Automation – Digital IT News

Puppet’s Competency-Based Channel Partner Program Announced

Taylor Graham — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 04:27:04 +0000

Puppet announced a new competency-based global channel partner program for the company’s almost-200 worldwide channel partners that operate across 35 countries. Puppet helps enterprises modernize and manage their infrastructure with the solutions to automate anywhere, reliably scale, and integrate compliance and security across hybrid infrastructure.

The new channel partner program will be competency-based, empowering more partners to act on behalf of Puppet to meet the needs of their shared customers. Puppet, in turn, will be able to leverage partnerships with unique competencies or specializations to extend its sales, engineering, and services teams. Given the complex business challenges Puppet’s products solve, this competency-based approach will be mutually beneficial to both Puppet and its partners, as channel partners are encouraged to achieve competencies that align with their unique value propositions and dovetail with their customers’ needs.

Additionally, Puppet is expanding its partner ecosystem and extending program benefits to even more partners by altering its pricing structure and by making it easier for resellers to onboard and maintain an active status year over year.

“This is a very exciting time for Puppet. With our new competency-based program, we are well-equipped to expand our capabilities and meet channel partners with the insights and options they want and need,” said Paul Heywood, Chief Revenue Officer at Puppet. “Puppet’s ideal channel partner truly understands the needs of our customers and has the technical expertise to act as their trusted advisor. We’re excited to set a strong foundation for the channel and offer new products in the coming year.”

“As Puppet’s Public Sector Distributor and GSA contract holder, we are thrilled to support this initiative to expand the use and deployment of Puppet’s products in the Federal market,” said Will Jones, Senior Vice President of Virtualization Solutions at Carahsoft. “This partnership has been pivotal for both Puppet and Carahsoft, and we look forward to supporting our Public Sector customers and reseller partners with new opportunities in the DevSecOps space.”

“Automation is becoming increasingly important — not only for large companies but especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. Recurring tasks, as well as the lack of specialized personnel, can only be managed through automation,” said Sebastian Scheuring, Board Member and CEO of bitbone. “Our partnership with Puppet is essential for us and this new program unites us even closer.”

Puppet partners with some of the world’s largest companies and government institutions. As enterprises increasingly digitize their operations and adopt hybrid, multi-cloud strategies, they also introduce the potential for vulnerability and complexity into their IT infrastructure. Puppet and its channel partners help organizations prioritize the security and compliance of their ever-evolving IT real estate, safeguarding critical infrastructure and applications.

Puppet will continue to invest in its various channel initiatives, including the upcoming launch of its new partner portal, co-marketing technology, and Puppet’s learning management system. Puppet’s partner kickoff is slated for the first half of 2022.

Learn more about Puppet
For more information on the competency-based channel partner program read the blog post here.

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Honeywell Teams with IGEL to Deploy Advanced Virtualization and Process Automation

Leigh Porter — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 18:24:57 +0000

Honeywell announced it will work with IGEL to deploy solutions for Experion® Process Knowledge System (PKS) users through the IGEL Ready Program. The Linux-based solution, Honeywell’s Universal Thin Client Operating System, will allow Experion PKS users to access an ecosystem of cutting-edge hardware and software, delivering a powerful, productive and secure end-user experience with advanced virtualization and process automation.

As industrial organizations look for more efficient ways to approach control system engineering, the need for a solution that can be adopted incrementally and used interchangeably with existing systems and infrastructure is of paramount importance. The Universal Thin Client Operating System will allow Experion PKS users to securely deploy a purpose-built thin client operating system with a rich management experience, while providing endpoint devices the peripheral and connectivity features needed for Experion PKS.

“Leveraging the IGEL Ready program, this collaboration will further advance Honeywell’s position as an industry leader in process control virtualization. IGEL’s edge operating system provides a secure, Linux-based thin client platform for Experion PKS while providing rich remote management capabilities that improve the lifecycle experience,” said Joe Bastone, Director, Experion Offering Management.

“By teaming together, Honeywell and IGEL are better able to deliver world-class solutions that meet our mutual customers’ requirements, as the IGEL Ready program was designed to foster collaboration and joint-solution development,” said Divya Saggar, Director, IGEL Ready.

