Solutions Review’s Contributed Content Series is a collection of contributed articles written by thought leaders in enterprise technology. Delilah Schwartz of Cybersixgill crosses over the vast sea of threat intelligence, in search of added value by combining the right tools.

Given today’s expansive digital landscape and widening attack surface, the volume of threat intelligence data has reached unmanageable levels. However, there is a way for companies to overcome these challenges and optimize the business value of their cyber threat intelligence investments.

The continued acceleration of highly sophisticated cyber-attacks impacts countless organizations, their brand’s reputation, and their bottom line. This situation puts growing pressure on security leaders to effectively and successfully reduce organizational threat exposure across a rapidly proliferating attack surface. Without the means to identify the threats that pose the most significant risk to their organizations, security teams continue to fight cyber warfare like playing a game of whack-a-mole, addressing issues as they occur without successfully getting ahead of malicious actors.

Cyber threat intelligence plays a vital role in cyber warfare and is no longer a “nice-to-have” but a “need-to-have” weapon. With the right intelligence tools, teams can derive critical insights into the emerging tactics, techniques, vectors, and procedures that could expose their network to attack. But selecting the right threat intelligence products and services to maximize business value is not easy.

Finding Business Value in the Vast Sea of Threat Intelligence

Gaining an Accurate Picture of the Threat Landscape Through Context and Accuracy

The value of threat intelligence depends not only on the relevance and timeliness of the information but also – and perhaps more importantly – on the context it provides. For threat intelligence to be effective, it must support risk assessment with critical context about threat actor groups and their tactics, techniques, procedures, vulnerability exploits, indicators of compromise, and more. In its recent Market Guide for Security Threat Intelligence Products and Services, Gartner recommends that organizations look for vendors offering context-rich threat intelligence that can be customized and tailored for their unique threat landscape.

For example, through the combination of advanced AI, machine learning, and processing and analyzing comprehensive data from millions of online and dark web sources, organizations can receive early warnings of potential risks to their network. When threat intelligence blends context about each organization’s unique attack surface and assets, companies gain contextual, accurate insights into the nature, source, and urgency of each threat they face. As a result, security teams can operate more efficiently, knowing that they’re taking action to mitigate the most urgent, dangerous threats to their corporate environment.

Integrating CTI, DRPS, and EASM

With so much at stake and so many dollars invested in a wide range of cybersecurity solutions, organizations need to prove the value of their security stack. The need to show value drives a shift toward companies consolidating vendors and products to simplify their solution suites. As a result, threat intelligence vendors are beginning to integrate features from adjacent markets, such as Digital Risk Protection Services (DRPS) and External Attack Surface Management (EASM), to offer a more comprehensive cybersecurity solution.

When vendors add DRPS to their threat intelligence solutions, companies can proactively monitor their digital footprint across the surface web and underground sites, forums, and marketplaces, identifying and mitigating risks that could impact their brand reputation, customer trust, or compliance status. Additionally, integrating EASM discovery capabilities with Attack Surface Management (ASM) gives companies a comprehensive view of their unknown externally-facing assets so they can identify and manage discovered vulnerabilities and potential entry points for threat actors. By combining these solutions with threat intelligence, organizations gain a unified view of their complete asset inventory and overall threat exposure to proactively identify and mitigate risks to their environment.

Enhancing CTI Outputs with Data Analytics and Automation

The ever-expanding, continuously evolving threat landscape means the volume of threat intelligence data that organizations must understand and act upon is now unmanageable. In its Market Guide for Security Threat Intelligence Products and Services, Gartner notes that analytics, data science, and automation are becoming critical components of threat intelligence solutions. These capabilities are increasingly important because they can significantly reduce the time and effort needed to operationalize threat intelligence across large, mixed datasets and arms organizations with actionable, contextual insights. As a result, security teams are much better equipped to protect their assets and attack surfaces.

Automated CTI that autonomously infiltrates deep, dark, and clear web sources enables frontline defenders to extract, process, correlate, and analyze data in real-time — without human intervention or validation — and gain threat intelligence that is refined to their organization’s unique assets and attack surface. These benefits are more significant when adding features like graph analytics, link analysis, and rich threat actor modeling.

Additionally, advanced capabilities like entity extraction, visual graph analyzers, peer network analysis, and a customizable dashboard interface help organizations understand their threat exposure at a glance and quickly identify and prioritize the threats that pose the most significant risk. In essence, next-generation CTI solutions that blend robust analytics with automation and other cutting-edge capabilities give customers powerful data to rapidly respond to critical threats and mitigate risks before they can be exploited.

