The 10 Most Innovative Google Solution Providers 2019

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Vol - 3 March - 2019 Issue - 10

The 10 Most Innovative Google Solution Providers 2019

Revenue Tips SaaS Can Create Business Developments with Dierent Revenue Streams

Energy EďŹƒcient Technology Green Cloud Computing Saving Energy through Technology

Andrew Young Founder

Core and More Technologies A Go to Partner for Digital Marketing Solutions

E Data Protection! Boon or Bane?

D

ata Protection!

In recent years, these two words have changed the world of information technology. Data protection is no longer just an issue that is entirely technical (mostly due to its massive commercial and political impact).

Recently in 2018, European Union introduced GDPR which is basically data protection legislation. Not only from Europe, several tech giants across the world also had to testify before the Congress regarding data protection and privacy in the United States.

However, even after multiple measures taken by the security companies or the governments the frequency and complexity of cyber-attacks is increasing every day. Recently, we have witnessed the increase in ransomware, malware, inside attacks and hijacking IT resources in order to mine cryptocurrency.

However, currently organizations are trying to resist all these by taking few very important steps. So, let’s have a look at some of the trends that could change the way how we use internet and share our data; Internet is a global playground, more and more countries and their governments are slowly recognizing cyber attacks and cyber defense as key elements. So, organizations that are working from countries which lacks data protection and security laws needs to be much more conscious regarding their digital assets from their competitors. According to various agencies, 2019 will be year of corporate espionage and intelligence capturing.

With time, perimeter-less corporate network is gaining traction, and it possesses even bigger challenge to secure all enterprise data that are outside of the corporate network. So, we can expect a slow but steady improvement in integration and management tools so that organizations can manage their digital assets no matter where ever they are hosted.

“

Your data is secure!

Prominence of this simple sentence is beyond everything in the digital era we live in

“

Kaustav Roy

Since last few years, application delivery is slowly migrating towards software-as-a-service model, which means the security around various cloud based application needs substantial improvement. Organizations are slowly securing these apps.

However, due to the ease of access, organizations are consistently introducing themselves to various risk factors.

So, with great enthusiasm Insights Success Magazine has shortlisted, “The 10 Most Innovative Google Solution Providers, 2019” that are ensuring optimal efficiency and security.

For this issue as the cover story, we have Core and More Technologies Inc., which is world’s leading provider of digital marketing solutions.

We have also shortlisted, DefinedLogic, which is a full service digital agency built to seize new opportunities and solve today’s toughest business challenges; Zive, which is the producer of Kiwi for G Suite and Kiwi for Gmail, a highly rated desktop client for Mac and Windows users which takes Gmail and G Suite out of the browser and into app form; Pervorm, who solves digital challenges for scale-ups and established global brands, by organizing fluid teams of experts to optimize towards business goals; CAPSiDE, which delivers best cloud managing services to the multinational companies.

Happy Reading!

Cover Story

08

Core and More Technologies: A Go to Partner for Digital Marketing Solutions

22 Revenue Tips SaaS Can Create Business Developments with Dierent Revenue Streams

Articles

34 Energy EďŹƒcient Technology Green Cloud Computing Saving Energy through Technology

Contents 20 CAPSiDE: Revamping the Phases of Cloud Transformation

32 Pervorm: Accelerating Brands into the Digital Future

26 DeďŹ nedLogic: Driving Your Digital Purpose

38 Zive, Inc.: Designing Better Cloud-based Applications

28 40

16

Digi Transformation: Decoding Digital Transformation for Utilities

Cloud Insights: Using AI to Automatically Optimize Cloud Costs

Tech Perspective: RisingMobile Workforce and its Challenges in the Mobile-Cloud Era: Data & Endpoint Management

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Anish Miller

Executive Editor

Assistant Editors

Kaustav Roy

Jenny Fernandes Ishan Mittal

Visualizer

Art & Design Director

Associate Designer

David King

Amol Kamble

Iresh Mathapati

Senior Sales Manager Co-designer

Co-designer Aparna

Business Development Manager

Passi D.

Peter Collins

Marketing Manager

Sales Executives

John Matthew

David, Kevin, Mark, Prasad

Technical Head

Business Development Executives

Jacob Smile

Steve, Joe, Alan, Pranay

Technical Specialist Aditya

Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza

SME-SMO Executive Prashant Chevale

Research Analyst Patrick James

Database Management Stella Andrew

Circulation Manager Robert Brown

Technology Consultant David Stokes

sales@insightssuccess.com March, 2019 Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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Reprint rights remain solely with Insights Success.

The

10

Most Innovative

Solution Providers

2019

Core and More Technologies A Go to Partner for Digital Marketing Solutions

“

We are always seeking to strengthen our offerings and increase value for our customers.

“

Cover Story

Andrew Young Founder

N

owadays most of the world and most businesses have moved to the online sales model instead of sticking to the age old brick and mortar shops. Online stores or businesses eventually help customers to buy anything from anywhere. So born, Core and More Technologies (CMT), a world’s leading provider of digital marketing solutions. Founded in 2010, the quality of CMT services has led to viral growth on a global scale and with consistent year-over-year status as a Google Premier Partner. What makes CMT a unique organization is its unrelenting commitment to customer service – a quality that helps transform its status from that of another service provider to that of a trusted business

partner for each and every one of their clients. Through all of this and a robust partnering strategy, CMT seeks to continue their rapid growth, their track record of client success, and trendsetting contributions to the industry.

CMT’s growing list of clients includes major customers in California, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Canada, and the EU. The organization’s growth has been directly proportional to its talent pool, scaling up through purely organic re-investment funded by increases in its own revenues. This has enabled CMT to remain efficiently lean. At the same time, CMT has expanded its offerings and streamlined its value

chain to meet customer demand more rapidly, thereby strengthening their value proposition.

Path Breaking Solutions CMT offers world-class website design and development including full-scale ecommerce integration services, customer relationship management and marketing automation solutions, search engine optimization, paid search promotions (aka SEM) including search, display, shopping and remarketing strategy and execution, as well as social media marketing services. CMT also offers expert level, advanced reporting services through a set of customized modules built upon the Google Data Studio.

“

An integral part of our customer philosophy is our consistent commitment to service and support.

“

CMT organization often acts as the virtual marketing arm of its clients.

Through an unwavering commitment to complete transparency, CMT strives to meet customer demand more rapidly which in turn helps to not only boost performance, but also to expand its strategic partnering opportunities. An integral part of Core and More Technologies’ customer-centric philosophy is its consistent commitment to service and support.

Exceeding the financial return objectives of their clients and partners is one measure of success here. The actual relationship is also very valuable to CMT. The organization believes the tremendous success that Core and

More Technologies has enjoyed is directly proportional to the results they have helped their customers to achieve.

