Artificial Intelligence: Who’s afraid of intelligent behavior?

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By Lawrence Strauss, of Strauss and Strauss.

The early cave paintings of the hunt, Manet’s “j’ai fait ce que j’ai vu” (I did what I saw), computer graphics renderings in contemporary films: people have always looked at and tried to copy nature. And this is the goal of artificial intelligence (AI) researchers. Near the roots of computer science, Feigenbaum and Feldman, in their 1963 anthology, Computers and Thought, wrote that the goal of artificial intelligence research is to “construct computer programs that exhibit behavior that we call ‘intelligent behavior’ when we observe it in human beings.”1 Recently futurist Ray Kurzweil said AI’s goal is to create smarter-than-human intelligence.2 The goal has not moved much in 50 years: scientists are trying to understand the mechanics of the best in human thinking and create devices to match or better it.

The investment in this type of research is growing. As an example, in 2014, Google bought eight AI-related companies, including DeepMind3 that specializes in deep learning, software that “attempts to mimic the activity in layers of neurons in the neocortex, the part of the brain where thinking occurs. The software learns … to recognize patterns in digital representations of sounds, images, and other data” with the goal of building a computer that can understand language and make inferences and decisions on its own.4

The AI with us today includes Japan’s carmakers whose robots work unsupervised round the clock for up to 30 days without interruption. Losing US jobs to less developed economies saves manufacturers about 65% on labor costs; were US companies to replace human workers with robots, the savings is estimated to be up to 90%.5

And there are every day news stories like lawyers being replaced by computer programs,6 and surgeons being replaced by robots,7 it’s easy to think coders and roboticists are out to replace us all with machines that are better than the best of us.

AI places a perhaps never-before-seen amount of power in the hands of very few: particular software and hardware developers. As Lord Acton wrote a hundred years ago, “power tends to corrupt”. And, there is no want of fictional stories of robots and computers being either misused or doing the abusing on their own. Pretty scary prospects. But, beneath the interests in profiting financially from the efficiencies of automation, what is the motivation behind AI?

In May 2007, Steve Jobs with Bill Gates at his side laughing along and applauding, said, “I want Star Trek.” Star Trek was the vision for the future held by the generation of tech leaders behind Apple, Microsoft, Google (Larry Summers and Sergey Brin have each said Star Trek doesn’t go far enough) and Amazon (Jeff Bezos was a crew member in this Summer’s Star Trek Beyond).

Star Trek’s four main characters, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy, Mister Spock and the Enterprise were symbols of the spirit of adventure, vulnerable complaint, (half-Vulcan) logic, and technology, respectively. It felt like a balance, such that with that harmony of passion and caution and reason and tech nothing could go wrong. (It could have been more balanced; Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, originally cast the First Officer as a woman, but in 1966 the network would not OK such radicalism.)

Besides the ship itself, Star Trek’s technology consisted of tricorders to see if everything checks out, phasers and photon torpedoes to blast, transporters and Warp drive to beat it out of there fast, and the female-voiced Computer, whose echo we hear in Siri, Alexa and Google Now (which at one time was code-named Majel, after Majel Barrett, the actor who played the Starfleet computer). The computer is an un-conflicted and detached source of information (unlike Spock who had interests, like saving his friends), and yet human — by contrast, was the mechanical-sounding Robot voice in the contemporary TV show, Lost in Space. So the Starfleet Computer was both helpful in a way a person could not be, due to the vastness of its data, but was also comfortably familiar. There is a similarity to Barrett’s treatment in 1968’s HAL (2001: A Space Odyssey), but unlike with HAL, there is never a threat from Starfleet’s computer. Google’s Brin has called for a benign HAL.

Network television made Star Trek a shared utopian vision. One of its main characters was an automated vessel somehow peopled by a crew of 430. Gene Roddenberry explained in “The Making of Star Trek” (1968), “One of the reasons … was to keep man essentially the same as he is now … I believe that man … always will be a social animal. You can’t divorce man from the things that human relationships give him.”

Roddenberry’s answer is not much comfort for people feeling the need of having to earn a living. It must be asked with the transition to more automation: how will we and our children continue to earn and survive?