Tailoring Predictions and Risk Assessments According to Business-Criticality

With the amount of data available from millions of clear web and underground sources, threat intelligence can be overwhelming. Unless it is scoped and filtered for organizational relevancy, the sheer volume of data is nearly impossible to manage, resulting in a delay in incident detection and remediation and inhibiting effective decision-making.

Organizations can optimize their threat intelligence investments by developing a CTI program tailored to their unique business needs, risks, and objectives. By refining threat intelligence with the organization’s critical internal context, security teams can filter out irrelevant data and focus on the threats and insights that matter most to their business. Additionally, business executives are better equipped to make informed decisions and prioritize their resources effectively.

These benefits are another reason for integrating an EASM solution with CTI. EASM continuously discovers and classifies known and unknown networked assets that could expose an organization to risk, while combining the two technologies enables companies to tailor threat intelligence to their unique attack surface. Security teams can then monitor their complete asset inventory in real-time across the deep, dark, and clear web and conduct detailed, refined risk assessments to receive early warnings of emerging threats targeting the business. With this type of full visibility into organizational threat exposure, security teams can confidently prioritize their efforts and resources where they are needed most.

Final Thoughts on Threat Intelligence

The rapidly expanding digital landscape and proliferation of potential attack vectors have created an increasingly complex and challenging environment for security teams. The accelerated pace of technological advancements means that manual and hybrid solutions are no longer adequate to protect the expanding attack surface at the scale and sophistication of emerging threats. Threat actors increasingly leverage AI and automation, making it imperative for security vendors and defenders to incorporate these technologies in their cybersecurity strategy.

Given the pace of threat actor activity and the sophistication of their tools and technologies, organizations must embrace AI and automation, incorporating these capabilities within their cybersecurity programs to keep pace with the evolving threat landscape. By doing so, they can scale their threat intelligence activities, augment and optimize the efficiency of their existing teams, and provide faster time to insight and action. Ultimately, this will enable them to better protect their systems, data, and customers from cyber-attacks.

The post Finding Business Value in the Vast Sea of Threat Intelligence appeared first on Solutions Review Technology News and Vendor Reviews.

Solutions Review’s Expert Roundtable with BARC, Sigma Computing, Monte Carlo, and Databricks is entitled: Revolutionizing AI: Innovative Approaches to Cloud Stack Modernization.

What is an Expert Roundtable?

Solutions Review’s Expert Roundtables are exclusive webinar events for industry professionals across enterprise technology. Since its first virtual event in June 2020, Solutions Review has expanded its multimedia capabilities in response to the overwhelming demand for these kinds of events. Solutions Review’s current menu of online offerings includes the Demo Day, Solution Spotlight, best practices or case study webinars, and panel discussions. And the best part about the “Expert Roundtable” series? They are free to attend!

Why You Should Attend

Solutions Review is one of the largest communities of IT executives, directors, and decision-makers across enterprise technology marketplaces. Every year over 10 million people come to Solutions Review’s collection of sites for the latest news, best practices, and insights into solving some of their most complex problems.

With the next Expert Roundtable event, the team at Solutions Review has partnered with BARC Research, Sigma Computing, Monte Carlo, and Databricks to showcase real-world examples of success and help you understand new strategies for augmenting your existing data and analytic investments to innovate, better leverage AI and realize greater ROI.

This panel explores how the intersection of data observability, analytics insights, and the utilization of data science skills leads to a more competitive edge and drives innovation. This often requires new solutions and new best practices to achieve.

Speakers

Moderator:

• Shawn Rogers – Industry Analyst, Analytics Strategy @ BARC

Featured Speakers:

• Stipo Josipovic – Director of Product Management @ Sigma Computing
• Bryce Heltzel – Product Manager @ Monte Carlo
• Keon Shahab – Senior Solutions Architect @ Databricks

About

BARC has helped thousands of companies worldwide in selecting software to meet their strategic requirements and deliver business benefits. BARC Reports are focused on helping companies find the right software solutions to align with their business goals. Their reports feature insights into market developments and dispense proven best-practice advice for software evaluation.

Sigma Computing offers a no-code business intelligence and analytics solution designed for use with cloud data warehouses. The product features an intuitive, spreadsheet-like user interface that provides users with the familiarity of Excel. Guided data warehouse access ensures that data remains secure, compliant, and in context.

Monte Carlo’s data observability platform utilizes best practices and principles of automatic application observability and applies them to data pipelines. This provides data engineers and analysts with visibility across all data pipelines and data products. Monte Carlo also offers machine learning that gives users a holistic view of an organization’s data health and reliability for important business use cases.

