Elements to Help You Develop Emotional Intelligence

To become a fireman requires a lot of efforts. It needs you to muster up enough courage to get yourself in and out of a burning building. It requires you to develop a heart to save humanity. Above all, it asks you to commit and be prepared to do everything you can to save the lives of others in tragedy. There are elements to help you develop emotional intelligence.

Let me tell you about Jason. He had all such qualities to become a successful fireman. He held the heart of a lion when it comes to saving lives. Jason was very compassionate and quite courageous. He had all the qualities that a good firefighter could’ve possessed.

Graduation was upon him and, Jason proclaimed that milestone as the most significant moment in his life. Despite knowing that he is one of the top-performing candidates in the firefighting institution, the moment he learned his wife is about to give birth, he skipped his graduation and drove a 15-hour ride back home. 

Why would Jason take such an unprecedented step? Why would anyone miss such an honor as their graduation? Why do people take other such actions in life? What fuels them to risk everything that they have worked so hard for? Emotional Intelligence is the answer and the concept researchers identified back in the 1980s and 90s, which justifies these types of actions. 

EI is what makes intelligent people make decisions based on their emotional understanding.  Elements to Help You Develop Emotional IntelligenceDevelop Emotional Intelligence

Here are five elements that you should adopt in your actions to become an emotionally intelligent person. 

1) Create an Emotional Self Awareness

To develop emotional intelligence, one must first have a firm grip on self-awareness. When you don’t have self-awareness, you are like a sailor sailing a boat without any sails at the whim of the ocean of emotions. You let the tides sway your boat and set it to sail in any direction of the ocean’s choice. 

You have to understand yourself on three different levels: 

1) What you’re doing? 

2) How do you feel about it? 

3) Knowing where you stand emotionally? 

Many of us don’t realize what we are doing in our daily lives. We are not paying attention, and we spent half our day checking up on our social media profiles, replying different emails, texting our closest friends, and then redoing it all over. 

Without knowing it, all that we do in our routine becomes an addiction.

The routine begins to make us feel as if we are filled with anxiety and stress, and we allow that emotion to control us throughout the day. If there is an emotion which is present in your mind or body at any one moment, it’s because we created that emotion to be present there. By knowing where we are standing emotionally, it can help us find ways to help improve that emotion.

2) Keep Yourself Motivated to Combat Emotional Distractions Look at the examples below:

  • Have you ever felt this way?
  • How would you handle the situation?

You took some time off work to get some extra chores done around your home. You need a break and decide that a 15-minute break is what you want to take. During your break you became lost in your thoughts and you’re in a quasi-hypnotic state. You glance over at the clock only to notice that it has been three hours. You have killed an enormous amount of time without even knowing it. Frantically, you get back to work to complete the tasks that you needed to get done.  

Most writers wait for a funny bone to tingle before they settle down to get their writing assignments done. Some writers think they must be moved in some way so they can produce the creative stuff. Will your writing get done if you wait for the right inspiration?

I am not much of a fan to wait for that epiphany moment. Instead, I start writing, and then I motivate myself along the way. 

One thing that I have realized is that emotional distractions will always be around to cloud your ability to perform. If you want to overcome those emotional distractions, you will have to do something about the original issue. That issue is EI. You will need to up your emotional intelligence so that emotions won’t hold you back or cause you to wait. 

Get your head straight in the game, and do the tasks that you have at hand. You will find yourself along the way. 

The only trick to do better at work is by staying positive and have fun doing what you do. 

3) Channel Your Emotions the Right Way

You can’t control your emotions. They come and go as they please. However, when I tend to say, you can control your emotions, what I mean is how you can manage your feelings and your reaction to those emotions. 

Emotions are more of an indicator. They allow us to understand which tasks are worth paying attention to and which of them aren’t. For example, a file submission meeting deadline is of priority, and when we haven’t completed that file, we tend to feel a little worried about completing it on time. 

The emotion of worry is what motivates us to complete it before the task meets the deadline.  

Similarly, anger can be a destructive emotion. But depending on how you plan to react to that anger is what sets you apart from others. You can either choose it to do injustice or to simply stop injustice. 

Joy can be a constructive emotion. You can either be devastated at the loss of someone, or find joy in what you had and remember that part. You can feel joy and satisfaction in helping someone with their problems.

Knowing how you channel your emotions is what sets you apart from the rest. 

4) Understand Emotions in Other People As if They Are Your Own

So far, what we have discussed is focused on addressing emotion in one’s own self. But what about understanding what the other person feels? After all, the whole point of developing emotional intelligence is to create healthier relationships with others, so they feel comfortable in your presence. 

When you empathize with someone, it doesn’t mean that you can understand them completely. Instead, it is all about accepting the individual and the way they are — even though you don’t understand them. 

It’s about understanding their pain as your own pain. It’s about helping them or giving them space. 

Because good relationships are what, after all, define values. It makes us realize we are something much more significant and less complex compared to what the society believes or expects from us. 

https://samplecic.ch/elements-to-help-you-develop-emotional-intelligence.html

Artificial Intelligence: A Tool or a Threat to Cybersecurity?

Security threats to businesses have always been there -now it only shifted from physical to cyberspace. So, today’s business world revolves around “data,” which adds intrinsic value to both businesses and consumers. Since business operations have become smarter with technology, so does the manipulation. Enhanced technology changes the very nature of business. Manipulation in the hands of technology is especially true for all the leading business giants, investing in AI to foster their cybersecurity system.  Concerning artificial intelligence; a tool or a threat to cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity raises questions on the very existence of AI technology makes AI a technical “hot potato” and erupting an argument: “Whether AI is a cure or curse to cybersecurity for businesses.” The answer to the case will require a better understanding of AI at a deeper level.

