Businesses today are grappling with a slew of issues, Most of the problems are around the cost-effective adoption and deployment of cloud computing. The age of Globalization demands companies to move data to the cloud. It provides a variety of benefits over traditional data storage and server hosting. 

Unfortunately, many businesses are unclear on how to get started with cloud storage and computing. The good news is that there is now a procedure called cloud assessment. Wanna know about it?

What is Cloud Assessment?

The Cloud Assessment is a system that furnishes you with a complete pathway for cloud migration. The process includes coordinated effort between numerous workstreams. It gathers application metadata, characterizes degree and execution techniques. 

The dimensional examination isolates applications into eight decisions. A channel recognizes proper cloud sending for every application. Finally, end-state engineering, business case, and arrangement guides are conveyed in one to about two months.

Is Cloud Assessment Important?

Maintaining high customer service and satisfaction can be challenging. Especially when technology grows more sophisticated. Besides, this is also an important component of regular corporate operations. As a result, it’s critical for businesses to include service level agreements in their IT vendor contracts to clear expectations and duties, and everyone is on the same page.

Cost and Benefit Analysis

The cost-benefit analysis is the most significant element affecting every business decision. Cloud assessment calculates how much it will cost to migrate your data to the cloud. In addition to that, it estimates how much money you will save in the long run. This allows you to properly budget for your cloud migration. And puts cloud migration into financial terms.

Synchronized Cloud Computing Strategy

Cloud assessment attempts to comprehend your entire business strategy and goals. And this happens before presenting you with a list of cloud computing technologies and procedures that correspond to those goals. The cloud assessment aligns the cloud computing approach with the entire company plan for an efficient guidance system.

Pinpoint Issues

Cloud assessments will reveal any obstacles that may arise during your migration to the cloud. This is in fact a great way to help you thwart them before they become major problems. Preventing severe disruptions by addressing these issues ahead of time also assures that you will stay on track during the whole cloud migration process.

Sets Performance Benchmark

It is tough to analyze the progress of your initial cloud computing. However, cloud assessment gives you a thorough set of standards and the averages for each performance measure. Thus, You can correctly analyze how well your new system is doing even if you don’t have any previous performance data to compare it to.

Optimize Cloud Computing

However, despite the many advantages, cloud computing may not be the right choice for some companies. You’ll receive an honest assessment of whether or not migrating to the cloud will benefit your organization. Of course, the answer is usually yes, but it’s always best to be certain.

The Procedure of Cloud Assessment

For a company to switch to cloud migration, cloud assessment is the best way to get started. Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Identifying the business objectives:

It’s critical to understand why you want to go to the cloud before planning your cloud migration strategy. It’s like shooting darts in the dark if you don’t have a crystal clear answer. The following are some of the most typical business reasons for moving to the cloud:

·        Keeping data centre maintenance expenses to a minimum

·        Increasing the scalability of the system

·        Better failover capability will improve resiliency.

2. Scrutinizing the Existing IT infrastructure

This is the most important stage in your cloud readiness evaluation. Furthermore, it determines the viability of your cloud migration project. It entails looking at the apps you want to migrate to the cloud and gathering enough data about your storage. Additionally, network, data collection, operating system, and on-premise hardware data are also given. 

After you gain a clearer understanding of the underlying infrastructure, your apps will seem much less complex. As a result, you’ll be able to decide which apps, workloads, and data should be transferred to the cloud. Also which should be kept on-premises, and which should be deleted.

3. Selecting Security Requirements

Many companies considering cloud migration have long prioritized security as a key priority. As a result, each business moving to the cloud must evaluate its present security systems. Plus, they should determine their security and compliance requirements. This is to guarantee that you select the best cloud platform for all of your requirements.

·        Management of identity and access

·        Mechanisms for disaster recovery

·        Endpoint security and firewalls

4. Assessing Operational Readiness

Despite the introduction of cutting-edge technology and techniques, cloud operations have always been a significant undertaking. In this stage, you’ll assess your readiness to manage the cloud’s operational elements. This entails answering a series of questions, including:

·        Who will be in charge of the cloud-based apps and systems’ operations?

·        Have you gotten everyone’s agreement on the roles, duties, and operating model?

·        Have you adopted any operational best practices to support cloud computing?

5. Determining the Budget

Many businesses transfer their applications to the cloud for various reasons. This may include scalability, performance, resilience, and cost savings. However, one of the most challenging aspects of cloud migration is determining the overall expenses and schedule to accomplish the transfer.

Without proper preparation, the expenditures of a cloud infrastructure might exceed. In fact, the costs of your on-premise infrastructure, along with your projected timeline, may rise far higher than you ever anticipated. To determine the required budget, you need to compute the cloud’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

·        The average size of a resource unit

·        The expected pace of growth

·        Monthly usage of infrastructure overhead

Final Verdict

Cloud migration isn’t merely a matter of moving data from one location to another. It’s a complex process with several nuances. As a result, it’s critical to assess your cloud readiness while keeping all possible eventualities in mind. Some of these may be mentioned above. Many cloud providers deliver tools and services to assist companies in determining their cloud readiness.

The post Ever Heard of Cloud Assessment? Let Us Tell You About Something! appeared first on TTM.

When the pandemic first struck in early 2020, Starling Bank in the UK claimed that it bought up all the available Mac units in the market.

The bank did not do this to boost the stock shares of Apple but to ensure that their employees who would now be working from home were as protected against hackers and malware as possible. Apple has, over time, developed the brand image of being a company that is not susceptible to hacks at all. Thus, such a move would make sense.

However, Apple Mac threats have now outpaced Microsoft Windows’ by 2 to 1, showing a growing concern in the software market. It seems that hackers know that they faced a bigger payday from Apple device users and will, thus, do all that they can to ensure they breach the OS.

If you thought that having a Mac device is enough cybersecurity, this piece should change your mind.

Security Threats That Apple Mac Units Deal With

Macs are surely secured against most malware and cybersecurity attacks out of the box. That is why they could simply be plugged and used without much in the way of user optimization for security.

Hackers are getting smarter and more sophisticated, though, and this is not the time to leave things to chance at all. That is what makes it essential to start taking matters into your own hands when it comes to security.

Here, we discuss some of the threats common to Mac users alone and other cybersecurity threats that could impact just about anyone with a computer of their own.

Threat #1 – Adware

Hackers and scammers have found a way to make legitimate ads into what they could use to exploit users.

Adware can be deployed in several ways and executed in multiple instances also.

For example, you might get onto a website where you suddenly see an ad claiming that your computer is running slow, and you could boost it by clicking on a link. There are such ads that will promise you a limited giveaway of an item if you took a survey fast enough – or completed a similar task.

There is also adware that pops up on sites commonly known for illegally downloading and streaming. Most times, trying to close these ads triggers a small page shift such that you click somewhere else on the ad instead and execute the package.

Given the security background of the Mac devices, the adware remains one of the biggest device security breaches.

Threat #2 – Sideloading app

The Mac experience is better with apps and programs. Some of the best apps and programs that you will use on your unit come as paid and premium options.

Some users try to circumvent that by going for cracked/modded software, which is essentially freemium versions of what should have been a paid app. Since these free versions are illegitimately made available by hackers who have bypassed the origin server, the programs are not listed on the official app store.

Now, this is where it gets interesting.

Since they are not listed on the official app store, Apple cannot vet and verify that the programs come with clean, non-malicious code. Thus, the hackers could also inject some malicious code into the cracked version so that your Mac is infected from the moment that you install such apps.

Threat #3 – App download

Following the above, not all the apps that you download on the official App Store are good for you either.

Apple’s engineers will surely have a lot of app code to go through every day, so, surely, some apps can slip through the quality checks and controls. While Apple is working hard to plug such slips, some hackers are also getting better at disguising malicious code as the real thing.

One of such hacker groups is Lazarus which is believed to be operating out of North Korea. This group is believed to be working on multiple legitimate-looking apps that will go through the App Store but inject malware onto the users’ Mac device once downloaded and executed.

Threat #4 – Manin-the-Middle Attacks

As the name implies, man-in-the-middle attacks occur when a perpetrator puts themselves between your computer connection and the target server.

For example, if you were trying to reach your bank servers and a user inserts themselves in the middle, your internet data is routed via them before it reaches your bank. Thus, all the information your bank is supposed to get about you is the same dataset that such a hacker gets about you.

These attacks are common when you are on a public Wi-Fi network since the admin can see all that you are doing on such a network. Likewise, such networks are often unencrypted, allowing anyone who knows what they are doing to breach the security protocols and subvert your internet data to yourself.

Rogue WIFI networks disguising as the real thing could also use this method to lure in unsuspecting users. Say, an ‘AIRPORT XYZ’ connection being copied and broadcasted as ‘A1RPORT XYZ’ or ‘AIRPORT XYZ II,’ that’s enough to trick most users into connecting while thinking that they are on the real thing.

Threat #5 – Cryptojacking

This is one of the most subtle yet highly damaging threats to the Mac devices as we see around today.

As the name implies, it has something to do with the crypto world.

The hackers in this space are more interested in your computer’s processing power than the data you have stored on it. Once their script fires and activates on your Mac, they attempt to use the processing power of your unit to mine some crypto for themselves.

This leads to Mac overheating and performance problems, among other things. With an increased load, the Mac might fail and shut down – even with permanent damage to the motherboard and all of the data that you have stored on the unit.

So, What Should You Do?

For all the threats that Mac users face, Apple has done an outstanding job here so much that you rarely hear about major malware issues to her units.

Most of the settings and functions that you need to stay safe are already built into the unit. Support that with some external strategies, and you will have a highly secure device on your hands.

Never Sideload apps

Mac units come with an in-built feature that prevents downloading and installing apps from anywhere other than the official App Store.

Now, if you wanted, you could go into the system settings and override that. However, there is no reason for you to do that if you do care about your safety.

The majority of the apps and programs that you need are offered via the App Store anyway. If you see an app that you cannot get on the App Store, dig around, and you will find a suitable alternative from a reputable vendor.

The biggest mistake that you could make here is wanting to get around paying for some apps by installing the cracked versions instead. When you think about the possible data loss and theft that comes from doing that, you’ll see that paying a minimal subscription fee is nothing.

Patronize reputable vendors

Even when downloading free apps on the App Store, make sure you are going with reputable vendors.

There are many apps in gaming, productivity, office, utilities, and other categories. Most of these apps do the same thing anyway, so make sure you fish for the best, tested, and trusted vendors among these.

Besides getting added peace of mind from these vendors not trying to rip you off, you are also sure of continual support. So, you don’t download an app from a vendor that doesn’t get motivated enough to keep pushing out security fixes and updates to their software.

That will also save you from unscrupulous players gaming the Apple quality control team, manipulating the search engine to show up on top, and giving you badly coded apps on top.

Get a VPN

When multiple businesses were investing in VPN software for their staff members working from home, they didn’t do so just for their employees to change their IP addresses at will.

Maybe there was a time when that was all VPNs were good for – or maybe that is what you’ve always known them to be. Today, you can do so much more on the security front with them that makes all the difference for you.

A VPN helps encrypt your internet traffic data such that no one else sees what you are doing on the network. With a  VPN, not even your ISP can make out what you’re doing on the internet.

This solution works wonders if you are traveling but need to access sensitive data and files on your Mac anyway. Once you have the connection layered over a VPN, you don’t have to worry about peeping toms on the internet.

Install a Firewall

First, activate the inbound firewall, which Apple has graciously bundled with your unit.

Once you have done that, look for a reputable outbound firewall for your Mac unit also.