The solution provides a secure experience for end-users using virtualization while significantly reducing the challenges traditionally associated with deploying thin client technology. The Universal Thin Client Operating System also allows for much stronger administration and management capabilities, which in turn allows users to save time and labor costs associated with maintaining their control systems.

For more information about the Universal Thin Client Operating System and Experion, https://www.honeywellprocess.com/experionpkshive.

Image Licensed by: Pixabay.com

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A Window into the Future of Innovative Smart Home Technology

Taylor Graham — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 08:15:08 +0000

Offering a promising glimpse into the future of smart door and window technology, a new San Francisco Bay area-based company, Lychee Things, has introduced SmartSlydr, an innovative, easy-to-install secure complete IoT (Internet of Things) solution to automate any home’s sliding windows and doors through using a convenient smartphone app or with voice activation.

Imagine being able to remotely operate, monitor, and lock your sliding windows and doors, manage the air circulation in all rooms of your home, get notified when a door or window is opened, and enable your pets to enter and exit your home by themselves – all with your smartphone.

With a patent-pending design, SmartSlydr is a small wifi-enabled robot that attaches easily to any existing sliding door or window frame and blends in with a home’s interior and surroundings.

SmartSlydr can be activated from the comfort of your couch with your smartphone (iOS and Android compatible), voice command paired with voice assistant speakers such as Alexa, Google Home, Siri, or by the push of a remote control button.

“SmartSlydr is more than just a home product,” said Shruti L., a founder and spokesperson of Lychee Things. “It’s a smart home solution created with a balanced fusion of a mechanical, hardware, and software design for your everyday needs. SmartSlydr transforms any home into a true smart home and is ideal for new homeowners, smart home early adopters, the elderly, people with disabilities, and pet owners.”

Top features and benefits of SmartSlydr include:

Automate Any Sliding Door or Window: Turns your home’s existing sliding doors and windows into an automatic open and close system.
Monitor and Operate Remotely: Operate or check on single or multiple windows and doors with a click on the smartphone app from anywhere. You can also get notifications on your smartphone about your home’s door or window activity.
Built-in Security: Keeps the doors and windows locked when closed without any extra accessories. The system is also equipped with industry-standard software security protection.
Refresh your Home’s Air Quality: Makes it easier to automatically let fresh air into your home once or several times a day with the device’s timer and scheduling features. Ensuring proper ventilation with outside air can help reduce indoor airborne contaminants such as COVID-19.
Virtual Pet Care: Transforms your patio door into a pet door with PetPass, a wireless tag that attaches to a pet collar. Ideal for pet owners who may have a cat, dog, or other pet who needs to be let outside daily.
Accessibility: Provides easy hands-free control to those who may have difficulty with opening and closing sliding doors and windows such as the elderly, or people with injuries, or disabilities.
Easy Installation: No power tools are required and can be installed in a matter of minutes.

Lychee Things has launched an Indiegogo campaign, (https://SmartSlydr.com ), to spread awareness about SmartSlydr among consumers and the investment community.

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Nintex Unveils Nintex Workflow Cloud Enhancements with Actionable Process Intelligence

Leigh Porter — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 19:39:47 +0000

Nintex, the global standard for process management and automation, announced the latest enhancements to the company’s next generation cloud platform, Nintex Workflow Cloud®, which features seamless integration with Nintex Analytics to provide customers and partners with real-time data analytics related to the performance of their digital workflows.

To experience the latest innovations in process automation and process optimization, sign up for “Automate Faster & Smarter with Nintex Workflow Cloud,” a free virtual event taking place across three days, March 9-11, 2021: https://www.nintex.com/nintex-workflow-cloud-digital-event-mar-2021/.

Nintex Workflow Cloud is a cloud process platform helping organizations digitally transform their operations. The platform features integrated capabilities for process mapping, process optimization and end-to-end automation including robotic process automation (RPA), workflow automation, digital forms, DocGen® and more. Deep cross-platform integrations with Nintex Workflow Cloud facilitate the unification of current and new workflows with existing systems of record whether through Microsoft 365, Google, Salesforce, legacy or on-premises tools.

“We are committed to delivering process management, automation and optimization technology that improves how people work and provides competitive advantages for every organization that standardizes on Nintex,” said Nintex Chief Product Officer Neal Gottsacker. “By seamlessly integrating Nintex Workflow Cloud with Nintex Analytics, our customers and partners benefit from a robust data infrastructure that reports on workflows across an organization’s entire Nintex deployment. This provides clear visibility into vital process data and helps every organization be more agile – by identifying processes that are running effectively and those that could be improved based on real-time, actionable process intelligence.”

