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Pokemon Go’s plans to make 3D scans of the world

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In 2016 we saw the world go crazy for Pokemon Go. The game sent hundreds of millions of people of all ages wandering the streets searching for virtual creatures. This game has paved the way for augmented reality in today’s technological landscape, and the ability to overlay computer-generated imagery onto real-world environments. Niantic (developers of Pokemon Go) are leading the way in advancing augmented reality technology, especially in their new proposed update.

Niantic plans to encourage users to create and upload 3D scans of real-world locations while they play Pokemon Go. With the incentive of unlocking “new kinds of planet-scale AR experiences”, avid Pokemon players will be helping develop the future of AR gameplay.

The Future of Augmented Reality

Given Niantic’s success, Big Tech companies are now in an arms race to see who can develop and execute this technology the fastest. Businesses such as Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google are currently developing similar AR products. By using simultaneous localisation and mapping technology (SLAM), the companies can regularly scan and collect data about a user’s environment.

We consume new technologies very quickly, so it is easy to imagine a world where augmented reality is integrated into our everyday lives. However, there are growing concerns about pervasive augmented reality being used by big companies to create more targeted advertising. Other organisations have warned against these new technology developments with concerns over the potential influence on surveillance and control.

Using augmented reality in the classroom

It can be tempting to ignore this technology, given the potential threats or concerns on how it can be used for ‘evil’. However, there are many benefits and positives in using augmented reality into today’s educational setting.

While the new 3D scanning feature is yet to be implemented, the current game provides opportunities to build lesson plans around the game now. For example, in an English lesson, you may have primary students write a fact file on a certain pokemon. A Maths lesson may involve high school students measuring the distance travelled, defining speed, the area covered and so forth. There are numerous lesson plans relating to the app in computing, design technology, art, geography and PE classes.

For more inspiration on how you can create fun and engaging lessons using the latest technology check out our blog on the newest education tools.

To learn about more opportunities to integrate technology into the classroom, or if you are wanting to upskill your teachers to effectively use new tools in lesson plans, contact our friendly eStorm team at any time on 1300 378 676 or [email protected].

Is my business fit for managed cloud services?

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The “Cloud” is a new and disruptive trend that has been gaining momentum in businesses for some time. With many businesses unsure how cloud computing and cloud services can fit into their business strategy. Managed Cloud Services may sound like a complex concept; however, it is simply storing your data offsite in a data centre or a private cloud.

Benefits of the Cloud

Businesses who make the shift to cloud software often do so for many different reasons. The most common include flexibility, scalability, cost savings, as well as the uses of cloud services such as data backups, disaster recovery, and so forth.

Managed cloud services are not limited to small businesses or start-ups, and are beneficial for companies of all sizes. Many businesses will often associate managed IT services as unaffordable and unnecessary. However, managed cloud services are affordable, easy to deploy and simple for businesses to manage.

Evaluating your business needs

Before obtaining managed cloud services, you need to evaluate your business from a strategic and operational perspective. Does your IT demand fluctuate throughout the year? Do your IT costs negatively impact on your ability to grow your business? If your answer is yes, making the move to managed cloud services may be in your best interest.

Businesses will typically choose a cloud service from three distinct types of models: private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud. Unlike a public cloud, private and hybrid clouds require businesses to maintain, manage and update their data centres through dedicated administrators. Often the cost and ability to execute these tasks are not in the best interests of the business; this is where managed cloud service providers step in.

What cloud service is best for you?

Each business is unique, their size, business objectives, industry and IT software; therefore, every business deserves a customised service. With a variety of cloud packages available, you can choose which services and features are best for you, your budget and strategic needs.

Co-location providers

Co-location services provide businesses with an opportunity to install their own servers in a managed facility. The location provider then has the responsibility of keeping the servers on and maintained. However, the responsibility of physically maintaining the servers rests with the owner of the server (i.e. the business).

The next step up – Managed Co-location

Providers have begun to offer managed co-location services, where businesses can buy a server from the provider, who then oversee the installation and ongoing management. Using this framework allows businesses to reduce operational overheads as well as take advantage of the increased resilience of off-site systems.