The Prevailing critical Threats to Businesses

This information-driven age has somewhat made cyber threats more of a norm than an exception for businesses. Until now, most organizations had a small team responsible for their IT and cybersecurity operations. We can follow cyber-crime in automation. Recent developments suggest that these companies need more significant defenses as cyber crooks and their malware become more and more sophisticated.  

To prevent data theft following cyber disasters such as Marriott International/Starwood multi-year theft, every industry has been taking large measures to mitigate these cyber threats by improving data security across the board. One of which includes harnessing AI and machine learning to fortify their cyberspace against potential cyber risks. 

Moreover, as the digital economy expands, the cyber threat landscape typically follows suit. Compounding the situation is the application of machine learning and AI as hackers, and other bad actors look to scale their malpractices. The information all sounds nothing less than a harbinger of a worse hacking landscape in 2019.

How Are Companies Bolstering Cybersecurity Operations with AI?

According to Comcast Community, last year, businesses encountered more than 53,308 security breaches, of which 2,216 were data breaches. More than two-thirds of those crimes took six months or longer to detect. Besides, companies pay on average $40 million for a data breach that affects 1 million records.

Companies struggling with cybersecurity have more to lose than their data and potential profits; the loss could stretch to their customers. Seventy-eight percent of the U.S. customers taking part in a recent CBC poll said a company’s capability to keep their data private is extremely important, and 75 percent said they would not do business with organizations they’re unable to entrust their data to.

On the other hand, the cybersecurity industry is considering AI as a silver bullet in the face of a current shortage of almost 3 million cybersecurity experts globally. The shortfall of qualified security specialists is tainting how well organizations can react to existing cyber threats and head off new ones. 

AI technology is providing indispensable insights into cyber threats and buoying up the current IT security strategies. Moreover, the AI cyber security market is expected to reach a height of  $35 billion by 2024, as businesses recognize the threats are too challenging to manage without advanced technology.

AI-enabled technologies render a plethora of services related to running a healthy security posture, from network monitoring and risk control to detecting rising cyber threats and recognizing the scam. 

Hackers with their Real Intelligence Can Manipulate this “Artificial” Intelligence

Now, let’s see a different side of the same coin. Implementation of artificial intelligence in cyber security is enabling IT experts to predict and react to rising cyber threats quicker and more efficiently than ever before. But, how can they expect to respond when AI goes to the wrong hands? There has to come a better way to train employees more quickly to close the skills gap to help keep company information safe.

Yet AI technology can also become a real headache for cyber security specialists around the world. Just as security firms can use the AI algorithms to spot attacks, so can the hackers in a bid to launch more sophisticated attack operations.

One example out of many is Spear phishing – as implementing machine learning algorithms can enable cyber crooks to craft more enticing messages meant to dupe the victim into giving the intruder access to sensitive data or installing malicious programs.

Meanwhile, ransomware attacks are still a burning question, especially after the WannaCry episode that reportedly cost the British National Health System a whopping £92 million in losses – £20 million during the crime, between May 12 and 19, 2018, and a more of £72 million to refine and upgrade its IT networks – and the aftermath brought 19,000 healthcare appointment cancellations. We are all looking at the technology cybersecurity, even globally.

What does the Future Hold for AI?

The intelligence may be “artificial,” but the widespread risks could be too real. As more and more businesses are ready to embrace AI-driven tools as part of their security approach, researchers fear that this could trick the IT professionals into a false sense of security. 

Yet lowering our defense in the face of emerging cyber-crime trends could be a deadly mistake. AI tools aren’t  100% foolproof – as no cyber security program is – so coming up with a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach should be a priority for businesses. 

https://samplecic.ch/artificial-intelligence-a-tool-or-a-threat-to-cybersecurity.html

A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity

After delivering her report to President Obama last Friday, Melissa Hathaway, the Acting Senior Director for Cybersecurity for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils, today gave RSA Conference attendees in San Francisco a glimpse – what she called a “movie trailer” – into the state of U.S cybersecurity.

A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity

According to Hathaway’s 60 second trailer, the key to a cyber secure future lies in cooperation between the public and private sector and a united effort on both a hyperlocal front as well as globally.

A Manhattan Project to Defend Cyber Networks

Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues that Hathaway was involved in developing. The initiative was promptly dubbed ‘a Manhattan Project to defend cyber networks’ by the then Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff.

The CNCI, which began as a directive from President Bush in January 2008, received much criticism and, in part, led to Obama attacking the Bush administration during his campaign for not efficiently addressing cyber threats. “As president, I’ll make cyber security the top priority that it should be in the 21st century,” Obama said during a speech in July.

Unfortunately, as pointed out by Siobhan Gorman in the Wall Street Journal, the decision to hold a 60-day review suggests that any big move in the field of national cybersecurity was once again put off. Or was it?

Who is to Blame for Internet Security Problems?

“Despite all of our efforts,” Hathaway began, “our global digital infrastructure, based largely on the Internet is not secure enough or resilient enough for what we need today and what we need for the future.”

She explained that the original design of the Internet was driven more by considerations of interoperability rather than security, and as a result we are now faced with almost insurmountable issues. Some examples include online criminals who steal our information, mass bandits who have the ability to damage portions of our internal infrastructure, and the recent ATM scam that law enforcement sources claim is one of the most frightening and well coordinated heists they’d ever seen. “In a single 30 minute period,” Hathaway said, “138 ATMs in 49 cities around the world were illicitly emptied of their cash.” This can’t continue she explained, “Our goals depend on trust and that cannot be achieved if people believe they are vulnerable to these types of threats.”

The Trailer for the Path to National CyberSecurity

We need an agreed way to move forward which involves shared responsibility, Hathaway noted, if we are to have “trustworthy, resilient, reliable” cyberspace.

Describing cyberspace and its security as “a fundamental responsibility of our government that transcends the jurisdiction of individual departments and agencies,” Hathaway explained that although each government agency has a unique contribution to make, no single agency can see the overall picture and they’ll need to work together.