Databricks is one of the most widely used advanced analytics platforms in the world. Databricks offers a unified analytics platform that allows users to prepare and clean data at scale and continuously train and deploy machine learning models for AI applications. The product handles all analytic deployments, ranging from ETL to model training and deployment.

FAQ

• What: Revolutionizing AI Innovation: A Modern Approach to Cloud Stack Modernization
• When: Tuesday, September 14, 2023, at 12:00 PM Eastern Time
• Where: Zoom meeting (see registration page for more detail)

Register for Solutions Review’s Expert Roundtable FREE

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Safe Software’s The Peak of Data Integration 2023 will offer learning and networking opportunities and hands-on training with FME.

What is The Peak of Data Integration?

With over 75 sessions and real-life stories from FME users worldwide, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to make connections and learn amongst the best in data integration who are conquering data mountains with FME. FME helps organizations connect data and applications across systems, streamline operations with automated workflows, and deliver speed to insights. Safe Software serves customers in diverse industries.

Why You Should Attend

Join Safe Software (and Solutions Review!) at the Peak of Data Integration 2023, the largest gathering of FME users on earth. The event, which takes place from September 5-7 in Bonn, Germany, will offer learning and networking opportunities and hands-on training with FME.

About Safe Software

Safe Software is a major player in enterprise spatial data integration and helps global organizations maximize the value of their data. The company offers FME, an enterprise integration platform. FME helps organizations connect data and applications across systems, streamline operations with automated workflows, and deliver speed to insights. Safe Software serves customers in diverse industries, including Government, Utilities, Energy, AEC, Telecom, and Transportation.

FAQ

• What: Safe Software: The Peak of Data Integration 2023
• When: September 5-7, 2023
• Where: Bonn, Germany (see registration page for more detail)

Register for The Peak of Data Integration 2023

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The editors at Solutions Review examine the best VPN services enterprises should consider implementing into their security strategy today.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) services are pivotal in fortifying enterprise security through advanced encryption, secure data transmission, and enhanced privacy mechanisms. In the contemporary landscape of interconnected digital operations, VPNs serve as a vital shield against cyber threats and unauthorized access. By establishing encrypted tunnels over public networks, VPNs enable employees to access sensitive corporate resources remotely, while shielding their communications from potential eavesdropping and data interception. This encryption not only safeguards proprietary information, trade secrets, and confidential communication from cyber-criminals but also protects against potential breaches when using unsecured networks. Furthermore, VPNs can ensure that data is routed through secure and monitored pathways, reducing the risk of man-in-the-middle attacks and preventing cyber adversaries from exploiting vulnerabilities in open Wi-Fi networks.

Through a stringent authentication process, VPNs enforce multi-factor authentication and user identity verification, ensuring that only authorized personnel can access critical enterprise systems. Additionally, VPNs can provide location masking, which obscures the actual geographical location of employees– making it more challenging for malicious actors to target specific individuals. Overall, by bolstering data confidentiality, securing remote connections, and mitigating exposure to cyber threats, VPN services stand as an indispensable component of modern enterprise security frameworks.

If a VPN isn’t already part of your business’s cybersecurity strategy, these are the best VPN services to consider today.

The 13 Best VPN Services in 2023

Atlas VPN

Founded in 2019, Atlas VPN is a highly secure freemium VPN service with a goal to make safe and open internet accessible for everyone. In 2021, Atlas VPN became part of Nord Security— a leader in providing digital security and privacy solutions. While relatively new to the VPN scene, they are already trusted by more than 6 million users across the world. Their main driving force is to make digital privacy and security accessible to all consumers, irrespective of their budget or tech-savviness. Anyone is welcome to try Atlas VPN for free or sign up for premium services with more additional features.

CyberGhost

CyberGhost is a Romania-based VPN provider that protects users’ data from online surveillance and censorship. Since 2011, the company has been preventing shady organizations and actors who wish to profit off of personal information maliciously. With CyberGhost, users can mask their IP address by connecting to one of over 5,700 VPN servers located in 90 countries, keeping their web traffic anonymous and secure. CyberGhost defends privacy as a fundamental human right, being the first in the industry to publish a transparency report while building new user-oriented crypto-technology for the future.

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is a British-based company whose VPN solution lets users securely and anonymously browse the web and access blocked worldwide content from anywhere. The company currently hosts over 3,000 VPN servers, with 160 server locations in 94 countries across the globe, and users have the option to switch between servers whenever they want. Users can hide their IP addresses from potentially malicious actors and enjoy anonymous web surfing, unlocked regional content, and unthrottled data speeds.

