VPN: The virtual private network and what it can do for you

March 13, 2019 | 173 views

You may have already seen a VPN ad here and there, and there’s a good chance that you’ve heard the term come up in conversation now and then, but you aren’t quite sure what it’s all about. Your friends and perhaps even your own kids are using it, and you keep hearing them go on about how useful it is. This leaves you feeling left out. So – what is a VPN and what can it do for you?

Spotlight

Maxta Inc

Maxta is redefining enterprise IT infrastructure through a groundbreaking approach to hyperconvergence that dramatically simplifies operations while delivering much greater agility and cost savings. Our award-winning MxSP® software and MaxDeploy® appliances offer unparalleled freedom of choice in servers, storage devices and server virtualization platforms, while eliminating the need for complex and costly storage arrays.

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LOW-CODE APP DEVELOPMENT

Top 10 Low-Code App Development Platforms for Fast Custom App Creation

Article | April 20, 2023

Explore the top low-code platforms that enable fast and cost-effective app development with a strategic approach by creating and achieving MVPs and understanding the KPIs of a good platform. Contents 1 Low-Code Development Essentials: Creating and Deploying Effective MVPs 2 KPIs of a Good Low Code Development Platform 3 Top 10 Low-Code App Development Platforms 3.1 AIRKIT 3.2 BETTY BLOCKS 3.3 CREATIO 3.4 DECISIONS 3.5 INTERFACING 3.6 KISSFLOW 3.7 SKUID 3.8 TRACKVIA, INC. 3.9 ULTIMUS 3.10 XENOSS 4 Strategic Low-Code Development: Trend Forecast Analysis Low-code platforms have transformed software development, enabling fast and cost-effective app development. This article covers vital components like creating effective minimum viable products, execution strategies, and key performance indicators to look for in a good low code platform for mobile app development. The article also lists the top 10 platforms, like Airkit, Betty Blocks, and Creatio, which offer innovative solutions to reduce time-to-market and produce exceptional results. 1. Low-Code Development Essentials: Creating and Deploying Effective MVPs Creating a software product or app from scratch doesn't have to be long and tiresome when it can be fast and fun with the help of low-code application development platforms. Before you start building your app around the no code framework, you need to create a minimum viable product (MVP) that can thrive on its own in the market. Defining the attributes of your app to meet your value proposition is essential. Having a plan of execution alongside the best lowcode development tools leads to the success of your software development projects. Effective execution strategies and product development strategies are far more critical to the success of your product than the development process itself. Thanks to low-code platforms, developing and deploying the desired features in your app is faster and easier than ever before. Cutting down on the development time leaves you more time to think strategically about product design, marketing, and perhaps sales. 2. KPIs of a Good Low Code Development Platform Low-code platforms for mobile app development allow organizations to deliver new user experiences faster. While evaluating different low-code application development platforms that meet your business needs, we highly recommend these factors, KPIs, and features to look for: Drag-and-drop interface: Enables non-technical users to create apps, reducing IT burden. It boosts productivity and lowers development time and costs. Develop once and deploy anywhere: Low code mobile app development platforms create apps for multiple platforms (cross platforms) without extra coding. It cuts down on IT workload and speeds up time-to-market. Seamless integration with enterprise systems: Simplifies the integration of enterprise systems with low code app development platforms, trims development time and costs, and enhances system efficiency. Intelligent BI and analytics: Automatically analyzes data, minimizing the time and effort required for data analysis. Leverage insights for data-driven decisions and improves business outcomes. AI-enabled data enrichment: Automatically fills in missing values or adds more data points to enrich the data. Improves data quality and accuracy and reduces IT workload. Complete visibility of data with dashboards: Provides a real-time view of app performance and user behavior. Monitors and improves app performance and user experience. Compliance with international data security policies: Ensures compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, Intertek, BSI, and AICPA SOC, reducing the risk of data breaches and ensuring data privacy. Flexibility for coding and posting: Enables developers to use preferred coding languages and frameworks, improving developer productivity. Transparency and predictability with pricing: This provides transparency and predictability regarding pricing. Allows budgeting for app development and reduces the risk of cost overruns. Low-code platforms help businesses develop applications quickly and efficiently. They offer a visual development environment, integrate with existing systems, support rapid application development, cross-platform compatibility, customization, and security. They are an excellent solution for businesses wanting to build applications quickly and cost-effectively. 3. Top 10 Low-Code App Development Platforms Today's low-code development platforms, which use the most recent low code technology, put more emphasis on innovation and optimization of business processes than just quick development and deployment. When your prime focus is fast-paced app development, there are some platforms that go above and beyond to reduce time-to-market and produce exceptional results, as listed down below. 3.1 Airkit Building complex apps with beautiful front-end experiences requires custom components, workflows, and styles. Share and iterate with the team to collaborate on application development. Airkit uses a visual builder, conversation automation, agent automation, security, and integrations. Latching on to anything with pre-built integrations helps with fast and free additional functionalities. For excellent CX, use components for purpose-built CX across all platforms. Reusable components and templates for designing personalized cross platform buyer journeys. With app debuggers, you can debug, test, and preview apps and use multi-environment deployment with a single click. Manage and control security and scalability with role-based access, versioning and environments, as well as end-user authentication. 3.2 Betty Blocks Betty Blocks is an enterprise-grade no-code development platform that lets users build collaboratively with no limitations. It lets you build apps with rapid application development technology, automate processes, and maximize efficiency. It is utilized by citizen developers to build solutions that integrate with the current tech stack. Building internal applications, customer-facing apps, and process automations is simple and easy to innovate with Betty Blocks. It offers development, testing, and production environments on its public cloud as well as on-premise and cloud providers in its standard and enterprise plans, respectively. As far as free and fast integrations are concerned, it integrates with everything from its Betty Blocks Store. It also lets you build your own integrations using the API. Its intuitive drag-and-drop user interface builder allows reusability, radically shortens the time to market, and empowers the citizen development workforce. 