Additionally, the private and the public sectors need to join forces as they are “intertwined” when it comes to cybersecurity. “While it is the role of the government to protect its citizens, it is the private sector that in the main designs and owns the majority of the digital infrastructure,” she said.

Finally, Hathaway sees this as a unique opportunity for the United States to work with countries around the world, and with organizations on an extremely local level. “We cannot succeed if our government works in isolation,” she added. It requires “leading from the top” from the White House, to government departments, to the private sector, the C-Suite, and even deeper, to the local classroom and library.

Hathaway said that her report, the culmination of a 60-day comprehensive review to assess U.S. cyberspace policies and structures, will be made public in the next few days after the administration has had a chance to review the data.

https://samplecic.ch/a-60-second-trailer-of-the-60-day-report-on-cybersecurity-37.html

3 Ways to Create Cross-Functional Data Science Teams

Cross-functional teams utilize a group of people with different sets of expertise to work towards a common goal. When it comes to data science, thinking differently and having contrasting angles of analysis is essential to delivering well-rounded business insights. Create cross-functional data science teams for optimal success.

A data science cross-functional team may incorporate data scientists, analysts, predictive modellers and engineers – all working together towards a common goal. While this set-up can be an effective way of achieving tasks, cross-functional teams aren’t always successful.

Surveys from Strategy show that only six percent of employees working on these teams believe they’re consistently delivering impressive results. If your team doesn’t know that they are bringing you a great value, is why it’s important that you and your business are building an effective cross-functional team.

In regard to data science, a successful cross-functional team can help work across multiple modelling and prediction methods, utilizing different skills to produce business outcomes.

In developing an effective multi-layered data science team, there are certain steps you can take to ensure they deliver on your organizational needs.

1. Identify knowledge gaps (within your team) and hire accordingly

When constructing a cross-functional data science team, it’s integral to understand where the gaps are and hire for exactly what your company needs. It’s important that you know your existing team’s strengths and weaknesses so that you can hire the best skillset to work within your team.

Whether you’re hiring in the retail industry, analysing where you’re losing customers from your website, or in healthcare where patient data is being collated – your organization’s specific goals need to be outlined for specific roles to help a team perform efficiently.

When you’re putting together the team, you need to look at the processes of designing, integrating, supporting, securing, deploying and recycling. These functions help you focus on exactly what is needed from the team’s work. After knowing what is required, you can hire the right fit for your team and recognise who can fill a role from your current workforce, with or without some upskilling.

2. Invest early in the process i.e. plan ahead

It’s quite easy to look at research and ask your cross-functional data science team to simply analyse it for appropriate outcomes. However, instead of providing more general goals for the team, you need to work with them to understand exactly what issues you’ll be targeting — and plan ahead.

It’s also essential to know that your team goals shouldn’t be solely short-term or immediate. Focusing on the building blocks for long-term capability is crucial to each industries success.

Forecasting what your business objectives are for the next financial year – or even further down the track – has great bearing on the construction of your data science team. Not only do they need to be cross-functional for right now, but they need the capabilities to provide business success in the next three to five years.

3. Have a mix of specialists in your cross-functional team

Rather than having all-rounders in your team who can wear many hats, it’s vital to target specialists who can all bring something different to the table.

Teams can utilize data science professionals including:

  • DevOps Engineers
  • Data Scientists
  • Data Engineers
  • Product Developers

This mix of talent across the team not only allows people to achieve clear goals but also increases the team’s level of additional skills, working with specialists in other areas. What is the cost of keep essential data to oneself? Whether by accident, or design, it’s estimated that not sharing data and knowledge with other team members can cost a business up to $8,000 per day. Establishing your teams with a culture of sharing and openness is vital to growth-hacking potential.

An example of Agile work is where teams utilize short-term “sprints” to work through clearly defined tasks. When tasks are defined with exactness it leads to a focus where major goals can be reached rapidly. Having the right mix in your cross-functional data science team is a key factor in creating successful work, particularly using Agile methodology.

Moving into a successful data science team

Data science is an exciting and rapidly growing field being utilized by many organizations in pursuit of insights giving a decided edge in their businesses. Because of this, businesses are looking at building cross-functional teams of qualified data science professionals to help fulfill a number of different needs.

Fulling personal and professional goals means that your knowledge base needs to continue to expand.

The data science space will always require expert advice. Your business will benefit as you broaden your abilities in this area. Consider studying a Master of Data Science degree online. Whether you’re coming from an undergraduate data science background or you’ve already spent time working in IT or a data science related workplace — an online Masters can rapidily place you in line for work in a cross-functional team.

https://samplecic.ch/3-ways-to-create-cross-functional-data-science-teams.html

7 Companies Poised to Disrupt the Mobile Enterprise

The Disruptathon series came to San Diego this week for CTIA Enterprise and Apps to show off seven companies that could be poised to disrupt enterprise mobility. The last time we ran into Disrupathon the series was looking for startups that could disrupt the news industry at the USA Today building in northern Virginia in June. Mobile analytics and social mechanics application company Socialize took the top prize that day and was back at it in San Diego to attempt to garner more accolades.

7 Companies Poised to Disrupt the Mobile Enterprise

The competition in San Diego was stiff. Canvas helps companies with manual data collection processes while Zenius creates enterprise branded mobile wallets for its partners. Check out which companies took top honors this week at Disruptathon Mobile Enterprise.

The seven startups in San Diego were: Socialize, Canvas, Directra, DubLabs, FatStax, Hive and Zenius. Each one presented a unique idea to disrupt mobile enterprise solutions though some, like Socialize, may have been swimming in the wrong pool. A repeat was not in the offing.

Zenius took the top spot, winning three categories including best overall, most unique and best business model. Hive by Decode Solutions was right behind Zenius and won two categories for best design and best presentation. Zenius took home $20,000 and some hardware, one of the most substantial rewards at a Disruptathon ever. Check out below for a brief description of the entries.