GoodAccess

Founded in 2020, GoodAccess is a Czech-based cloud VPN with zero-trust access controls specially designed for small and medium businesses. Developed with simplicity and ease of use in mind, GoodAccess is a secure remote access solution that interconnects remote workers, applications, data centers, clouds, and offices via one resilient virtual network. No hardware or complex setup is required, as the platform is fully cloud-based and is deployable in less than 10 minutes. With customers in over 120 countries, GoodAccess is recognized by TechRadar as one of the best ZTNA solutions and acclaimed by leading review platforms such as G2 and Capterra for its excellence in customer support, simplicity, and ease of use.

HideMyAss!

HMA is a United Kingdom-based virtual private network provider that has operated as a subsidiary of the Czech cybersecurity company Avast since 2016. Founded in 2005, the vendor is one of the oldest VPN providers still in existence. HMA provides digital software and services intended to help users remain anonymous online and encrypt their online traffic. Its software is used to access websites that may be blocked in the user’s country, to anonymize information that could otherwise be used by hackers, and to do something unscrupulous without being identified. HMA operates over 1,000 servers in 290 locations across the globe and offers VPN applications for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, routers, Apple TV, Android TV, Chrome, and Firefox.

IPVanish

IPVanish is a USA-based virtual private network provider founded in 2012 that was recently acquired in 2019 by J2 Global. The vendor offers VPN software and applications for desktop and mobile devices, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, ChromeOS, and Amazon devices. IPVanish also offers VPN software for routers. IPVanish uses the OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPsec technologies in its applications, while the L2TP and PPTP connection protocols can also be configured. IPVanish supports the AES (128-bit or 256-bit) specifications, with SHA-256 for authentication and an RSA-2048 handshake IPVanish currently operates over 1,300 servers in over 75 global locations, with most of its servers located in North America and Europe.

NordVPN

NordVPN is a Panama-based virtual private network provider formed in 2012 to fight against Internet censorship, content control, and intrusive government surveillance. As of 2020, the vendor helps more than 12 million customers protect their online transactions and web traffic from Internet surveillance and cyber threats. The vendor operates over 5500 VPN servers in 58 countries, providing military-grade encryption, DNS leak protection, and lightning-fast data speeds. In April 2022, NordVPN’s parent company Nord Security raised $100 million in a round of funding led by Novator. The company’s valuation reached $1.6 billion.

PrivadoVPN

PrivadoVPN is a Switzerland-based platform, launched in 2019. PrivadoVPN’s simple-to-use apps for Android, Windows, macOS, iOS, Fire TV Stick, and AndroidTV. You can also access their super fast servers manually in Linux. When you connect to the PrivadoVPN network, you are protected by 256-bit AES encryption. All of your incoming and outgoing data is sent through an encrypted tunnel so that third parties won’t be able to intercept your private information. There’s even the option to securely access region-blocked content by changing to any of their global servers– effectively masking your IP address and physical location.

Private Internet Access

Private Internet Access is a USA-based virtual private network provider founded in 2010 and recently acquired by Kape Technologies in 2019. The vendor offers applications for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and Google Chrome devices to provide uncensored access to the Internet and allow users to browse the web privately and securely. Private Internet Access currently operates over 3,300 servers in over 50 locations across over 30 countries. The VPN is torrent-friendly, provides SOCKS5 Proxy feature, and also port forwarding function.

Surfshark

Surfshark is a British Virgin Islands-based virtual private network provider founded in 2018. In 2021 Surfshark merged with Nord Security. However, both companies still operate independently. The vendor offers VPN applications for multiple platforms and devices, including iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, Chrome, Firefox, FireTV, and Apple TV. Surfshark currently offers over 1,040 servers in more than 61 countries. All of Surfshark’s servers come with private DNS, Camouflage Mode, IPsec/IKEv2, P2P-friendly capabilities, OpenVPN, and extension support.

TorGuard

TorGuard is a Caribbean-based virtual private network provider that was founded in 2012. The vendor offers anonymous VPN applications for several common operating systems, devices, and browsers, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Firefox, and Chrome. TorGuard currently operates over 3,000 servers in 50 countries across the globe. In addition to allowing users to browse the Internet anonymously, the provider offers a 24/7 support system to help keep your company protected.

TunnelBear

TunnelBear is a Canada-based virtual private network provider founded in 2011 and acquired by McAfee in 2018. The vendor offers VPN applications for multiple device types and operating systems, including Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices. TunnelBear also offers VPN for web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Opera; in addition, the company provides a specific service called Blocker for Chrome to attack online tracking. The VPN currently runs VPN servers in 23 different countries across the globe.