Through its partner program, Core and More Technologies offers proven methodologies and efficient processes to unrelated vendors and competitors alike. Two distinct groups benefit from CMT’s partner program: Vendors providing ancillary web services who would like to expand their solution suite without hiring the necessary resources immediately. Ÿ Direct competitors of internet marketing services with a need to quickly and cost-effectively expand their available pool of resources. Ÿ

Thanks to Core and More Technologies, vendors can now accelerate both their SEO and PPC campaign deployments – enabling them to place more focus on their own strategic planning and growth objectives while also meeting customer demand more rapidly. The organization also believes, together, that both the client and CMT can truly set the pace for digital marketing innovation in a fiercely competitive marketplace.

Veteran Leadership Andrew Young founded Core and More Technologies back in 2010. He is an industry veteran with nearly 20 years of experience spanning corporations both large and small as well as entrepreneurship on the agency

“

At Core and More Technologies, we treat every client like they are our only client.

“

side. Since founding CMT in 2010, Andrew has been a frequent speaker at regional industry events, local universities, and community events including the local Chamber of Commerce. He is actively engaged in all daily functions and remains committed to the vision and direction of the company. Under his leadership, CMT has been the recipient of numerous industry awards and recognitions while also enjoying explosive and exponential growth and expansion. However, he is always the first one to say that it is not about him – it is a great overall team that makes CMT what it is.

solutions and amazing results for their clients. This ultimately led to additional business referrals within and around the Silicon Valley area, which in turn resulted in numerous industry recognitions and awards. The cuttingedge, integrated solutions that powered this growth were based upon the concept of a cross-channel data sharing model driven purely by performance observations.

Leveraging Latest Innovations In early 2012, CMT’s proudest moment was noted when it achieved status as a Google Partner. Through way of this process, the organization learned how best to leverage the latest innovations in search engine marketing to deliver powerful, integrated digital

According to the company, the industry is ever changing – as is the competitive landscape in the advertising world.

For an example, in 2016 after two years with CMT, one of its major ecommerce (aka B2C or business to consumer sales) clients was enjoying the absolute best digital performance in

Over the years, CMT has learned that nothing in the digital marketing industry ever remains the same.

Complacency is synonymous with stagnation.

the seventeen-year history of their company. Enter Amazon into the retail space within which they compete.

Everything from search to shopping, from impression share to cost per click, was turned on its head. Forced to adapt to a world completely reshaped by way of a disruptive Amazon strategy, CMT guided them to a safe return to a strong competitive position and consistent profitability that remains today. While most of the competition has abandoned the playing field – with the help of CMT, they enjoy steady and continuous performance in a brave new world.

Future Roadmap Google remains the king of convergent digital marketing platforms, whether be it in a transactional or brand awareness model. Innovative new tools powered by artificial intelligence in its many forms will continue to evolve. Virtual reality applications will also play an increasing role in creating

online product experiences that will drive additional sales uptake, the better that an agency is able to understand these tools and translate their potential into effective strategy, the more successful their clients will become.

Driven by necessity, tenacity, customer delight, and a desire to continue their upward surge, CMT will always be at the forefront of agencies embracing change and thereby renewing their approaches on an ongoing basis. This will enable Core and More Technologies to continue accelerating innovation, expanding opportunities for its partners, and creating additional value for the clients.

Client Feedback Ÿ “Having worked with the team at Core and More Technologies for the past five years, I have found them to be incredibly responsive, very resourceful, highly energetic, and completely honest. They are truly an extension of our internal team, and they are constantly bringing new ideas to the table as we embark upon vertical market expansion and international growth. The results have been consistent and ongoing, and we look forward to expanding our partnership with them.” -Josh Zaroor, Director of Marketing and Competitive Intelligence – BlackBerry AtHoc, San Mateo, CA

Ÿ

“Running a business that functions largely online and with thousands of product SKU’s, the ability of our digital marketing agency to manage a vast and growing inventory (in-stock and out of stock) and helping us to grow efficiently, while also protecting us against surging costs and fluctuating demand, presents a very tall order.

As a matter of fact, it requires a truly creative partner, which is much more than just a marketing agency. That is exactly what Core and More Technologies has been for us.” -Steve Kraidman, Founder and President, PerfumesWorld – Edison, NJ

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Using

AI to

Automatically Optimize

Cloud costs T

he Birth of Cloud Computing

Back in the early days of cloud computing, if we would tell you that every business and consumer would eventually be running their entire compute and storage infrastructure digitally, we would sound crazy. But just 17 years later, it seems inevitable that the old world of data centers and on-premise servers will go the way of the physical newspaper and radio.

Indeed, even Andy Jassy, CEO of AWS, didn’t envision this future back in 2000. At the time, Amazon was simply struggling to scale despite hiring a lot of new developers. Jassy, who was Amazon’s Chief of Staff at the time, dove into the problem to discover that the hardware and infrastructural needs simply were not being met fast enough. Jassy set out to speed up this process internally, allowing the internal R&D team to access a pool of common compute and storage resources, making it easier for each to launch their own projects without needing to deal with the underlying infrastructure. Eventually, at a team summit in 2003, they realized this was a need for every other company on the planet, and so AWS was born.

16

The birth of Spotinst: Rising cloud costs Today, there is a similar revolution beginning in the world of cloud computing. One still in its early stages, but seemingly destined to grow just as quickly as AWS. “Spotinst aims to be the largest provider of cloud infrastructure without running any servers,” says Amiram Shachar, CEO & Founder of Spotinst. The statement is bold on its own, but when you dive a bit deeper, not much bolder a claim than had you asked Andy Jassy the same back in 2003.

Just as Jassy found an internal struggle today, Spotinst began with Shachar’s identification of a problem at his company, then Lycos Global Group. As Director of DevOps, Shachar was pressed with the task of migrating all Lycos’ servers to the cloud, but costs quickly jumped.

“Within a couple of months of moving to the cloud, our costs had actually risen dramatically, way beyond any calculator that we used to predict it” continued Shachar.

“To the point where we were actually planning to move everything back to on-premise.”

Just around that time, Shachar encountered the relatively unused offering at AWS, called Spot Instances. Spot |March 2019|

Cloud Insights

Amiram Shachar Chief Executive OfďŹ cer

About the CEO Amiram Shachar is CEO & Founder of Spotinst, which leverages excess cloud capacity to help customers save ~80% on cloud costs.

Before Spotinst, he was Director of DevOps at Ybrant Media and led the Israeli Defense Forces migration to the cloud.

|March 2019|

17

Instances were spare server capacity at AWS, cleverly packaged to enable monetization of these servers. AWS offered these idle servers for massive 90% discounts with one major caveat - they’ll kick you off once a customer wants to pay full price for those servers.

Shachar smelled opportunity. “By building algorithms that could predict the spare capacity terminations in advance, we could then migrate to another spare server beforehand, saving us 80% on our cloud costs.” After a few months, Shachar and his team were running nearly 75% of their compute power on AWS spare capacity. Just like Jassy back in 2003, the lightbulb eventually went off - there was a far larger opportunity at hand here.

The virtual cloud: run code without dealing with cloud providers “All companies running on cloud struggle to keep costs down,” Shachar says. “But with a long list of priorities including security and maintaining site reliability, DevOps teams often don’t have the time to do all of the work required to optimize cost.” But while Spotinst’s first product was aimed at helping companies reliably leverage spare capacity to reduce costs, Shachar and his co-founders, Liran Polak and Aharon Twizer, had a bigger vision.

Today, managing cloud infrastructure has become just as complex as running on-premises. With a plethora of new AWS, Google, and Azure offerings launching every month, along with an increasingly vast list of companies that build off these offerings, figuring out the balance between cost and performance is a major challenge. But, Shachar envisions a world where you don’t have to.

ensure that your applications are always running on the most cost-effective servers, given your performance requirements. Instead of exploring the long list of alternatives within and across the different cloud providers, Spotinst will take care of it all under the hood.

Today, their platform recognizes any workload that could be run on a cheaper server. Just put those workloads under Spotinst’s control and their algorithms will take care of the rest - those workloads will forever run on the cheapest servers available. All without compromising performance or availability.

Using a new Serverless offering, where developers can simply write code without dealing with any of the underlying infrastructure, Spotinst aims to deliver on this promise in a major way. “All you should ever have to do is write code,” says Shachar. “Our algorithms will make sure it is always running on the most cost-effective infrastructure, across all cloud providers, for your performance and availability needs.” In other words, just write the code, and Spotinst will make sure it always runs at the lowest cost possible for your performance needs.

As Shachar says, “in 10 years, just as everyone is making the shift to cloud today, they will be making the shift to Serverless computing. Only with Spotinst, they’ll be able to also ensure they are paying the best possible price, all without doing anything.” The promise of companies all running a perfectly optimized cloud without ever dealing with the infrastructure seems bold.

But as we learned from Jassy and AWS, in another 10-15 years, it may just be an inevitability.

The promise of the virtual cloud The promise of Shachar’s vision is simple at heart - a virtual cloud. Spotinst will leverage machine learning to

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|March 2019|

The

10

Most Innovative

Solution Providers

2019

Josep Ruano Founder & CEO

CAPSiDE: Revamping the Phases of Cloud Transformation

E

very organization desires to stay ahead of its competency.

And mostly, prefers to adapt technological advancements for attaining such stature. Although, the volatile disruptions in IT sector have reinvented the course of customary business methods yet, many still strive to adapt Cloud transformation.

Meet CAPSiDE, a leading European Cloud Managed Services provider.

Its cloud technology not only simplifies the complexities faced by customers but also deliver proven benefits. Born in 2001, CAPSiDE has matured its expertise in Cloud Architecture, SysOps, DevOps and SecOps and has assisted many multinational companies by running their critical infrastructure. Whether just starting a Cloud transformation journey or executing a Cloud adoption strategy, CAPSiDE is committed to help you by combining Cloud consultancy, enablement, design, automation and 24/7 operation. Their vendor-neutral approach has been a key to develop

20 01

top-notch solutions and cloudautomation tools to boost their client’s Cloud transformation.

Captivating Solutions CAPSiDE’s expertise in both hybrid and public Cloud environments has been the driving factor behind its exceptional Cloud solutions.

CAPSiDE’s holistic approach on Cloud consultancy and enablement provides the latest insights on the newest Cloud-related technologies.

Cloud Architects at CAPSiDE are nurtured on bleeding-edge technologies, and use the necessary tools in each project according to the requirements and the real business needs.

Additionally, CAPSiDE has developed a set of Cloud-automation tools that boost the use of Cloud computing. One of them is ENZiME®, a blue/green code deployment engine that enables customers to improve DevOps workflow, automate code

deployments and accelerate time-tomarket. REPLiCA® is another tool that allows consistent launches of complex infrastructures in the Cloud.

The use of its own Cloud-automation tools combined with continuouslytrained engineers enhance the performance of Cloud environments which are designed automated and operated by CAPSiDE. The Spearhead of the CAPSiDE Josep Ruano, the Founder and CEO of CAPSiDE has worked in the software industry for more than 20 years, holding positions in software engineering, technical lead and team management. He is a frequent speaker in Cloud Computing, Software Engineering and Digital Transformation, which has made him a key influencer in the Cloud transformation of several companies.

He also has been tailoring the minds of the future leaders by teaching at prestigious business schools about Digital Transformation.

|March 2019|

Alongside navigating the Cloud landscape, Josep has infused a culture of achieving the right worklife balance at CAPSiDE. His passion for cooking reflects in the company’s employee training programs. Josep takes pride in investing 6 per cent of the company’s turnover for internal training programs, while closer to 18 per cent is allotted for Research & Development—towards improving tools and technologies for the infrastructure and systems automation. This adds potential to the engineering team to make systems as automated as possible, and handle exceptions through a single tier of on-going support system. By ensuring the quality and maturity of the company’s processes, CAPSiDE became one of the key leaders in Cloud transformation when companies started to pivot to the Cloud.

consistent launches of complex infrastructures in the Cloud. The use of REPLiCA® as a governance tool is essential for IT managers as it allows companies to directly control each Cloud environment.

Google Cloud related technologies while leveraging the power of Google Cloud to develop new tools that will boost their clients’ performance.

Testimonies from Client’s

Another challenge that companies face while migrating to Google Cloud is the lack of knowledge and expertise. Even though Google Cloud Platform is an easy environment to start a Cloud transformation, it is important to develop a good Cloud strategy.

“Not only they are technically good profiles, but they also know your platform very well. You don’t have to give them any details, and it doesn’t matter who picks up the phone. It doesn’t matter if it is Guillem, Rael, Luis Alberto… everyone knows exactly how your infrastructure is configured.” Belén Jódar, CTO at Grupo Zeta – Diario SPORT

Making the

“Our company works everyday with sensitive data world more reliable and critical information. The legal standards and through the design, government obligations are also one of the principal automation and 24/7 aspects that can affect our business. We needed someone operation trustworthy, able to develop a of Critical Cloud great cloud structure focusing on security and the people at Platforms.

CAPSiDE knew exactly what to do. The service was attentive, and the outcoming results couldn’t have been better. We haven’t worked with another SysOps company since then.” -Philippe Gelis, CoFuture Endeavours Founder and CEO at Kantox.

CAPSiDE has been working with Google Cloud Platform since its inception. Therefore, the team at CAPSiDE has had on-going training on new Google Cloud features for many years.

‘‘

“This is an important differentiator in terms of response and issue-solving time. Since we focus on systems that cannot fail, our senior engineers attend to any alert in less than 10 minutes round the clock,” states Josep.

Tackling Obstacles with Better Tools The primary challenge faced by any public cloud vendor is regarding the governance in Cloud environments.

Most of the times, IT and Financial managers both are scared to make the change because it may turn into bigger costs and fewer infrastructures control. Whereas CAPSiDE has developed REPLiCA®, a Cloud management tool that allows |March 2019|

The company plans to continue delivering cloud solutions on Google Cloud Platform for the upcoming future. To do so, CAPSiDE will continue training its team to the latest

21

SAAS Can Create

Business Developments

with Different

Revenue Streams

S

aaS or ‘Software as a Service’ is being used rigorously in current business ventures as it provides more accuracy and vision to any business project. Interestingly, with this solution, the importance of installing the hardware devices to run the data and different applications has lost its importance. It is a very selective section of cloud computing, through which the future business data collection process can be simpler than ever. SaaS is a very profitable genre in the field of futuristic business ventures, and thus a question may arise about the SaaS business, and that is what could be the revenue stream for such business enterprise, or in general words, the earning process for the SaaS business!

Unfortunately some people believe that there are no such good ways of earning revenue for Saas business and if there are some sources, those are very minor in their conducts. Interestingly, the reality and the current situation are otherwise, and there are a number of ways in which the SaaS business can earn its revenue. ‘Payment’ to get the software is not the only mode of earning, and the enterpriser of this business can earn great revenue with multiple options, without stressing out on particular section of the business venture. Here are some of the solutions: Set-up Cost and Upsell A Set-up cost is one of the common ways to earn the revenue and it gives clarity to the providers about the authenticity of the users and determines the commitment too, thus it is a great way to explore the minds of the customers and the possible future relationship with the users. On the other hand the set up earning can actually lead to the upsell market for the SaaS providers. It is one of the easiest ways to enhance the revenue through the existing customers, and it is a great business opportunity, as this way of earning lessens the dependency of the brand on the pressure of adding up new customers. To maintain the continuity with the existing customers certain facilities like offering additional storage, speed, data, bandwidth or the frequency are enlisted as 'services'. Though, this process of earning is largely dependent on the benefit of the product or the service, along with the need or requirement of the client.

Affiliate Marketing It is another great way to boost the earning for the SaaS business as, through this process, it becomes a two-way system to get business, where the users advertise or sell the product. As the process is

22

|March 2019|

Revenue Tips

earning money, and it is the best way of earning through the free version users, but not very apt for the paid customers. As the paid customers already pay a certain amount, adding advertisements can create a negative impact on them. So even if the ads are there, they must be in a way that looks less annoying for the users.

dependent on the users, it is not dependent on any other external way from the business providers' side. The SaaS providers are only responsible to pay the commission after getting the revenue. So it is definitely a win-win situation for the SaaS providers.

Customer Service and Information Charges Saas providers are on the verge of adding a new structure for great revenue, which are customer service and information charges. As with this system, the business providers offer to sale some of the researched information to the clients. It is not very difficult for the clients to value them by paying the money as they are getting a great help, and interestingly it can work for the clients to cling to the services which can create the path for more business. Basically, a great customer service is the key to earn good money and with the satisfaction of the customers; the process can be on the loop for a great revenue system.

Advertisement Advertisements are the most common sector of

|March 2019|

API Model This is rather a complicated but effective method of earning lucrative revenue. If the SaaS can coordinate or work with other software applications, the importance of it can rise to a whole new level. This work model can do magic for some of the users and it can have a great value or earning in the future. But this great system comes with certain risks, and the reason is, the amount of money invested to create and run it. But if the developers can be assured of its service and the demand of the customers, it can turn out to be a great moneymaking option.

Reselling When some of the SaaS is so apt that the potential customers want to avail it for their business purpose, the tie-up with the providers or the reselling of the product can be beneficial form the point of view of the revenue. This process is known as the White Label Licensing.

At the end of this discussion, the conclusion is, a better service can open up new trails for Revenue Streams for SaaS Business. SaaS is not a new concept, but the vast implication is definitely new. So there are a number of scopes yet to be explored by the developers of this new business. Thus, the future and the success of SaaS business is dependent on exploring various ways for SaaS revenue, and with more innovative ideas for the revenue, the market of SaaS business will be more strengthened to touch the zenith.

23

The

10

Most Innovative

Solution Providers

2019

Robert Arace Digital & Analytics Strategist

DefinedLogic: Driving Your Digital Purpose

T

he world is digital. Gone are the days of managing work using pen and paper, whiteboards and dry erase markers, sticky notes and your cubicle walls.

Saving Microsoft Word Documents and spreadsheets in a folder on your computer is a thing of the past. The business world is ensuring its success with much better, efficient and costeffective option; Digital Projects.

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Red bank, New Jersey, DefinedLogic recognized this evolutionary approach eighteen years ago and created a Digital Agency that enables companies to drive their success digitally. Through collaborative client relationships rooted in trust, DefinedLogic identifies the right digital strategies, helps manage change and works with client teams to move business forward. The company helps clients across all areas of business, including strategy, creative, technology, and marketing and analytics. In an interview with Insights Success its Digital and Analytics Strategist,

26 01

Robert Arace sheds a light on the company’s flagship services, its vision and approach.

Below are the highlights of the interview between Robert Arace and Insights Success Give a brief overview of the company, its uniqueness, and its vision.

DefinedLogic was started in 2002 by partner William Meyers and Alex Shanley. As the internet became a key driver of business strategy, DefinedLogic found a niche working alongside business and IT teams to improve dialog and define requirements for digital projects. Our foundation, rooted in consulting, allowed companies to achieve better results from technology investments.

As technology has advanced; so does the DefinedLogic’s offerings.

What are the cutting-edge solutions offered by DefinedLogic?

We have created practices to support development of our expertise and the value we offer to clients.

DefinedLogic offers strategy, creative design, technology, and marketing and analytics services to provide a turnkey approach to any digital project, or we can enhance your existing teams with specific expertise as needed to accelerate and ensure project success.

Give a detailed description of the featured personnel’s influence over the company and the industry.

Robert Arace is the Head of our Digital Acquisition and Insights group at DefinedLogic. His specific realm of influence within the company is multi-channel digital marketing strategy, execution, and measurement. In addition to this, Rob also specializes in web analytics tracking strategy and execution.

From a marketing/analytics strategy perspective, Rob is involved with defining business objectives and goals internally and with our clients, digital campaign preparation, execution and reporting/optimization.

From a measurement perspective, Rob and his team are involved with outlining the tracking strategy, |March 2019|

detailing the technical requirements, implementing the architecture via a tag manager platform and creating reports in business intelligence software.

Describe the experiences, achievements or lessons learned that have shaped the journey of the company.