Notable new features and functionality in the latest release of Nintex Workflow Cloud include:

Optimize workflows and processes with real-time analytics
Nintex Analytics provides state-of-the-art data analytics with real-time accuracy to ensure key insights that scale as organizations’ automation initiatives grow. Pre-built dashboards and widgets provide immediate insights into workflows and automated processes with easy-to-use data visualization.
Highly-requested functionality for Nintex Workflow Cloud New Nintex Workflow Cloud functionality helps drive digital transformation even more easily via customer-requested Repeating Sections, Draft Forms Save and Continue, and Multiple Approvers.
Pre-built connectors to extend the value of enterprise investments
Additional out-of-the-box connectors to key systems of record like Google Directory, Google Calendar, Google Tasks, Google Docs, Trello, Microsoft Exchange Online, and more, are also now available.
Accelerating digital transformation across the enterprise and industries
Nintex Workflow Cloud is designed to be easily leveraged by a broad-range of software users — from business analysts, to IT and ops professionals, and professional developers — to accelerate enterprise-wide and industry-specific digital transformation use cases.

With an intuitive drag-and-drop design canvas and pre-built connectors, Nintex Workflow Cloud customers and partners have The Power of Process at their fingertips and the ability to turn a Nintex Promapp® process map into an automated workflow, with the Nintex Workflow Generator button, and to easily create digital workflows, RPA botflows and forms that help eliminate paper from the workplace. IT pros and app developers with more advanced skills also can rapidly create complex process apps and custom connectors in Nintex Workflow Cloud, as well as automate actions in third-party platforms by leveraging Nintex APIs and Xtensions framework.

Image licensed by: Pixabay.com

Survey of Security Assurance Professionals Finds That 65% of Global Tech Companies Still Manage IT Risks in An Ad-hoc, Reactive Manner

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Nintex Workplace 2021 Study Reveals that Work is Getting Done Faster from Home

Leigh Porter — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 18:45:18 +0000

Nintex, the global standard for process management and automation, today released findings from the Nintex Workplace 2021 Study revealing that a majority of employees working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States have been more productive than they expected, with many reporting a desire for automation to further boost productivity from their home office.

(PRNewsfoto/Nintex)

In a survey* of 1,000 U.S.-based full-time American workers at companies with 501-50,000 employees, Nintex found that 70 percent of those surveyed report that their experiences working from home have been better and more productive than they expected, citing more family time, no commute, fewer interruptions, and improved work-life balance. While the majority of employees reported getting work done more efficiently since transitioning to full-time remote work, more than a third (37 percent) are calling for their companies to adopt automation software to make them even more productive.

“Every organization can improve the experiences for their employees, regardless of where they work, by simply automating workflows and turning paper-based and repetitive processes into fully digital ones,” said Nintex Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer Dustin Grosse. “Employees across every job role and generation are looking for workplaces that are flexible and offer automation tools that make work faster, easier, and more enjoyable.”

The report, which gauges employee sentiment on important remote work topics, also provides insight into the eventual return to the office, generational gaps, and what employees want in order to do their jobs better.

Highlights from the study include:

Work is getting done faster at home. Sixty-seven percent of employees report being more efficient since transitioning to full-time remote work. Of those respondents, 41 percent — the largest group — said they are getting their work done in far fewer hours now per week.
Say ‘goodbye’ to monotonous work. Software solutions are in high demand, with 39 percent of respondents saying access to software that helps them automate manual and repetitive tasks would improve their work life in 2021.
Boomers want a raise, Zoomers want automation. Whereas Baby Boomers are more financially motivated, the new generation of workers is more process driven. Boomers feel more compensation would improve their work. Gen Zers, however, desire more technology to help them automate aspects of their work. In fact, 55 percent of Gen Z respondents listed automation software as the top thing that would make them more productive at work.
Employees are split on the return to the office. Despite positive experiences working from home, 56 percent of employees whose companies have announced plans to return to the office are very excited by the prospect. Yet, half (50 percent) of all respondents said their work life would improve with the ability to permanently work remotely.