3.3 Creatio Creatio is a no-code development platform with a compostable architecture. Creatio Studio allows for no-code application development with an extreme degree of freedom. It lets you select the available types of apps, connectors, and OOTB functionality templates to manage instances and facilitate the collaborative development process. It is packed with intuitive no-code design automation tools to create and modify pages and views, data models, workflows, and integrations in a no-code workplace. It has a library of predefined views, widgets, and templates to accelerate the design process. Optimize and manage structured and fluid processes using workflow management capabilities with advanced analytics. Add integrations with SOAP and REST integration connectors. Use AI and ML to automate your workflows and enhanced security and safety for enterprise application platform scalability. Using the collaborative process designer, accelerate process design and standardize process management with team efforts. 3.4 Decisions Decisions is a powerful low code automation platform and business process management software that is capable of building no-code and low code applications. It helps turn siloed decisions into centralized rules. Its no-code intelligent process automation platform enables the codification of business logic and automation decisions, manages workflows, finds and fixes problems, connects systems to unify operations, and designs seamless experiences. Its visual design interface helps to design, optimize, and launch complex processes without writing code. Building software apps that solve business problems by automating functions to simplify, standardize, and streamline business operations and stay compliant is easy with Decisions. 3.5 Interfacing. Intefacing offers a business transformation suite using low-code rapid application development technology. It primarily supports business process optimization, quality control, continuous improvement, change management, SOP development, digital transformation, business excellence, and stakeholder happiness. It extensively offers eFORMS, process automation, low code database table entity designer, system integration designer, tax monitoring and delegation, custom rules and actions, text and voice messaging services, custom dashboard design, and app mobile touchscreen for better control over your low code mobile app development. Interfacing allows building simple to complex consumer-focused applications and business processes in hours, not days. 3.6 Kissflow Kissflow's enterprise-grade low code application development platform lets businesses take control with no IT background. It helps digitize operations, automate processes, and modernize apps using its components. The software offers a comprehensive suite of features such as application builder, process designer, boards, reports, and analytics, and custom UI. It also provides collaboration, developer sandbox, extensive integrations, external portals, and roles-based access control for application deployment with new builds. Using a visual builder for forms with easy drag-and-drop options, work management, intuitive dashboards, communication, and collaboration, Kissflow has emerged as an industry standard in no-code development. Bring business and IT together with a DevOps approach, streamline ad-hoc requests, manage and control with a central console, and reap returns with high productivity and a lower time-to-market with Kissflow. 3.7 Skuid With Skuid, you can build low-code mobile apps from scratch for multiple platforms that are user-friendly. It allows design interdependence, composite apps, and rapid prototyping. Custom user experience options on Skuid NLX involve design decisions about interaction, navigation, and app structure. Skuid SFX helps build modern, custom Salesforce apps. It helps with lightning customization, portals and communities, and a high-performance engine. Skuid EXP for enterprise HR app creation brings features to maximize platform value, flexible deployment, and people-centered portal creation. Components on Skuid include account dashboards, customer request forms, opportunity management, quick orders, revenue and expense dashboards, dynamic forms, retail data dashboards, and a contact directory. These features help increase app adoption and innovation by 10x. 3.8 TrackVia, Inc. TrackVia helps automate processes in a business to connect and track everything that matters. It allows for seamless integration with existing ERP, CRM, BPM, financial systems, and more. It helps keep up with product and quality, compliance, custom workflows, supply chain management, project management, and field services. Its low-code app development platform enables users to build business apps without code and without limits with the help of its toolkit and a canvas. It brings intelligent workflow automation, single to multiple sandbox environments with unlimited applications and unlimited storage, and records for 1 administrator and 5 users. Its pricing plans include mobile, quick start, business, and enterprise for citizen developers in any industry. 3.9 Ultimus Ultimus offers a highly customizable platform with integration capabilities for business process management. It has a strong focus on security and compliance and offers scalability and dedicated support. Ultimus streamlines app development with a cost-effective platform, empowering non-IT business users to create custom apps easily. Its mobile-ready technology deploys on-cloud or on-premises servers, prioritizes decision-making, and improves the customer experience by eliminating isolated apps and data. A unified inbox and high-productivity portal fuses interactions with customers, employees, and partners. Ultimus avoids high upfront costs with flexible pricing options. 3.10 Xenoss Xenoss's mar-tech, low-code platform offers up to 40% cost savings and the fastest time-to-market in the industry. It has ad-tech and mar-tech parts like a bidding cluster, mission control, campaign front end, account server, logging cluster, predictor optimization engine, aggregator, reporter, DMP profile builder, DMP segment builder, DMP real-time audience DB cluster, health monitoring system, and real-time anti-fraud. Its feature set includes campaign management, budget management, creatives, supply integrations, device targeting, geographic targeting, audience targeting, dayparting, media planning, the DMP, automatic campaign optimization, manual campaign optimization, tracking, reporting, and analysis, support tools, and the data collection web SDK. It offers a customizable and integratable user-friendly platform. With a strong focus on scalability, it offers dedicated support. Its pricing is based on a per-user basis. 4. Strategic Low-Code Development: Trend Forecast Analysis Large companies will keep using low-code platforms for digital transformation in the near future because their visual interfaces and pre-built components can speed up software development. Strategic low-code development will be a must for reducing time-to-market, speeding up digital transformation, and putting security and compliance front and center. More and more people will use industry-specific solutions, AI integration, collaboration, and process automation, which will streamline operations and make them more efficient. Some of the best low code app development platforms will meet security and compliance requirements like HIPAA and PCI, so sensitive information will be safe. AI and machine learning tools will make it easier to solve problems and improve processes. This will bring IT and business operations closer than ever before. These automation platforms will be crucial to making businesses more profitable and stable because they will let them get the most done with the least amount of work.