Specifically, for our Digital Acquisition and Insight group, we used the fail fast method. We have been building out this group for the past several years and we never feared failure, we learned from it and learned quickly. From each of our failures we adjusted our services to better meet the demand of our clients. This allowed our team to build out established processes that we were able to prove out in the market place. In the first 2 years of our groups existence, we became a Google Marketing Platform Partner – we believe that this is a testament to ability to hypothesis test different practices and deploy that quickly.

and how we plan on accomplishing them. b. Our team looks to approach each project with a customized solution to each of our client’s needs, we don’t necessarily have an out of the box solution for each of our clients. We have found that taking the time to create a unique strategy for each client is extremely beneficial to the long-term success to each of our campaigns.

At DefinedLogic, every action we take

‘‘

What are the challenges faced while providing Google solutions and how is DefinedLogic serving to tackle them? a. One challenge that we face is to ensure that we are aligning expectations with our clients -making sure that our clients have a complete understanding of the capabilities and the limitations of the platform is imperative to execute a successful campaign and to maintain a healthy partnership with our clients. In order to do this we host a kick-off meeting where we clearly define our main objectives and goals

|March 2019|

to serve our clients starts with an understanding of

their Digital Purpose.

What according to you could be the potential future of Google solutions and how does DefinedLogic envision sustaining its competency?

A potential next step for Google in our minds would be for them to provide a CMS solution to their Google Marketing Cloud Customers.

This would give them a unique opportunity to integrate Google Analytics and many of the new 360 suite offerings that Google Provides.

DefinedLogic takes an agnostic approach to our platform selection, we always have the resources to be

able to service multiple platforms if needed – we stay prepared by not singling out any particular language or platform.

Testimonials by Clients “Defined Logic is a true business partner. They were instrumental in helping us implement our digital analytics strategy. Their knowledge and expertise helped us overhaul our Google Analytics configuration ensuring it aligned with our business objectives. They skillfully handled a complex Google Tag Manager implementation. Defined Logic continues to play an active role in our ongoing analytics management, turning data into actionable insights. They are a pleasure to work with and a very talented team.” - SVP Lead Generation and Marketing “Defined Logic is our strategic digital partner continuing to exceed our expectations in web development, support and SEM. The dedicated Defined Logic team brings a unique ability to understand our goals and visions, while incorporating out of the box solutions. Since implementing the Defined Logic strategy our website traffic and web revenue have realized consistent year over year growth.” VP Global Business Development

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Decoding Digital Transformation for Utilities M

assive technology changes, never seen or experienced before are revolutionizing the businesses with advent of the new wave of digital innovation. From cloud computing to mobility, to big data analytics, IoT, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, these technologies have completely transformed the business landscape irrespective of the industry— banking, retail, telecom or utility alike. The pace of this technological advancement is growing exponentially, establishing new business models and creating tectonic shifts in market dynamics.

The technology-savvy and digitally connected customers of today are further forcing businesses to take cognizance of their preferences, expectations and consumption trends.

Unless business aligns their approach and processes with this customercentric approach, survival may be thwarted in the competitive landscape.

Today, the energy and utility industry grapples with its unique set of challenges comprising aging infrastructure, workforce retention and recruitment, widening demand-supply deficit, evolving regulatory mandates,

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stricter environmental compliances, need to increase grid resilience, and economic and social ramifications.

Ultimately, utilities face the risk of disintermediation of their relationship with the customer, allowing new entrants to capture the value, while they are left holding the costs.

For utilities to meet these challenges while delivering quality service and sustaining their financial viability, it is paramount to reexamine their approach technology and digitalization. While the traditional energy and utility industry had been a relatively slow adopter of technology compared to other sectors, nonetheless, it has picked up pace in last couple of years. The energy and utility companies today are beginning to comprehend the value of digital innovation and its impact on improving their operational efficiencies, boosting service levels, reducing costs and most importantly on increasing customer satisfaction. This has led them to explore the opportunities extended by adopting latest technologies such as cloud, mobile, big data, predictive analytics, IoT, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics and others. The industry is now quick to leverage latest

innovations to modernize processes, gain efficiencies and gain customer confidence.

By adopting a “mobile-first” strategy, the utilities can enable real-time connectivity with customers and their workforce alike – from anywhere, anytime and using any device. This has empowered customers who can easily manage or monitor their real-time and historic usage, and make better choices based on data-backed insights. They can conveniently plan and manage their bills and payments with increased ease and flexibility. The utilities can use mobile technology to become proactive in sending alerts, notifications and personalized communication to the customers. It can also boost the workforce productivity and efficiency by equipping them with on-the-go updates using mobile devices. Driving customer engagement can help utility increase customers’ adoption for energy efficiency and water conservation programs. This in turn is a win-win for both – the customers who save on resources as well as on bills, and even the utility which is able to manage peak loads and optimizing resources; thereby also meeting the state mandates.

|March 2019|

Digi Transformation

About The Author Eric Dresselhuys is the President at Smart Energy Water (SEW). He has been contributing in the energy, utility and infrastructure industry for 20 years. With his domain know-how, technical expertise and business acumen, Eric is responsible for the overall strategic outlook and business development at SEW. Over the years he has played a leading role working with utilities across 5 continents to help guide their digital transformation .

Eric is a well-known speaker thought leader across the energy, utility and infrastructure industries.

Eric Dresselhuys President

Smart Energy Water

However, this digital shift poses another set of complexities for utility industry – huge quantum of customer data, lack of in-house technical expertise, implementation risks, integration complexities and ongoing support concerns.

Thus, for utilities, the adoption of technology and solutions necessitates a strategic outlook rather than tactical detours focused on quick fixes.

The industry must carefully assess and evaluate the “build vs. buy” adage to be able to deploy technology or solutions which are a best-fit for their business requirements and are also cost-effective and efficient. They must look for solutions that can easily integrate with existing legacy systems, require minimal deployment cost and can deliver faster returns on investment. Since, customers today are prime drivers of change; another important consideration for the utility industry must be customer adoption rate. The customers are doubtlessly more technology savvy today, but adoption rate depends upon how user-friendly a platform is, and does it offer self-service capabilities. Similarly, how quickly and easily the utility workforce can familiarize with the solution and can use it address customer concerns.

Carefully weighing these considerations can help the industry truly leverage the emerging technologies and thrive on the wave of digitalization.

|March 2019|

The acceleration of digital transformation in the utility industry has predictably driven an upsurge in the number of service providers offering technologies to address these needs, each with their unique value proposition, but generally focused on only a small sub-set of the overall challenge. Thus, the utility companies must be cautious while identifying their digital transformation partners’ basis not just the technical competencies but also ensures both are aligned in terms of long-term architectural compliance and are driven by a shared goal to build the utility’s primacy with its customers.

As more and more utilities adapt and adopt emerging technologies, CIOs have an important role to play as they must carefully balance long-term and short-term deployment decisions. With the evolving utility-customer relationship, they must probe areas where digital can help them strengthen relationship with customers, while improving operations, bridging organizational siloes, and developing topline opportunities. Indeed, digital transformation opens arrays of opportunities for utilities, but, success will require a significant investment in new talent and capabilities, and careful prioritization.