“We end up with a universal, basic income … people will have more time to do other things, more complex things, more interesting things,” Tesla founder, Elon Musk told CNBC in November. Musk is convinced that jobs won’t be replaced, and that machines will soon be powerful to the point of disrupting our way of life.8

In December 2016, President Obama issued a report that read, “we should not advance a policy premised on giving up on the possibility of workers’ remaining employed [in spite of increased automation] … our goal should be first and foremost to foster the skills, training, job search assistance, and other labor market institutions to make sure people can get into jobs.” The report proposes government interventions like more funding for technical education and AI research.9

According to the Economist, “digital technology has already rocked the media and retailing industries, just as cotton mills crushed hand looms and the Model T put farriers out of work. Many people will look at the factories of the future and shudder. Most jobs will not be on the factory floor but in the offices nearby, which will be full of designers, engineers, IT specialists, logistics experts, marketing staff and other professionals. The manufacturing jobs of the future will require more skills. Many dull, repetitive tasks will become obsolete.”10

Fortune’s senior editor-at-large Geoff Colvin wrote, “don’t ask what computers can’t do. As their abilities multiply, we simply can’t conceive of what may be beyond them. To identify the sources of greatest human value, ask instead what will be those things that we insist be done by or with other humans — even if computers could do them. These are our deepest, most essentially human abilities, developed in our evolutionary past, operating in complex, two-way, person-to-person interactions that influence us more powerfully than we realize. When Oxford Economics asked global employers to name the skills they most want, they emphasized ‘relationship building’, ‘teaming’ and ‘co-creativity’.”11

In the 2015 film Ex Machina, writer/director Alex Garland has a Dr. Frankenstein/ Mark Zuckerberg-like character, Nathan, create a lifelike robot-woman, Ava. According to Nathan’s protégé, Caleb, Ava passes the Turing Test for judging artificial intelligence. But Ava turns out to seem to the audience flawed by her logic, in that while she figures out Nathan’s ultimate puzzle of getting free by using sophisticated stratagems, she appears oblivious to the needs of others and callously abandons Caleb to die. Ava has a goal without thought of the ramifications. At the same time, Garland imbues Caleb with human flaws that, though different in the way they look – it looked like a falling in love story – have a similar effect: Caleb was unwilling to intervene on behalf of a different robot-woman, one for whom he did not have an attraction, which led to her abandonment and death. Perhaps Garland is trying to teach us that AI may strike our sensibilities as a strange, alien cruelty, but man’s inhumanity remains our once and future true enemy.

Out walking one night with my wife, looking at the Christmas lights, we came to a house with colorful computer-controlled LEDs flashing a somewhat starry pattern near the front door. “That’s pretty,” she said. A few minutes later she pointed out the sunset with its pink sky and indigo stripes of clouds, and it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust from the house decorations to this other light, which was sublime. It was for me a good picture of humanity in pursuit of Intelligent Behavior. As Beethoven wrote: [humanity] feels darkly how far he is from the unattainable goal set for us by nature.12

 

Sources and references:

1Computers and Thought, Feigenbaum, Feldman, 1963, McGraw-Hill, New York

2http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-kurzweil-law-of-accelerating-returns-2015-5+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

3https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/05/robot-revolution-rise-machines-could-displace-third-of-uk-jobs

4http://www.technologyreview.com/s/513696/deep-learning/

5https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/05/robot-revolution-rise-machines-could-displace-third-of-uk-jobs

6http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-first-artificially-intelligent-lawyer-gets-hired-2016-5

7http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/12/health/robot-surgeon-bowel-operation/

8http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/04/elon-musk-robots-will-take-your-jobs-government-will-have-to-pay-your-wage.html

9https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/documents/Artificial-Intelligence-Automation-Economy.PDF

10http://www.economist.com/node/21553017&num=1&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1&vwsrc=0

11http://www.wired.co.uk/article/robot-takeover-geoff-colvin

12http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3528?msg=welcome_stranger#2H_4_0003

Do’s and Don’ts of Password Security

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We can’t say enough about the importance of passwords for your security

Strong passwords are the frontline against cyberattacks.

Passwords are the primary gatekeeper to secure your data, so it’s imperative to ensure it they’re as strong as possible. We have compiled a list of DOs and DO NOTs to help you create secure passwords.

DO create a complicated password. While passwords such as “123456” and “password” are easy to remember, they are also easy to hack. It is best to create a password that has at least 8 characters and uses a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. This makes it harder for hackers to gain access to your accounts. One way to accomplish this is to take a sentence and convert it into an acronym, using numbers to replace words such as “to” or letters (3 or $ for “s”, 1 for “I”, @ for “a”, etc.). For example, take the sentence “my favorite activity to do is swim” and convert it to “mF8a2di$!”

DO NOT keep written passwords within reach. There’s no point in creating a secure password if you are going to have the password in plain view. That’s akin to locking the deadbolt on the house, but having all the windows open! If you would like a written reminder of your passwords, keep it in a secure place (a locked cabinet or car glovebox are good examples). You may also consider a Password Manager Service.

DO change your password regularly. Even the most complicated password can be compromised given enough time. It is recommended that passwords be changed every 90 days (or sooner depending upon the importance of data that they safeguard). When you change your password, do not reuse an old password. Instead, create a new one for better protection.

DO NOT use the same password for multiple accounts. While this may be easier for you to remember, it also makes it easier for cybercriminals to gain access to all of your information!

DO use two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA) is a method of confirming a user’s claimed identity by utilizing a combination of two different components, generally something you know with something you have. A good example in everyday life is the withdrawal of money from a cash machine. Only the correct combination of a PIN (something you know) with a bank card (something you have) allows the transaction to be carried out.

This provides another layer of protection and significantly reduces the risk of a hack. That being said, it’s imperative that you update your personal information when something, such as your phone number or email address, changes.

For more information on password protection and security, connect with Bryley’s cybersecurity experts by calling us at 844.449.8770 or emailing us at ITExperts@Bryley.com.

It’s here! Announcing the launch of our new responsive-design Web site

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After months of hard work and dedication, we are delighted to officially announce the launch of our responsive-design Web site that went live on February 7, 2017. The URL hasn’t changed. Take a look at www.bryley.com.

Bryley Systems is a Managed IT Services Provider and a Managed Cloud Services Provider serving clients throughout New England. We have been fulfilling the IT needs of organizations since 1987 with a focused, client-friendly approach by combining brand-name equipment and software with flexible service options and low-risk, custom-fit, support agreements.

The goal of our new Web site is to provide our visitors with an easier way to learn about Bryleys’ services and solutions. We are proud to announce the addition of our Managed Cloud Services, Network Assessment and Cybersecurity pages which describe our services in a more organized and detailed manner.

Our current and prospective clients will find useful information about our Support Options and Bryley Client Portal.

Our Resources page is filled with newsletters, industry related articles, white papers, blogs, client case studies, videos, and slide decks. We will be constantly updating our content with even more helpful information.

Amongst the new features the site contains are integrated, social-media buttons for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to foster improved communication with our clients.

We hope you enjoy the new Web site with its fresh look and easy-to-access material. The responsive design means you can check it from your tablet or smartphone, too. Come and visit us at www.bryley.com!

5 Reasons Content Marketing on Social Media is Essential to Your Business’ Success

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This week’s blog has been prepared by Russell Mangsen, Principal Consultant at Namra Consultion Group, LLC (NCG).  Founded in 2016, NCG understands the importance of maintaining a strong online presence through social media channels.  The organization seeks to create an online community for their clients and in turn develop long-term, trusting partnerships.

Social media marketing and SEO are two tightly interwoven strategies. Both are organic, inbound strategies that focus on building an appealing identity that naturally attracts visitors. Since social media relies on high-quality content and a visible, strong brand presence, the efforts you spend on SEO can doubly improve your social media reach, and as most search marketers will tell you, your social media presence can greatly increase your search rankings.” (DeMers).

Most business owners understand the concept of content marketing, since, at its core, it makes sense; posting interesting content online, which generates consumer interest allows you to develop a following of potential customers for your business. In theory, it makes sense. But, how often do you have to post to see results? How do you develop this “interesting content” and how do you keep it interesting? What social media platforms are most important for your business? And finally, the biggest question we hear on a regular basis: “This takes a lot of time… Is it really worth the effort?”

When we hear this question (and we hear it a lot), we completely understand. How could a social network, originally built for teenagers and college students to make party plans, become a marketing tool, so powerful that every business in existence needs it just to survive? Well, here’s how: Let’s take a look at the amount of monthly users some of the most popular social media platforms had in 2016 – a number which has only grown since, and will continue to grow in the future.

“Social platforms have become the new leaders in the digital media industry, evolving well past their beginnings as digital communication networks and becoming full-fledged media distribution channels and entertainment centers.” (Adler).

Not bad, right? Now, let’s dive deeper into the ways social media can truly be used as a marketing tool, and a powerful one at that. There are many benefits to developing a strong digital presence for your business on social media. We’ve narrowed it down to what we believe are the 5 most important impacts a strong social media presence can have on your business. Our hope is that some of you may be able to justify dedicating the time or other resources necessary to bring your business into the digital age. It’s true, content marketing on social media requires a large amount of time and effort. When done correctly, though, it can allow your business to:

  1. Increase qualified leads by creating content, which drives your audience through social media to your website. At its core, the simplest goal of social media is to generate consumer interest, which organically drives traffic to your website – or wherever the sale happens in your business – when your audience desires more information. By creating content your target audience is interested in, you are increasing the chances a potential customer will come across your business’ online presence. Once they do, they will express their interest in your product or service by “Liking” or “Following” your business’ social media pages. One of the most common mistakes a business owner can make in today’s digital age is underestimating the value of their social media pages. What you may see as a simple “Like” on Facebook is actually a real person essentially endorsing your business, showing their support, and looking forward to your future posts because they are interested in the services you offer – the very definition of a qualified lead. What more could you ask for as a business owner?
  2. Increase your search engine performance by forming a cohesive link between your social media presence and your website. Posting industry-relevant and valuable content on multiple social media platforms, while maintaining your website, can have astronomically positive effects on your search engine performance and overall inbound marketing efforts. Your search engine performance will organically perform better as you create more industry-relevant content. The more high-quality content you produce, the stronger your company’s digital presence will become. Posting related content across multiple platforms will create synergy between each of your digital platforms, which serves to enhance the performance of your entire digital presence when people search for your business in Google. Simply put, the more content you create and spread across a broad array of platforms, the stronger your business will perform online. The final result being, when a consumer searches for your something industry, not only will your website appear on Google, but your Facebook page will appear as well.
  3. Build a more personalized brand by creating original content. So you’ve got people searching for your services on Google. They see your website, and then check out your Facebook page. That’s great, but what do they see? Anything interesting? Thought provoking? Or, just another business posting about the exact services they have listed on their website? On social media, it’s important to find the perfect balance between showcasing your services and showing the world “who” your business is. This is a great opportunity for you to build trust with people who have never even met you. Social media, at its core, is about connecting people with other people. Generally speaking, most people like to do business with people they know and trust. Your consumers want to get to know your business’ personality, and social media allows you to fully customize the message you wish to communicate to them. It also gives you the ability to display the people who make up your business, which is what social media is all about.
  4. Increase the effectiveness of your marketing by focusing on engagement, not just your lump-sum total impressions. “The entire marketing world is obsessed with impressions. You might hear someone say “40,000 people saw this video.” But the truth is, they didn’t. They didn’t because as soon as the ad came up in video form, they clicked away to a new tab to look at something they actually wanted to see. But they count as an impression. They count as ‘seeing it.’ On TV, it’s the same problem. Nielsen sees how many people watch a TV show and they count those impressions against the ads that ran during the show. But as soon as commercials came up, people picked up their phones. They opened Facebook or Instagram. They aren’t engaged with the TV.” (Vaynerchuk).
    In today’s world, content is king. Social media gives any business the opportunity to shine bright and break away from the overcrowded marketplace in their industry by creating engaging content that actually appeals to your consumers. Rather than spamming them with your logo and tagline over and over again, you will generate a following of potential buyers who simply like what your business has to say. The idea here is that you are telling the story of your business and engaging with the community around you, rather than hitting people with a new advertisement every day. This increases the effectiveness of your efforts in the same way that meeting with a potential buyer in person works better than sending emails back and forth or talking on the phone. It’s about the personal connection.
  5. Maximize your budget by saving money and spending efficiently. No business has an unlimited marketing budget, and with so many options for traditional advertising – newspaper, radio, television, online advertising, etc. – it can be difficult to determine which marketing channels will show you the highest returns. In some cases, the most appealing aspect of content marketing on social media is that it requires little to no capital to get started. After all, creating a Facebook or Instagram account is free. However, there is some give and take involved here, because in order to see results, a large time commitment must be made to generate appealing content on a regular basis for your audience to interact with. Many businesses see this as time well-spent, because if one thing is for sure, it’s that people are spending more time on digital devices now than ever before, and the world is only going to become more digitally oriented as time goes on. For this reason, it is essential for your business to begin focusing on building a strong digital presence.