Most users only activate the inbound firewall and think that is all there is to things. The truth is, the inbound firewall will only protect you against malicious data entries from the web into your unit. However, it never stops malware that’s already on your device from contacting the internet.

Most malware is silent and cannot do anything if they don’t reach out to their origin server first. Pending the time when you will find them out, you should limit how they interact with the internet.

That is where an outbound firewall comes into the mix. If you don’t already have one, now is a good time to go shopping.

Install antimalware

Your VPN and firewall are great additions, but they cannot do it all on their own either.

Enter antimalware. Antivirus software is the most common form of antimalware these days, and they work wonders in their department.

Find a reputable vendor to install antivirus software from. Set up an initial scan of your Mac unit to identify and eliminate potential malware. Follow that up by setting up frequent scans of your computer to ensure it is always checked to alert you of malware.

Finally, always update your antimalware whenever you get the prompt to do so. This is the best way to ensure you are always protected against the latest virus definitions lest you fall victim to some new tricks and hacks.

Speaking of staying up to date…

Update apps, programs, and software

Anytime you get the prompt to update your apps, programs, or the firmware itself, don’t hesitate to do so.

These updates might bring some new features and aesthetic improvements alone sometimes. However, developers mostly push such updates out to fix bugs and patch vulnerabilities found in the software.

Thus, if you don’t get the update up and running fast enough, a hacker could exploit that to get into your unit.

If you don’t think much of this, remember when Zoombombing was a thing, and the company only had to push out an update to address the issue?

On the system side of things, you might not remember that there was a time when iPhone units could be hacked by plugging them into a USB device. In that instance, too, an update was what it took to get the issue fixed.

That’s the power that updates bring to the table.

How secure is your Mac?

You don’t have to wait till you are in the crosshairs of hackers and scammers to start caring about your security and data privacy. Fortunately for you, you don’t need guys from the IT department to get started on the fixes suggested here.

Start today, and you are on track to enjoying better security against online threats.

The post A Thorough Guide to Mac CyberSecurity In 2021 And Beyond! appeared first on TTM.

The application development industry is experiencing a boom from SaaS, a new concept. By 2022, SaaS will be worth nearly $150 billion, according to a recent study. But what is SaaS Application Development? And why is it so popular? Let’s find out. 

SaaS – What is This Actually? 

SaaS or software as a service is a model for delivering software. This model, however, is quite different from the traditional approach. By tradition, we meant software you needed to download before. In fact, this one is far less complicated. 

To simplify, SaaS applications are meant to make life less complicated. Here, you don’t need to download software, nor do you need to install any. Rather, all you have to do is to access the software via your internet. No download, no install – that’s the motto of this concept. 

Often referred to as ‘On Demand Software’, this system is already taking the place of conventional software. In case you are wondering what these SaaS applications are. Well, most of the mobile applications we use daily are SaaS. In fact, more than 80% of them are SaaS. 

Why Does Your Business Need It? 

If you have a software developing company, considering SaaS as an option is a legit call. Besides, with the present advancements, this is rather the best approach you can take. 

Apparently, popularity comes from defined reasons. In the case of SaaS, the added benefits played a vital part.  Wondering what these benefits are? Let’s have a look, 

• It is Fast 

Anything that is fast we like. And there is no shame in accepting that. The world has become a dynamic gold mine, and being fast is a must. Time is very expensive now, and spending hours installing simple software is an old thought. 

In the case of SaaS, there is no need to install the software. You can directly access it through your browser. Life is made simple. It is also blazing fast.

• It Saves Money

Every company wants to save money, one way or another. And if there is a way to do so, what to hesitate. SaaS is a great cost-effective way to develop software that performs as well as any conventional software. Plus, in several cases, they perform even better. 

The cost-efficiency comes from the lack of a developer department in a company. Just hire a SaaS developer and save the cost. Simple. Remember, less cost means less price, and less price means more customers. 

• It is Very Easy to Access 

Another great feature of a SaaS application is accessibility. Literally, you can access the software from anywhere. You don’t need to be on your computer or your phone. All you have to do is log in to your account, regardless of any computer you are using. And you have your whole access. 

What Should You Be Considering? 

Yes, we all know how great SaaS is. But there are also several potholes that you need to focus on. Falling into one may not erupt toxic gases of loss but may cause you to lose your momentum. But what are the drawbacks? Glad you asked. 

• Lack of Security

As most of the operations of SaaS happen in the cloud, security becomes a huge concern. Basically, you are storing a lot of your customers’ data on your cloud storage. In case of any hack, those prominent data can be hijacked, causing massive havoc. 

In fact, companies like Adobe face challenges like this regularly. In the year of 2013, Adobe had faced a huge blow. A credit card record accumulating about 3 million was stolen from their data. Online theft is real, and it’s quite hard to fight such occurrences. 

• Tough to Get the Money

Getting money with SaaS is quite complicated. As here, you are not selling any software. Instead, you are charging a subscription fee. Also, most of the SaaS applications are offering free services with limitations. Therefore in most cases, the customer remains content with the free software they get, leaving you with no money generation. 

Yes, there are ways to generate money from ads. However, that can also cause a negative impact. In fact, in recent times, a lot of users stop using applications where they see ‘too many ads.’ For this reason, make sure ads are low. Otherwise, your target customers will love your competitor more. 

Thinking About Hiring a SaaS Developer? Keep These in Mind –

If you have made up your mindset to take the SaaS approach, don’t just dive in quickly. Remember, slow and steady wins the race. Take time and understand who you will be hiring and how that will happen. For example, do you want an in-house team? Or will you, hire an external developer, much like outsourcing? 

Whichever you do, have some considerations in your mind. Remember, hiring the perfect team will help you succeed. A wrong decision can cause you to lose the cake. About consideration factors? Keep reading to find more. 

• Experience & Skill Set: 

Jump into the portfolio of the SaaS companies. Check what they have worked on before. Check if they have the right kind of skill sets to pull off your projects. If they do, hire them. 

Besides, another thing to consider is whether they have worked on a similar project before. Remember, if they do, 50% of your hassles are gone. As they have experience, they will need less briefing as well as less time to develop. 

• Similar Mindset: 

This may come as a surprise, but it is in fact important. If the company is business-minded, it will help you in a greater way. Most of the companies that have a business mindset will help you in making decisions. Besides, any of your new concepts can validate. As they are in the business, too, they know what to take and what to ignore. 

Conclusion 

Because of its simplicity as well as cost-effectiveness, SaaS has been gaining rapid popularity. While conventional software is lacking behind, the SaaS application development approach is shining. 

With that being said, for a business, SaaS can be a great tactic to have a competitive edge. Remember, the world is moving towards cloud systems, and SaaS is a great way to capture the concept. 

The post Rise of SaaS Application Development: Does Your Business Model Need a Rethink? appeared first on TTM.

The forever-increasing number of cybersecurity threats has made many companies very weary. The more dangerous and sophisticated attacks are targeted at the major assets and data of governments, corporations, utilities, industries, school systems, and banking institutions.

To further compound this problem, the cybersecurity world is still struggling with a shortage of cybersecurity professionals. So we can say categorically, that cybercrime is here to stay. As we continue to rely on technology, more and more, and with many people now switching to remote working, we should expect the number of cybercrimes to also increase.

With increasing confidence, comes even more bold attacks, hackers are now devising more creative attack strategies using better, more sophisticated technology, to carry out these attacks to appropriately plan and repel these cyberattacks, an effective Incident Response Plan (IRP) should be carried out, so IT teams know the steps they must take to properly respond to a security breach.

One question that many IT teams and company executives want to know is the kind of cybersecurity threats they should be most cognizant of. My advice is that you should, at the very least be prepared to counter the threats highlighted in this article.

1. Phishing

One of the most prevalent forms of cybercrime has to be phishing scams. The unfortunate reality is that these forms of attacks are forever evolving. Which means, no matter what we know and learn about them, there will always be someone somewhere who will fall prey to these kinds of attack.

As a result, phishing scams continue to be amongst the most popular. As it’s not only highly successful but also a low-tech approach, which means, not much technical expertise, on the hackers part needs to be learned.

The main goal of any phishing scam is to trick the victim into believing that the email that they’ve received is official. That the request by the institution, whether it be a bank or some other financial institution, is official. In other instances, it may simply be an email encouraging the reader to download an attachment or click on a specific link.

Some of these attacks can be negated by certain security measures, such as the implementation of an SSL certificate. Using an SSL certificate for your business will ensure that all communications between employees will be encrypted. This way, if they were to get into the hands of a cybercriminal, he/she would be unable to read it.

Additionally, because SSL certificates encrypt all your emails, this will also make it more difficult for the attacks to send phishing emails. When choosing an SSL certificate to buy, you always want to go with the one that has the most features but is also cost-effective.

2. Ransomware & Malware

According to current security reports, ransomware attacks are predicted to exceed the $11 billion per annum mark, in the not too distant future. At this rate, we can measure that one person every 14 seconds falls prey to one of these kinds of attacks. Ransomware is undoubtedly one of the more dangerous problems we have on the net today. The ransom payment end users are forced to cough out, is only a part of the problem. The biggest issue is in system downtime, loss in work productivity, and the huge cost in restoring and/or rebuilding their systems, possibly replacing damaged hardware, all of which have a big impact on the company overall.

3. Inadequate Patch Management

Patches are small little updates that are created to remove a weakness or plug a hole, in a hardware or software program that computer hackers could otherwise take advantage of. Software developers are constantly releasing patches for their programs to plug up all these security vulnerabilities. Making your software and system more secure.

When it comes to the overall security of your company, these patches and updates are crucial. But if the end-user forgets to regularly apply these updates, it can leave your business vulnerable to computer hackers. Thus, you want to be constantly monitoring your systems, ensuring that it’s regularly kept up to date, with all the latest and newest fixes.

4. Lack of a cybersecurity policy

For any business out there today, it’s imperative that they adopt some kind of security standard, especially if they hope to thrive in their industry. Cybercriminals are no longer targeting companies in the tech and finance industries. They are on the lookout for victims in virtually every business sector out there.

With the increasing number of security breaches being carried out on really big corporations, has made many smaller companies very alert and worried. This is a crucial step in the right direction, but it’s just a step. These external attacks are constant, and the amount of money they ultimately cost is very significant. Security reports indicate that a major cybersecurity breach occurs at least once per month, with the costs being in excess of $3 million per annum.

Not giving your cybersecurity policy its required attention, and not getting any of your employees to really engage with it, is not in your best interest. The experts conclude that, just as companies regularly seek both financial and legal advice from third-party sources (like finance companies and legal firms), these companies should now look at cybersecurity in the same way, as something they may need to consult help elsewhere, to get a full handle on.

5. Crypto-jacking

Cryptocurrency, which is also known as online currency, has its own cybersecurity concerns. Crypto-jacking is basically when a computer hacker will hijack a system, whether a work node or a home PC, and use its resources for mining cryptocurrency. Because the process of mining for cryptocurrency requires an incredible amount of CPU processing power, hackers are able to increase their revenue by secretly using the resources of other systems. When it comes to businesses, a system that has been hijacked will likely suffer from major performance problems, and will ultimately cost the company downtime. To counter this problem, IT specialists are required to both track down and then remove the crypto-jacking code from the problematic system(s).

The post Top 5 Cybersecurity Risks for Your Business! appeared first on TTM.

Outsourcing has been in business for a while now. The ease of finding talented and skilled individuals while spending a fraction of money has increased the popularity of this concept. However, along with a lot of butterflies, this concept also came with some drawbacks. Unfortunately, for some these drawbacks became quite prominent and therefore, the search for a proper solution began.