Zenius — Zenius provides a platform for mobile payments and acceptance that allows companies to create their own branded mobile wallets or with a partner. It supports Visa, Discover, American Express and Mastercard as well as gift cards. Zenius enables mobile banking with NFC smartphones across operators.

7 Companies Poised to Disrupt the Mobile Enterprise

Canvas — Canvas lets enterprise build applications through manual data collections. The idea is to bring a business beyond paper by allowing companies to scan or take pictures of documents and bring it into a silo environment where it can be acted upon. Canvas also provides an application store for companies that do not want or cannot create their own mobile apps. It is like DropBox with more granular controls.

7 Companies Poised to Disrupt the Mobile Enterprise

Hive — Decode Solutions Hive allows companies to securely collaborate with team members and customers to help drive sales through mobile devices. Hive is built to keep sales teams “buzzing” together, especially if they are spread across the country. It is kind of like a BlackBerry Messenger meets Yammer for enterprise sales teams.

7 Companies Poised to Disrupt the Mobile Enterprise

CircleBack — DUBLabs CircleBack attempts to solve contact management challenges in mobile devices. Essentially, CircleBack allows you to enter an email in your smartphone and then it will go and find all the details for that person. If that person’s information changes, CircleBack will change it automatically. The possibility here is to help eliminate the clutter of business cards that are inherent in business transactions by letting CircleBack to the data input for you.

7 Companies Poised to Disrupt the Mobile Enterprise

Socialize — Socialize needs no introduction on the pages of ReadWriteWeb. Check out what we have written about the company here. In the enterprise it can help drive engagement and adoption of mobile apps while gaining insights into how users are behaving in those applications providing actionable data to developers.

7 Companies Poised to Disrupt the Mobile Enterprise

FatStax — Red Funnell Consulting brings FatStax which makes it simple to find products during a sales call without being online. FatStax fits with the theme of Disruptathon in San Diego that was sales. FatStax is an app that creates a searchable offline inventory that can be accessed wherever a sales professional is working.

7 Companies Poised to Disrupt the Mobile Enterprise

Directra — Directra is a private communication cloud with apps that connect employees. It can help notify specific groups, like sales or the IT team using voice, text or email and connect group members through the cloud. It also help maintain an audit trail that integrates an existing enterprise system. Directra looks like a good add-on product to an existing system but is probably still outclassed by Yammer.

7 Companies Poised to Disrupt the Mobile Enterprise
https://samplecic.ch/7-companies-poised-to-disrupt-the-mobile-enterprise.html

Resisting and Reducing Enterprise Storage Downtime

Downtime for an enterprise is the same as getting knocked out cold. The downtime is the inability to access essential data for extended periods is like getting an arm or a leg chopped off for an enterprise. Enterprise system downtime can cost millions in losses and lead to reputation damage, loss of business, and a lot of angry customers. Is it possible for an enterprise to recover from such losses? Often, the answer is “no.” Resisting and reducing enterprise storage downtime is essential.

In this article, we discuss how can organizations resist and reduce enterprise storage downtime.

What Threatens Your Enterprise Storage Systems?

When you think about the threats to enterprise data storage systems, the first thing that pops into your mind is probably ransomware. It’s logical to believe that ransomware is perhaps the biggest reason why businesses lose their data and experience downtime. But what do you know about data recovery?

Ransomware is a frequent re-occurrence in the daily news. Recently, it attacked several cities taking down city departments, disrupting numerous necessary local departments and affecting daily lives.

Resisting and Reducing Enterprise Storage Downtime

Atlanta, Baltimore, Florida City, are some of the recent ransomware attack victims. While ransomware is one of the more publicized threats, it’s not the only threat to enterprise data storage systems.

Causes of Enterprise Storage Downtime – Besides Ransomware

  • Hardware Failure:

Server crash, drive failure, power supply failure, network switch failure, network bottlenecks, etc. are involved in hardware failures.

  • Power Failure:

Power outage or loss of electrical power to the storage systems.

  • Accidental / Malicious Deletion:

Accidental deletion, also a part of human error, is when IT staff unintentionally delete a file or data volume.

Malicious deletion is usually experienced when a disgruntled employee is fired or leaves the company.

  • Software Malfunction:

Update failure, software crash, and rogue updates are referred to as software malfunction.

  • Human Error:

Apart from accidental deletion, this includes incidents where IT staff incorrectly configure privacy settings or forget to run updates and other similar instances. One good example would be how the Pentagon ended up exposing confidential data because it was made publicly available on AWS cloud instead of being configured as privately accessible.

Statistics suggest that human error accounts for 22% of enterprise system downtime. So ransomware is not the only threat, but there are a couple of others. But how damaging can enterprise storage downtime be? Let’s look at some numbers.

What Extent of Damage Are We Talking About?

It’s difficult to put a number of the losses incurred by enterprise storage downtime. That’s because the loss varies on a case-by-case basis. How many losses a business experienced due to downtime? It depends on the business type, and on how much the business depends on their data.

A report by Gartner puts the average cost of downtime to $5600 per minute to $300,000 per hour in web application downtime.

Resisting and Reducing Enterprise Storage DowntimeThe average cost of downtime to $5600 per minute to $300,000 per hour.

From 2017 to 2018, 24% of enterprises worldwide had to endure $300,000 to $400,000 per hour in losses due to downtime. (Source: Statista) But what’s the cost of system downtime for your business? Here’s a formula to help you with the numbers.

Lost Revenue = (GR/TH) x I x H

GR = Gross yearly revenue

TH = Total yearly business hours

I = Percentage Impact

H = Number of hours of outage

The numbers establish that downtime is the same to an enterprise as cutting an arm or a leg is to a human. But businesses such as: Wolverine or Deadpool can help you recover from fatal damage. Can your data storage systems have the same power? Yes, they can — but you have to plan ahead. The help doesn’t happen on its own.

