Premium files redefine limits for Azure Files

Premium files sets new scale and performance bar for Azure Files, providing more power to developers and IT pros.Today, we are excited to share that Azure Premium Files preview is now available to everyone! Premium files is a new performance tier that unlocks the next level of performance for fully managed file services in the cloud. Premium tier is optimized to deliver consistent performance for IO-intensive workloads that require high-throughput and low latency. Premium shares store data on the latest solid-state drives (SSDs) making it suitable for a wide variety of workloads like file services, databases, shared cache storage, home directories, content and collaboration repositories, persistent storage for containers, media and analytics, high variable and batch workloads, and many more. Our standard tier continues to provide reliable performance to workloads that are less sensitive to performance variability and is well-suited for general purpose file storage, development/test, and application workloads.

Spotlight

Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes is a global technology company providing commerce solutions that power billions of transactions. The 1.5 million clients around the world, including 90% of the Fortune 500, rely on the accuracy and precision delivered by Pitney Bowes solutions, analytics and APIs in the areas of ecommerce fulfillment, shipping and returns; cross-border ecommerce; office mailing and shipping; presort services; location data; customer information and engagement software; services; and financing.

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Software, Low-Code App Development, Application Development Platform

Are Telcos Ready for a Quantum Leap?

Article | June 15, 2023

Quantum technologies present both an opportunity for telcos to solve difficult problems and provide new services and a security threat that could require extensive IT investment. Are Telcos Ready for a Quantum Leap? When Andrew Lord, Senior Manager, Optical Networks and Quantum Research at BT, first started presenting quantum technologies at customer events six or seven years ago, his was the graveyard shift, he says, entertaining attendees at the end of the day with talk of 'crazy quantum stuff.' "But that is no longer the case," says Lord. "Over the last two years, I've noticed a shift where I now speak before lunch, and customers actively seek us out." Two developments may be causing the shift: Customers’ growing awareness of the threats and opportunities that quantum computing presents, plus a recent spike in investment in quantum technology. In 2022, investors plowed $2.35 billion into quantum technology startups, which include companies in quantum computing, communications and sensing, according to McKinsey. The public sector has also been digging deep into its pockets. Last year, the United States added $1.8 billion to its previous spending on quantum technology, and the EU committed an extra $1.2 billion, the consultancy noted, while China made total investments of $15.3 billion. According to Luke Ibbetson, Head of Group R&D at Vodafone, quantum computing's promise lies in solving a probabilistic equation within a few hours. This task would take a classical computer a million years to accomplish. This breakthrough would enable telcos to address optimization problems related to network planning, optimization, and base station placement. The flip side is that a powerful quantum computer could also break the public-key cryptography that protects today’s IT systems from hackers. As a spokesperson at Deutsche Telekom remarks: “Telcos will have to react to the threat of quantum computers to communication security because their core business model is at risk, which is offering secure digital communications.” The idea of quantum computing posing a security threat is not new. In 1994, Peter Shor, a mathematician working at AT&T Bell Labs, showed how a quantum computer could solve the logarithms used to encrypt data. “His work simultaneously ignited multiple new lines of research in quantum computing, information science, and cryptography,” according to an article by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Shor is currently working. Beyond The Lab What has changed nearly thirty years on is that quantum computing is creeping out of the lab. Sizeable obstacles to large-scale quantum computing, however, remain. Quantum computers are highly sensitive to interference from noise, temperature, movement or electromagnetic fields and, therefore, very difficult and expensive to build and operate, especially at scale: IBM’s latest quantum processor, for example, operates at a very low temperature of approximately 0.02 degrees Kelvin. When Deutsche Telekom’s T-Labs tested telco use cases, it found quantum computing coped well with small problem statements. “However, when the problem size was scaled to real-world problem sizes, the quality of the QComp solution degraded,” according to the spokesperson. The company is now awaiting the next generation of quantum computing platforms to redo the analyses. All of this means, for now, quantum computers are not large and powerful enough to crack Shor’s algorithm. The question is, when will someone succeed? The Global Risk Institute tracks the quantum threat timeline. In its latest annual report, the organization asked 40 quantum experts whether they thought it likely that within the next ten years, a quantum computer would break an encryption scheme like RSA-2048 in under 24 hours. Over half the respondents judged the event to be more than 5% likely, and almost a quarter considered it to be more than 50% likely. Any breakthrough will come from a relatively small number of actors. Today, governments and academic institutions are home to around half of the 163 projects accounted for worldwide by Global Quantum Intelligence, a research and analysis company, according to its CEO, André M. König, with big technology companies and specialized startups accounting for the rest. Q2K Nonetheless, the