Nearshore Software Development; a concept of nearshore outsourcing became the most perfect answer. Outsourcing from neighboring countries where salaries are not that high gave employers the greatest flexibility. In fact, this quickly became a successful idea.

How did nearshore software development start? 

Ever wonder when the outsourcing concept started? Well, your predictions can be wrong as the start wasn’t any time near. Rather, the initiative took place way before, more than 30 years ago. Once market leaders in the camera industry were having difficulties maintaining their data center. And therefore they thought if any other specialist could take care of it. 

Consequently, another big name was around, and thankfully it was IBM. So, for better performance, Kodal gave its data center management authority to IBM. And the rest is a success story.

After this famous partnership between two giants, other companies were intrigued as well. Furthermore, more and more companies started to outsource their processes. In most cases, IT projects as well as operations were outsourced.

Why wouldn’t this succeed? In recent surveys, it shows that US companies are struggling to find the right skillset in individuals. In fact, there is a significant deficit for employees in the market. If the market is not providing the demand, then outsourcing is the only left way. Consequently, the rise of nearshore software development concepts was also triggered.

The Problem and the Solution

Initially, when it came to outsourcing, most of the Asia countries came into the spotlight. The level of skill set compared to the requested salaries seems too convincing for any US or European clients. Neither did they ask too much to pay, nor did they lack any skillset. Everything was going smoothly.

But this was not a fairytale from Disney. In fact the opposite. Problems started to rise, and most prominently communication barriers became too chronic. US or European companies started to have communication problems, as well as controlling and supervision, became less impactful. Even the graph of efficiency started to fall.

Companies wondered, how can they solve this. And the answer came in the shape of Nearshore Software Development. A very effective concept, this system allowed them to reduce the gaps between communication as well as cultural differences.

For example, Mexico is gaining popularity in the US market as a vital outsourcing source. In fact, with the growing number of IT graduates in Mexico, the number of remote workers is increasing. It is expected that the market in Mexico is growing at a rate of 10-20% each year. To give you an idea, this industry is already the 3rd largest export of the country. Now, just guess the sheer size.

The Future of Nearshore model

The future of Nearshore Software Development is bright. In fact, it is brighter than you are expecting. The dramatic increase in the demand for such workers is taking the market by storm. And this time, this storm is one of the biggest ones.

There are several surveys as well as research that has been conducted and the results are astonishing. A very well-known forecast and statistics site Statistica has given an estimation of nearshore outsourcing industry value at an outstanding value of $413.7 billion. In comparison, the recent market value is around $378.1 billion. That’s a $35 billion increase in just a course of 2 years, almost a $17.5 billion addition each year.

In fact, the rise is so prominent that one article by digitaljournal.com claims that US companies will increase the use of nearshore outsourcing. Moreover, the most demanded sectors will be blockchain, the cloud, IoT, and AI. Speaking of AI, according to MarketsandMarkets, this market will reach $190.61 globally. For your reference, the current market value is around $21.46 billion.

The future seems rather exciting for the outsourcers. In fact, this time not only the companies are getting the benefits, rather workers are benefitted too. The increasing competition is increasing the wages as well as work hour rate, therefore, none of the parties are getting exploited.

The Prediction

With the views from some of the vital researchers, there is no way Nearshore Software Development is failing. Rather the increasing demand indicates that this is in fact, a lucrative area for students as well as startups.

Students can get easy jobs with their special skill sets. As nearshore is only focussing on neighboring countries, they don’t need to work at odd hours. Besides, the language remains quite the same, so does the culture. If the country’s local market fails to offer adequate opportunity along with pay, this can be a great solution. 

On the other hand, companies, mostly startups, can get well-skilled employees at a much affordable rate. Countries like the US or Germany can benefit from this as some of their neighboring countries don’t offer as much pay as they do. So with a discounted salary, they will get similar or in some cases even better-skilled employees. Besides, the deficits of perfect employees in countries like the US will be lessened, as companies don’t need to rely on local offerings.

Chiefly, the predictions are extremely positive, where a win-win situation is present for both parties. This not only will aid them, rather aid the economy of each party’s countries.

Final Verdict

What nearshore software development is offering to the parties is impeccable. Consequently, this time, not only one party is getting the benefits. Rather, both the employers as well as the employee are getting the fruit of this popular concept.

Where companies are happy with employees with similar cultures, employees are sensing the same. This time the cost is controlled as well as the performance. Hence, the rise of popularity. Besides, the future is indicating the exact.

With the rising number of companies as well as graduates, the concept will grow more. In fact, in the near future this can be an industry leader, and this time this is quite possible. 

The post The Future of Nearshore Software Development! appeared first on TTM.

To survive and excel in the competitive market, it is crucial to bridge the gap between raw code and its daily issues, such as decreasing friction between ideas, delivery, and customers.  The DevOps culture aims to empower businesses to use the unique skills developers, and infrastructure professionals bring to the table.

For example, if a developer wants to create an environment, they can start an automated process. The process requires creating the DevOps Companies, which performs the relevant task consistently and tested, delivering the expected results quickly and enabling business users to provide feedback.

Why Big Companies are Using DevOps

Shorter development cycles, greater deployment frequency, and faster time to market. Yes, these are just a few of the current software development strategies that are in high demand. On top of that, it places a lot of emphasis on communication, collaboration, and creativity. Additionally, it may also catalyze organizational cultural change.

Let’s check out some of the Fortune 500 companies that have been acing DevOps Technology.

Walmart

Walmart Labs uses DevOps strategies to accomplish its goals. The company has created OneOps cloud-based technology, which automates and speeds application deployment. It has also developed many open source tools, including Hapi, a Node.js framework. 

They use this for developing apps and services that allow developers to design reusable application logic rather than infrastructure. It just deployed over 100,000 OpenStack cores to establish its private cloud, and its agile strategy is still evolving.

Amazon

Amazon decided to migrate to Amazon Web Services (AWS), the online cloud storage. Then the engineers were able to increase capacity up or down progressively. Not only did this save money on server capacity, but it also paved the way for a continuous deployment method. This step allows every developer to deploy their code to whichever servers they want, whenever they want.

Engineers were deploying code every 11.7 seconds on average within a year after Amazon transitioned to AWS. In addition, as a result of the agile strategy, the frequency and length of outages were decreased, resulting in higher income.

Sony Pictures Entertainment

The Digital Media Group of Sony Pictures Entertainment encountered significant crises. Moreover, the big impact was in developing a software system to manage entertainment assets for end consumers. Manual processes and other roadblocks often resulted in a months-long wait between software development and delivery.

Once the company has programmed DevOps strategies, DMG has reduced its months-long delivery time to mere minutes. This freed up developers’ time to focus on new features while cutting down idle resources and expenses.

Adobe

Adobe implemented DevOps five years ago. At that time firm transitioned from packaged software to cloud services. Thus, they were forced to make a continual succession of minor software upgrades instead of massive, semi-annual releases.

This change has enabled faster delivery and better product management, and Adobe has already satisfied 60 percent greater app development demand.

Nordstrom

Nordstrom’s mobile app development team was the catalyst for the company’s DevOps transformation. The team broke down the gap between development, product support, and structured squads. Since then, the firm switched to continuous planning and a single work backlog. 

Within a short time, defects decreased, throughput increased, and releases were reduced twice a year to once a month. More significantly, Nordstrom discovered that any team could use these techniques. And therefore, it is now implementing them across the company.

Best DevOps Companies to Hire

To re-architect or develop new methods in your DevOps strategies, it is always better to consult with experts. Here are some of the best DevOps Companies that you can hire to optimize your company’s DevOps strategies.

iTechArt

iTechArt has started its journey in 2002. Since then, they have assisted VC-backed startups and fast-growing digital firms in developing rich products that meet customer demand. They have a talent pool of 1800+ outstanding brains at iTechArt that excel at DevOps implementation.

• iTechArt is affiliated with Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud.
• They identify client needs and recommend tools and techniques that will assist them in improving.
• They monitor metrics and logs regularly to evaluate production and infrastructure.

Ranger 4

Ranger4 is a leading DevOps Development Consultancy in Europe. The team aims to help companies deliver better software quicker and more securely. They focus mostly on DevOps’ cultural characteristics. In addition, they aid in the exploration, education, and evolution of the industry and its employees to achieve minimal costs and greater revenues.

• They are dedicated to providing extremely secure DevOps solutions.
• Customers benefit from the DevOps LoopTM.
• Clients can maintain growth and distribution budgets and recognize the true value of their business.

Sematext

Sematext Cloud provides clients with organized real-time performance monitoring. As well as log management, alerts, and events, they offer exceptional visibility into their robust structure.

• Metrics, Logs, Events, Alerts, Anomalies, and Dashboards all appear in one frame, making DevOps simpler.
• Log management, performance tracking, and management are all done in one place.
• Assists in the correlation of measurements and logs.

CloudBees

With Jenkins, CloudBees can provide enterprise-class security, consistency, and management. Jenkins infrastructure from CloudBees is built with straightforward security in mind. Additionally, it features complete transparency of real-time dashboards.

• Secure and cost-effective.
• There is no limit to how big you can get.
• Jenkins’ infrastructure includes built-in flexibility, which lowers its cost.

OpenMake Software

OpenMake Software creates accessible Agile DevOps solutions that handle continuous delivery problems. OpenMake’s software release results incorporate with their current tools and do not utilize for multi-platform endpoints.

• Aids in the complication of software structures and problems.
• Form and issue software that works 12 times faster and is less expensive.
• Practices using tools like Jenkins, Ansible, and GitHub.

Final Verdict

The objective of DevOps is to produce higher-quality software more rapidly and consistently while also improving communication and collaboration across operational teams. This is the true reason why major Internet firms are increasingly embracing DevOps. 

Above are some of the top-rated DevOps Companies that provide safe and dependable services. It’s not the name but the services that have bought them the success today. 

The post DevOps Companies: Who Provides & Who Uses! appeared first on TTM.

Choosing the right technology is very important in business. Because the right technology can help you with improvising the supply chain management system, expanding sales and marketing capabilities, and more. Though this kind of technology needs a high initial investment, the long-term benefits that you can reap from it, outweighs all the costs.

Selecting the right service provider is of the same importance as picking up the right technology. If you want to develop custom software, then you would need some experts in the field that can understand your needs and are well-qualified to get the job done. There are many companies in the market that offer various types of custom software development services like CueLogic, TatvaSoft, and Spec India. So you need to evaluate what kind of service and software you would need to boost your business.

Some common custom software you can use to accelerate the growth of your business is as mentioned below:

Accounting systems

An accounting custom software will help you keep track of all your business transactions, bills, and general ledger. Basic software can perform all such functions for you but if your business demands some more features and services in the accounting system then you might need to contact a custom software development company to have them build a little complex high-end system for you.

Supply chain management

Now, you can completely automate your processes, track the orders, deliveries, and other relevant information with the help of supply chain management software. It comes with many powerful features that can help you with the following:

• Forecasting the supply and demand more accurately
• Tracking inventory to ensure that you can cover all the client’s orders.
• Automated transcriptions to decrease errors.
• Faster deliveries.
• Enhanced inventory control
• Automated systems reduce administrative costs.

You can also integrate your custom software with the accounting and invoice system. You also get many options from barcodes to RFID to track your products throughout the supply chain.

Customer relationship management

A customized CRM will help you understand your customer’s needs and behavior. It also helps you improve the relationship with the clients and offer insights for the same. It enables you to imply targeted marketing which means improved sales and reduced costs.

