the body will go unconsidered, with companies developing smart rings,insole sensors, glucose-level detectors inserted under the skin, posture-detecting pins and more. According to IDC, wearables have moved out of the early-adopter realm, with shipments exceeding 19 million units in 2014, more than tripling last year’s sales, and swelling to 111.9 million units in 2018, resulting in a CAGR of 78.4%.

5. Quantified Self

The buzz around wearable technologies is driving interest around what some call the “quantified self,” Leonard says, which is a movement geared toward gathering data about any aspect of your daily life and using that information to optimize your behavior. Chris Dancy, a top proponent of the trend, claims to have lost 100 pounds and kicked a two-pack-per-day smoking habit by logging and analyzing data on his everyday activities, including sleeping, eating and even his moods. Numerous meetups and forums now exist to support people interested in quantifying their own lives.

“If the advent in wearable technology is any indication, this term is one that will stick around, and Iam a huge fan of this idea,” Remis says. “Wearables are emerging to track insulin levels and even the air quality around you. The smart watch will be a big-ticket item this holiday season – and it’s just the beginning.”

6. XaaS (Everything as a service)

It all started with “software as a service,” but the as-a-service trend soon spread to a multitude of areas, including platform, infrastructure, storage, communications, network, monitoring and business process as a service. It’s no wonder, then, that many now simply say “everything as a service,” or XaaS (pronounced “zaas”). “I think it will start to become more widely used, as ‘everything’ is becoming available as a service,” Piddington says, even outside the technology realm. “You’ve got cars (ZIP Cars), housing (AirBnB), legal (LegalZoom) — the list continues to go on and on.”

Others prefer the more traditional nomenclature. “Personally, I am not a fan of this word and would still rather go with specific ones, like SaaS, PaaS, etc.,” Satyanathan says. For SaaS fans, Piddington offers the verb form, “SaaSified,” or the process of taking a traditional on-premise application and moving it to the cloud or making it available as a service. “I first heard this from a vendor of mine as they were describing how they were moving their core products to the cloud. I’ve been using it ever since,” he says. At least it’s more specific than cloud-ified.

7. Small Data

Once buzzwords hit their peak on the hype-o-meter, it’s not uncommon for industry pundits to rethink the meaning behind the word and hit upon more relevant variants. This is why you may have heard talk of “small data” and even “dark data,” Piddington says. Because big data is sometimes overkill for certain purposes, more people are starting to talk about small data, which according to the Small Data Group, connects people with timely, meaningful insights (derived from big data and/or “local” sources), and is organized and packaged – often visually – to be accessible, understandable, and actionable for everyday tasks.

Dark data, meanwhile, is the operational data that businesses collect but don’t optimize for competitive purposes, Piddington says. According to Gartner and other sources, the hazards of dark data range from lost business opportunity and higher than necessary storage costs, to security risks.

8. Ransomware

Ransomware refers to malware that infects a user’s computer and typically encrypts sensitive data until a ransom has been paid, Leonard says. An example is CryptoLocker, a damaging strain of malware that uses encryption to lock the most valued files of victim users. Many malware variants are now being created, “proving that ransomware is going to be an ongoing problem for home users and businesses alike,” Leonard says.

For companies, these types of attacks could have devastating consequences as local drives and corporate network data are all potentially encrypted, he points out. “Many victims who actually paid the ransom later reported that their data was never released, demonstrating the need for requirements of good security practices and strong IT management technology that allows all network endpoints to be actively managed and patched,” Leonard says.

So, where will the next buzzwords come from? If not from tech marketers, the answer will likely come from the “digital native” set, or the younger generations who have never known what it is like to not have constant and easy connectivity to the Web. For his part, Piddington keeps his ear tuned to the conversations of his 12-year-old son and his friends. Hence his use of the word “laggy.” “This is what he and his friends call a slow Internet connection. I seem to hear it said often when a large group of them are playing Minecraft,” Piddington says.

Brandel is a freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected]