Year 2020 has witnessed a great rise in number of cyber-attacks, specially Ransomware attacks and Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks including phishing, spear phishing and whaling. These attacks result in data and financial losses. Another reason that has resulted in hike in threat of data threat and data exfiltration is increased number of remote employees due to COVID-19.

The major risk involved in data loss is associated with storing data on-premise or endpoints. Thus, it has become imperative for businesses to adopt a cloud-first approach to data protection.

Here is a step-wise approach to implementing cloud-first data protection strategy:

• First step is to determine if you can trust the cloud service provider’s platform. Analyze if the service provider can meet the data storage requirements of the organization and has the capacity to adapt to any changes to organization’s backup and recovery plans in the future. Check if the provider can:

                  Support all cloud models including private, public and hybrid.

                  Protect data on servers, desktops, mobile devices, and third-party cloud apps.

• Know about the data security practices implemented by the cloud service provider. It is important to ensure that organizational data should be encrypted both in flight and rest to avoid unauthorized access.
• Be prepared to combat a data theft attack by designing a well-defined data recovery plan. Ask the cloud service provider, if there is a recovery action plan such as redundant data centers, secondary data center at a different location, etc. for such situations.
• Relying solely on manual processes to back up mission-critical data can be ineffective. As organizations create a large amount of data everyday, manual data backup and management is no longer feasible. Also, processes such as Cloud, DevOps, and automation movements account for a dynamic business environment which further solidifies the need for automated backup policies.
• Consider the level of tech support that the organization would require in case any issue with cloud backup or cloud data management is detected. It is important to have a pre-hand knowledge about how to contact the cloud service provider to reduce the response time. Ask the cloud service provider if it offers different support channels such as Email or chat. Also, make sure that the provider offers 24*7 support across different time zones.

What Are The Benefits Of Cloud-First Approach To Data Protection?

• Cost savings
• Scalability
• Streamlined and coordinated approach
• Reduced human error
• Improved recovery abilities

For more information on cloud-first approach to data protection, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.   

Automation refers to the use of technology for performing tasks with reduced human assistance. It can be applied to any industry that involves repetitive tasks. However, it is more profoundly implemented in the industries of robotics, manufacturing, automotives and technology.

In the technology industry, automation is used for developing IT systems and business decision software.

• IT Automation: In case of IT, automation can be integrated with and applied to anything from network automation to infrastructure, methodologies, DevOps, cloud, edge computing, security, testing, monitoring, and alerting.
• Business Automation: It involves the alignment of business process management and business rules management with the process of modern application development. The underlying goal of business automation is to meet changing market demands.

The current market scenario requires businesses to undergo Digital Transformation. Instead of focusing on streamlining processes like automating customer records for sales, businesses now need to focus on developing new opportunities like automating complete business operations. This requires business and IT leaders to partner together for developing automation software and applications for business operations.

However, a simple question that needs to be answered is: Why Should a Business Adopt Automation Software?

In modern day scenario, businesses face multiple challenges such as supporting their employees, reaching out to new customers, providing innovative products & services at a faster speed. Automation software helps the business in managing, changing and adapting its IT infrastructure as well as business operations. Simplifying basic operational processes frees up time for businesses to focus on innovation and creativity.

Here are some other reasons that support the decision of adopting automation software for businesses:

• It is hard to manage IT operations and processes while adopting new processes and staying in compliance with dynamic legal systems.
• Requirements and demand are growing exponentially faster as compared to IT and business capabilities.
• New methodologies such as DevOps are forcing changes in business culture.
• The scaling up of business technology including virtualization, Cloud, etc. is too extensive to be performed manually.

An automation software for businesses holds its importance in improving productivity, consistency, and efficiency. Some advantages of automation software for businesses are:

• Higher Productivity: As the automation software handles the repetitive tasks, the IT team is free to use the skills for more productive tasks such as developing new opportunities.
• Better Reliability: Reducing the amount of human intervention in repetitive tasks helps in reducing the errors. A software brings reliability to the tasks as the processes, testing, updates, and workflow happen in the same order and time, making the results more reliable.
• Easier Governance: A software can be coded easily to implement any changes making it easier to oversee the implementation and processes.

For more information on automation software, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.      

Jokeroo is a type of ‘Ransomware As A Service’. So, in order to understand Jokeroo, it is first important to understand what is RaaS (Ransomware As A Service). RaaS is a mode of selling the use of ransomware to different affiliates.

The developer creates the ransomware and a payment site. The affiliates can sign up on the payment site. Once signed up, these affiliates help in distributing the ransomware to different victims. The ransom collected from the victims is then split between the developer and the affiliate.

Features Of Jokeroo RaaS:

• In order to spread infection via Jokeroo ransomware, the developers distribute the ransomware via developers of other programs as well.
• Jokeroo acts as a RaaS that offers membership packages to its affiliates. The services available to the affiliates depend upon the membership tier.
• Once signed up, the affiliates gain access to dashboard of Jokeroo RaaS platform. The dashboard will show the membership level of the affiliate, list of victims, when they were infected, and if the victim has paid the ransom or not.
• Affiliates can also look deeper to check the victim list and their IP address. The list also includes information such as Windows version and geographic location.
• Jokeroo RaaS allows the affiliates to create their customized ransom notes.

How To Remove Jokeroo Ransomware?

If the victim has working backup of the infected files or is never going to try and recover the lost files, then the simple ways to remove Jokeroo ransomware are to:

• Scan the computer with one or more antivirus and anti-malware programs
• Reinstall the operating system

In case the victim needs to recover the encrypted files, victims can try to decrypt the files or use methods of file recovery.

• Restore From Backup: If regular backups have been made on a separate device, then the victim can easily recover the files after running antivirus and antimalware scans to remove the ransomware.
• File Recovery From Cloud Storage: Even if the encrypted files have been synced to the linked cloud storage, a number of cloud services retain the older versions of altered files for some days.
• Recover Shadow Volume Copies: Volume Shadow Copy Service is a Windows technology that creates snapshots of the computer files on a regular basis and allows to revert any changes made on those files.

For more information on Jokeroo, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654. 

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As the world is drifting through the time of COVID-19, business survival and sustenance has become a topic of concern for entrepreneurs around the globe. Business owners are adapting technological tools to ensure the safety of their employees, expedite information distribution, and maintain supply chain among other business operations.

Following are some examples of how technology plays a role in business survival during COVID-19:

• Facilitating Remote Services: Technologies such as VPN (Virtual Private Network), collaboration tools, cloud conferencing, video calling, etc. have facilitated businesses to encourage and manage remote services. Employees can easily work on projects from their home to continue smooth business operations. Project management tools allow businesses to work on team projects in a seamless environment.

• Ensuring Employee Health: For businesses, who are resuming operations at their physical location, employee health is a major concern. However, technology advancements such as full-body scanners and thermal imaging systems allow businesses to detect abnormal body temperatures to identify individuals with probable infection. This allows customer and employee screening for reducing the chances of spread of infection.

• Online Learning: Businesses involved in learning (educational as well as vocational) are taking advantage of technology for providing online learning experience. Conferencing tools such as Microsoft Teams, have built dedicated online learning platforms.

• Enabling Contactless Movements: Supply chain is an integral part of any business. It is required to procure raw materials or deliver tangible products/services to the customers. However, the fear of infection is highly prevalent during COVID-19. In this scenario, technology has facilitated contactless movements. It has helped in managing delivery channels as well as easy movement of employees. Self-driven vehicles, online payments, and digital wallets have helped in creating a contactless delivery ecosystem.

• Reaching New Customers: Building a customer base is the foundation of business survival. Digital marketing plays an important role in allowing businesses to reach out to new customers in a time where physical marketing is not possible. Creating relevant digital content and sharing it on digital platforms help businesses in conveying information about their products/services to a wide consumer base.

• Customer Service Responsibilities: Amid COVID-19, consumers have large number of queries related to business operations, revised policies, delivery options, payment modes, etc. Chatbots are helping businesses in providing automated responses to these queries. This allows businesses to manage the high flow of queries in an efficient manner. Some tools allow businesses to adopt an integrated approach where a human agent can step in, if a consumer needs special attention.

For more information on role of technology in business survival during COVID-19, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.          

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Moving critical healthcare data on the cloud helps the healthcare providers optimize data management and process workflows, promote interoperability and reduce operating costs. Healthcare cloud solutions also help in promoting patient education and engagement. As the patients can access their medical records, they can make their own health decisions.

However, before implementing healthcare cloud solutions, it is important to know following things:

What Is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is an internet based computer technology that utilizes web-based cloud storage to provide services to the users whenever and wherever they need them.

What Are The Benefits Healthcare Cloud Solutions?

The major advantages of healthcare cloud solutions are:

• Data backup
• Data storage
• Powerful server capabilities
• Incremented productivity
• Highly cost-effective and time-saving
• Software as a Service or SaaS

What Is A Cloud?

A cloud is an amalgamation of hardware, network, services, storage, and interfaces that help in delivering computing as a service. It has three nodes:

• End users
• Business management users
• Cloud service provider

What Are Different Types Of Models Of Cloud Solutions Available For Healthcare Industry?

Healthcare providers can choose from following models of cloud solutions:

• PaaS: This model provides a platform and environment to let the developers build apps and services over the internet.
• SaaS: Software as a service is a software distribution model in which third-party cloud service provider hosts applications and makes them accessible to customers over the internet.
• IaaS: Infrastructure as a service is a form of cloud computing that provides virtual computing resources over the internet.
• CaaS: Communications as a service is an outsourced interactions solution that can be leased from a single vendor over the web.