Human resources management

Managing the personal records, benefits, and schedules of the employees can be a hectic and messy process. But the customized electronic HR systems can make everything simple and easy for you including the recruitments and retention strategies.

Enterprise resource planning

An ERP system is a total package of software apps that allows your company to manage, evaluate and automate all the business processes like accounting, sales and marketing, production, inventory control, and human resources.

But investing and using an ERP system can be complicated sometimes so it is recommended that first, you create a list of all your system-related requirements and then you go out shopping. You can also get help from a software consultant for this.

Enterprise social networks and collaboration platforms

Nowadays there is a trend of these enterprise social networks and collaboration platforms that enable your employees to engage and exchange information with each other. Businesses around the world have noted that such platforms have proved to be effective for both employees and the company. You can hire custom software development services to build a social platform to make your employees more innovative and productive.

Read this before you go out shopping

It is important that you first thoroughly assess all the available systems. This will help you determine what will truly boost the profits of your business. The tools we discussed in this blog are available in the markets. But you will need a business-specific solution. So, evaluate the pros and cons of a custom software vendor and then hire the one that looks promising enough to fulfill your business requirements.

While you opt for custom software development, make sure that in the craze of layering rich features in your software do not forget to include the basic features of the system. Also, build custom software that you can scale as your business grows in the future. After all, that’s what the goal is.

The post How is Customized Software Impacting Profitability in any Business? appeared first on TTM.

It is no secret that employees remain most companies’ biggest security vulnerability. It is also no secret that email continues to be the most common attack method that malicious actors use. Businesses deploy many sophisticated security solutions inside their environments, and the businesses employ a significant number of security analysts and other cyber defense professionals. However, none of it matters more than a well-trained staff supported by the right email security solution. I recently talked to IT leaders at U.S.-based businesses and non-profits about how they use anti-phishing solutions.

Phishing Campaigns

Phishing campaigns are email scams that are aimed at stealing as much personal information from victims as possible. Cybercriminals use phishing attempts to obtain sensitive information such as financial details, usernames, and passwords by disguising themselves as legitimate individuals or organizations via email. When asked about the practices his business has implemented in regard to anti-phishing solutions, Jack Smith, MCP at Initial.IT said,

”Basically, we incorporate into all of our Managed Service Plans ongoing anti-phishing campaigns and phishing educational campaigns. We run phishing campaigns without informing the client other than a two-week time frame. Once we have the results, we review with our client contact and determine the content and the timing of the Educational campaign that will follow. Prior to executing the Educational campaign, we email the client’s entire office explaining the email that they will be receiving, what the content is, and that this is part of their company’s Cyber awareness initiative, and they are expected to participate. This campaign runs for two weeks. Once the results are in, we review the results with our contact and then continue this process of alternating phishing and educational campaigns throughout the year.”

”We will also meet with their entire company in an informal fashion (lunch and learn style) to present current trends in phishing, ransomware, etc. as well as reviewing the results of the phishing and educational campaigns in a general fashion. We take care not to single out any one person and then we open the floor to General IT discussion. We bring at least 4 of our staff for this meeting, and it is included in their services plan so we get full participation.  The key point that we focus on conveying to all of our clients is the role that every one of their employees plays in keeping the company cyber safe and that they are actually the first line of defense. We educate them any chance we get as to what to watch for when looking for suspicious emails or files, how to best handle these emails, and what to do should they inadvertently kick off a cyber event. Getting the end-user buy-in is critical to staying out in front of the cyberwar and maintaining our client’s security position in an ever-changing landscape”, added Smith.

Bryan Badger of Integral Networks said, ”We used to use Proof point and KnowB4. These days we utilize BullPhish from ID Agent specifically for phishing campaigns with our clients. But even testing our clients’ users and training them has proven to really only increase helpdesk tickets. We have been focusing on the backend to minimize these emails from even getting through by integrating ATP with all O365 mailboxes and 3rd party tools, like SCUD from our MSSP, Blokworx.”

Training and Testing Solutions for Phishing

Phishing awareness training educates employees on how to detect and report phishing attempts, protect themselves, and protect the organization from cybercriminals and other malicious actors who want to wreak havoc on your organization. Nick Martin of Mainstreet IT Solutions said:

“We use KnowBe4 for us and our customer base as a training and testing solution for phishing. KnowBe4 features quite a bit of automation, which is critical for us. With so many tasks in cybersecurity that need to be addressed, this is one area that can be fairly easy to automate. We create a quarterly training schedule and get everything in place for required training 4 times a year in different aspects of phishing attacks, social engineering, ransomware in emails, etc. Following this training, we have automated the process of sending test phishing emails to staff and customers.”

”This allows us to test our own employees and customers to see where weak spots are. Are there certain types of phishing emails that are getting people? Is it random? Is it a certain segment of users? There is a lot of data we can collect. And because KnowBe4 is so automated, users who fail this test get enrolled in relevant training material that shows how and why they failed at spotting these tests. Organizations cannot afford for users to take a day off, and that is why we continue to believe in a strict training and testing regimen to keep refining users’ abilities to have safe and secure practices when sending and receiving emails”, added Martin.

”Although there are numerous tools that can be implemented, phishing attempts are getting more and more sophisticated and therefore the last line of defense and THE most important tool is employee education. Employees need to understand how to be certain that an email is request is valid and therefore prevent from giving up valuable information to the hacker” said Ilan Sredni of Palindrome Consulting.

”There are several phishing tools available. They all are quite similar. They provide a short 2-3 minute instructional video for employees to watch. They have a 4-5 question quiz. Most of them are also paired with simulated phishing attacks. What we have found to be the difference is communication and follow-through. For example, Customer A has 10 employees. After running our simulation, three people click on the fake link. We follow up with the customer to advise them of these three people”, said Mike Shelah of Advantage Industries.

”We then provide secondary training for those people to help them better understand what they should look for. This same company, we run the results of the training. We identify that three people did not take the quiz. Same follow-through. Of the 10 people, two did not pass the quiz, same follow through. This communication and follow-through are critical to the customer’s success, because, these people are now the great cyber vulnerability to their company data. A consistently well-trained staff means, much better security and protection without a big investment in unnecessary tools”, added Shelah.

In-Person Training and Specialized Tools

When it comes to training and development, there is never a one-size-fits-all approach. Every organization will have its own requirements that will need to be addressed. When designing a training and education strategy, is it best to lean toward in-person training or specialized tools? When you set your sights on only one type of training initiative, you can miss the valuable benefits of each methodology. Many businesses and organizations prefer to take a blended approach.

”The only truly effective anti-phishing initiative is a combination of in-person training and a specialized tool to test and track the progress of those training sessions.  We use KnowBe4 to test employees on a monthly basis after they have an in-person (or video conference call) training session.  We found that our phishing “failures” dropped by 50% when we preceded the anti-phishing tool with a 30-minute training presentation”, said Matt Bullock of Accelera IT Solutions.

”We use KNowBe4 to create specialized templates using the logo and names from actual clients, who the employees are used to receiving messages from.  With the proliferation of social engineering and the wealth of company information available on LinkedIn and other sites, our testing and training are completely centered around who the employees know and trust.  Everyone is more likely to follow the request of a spam email if they think it’s coming from someone they know and trust.  Ultimately, we teach all employees at all our clients to be suspicious of all emails and to always check, with a phone call, any requests for money or changing financial accounts.  We can’t let “being too busy” be an excuse for giving away the keys to the company data”, added Bullock.

”We utilize a number of tools to protect our clients from phishing, including Sophos, Zix, and Knowbe4 as well as others.  While this cuts down the noise, the threats continue to evolve and that is why end-user education and awareness training is always key” said Mark Hicks of Mathe.

Samantha “Sam” Motz of Motz Technologies LLC said, ”We use a three-prong approach when it comes to fighting back against phishing. Like all network security, it works best in layers. We provide user training, mail filtering, and finally expert analysis. We provide regular online training sessions that our clients can attend.”

”In these sessions, we review common ways to spot phishing E-mails, what to do if you fall victim to one, and how to get help if you are not sure if an E-mail is phishing or not. Our filtering platform of choice is Proofpoint. We find that it helps filter out a vast amount of junk and phishing emails while still being easy enough for end-users to understand and use. If something does slip past ProofPoint and clients are not sure if it’s phishing or not, they can forward the message to our helpdesk. We then review the message in detail to determine if it is phishing or legitimate”, added Motz.

Email Security Solutions

Email Security solutions are designed to defend systems against email threats such as phishing and ransomware.

Paul Bush, Principal Consultant of OneSource Technology, Inc. said the following:

We use a three-layered approach with our clients:

1 — Training — we have produced a short security training video that we provide to clients, many of them have worked it into their new hire onboarding process and have their employees review it annually and complete a quiz.

2 — Barracuda — all of our clients have their email filtered through our Barracuda appliances.  The provides the first line of defense and allows us a central point to manage our clients’ email filtering.

3 — IRONSCALES — we use IRONSCALES anti-phishing protection for our clients with Office 365.  This service looks at their mailbox and identifies first-time senders with a warning banner and also identifies spoofed senders with a warning banner.  In addition to these visual warnings, the service also quarantines obvious phishing and spam emails.

Ashu Singhal of Orion Networks said, ”We have been using Barracuda Email Security solutions for protecting our clients for years now and have been quite happy with it. While we educate our end users with one-time training, nothing trains them better than seeing the daily quarantine box.  Our clients are always impressed with how many phishing emails it catches, even the ones that try to be “quite” creative”.

”When they actually see Barracuda flagging a SPAM email of what they initially thought was a genuine one, that stays forever and makes them extra cautious next time they do a “click before read” behavior.  Additionally, our engineers have come to love the ability to implement various configuration options and customizations it provides”, added Singhal.

”While we seem to be continuously hearing of other high profile security breaches in the news, email and the common employee’s lack of security awareness continue to be the biggest threats to an organization’s cybersecurity.  Security is best deployed in layers. It is common to see threats breach any one layer. Having multiple layers of security helps ensure that a threat is stopped before reaching the last line of defense, the employee”, said Joe Cannata of Techsperts, LLC. 

Cannata added, ”The same concept applies to email. Having multiple email security services deployed helps filter out any malicious items before they reach your employees. Inbound and outbound email filtering is the standard. In addition to that, standard layer of security, phishing simulation training is also important to help open the eyes of employees of what to be aware of during their day-to-day. Some of the names in email security that provide these services are Barracuda and IRONSCALES.” 

Phishing emails continue to be one of the most common methods that cybercriminals use to gain access to networks, financial data, credentials, and more. These types of attacks continue to be carried out by cybercriminals because they view them as one of the easiest attacks that will allow them to wreak the type of havoc they want. Protecting against phishing threats will require an effective anti-phishing strategy. Developing and implementing anti-phishing strategies can help to reduce an organization’s exposure to phishing attacks and other cyberattacks.

The post Top IT Experts Share the Best Antiphishing Strategies! appeared first on TTM.

Cybercriminals Capitalize on Opportunity to Make Millions from Cybercrime Amid COVID Backdrop

StorCentric, provider of the world’s most comprehensive real world-proven portfolio of secure data management solutions, today announced it has achieved record growth across virtually every industry vertical, geography, and size of customer (i.e., SMB to enterprise) as ransomware protection has taken the lead as a key business priority, around the world. StorCentric today reported a 130% bookings growth in ransomware solutions for the same period year-over-year and 50 new specialized channel partners added, since Q2 of 2020, in addition to a 240% pipeline growth quarter-over-quarter for Q3 2021 for the Nexsan Unbreakable Backup solution. 