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The

10

Most Innovative

Solution Providers

2019

Pieter Meijer Managing Partner

Pervorm: Accelerating Brands into the Digital Future

R

enowned Canadian ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky once famously quoted “A good hockey player plays where the puck is.

A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”

In the world of business as well, an organization that comprehend the future of its products or solutions and execute strategies accordingly marks its success and stays ahead of competition. As marketing is constantly changing , almost every brand around the world tasting fruitful benefits of employing technology for its marketing purposes. However, pertaining to the growing competition digital marketing agencies are focusing on offering temporarily beneficial advertising solutions to differentiate themselves instead of ensuring that their customers focus on the value that they bring to their end user Founded in 2010, Pervorm is a leading digital marketing company that puts end user expereince first to reach their clients’ business goals. By simultaneously unlocking the full potential of data, technology, creativity

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possibility but a necessity and encourages approach where its consumer is in control of every process.

and media, Pervorm orchestrate and optimize all digital channels, including display, social and search advertising and helps advertisers to in-house these capabilities.

Driving Factors Since its inception the people at Pervorm are dedicated tto improve business results of its corporate and scale up clients from digital marketing.

The company always put the end user first and therefore advises an integrated approach of branding and performance goals. Moreover, to achieve its clients’ desired business results the company realizes that its clients need to be in control of the most important digital marketing means; media, creativity, data and technology.

Pervorm is recognized by industry leaders for its precision and perfection in digital marketing. The company reasons from three key beliefs to help the growing brand needs and enable it to offer them a precise customized solution Ÿ

Ÿ

Nowadays the advertiser is the marketing conductor and is expected to develop in-house skills and knowledge. Through available customer data, advertisers can now have direct connections with their customers or audiences. Therefore they need to build and control those relationships to adapt and service in the best way possible.

Ÿ

Automation and usage of AI is the key: According to Pervorm automation will enable marketers to focus on the core of their proposition and decrease time on project management, marketing calendars and media tactics. It strongly shortens time between insights and the possibility to take action. Hence, the company primarily emphasizes on automating processes and utilizing AI for better results.

Consumers First: Pervorm believes tailoring customer journeys is not a

|March 2019|

Beyond Shiny New ‘Things’ Pervorm asserts advertisers themselves have the most leverage to improve their client experiences, not the agency.

It claims an expert agency can fail due to the siloed organization of the client.

This believe of ’your agency is as good as you’ has transformed Pervorm from a performance media agency to a marketing services provider. Thus, next to execution the company accentuates the consulting role, to empower advertisers and their marketers to be on the driving seat. Its end user first approach enable it address the core issue.

Sometimes there are advertisers who look for shiny new ‘things’ to use in their marketing. However, for Pervorm improvement is about filtering the trends from real developments and matching those with brands business goals. For example, the last 3-4 years there was a lot of talk about Data Management Platforms and customer data platforms. Many organizations were already working on audits and so on, but did not have a clue on why or how to use it. On the contrary, Pervorm help organizations to get more knowledge and skill in-house to increase their productivity and use their agencies in a better way.

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Tackling Challenges with Transparency Google plays a crucial role in digital marketing and advertising as its influence in tech and data impacts every demographics. Google will continue to become a ’one-stop-shop solution’ for digital advertising. Many tools have already been integrated in the Google Marketing Platform (GMP) and the ad server will disappear as a standalone solution after the integration. Possibly also social advertising will become available |March 2019|

through GMP and advertising may become on a ’quid pro quo’ basis. The amount of data available to parties like Google, is more than enough to connect the dots which provides them with a unique position.

Coping up with consistent developments in Google is quite a dominant challenge. The platform is increasingly becoming a walled garden. It has moved to a cookie less environment. Parties being dependent

We help brands communicate with their audiences on a truly

on cookies will become obsolete in a very fast pace. Stricter privacy laws makes data-companies, like Google, depend more on their algorithms and the availability of data. For example you can’t use third party view trackers on YouTube anymore which creates adversities in lead generation. In addition, enormous data uploaded on these platforms lead to lack of flexibility for the product. Ensuring lead generation in such protective environment becomes hard for advertisers as they require investing in expensive technologies and cost of advertising or digital marketing significantly increases.

Pervorm employs unique approach to tackle these challenges. It makes sure that its clients understand the terms & conditions and thoroughly explains advantages/disadvantages while using Google. The company utilizes third party measurement tools like Nielsen Dar or Moat to get sufficient insights and advise clients to make the full use of Google and get the most value for their buck. The company believes it is its responsibility to be up-to-date with the leaders like Google. Follow the developments when they make sense and challenge them when it affects client interests. Pervorm’s clients are happy with its transparent customer first approach and admire its commitment towards customer satisfaction.

Motivating Client Admirations “Pervorm has enabled us to quickly increase the programmatic marketing knowledge of our (international) marketers. They have proven to be a reliable partner in the process of in-housing our ad server and DSP account by asking the right questions and by having a deep understanding of the market.” Perfetti van Melle “Together with Pervorm Friesland Campina has gone through a successful transformation and now has a transparent digital media buying process. Pervorm has also provided us with valuable insights in how to increase the effect of digital marketing” - Friesland Campina

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Green

Cloud Computing Saving Energy through Technology

T

he rapid expansion in data centers, due to the exponential growth of the cloud computing has caused the dramatic increase in energy consumption and its effect on the environment in terms of the carbon footprints. To reduce the power consumption, it is required to develop some energy efficient solutions. The Green Computing is the practice of executing policies and the procedures to improve efficiency of the computing resources in such a way as to reduce the energy consumption and environmental impact of their utilization. Green Cloud Architecture is rising from these trends leading, not only to energy efficiency, but also a carbon emission aware concept. In order to reduce energy consumption, a greener environment needs to be built.

Among all industries, the information communication technology (ICT) industry is arguably responsible for a larger portion of the worldwide growth in energy consumption. The goal of green cloud computing is to promote the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste by reducing the use of hazardous materials and maximizing the energy efficiency during the product's lifetime.

Energy to be saved The objective is to reduce power consumption of the data center. It offers the features like online monitoring, live virtual machine migration, and optimization of Virtual Machine Placement. Through this proposed Green Cloud Architecture, energy up to 27% can be saved. The need to manage multiple applications in a data center creates the challenge of on-demand resource provisioning and allocation in response to time-varying workloads. Data center resources are statically possessed to applications, based on the peak load characteristics, in order to provide performance guarantees and to maintain the isolation.

Energy-efficient resource management has been first introduced in the context of battery fed mobile devices, where energy consumption has to be reduced in order to improve the battery lifetime. Techniques which are developed for mobile devices also can be applied or adapted for servers and data centers; this kind of systems requires specific methods.