VyprVPN

VyprVPN is a Switzerland-based virtual private network solution offered by Internet privacy and security solution provider Golden Frog. The solution currently operates over 700 servers in over 70 different locations and currently offers VPN applications for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. In addition, VyprVPN also delivers specific apps for routers and smart TVs. In addition to providing IP address protection and high-speed streaming, the vendor offers a 24/7 support system to help keep your company protected.

The post The 13 Best VPN Services in 2023 appeared first on Solutions Review Technology News and Vendor Reviews.

Solutions Review’s Spotlight with Semarchy is entitled: Improving ROI & Collaboration with Unified Data Management.

What is a Solutions Spotlight?

Solutions Review’s Solution Spotlights are exclusive webinar events for industry professionals across enterprise technology. Since its first virtual event in June 2020, Solutions Review has expanded its multimedia capabilities in response to the overwhelming demand for these kinds of events. Solutions Review’s current menu of online offerings includes the Demo Day, Solution Spotlight, best practices or case study webinars, and panel discussions. And the best part about the “Spotlight” series? They are free to attend!

Why You Should Attend

Solutions Review is one of the largest communities of IT executives, directors, and decision-makers across enterprise technology marketplaces. Every year over 10 million people come to Solutions Review’s collection of sites for the latest news, best practices, and insights into solving some of their most complex problems.

With the next Solutions Spotlight event, the team at Solutions Review has partnered with leading unified data management platform Semarchy to provide viewers with a unique webinar called Improving ROI & Collaboration with Unified Data Management.

Semarchy will demonstrate Semarchy’s two modules: xDM for Master Data Management and Governance and xDI for Data Integration. You will also learn how 80 percent of their clients measure ROI in under 12 weeks while reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by 80 percent on their data management projects.

Speakers

• Scott Moore, Director of Pre-Sales & Consulting

About Semarchy

Semarchy utilizes machine learning algorithms to enable stewardship and advanced matching, survivorship, curation, and classification. The tool features a native data model that facilitates transparent lineage, audibility, and governance as well. Semarchy can integrate any data source via real-time and batch APIs to integrate the data hub with existing applications and business processes.

FAQ

• What: Improving ROI & Collaboration with Semarchy Unified Data Management
• When: Tuesday, August 22 2023, at 12:00 PM Eastern Time
• Where: Zoom meeting (see registration page for more detail)

Register for Solutions Review’s Solution Spotlight with Semarchy FREE

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The post What to Expect at Solutions Review’s Solution Spotlight with Semarchy on August 22 appeared first on Solutions Review Technology News and Vendor Reviews.

Solutions Review’s Spotlight with Cloudflare is entitled: The ROI of DDoS Defense.

What is a Solutions Spotlight?

Solutions Review’s Solution Spotlights are exclusive webinar events for industry professionals across enterprise technology. Since its first virtual event in June 2020, Solutions Review has expanded its multimedia capabilities in response to the overwhelming demand for these kinds of events. Solutions Review’s current menu of online offerings includes the Demo Day, Solution Spotlight, best practices or case study webinars, and panel discussions. And the best part about the “Spotlight” series? They are free to attend!

Why You Should Attend

Solutions Review is one of the largest communities of IT executives, directors, and decision-makers across enterprise technology marketplaces. Every year over 10 million people come to Solutions Review’s collection of sites for the latest news, best practices, and insights into solving some of their most complex problems.

With the next Solutions Spotlight event, the team at Solutions Review has partnered with network solutions provider, Cloudflare. Join this webinar to understand the profound impact DDoS attacks can have on an organization’s bottom line and how investing in proactive defenses can yield substantial returns.

Featured Speaker:

• Kimberly Biddings, Senior Product Manager

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cloud cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, and ICANN-accredited domain registration services. Cloudflare’s headquarters are located in San Francisco, California. Cloudflare acts as a reverse proxy for web traffic. It supports web protocols including SPDY and HTTP/2, QUIC, and support for HTTP/2 Server Push. Since at least 2017, Cloudflare has been using a wall of lava lamps in their San Francisco headquarters as a source of randomness for encryption keys, alongside double pendulums in its London offices and a Geiger counter in its Singapore offices. The lava lamp installation implements the LavaRand method, where a camera transforms the unpredictable shapes of the “lava” blobs into a digital image. As of 2023, Cloudflare was providing paid services to over 162,000 customers.