Experience more freedom – Managed Apps and IaaS

The next service in the managed cloud includes full hosted and managed applications in the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. This also includes large platforms such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, allowing businesses to move key applications to the Cloud.

The support, management and maintenance of their cloud infrastructure is the responsibility of the service provider; everything else is left to the business to handle.

The Saving Grace of Cloud Services – Fully Managed Cloud

Fully managed cloud services allow you to hand over the management and stress of the entire platform, as well as all of its parts to a third party (that’s us!). Here at eStorm, we take the time to understand your business’ IT needs and identify and deploy new services that help you reach your goals.

Why we recommend Managed Cloud Services

Including managed cloud services into your business strategy, your business will experience the following benefits:

Cost Saving

Managed cloud services can help you control and reduce your costly IT maintenance costs. Maintaining an in-house IT department is expensive and is often unnecessary for businesses with simple networks. Making the switch to a managed cloud service provider means you decide how much you are willing to pay for IT services and have a consistent monthly bill.

Future-proofed technology

Migrating your data to a secure cloud is the first step in setting up your business for success in the future. The friendly technicians at eStorm are always prepared with the newest technology. We are by your side when new technology comes on the market, or a required update is released, supporting you every step of the way.

Custom and integrated service

At eStorm, we understand each business is unique and requires a custom cloud solution for a seamless transition and minimal downtime. To accommodate this, we offer a variety of services to unlock your business potential, including, private and hybrid cloud, Microsoft Office 365, Sharepoint, Amazon Web Services and many more. View our full list of services, here.

If you are unsure if your business is ready to make the transition to the Cloud, book an appointment with the friendly team at eStorm Australia today.

Is your business ready for the Essential Eight?

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At the beginning of 2020, the Federal Government and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) announced the Essential Eight (E8). The E8 is a strategy for businesses to mitigate cybersecurity incidents, protecting their systems against a range of adversaries.

What is the “Essential Eight”?

The ACSC has admitted that no single mitigation strategy guarantees total prevention of cybersecurity incidents. However, they encourage organisations to implement the eight essential strategies as a baseline. These mitigation strategies are also deemed cost-effective with regards to time, money and effort when compared to the resources needed to respond to large-scale cybersecurity incidents.

  • The E8 strategies are categorised into three groups:
  • Strategies to Prevent Malware Delivery and Execution,
  • Mitigating the Extent of Cyber Security Incidents, and
  • Recovering Data and Maintaining System Availability.

For more information on these strategies visit the Australian Cyber Security Centre.

How will the Essential Eight affect your business?

These new strategies are now a benchmark for any business or organisation who is required or aspires to work with the Government, Health or other contracts containing sensitive data. Whether your business is compliant with these strategies or is not is now a big factor when it comes to Government tenders, contract pitches and so forth. It is also likely that other big corporations dealing with data will also require their business partners to be compliant with the E8 before starting any work.

Complying with the Essential Eight

As a business owner or IT professional, your first task will be running an IT security audit and comparing your current system to the strategies outlined by the Government. From here, you will be able to identify your weaknesses and gaps in security. Your business can begin implementing the eight strategies anytime, and suggested approaches from the Australian Cyber Security Centre are available.

How eStorm can help

You do not need to handle or manage this change on your own. Our team understands auditing your current system and updating your strategies to suit the new benchmarks is not an easy task. Our friendly IT support team is here to help your business obtain a high-security standard, going beyond the E8 strategies.

Currently, the E8 strategies are heavily based on Windows-based systems. However, our team covers this and more to ensure your business’ IT is secure. Our broad services include Mac Controls, Perimeter Security (Firewalls and Universal Threat Management), and breach mitigation (honeypots and intrusion detection systems).

If you have questions regarding how the Essential Eight will impact your business or how to maintain high-security standards, the eStorm is here to help. Contact us today!

 

Hybrid working: the future of office spaces

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The time of employees being confined to one physical workspace was already fading before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic has forced the hand of many businesses to experience remote working first-hand.