According to Bitdefender’s 2020 Consumer Threat Landscape Report, which provides an overview of the evolution of threats year-over-year and on a quarterly basis, reported that ransomware attacks increased by a staggering 485% in 2020 compared to 2019. And, according to PurpleSec, the estimated cost of ransomware attacks was $20 billion in 2020, up from $11.5 billion in 2019, and $8 billion in 2018. 2021 is already shaping up to be the worst year yet, with “ransomware as a service” such as REvil and NetWalker, as well as other new entrants like Conti, becoming increasingly available, intelligent, aggressive, expensive, and public. 

“The percentage of victims that submit a ransom payment and then, either don’t get their data back, get some data back but it is corrupted and/or experience another attack soon after from the exact same cybercriminals is climbing rapidly,” said Mike Lutz, General Manager, Image One Corporation. “This combined with the almost irreparable damage being done to reputations, payments being made into the millions, and increasing regularity of lawsuits makes it clear why ransomware has climbed to the top of the priority list across federal, state, and local government and general commercial sectors.” He continued, “The Nexsan Unbreakable Backup provides our clients with an invaluable solution for ensuring that their data is protected so they can avoid becoming a statistic.”  

“Nexsan’s Unbreakable Backup doesn’t require replacing current infrastructures because they are vendor-neutral,” said Luke Wilke, Account Manager, Trilogy Innovations. “This is highly appealing to our clients as they can ensure ransomware protection while safeguarding their other investments.  Nexsan Assureon has a solid 15-year history of recovering and protecting data, this speaks volumes to their dedication to customers.”  

“Over this past year, the work from home (WFH) paradigm helped to drive the increase in ransomware success. One reason was that the virtual overnight shift to WFH left many organizations scrambling to provide secure data access and communication, which was many times easier said than done. The other less talked about reason was that there was a population of skilled IT professionals that could now stay home without anyone looking over their shoulders and took on cybercrime as their side-gig. Or, for some that lost their jobs and now had time on their hands, they found that they could potentially make millions from cybercrime,” said Charles Burger, Director of Assureon Cybersecurity Solutions at Nexsan, a StorCentric Company. 

“Cybersecurity is a top business priority for StorCentric solutions. Ransomware schemes continue to evolve and grow, this includes ransomware as a service (RaaS). Cybercriminals retain this service to attack companies on their behalf – with the RaaS keeping a percentage of the ransom payment for themselves,” said Mihir Shah, CEO, StorCentric. “The truth is, you can do everything right to protect against cybersecurity threats, but chances are security breaches will happen. Ransomware hits organizations – whether they know it or not – thousands of times every day.” 

StorCentric offers the most robust, end-to-end ransomware protection solutions in the industry, recognizing that today, it’s not enough to just protect your data from ransomware, you must be able to recover should you fall victim to a successful attack. Solutions include: –      

• Nexsan Unbreakable Backup – Unity^TM plus Assureon^® delivers an immutable Unbreakable Backup solution that works alone or alongside existing IT assets to enhance and fortify the user’s ability to protect, detect and recover. Its industry unique features include:-      

• File Fingerprinting – Secure Digital Fingerprints utilizes a combination of two cryptographic hashes for a unique file identifier.-      

• File Redundancy – Makes two copies of the file and its fingerprint are stored in a separate RAID disk set either in the same system or a remote one.-      

• File Serialization – Serial numbers are assigned to each individual file to ensure no files are changed, missing, or inappropriately added.-      

• Secure Timestamp – Use of a global, redundant, secure time source using Stratum Level 1 hardware time sources to ensure accurate time stamp.-      

• Auto File Repair – Continually verifies against fingerprints and repairs using copies and safeguarded by RAID disk arrays for days or even decades.-      

• Regulatory Compliance – Governmental and Corporate compliance of HIPAA, GLBA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), SEC 17A-4 and PCI DSS.-      

• Cloud/Software Edition – Flexibility to implement in the cloud, hybrid cloud or on-premise.-      

• Storage Optimization – Archiving unstructured and infrequently used data frees up primary data and dramatically reduces the size, time and cost of the backup process.-      

• Data Longevity – Ensures adherence to guidelines for data retention, disposition, privacy, protection, chain of custody, litigation readiness and risk mitigation.

–  Retrospect Backup Software – Retrospect Backup integrates seamlessly with object locking, also referred to as Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) storage or immutable storage, from today’s leading public cloud vendors. Users can mark objects as locked for a designated period of time, preventing them from being deleted or altered by any user, even if the ransomware “takes a ride” to the user’s cloud vendor(s) during any backup action.

The post StorCentric Achieves Record Growth as Ransomware Protection Takes the Lead as Top Business Priority! appeared first on TTM.

~ Recently, Jira customers from 190 countries were offered a tool that seamlessly converts Jira into spreadsheets.

~ JXL ends the struggle of updating Jira issues in bulk and offers customizable table views without the need to export any data.

~ JXL, an app that combines the power of Jira with the familiarity of spreadsheets, gained happy customers, received stellar reviews, and seed funding from Atlassian Ventures. 

July 2021: Recently, Sydney-based software company Fine Software launched JXL for Jira Cloud, a must-have add-on that combines the power of Jira with the convenience of spreadsheets. Today, Fine Software is thrilled to announce that JXL has immediately gained many happy customers, received stellar reviews, and seed funding from Atlassian Ventures, the VC arm of Atlassian.

Several months back, Microsoft launched Microsoft Lists to organize work. Then Trello launched a table view, and most recently, GitHub also offered a table view. Airtable is already making databases understandable and accessible for anyone. Now, Google joins the table party with its new product Google Tables.

Tables are the new black, and ex-Atlassians Daniel Franz and Hannes Obweger, drawing on more than 15 years of combined experience leading teams at Atlassian, ensured that Jira is not left behind. They created JXL, and over 40000 Jira Cloud users tested it in the first three months. Their feedback was amazing, as JXL ended their struggle of updating Jira issues in bulk. It allowed them to manage their work by simply copying and pasting cell values. JXL improved their productivity in Jira with fewer clicks and less time. Most importantly, JXL made Jira as simple as working in Excel, Google Sheets, Airtable, or any other spreadsheets.

“There is a reason why Excel, Airtable, Smartsheet, and more recently Google Tables and GitHub Issues tables, are so wildly popular. Spreadsheets are a very intuitive and efficient way to get stuff done. Jira is used by project managers and software developers, dev ops, and IT audiences, but increasingly also by all sorts of other knowledge workers. All of whom love how JXL makes Jira much easier and faster. Everyone loves the simplicity of copying and pasting. It just saves lots of clicks and hours, and the use cases are practically endless.” – Daniel Franz, Co-founder, Fine Software.

Jira is the versatile project management software offered by Atlassian that caters to agile software development teams and beyond. But the tool comes with its own set of limitations. JXL addresses these with profoundly customizable table views right inside Jira. JXL emerges as a comprehensive solution that provides true enterprise-grade scalability, performance, and security to improve users’ Jira experience.

JXL for Jira Cloud is used to streamline teamwork, manage projects and portfolios, maintain backlogs and queues, plan sprints, track inventory, and more. It empowers businesses to save time and work smarter together. JXL is available on the Atlassian Marketplace and directly within Jira Cloud sites. Users can try a free version for one month and experience how JXL enhances Jira seamlessly. The Fine Software team is currently working on a version for Jira Data Center, which will also be available to users soon.

++++

About Us: 

Fine Software crafts software that solves real-world problems and helps get things done. Recently, the company raised seed funding from Atlassian Ventures. Co-founders Daniel Franz and Hannes Obweger bring extensive experience creating software to the table. They have worked with Atlassian and understand the challenges faced by Jira users. The company is on a mission to make Jira faster and easier to use.

URL: https://jxl.app

Email: press@fine.software

HQ Address: Fine Software Pty Ltd, 3902/7 Railway St, Chatswood NSW 2067, Australia

Contact Number: +61435605256

The post JXL: An App to Combine the Power of Jira with Spreadsheets! appeared first on TTM.

In recent times of global uncertainties, working in an office has become a distant thing. More and more companies have moved towards a new system called Home-Office. In this new system, you are going to work from, as we have expected, home. As on the one hand, this has opened a lot of opportunities, this has also limited other aspects to a great margin. 

Software development has always been an interactive task. Here, both the operational and development team work together to bring the whole concept into reality. As office spaces have been migrating to home offices, employees are working less together, at least physical-wise. In this way, software development has taken on a new meaning in the community. Nearshore software development is what we are talking about. 

What is Nearshore? 

Nearshore outsourcing is sourcing some of your tasks to another company. To be clear and precise, you are outsourcing your software development to a company or person external to your organization. But isn’t that outsourcing in general? Why is it called nearshore then? 

Glad you asked. In nearshore outsourcing, there are few conditions that set it apart. You should hire a company with a 1-3 hours time difference if you are planning to do nearshoring. This way you are going to meet 3 different conditions which are,

• The time difference is minimal 
• The communication barrier is zero to none 
• No issues with personal visits. 

In-House VS Nearshore: Comparison 

Software development has been done in-house since its inception. Here in this system, you will produce the whole software within your company, or in another term, in-house. This has been the benchmark method of developing software since the beginning until new contenders emerge. But how is nearshore outsourcing compared to in-house? Well, let’s find out. 

• Finding Talent: 

When it comes to in-house software development, you have to look for local employees. It’s important to look for those candidates who will come to your office and do the job. This limits the possibilities to find the right people. 

On the other hand, in nearshoring, you are not only limited to your area to find talents. You are now open to find the best worker within a radius of 1-3 hours time difference. In geographical terms, this is huge. 

• Cost: 

For in-house, you need to have a physical office where your workers will work. Additionally, you have to provide all the gears as well as amenities to support them. This is a huge cost that you need to bear. 

However, this is the strongest side for nearshoring where any need for an office place is void. The team members will work from their own place with their own gears. This will drastically reduce your cost and enhance your profitability. 

• Management: 

In-house management is quite precise and accurate as you can manage the work face to face. Additionally, you can also evaluate the tasks more effectively. 

When it comes to nearshore, management gets tough. As they are not working in your office, rather over the web, proper management is quite impossible to achieve. Yet, there are few techniques that may enhance your managing power. 

Why Choose Nearshore?

Now, why are you going to switch to nearshore software development? This is a valid query that has been asked quite a few times already. Well, by choosing nearshore outsourcing, you will open yourself to quite a few conveniences which are hard to decline. Let’s check those out,

• Saves Time: 

In nearshore software development, you don’t need to set up an office space to start working. Furthermore, onboarding is not needed here, nor is sourcing, recruitment, and hiring. This saves huge time. All you need is to hire the company or the people, and within a week, the development can start. 

• Saves Money: 

It’s not necessary to have an office with all the equipment for the nearshore. You can save a huge chunk of money, just by hiring a nearshore company. In addition, recruiting is also costly. By not recruiting employees, nearshore also saves you money in that manner. 

• Compatible Culture: 

As previously mentioned, nearshore outsourcing only means hiring those who live close. To be exact, within the time difference of 1-3 hours. In most cases, neighboring countries have such time differences where the cultural difference is minimal. Even in some instances, few of the neighboring countries share the same cultural aspects. This reduces any misunderstandings between the team members. 

• Better Hiring Opportunity: 

As in nearshore, the worker doesn’t need to come to your office to work. As a result, you can locate better talent outside your local area. This is a huge plus as a better employee will bring better results for your project as well as the company. 

Are There Any Drawbacks? 