FAQ

• What: The ROI of DDoS Defense
• When: Tuesday, September 19, 2023, at 12:00 PM Eastern Time
• Where: Zoom meeting (see registration page for more detail)

Register for Solutions Review’s Solution Spotlight with Cloudflare FREE

The post What to Expect at Solutions Review’s Spotlight with Cloudflare on September 19 appeared first on Solutions Review Technology News and Vendor Reviews.

Denodo DataFest 2023 will empower users to maximize their knowledge of Denodo and help increase ROI from data and analytics tools, models, and applications.

What is a Denodo DataFest?

Join your peers and other industry leaders at Denodo DataFest 2023 and explore the latest innovations in logical data management with Denodo. Exchange expertise and stories experienced in the logical data management ecosystem. Hear firsthand from leading technology leaders, including data scientists, data engineers, cloud architects, enterprise architects, and business leaders, about their experiences in architecting and building modern data infrastructures.

Why You Should Attend

Denodo DataFest 2023 is designed to empower customers to maximize their knowledge of the Denodo Platform and to help their organizations increase their ROI from data and analytics tools, models, and applications.

This event offers opportunities to learn about best practices and tips for leveraging the Denodo Platform’s logical approach for cloud modernization, self-service analytics, data science and machine learning (ML), data fabric, data mesh, and more.

• Learn from fellow data practitioners by swapping strategies and sharing
  best practices
• Build confidence and expertise in creating leading-edge logical data solutions to address your organization’s data integration and data management needs
• Network with like-minded industry professionals who are using the Denodo Platform to conquer the challenges that come with data that is deeply buried, complex to access, difficult to integrate, and inaccessible to business users

Speakers

• Sanjeev Mohan, Angel Vina, & many more

About Denodo

The award-winning Denodo Platform offers a robust capabilities package for data integration, data management, and data delivery using a logical approach to enable self-service business intelligence, data science, hybrid/multi-cloud integration, and enterprise data services. Denodo touts customers across large enterprises and mid-market companies in over 30 industries. A pioneering company in the data virtualization space, Denodo was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1999.

FAQ

• What: Denodo DataFest 2023
• When: September 12-14, 2023
• Where: Boston, MA (see registration page for more detail)

Register for Denodo DataFest 2023

The post What to Expect at Denodo DataFest Americas 2023 on September 12-14 appeared first on Solutions Review Technology News and Vendor Reviews.

Solutions Review’s Solution Spotlight with Monte Carlo is entitled: Architecting for Data Quality in the Lakehouse.

What is a Solutions Spotlight?

Solutions Review’s Solution Spotlights are exclusive webinar events for industry professionals across enterprise technology. Since its first virtual event in June 2020, Solutions Review has expanded its multimedia capabilities in response to the overwhelming demand for these kinds of events. Solutions Review’s current menu of online offerings includes the Demo Day, Solution Spotlight, best practices or case study webinars, and panel discussions. And the best part about the “Spotlight” series? They are free to attend!

Why You Should Attend

Solutions Review is one of the largest communities of IT executives, directors, and decision-makers across enterprise technology marketplaces. Every year over 10 million people come to Solutions Review’s collection of sites for the latest news, best practices, and insights into solving some of their most complex problems.

With the next Solutions Spotlight event, the team at Solutions Review has partnered with leading reliability vendor Monte Carlo to provide viewers with a unique webinar called Architecting for Data Quality in the Lakehouse.

Join us for a live tech talk and learn about architecting for data quality in the lakehouse with Delta Lake and PySpark. After the presentation, we’ll have time for questions. Join Prateek Chawla and Ryan Kearns to walk through how data and ML engineers can solve for data quality across the data lakehouse by applying data observability techniques.

Speakers

• Prateek Chawla, Founding Engineer
• Italy Bleier, Head of Engineering

About Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo’s data observability platform utilizes best practices and principles of automatic application observability and applies them to data pipelines. This provides data engineers and analysts with visibility across all data pipelines and data products. Monte Carlo also offers machine learning that gives users a holistic view of an organization’s data health and reliability for important business use cases.

FAQ

• What: Architecting for Data Quality in the Lakehouse
• When: Monday, August 21, 2023, at 12:00 PM Eastern Time
• Where: Zoom meeting (see registration page for more detail)

Register for Solutions Review’s Solution Spotlight with Monte Carlo FREE

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The post What to Expect at Solutions Review’s Solution Spotlight with Monte Carlo on August 21 appeared first on Solutions Review Technology News and Vendor Reviews.

The editors at Solutions Review examine some common wireless network mistakes made by enterprises to be aware of and avoid.