impact of quantum computing could be widespread, even if relatively few of them are built. The challenge of preparing for a post-quantum future is often called Q2K in reference to the Y2K bug. In the late 1990s, many (but not all) governmental organizations and companies spent millions of dollars on Y2K systems integration to ensure that IT programs written from the 1960s through the 1980s would be able to recognize dates after December 31, 1999, all while being uncertain of the scale or the impact of the risk if they didn’t. ‘Q2K’ differs in that there is no specific deadline, and the dangers of a major security breach are much clearer cut. However, it is similar in demanding a lot of work on aging systems. “Cryptography is used everywhere,” points out Lory Thorpe, IBM’s Director of Global Solutions and Offerings, Telecommunications. She adds, “Because telco systems have been built over periods of decades, people don’t actually know where cryptography is being used. So, if you start to look at the impact of public key cryptography and digital signatures being compromised, you start to look at how those two things impact open source, how that impacts the core network, the radio network, [and] OSS/BSS, network management, how the network management speaks to the network functions and so on.” This complexity is why some analysts recommend that telcos take action now. “You’re going to find tens of thousands of vulnerabilities that are critical and vulnerable to a quantum attack. So, do you have to worry about it today? Absolutely - even if it’s in 2035,” says König. “Anyone who has ever done [IT implementation projects], and anyone who’s ever worked in cybersecurity [knows], tens of thousands of vulnerabilities that are critical [requires] years and years and years of just traditional integration work. So, even if you’re skeptical about quantum, if you haven’t started today, it is almost too late already.” Don’t Panic! For the past two to three years, Vodafone has been preparing to migrate some of its cryptographic systems to be quantum-safe, according to Ibbetson. He believes there is no need to panic about this. However, telcos must start planning now. König said, "The telecoms industry as a whole is not moving as quickly as some other sectors, notably the banking, pharmaceutical, and automotive industries. In these sectors, post-quantum security planning often involves CEOs at a very strategic level." For this reason, Vodafone joined forces with IBM in September 2022 to establish the GSMA Post-Quantum Telco Network Taskforce. “Even though many industries are preparing to be able to defend against future quantum threats, we didn’t see anything happening particularly in in the telco space, and we wanted to make sure that it was a focus,” says Ibbetson. “Obviously it will turn into an IT-style transformation, but it’s starting now with understanding what it is we need to mobilize that.” AT&T has also been working to pinpoint what needs to be addressed. Last year, the company said it aims to be quantum-ready by 2025, in the sense that it will have done its due diligence and identified a clear path forward. Minding Your PQCs Companies across multiple sectors are looking to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to secure their systems, which will use new algorithms that are much harder to crack than RSA. König contends that PQC needs to become “a standard component of companies’ agile defense posture” and believes the development of PQC systems by software and hardware companies will help keep upgrade costs under control. “From a financial point of view, vendors do a fantastic job bringing this to market and making it very accessible,” says König. Lord, who has been researching quantum technologies at BT for over a decade, is also confident that there is “going to be much more available technology.” As a result, even smaller telcos will be able to invest in securing their systems. “It doesn't need a big boy with lots of money [for] research to do something around PQC. There’s a lot of work going on to ratify the best of those solutions,” says Lord. There are several reasons why eyes are on software based PQC. Firstly, it can be used to secure data that was encrypted in the past, quantum computing advances will make vulnerable in the future. In addition, the quantum-based alternative to PQC for securing network traffic called quantum key distribution (QKD), comes with a huge drawback for wireless operators. QKD is hardware-based and uses quantum mechanics to prevent interception across optical fiber and satellite (i.e., free space optical) networks, making it secure, albeit expensive. But for reasons of physics, it does not work on mobile networks. Setting Standards Given the importance of PQC, a lot of effort is going into standardizing robust algorithms. The political weight of the US and the size of its technology industry mean that the US government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is playing a key role in the technical evaluation of post-quantum standardization algorithms and creating standards. NIST expects to publish the first set of post-quantum cryptography standards in 2024. In the meantime, Dustin Moody, a NIST mathematician, recommends (in answers emailed to inform) that companies “become familiar and do some testing with the algorithms being standardized, and how they will fit in your products and applications. Ensure that you are using current best-practice cryptographic algorithms and security strengths in your existing applications. Have somebody designated to be leading the effort to transition. QKD There is no absolute guarantee, however, that a quantum computer in the future won’t find a way to crack PQC. Therefore, institutions such as government agencies and banks remain interested in using QKD fiber and satellite networks to ensure the highest levels of security for data transmission. The European Commission, for example, is working with the 27 EU Member States and the European Space Agency (ESA) to design, develop and deploy a QKD-based