After taking a look at these 5 main impacts social media can have on your business, we have seen many skeptics start to understand the importance of content marketing on social media. The majority of these skeptics even begin rationalizing the time or monetary investment needed to produce high results using the content marketing technique.

In conclusion, if you get one thing out of this article, we hope it’s this: There’s a reason we put billboards on the side of the highway instead of in the middle of vacant fields. Your consumers are on social media. If you want to get in front of your consumers, you need to be there too.

Sources

Vaynerchuk, Gary. “When Will Marketers Talk About Attention, Not Impressions?”. Gary Vaynerchuk. N.p., 2015. Web. 9 Jan. 2017.

DeMers, Jason. “6 Social Media Practices That Boost SEO”. Forbes.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 9 Jan. 2017.

Adler, Emily. “Social Media Engagement: The Surprising Facts About How Much Time People Spend On The Major Social Networks”. Business Insider – Tech Insider. N.p., 2016. Web. 9 Jan. 2017.

A Cybersecurity Plan Is NOT Optional – No Matter What Size Your Organization Is!

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In 2016, cybercrime was on the rise, and within the past 5 years, the main targets have become smaller organizations.

As organizations attempt to educate themselves on this evolving threat, computer hackers are hard at work looking for new vulnerabilities to exploit. IT professionals and business owners need to keep track of ongoing trends in cybercrime and cybersecurity. Although most data breaches that reach the headlines are large organizations, don’t be fooled – small and medium business (SMBs) face a high level of risk.

Mitigating your risk is an important strategy and now is the time to begin planning for the year ahead.

All equipment must require login with a complex password or pass-phrase. Ideally, each of your passwords would be at least 12 characters, and contain a combination of numbers, symbols, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and spaces. The password would be free of repetition, dictionary words, usernames, pronouns, IDs, and any other predefined number or letter sequences.

All potential points-of-entry should be protected and have detection capabilities. Cyber criminals work digitally — through viruses, spyware, malware, etc. – to extract information without ever physically entering your office. Bryley Systems provides a multi-layer, multi-point of entry approach to protecting our customers’ data.  This approach provides multiple layers of both hardware (network and web access) and software (anti-virus and anti-spyware) protection which are constantly updated.

Security logs should be monitored to detect threats and achieve compliance. Organizations are under constant pressure to protect data and crucial IT equipment. Monitoring logs is a critical component of a security strategy and a requirement for regulations such as PCI DSS, GLBA, HIPAA, SOX and others.

When putting together a cybersecurity plan, it is important to use these guidelines:

Identify. You need to know exactly what you have that is worth protecting. This identification step should include transmitted and stored data, networks, all endpoint devices, machines, users, and systems. Once all assets have been identified, you should perform a security assessment to locate each potential weak link within the assets you have identified.

Security Assessment. A security assessment will give you a clear view of your current weaknesses, potential points of entry for hackers, and the strength of your current security measures.  Computer security is an ever-changing world. Utilizing a layered approach is the best defense against cybercrime. Every organization, regardless of size, should continually manage, evaluate, and update their security infrastructure to lessen the threat of a cyberattack.

Protect. Once you understand what you need to protect, you can take immediate steps to secure those items. Protection involves a variety of measures, including implementing authentication and applying patches and updates to all equipment and software. Some assets may require upgraded technology to achieve the necessary security standard.