Is it always the sunny side? No. There are some darker clouds of nearshore software development that may cause rain. And they are, 

• Risk: 

Hiring a nearshore outsourcing company can be quite risky. In any situation, if the company or the person stops working, the situation can be a nightmare. 

• Cost Control: 

Even though, nearshore will help you to save money, controlling the money can be a hassle. As team members are not physically at your reach, you are quite limited with your control power. 

Final Verdict 

Considering both the negatives as well as positives factors of nearshore, this is a great system. This will bring an extensive amount of performance as well as productivity to your team. No wonder why nearshore is gaining such a reputation in today’s market. 

When you are looking for a simpler approach to software development, nearshore is the way to go. With its capabilities to save money as well as time, you are open to a larger profit margin. Additionally, better employees will bring better performance, thus better results. 

Even though there are few concerning aspects of nearshore, there is no perfect system. For nearshore software development to be successful, you must minimize those risks. 

To Wrap Up

In this modern era of the IT industry, nearshore has made its name. This is because of the advantages it brings to the companies, which are too hard to deny. So be adventurous and find the best provider who will serve your needs accordingly. 

The post Why Nearshore Software Development is Getting Popular? appeared first on TTM.

Semrush, a leading online visibility management, and content marketing SaaS platform has been named the Best Global SEO Software Suite by the 2021 Global Search Awards in recognition of Semrush’s game-changing technology tool. The awards recognize companies that impact PPC, SEO, and content marketing around the world.

“This is not just an award for Semrush. It is much more about the smart SEOs and marketers who used great tools to navigate the pandemic. We honor THEIR successes during a seemingly impossible year and thank them for making it happen with Semrush”

This latest honor follows previous international awards recognition, such as wins across competitions including European Search Awards, US Search Awards, UK Search Awards and MENA Search Awards in 2017-2020.

“This is not just an award for Semrush. It is much more about the smart SEOs and marketers who used great tools to navigate the pandemic. We honor THEIR successes during a seemingly impossible year and thank them for making it happen with Semrush,” says Olga Andrienko, VP of Brand Marketing at Semrush. “We are delighted that during 2020, Semrush became indispensable for marketers with tools and depth that helped them move brands from catastrophe to prosperity despite unprecedented business conditions. Additionally, we are keen to expand our product suite even further, helping brands pivot quickly, understand shifting dynamics and make the right decisions.”

Semrush’s product suite expansion has taken the platform beyond search optimization, integrating tools for content marketing, Amazon US Marketplace listing, and Prowly, a public relations SaaS startup acquired by Semrush in 2020. In the ever-changing digital marketing world, Semrush believes marketers should be empowered to take a comprehensive, holistic approach to their strategies, not only to optimize results but so that they can quickly adapt to future uncertainty.

Like many other industries, marketing and SEO in particular were deeply affected by the events of 2020 and 2021, as pandemic-related disruptions led to business interruptions, shifts, and uncertainty. While this period was challenging, the disruptive nature of the market also resulted in one of Semrush’s most innovative years since inception, especially with regard to product development. The company’s focus has been building a full stack of indispensable marketing software, enabling marketers to carry out campaigns and strategies through one single, comprehensive platform.

About Semrush:

Semrush is a leading online visibility management SaaS platform that enables businesses globally to run search engine optimization, pay-per-click, content, social media and competitive research campaigns and gets measurable results from online marketing. Semrush offers insights and solutions for companies to build, manage, and measure campaigns across various marketing channels. Semrush, with over 72,000 paying customers, is headquartered in Boston and has offices in Philadelphia, Dallas, Prague, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, and Limassol.

Contacts

MEDIA:

Vincent Schiano
Semrush Holdings, Inc.
Vincent.Schiano@semrush.com

Source- https://thetechmusk.com/businesswire/

Business Wire

The post SEMrush Wins the Best SEO Software Suite at Global Search Awards! appeared first on TTM.

More than a technology, DevOps have become a culture now. When it comes to product and application development firms, this is more than just a strategy. Rather, It is a culture that strives to standardize environments with robust automation. Also, reduces communication bottlenecks drastically. But how is this a strategy?

First, it determines the justification for the Business to define DevOps for your Business. Next, it forms a multi-functional DevOps team and creates a set of goals and measurements. A team on which everyone can agree. Finally, it chooses the application that will be the first to migrate. The prime focus of the process is on removing the most major obstacles by creating a toolchain.

Impact of DevOps in the Modern Era

DevOps use is increasing exponentially. A mass of organizations has already begun incorporating DevOps into their operations. Vendors are responding to this trend by producing cutting-edge technologies that enable the DevOps methodology. Experts predict that the global DevOps Software market will reach $6.6 billion in 2022, up from $2.9 billion in 2017.

The DevOps culture promotes and concentrates on establishing a quick and stable workflow through the development and IT operations. DevOps’ major responsibility is to swiftly deliver features into production while also detecting and fixing problems as they arise while ensuring that other services are not affected.

DevOps ensure faster deployments and a stabilized working environment. Collaboration between development and operations teams results in a substantial improvement in product quality. Automation technology gives an edge to any organization. Compared to the conventional approach, DevOps is more effective as it allows faster detection and correction. 

The team has more time to frame fresh ideas as the weaknesses are constantly evaluated through automation. It has been a fast and reliable problem-solving technique. DevOps is a cutting-edge concept that improves the quality of the products by making better use of time and resources.

Fundamental Factors of DevOps Strategies

A team needs to focus on six fundamental factors to guarantee the actual benefits of adopting DevOps strategies.

• Creating Customer Value: Customer orientation is a major factor in any production strategy. So, organizations should adapt to accept new ownership responsibilities to assist any social or cultural change. This will emphasize customer value more effectively and practically. 

• Effective Collaboration:  The time and ambiguity of collaborating with someone from different organizational units must be minimized. It must also allow room for exploring more options.

• Inviolable Security: DevSecOps shapes integrate security into product delivery procedures. So, you can identify and address vulnerabilities quicker. Hence, letting you accomplish continuous improvement in product security.

• Automated Testing: Thorough and multiple testing processes to guarantee product quality requires a significant amount of time and resources. For continuous delivery, DevOps teams aim to automate testing as much as feasible. This saves time and resources for developing new features in the product.

• Thorough Monitoring: Skill development is a persistent attempt to identify and fix problems. This rotates throughout the lifecycle. For this, it requires critical Monitoring both in terms of the final product and ensuring control over development processes.

• KPIs: Defined KPIs help DevOps to set out targets and track the progress in the way. This enhances the performance of all parties involved.

Some Successful DevOps Strategies

DevOps strategies aim to collect and collaborate different techniques to enhance the development of new features. These additional competitive edges evolve by bridging the gap between development and operations facilities. To optimize the information and resources, a team needs to develop an integrated DevOps facility. This Facility requires some strategies.

• Setting up DevOps requirements and process

Many businesses overlook the need for proper planning; it is a significant mistake. To install DevOps, you must be familiar with the solution patterns of the apps you intend to create. Whether any unique hardware or software is required, such as HPC or IPC middleware, for the applications. Also, consider security, performance, monitoring, and governance. 

DevOps variations are significantly observed from one firm to the next. However, knowing how things are evolving is essential. It is a continuous process that calls for development, testing, Integration, and timely deployments.   

• Continuous Integration

The basic concepts of DevOps implementation are fast and automated systems. CI is a method for automating operational development processes. For example, you can automate the Integration of built codes and make any alterations.  Continuous Integration enables developers to generate and integrate code more regularly. It helps merge code more frequently as well as fix regression bugs to build good quality codes.

• Continuous Deployment

Continuous deployment is a robust DevOps release method. Specially designed for improving the pace and frequency, it reinforces productivity. It is a reliable software delivery approach that allows teams to produce high-quality software in a short amount of time. Additionally, a pipeline ensures software will be released on time and as efficiently as possible.

• Container Management System

After the adaptation of a new idea, the products migrate away from virtualized systems toward containerized systems. Thus, containerized applications have become the new standard DevOps release approach. There are several tools to develop the products in a container. 

Docker is a popular container-building technology. On the other hand, Kubernetes lets DevOps engineers orchestrate them. It’s also a powerful technology that aids in the management of infrastructure containers. It contributes significantly to the adaptability of infrastructure. This tool can be quickly moved up-scale and down-scale both vertically and horizontally.

• Quick Feedback

DevOps allows teams to be more agile and quicker. DevOps methods enable fast feedback loops between Business, development, testing, and IT operations. This rapid speed of development and operations leads to a fantastic product, and feedback loops are an essential component of the process. Not only can immediate feedback enhance goods, but they also improve procedures.

Final Verdict

DevOps Strategies is an incredible way to save time and money while improving the quality and speed of the product in Today’s market. It has evolved from a technique to a proper strategy that connects innovation and implementation. It has simplified communication, cooperation, and Integration, a single-window system. The collaboration between development and operations teams is free of obstacles and friction, allowing for the best possible interests for the Business and the customers. 

The post Perfect Alignment of Strategies for an Integrated DevOps Facility! appeared first on TTM.

~ VIPERdev provides a CTO as a service for startups that allows them to launch their products in just eight weeks. 

~ It helps startups to launch the products quickly and cost-effectively. 

~ Currently, VIPERdev helps 2-3 startups every month to launch their products successfully. 

Hamburg, Germany. March 2021: Sometimes, having a brilliant idea is just not enough. Still, many first-time startup founders seem to overvalue their ideas and expect everyone to be as excited as they are. Most founders look for people to join their team as CTOs or developers. Many networking platforms make it easy to connect with brilliant technical people, but it is not easy to find the right CTO or developers. No experienced and skilled developer would give up a steady job and join a startup with an uncertain future. 

Moreover, hiring a team of skilled developers requires huge budgets. Most startups fail as the founders fail to find the right team to execute the ideas despite investing money. Fortunately, VIPERdev helps founders to turn their ideas into reality. VIPERdev provides CTO as a service for startups and allows them to launch products in around eight to ten weeks. 

VIPERdev empowers founders to concretize their ideas and vision. The expert team at VIPERdev brings a comprehensive experience of launching 2-3 products every month, which no CTO can ever offer. VIPERdev is a serial entrepreneur as a company and offers powerful growth hacking strategies to not only launch your product but also increases the potential for success. 

“To not be one of the 90% failing startups, you’ve got to stop thinking like an average founder.” – Lasse Schuirmann, Founder, VIPERdev.

VIPERdev aims to empower startups of every size and budget. It’s beyond just a CTO as a service. VIPERdev helps founders build a robust business plan and powerful growth hacking strategies learned by launching all those startups in the past. 

Developing an app can be very expensive. It costs a large amount of money to build and maintain an app. Even basic apps cost at least $25,000 to start. This huge financial stress takes some entrepreneurs out of the running immediately. It also makes profitability much more difficult. VIPERdev enables founders to get a cost-effective product in a span of eight to ten weeks. Some founders try to raise funding before launching the product. VIPERdev has helped many clients to bootstrap their companies without raising any external funding.

“Many founders do too much and achieve too little. We’ve launched startups like Hofly with a fully part-time team, without investors, and reached logistic breakeven in Hamburg after mere months.” – Lasse Schuirmann, Founder, VIPERdev.

Lasse Schuirmann, Founder, VIPERdev, is a serial entrepreneur. Lasse has founded five startups and coala.io, an open-source project with more than 1000 all-time-contributors. He has traveled across the world as a Keynote Speaker for numerous Python conferences. Lasse finished a job for one of his clients over the weekend and realized that his quick and high-quality services could be a game-changer for startups and small businesses. He developed a process, that allows non-tech entrepreneurs to understand their product and plan an MVP. Lasse launched VIPERdev in June 2017. 