How Can Your Enterprise Storage Systems Recover Fast?

There are a number of ways businesses can recover from downtime. For example, cloud backup, dedicated backup appliances, and online backup solutions are some of them.

Resisting and Reducing Enterprise Storage DowntimeUsing cloud backup, dedicated backup appliances, and online backup solutions are some ways to recover more quickly.

Look for solutions to recoverability. If you’re a fan of the mutant with claws and high regeneration, you know that he heals almost instantly, (Wolverine). How can enterprise data storage systems do that? Considering enterprise data storage systems have TeraBytes to PetaBytes of data — your solution can be quick.

Actually, it can.

For enterprises looking to recover within minutes, the go-to recovery solution should be a redundant hyper-converged backup and Disaster Recovery (DR) solution.

What are Hyperconverged Backup and Data Recovery Solutions?

Hyperconverged backup and data recovery (DR) solutions combine network, compute, storage, backup software, and a virtualization engine (hypervisor) in a single solution. There are many enterprise-grade hyper-converged backup & DR solutions available in the market. However, it’s tricky to find one vendor that offers everything.

For instance, Dell, HPE, Nutanix, offer hyper-converged storage infrastructure. However, neither has a backup solution to go with it. Therefore, users need to purchase third-party backup software with them. Things get complicated when you’re looking for hypervisors. Dell, HPE support Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware hypervisors and several others, but they don’t have their own hypervisor. Meaning, if businesses choose to purchase hardware from them, here’s what they have to go through:

  • Acquire the hardware from Dell, or HPE
  • Purchase hypervisor licenses from Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware
  • Deploy backup software from another third-party service provider

And then, of course, is the final task of combining everything and creating one large enterprise system — it’s pretty tricky.

A simple way to do it is to look for a backup and DR solution provider who can offer you everything that you need. One such vendor is StoneFly Inc. Instead of getting different components from different vendors and then doing everything, StoneFly does everything and offers turn-key hyper-converged backup and Data Recovery solutions.

How Hyperconverged Backup and Date Recovery (DR) Solutions Help with Enterprise Storage Downtime?

Hyperconverged solutions enable users to run applications, hosts, and mission-critical workloads as Virtual Machines. In the event of primary data storage system failure, users can spin up VMs directly on their hyper-converged backup and DR solution. Using the system directly saves time and reduces downtime considerably. By focusing on the data recovery of mission-critical workloads, businesses can recover faster.

Main operations come back online a lot quicker, the rest of the workloads recover in time. Recovering in time is the primary purpose of disaster recovery solutions. Features like Instant VM recovery, Full VM recovery, One-click recovery, are ideal for this use-case. The ability to spin up directly on the backup appliance and the above-mentioned features depend on the acquired solution and the backup software. Therefore, it’s recommended to ask the right questions before making the purchase.

Other Features to Look For in Reliable Backup and DR Solutions

These are much-needed features of an excellent hyper-converged backup & DR solution. Other features to look for in a reliable backup & DR solution include:

  • Synchronous or Asynchronous Replication
  • Snapshot
  • Encryption

Synchronous Replication

Synchronous replication enables users to create real-time replicas of pre-assigned data volumes at designated storage repositories. These repositories can be in the on-premises backup appliance, in an offsite device, or the cloud.

Asynchronous Replication

Asynchronous replication allows enterprises to schedule the creation of replicas of pre-assigned data volumes at designated storage repositories. Similar to synchronous replication, these repositories can be in the on-premises backup solution, in an offsite appliance, or in the cloud.

Encryption

Encryption effectively ensures data security for enterprise workloads. Even if the data is in a private network, on an appliance with restricted access, encryption helps make sure data is away and secure from the “wrong” people. If it’s a cloud-enabled backup solution, then it’s essential to look for encryption that secures data at rest, during transit, and after transit.

Snapshots

Snapshots are images of a system’s state in time. They record the condition that a system is in. The situation that the system is in will include the data that has been stored, installed or deleted applications, created files, videos, images, etc. Snapshots consume very little space, especially when compared to replication. With image-based snapshots, enterprises can recover from data loss, data corruption, and ransomware attacks.

Are Hyperconverged Backup and DR Solutions the Only Way to Resist Downtime?

No, they’re not the only way, but they are one of the best ways to do so. What other options do enterprises have to resist downtime? Here are some different ways to “regenerate” from downtime.

  • Cloud Backup and DR: Create backups in clouds like Azure or AWS and in the event of hardware failure, ransomware attack, or data corruption, recover from the cloud backups and turn the lights back on for your business.
  • High Availability Data Storage Systems: High Availability (HA) infrastructure helps ensure business continuity and reduced downtime, but how vendors incorporate offer HA for their storage systems varies.

For instance, StoneFly’s approach to HA infrastructure is that we offer disaggregated hardware along with redundant components in the equipment. Base HA configuration uses disaggregated storage controllers and RAID arrays. Each storage controller and RAID array has redundant power supplies and support features that make the system fault-tolerant.

HA infrastructure helps remove a single point of failure from enterprise data storage systems. Thus significantly reducing the possibility of enterprise storage downtime.

3-2-1 Rule: The 3-2-1 rule is a data protection strategy that guarantees greater availability for mission-critical enterprise workloads. The rule is that an enterprise must have three copies of data, stored on at least two storage media with one of them offsite, and this is accomplished in numerous ways.

For instance, using a cloud-enabled solution helps enterprises create multiple copies of data, store them in different storage media, and one of them is offsite. Learn more about the 3-2-1 rule.

Conclusion

Outages, with its resulting downtime is bad for enterprises. The best way to make sure that organizations keep running is to employ hyper-converged backup and DR solutions. Hyperconverged backup and DR solutions give enterprise data storage systems regenerative abilities like the Wolverine.