The primary method is to consolidate the Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling technique in an efficient way to maximize the resource utilization and to minimize energy consumption of the datacenters which will result in the reduced

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|March 2019|

Energy EďŹƒcient Technology

|March 2019|

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carbon footprints and thus will help more in achieving the Green Computing.

The Green Benefits Cloud computing is the way to save money and energy for the business. Users emphasize Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and can improve their manageability and facilitate the maintenance of the resources. It means that benefit of business enterprises implicates to avoid spending on software and infrastructure resources, and allow business clients to focus on earning money rather than being weighted down with infrastructure concerns. Therefore, operating this model allows reducing the consummation of the power energy without spending money on running the servers.

Moreover, with no servers to repair, the absence of hardware to upgrade and no software to install, labor costs are also reduced.

With SaaS software accesses usually through a browserbased client, i.e., it can run on virtually any authorized computer, making desktop and laptop resources easily replaceable. Thus, when the user also saves on the support, it doubles the impact and in fact increases green role in business. The employees can work remotely, traveling and moving from one place to another because they have fast access to the internet and the ability to use all the services at hand, on the other hand, it reduces the consumption of fossil fuels and the harmful pollution that results from vehicle emissions as well.

The reduction of energy and power consumption has become a first-order objective in the design of modern computing systems. The roots of energy-efficient computing, practices can be traced back to 1992, when the U.S. environmental protection agency had launched Energy Star, a voluntary labeling program which was designed to identify and promote the energy-efficient products in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Computers and monitors were the first labeled products. This has led to the widespread adoption of the sleep mode in electronic devices. The term “green computing” was introduced to refer to the energy-efficient personal computers.

Interesting Research Findings While deploying data center, the sole concern is high-performance, and this demand has been fulfilled without paying much attention to the energy consumption. An average data center guzzles energy as much as 25,000 households. There is a necessity to move the focus to optimizing for energy efficiency while maintaining high service level performance than optimizing data center resource management for pure performance, as the energy cost is increasing while the availability dwindles. According to certain reports, the total estimated energy bill for data centers in the year 2010 was $11.5 billion and energy costs in a typical data center doubles every five years.

For the development of cloud computing and it to sustain green technologies is exceedingly essential. Of the numerous green methodologies enquired, the DVFS technology is a highly hardware oriented approach and hence it is less flexible.

Cloud computing is a highly scalable and cost-effective infrastructure for running an enterprise and the web applications. But the critical issue is the drastic surge in the energy consumption of data centers which is triggering by the growing demand for cloud infrastructure. Hence, the energy-efficient solutions are required which results in less number of carbon footprints and thus help in achieving greener computing.

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|March 2019|

The

10

Most Innovative

Solution Providers

2019

Eric Shashoua CEO & Founder

Zive, Inc.: Designing Better Cloud-based Applications

I

n a recent interview, Insights Success spoke with Eric Shashoua, CEO and Founder of Zive, Inc. about his experience building technology products using design as a key differentiator. In addition to sharing some resourceful insights, he also told us more about Zive’s approach to reshaping how cloud-based software is experienced along with his future goals to make people using applications like Google’s G Suite more productive.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Eric and Insights Success: Please give a brief overview of the company, its uniqueness, and its vision.

Since its introduction, G Suite’s cloudbased approach and simplicity has won over millions of businesses. Google’s cloud-based email and productivity apps are great, but their main drawback is that users are stuck using them in the web browser.

Kiwi, a desktop app, untethers G-Suite from the confines of web browsers.

What we’ve done is create a desktop

38 01

app for Gmail as well as G Suite apps like Docs, Sheets and Slides that turns them into a set of desktop applications that exist outside the browser, functioning much more like Microsoft Office and not as a series web pages in tabs in your browser.

This means Kiwi is faster, lighter and has additional features that can’t be built by Google in a web page. The browser environment limits developments and enhancements in different ways, which Kiwi the desktop application makes possible.

What are the cutting-edge solutions offered by Zive, Inc.?

Since security is a huge issue for both enterprise and consumer users, Zive implemented a theoretical computer science research paper on securing banking websites to isolate everything happening in Kiwi from what’s going on in the browser and even from other related accounts.

We began by focusing on consumers with Kiwi for Gmail. It took us more than two years to rethink and rebuild from the ground up how Gmail functions on the desktop to make it faster, easier to use, and more reliable.

It has become one of the highest overall rated (average rating for all versions) third-party email apps in Apple’s Mac App Store.

Our enterprise solution, Kiwi for G Suite, enables businesses to provide their employees with a desktop-like experience for productivity applications like Docs, Sheets, and Slides. The uniqueness of Kiwi is that it works as a full-featured desktop application that is fully integrated with your computer’s operating system and file system.

What Kiwi for G Suite really does is help enterprises improve their G Suite rollouts, increase user adoption and make them more likely to stay with G Suite after transitioning from Microsoft Office.

Give a detailed description of your role at the company and impact on the industry.

I guess you could describe me as a serial entrepreneur who has developed a devotion to humanized design that is beautiful, seamless, and simple. My dedication to design is reflected in |March 2019|

every aspect of our products. Before Zive, I previously started and led Zeo, Inc., where I raised $14M in VC funding and launched the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach in the US and Europe.

What are the challenges faced while providing Google solutions and how is Zive, Inc. serving to tackle them?

Underpinning everything our company does are two pillars, speed and multitasking, which help clients make a difference in the way their people work and ultimately their business propositions.

Companies transitioning to G Suite and the resellers that assist them often find the process of rolling out the new platform and onboarding new users difficult. Employees often miss the familiarity of Office and find using applications like Google Drive via the browser difficult.

Describe the experiences, achievements or lessons learned that have shaped the journey of the company.

As a result, they often prefer to continue to use more intuitive and familiar alternatives like Dropbox and Box. Unfortunately, this means that

My management philosophy has been strongly influenced by the CEOs of Bose and iRobot, who were active members of Zeo’s board. As a result, Zive’s management now embraces a passionate design philosophy for creating humanistic, friendly products that are also powerful. We firmly believe that our products make real differences in people’s lives by making the tools they rely on not only more useful, but also more elegant and intuitive.

We believe that the only way to do transcendent work is to find something way more important than simple revenue. For us, that’s saving the world from bad software, with resounding works of art and engineering that stand boldly in defiance of the status quo. |March 2019|

These findings demonstrate that Kiwi can help companies achieve dramatically better adoption of G Suite among employees by delivering a more familiar and user-friendly experience when compared to using these same apps in the browser.

More Successful G Suite Rollouts: Kiwi for G Suite makes it much easier for clients to take full advantage of G Suite and reduces reseller sales IT efforts Our Kiwi for G Suite app and cost. helps improve G Suite

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We believe in the power of design that results in an effortlessness, which invites engagement. We believe that beauty is indispensable, because life is bigger than work. We believe that details matter, because the realization of a vision is ultimately nothing more than an assemblage of these. And we believe in obsessive design, because true perfection requires persistent iteration fueled by burning passion for the thing created.