Wireless networks are paramount to enterprises due to their numerous benefits and crucial role in modern business operations. Wireless networks provide unparalleled flexibility and mobility, allowing employees to connect to the network from virtually anywhere within the office premises. This wireless connectivity empowers employees to work more efficiently, collaborate seamlessly, and access critical data and resources on the go, boosting productivity and responsiveness. Additionally, wireless networks enable the integration of various devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and IoT devices, supporting the modern trend of the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) policy and facilitating the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. Wireless networks can also play a pivotal role in enhancing customer experience. Businesses can offer free guest Wi-Fi, enabling customers to stay connected while on-premises, thus increasing foot traffic and encouraging longer stays. This creates marketing and data collection opportunities, allowing enterprises to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences.

Wireless networks are essential to modern enterprises, but they can be complex and challenging to manage. Several common mistakes are made by enterprises when setting up and managing their wireless networks. The editors at Solutions Review take a look at some of those to provide you with a checklist of what to avoid when deploying your own wireless network.

12 Common Wireless Network Mistakes Made by Enterprises

Here are some common wireless network mistakes to avoid:

1. Inadequate Coverage: One of the most common mistakes is deploying insufficient access points (APs) to provide full coverage within the enterprise. Gaps in coverage can lead to dead zones and poor connectivity in certain areas, resulting in frustrated users and reduced productivity.
2. Improper AP Placement: Incorrect placement of access points can lead to signal interference, poor signal strength, and reduced network performance. Placing APs too close together can cause channel overlap and congestion, while placing them too far apart can create coverage holes.
3. Ignoring Site Surveys: Enterprises sometimes skip the crucial step of conducting a comprehensive site survey before deploying their wireless network. Site surveys help identify potential sources of interference, optimal AP placement, and ensure the network is designed to meet specific requirements.
4. Inadequate Security: Failing to implement robust security measures can expose the wireless network to various threats, including unauthorized access, data breaches, and denial-of-service attacks. Common security mistakes include weak passwords, outdated encryption protocols, and not regularly updating firmware.
5. No Guest Network Isolation: Enterprises that do not isolate guest networks from internal networks risk unauthorized users gaining access to sensitive information or compromising the overall network security.
6. Lack of Network Segmentation: Failing to segment the wireless network into different virtual LANs (VLANs) can result in reduced network performance and increased security risks. Segmentation allows for better traffic management and isolation of critical resources.
7. Overlooking Bandwidth Requirements: Enterprises often underestimate their bandwidth needs. As the number of connected devices and the demand for data-intensive applications increase, not allocating enough bandwidth can lead to slow network speeds and user dissatisfaction.
8. Ignoring Firmware Updates: Wireless network devices require regular firmware updates to fix security vulnerabilities and improve performance. Neglecting these updates can leave the network exposed to potential threats and may limit the network’s capabilities.
9. Neglecting Capacity Planning: As the number of wireless devices grows, enterprises must plan for increased capacity requirements. Failure to do so can lead to network congestion and overall performance decline.
10. Not Monitoring Network Performance: Enterprises often neglect to monitor their wireless network’s performance regularly. Without proper monitoring and analysis, identifying issues and troubleshooting problems becomes challenging, leading to extended downtime and user frustration.
11. Inadequate User Training: Failing to educate employees about best practices for using the wireless network can result in improper device configurations, security risks, and inefficient use of network resources.
12. Lack of Redundancy: Enterprises may not have a sufficient backup or redundancy plan for their wireless infrastructure. A single point of failure can disrupt the entire network, causing downtime and productivity losses.

Addressing these common mistakes requires careful planning, ongoing monitoring, and continuous improvement to ensure a reliable, secure, and efficient wireless network for an enterprise. Wireless networks matter to enterprises because they offer unparalleled flexibility, mobility, and collaboration capabilities, enabling employees to work more efficiently and effectively. They reduce infrastructure costs, enhance customer experience, and facilitate the adoption of modern technologies, positioning businesses for growth and success in an increasingly interconnected and mobile world.

This article on common wireless network mistakes to avoid was AI-generated by ChatGPT and edited by Solutions Review editors.

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The editors at Solutions Review highlight what’s changed in Gartner’s 2023 Magic Quadrant for APM and Observability and provide an analysis of the new report.

Analyst house Gartner, Inc.’s 2023 Magic Quadrant for APM and Observability has arrived. Gartner defines the application performance monitoring (APM) and observability market as software that enables the observation and analysis of application health, performance, and user experience. Gartner reports that the user market for APM is represented by IT operations, site reliability engineers, cloud and platform ops, application developers, and product owners.