Now that we are returning to a new ‘normal’ many offices are looking to create a permanent and sustainable hybrid workplace to keep employees happy and safe, while ensuring productivity and efficiency remains high. We are yet to see how businesses and their teams will go with this transition. To ensure your team adjusts as smoothly as possible during this transition, we’ve provided a few areas below for you to consider in your implementation.

What is a hybrid workplace?

A hybrid workforce is when on any given day, you will have a mix of some employees working in the office and others working remotely. Often mistaken with ‘flexible working arrangements’ there is a clear distinction between the two. Unlike flexible work, the hybrid model provides employees with the autonomy to decide how, when and where they work best.

Hybrid working looks different in every organisation; consequently, there is no ‘one-size fits all’ when it comes to an implementation strategy. However, there are several considerations all businesses will need to take into consideration when exploring the benefits of hybrid working.

What are the benefits of hybrid working?

A study completed in 2018 found that 60% of employees who had hybrid or flexible work options were more productive and engaged in their work more than those with office-based or entirely remote teams. Happy employees lead to loyal employees. Hybrid working arrangements require a certain level of trust between the company and its teams, and while this may seem difficult at first, most companies indicate that the reward of loyalty is worth it.

Flexible and hybrid working options are often sought out by job seekers in today’s competitive job market. Consequently, you might find that thanks to the change in working arrangements, finding new, high-quality employees will not be as difficult. Another advantage to hybrid office styles is that it can assist in your brand transitioning to a global scale. This working style means you can easily have employees across the world, communicating with clients in all different time zones.

What are the key considerations when transitioning to a hybrid workplace?

The best way to transition to a hybrid workplace is to first recognise that everyone works differently. To ensure that each employee can complete their work in the most productive way possible, your business will need to consider the following.

Maintaining Communication

Hybrid arrangements will alter how teams interact and communicate with one another; for example, ‘water-cooler’ conversations and other informal conversations had by employees almost cease to exist when remote work comes into play. These informal conversations can be essential for employee wellbeing and work enjoyment. Introducing Microsoft 365 to your employees’ tools can help overcome this thanks to the new Team’s functionality — check out our recent article on how Microsoft can support your business going remote.

Formal collaboration between teams is often seen to be most effective in tight groups working through specific tasks. Changing the environment in which these types of teams work can result in small challenges or hurdles. However, don’t let the fear of these changes deter you from transitioning to hybrid working.

There are plenty of programs out there that are built specifically for this that you can integrate into your staff’s everyday use. A perfect example of this is Microsoft Sharepoint, a tool that has a variety of uses for keeping teams and employees connected with the business as well as accessing relevant information easily. Alternatively, team members may select specific days where the entire team will be present in the office to formally collaborate.

Building trust amongst teams and within the organisation

As mentioned above, hybrid working requires employees and employers to trust one another for this transition to work. Find ways to let your employees know that your intentions are to keep them safe and protected during the uncertainty of COVID-19, while also requiring them to manage their workload in a way that is best for them.

Mutual trust between an organisation and its employees is also examinable through company culture and whether a team member feels as though they ‘fit-in’ or ‘belong’. Businesses will need to continue to engage workers through shared, company-wide one-off experiences that are equal to the experience enjoyed by staff who work on-site. This might include scheduled zoom sessions or virtual watercooler chats.

Matching your IT strategy to your employee’s working arrangements

As it currently stands, your office will likely have better technology than your employee’s personal devices. By reflecting on your current IT strategy and optimising your business’ and employees’ needs, eStorm can work with you to ensure your team is working with the best technology and accessing all the data necessary to complete their work.

Our team can also assist you in finding the right programs to foster the best communication and working strategies suited for your team. This might include video conferencing software, team communication and file sharing, and tools to assist with tasks.

Find out more about how eStorm can assist with hardware and software procurement for your team, as well as transiting your business to either a private cloud or hybrid cloud to best suit your new workplace.

Ready for hybrid working?

Like any workplace transformation, it isn’t a task that can be completed in a week, month or even a year. Businesses will need to take in many factors of consideration while rolling out a new hybrid workforce. It is a continuous journey of reflection and self-learning.