“Business leaders around the country recognize that we will not go back to the way things were before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Grosse said. “The Nintex Workplace 2021 Study shines a light on the new work paradigm and offers actionable insights into what employees want — a more flexible workplace where automation is leveraged to improve the way people work.”

Learn more about the Nintex Workplace 2021 Study findings by registering for Nintex’s Workplace 2021 webinar on Tuesday, February 2 at 8 a.m. Pacific and download the eBook at www.nintex.com/workplace-2021-study.

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FireEye Announces Acquisition of Respond Software for $186 Million

Olivia Rowan — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 22:48:54 +0000

FireEye announced the acquisition of Respond Software, the cybersecurity investigation automation company and creator of the Respond Analyst. The acquisition of Respond Software opens new market opportunities to deliver eXtended Detection and Response (XDR) capabilities to a broad set of customers. Additionally, it enables Mandiant Solutions to further productize and scale its expertise and front-line intelligence as part of the Mandiant Advantage platform.

The Respond Analyst is an XDR engine that accelerates cyber investigation and response by automating the correlation of multi-sourced attack evidence using cloud-based data science models that ingest data from a comprehensive set of security technologies. This technology will become a key part of the Mandiant Advantage platform, bringing vendor-agnostic XDR and investigation capabilities that integrates with any customer environment. Further, the combination of cloud-based correlation and intelligent data science models will be used in the delivery of Mandiant Managed Defense, speeding response times and providing better security outcomes for customers while scaling existing Managed Defense resources to protect more customers.

“With Mandiant’s position on the front lines, we know what to look for in an attack, and Respond’s cloud-based machine learning productizes our expertise to deliver faster outcomes and protect more customers,” said Kevin Mandia, FireEye chief executive officer. “This creates a learning system with new capabilities that will enable us to expand our Mandiant portfolio and drive new XDR revenue through our Mandiant Advantage platform.”

The Respond Analyst automates the investigation and triage of security data, at machine speed, with a level of depth and consistency unmatched by human analysis. Using a proprietary intelligent decision engine, the Respond Analyst provides built-in reasoning and judgment to make better decisions, faster without the expensive security engineering and professional services required of most security operations tools. The combination of Respond Software’s XDR capabilities with deep, real-time knowledge of attacker tools and techniques derived from Mandiant frontline expertise and intelligence will enable customers to more quickly identify the weak signals of an attack, understand their adversary, and respond quickly to stop an attack before the adversaries are able to accomplish their mission.

“Customers rely on our XDR engine to investigate more alerts, at a deeper level, for far less cost than existing processes and tools,” said Mike Armistead, Respond Software chief executive officer prior to the acquisition. “Respond’s product dramatically reduces time spent investigating false positives as it connects the dots among siloed, multi-vendor security controls in an easy-to-deploy cloud-based package. Now coupled with Mandiant’s world-class threat intelligence and incident response expertise feeding our models, customers can be confident the most up-to-date and relevant attack tactics and techniques are recognized and appropriately escalated. This results in more coverage, faster resolution of incidents, and ultimately, less risk at lower cost.”

The transaction closed on November 18, 2020 and is valued at approximately $186 million in cash and stock, exclusive of assumed unvested stock options.

Image source: Adobe Stock.

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OpsVeda Releases Version 9.0 of Operational Intelligence Sofware

Olivia Rowan — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 16:55:51 +0000

OpsVeda announced the availability of version 9.0 of its industry leading Operational Intelligence Software that powers a vast library of Solution Packages focused on operations and supply chain. This is a major boost for operations teams, particularly at a time when they are challenged to transform business processes to address changing channel mix, product packaging mix, customer mix, all of which are the new realities brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

OpsVeda 9.0 makes it easy for the business analyst or the application developer to bring data, link multiple processes and automate action, all in a matter of days. This is a powerful capability in the current context where businesses are trying to digitally stitch together departments to ensure a seamless experience for their customers.

“Most companies have struggled to realize ROI from data lakes and enterprise data warehouse initiatives, and this challenge has been unmasked in the wake of Covid. OpsVeda 9.0 was conceived and built ground-up to tap into these data repositories to uncover and realize value instantaneously,” said Sanjiv Gupta, CEO of OpsVeda. He added, “This marks an important milestone in our ten-year journey to make customer operations immensely agile and profitable through operational intelligence and automation.”