European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI). It will be made up of fiber networks linking strategic sites at national and cross-border levels and a space segment based on satellites. EuroQCI will reinforce the protection of Europe’s governmental institutions, their data centers, hospitals, energy grids, and more,” according to the EU. Telecom operators are involved in some of the national programs, including Orange, which is coordinating France’s part of the program called FranceQCI (Quantum Communication Infrastructure). Separately, this month, Toshiba and Orange announced they had successfully demonstrated the viability of deploying QKD on existing commercial networks. Outside the EU, BT has already built and is now operating a commercial metro quantum-encryption network in London. “The London network has three quantum nodes, which are the bearers carrying the quantum traffic for all of the access ingress,” explains Lord. For example, a customer in London's Canary Wharf could link via the network to the nearest quantum-enabled BT exchange. From there, it joins a metro network, which carries the keys from multiple customers “in an aggregated cost-effective way to the egress points,” according to Lord. “It is not trivial because you can mess things up and [get] the wrong keys,” explains Lord. “You really have to be more careful about authentication and key management. And then it's all about how you engineer your quantum resources to handle bigger aggregation.” It also gives BT the opportunity to explore how to integrate quantum systems downstream into its whole network. “What I'm telling the quantum world is that they need to get into the real world because a system that uses quantum is still going to be 90%, non-quantum and all of the usual networking rules and engineering practices apply. You still need to know how to handle fiber. You still need to know how to provision a piece of equipment and integrate it into a network.” SK Telecom is also heavily involved in quantum-related research, with developments including QKD systems for the control and interworking of quantum cryptography communication networks. Japan is another important center of QKD research. A QKD network has existed in Tokyo since 2010, and in 2020, financial services company Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. tested the transmission of data across the Tokyo QKD network. As the EU’s project makes clear, satellite is an important part of the mix. Lord expects satellite-based QKD networks to come on stream as of 2025 and 2026, enabling the purchase of wholesale quantum keys from a dedicated satellite quantum provider. Back in 2017, China already used the satellite to make the first very long-distance transmission of data secured by QKD between Beijing and Vienna, a distance of 7,000km. Securing The Edge There are additional efforts to secure communications with edge devices. BT’s Lord, for example, sees a role for digital fingerprints for IoT devices, phones, cars and smart meters in the form of a physical unclonable function (PUF) silicon chip, which, because of random imperfections in its manufacture, cannot be copied. In the UK, BT is trialing a combination of QKD and PUF to secure the end-to-end journey of a driverless car. The connection to the roadside depends on standard radio with PUF authentication, while transmission from the roadside unit onward, as well as the overall control of the autonomous vehicle network, incorporate QKD, explains Lord. SK Telecom has developed what it describes as a quantum-enhanced cryptographic chip with Korea Computer & Systems (KCS) and ID Quantique. Telefónica Spain has partnered on the development of a quantum-safe 5G SIM card and has integrated quantum technology into its cloud service hosted in its virtual data centers. Given China’s heavy investment in quantum technologies, it is no surprise to see its telecom operators involved in the field. China Telecom, for example, recently invested three billion yuan ($434m) in quantum technology deployment, according to Reuters. Quantum in The Cloud Some of America's biggest technology companies are investing in quantum computing. Today, it is even possible to access quantum computing facilities via the cloud, albeit at on small scale. IBM's cloud access to quantum computers is free for the most basic level, rising to $1.60 per second for the next level. And it is just the beginning. America's big tech companies are racing to build quantum computers at scale. One measure of scale is the size of a quantum processor, which is measured in qubits. While a traditional computer stores information as a 0 or 1, a qubit can represent both 0 and 1 simultaneously. This unique property enables a quantum computer to explore multiple potential solutions to a problem simultaneously; and the greater the stability of its qubits, the more efficient it becomes. IBM has a long history in quantum research and development. In 1998, it unveiled what was then a ground-breaking 2-qubit computer. By 2022, it had produced a 433-qubit processor, and in 2023, it aims to produce a 1,121-qubit processor. Separately, this month, it announced the construction of its first quantum data center in Europe, which it expects to begin offering commercial services as of next year. Google is also firmly in the race to build a large-scale quantum computer. In 2019, a paper in Nature featured Google’s Sycamore processor and the speed with which it undertakes computational tasks. More recent work includes an experimental demonstration of it’s possible to reduce errors by increasing the number of qubits. Microsoft reckons that "a quantum machine capable of solving many of the hardest problems facing humanity will ultimately require at least 1 million stable qubits that can perform 1 quintillion operations while making at most a single error." To this end, it is working on what it calls a new type of qubit, a topological qubit. Amazon announced in 2021 an AWS Center for Quantum Computing on the Caltech campus to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer.