You can trust us to be with you every step of the way, looking after all your IT needs, giving you one less thing to worry about during this process. If you would like to learn more about how hybrid working arrangements will affect your business’ current IT setup, contact the friendly eStorm team at any time on 1300 378 676 or [email protected].

3 Cyber Security Tips When Working Remote

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Remote working can be a blessing. More time spent with the family, less time commuting and sitting through meetings from the comfort of your own home. But as companies across Australia continue to offer flexible work environments to prevent the spread to COVID-19, it is important to understand the security and privacy risks that both the business and employees may encounter.

Employees who are usually protected by corporate networks are working from much less secure locations, and cybercriminals have used COVID-19 as an opportunity. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASCS) has seen a significant increase in Australians being targeted with COVID-19 related scams, and advised everyone to stay aware and up-to-date. To help you get started, here are three things you could do to protect both your employees and the business.

Implement multi-factor authentication

According to the Australian Government, multi-factor authentication (MFA) is considered to be one of the most effective controls you can implement to prevent unauthorised access to computers, applications and online services. Using multiple layers of authentication makes it much more challenging to access your systems.

Multi-factor authentication can use a combination of:

  • Something the user knows, whether it be a passphrase, PIN or an answer to a secret question
  • Something the user physically possesses such as a card, token or a security key
  • Something the user inherently possesses such as a fingerprint or retina pattern.
Update your software & operating systems

Often software updates for operating systems and applications are developed to address security issues. Updates often include new security features that protect your data and device. Quite often cybercriminals take advantage of software vulnerabilities in common applications like operating systems and browsers.

Here are some best practices when it comes to software and operating system updates:

  • Stay current: software vendors release updates regularly and many of them relate to important security issues. Appoint someone to be in charge of staying on top of these updates.
  • Keep up with regular maintenance tasks: appoint someone to be in charge of keeping software licenses up to date and keeping software current.
  • Automate what you can: this will lessen the burden in the long run.
  • Back up everything: if you experience any crashes while updating you’ll be glad you did.
Outsource a Managed IT Service Provider (MSP)… like us!

Managed IT Services are a subscription-based outsourcing of IT systems management for businesses, which also includes the management of other IT processes and functions intended to improve business operations and reduce costs.

The goal of managed IT services is to help your business run more effectively by transferring the burden of managing and maintaining your IT software, hardware and environment to us—the managed IT service provider. As your IT managed service provider we then maintain responsibility for the day-to-day maintenance, upkeep and functionality of your IT service, equipment and overall infrastructure, as well as any short or long-term IT strategy and expansion.

Partnering with an MSP offers many benefits to your business. Some of these include:

  • Minimised downtime and cost reductions: with 24/7 proactive monitoring of your IT systems, we’re able to identify and address any issues before they cause damage, interruptions to your business or financial loss.
  • Security: with over 43% of cyber attacks targeting small to medium businesses, it’s vital vulnerability assessments, threat management and secure user access and verification become a commonplace for your business. We’re always working with leading technology vendors and testing the latest world-class technology, tools, systems and security to deliver the best and safest IT solutions.
  • Peace of mind knowing that no matter where you are or what issue arises, you have skilled professional IT experts in your corner who are prepared and ready to help you.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses continue to adapt to the fast-changing environment and develop strategies to protect their business and staff from cyber attacks. Here at eStorm, we encourage Australians to remain vigilant and to review your current strategies to ensure you incorporate cyber security measures.

If you’d like to learn more about outsourcing your IT or Managed Services, or have questions about Network Security, get in touch today by emailing [email protected] or calling (07) 3120 0640.

Office 365 supports your business to work remote

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In these ever-changing times, the ability for an organisation to adapt and change is what will allow you to stand out from competitors, continue to serve customers, and ensure you maintain momentum. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing more and more businesses prepare for social distancing by setting up their systems to allow for remote work and collaboration. At eStorm, we’ve been supporting our customers to ensure they are set-up and using Office 365 to its full potential.