A recent analysis of Kiwi for G Suite users revealed a significant increase in the amount they use key G Suite apps.

In fact, we saw a +74% increase in overall editor usage (Docs, Sheets and Slides) and a huge +140% rise in Google Drive usage.

rollouts, increase user adoption and improve client retention by taking Google’s cloudbased applications out of the browser on onto the desktop.

companies end up having to hold onto additional licenses and essentially double pay for storage services.

This can end up significantly raising the overall cost of deploying G Suite.

When combined with slower than expected adoption among employees, CIOs may be tempted to reconsider their decisions to go with G Suite.

Kiwi’s multiple windows and intuitive interface lets users work smarter by enabling them to quickly access each application, open new documents, and get back to recent documents with a single click.

Increased User Adoption: Kiwi makes G Suite a better product by adding new functionality and providing a native Interface. This not only allows users to get even more from G Suite, but also provides a simple alternative to make G Suite more usable for resistant employees.

Improved Client/User Retention: By making, Google Drive and apps like Docs, Sheets and Slides much easier to use, companies can save money by reducing the need to double pay for Dropbox and Office licenses. This reduces cost and improves overall ROI on a company’s G Suite investment.

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Rising Mobile Workforce and its

Challenges in the

Mobile-Cloud Era: Data & Endpoint Management

M

obility and cloud computing are rapidly becoming the norm for enterprises around the world. In turn, enterprise IT departments are facing new management and security challenges as the amount of business data soars and the number of endpoints explodes. The question that is doing the rounds is what IT teams need to consider to manage and secure their businesses in this new era.

Mathivanan V Vice President ManageEngine

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Industry analysts predict deep penetration of enterprise mobility by the year 2020.

IDC, for instance, forecasts |March 2019|

Tech Perspective

that mobile workers will account for almost 75 percent of the total workforce in the U.S. Meanwhile, Strategy Analytics projects that the global mobile workforce will reach 1.75 billion users and account for 42 percent of the global workforce overall.

The economic perspective is just as bright as a button. The global enterprise mobility market will be worth as much as $140 billion, predicts the National Association of Software and Services Companies.

And the investments are paying off.

To date, 84 percent of all companies who consider themselves on the cutting edge of mobility report an increase in overall productivity as a direct result of incorporating mobile apps into their business, according to a survey by AppsFreedom.

More troubling, the typical end user has little knowledge of those threats or their ramifications. The result is more users are more likely to leak enterprise data by using compromised websites and rogue online services. The CVE listed 14,712 cybersecurity vulnerabilities for 2017 and has already listed 2,848 for the first two months of 2018. In response, vendors large and small are releasing patches on a daily basis.

Enterprise IT teams clearly need to focus on endpoint security management to ensure business success in the mobile-cloud era.

Endpoint security challenges

Likewise, enterprises are expected to continue relentlessly adopting cloud technologies. By 2020, Gartner forecasts the public cloud services market will reach $383 billion. This includes spending on cloud business process services, cloud application infrastructure services, cloud application services, cloud management and security services, cloud system infrastructure services, and of course, cloud advertising.

Keeping endpoints up to date with the latest versions of their OSes and applications has become a full-time job, one that is getting harder to perform in the mobile enterprise. A growing challenge is the diversity of endpoint operating systems that must be managed, including Android, iOS, MacOS, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS. For each, the IT team must learn that OS along with its corresponding patching technique.

Likewise, applications acquired from the various app stores are managed with different techniques that must be learned and mastered so that the team can secure the endpoints.

The flip side of increasing enterprise mobility and cloud usage is the increasing risk to enterprise security.

Today, most users have at least two endpoints – a laptop and mobile device – and 80 percent of network devices are be endpoints that are constantly connected to the internet and exposed to its threats such as Meltdown, Spectre, Wannacry, and Petya.

Another challenge is managing the endpoints from day one, especially mobile devices. While it’s been relatively easy for IT admins to install agent software on desktops and laptops, smart phones and other mobile devices make life harder for the admins because the devices are rarely if ever connected to the corporate network. Consequently, devices must be provisioned with the

|March 2019|

necessary mobile device management software before they are given to end users. Devices that are not appropriately managed are security risks, so no business application should be installed or run on them.

Related to the day-one management challenge is updating endpoints that are on the go, anytime and anywhere.

IT teams must be able to install critical patches while employees are traveling, commuting, or otherwise offsite.

Data leakage presents yet another security challenge for IT teams to overcome. Data leakage can happen with or without the users’ knowledge.

For instance, users may knowingly copy business data to a USB device or upload it to a cloud storage service. They may also unknowingly expose that data to a public cloud service when using third-party apps such as document viewers and predictive keyboard apps. Such apps may compromise user IDs and passwords, account numbers, and other sensitive enterprise data by exposing it to public cloud services.

When a user’s device is lost or stolen, the IT team must be able to track and recover the device or wipe the data if the device isn’t recovered.

To maintain the user’s privacy, however, the IT team can not continuously track the location of the user’s device.

BYOD presents another privacy vs security challenge: When users use their own devices for business purposes, privacy needs to be maintained. Photos, contacts, and other personal data should not be

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managed by company’s mobile device management app.

On the other hand, security needs to be maintained, too.

To that end, the IT team should create a container on the user’s personal device – a secure, managed area that isolates business email, CRM, and other enterprise apps and data from the rest of user’s personal apps/data.

To establish strong endpoint security and prevent unwanted attacks, IT teams must apply strict security policies on their endpoints. Laptops, for instance, should always run a firewall, prevent the creation of unwanted network shares, and encrypt data via BitLocker or FileVault. Such security policies can protect enterprises from the security risks posed by mobility.

Predicting the development of data and endpoint management Going forward, machine learning and AI will help make data and endpoint management a proactive, rather than a reactive process. For instance, these technologies could prevent data theft by detecting anomalies such as unusual login activities or an unusually large number of documents being uploaded to the cloud. They could analyze the root cause of patch deployment failures and suggest fixes. They could also detect system idle times – during lunch hours, for instance – to deploy patches as

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soon as possible rather wait until after hours or weekends, which can leave systems unnecessarily vulnerable.

Meanwhile, the internet of things (IoT) will introduce many organizations to a new breed of endpoints and connected devices. Unlike their iOS- and Androidpowered predecessors, IoT devices will be running many different OSes and applications, all of which may be vulnerable yet must be managed and secured.

Finally, most business applications are moving to the cloud and accessed via browser, effectively making the browser an endpoint. That means to defend against attacks, IT teams need to manage browsers and perform all security operations for them just as if they were desktops, laptops, or any other device.

As organizations continue to adopt mobility and the cloud, they must also adopt the practices necessary to support this new reality. Data and endpoint security and management are priority one in IT departments. For the vast majority of companies around the world, their future success depends on recognizing and committing to that priority.

March 2019