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AI Tech

Empowering Industry 4.0 with Artificial Intelligence

Article | September 8, 2023

The next step in industrial technology is about robotics, computers and equipment becoming connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) and enhanced by machine learning algorithms. Industry 4.0 has the potential to be a powerful driver of economic growth, predicted to add between $500 billion- $1.5 trillion in value to the global economy between 2018 and 2022, according to a report by Capgemini.

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Software, Low-Code App Development, Application Development Platform

How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Businesses

Article | August 23, 2023

Whilst there are many people that associate AI with sci-fi novels and films, its reputation as an antagonist to fictional dystopic worlds is now becoming a thing of the past, as the technology becomes more and more integrated into our everyday lives. AI technologies have become increasingly more present in our daily lives, not just with Alexa’s in the home, but also throughout businesses everywhere, disrupting a variety of different industries with often tremendous results. The technology has helped to streamline even the most mundane of tasks whilst having a breath-taking impact on a company’s efficiency and productivity

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The advances of AI in healthcare

Article | February 11, 2020

With the Government investing £250 million into the project, the Lab will consider how to use AI for the benefit of patients – whether this be the deployment of existing AI methods, the development of new technologies or the testing of their safety. Amongst other things, the initiative will aim to deliver earlier diagnoses of cancer. It is estimated that in excess of 50,000 extra patients could see their cancer being detected at an early stage, thus boosting survival rates. More specifically, a study has shown that AI is quicker in identifying brain tumour tissue than a pathologist.This would have a positive knock-on effect in other areas, such as enabling money to be saved (that otherwise would have been spent on further treatment) and reducing the workload of staff (at a time when there is a crisis in NHS workforce numbers).