VIPERdev has built a team of expert developers and entrepreneurs that focuses on the products and completes them quickly with a scalable architecture. They also help the founders to spend their resources wisely and execute work smartly. They help founders to save months of work with their experience and guidance. VIPERdev launches 2-3 products every month and has launched over 50 products successfully. 

++++

About Us: 

At VIPERdev, we strive to help startups and solve real-world problems. Our expert team aims to speed you up and deliver fast. We always maintain transparent and open communication. VIPERdev is an entirely remote team, and our team members are from the US, Germany, India, France, and Indonesia. We are fast, agile, and reliable. 

URL: https://viperdev.io/en/

Email: press@viperdev.io

HQ Address: Harburger Schlossstrasse 6-12, 21079 Hamburg, Germany

The post VIPERdev: Finally, every startup can get the dream CTO! appeared first on TTM.

In the competitive market today, saving time is the pure leverage. Creating customer value faster and better is the challenge everyone is facing. DevOps is an innovative idea that manages the optimized use of time and resources. Nowadays DevOps companies are thriving in the market, and ever wondered why? It’s the system itself. Let’s dive in, shall we? 

The Big idea:

DevOps is the merger of the development and operation segment. The optimistic coordination and collaboration among these two segments are critical and crucial for reaching the company goal. In 2009, a software development consultant named Patrick Debois was credited with the development of DevOps by calling a conference DevOps Days.

DevOps is a collection of techniques that combines software development with information technology operations. This helps to shorten the systems development life cycle and deliver high-quality software continuously. It is defined as iterative software development, automation, and programmable infrastructure deployment. This is a phase of building trust and collaboration between developers and administrators. DevOps can alter the software delivery chain, services, job roles, IT tools, and best practices to meet matching technical initiatives to business objectives.

Process:

In its ideal form, DevOps implies that an IT team creates software that precisely matches user needs. And why they do that? To operate quickly, and ideally on the first attempt. Organizations achieve this aim by combining culture and technology.

Developers and stakeholders communicate about the project to ensure that the software meets expectations. Additionally, the developers work on minor updates that go live independently. The IT teams utilize CI/CD pipelines and other automation to transfer code from one stage of development and deployment to the next. This reduces the wait time. In addition, teams may quickly evaluate modifications and enforce procedures to ensure that the releases match the appropriate requirements.

DevOps advocates utilize containers or other ways to ensure the software can operate accurately from development to testing to production. They make adjustments one at a time so that problems can be tracked. For consistent deployment and hosting settings, teams rely on configuration management. They use a blameless in-depth investigation and ongoing feedback channels to solve problems they find in live operations, which leads to code improvements.

The developers may also support live software, putting it on them to fix runtime errors. The process allows anyone to participate in solving the errors. IT operations administrators may be invited to participate in software design sessions, providing advice on best-utilizing resources. The more these experts cooperate and share their knowledge, the more they will build an improved DevOps culture.

Scope:

All firm has unique characteristics or brand identification. However, major areas include extended deployment cycles. This causes the software to fall short of expectations. On the other hand, a DevOps project moves from requirements to live software faster because there are no wait times, manual processes, or lengthy reviews. In addition, shorter cycle times can help prevent conditions from altering, ensuring that the product provides exactly what the client wants.

Development teams must understand the production environment and test their code in actual contexts. This will help the whole system to create successful software. Therefore, development and operations teams are categorized in a conventional organization. This ensures that developers are comfortable when their code performs well. And if the release fails in production, the operations team is responsible for fixing it. When a problem develops, engineers in a culture of the DevOps companies won’t say that it doesn’t fall under their department. The changes that are being rolled out to production are minor and reversible. Furthermore, because the entire team is aware of the changes, issue management is considerably simplified.

Companies can take advantage of market possibilities faster if the path from idea to actual software is shortened. Thus, DevOps gives a competitive advantage in business. 

Benefits:

• Software with a faster deployment
• The downtime is minimal
• Improved development processes
• A larger range of responsibilities and expertise
• New ideas and skills involvement and code ownership

Challenges:

• Costly tools and platforms, including the training and support, needed to use them effectively.
• Extension of IT tools.
• DevOps scaled across numerous projects and teams.
• Newly surfaced constraints.
• Sensitive automation.

Best DevOps Service Companies:

DevOps is becoming increasingly data-driven as the number of apps provided via cloud-based models rises. DevOps companies utilize this data to get valuable insights into their delivery throughput, which is assessed using metrics such as deployment frequency. Here are some companies that provide solutions, consultation, and services for your firm’s DevOps. 

• Contino

This DevOps company is a worldwide technical consultant who assists organizations by offering insights and services that modernize workflow techniques. In addition, they help align the development and operation segments with today’s digitally driven operating system structure.

• Data Dynamics

Data Dynamics is another popular DevOps service company. They are known for genuine business transformation. They provide intelligent data management solutions that enable organizations to analyze, transfer, manage and update essential data across hybrid or object-based storage infrastructures.

• QPAIR

This DevOps company, QPAIR encourages DevOps as a cultural part of its client engagement approach. For their cloud operations, they offer the core value proposition of operational quality and reliability. This is a popular approach among many firms.

• JFrog

JFrog is a DevOps service providing company that offers a DevOps solution that changes software update management of the firm. Their priority is to deliver the users with ongoing assistance and simplified operations across their project lifecycles. They also use cloud and hybrid storage services.

• Splunk

Splunk is another trusted DevOps Service Company. Splunk offers a DevOps platform that integrates with major binary libraries and add-ons that can expand the application. They also deliver the firms with an appropriate pipeline and provide complete insight into any occasional overrides that may arise.

Conclusion:

One of the strategies used to execute IT projects that satisfy business objectives is the DevOps strategy. Hence the DevOps companies are so successful in today’s market. It’s not those who only provide the service shine, but also those that are directly and indirectly using the service for a better customer experience. No wonder why the bulk of businesses have already begun incorporating DevOps into their operations. Even huge and established companies like Adidas, Starbucks, Optum, BMW, Disney are figuring out how to combine DevOps best to enhance traditional business practices. To survive the market, you need to connect legacy operations with cloud-first source projects and develop new operational structures.

The post DevOps: An Idea for Fast Building Software! appeared first on TTM.

These days, cybersecurity must be a top priority if you run a small or midsize business. The information of your employees, customers, and business as a whole is constantly at risk as cybercriminals are getting more knowledgeable and savvy by the day. One data breach can lead to devastating consequences, and it’s essential that your team is doing everything you can to stay a step ahead of hackers. THETECHMUSK wants to share seven of the most common mistakes businesses make with their cybersecurity, as well as tips for how to avoid them:

1. Underestimating the Risks

Too many small business owners assume that they’re not at risk of cybercrime. After all, why would hackers target a small company when they can spend their time figuring out how to get into the system of a large corporation? This kind of thinking leads many business owners to become complacent with the security practices they already have in place.

However, about half of all data breaches occur to small or midsize businesses. Hackers know that smaller companies have fewer resources and are less likely to invest in quality data protection.

2. Neglecting to Make a Recovery Plan

Even the most protected businesses are not immune to a cyberattack. And if you don’t have a recovery plan in place, it could cost you—big time. Start putting together your recovery plan now. This will involve implementing layers of infrastructure protection, using a single interface for managing your data and testing your plan regularly to ensure that it works. Look for affordable recovery plans that are secure, flexible, and easy to execute.

3. Not Investing in Software

There are plenty of free or inexpensive security software solutions on the market. The problem is that most of them are not very effective. Subpar software typically works fine for personal devices, but when it comes to your business devices, you want the best protection possible. Take time to research security software to figure out which solution will work best for your company.

4. Ignoring Software Updates

Software updates are critical for ensuring your system stays protected. While the notifications can get annoying, you shouldn’t ignore them. The updates typically include new security technology and improvements that will help keep your system one-step ahead of hackers. You may have to delay your work to restart your devices, but that time lost is nothing compared to the potential consequences of a cyber-attack.

5. Establishing Weak Passwords

If a hacker guesses your password, they’re in. Moreover, you can bet that there are many hackers sitting around, trying to crack passwords all day. That’s how they succeed in many of their breaches. Make sure all the passwords on your personal and company devices and accounts are strong. Each password should be easy for you to remember while also being difficult to decipher.

6. Using Personal Devices for Business (and Vice Versa)

Many business owners, especially those who work alone or with small teams, use their personal devices and accounts for everything, including business. Don’t do that! Invest in separate devices for your team to use only for work, and don’t merge your business social media accounts with your personal accounts if possible. Combining your personal and business technologies can open you up to a higher potential for exposure.

7. Keeping Unnecessary Accounts Open

Cybercriminals are constantly looking for forgotten accounts. If your business has any accounts that you’re no longer monitoring, you’re leaving entry points into your system for hackers. Close every single account that you’ll never use again. For instance, if you lose an employee, delete any accounts associated with that employee. If you simply stop using a particular website or app for your business, delete your account there as well. When an account is out of sight, out of mind, chances are you won’t notice a breach until after the fact.

Nothing is more important for a small or midsize business than strengthening its cybersecurity protocols. Be sure to keep the mistakes above in mind and avoid them at all costs. In addition, keep researching other strategies that will help to prevent your company from falling victim to the relentless efforts of hackers and other cybercriminals. Protecting your data is key to securing your long-term success.

Would you like to read more helpful content on tech, cybersecurity, and more? Visit  thetechmusk.com today!

The post 7 Common Cybersecurity Mistakes your Small Business Can’t Afford to Make! appeared first on TTM.

We all know what Netflix is, right? But how many of you know the fact that they started as a DVD rental company? Yes, they did. Well, they now are the largest media service, provider. How many do they serve? Well, according to Statista, more than 207 million people are paid subscribers of Netflix. Out of the whole count, around 74 million people from the US and Canada, hold the largest portion of the global subscriber base. 

But how a DevOps Strategy helped this huge service company? Glad you asked. With the help of DevOps, Netflix was able to create and deploy software, features, and services that were once unimaginable. Let’s have a dip into a conversation then. 

Netflix: Problem

In the initial phase of Netflix, they were using a development practice called Monolith. If any of you is not aware of what the monolithic approach is, let me guide you. Monolith is a system where all the codes are written at once. That means, if you have software that will serve you 10 features, in a monolithic system, you will write 10 features altogether first, then will proceed to deployment. 

The monolithic approach is quite popular. However, it has a huge drawback. Complexity! Software gets bigger and bigger and it turns into a lot more complex coding. This is the exact problem that Netflix faced; extremely complex code development. 

As Netflix was grabbing more and more subscribers, their system was getting more and more complicated. Whenever a new bug was noticed, it took days to write the proper code. Also later took days to go for operation. If the operation failed, again the whole process started to repeat at a similar pace. For a company that is growing rapidly, it is a huge concern as well as a risk to continue with the same approach. 

Netflix: Solution – DevOps

Due to huge complications in the monolithic approach, Netflix started to move to DevOps. They moved to an AWS cloud-based architecture. But why this move? 

Well, as they moved to DevOps, or Development + Operation system, their both departments merged. Because of this, they can develop, check and deploy services together. Here, there is no need to wait for the development team to write another long code again which may take several days to complete. Afterward, it also eradicates repeating scenarios of failure, if any occurs during the deployment. As a result of DevOps, they were able to enhance the pace of the development operation. 

But how do they do that? To solve this problem, they have built two tools. 