To make sure that enterprise data storage systems don’t come to a screeching halt, it’s always good practice to use high availability, fault-tolerant, and redundant storage solutions.

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The Evolution of Startups in India — The Story Up Until Now

Before we take a plunge into the Startup culture of India, let us first try understanding what exactly a startup is, and how does it function? Then we will tell the evolution of startups in India and the story until now.

What is a Startup?

Investopedia defines a startup as “a young company that is just beginning to develop.” A startups seeds are sown and sprouted either because the founder(s) have come up with a unique solution with a product (like a software or a physical product) or service. Usually, a product or service is to erase a complicated problem.

Many times the startups product or service is to provide a more efficient way around recreating and distributing a product or service that is already a business.

Success has its age-old formula inscribed in golden letters on every wall that reads:

“In order to become the one percent, you must execute the right idea, in the right direction, at the right time.”

When these three elements work in tandem, the output increases, the customer base expands, and the company automatically starts to grow exponentially.

Why do certain start-ups succeed when others fail?

Looking deeply into what does and doesn’t work for a startup, you will find that there is a lot more to a startup’s success than mere good luck and excellent conditions and coincidences.

Having good luck, having favorable conditions, and experiencing great coincidences are only a small part of the business. You will need to:

  • Have an idea that is exciting, effective, and feasible.
  • Hard-working management that knows how to bring the best in their employees.
  • Ability to anticipate future trends and adapt quickly to the rapidly changing business environment.
  • Presence of experienced Mentors who can effortlessly guide the team through tough times is always beneficial.
  • Building a workplace that values purpose before profits

Failures, on the other hand, occur majorly due to the following reasons:

  • Quitting too early in the process; lack of persistence
  • Running out of money.
  • Conceiving a wrong notion about the market: incorrect pricing, too slow on pick up, late in execution, etc.
  • Afraid of taking risks, experimenting, and diving all forces in.
  • Fearful of changes; inability to adapt.

Now that we know what sets a successful startup apart from an unsuccessful one let’s take a peek into India’s work ecosystem.

How did India utilize its resources to become a startup generating machine?

India is a young country with 65 percent of its population falling under the age bracket of 25 to 35 years. The rise of startups in India didn’t happen overnight but slowly, over a gradual period. It was in the year 2008, after a global recession hit the world, that the first startup revolution began to take shape.

The Great Recession caused businesses to reallocate their resources and lay off employees in large numbers. In India, it mostly affected the IT professionals, who grew extremely fearful for their jobs. This little fear, along with an insatiable aspiration to prove one’s mettle, shook the young nation. It didn’t take the countrymen long to break the shackles of mediocrity and rise above the challenge.

The Startup Ecosystem as it is TODAY.

Successful Startups almost always follow the same ideology:

“Chase the vision, not the money, and the money will end up following you.” – Tony Hsieh

In India, Startups are known for their flexible work culture, late-night parties, and an impartial and transparent work environment. According to Inc42, “India boasts more than 6,000 startups, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is confident that 44 percent of these startups are based in Tier II and Tier III cities. And their numbers are only rising.” At the moment, India is the second-largest startup ecosystem in the world.

According to a survey report by Innoven Capital, the major factors that make India one of the world’s most startup-friendly nations are:

  • Cost of doing business is pretty low.
  • Customers and vendors live nearby.
  • With 7 million graduates passing out every year, the size of the domestic market is pretty encouraging.
  • India has the 2nd largest internet user-base in the world.
  • Earlier, the best talent was limited to big corporations only.
  • The element and potential of entrepreneurship are seeping into Indian culture.
  • More individuals and professionals have started to dissociate themselves from the more prominent brands.

As Sanjay Nath, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Blume Ventures, tells YourStory:

Indian entrepreneurs never lacked imagination. But, in the last 10 years, the best talent has been limited to corporations. Now, that gap is being bridged. This reverse flow of talent is the most inspiring thing about the B2B startup sector right now.” 

List of 5 Indian startups that have done exceptionally well for their size and age.

Take a look at these picks — as described in their websites. As a startup, you can always learn and imitate a successful business to build your own success. I have chosen these sites for their excellence.

1. Milkbasket delivers milk, bread, eggs, butter, juices, and other daily need items every morning, right at your doorstep, free of charge.

2. Epigamia is a Greek Yogurt brand that has taken the yogurt shelves in India by storm.

3. StoryXpress– a Techstars-backed company, is an end-to-end video marketing platform that enables brands and retailers to convert their e-commerce product catalogs into videos at a fraction of the time and cost as compared to traditional video production houses.

4. Forest Essentials is an authentic, traditional skincare brand with its foundations in the ancient science of Ayurveda. A pioneer in the Luxury Ayurveda segment, today it has become the quintessential Indian beauty brand that combines the ancient beauty rituals of Ayurveda with a stylish, modern aesthetic for a more relevant emphasis on efficacy, sensorial experience, and pleasure of usage

5. Paytmis India’s largest leading payment gateway that offers comprehensive payment services for customer and merchants. We offer mobile payment solutions to over 7 million merchants and allow consumers to make seamless mobile payments from Cards, Bank Accounts, and Digital Credit, among others.

The Indian youth and community aren’t afraid of casting aside their 9 to 5 jobs.

These entrepreneurs are all set to break the glass ceiling and attain powerful leadership roles in their businesses, cities, and globally. As more Indian startups and entrepreneur become professionals, they look for increasing ways to succeed. New entrepreneurs and companies are encouraging their employees to express themselves freely. The new freedom to speak up and share ideas is allowing the Indian culture to get all manner of ideas for their success. Success builds on success. After all, even more than having an idea is the culture of the freedom to voice your ideas. The generation of new ideas in the workplace will decide whether or not that startup is going to succeed.