Detect. After you have put security measures in place, the next step is to implement the technology to monitor your environment for threats, such as firewall intrusion, distributed denial of service (DDoS), and ransomware attacks.

Respond. There is a saying in the cybersecurity community: “It is not a matter of whether your organization will experience a cyberattack. It is a matter of when.” No matter how good your cybersecurity plan is, you may still experience a threat or a breach. Therefore, it is crucial for your organization, or a designated third party, to decide how to respond to each type of threat. For example, your security tools may handle a threat automatically in one instance, but require a technician’s response in a different type of situation.

Recover. If your organization does experience a breach, you will want to have a recovery plan in place. The plan should spell out what actions should be taken, what tools should be used, and which person or partner will be responsible for recovering data, systems, and applications.

If you would like to improve your 2017 cybersecurity plan, or to inquire about Bryley’s full array of our Managed Cloud Services and Managed IT Services, please contact us at 978.562.6077 or by email at ITExperts@Bryley.com. We’re here for you.

Bryley Basics: HP, Inc. Battery Recall

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HP, Inc. recently recalled some of its laptop batteries due to fire concerns. This recall affects less than 1% of the laptops purchased between March 2013 and October 2016.

The batteries being recalled were primarily sold online or in big-box stores (like BestBuy). They are black in color and were in these HP laptop models:

  • Compaq
  • Compaq Presario
  • Envy
  • HP
  • Pavilion
  • ProBook

Affected batteries, like the one pictured below, have barcodes that start with these characters:

  • 6BZLU
  • 6CGFK
  • 6CGFQ
  • 6CZMB
  • 6DEMA
  • 6DEMH
  • 6DGAL
  • 6EBVA

HP released this statement: “Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled batteries, remove them from their notebook computers and contact HP for a free replacement battery.”

For details, please visit the HP Notebook Computer Battery Safety Recall and Replacement Program.

If you would like assistance with a HP laptop purchased from Bryley Systems between October 2013 and August 2016, please call us at 978.562.6077 or email us at ITExperts@Bryley.com.

How and Why Is Cloud Computing Beneficial for Small and Medium Organizations?

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Cloud computing is not just for large organizations. That’s a fact.

Many small businesses are migrating to the cloud and experiencing benefits that were never possible before.  Cloud computing allows people access to a wide range of applications via the Internet.  Prior to the advent of cloud computing, software had to be downloaded and installed on physical computers or servers in brick and mortar offices. Those days are gone.

The cloud is becoming more popular because:

  • Cloud-based applications and services can be accessed anytime from anywhere. All you need is a device with an Internet connection.
  • The time, effort and cost of managing your systems goes away
  • The cloud is effectively infinite in size; you need not worry about running out of capacity

Here are some top reasons why organizations are choosing the cloud…

Work from Anywhere. If you have an Internet connection, you can work. Most cloud services are accessible from any device. Organizations can now offer more flexible work schedules to their employees, thereby increasing productivity.

Disaster Recovery. Organizations of all sizes should be investing in robust disaster recovery. For smaller, budget-conscious organizations, cloud-based disaster recovery is ideal. It saves time and money by eliminating high, up-front costs, and internal IT teams are no longer tasked with the complexity of maintaining a best-in-class disaster recovery system.

No Hardware Costs. Cloud computing eliminates the high cost of hardware. You “pay as you go” using a subscription-based model that’s easier to budget.

Security. When your data is stored in the cloud, you can access it anytime from anywhere. You can even remotely wipe data from lost or stolen laptops so it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.

Automatic Software Updates. Servers are off-premise so you don’t have to worry about maintaining them. Software updates are performed as they’re released.

Flexibility. Cloud-based services are ideal for organizations with growing or fluctuating bandwidth demands. If your needs increase, it’s easy to scale up your cloud capacity. If you need to scale down, you can easily do that, too.

Collaboration. Employees can access, edit and share documents anytime from anywhere. Cloud-based file sharing apps are updated in real-time, giving everyone full visibility into current content. Prior to the cloud, workers had to send files back and forth as email attachments to be worked on by one user at a time. That method often led to conflicting document versions.