Tool 1: Chaos Monkey 

Have you ever had a chaotic elder sibling? Yes, that one who creates problems for no reason. We sure did have fun memories with them, indeed. Take Chaos Monkey just like that. It creates situations where a server may turn down, or any other facility, instantly!

Just imagine, you’ve been peacefully working on a server and suddenly everything tunes off. What a treat! What should you do now? Yes, to find solutions. This is exactly the main goal of the tool called Chaos Monkey. This allows any of the team members to be always ready to fight against any possible worst-case scenarios. That is so in the most unfavorable environment. What are the benefits? 

• Top class application development 
• High-resilience systems 
• Stable application system 

In the face of Chaos Monkey, the DevOps strategy thrived. The system becomes more efficient and productive as a result of this tool. 

Tool 2: Titus 

Titus is a container management tool. The procedure of Titus is very simple: make containers of standardized units of package software. Like a series of little units which form a whole. Now what Titus does will keep you mesmerized. The main job of Titus is to simply run the existing application inside the container. Here nothing will be changed inside. 

If you even scanned your whole computer for possible virus threats, you’ll know how long it takes to complete the whole take. However, if you scan each disk, the process speeds up radically. The same thing goes here. Titus lets you run your whole application in a smaller container which will surely take much less time, compared to running in the whole system. This allows faster results while eliminating complexity issues, thus enhancing efficiency. 

Another interesting fact about Titus is that it is integrated with AWS or Amazon Web Services. What these services do is to make the whole process cost-effective as well as highly productive. Netflix utilizes Titus to incorporate recommendations with the content system since it is ASW-compliant. 

So how does Titus help? Well, 

• Deploy a code within 2 minutes 
• Can release applications frequently 

Netflix wasn’t performing well with its monolith system. Their struggle became clearer and clearer as their number of subscribers started to sky-rocket. Turning to DevOps was the key point that helped them deal with such a high volume of subscribers, in a much simpler manner. Today most of the populations of the world are dependent on Netflix. Yes, to the company which initially was a DVD rental corporation. So what are the benefits that DevOps serves? 

• It eliminated the communication silos between the development and the deployment departments 
• It helped the product to have much better quality, due to continuous testing and rechecking. 
• Development of services has become faster than ever before, thanks to the cooperation of developers and deployers. 
• Build an extremely reliable service that can work against any possible failure at any time. 

Final Verdict

In the era of highly dependable web services, the systems need to be extremely dynamic to fight against any of the possible scenarios. However, to build a dynamic application, DevOps is one of the best systems that you can use for your business. Based on microservices, this approach lets you work on a smaller scale where you can develop, test, and deploy, all simultaneously. 

Therefore, DevOps Strategy or you can say a well-designed plan that should be formulated which can help you to build the system. With the help of DevOps, you will be left with highly resilient software, which can offer newer features, benefits, and services with the speed of a sports car. 

The post How Netflix Excelled with DevOps? appeared first on TTM.

• a brand-new swIDch Auth SDK provides FIDO, mOTP, and OTAC login functions
• Unprecedented pricing policy empowers organisations to develop innovative products and services by achieving efficiency and cost savings

16 June 2021

LONDON, UK – swIDch announced it has launched an all-in-one authentication software development kit, swIDch Auth SDK, providing simpler, faster, and safer authentication in cybersecurity that can be applied in a variety of industries from enterprise solutions to customer access management systems.

The swIDch Auth SDK is composed of three strong authentication functions including international standard biometric authentication, simple two-step authentication, and innovative one-time random code authentication. A brand-new product line of swIDch is provided as an SDK so that developers can easily and stably implement trustworthy authentication functions in their applications, which means that more efficient and seamless authentication functions can be installed without expensive R&D costs from the stage of solution development and system deployment.

swIDch Auth SDK’s FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) authentication provides user biometrics, patterns, PINs, QR codes, encryption, and digital signature, private key, and server administration. Its easy mobile secondary authentication mobile OTP can build a very strong self-authentication system by creating a one-time password with a smartphone app without a physical security card. swIDch’s OTAC login authentication provides OTAC with more than 170 global patents creating dynamic one-time authentication codes that cannot be reused, cannot be duplicated with other users, and cannot be changed every time without communication with the server.

swIDch also announced an unprecedented pricing policy for the new product to empower organisations to develop innovative products and services by achieving efficiency and cost saving through relocation of R&D personnel for authentication technology development in Labs. The Pioneer membership of swIDch Auth Authentication, which consists of a one-pack license, is $5,000. Its Enterprise membership charges $45,000 allowing Unlimited Licensing for internal systems and 20 licenses for reselling. Both memberships provide basic technical support services as well.

The product launch is designed to help System Integration (SI) companies that need rapid and stable system development based on proven authentication security technology, security solution vendors that need reliable all-in-one authentication security technology, organisations and enterprises that need international standard authentication technology to apply to their business with agility, companies that require network upgrades with reliable authentication technology, and those who want to deploy their developers working on authentication more efficiently and save costs of development

Chang-Hun Yoo, Founder and CEO, swIDch said: “Cost reduction is of vital importance for companies that need to operate an integrated authentication process with multiple partners or SI companies who are involved in multiple projects every year, a key motivation for swIDch in launching it’s ‘swIDch Auth SDK’ product. swIDch wants to keep growing as an authentication security Lab that provides an agile, efficient, cost-effective, and secure authentication security platform to companies that want to build an authentication security infrastructure.”

Resources

• Website: swIDch Auth Authentication
• White Paper: swIDch OTAC system

About swIDch

swIDch Ltd. (www.swidch.com) is a cybersecurity start-up based in London with an R&D center in South Korea. The company helps businesses to identify and authenticate its users through our patented algorithm, one-time authentication code (OTAC) that generates in a networkless environment, to tackle problems of identity theft and CNP frauds. It is a security feature for uninterrupted use of devices by combining user identification and authentication steps into one only with the dynamic authentication code. Since its foundation in 2018, the company has been chosen for leading accelerator programmes in Europe and Asia – LORCA, Global Entrepreneur Programme, and Accenture FinTech Innovation Lab. Furthermore, swIDch gained global recognition for its innovative authentication technology, selected the winner of the “Authentication Solution of the Year” in CyberSecurity Breakthrough Awards, the winner of the hottest Cybertech Company from Europas 2020, and the annual list of the world’s most innovative Cybertech Company ‘Cybertech100’ three years in a row since 2019.

About SSenStone

SSenStone Inc. (www.ssenstone.com) is the parent company of swIDch, proving its technological prowess and growth potential by taking first place with the best score in the “Baby Unicorn 200 project” of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Republic of Korea. Consisting of cybersecurity experts with over 10 years of experience, SSenStone continues to research and develop technologies that provide safer and more convenient identification and authentication between humans and devices or devices and devices in a rapidly changing ICT environment.

Media Enquiries

Chris Vince

Marketing Communication, swIDch

Email: chris@swidch.com

The post swIDch Launches all-in-one Authentication SDK to Provide Simpler, Faster and Safer Authentication in CyberSecurity! appeared first on TTM.

Keyword research tools are one of the most beneficial social media components of all time. Through a better keyword research tool, you can be able to bring very good traffic to your website. If you use highly popular keywords on your website. Then surely you can attract a lot of people to your website. As well as you can indicate to Google that there is such content on your website that a lot of people need on the internet. But there are different kinds of keyword research tools are available. We will try to understand through this article how to find better keyword research tools.

How Keywords Can Help Your Article Or Website

Before you know about keyboard research, you should know that it can help you. With the help of a keyword research tool, you can write SEO-friendly articles. In other words, you can write an article that You are expected by your customer. Such types of articles can easily rank on Google. And if you want your article to look at the top of Google’s results. You will have to do keyword research before writing your article. Then include all the keywords in your article before upload it.

How Ahrefs Work For Most Of The SEO Professionals

If you are in the field of SEO or just learning this module, then you might have heard of the Ahrefs tool. It is one of the most used keyword research tools in this industry. Although, there are many other keyword research tools are available. And these tools are working exceptionally well. But still, Ahrefs is leading the marketing. As well as if you compare the prices then you would find it much cheaper than any other keyword research. However, there are many other tools available and they have their own specifications. 

Semrush Is Providing Multiple Exciting Offers:

If you are willing to show more interest in SEO. Or you are highly dependant on your SEO projects. Then Semrush is a highly growing keyword research tool in the market nowadays. You have already seen many ads of Semrush where they are marketing the power of their products. Apart from the simple keyword research, Semrush can guide you to write highly SEO-optimized articles. Such types of articles can easily get a high rank on Google search engines. However, Ahrefs has the same power but Semrush is trying hard to upgrade their products with more advanced technologies.

Google Keyword Research Tool:

The tools w have mentioned above are paid tools. However, the google keyword planner tool is free. You can find as many keywords as you want from any specific topic, and even without paying anything. You might assume that if this tool is free then you can find effective keywords for your topic. But this is not the case, you can find the same amount of keywords from the keyword planner tool. However, if you want to know the traffic or volume of a particular tool then this tool might get wrong often. But at the same time if your Google ads from that same account. Then it can show you the exact volume of a particular keyword.

Conclusion:

So these were some highly popular keyword research tools available tools in the market. You can use all of them if you want better results. But this would not be a good choice. Because a single tool can make the best profit for your business or blog. However, there are many other keyword research tools are available, or even Google recommendations do the same job for you. But if you want specific results then try one of these keyword research tools. And in case you want to buy Instagram followers Malaysia. Then you can visit our website where we can provide you real and effective Instagram followers at affordable prices.

The post Best Keywords Research Tools That Brings More Traffic! appeared first on TTM.

The ancient pyramids of Giza are no doubt one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries. Built over 4500 years ago, they still stand today, yet nobody knows for certain how they were constructed.

Design company Flyte is on a journey to capture the mystery of the pyramids through levitation.

“We are here because we want to share something greater than we have done before: to serve a higher purpose through art and science and share it with the world. To us, the ancient Pyramids is the world’s greatest art piece, and our goal is to levitate it.”

Designer and CEO of the company Simon Morris comments

Combining modern technology with ancient wisdom.

Py consists of 5 custom built mag-levitation platforms capable of levitating up to 100 kg / 220.4 lbs of weight. Installation is planned to be 20 foot / 6 meters tall.

Once constructed Py will be the largest magnetically levitating artwork in the world.

We’d like Py to be showcased in an art gallery and publicly online for everyone to see.

Inspired by the mystery of the pyramidion, Py represents the missing capstone of the ancient pyramids.

The pyramidion, or capstone is the uppermost piece of an Egyptian pyramid. It is said to be the most important piece that gives the pyramid its actual purpose.

Usually covered in gold leaf, the pyramidion would reflect the rays of the sun, acting as a beacon of light. Most of those that remain are made of polished black granite, inscribed with the name of the pyramid’s owner.

Very few pyramidia have survived the passage of time. Some say they were looted by thieves while others claim they were never built at Giza.

The true origins of the pyramidia remain unknowns, We can build Py much bigger, but we need your help.

To make Py a reality, we are going live on Kickstarter on June 8th 2021 at 1pm EST.

About Flyte

From the creators of the world’s first levitating light bulb winner of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions, Flyte creates design products, making the
world a bit more smarter and stylish. Flyte’s core technology is based on wireless power and magnetic levitation.

How does it work?

Finally, Flyte goes back to the future with the ancient pyramids! This might be the largest Crowfunded Artwork in the world.

So, PY becomes the missing piece of the pyramid.

The post What Happened to the Top of the Great Pyramid? This Design Company Attempts to Find Out! appeared first on TTM.