Key features and capabilities, according to Gartner, when choosing an APM platform should include automated discovery and mapping of an application and its infrastructure components. Network automation can be based on artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML). Network monitoring should be able to watch the activity on both mobile and desktop endpoints. It should have native integration capabilities with automation and service management tools and public cloud service providers (IE CloudWatch, Azure Monitoring, etc.). Overall, the platform should be capable of analyzing application performance problems and their impact on business productivity.

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2023 Magic Quadrant for APM and Observability

In this Magic Quadrant, Gartner evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of 19 providers that it considers most significant in the marketplace and provides readers with a graph (the Magic Quadrant) plotting the vendors based on their ability to execute and completeness of vision. The graph is divided into four quadrants: niche players, challengers, visionaries, and leaders. At Solutions Review, we read the report, available here, and pulled out the key takeaways. This is not an in-depth analysis, only an observation of notable changes since the 2023 report.

Gartner highlights the following providers in the application performance monitoring market: Dynatrace, Datadog, New Relic Splunk, Honeycomb, AWS, Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Grafana Labs, ServiceNow, Elastic, Logz.io, Oracle, Sumo Logic, SolarWinds, Broadcom, Riverbed, and ManageEngine.

Leaders

In the Leaders quadrant, Datadog and Dynatrace switch places, with Dynatrace moving up and Datadog moving down. The Dynatrace platform comprises Infrastructure Observability, Application Observability, Security Protection, Security Analytics, Digital Experience, Business Analytics, Automations, and Custom Solutions. Its geographically-diversified operations focus on EMEA, North America, and the mature APAC region. Their customers tend to be large global enterprises. New Relic retains its position, followed by former Visionary, Splunk. The Splunk Observability Cloud covers many areas of observability, including infrastructure, APM, DEM, AIOps, and incident intelligence. Its operations are geographically diversified, and its customers tend to be large enterprises. Splunk’s roadmap includes AI-directed end-to-end full-stack observability for hybrid environments, integration across observability and security, and visibility and controls into metrics platform usage and costs. IBM moved to the Challengers. And Honeycomb retains its spot at the bottom of the quadrant.

Challengers

In the Challengers quadrant, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, and Microsoft retain their positions. Sumo Logic vacates its spot, joins the Niche Players, and is replaced by former Leader, IBM. IBM acquired Instana in 2020, and its Instana APM product is offered as a SaaS product and as a self-hosted option, using a single-agent architecture. Its operations primarily focus on North America and Western Europe, with fewer clients in other regions. Its client base is midsize-to-large enterprises. IBM’s monitoring portfolio includes mainframe as well as modern cloud architectures. IBM’s roadmap includes an upcoming synthetics monitoring component and advances to its AI-assisted remediation capacity.

Visionaries

With Splunk now in the Leaders quadrant and VMWare out of the square all together, the doors are now open to new Visionaries, Grafana Labs, and ServiceNow. In the APM and observability realm, Grafana Labs offers enterprise and SaaS versions of Mimir (metrics), Loki (logs), and Tempo (traces), as well as Grafana Enterprise for visualization. Its customers are global, but centered in the Americas and EMEA. Recent activities include the acquisition of continuous profiling vendor Pyroscope, the release of a Kubernetes monitoring solution, and a unified incident response management suite. ServiceNow’s offering is Cloud Observability (formerly Lightstep, an acquisition completed in 2021). ServiceNow’s operations are global, primarily in North America and EMEA, with a growing presence in APAC. ServiceNow has clients in all verticals, including financial services, government, healthcare, and manufacturing. To date, Cloud Observability has been maintained as a separate SaaS offering and is outside the core ServiceNow Now Platform. ServiceNow’s roadmap for Cloud Observability includes expanding use cases around DEX and remediation, and a focus on tighter integration with the core ServiceNow Now Platform. Elastic and Logz.io retain their positions.

Niche Players

In the Niche Players, Alibaba Cloud is out. Oracle takes its place at the top of the quadrant, followed by former Challenger, Sumo Logic. Sumo Logic’s Observability platform is focused on providing availability, performance, and security analysis via SaaS monitoring. Its operations are geographically diverse, and its clients include enterprise and midmarket segments. Sumo Logic’s roadmap includes enhanced analytics use cases, an evolution of Kubernetes observability, RASP, and an increased contribution to OpenTelemetry. SolarWinds moved up a few spots. Riverbed moved down a few spots, dropping just below Broadcom, who held their position. ManageEngine retains its position near the bottom of the quadrant from last year.

Read Gartner’s 2023 Magic Quadrant for APM and Observability

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