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Spotlight

Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes is a global technology company providing commerce solutions that power billions of transactions. The 1.5 million clients around the world, including 90% of the Fortune 500, rely on the accuracy and precision delivered by Pitney Bowes solutions, analytics and APIs in the areas of ecommerce fulfillment, shipping and returns; cross-border ecommerce; office mailing and shipping; presort services; location data; customer information and engagement software; services; and financing.

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Software

BMC Software Announces AIOps in BMC Helix for AI-Optimized IT Ops

BMC Software | November 06, 2023

BMC Software's new AIOps capabilities in BMC Helix Operations Management use AI for quick IT issue resolution. The solution boosts IT operations in hybrid, multi-cloud environments, enhancing visibility and service performance. New features like service blueprints, causal AI-powered explainability, and AIOps situation fingerprinting expedite incident resolution and risk recovery. BMC Software, a global leader in IT solutions, announces new AIOps capabilities for its BMC Helix Operations Management solution using the BMC HelixGPT capability. The solution uses advanced AI to find problems' root causes more quickly. It changes the way IT works by adding dynamic service modeling, situation explainability, and deep container auto-detection to better understand containerized environments. As businesses grapple with complex hybrid, multi-cloud environments and increasing data volume and complexity, the need for advanced AI and machine learning to drive visibility, observability, and optimum business service performance is paramount. Nancy Gohring, research director for IDC's Enterprise System Management, Observability and AIOps program, emphasized the importance of modernizing IT operations in line with the adoption of hybrid and cloud-native technologies. AIOps capabilities that leverage AI to pinpoint problem causes, guide users to the correct response, and predict potential future issues are key to ensuring service delivery aligns with business outcomes. The BMC Helix Operations Management solution combines advanced causal AI to identify issue root causes, predictive AI for proactive problem identification and resolution, and generative AI for automating event summaries and best action recommendations for complex problems. These innovations enable IT operations to deliver higher service availability and resilience to businesses, driving efficient operational performance with greater tool silo visibility and superior AI-driven insights for significantly improved problem identification and repair times. The new BMC Helix Operations Management innovations include out-of-the-box service blueprints, situation explainability powered by causal AI, and AIOps situation fingerprinting powered by AI, GPT, and NLP. These features ensure accurate service models in ever-changing IT environments, swift incident resolution, and faster recovery from service outages and other potential risks. While the new AIOps capabilities in BMC's Helix Operations Management solution offer a host of benefits, they also present potential challenges. The complexity of AI systems can lead to difficulties in understanding and controlling their operations, which could pose challenges in troubleshooting and rectifying issues. Additionally, the heavy reliance on AI might reduce the level of human oversight in IT operations, which could be risky in certain scenarios. The effectiveness of the solution is also heavily dependent on the quality and quantity of data it receives, which might not always be optimal in real-world scenarios. On the brighter side, the benefits of this solution are substantial. The use of advanced AI capabilities allows for swift identification and resolution of IT issues, greatly improving operational efficiency. The solution's ability to enhance IT operations in complex hybrid, multi-cloud environments is a significant advantage, as it provides much-needed visibility and service performance. The new features, including out-of-the-box service blueprints, causal AI-powered explainability, and AIOps situation fingerprinting, ensure swift incident resolution and faster recovery from potential risks. These innovations lead to higher service availability and resilience, which are crucial for businesses in today's digital age. Overall, despite some potential challenges, the BMC Helix Operations Management solution's new AIOps capabilities present a promising advancement in the field of IT operations management.