What Are The Types Of Data That Can Be Stored In Cloud Computing?

Healthcare professionals can use the cloud solutions for storing different types of patient data including personal health information, patient test results, medical history, diagnosis results, prescriptions, etc.

How Can Healthcare Providers Benefit From Cloud Solutions?

Cloud solutions offer multiple benefits to healthcare providers:

• More secure data backup and data storage
• Software as a service (SaaS)
• Take advantage of powerful server capabilities without hardware investment
• Platform and OS agnostic
• Better positioning for growth and scale
• Increased productivity
• Sandboxing and virtualization capabilities
• Cost-effectiveness

For more information on implementing healthcare cloud solution, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654. 

Defining SLAM Technology:

SLAM stands for Simultaneous Localization And Mapping. The technology understands its physical surroundings through the feature points. This allows AR applications to recognize 3D objects and instantly track the surroundings for overlaying digital interactive augmentations.

SLAM technology can be defined as a technology that allows a robot or device to create a map of its surroundings and set its orientation within the map in real-time. For a better understanding, break down the term. It leads to two key terms – Localization & Mapping.

• Localization – Find the location of some object/sensor with reference to its surroundings.
• Mapping – Map the layout and framework of the environment that the device is placed in.

The technology makes use of advanced algorithms that are capable of localizing and mapping the objects simultaneously.

How Does SLAM Technology Work?

SLAM technology collects visual data from the physical world with help of numerous sensors installed in the device. The data is collected in the form of reference points. These points make it easier for the machines or robots to distinguish between floors, walls or any other barriers. As the device moves around in the environment, new measurements are continuously taken. The SLAM technology takes care of any possible inaccuracies in the measurements by factoring in ‘Noise’.

This data is then converted into machine language that can be easily interpreted by the machines.

Implementations Of SLAM Technology:

• SLAM AR is actively being implemented in place of the traditional marker-based technology. The traditional approach required a digital image. The camera had to be pointed at the digital image for enjoying the AR experience. However, SLAM AR rules out the requirement for a digital image by locating and mapping the surroundings in real time for a better AR experience.
• Autonomous vehicles define another major implementation of SLAM technology. These self-driving vehicles are equipped with roof-mounted LIDAR (Light Imaging Detection And Ranging) sensors. These sensors create a 3D map of the surroundings and augment it over the existing Google maps. These readings are fed into a statistical algorithm for making driving-related decisions. The fast locating and mapping speed of the sensors makes them an ideal choice for fast moving vehicles.
• SLAM technology has also found implementation in robotics. The technology is being used to create automatic robots and UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) such as drones. This technology can be extensively used in a wide variety of field robots such as robots used for exploring other planets, agriculture robots, etc.
• A GPS tracking system may not be highly efficient indoors or in big cities with obstructed view of sky. These problems may be solved by implementing visual SLAM technology as it does not require satellite information. Instead, it takes accurate measurements of the world around it to create a real-time map.

For more information on SLAM technology and its uses, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

IT has a major impact on the way a business operates. However, IT trends keep evolving in an unexpected fashion. As the new stage of digital evolution knocks on our doors in 2020, the new IT trends such as emotionally intelligent interfaces and hyper-intuitive cognitive capabilities promise to transform businesses in unpredictable ways. New IT trends open new opportunities for businesses to expand their market and user base.

Here is a list of business IT trends of 2020 to help you architect business systems that are designed to respond to new age IT trends:

• Artificial Intelligence: AI is not a new trend but it keeps widening its parameters. AI has now found applications in different fields of business operations. The latest AI business trends include smart assistants, chatbots and self driving cars. In 2020, AI can be experienced in every digital market; from cybersecurity to healthcare.

• Edge Computing: With an increase in the number of devices connected to the internet and each other, there has been an increase in demand on server infrastructure. The demand is even higher for video camera-based services that require constant video streaming. This has laid the pathway for edge computing. Edge computing is a computing network where computing is done at or near the data source to reduce the processing time. Video providers can benefit from this trend for reducing server costs and adding core functionalities that were not previously possible.

• Autonomous Vehicles: While it may take some time for the autonomous vehicles to carve a niche in the market, they seem to be a promising upcoming trend in B2B and consumer markets. This trend is sure to have an impact on the way automobile businesses operate as they will have new investment opportunities such as manufacturing of autonomous vehicles and developing new services/features that cater to health, entertainment, comfort, and productivity of the person being driven in the autonomous vehicle.

• 5G: 5G is being hailed as the base of new business revolution due to the speed and capabilities it promises. It has led to new investment opportunities for carriers and mobile device manufacturers. Additionally, it promises to enhance the surfing capabilities of the users thus, allowing businesses to offer applications with more features, plug-ins and usability.

For more information on Web Applications for enterprises, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.        

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