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Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You

In business, these days, startups and entrepreneurial setups are trending heavily. Maybe startups and entrepreneurial structures will always trend as everyone wishes to initialize a small business for their passive income.  Building for passive income is a good idea, but people can struggle and fail regretfully while developing their small or medium businesses. There are small business marketing strategies that will work for you.

You Can Find Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You

Every business, including B2B or B2C, has to bear the financial loss in their implementing their business strategies. Things are more difficult for the small business owner or entrepreneur with limited capital investment. These small scale businesses lack time management skills and workforce.

Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You— Small scale businesses sometimes lack time management skills for workforce —

Beside all these struggles, such small scale startups are gaining significance day by day. We all hear success stories of young entrepreneurs, and the secret of their immense recognition is smooth business marketing strategies. If you want to be among those successful entrepreneurs, we welcome you to the learning of SMB marketing strategies.

Planning goals and budget.

Deciding and jotting down the mission and vision of your business is a key task. With every goal, you need to make a plan for it to execute successfully with a deadline. And every deadline requires a reasonable budget. The goals should be practical and effective for your business. Be careful in drafting a budget with sync with your financial boundaries. Once you start implementing your goals, keep a track on the progress, and prioritize them.

Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You— Keep track of your budgeted and business priorities — Take help from Google’s Local Offerings.

Google is the largest successfully trending search engine, and at just one search, you can receive a lot of help for your small scale business. Taking your business in the digital world is always a good option as chances of profit are maximized. Google business accounts help in easy management of your business. You can back up your financial information like operations, hours of work, wages, and profits. You can put all your google approaches like Google Play and Google Drive in one place. Putting all operations in one place will provide more visibility to customers.

Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You— Lump all of your Google Helps for small businesses together — Use popular social media platforms for advertisement.

Make all of your business accounts social media websites — and work them. Social media attracts more leads than retail marketing. Everyone uses Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to search for online shopping stores and coupon codes. If your business has no visibility on social media channels, you lack the most significant marketing well. You can also use your social channels for sponsored ads.

Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You— Leverage your social channels for your small business-best-practices — Couponing.

Approaching coupon provider websites is another tool of marketing. You can approach popular coupon websites like Groupon and Finder to let the world know about your services and products. Coupon codes like free shipping or 40 percent discount help in driving leads and popularity. Display your coupon codes on your website, emails, and social media channels.

Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You— Try a few different couponing sites to see who helps your business best — Content Marketing.

Ignite your social media accounts and websites with the right content. Be careful in using search engine optimization content. Make sure you equip your content with right trending keywords. Format your blogs with title tags, meta tags, description, and headings like the H1, H2. Populate your website with regular blogs and articles. Make your content relevant, profitable, and consistent. Don’t limit your content only to blogs and articles; switch to video marketing, podcasts, and pictures. Display the content in captivating captions.

Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You— Display all your content with captivating captions on all social sites — Email Marketing.

Creating content is not the only thing. You need to make sure it approaches the audience. Email marketing is an effective marketing strategy. It helps in creating bonding between the brand and customers. Be careful not to flood your subscriber with notifications that will cause them to unsubscribe. Make the notifications valuable to your customer, such as discount offers, updates, event information, or coupon codes. Be sure any strategy you plan or use in marketing is mobile-friendly emails because most of the people check emails on mobiles.

Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You— Work with the best emails strategy available and stay up-to-date — SEO support.

SEO is the biggest asset of any successful website. It comprises of SEO content, indexing, keyword analytics, hyperlinking of sites, and working on the website to make it prominent on result pages. Consumers trust those business websites which are displayed on the top organic searches. Without a proper SEO team, your business will gain credibility.

Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You— Work to get higher in search by working your SEO efforts –. Collaborate and partner with local business groups. 

Investing or partnering with local business groups can help in gaining popularity. You may ask investors to invest in your startups by approaching the right business popularity. Partnership elevates the annual revenue of the business. More capital means more chances of expanding the scope of your company.

With local business groups, you can get ideas for developing your startups. You will learn new tactics for flourishing in your business. Try to imitate their marketing and budget-saving techniques.

Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You— Look at how other businesses have grown their businesses and copy it — Showcase your company at events.

After getting in contact with the business community, attend their annual or weekly fairs. Set up your business posters and stalls to let the crowd know. Try to speak as a guest in the function. In your speech, share the success story of your startup. Share the mission and vision of your business and how it is making a difference in the lives of people. A broad public mostly attends events, and they broadcast over all the internet, “look at me, I’m at this awesome event.” So, you’ll garner a significant chance of real-time marketing.

Small Business Marketing Strategies that Will Work for You— Become a better speaker. Take a class, showcase your new skill —

As an entrepreneur and small scale business, you’ll want to find and use all of the techniques and strategy you can leverage to grow your business. Take time to increase in learning all types of business knowledge and how-to’s, then apply your skillset and share what you know with others. The fundamentals to be an entrepreneur and run a small business lie in the concept of planning and implementation. A smooth plan will help you achieve outstandingly well.

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Crowdfunding Your Startup at 700 Percent Oversubscribed

The jobs act promised small individual investors the ability to invest in the next Google. It also pledged founders an alternative route to raising money. Why should only the already rich get the benefits of investing in the next Google or Amazon?

Less risk for the new startup investors.

According to Entrepreneur, “Seventy-five percent of venture-backed startups fail.” Investing in startups is a risky affair, yet investors are will to take these risks because of the potential of significant upsides.

For founders, having a new source of capital has a definite upside.

Having access to crowdfunding platforms are not just for small startups anymore. As of 2018, “since its launch, nearly 1,000 companies have registered with the SEC on 50 platforms, and over $127 million has been committed to campaigns.”

Before acquisition the then SeedInvest CEO Ryan Feit previously said, “With over 37,000 accredited investors, SeedInvest is by far the largest platform in terms of the number of high net worth investors. Also, unlike other platforms, we have family offices, venture funds, and high net worth individuals who can write checks between $250,000 and $2 million.”