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General AI

Springbrook Releases New AI Powered Customer Support Help Desk

PR Newswire | October 31, 2023

Springbrook Software, the leader in cutting-edge ERP platforms for local government agencies, has released a new modern AI-powered customer service solution: HelpDesk AI. The Springbrook HelpDesk AI empowers customers with lightning-fast access to vital product information, expediting their requests. This dynamic solution provides access to an extensive knowledge library covering all Springbrook Enterprise ERP modules, spanning Finance, HR, Payroll, Utility Billing, Payment Solutions, Tax Collection, Reporting, and Advanced Capital Budgeting. Springbrook's HelpDesk AI harnesses ChatGPT technology and taps into Springbrook's immense product content library, packed with terabytes of video and textual resources. We are committed to providing our customers with the most advanced and easy to use solutions to address their everyday needs. Utilizing Artificial Intelligence in customer service takes us one step further in making our customer's works easier. Our new HelpDesk AI continually evolves through each customer interaction, fine-tuning its content delivery. Expect more groundbreaking technology like this across our Cirrus cloud-based finance ERP platform, says Robert Bonavito, Springbrook CEO. Springbrook's HelpDesk AI boasts adaptive learning capabilities, expertly guiding customers to the right content using a series of questions and prompts. Backed by thousands of hours of customer service interactions, this solution is primed to handle virtually any request for training, guidance, or product details. About Springbrook Software Springbrook Software is the country's leading cloud-based finance and administration software provider designing solutions specifically for small to medium sized local government agencies. Over 2800 cities, towns and districts from coast to coast use our suite of modern, high-performance solutions to manage their finances, HR, payroll, utility billing, reporting and collect citizen payments. Springbrook is headquartered in Portland, Oregon with regional presence in over 40 states, and seven countries internationally. www.springbrooksoftware.com

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General AI

Lakeside Software Releases Generative AI-Powered Solutions to Enhance IT Service Delivery

PR Newswire | October 20, 2023

Lakeside Software, the leading IT data intelligence company, unveiled major enhancements to its SysTrack platform today, launching multiple generative AI features to enhance solutions for customers. The Lakeside SysTrack platform provides end-to-end visibility across large, complex IT environments. Unparalleled in its data collection capabilities, it gathers information from more than 10,000 data points every 15 seconds across various endpoints, surpassing any other in the end-user or digital employee experience market. Then 1200+ sensors automatically analyze the data at the endpoint and deliver actionable insights into the digital workplace. With today's release, this critical data foundation now fuels the industry's top AI technologies to offer intuitive and accelerated issue resolution, self-service, and proactive IT. Today's AI-driven world is built on data, and Lakeside is poised to take advantage of these emerging technologies with our breadth, depth, and retention of end-point data, said David Keil, CEO of Lakeside Software. Our solution goes beyond conventions, bridging human knowledge gaps with holistic end-point data and the expansive knowledge from the web and other common sources. It represents a major step in delivering proactive and efficient IT support to enterprises at scale. Through Lakeside's new Intelligent Support feature launched in beta today, IT service desk technicians can access the full power of SysTrack data combined with the leading large language model at their fingertips. Without leaving the SysTrack platform, L2 and L3 technicians view step-by-step instructions describing how to take action on the massive amounts of data coming from Lakeside's Intelligent Edge. With built-in AI, SysTrack now provides guidance on how to overcome IT challenges and can dynamically interact with your team to adjust that advice to the specific needs encountered in your environment. In addition, SysTrack now has integrated support that further automates self-service and proactive service delivery at scale. Powered by integrations with leading providers like Moveworks, SysTrack can deploy proactive alerts to employees in Teams, Slack or other applications where employees regularly work. It can promote self-service via conversational AI and resolve issues via automations. The Lakeside SysTrack platform offers one of the most comprehensive DEX integrations with Moveworks, the leading AI copilot platform for the enterprise. With Lakeside's new generative AI capabilities, SysTrack will act as an extension of enterprise customers' system engineering team. SysTrack's massively-scalable and patented Intelligent Edge architecture allows the company to continue to invest in data collection and grow its AI capabilities. To learn more, visit lakesidesoftware.com. About Lakeside Lakeside Software is how organizations with large, complex IT environments can finally get visibility across their entire digital estate and see how to do more with less. For far too long, IT teams have struggled to see what's going on in their dark estate — where costly inefficiencies, poor employee experiences, and unresolved problems hide. Only Lakeside lets you give everyone a better view, so they can see the hidden issues, see the smartest fixes, and see the biggest savings. That's why so many of the world's leading global brands rely on Lakeside. And it's how our customers see an average ROI of more than 250%. Learn how you can get a better view at lakesidesoftware.com. Give everyone a better view.