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INNOVATION, SOFTWARE, FUTURE TECH

Empowering Industry 4.0 with Artificial Intelligence

Article | November 14, 2022

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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FUTURE TECH

How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Businesses

Article | July 14, 2022

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

Maxta Inc

Maxta is redefining enterprise IT infrastructure through a groundbreaking approach to hyperconvergence that dramatically simplifies operations while delivering much greater agility and cost savings. Our award-winning MxSP® software and MaxDeploy® appliances offer unparalleled freedom of choice in servers, storage devices and server virtualization platforms, while eliminating the need for complex and costly storage arrays.

Related News

Senators Urge Security Audit of Foreign VPNs

Infosecurity Magazine | February 11, 2019

Two US senators have called for an urgent investigation into whether foreign-owned Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) represent a risk to national security. Ron Wyden and Marco Rubio signed a joint letter to the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Christopher Krebs. It points to the popularity of mobile data-saving and VPN apps, many of which have been downloaded millions of times by Americans despite being made by companies “in countries that do not share American interests or values.” “Because these foreign apps transmit users’ web browsing data to servers located in or controlled by countries that have an interest in targeting US government employees, their use raises the risk that user data will be surveilled by those foreign governments,” the letter continued. In fact, they claimed, the US has already recognized these risks, by banning federal use of Kaspersky Lab products for fear of the influence of the Kremlin, and urging that Chinese telecommunications companies be locked out of competing for major infrastructure projects in the US. “In light of these concerns we urge you to conduct a threat assessment on the national security risks associated with the continued use by US government employees of VPNs, mobile data proxies and other similar apps that are vulnerable to foreign government surveillance,” the letter concluded. “If you determine that these services pose a threat to US national security, we further request that you issue a Binding Operational Directive prohibiting their use on federal government smartphones and computers.” A study of the 30 most downloaded apps in the UK and US last year by Top10VPN found over half (59%) had links to mainland China. “We found a few apps that explicitly stated that users’ internet activity was logged, which we have never seen anywhere else with VPNs. VPN policies usually state that they never ever log data,” explained head of research, Simon Migliano, at the time.