Whether working on a PC, Mac or mobile device from home or in the office, Office 365 is providing workplaces with the tools to continue driving efficiency and productivity. Here are just a few ways Office 365 can support your business in working remotely:

Real-time collaboration

For businesses to continue operating and supporting customers, collaboration on projects and tasks needs to continue. Office 365 provides multiple tools to ensure collaboration doesn’t stop when teams are working remotely. The Microsoft Office suite most of you are used to gives you the ability to have more than one person working on a Word document or Excel file at the same time, and be able to see each other’s work — great for collaboration.

To take it to the next level, there are also a number of newer tools such as SharePoint, Skype for Business and Teams — all designed to help your organisation achieve its goals and provide greater opportunities for workplaces when working remotely.

Teams

Teams is a Microsoft Office 365 tool that allows you to keep your teams communicating, collaborating and working together no matter what location they’re in! The Teams tool is used by businesses to support teams of all sizes, from small teams of 2-5, to large teams of 20-30, even to bigger groups of 100+. No matter the size of your team, Teams provides a great option for organising projects and getting the right people together to have conversations and meetings.

Teams also works as a way of recording and tracking conversations, and offers an easy format for online meetings and chat sessions. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen more and more businesses take advantage of Teams to ensure they are delivering projects, communicating in a timely manner and continuing to achieve their organisation’s goals.

Microsoft is currently offering a free version of Teams during the COVID-19 pandemic — learn more about the free version and speak to us about how we can support you to set-up Teams today.

A simple tip for your employees when using Teams to facilitate group chats while working remote — if you’re somewhere with a distracting background, there is a handy little ‘background blur’ tool to help reduce distraction and keep teammates focused.

Secure Cloud file storage

Office 365 also allows your team to access files from anywhere, in a secure and safe manner. The cloud-based storage, OneDrive, provides global accessibility and real-time collaboration to support your business in working both in-house and remote as needed. It allows for full visibility, control and collaboration for internal and external stakeholders, as you can easily share documents and control who can view and edit each file. 

Microsoft Office 365 also offers enterprise solutions when it comes to ensuring your business’s documents and work stays secure. Its collection of threat-protection technologies helps protect against spam, malware, viruses, phishing attempts, malicious links, and other cyber threats to your business.

Continuation of business

The huge benefit of Office 365 to businesses is that it offers an easy way to continue ‘business as usual’ no matter what challenges may come your way. The tools are there to help your teams collaborate, plan workflows and tasks, and manage projects. With Office 365, your business can continue to meet its goals and deliver services/products to your customers. 

Need help to get your business working remote using Office 365?

At eStorm, we offer Office 365 support and troubleshooting, as well as deliver general IT Managed Services. What does that mean exactly? With a wide range of plans, deployment options and services, our IT experts can get your business set up and working efficiently in no-time. With access to the latest information and deals on offer, our team is here to support you during the COVID-19 pandemic and into the future.

Microsoft Surface Pro 7. Is it worth the upgrade?

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On October 2nd Microsoft unveiled a series of new devices that covers the gap between a conventional laptop, a tablet PC, and to many’s surprise, a device that crosses the line between a smartphone and tablet. Whilst Microsoft was showing their most innovative products to date, this artile is not about the new products they have launched, it is about a product that we are all familiar with. The Microsoft Surface Pro 7.

Microsoft unveiled the new Surface Pro 7. Which for the last seven years stayed the same in physical design. It was a revolutionary device when it was first released as it was the only tablet PC convertible that received positive remarks from the consumer, but it still had its shortcomings, especially the battery life and constant heating. It was the first product in the Surface family to feature a stylus pen input in which years later, Apple had followed suit with the iPad Pro. It was a brilliant device for someone who loves to take notes, draw, and just someone who loves writing in general. But in 2019, with all the new competition from other brands, is it even relevant?

As per TechRadar’s review, the Surface Pro 7 is, astonishingly, no longer the shining flagship Surface product, that privilege now belongs to the new ARM-based Surface Pro X. And the most impactful of all from their review is that the latest Surface Pro is a refinement – not a revolution.