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Software

BMC Software Announces AIOps in BMC Helix for AI-Optimized IT Ops

BMC Software | November 06, 2023

BMC Software's new AIOps capabilities in BMC Helix Operations Management use AI for quick IT issue resolution. The solution boosts IT operations in hybrid, multi-cloud environments, enhancing visibility and service performance. New features like service blueprints, causal AI-powered explainability, and AIOps situation fingerprinting expedite incident resolution and risk recovery. BMC Software, a global leader in IT solutions, announces new AIOps capabilities for its BMC Helix Operations Management solution using the BMC HelixGPT capability. The solution uses advanced AI to find problems' root causes more quickly. It changes the way IT works by adding dynamic service modeling, situation explainability, and deep container auto-detection to better understand containerized environments. As businesses grapple with complex hybrid, multi-cloud environments and increasing data volume and complexity, the need for advanced AI and machine learning to drive visibility, observability, and optimum business service performance is paramount. Nancy Gohring, research director for IDC's Enterprise System Management, Observability and AIOps program, emphasized the importance of modernizing IT operations in line with the adoption of hybrid and cloud-native technologies. AIOps capabilities that leverage AI to pinpoint problem causes, guide users to the correct response, and predict potential future issues are key to ensuring service delivery aligns with business outcomes. The BMC Helix Operations Management solution combines advanced causal AI to identify issue root causes, predictive AI for proactive problem identification and resolution, and generative AI for automating event summaries and best action recommendations for complex problems. These innovations enable IT operations to deliver higher service availability and resilience to businesses, driving efficient operational performance with greater tool silo visibility and superior AI-driven insights for significantly improved problem identification and repair times. The new BMC Helix Operations Management innovations include out-of-the-box service blueprints, situation explainability powered by causal AI, and AIOps situation fingerprinting powered by AI, GPT, and NLP. These features ensure accurate service models in ever-changing IT environments, swift incident resolution, and faster recovery from service outages and other potential risks. While the new AIOps capabilities in BMC's Helix Operations Management solution offer a host of benefits, they also present potential challenges. The complexity of AI systems can lead to difficulties in understanding and controlling their operations, which could pose challenges in troubleshooting and rectifying issues. Additionally, the heavy reliance on AI might reduce the level of human oversight in IT operations, which could be risky in certain scenarios. The effectiveness of the solution is also heavily dependent on the quality and quantity of data it receives, which might not always be optimal in real-world scenarios. On the brighter side, the benefits of this solution are substantial. The use of advanced AI capabilities allows for swift identification and resolution of IT issues, greatly improving operational efficiency. The solution's ability to enhance IT operations in complex hybrid, multi-cloud environments is a significant advantage, as it provides much-needed visibility and service performance. The new features, including out-of-the-box service blueprints, causal AI-powered explainability, and AIOps situation fingerprinting, ensure swift incident resolution and faster recovery from potential risks. These innovations lead to higher service availability and resilience, which are crucial for businesses in today's digital age. Overall, despite some potential challenges, the BMC Helix Operations Management solution's new AIOps capabilities present a promising advancement in the field of IT operations management.