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ProtonMail Launches VPN Application for macOS

SecurityWeek | May 31, 2018

Encrypted email service provider ProtonMail on Wednesday announced the availability of a virtual private network (VPN) service for macOS users. Initially introduced for some of its paid ProtonMail users in early 2017, the VPN service saw a wider launch on Windows last year, and also arrived on Android in January 2018. Last year, the CERN-founded company also launched a Tor hidden service and an encrypted contacts manager. Following a beta testing period, the Swiss-based service provider is now making the VPN application available for all macOS users, allowing them to easily protect their Internet connections. Users who already have a ProtonVPN or ProtonMail account only need to download the application, log in, and start using it immediately. Developed by the same team behind ProtonMail, the VPN service takes advantage of technologies such as Secure Core and Tor integration and is available for free with no ads. Furthermore, the company claims that users can enjoy it without worrying about malware or monetization of user data. “With our VPN for Mac application, it is now extremely simple to switch countries, create custom profiles, connect to the Tor network, and route your traffic through our Secure Core servers. Not to mention all the essential perks of ProtonVPN, like hiding your IP address, defending against cyber-attacks, and unblocking censored content,” ProtonMail says.

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AnchorFree Launches Free VPN SDK to Protect Net Neutrality

eweek | July 26, 2017

For those who want the security benefits of their own personal virtual private network (VPN) but are scared off by the idea of having to deal with such a techy thing, here is an alternative for you: AnchorFree. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company makes a popular freemium-based VPN called Hotspot Shield but shies away from calling it that, preferring to label it an “internet privacy platform.”

Read More

Senators Urge Security Audit of Foreign VPNs

Infosecurity Magazine | February 11, 2019

Two US senators have called for an urgent investigation into whether foreign-owned Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) represent a risk to national security. Ron Wyden and Marco Rubio signed a joint letter to the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Christopher Krebs. It points to the popularity of mobile data-saving and VPN apps, many of which have been downloaded millions of times by Americans despite being made by companies “in countries that do not share American interests or values.” “Because these foreign apps transmit users’ web browsing data to servers located in or controlled by countries that have an interest in targeting US government employees, their use raises the risk that user data will be surveilled by those foreign governments,” the letter continued. In fact, they claimed, the US has already recognized these risks, by banning federal use of Kaspersky Lab products for fear of the influence of the Kremlin, and urging that Chinese telecommunications companies be locked out of competing for major infrastructure projects in the US. “In light of these concerns we urge you to conduct a threat assessment on the national security risks associated with the continued use by US government employees of VPNs, mobile data proxies and other similar apps that are vulnerable to foreign government surveillance,” the letter concluded. “If you determine that these services pose a threat to US national security, we further request that you issue a Binding Operational Directive prohibiting their use on federal government smartphones and computers.” A study of the 30 most downloaded apps in the UK and US last year by Top10VPN found over half (59%) had links to mainland China. “We found a few apps that explicitly stated that users’ internet activity was logged, which we have never seen anywhere else with VPNs. VPN policies usually state that they never ever log data,” explained head of research, Simon Migliano, at the time.

Read More

ProtonMail Launches VPN Application for macOS

SecurityWeek | May 31, 2018

Encrypted email service provider ProtonMail on Wednesday announced the availability of a virtual private network (VPN) service for macOS users. Initially introduced for some of its paid ProtonMail users in early 2017, the VPN service saw a wider launch on Windows last year, and also arrived on Android in January 2018. Last year, the CERN-founded company also launched a Tor hidden service and an encrypted contacts manager. Following a beta testing period, the Swiss-based service provider is now making the VPN application available for all macOS users, allowing them to easily protect their Internet connections. Users who already have a ProtonVPN or ProtonMail account only need to download the application, log in, and start using it immediately. Developed by the same team behind ProtonMail, the VPN service takes advantage of technologies such as Secure Core and Tor integration and is available for free with no ads. Furthermore, the company claims that users can enjoy it without worrying about malware or monetization of user data. “With our VPN for Mac application, it is now extremely simple to switch countries, create custom profiles, connect to the Tor network, and route your traffic through our Secure Core servers. Not to mention all the essential perks of ProtonVPN, like hiding your IP address, defending against cyber-attacks, and unblocking censored content,” ProtonMail says.

Read More

AnchorFree Launches Free VPN SDK to Protect Net Neutrality

eweek | July 26, 2017

For those who want the security benefits of their own personal virtual private network (VPN) but are scared off by the idea of having to deal with such a techy thing, here is an alternative for you: AnchorFree. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company makes a popular freemium-based VPN called Hotspot Shield but shies away from calling it that, preferring to label it an “internet privacy platform.”

Read More

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