There might be some loyal fans to the Surface Pro that will still be eager to buy this product or those people who finds the additional USB type C port useful to upgrade. There are a lot of downside to this launch as it was noted that the Type cover and the Surface Pen is still sold separately. There’s also an issue with a major dip in the battery life of the device compared to previous generation. What happened to Surface Pro 7 is the same thing happening to Apple’s iPhone in which innovation is now defined as the refinement of the things that already existed.

In general, the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 is not a bad product. Once again, it is the refinement of years of development all cluttered to this device. To answer my question from the title of this article, I would say that it is worth it if you are a big fan of the line-up. If you are someone who already owns a Surface Pro 6, I do think that you can still live without the upgrade.

The 3 keys to high performance & cost savings with IT

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Efficiency. It’s that ever illustrious goal that every IT professional and leader endeavours toward. But, even with maximum effort and precision planning, efforts in the pursuit of ultimate efficiency can fail to hit their intended targets.

According to Kumar Krishnamurthy, a principal with PwC’s Strategy Consulting Group, we must move our focus toward improving effectiveness and the experience for the user.

Focusing on the needs of the business, not just technology

Merim Becirovic, IT managing director at business and technology consulting firm Accenture, says that businesses can become stuck when making decisions as a result of the sheer number of new capabilities the market has made available.

Becirovic thinks this kind of technology-first approach leads to tools and services being adopted that don’t adapt to user needs.

In our new role, we need to enable businesses and help them uncover new streams of revenue. Concurrently, we must focus on the specific needs of the customer and the growth potential of any technology in alignment with overarching organisational goals.

Relationship building

Director in operations excellence practice at West Monroe Partners, Colleen Campbell, says that in order to achieve maximum potential efficiency, we must connect with business stakeholders.

“If a technology leader can state clearly how their technology choices have impact ROI, business leaders will listen and see the line that is drawn from cost to benefit.”

“This is accomplished through relationship building, stakeholder management, communications strategies, program management, metrics, skill capabilities, cultural alignment to goals, and organisational changes.”

CTO of digital design agency SPR, Matt Mead, says there needs to be a sense that business and IT leaders have worked together in projecting and implementing the IT needs for the upcoming year.

Developing IT plans in a vacuum or simply duplicating the strategy of the previous year can lead to significant inefficiencies and affect the businesses ability to remain competitive.

The Cloud

The cloud offers efficiency like never before. Almost any organisation can become more efficient by leveraging the power of cloud / SaaS / IaaS offerings.

These services are designed with agility in mind and allow businesses to scale up or down as they need while leveraging best-of-breed solutions to fulfil the ever changing needs of an organisation.

Gabe Girodano, chair of the MIS department of Ohio University, says that while data centre to cloud migration costs can be rather high, the medium to long-term cost savings are worth it. The lower physical infrastructure expenses, combined with reduced IT management and user support costs can produce significant cost-savings over time.

“The rapidly increasing cost of IT security will make these savings even more significant in many settings moving forward.”

A Framework for identifying and assessing emergent technology

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Emerging technologies introduce challenges and threats to existing organisational competitive advantages, as well as presenting opportunities for organisations to take the lead in completely new areas, long before the competition takes root.

The need to monitor the technological horizon is vitally important. Emerging technology represents a series of potential investments that can have a serious impact on the business. Assessing the technology landscape, making the smart decisions and advocating for the right technology will help secure the organisation’s future.

However, not all emerging technologies are relevant, and not all live up to their promises. In order to choose the right technology for your business, practitioners must evaluate new technologies for their impact, relevance and probability of success. Whether you choose to adopt or ignore a new piece of technology, the wrong choice can be costly.

Each year, organisations of all sizes measure, analyse and plan where they’re investing in technology, however there is still no widely accepted framework for analysing and evaluating emerging technology.