Significant additions and improvements in OpsVeda 9.0 include:

JUNI 2.0: OpsVeda’s AI-powered JUNI, in its second iteration, helps unearth opportunities and risks in operations, almost instantly. The process of creating business functions, measures and consuming algorithms and data science plugins is simpler.

“OpsVeda JUNI capabilities are a game changer for us. The ability for a power user to launch data discovery and evaluate potential opportunities or disruptions with just a few button clicks, and then apply business rules to further refine the actionable components, greatly enhances speed for our operations,” said Dana Howard, Vice President – Transactional Operations at Centric Brands Inc.

Integration: Ability to tap into conformed data from data lakes and data warehouses enables instantaneous realization of business objectives. This version also features readymade cloud integration to pull-in logistics information like shipment location, ETA and carrier rates from third-party providers. Traditionally supported RESTful event-based real-time connectors for systems of record such as SAP, Oracle and Salesforce are enhanced.
Solution Factory: More depth and breadth with 100’s of out-of-the-box storyboards. Existing Solution Packages across planning, sales, supply, inventory, logistics, manufacturing and channel are being expanded. New Solutions from the Factory cover functions such as quality, compliance, claims, service management & more. Customer analysts have the ability to discover their data to launch intelligent solutions by themselves, in just a matter of minutes.
Optimization: The portfolio of business functions is richer. New capabilities include data science plugins and optimization algorithms. These functions enable rule based as well as algorithmic identification and prioritization of opportunities, and risks.
Automation Bots: OpsVeda has made investments in RPA to automate the high value insights and autonomous actions prescribed by the OpsVeda solutions. The actions can be carried out in external systems or within OpsVeda. The bots will also play a role enabling quick data integration with little or no IT dependence.
Platform of Choice: OpsVeda 9.0 heralds the adoption of an open source database. This makes OpsVeda a platform of choice for a broader market beyond the typical ecosystems centered on large technology providers.

“OpsVeda 9.0 has been an amazing opportunity to take our patented data architectures and the foundation of configurability to create a seamless, nimble open platform. With Data API integration capabilities, our customer analysts can pull data from various landscapes in an automated way, build reusable components and discover impactful insights with the power of JUNI,” said Ravi Mandayam, VP Engineering at OpsVeda. “The newly re-engineered platform along with robotic automation will speed digitalization for our customers.” he added.

Photo licensed from Unsplash.

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Zapier Announces Collaboration with Slack’s Workflow Builder for Efficient Automation Opportunities

Taylor Graham — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 23:24:57 +0000

Zapier announced a new integration with Slack’s Workflow Builder. The integration enables users to interact with 20+ top apps on Zapier’s platform, directly within Slack.

Slack is the leading channel-based messaging platform, used by millions to align their teams, unify their systems, and drive their businesses forward. Zapier’s integration with Slack’s Workflow Builder, which allows Slack users to create custom, automated workflows, empowers Slack users to choose the apps they want and save time every day.

“People use multiple apps daily to get work done and are eager for solutions that allow them to save time and do meaningful work. In response, many SaaS providers are increasing their investment in automation software and turning to Zapier to complement and accelerate their automation ambitions. Zapier’s solutions empower SaaS providers to bring best-in-class automation to users right within their products, for free.” – Cody Jones, Head of Partnerships at Zapier

This is one step in a larger effort to offer Zapier’s automation power to their ecosystem of 2,000+ partners via their Partner API.

“Zapier’s work to make the power of automation more accessible perfectly aligns with our vision for the Slack platform, which we see as the engagement layer that brings people, partners, and systems together in a way that accelerates digital transformation and empowers more meaningful work. Today, we’re excited to introduce Workflow Builder steps from apps and, together with Zapier, extend the time and energy-saving potential of custom, automated workflows even further.” – Steve Wood, VP of Developer Platform

By exposing hundreds of Zapier actions directly in Workflow Builder, Slack is able to offer their users seamless app connectivity and automations across many more use cases. Using the power of Zapier, Slack customers can build workflows that:

Create new projects or tasks in project management tools like Asana
Create or manage tasks in task management tools like Todoist
Add or update leads in CRMs like Pipedrive
Automatically send emails via Gmail

Image licensed from Adobe Stock.

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