Platforms are changing; not all platforms are the same.

“This sets us apart from all other platforms and ultimately results in larger raises for startups on SeedInvest. We have never been interested in simply trying to list more startups than other platforms or generate the most investment volume. Historically we have only launched one percent of the startups that apply to raise capital, and we invest meaningful time in those startups we select.”

Andy Pandharikar, Commerce.AI CEO, said, “Commerce.AI is building a billion-dollar company. Part of our mission is to democratize artificial intelligence. We originally planned to raise an initial $100,000 on the platform a year ago. The opportunity was 700 percent oversubscribed. We literally had to turn down investors. This funding helped us grow our company while progressing our mission.”

Raising more money in a different way.

“Now, a year later,” says Andy, “we are back to raise more money. This time we are raising an additional $750,000 capital from SeedInvest. We want to offer seed investors the opportunity to be part of our success before institutional VC’s take all the allocation. We plan to raise a limited amount from SeedInvest first, and then get institutional investors for the rest as we scale revenue.”

According to Andy, “Since the last round, we have had 890 percent growth in revenue and achieved great customer success. We have signed paid deals with large enterprise brands such as Cisco, Chanel, Netgear, Coca Cola, Midea, USPS, and SC Johnson.” Overall, Andy continues, “We have been delighted with the seed funding process.”

New platforms allowing additional and varied investments levels will catapult opportunity in the crowdfunding space.

While not everyone will experience the same results as Andy and Commerce.AI, platforms like SeedInvest mean you no longer have to have a black book of contacts. No longer must you have a list brimming with top-tier Angel Investors or Venture Capitalists to help you build tomorrow’s technology today.

The bottom line is that crowdfunding platforms for startups might just be the best new way to secure the funding you need to make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality.

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10 Crypto Gurus You Have to Follow

The world of cryptocurrency is still new, and we all need guidance. Paying attention to people who understand the technology and can explain what’s going on could be helpful. Here are ten crypto gurus you just have to follow.

  • Charlie Lee
  • Charlie Lee is the creator of Litecoin, the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. He was born to Chinese parents in Ivory Coast but moved to the United States when he was thirteen. He studied computer science at MIT, then worked for a couple of software firms before joining Google. It was there that he first came across the blockchain. He sees Litecoin not as a competitor to Bitcoin but as a complement to it. He hopes that people will use Litecoin for everyday purchases while using Bitcoin for large international transactions. Follow Charlie @SatoshiLite.

  • Ran Neuner
  • Ran Neuner came to cryptocurrency from the world of marketing. Between 2001 and 2015, he built Africa’s biggest sales and marketing agency, eventually selling it to the French advertising firm Publicis. Now enraptured by blockchain technology, he presents the Crypto Trader show for CNBC Africa. You can find his videos on his website CryptoManRan.

  • Peter Kent
  • Peter Kent has written more than 60 books on topics covering technology, business, and online marketing. He has now created a video course called Crypto Clear: Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency Made Simple. He explains how to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrencies securely. He’s a great place to turn when you’re looking to learn crypto fast.

  • Jimmy Song
  • While Peter Kent explains cryptocurrencies to mainstream audiences, Jimmy Song is a programmer who talks to other tech people. He worked on Bitcoin Core, and was VP Engineering at Armory, the  Bitcoin wallet. He’s now the editor of Bitcointechtalk.com and the author of Programming Bitcoin, a guide to coding the cryptocurrency. His Medium posts are a must-read.

  • Vinny Lingham
  • Vinny Lingham is a serial entrepreneur and one of the investors on South Africa’s version of the Dragon’s Den TV show. His companies have included Gyft, a mobile gift card company; Yola, a website-building firm; and more recently, Civic, a blockchain-based personal identity firm. His personal website, VinnyLingham, is occasionally updated but a rich source of important thoughts about cryptocurrencies. You can also find him @vinnylingham.

  • Changpeng Zhao
  • Changpeng Zhao came into the world of cryptocurrency from conventional finance. He wrote software for the Tokyo Stock Exchange and for Bloomberg Tradebook, before founding Fusion Systems, a Shanghai company that conducted high-frequency trading for brokers. From there, he moved into crypto, first as CTO of OKCoin, then as the founder of what would become the world’s biggest exchange, Binance. He tweets a lot.

  • Laura Shin
  • Laura Shin was a senior editor of Forbes who was given the cryptocurrency beat. She’s now branched out on her own, publishing a newsletter and the Unchained podcast on all things crypto. For anyone interested in the blockchain world, her podcasts are unmissable.

  • Patrick Byrne
  • Patrick Byrne is the founder of Overstock, an online retail giant that was also one of the first big Internet firms to accept Bitcoin. But Byrne isn’t limiting himself to accepting payments in cryptocurrencies. He’s also investing in a number of crypto ventures. His Medici Ventures conglomerate, a subsidiary of Overstock, contains companies that use the blockchain to secure identities, build land ownership records, protect elections, and manage agriculture, among other uses. He doesn’t tweet much but he does sometimes take part in debates and talks.

  • Taylor Monahan
  • Taylor Monahan started her tech career as a Front End developer. When Ethereum launched, she and her partner started MyEtherWallet to help people create paper wallets and use the Ethereum blockchain. Three years later, Monahan left to set up MyCrypto, a cryptocurrency wallet. She tweets but also posts regularly on Medium.

  • Justin Sun
  • Justin Sun might just be most famous for bidding $4.5 million to pitch his cryptocurrency platform TRON to Warren Buffett. Before creating TRON, Sun had been an advisor to Ripple and was the CEO of BitTorrent. If you want to know what information Sun believed was worth paying $4.5 million to share, you can join the million-plus people following his Twitter account.

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