Read More

General AI

Springbrook Releases New AI Powered Customer Support Help Desk

PR Newswire | October 31, 2023

Springbrook Software, the leader in cutting-edge ERP platforms for local government agencies, has released a new modern AI-powered customer service solution: HelpDesk AI. The Springbrook HelpDesk AI empowers customers with lightning-fast access to vital product information, expediting their requests. This dynamic solution provides access to an extensive knowledge library covering all Springbrook Enterprise ERP modules, spanning Finance, HR, Payroll, Utility Billing, Payment Solutions, Tax Collection, Reporting, and Advanced Capital Budgeting. Springbrook's HelpDesk AI harnesses ChatGPT technology and taps into Springbrook's immense product content library, packed with terabytes of video and textual resources. We are committed to providing our customers with the most advanced and easy to use solutions to address their everyday needs. Utilizing Artificial Intelligence in customer service takes us one step further in making our customer's works easier. Our new HelpDesk AI continually evolves through each customer interaction, fine-tuning its content delivery. Expect more groundbreaking technology like this across our Cirrus cloud-based finance ERP platform, says Robert Bonavito, Springbrook CEO. Springbrook's HelpDesk AI boasts adaptive learning capabilities, expertly guiding customers to the right content using a series of questions and prompts. Backed by thousands of hours of customer service interactions, this solution is primed to handle virtually any request for training, guidance, or product details. About Springbrook Software Springbrook Software is the country's leading cloud-based finance and administration software provider designing solutions specifically for small to medium sized local government agencies. Over 2800 cities, towns and districts from coast to coast use our suite of modern, high-performance solutions to manage their finances, HR, payroll, utility billing, reporting and collect citizen payments. Springbrook is headquartered in Portland, Oregon with regional presence in over 40 states, and seven countries internationally. www.springbrooksoftware.com

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General AI

Lakeside Software Releases Generative AI-Powered Solutions to Enhance IT Service Delivery

PR Newswire | October 20, 2023

Lakeside Software, the leading IT data intelligence company, unveiled major enhancements to its SysTrack platform today, launching multiple generative AI features to enhance solutions for customers. The Lakeside SysTrack platform provides end-to-end visibility across large, complex IT environments. Unparalleled in its data collection capabilities, it gathers information from more than 10,000 data points every 15 seconds across various endpoints, surpassing any other in the end-user or digital employee experience market. Then 1200+ sensors automatically analyze the data at the endpoint and deliver actionable insights into the digital workplace. With today's release, this critical data foundation now fuels the industry's top AI technologies to offer intuitive and accelerated issue resolution, self-service, and proactive IT. Today's AI-driven world is built on data, and Lakeside is poised to take advantage of these emerging technologies with our breadth, depth, and retention of end-point data, said David Keil, CEO of Lakeside Software. Our solution goes beyond conventions, bridging human knowledge gaps with holistic end-point data and the expansive knowledge from the web and other common sources. It represents a major step in delivering proactive and efficient IT support to enterprises at scale. Through Lakeside's new Intelligent Support feature launched in beta today, IT service desk technicians can access the full power of SysTrack data combined with the leading large language model at their fingertips. Without leaving the SysTrack platform, L2 and L3 technicians view step-by-step instructions describing how to take action on the massive amounts of data coming from Lakeside's Intelligent Edge. With built-in AI, SysTrack now provides guidance on how to overcome IT challenges and can dynamically interact with your team to adjust that advice to the specific needs encountered in your environment. In addition, SysTrack now has integrated support that further automates self-service and proactive service delivery at scale. Powered by integrations with leading providers like Moveworks, SysTrack can deploy proactive alerts to employees in Teams, Slack or other applications where employees regularly work. It can promote self-service via conversational AI and resolve issues via automations. The Lakeside SysTrack platform offers one of the most comprehensive DEX integrations with Moveworks, the leading AI copilot platform for the enterprise. With Lakeside's new generative AI capabilities, SysTrack will act as an extension of enterprise customers' system engineering team. SysTrack's massively-scalable and patented Intelligent Edge architecture allows the company to continue to invest in data collection and grow its AI capabilities. To learn more, visit lakesidesoftware.com. About Lakeside Lakeside Software is how organizations with large, complex IT environments can finally get visibility across their entire digital estate and see how to do more with less. For far too long, IT teams have struggled to see what's going on in their dark estate — where costly inefficiencies, poor employee experiences, and unresolved problems hide. Only Lakeside lets you give everyone a better view, so they can see the hidden issues, see the smartest fixes, and see the biggest savings. That's why so many of the world's leading global brands rely on Lakeside. And it's how our customers see an average ROI of more than 250%. Learn how you can get a better view at lakesidesoftware.com. Give everyone a better view.

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