 

Why businesses need a framework for assessing new technology

  • Utilising a framework as a shared understanding, it becomes much easier to discuss technology analysis with customers and other members of the organisation
  • A framework as a shared understanding enables and simplifies communication and education around technology. A framework not only helps you educate someone on a piece of technology, but makes it much easier to learn about technology from others
  • The sharing of information around technology analysis between teams and departments becomes simplified, easier to understand and more efficient
  • A framework helps to identify which aspects of a piece of technology can be included or left out, depending on its application and relevance
  • The framework itself can be improved over time and collect inputs from relevant practitioners

 

The Emerging Technology Analysis Canvas

Similar to Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas, the ETAC (Emerging Technology Analysis Canvas) is a framework designed to address the need for emerging technologies.

The ETAC is based on a set of questions arranged around a logical narrative that probe technology.

 

Emerging technology must fulfil four conditions:

  • The identification of a problem and related innovation that addresses the problem, in this case called a trigger. (We consider that both the problem and innovation must come in conjunction because often the innovation changes our perception of the problem).
  • The technology needs to have a significant potential impact. Often the impact may extend beyond the initial problem.
  • The technology has to be feasible given the available resources.
  • The technology has to navigate risks related to technology development and adoption. For example, the technology must develop and be adopted quickly enough to justify any investment.

The ETAC is structured around these 4 elements (Opportunity, Impact, Technical Feasibility and Future) and drills down into the details in each subsection.

 

ETAC (Emerging Technology Analysis Canvas)

 

Source: https://github.com/wso2/ETAC/blob/master/ETAC.md

Opportunity

  • Trigger: A problem and a solution that captured broader imagination that later evolved to a broader technology promising to solve broader problems.
  • Players: Organisations or individuals who are actively improving or using the technology to solve problems. For example, Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM are active players in serverless. We do not include the end users of the technology as players. Instead these are discussed under the value chain.
  • Drivers: external forces that positively impact the technology such as legislation. For this analysis, one can use the PESTLE framework [10] which considers the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal, and environmental impacts on a technology. Among examples of drivers are cost saving, agility, productivity, automation, communication, trust, privacy, government policy, and law. Also, current industries and other emerging technologies can also act as drivers.

Impact

It is important to note that impact is analysed with respect to potential future and not limited to the current state of the technology.

Macro Impact
This discusses the impact on the industry under the following three themes.

  • Network effects and Interactions: A technology has network effects if the increased adoption increase the technology’s value for existing users thus creating a positive feedback loop.
  • Distruptees: – What technologies or industries will be affected by the emerging technology? The effects are twofold: the industries that compete with the emerging technology will be challenged, while the industries that complement it will be propelled. For example, AI may improve disease diagnosis, but at the same time that will reduce jobs for doctors. Some of the effects may be disruptive, where the affected technology or domain is significantly transformed by the technology. Furthermore, there are several impact areas we can consider. For example, we can use the PESTLE framework [10] in reverse and consider the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal, and environmental impacts of the technology. We need to consider not only the first level effects but also the nth level effects as described by [7]. Furthermore, it is important to consider the crossover potentials of the technology where it can solve fundamental problems in a different industry or a segment, which in turn unlocks a wave of advance. An example of this is blockchain, where a technology designed to solve problems of decentralised money is being applied to areas such as identity, provenance or smart contracts in many industries.

Micro Impact
This discusses the impact on the organisation under the following four themes.

  • Competitive Advantage: how does the emerging technology affect competition between organisations? For example, AI enables organisations to automate decisions and make better decisions, thereby helping them out-compete their competitors.
  • Financial Benefits: How would the technology affect the bottom line of organisations. The benefits come in two forms. The technology might make the organisation efficient saving some costs or the technology might enable new revenue sources. For example, AI is being used to automate expensive human tasks, thus reducing costs significantly.
  • Supply Chain: this represent activities that are carried out starting from raw materials and skills until the product or a service is delivered and consumed by the end user. This section discussed how the technology affects the supply chain.

 

Feasibility

  • Technical Merit – This discusses technology breakthroughs the technology has made as well as any technical limitations. For example, AI has achieved several breakthroughs such as deep learning, which has helped in surpassing human accuracy with many problems. However, there are multiple technical challenges including algorithmic attacks, the need for expert knowledge while tuning and applying the AI, and the significant time required for data cleanup.
  • Tools, Ecosystem, & Skills – This discuss the availability of required skills, tools and best practices, and a community. An example of a community is an open source user forum. As the technology matures, tools and ecosystems will get better, which improve the odds of success. For example, blockchains have built a healthy developer community and tools.
  • Friction – What kind of friction will the emerging technology face in its deployment? Here we only consider technical friction, and nontechnical considerations are discussed under Risks. As an example, blockchains are seeing concerns over the transaction rates and power consumption costs.

 

Future

  • Timeline: What are the key possible milestones in the technology development? For example, how long will it take for the core technology to be ready? How fast will the adoption be? For example, blockchains may need further breakthroughs before they are adopted widely and it might take at least 5-10 years to reach those milestones.
  • Risks: What are risks that might limit the technology deployment? This includes non-technical risks as well. We can think of these as the inverse of drivers. Just like with drivers, we can use the PESTLE framework [10] in reverse to find drivers. An example of a risk is that regulators may restrict blockchains based on taxes or money laundering legislation, even when those blockchains are designed to resolve other aspects than digital cash. Among other risks to be considered are the need for standards, privacy concerns, business models, current law and policy frameworks, lack of skills, complexity, security risks, monopoly and vendor lock-in.

 

Summary

The summary section discusses possible technology development and deployment scenarios while weighing other parts of the ETAC. In the opportunity section, we discussed drivers. In the impact and feasibility sections we explore the potential of the technology and technical reality. The future section discusses risks and potential key milestones. The summary section explores the tension between the potential of the technology and environment in which it has to operate to understand potential scenarios and associated likelihoods.

What we can learn from the Baltimore services hack

By

The Situation

On May 7th 2019, hackers digitally seized roughly 10,000 Baltimore government computers and demanded payment of 13 Bitcoins ($148,151 AUD) to free them back up. Using a ransomsware called RobbinHood, hackers have made it impossible to access servers without a digital key that only they possess.

What is a ransomware attack?
A ransomware attack is where hackers deploy malicious software to block access and take control over computer systems—in this case Baltimore city services and processes.

For three weeks city employees have been locked out of their accounts, while citizens have been unable to access vital services such as sites to pay water bills, property taxes and parking tickets.

A leaked N.S.A. tool, EternalBlue, was also used to exploit a vulnerability in unpatched software that allowed hackers to spread their malware faster and farther than they otherwise would have been able to.

This comes just 15 months after the attack on Baltimore’s 911 system, where hackers were able to disable the city’s 911 system for a day.

The Baltimore hackers ransom note demanded payment of 3 bitcoins per system unlocked, which totalled 13 bitcoins to unlock all seized systems. The note also threatened to increase the ransom if it were not paid within four days, as well as stating that information would be lost forever if it wasn’t paid within 10 days.

Government email systems and payment platforms remain offline, as well as affecting Baltimore’s property market as officials aren’t able to access systems needed to complete real estate sales.

Over 20 municipalities in the US have been hit by cyberattacks in 2019 alone, with an attack on Atlanta costing upwards of $17 million to fix.

 

The Takeaway

It’s important to note that ransomware attacks aren’t new. In 2017, a ransomware called WannaCry target tens of thousands of computers using Microsoft Windows operating systems in more than 100 countries. This attack included corporations in the UK, France, Russia, Israel and Ukraine as well as attacks on hospitals.

Ransomware schemes have become more effective since the invention of Bitcoin in 2009. Conventional payment networks make it difficult to accept payments without revealing your identity. Some ransomware schemes are so elaborate that customer service agents are hired to help victims obtain bitcoin and pay their ransom.

Since WannaCry, many organisations and sectors have made improvements to their security and security practices.

eStorm recommends taking stock of your networks to understand your exposure, assess the potential risks and patch vulnerable areas. We also recommend a multi-layered approach to security that includes:

 

If you have any questions about your business security, feel free to contact us at any time on (07) 3120 0640, email [email protected] or use the live-chat feature on our website between the hours of 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.