Greater visibility means improved collaboration, which ultimately translates into a better practices and a healthier bottom line. If you’re still relying on old methodologies, it’s time to move into the 21st century and explore new, reliable cloud-based options that will streamline the way you conduct your business.

For more information about cloud computing, or to inquire about Bryley’s full array of Managed IT Servicesand Managed Cloud Services, please contact us at 978.562.6077 or by email at ITExperts@Bryley.com. We’re here for you.

Brief Review of Cloud Trends in 2016 and Beyond

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Cloud trends include1:

  • Options – Switching Public Cloud platforms and Private Cloud compliance
  • Familiarity – Greater understanding leads to refinement in selections
  • Growth – Cloud tends to be the primary engine for IT growth
  • Benefits – Reduction in costs leads all other benefits

Options

Approximately 43% of companies using Public Cloud services that were surveyed in CompTIA’s Trends in Cloud Computing2 switched to a different Public Cloud platform (i.e.: from Google G Suite to Microsoft Office 365). Of these, 46% noted that this secondary migration was more difficult than the initial migration to the Cloud.

The top Public Cloud implementations – email, web presence, and business productivity suites – were used by 51%, 46%, and 45% of the survey respondents, respectively.

Familiarity

Most Cloud-using organizations have a one-to-five year history with Cloud services; they have been through the process before, which simplifies the selection and procurement of new options.

Cloud options, Public, Private, and Hybrid, also are better understood, leading to greater refinement in the cloud-selection process. However, Private Cloud is likely the least-understood option, often being used to refer to a hosted datacenter solution, which is becoming the norm.

Growth

The Gartner Group forecast Cloud revenues of $204B in 2016, a 16.5% growth over 2015.3 Gartner’s 2017 forecast is continued, double-digit growth of 17.3%.

Benefits

Of the CompTIA respondents, over 40% of all organization types – large, medium, and small – cite “Ability to cut costs” as the primary motivation in Cloud computing. Small and medium organizations were also likely to emphasize “Reduce capital expenditures” as a primary motivator.

1Please see ClikCloud Technology Trends for 2017.

2See CompTIA Trends in Cloud Computing from September 2016.

3Visit Gartner Group Gartner says Worldwide Public Cloud Services Market Forecast to reach $204B in 2016 from January 25, 2016.

Bryley Basics: Working with Webroot

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Greg Livingstone (Engineer) and Gavin Livingstone (President), Bryley Systems Inc.

Webroot1 is a cybersecurity firm with “…leadership in developing next-generation approaches to prevent attacks, and a proven technology base that spans millions.”2

Webroot’s SecureAnywhere® Nex-Gen Endpoint Security (NGES) is a small-footprint (<1Mb) agent with Cloud-based threat intelligence designed to deliver advanced, next-generation, endpoint security. Webroot NGES offers these advantages:

  • Detection – Behavior-based, predictive/proactive detection
  • Management – Minimal impact with no signature updates
  • Protection – Collective protection among Secured EndPoints
  • Remediation – New threats are journaled to facilitate rollback
  • Threat Intelligence – Machine learning

With its innovative, predictive capabilities, it is becoming the standard end-point protection application of many IT-service providers, including Bryley Systems.

Webroot basics

When Webroot is deployed, this Webroot icon webroot-logo displays on the bottom-right taskbar. Right-clicking on the Webroot icon exposes these options:

  • Scan now – Perform a malware scan
  • Open – Open the SecureAnywhere console
  • Help and support – Show the online help site
  • About – Display the current Webroot version
  • Refresh configuration – Refresh Webroot version*
  • Save a Scan Log – Save scan results to a log file
  • Shutdown Protection – Disable Webroot

scan-now

 

*Refreshing the configuration uploads the current profile, resulting in this message:

secure-anywhere-prompt

Webroot SecureAnywhere console

Selecting Open displays the Webroot SecureAnywhere console, which may also appear in the bottom, right-hand corner during scans. The SecureAnywhere console displays current protection information.

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Webroot Browsing Security

Webroot SecureAnywhere includes BrightCloud® Threat Intelligence, an add-in for Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer to warn against unsafe browsing.

When enabled, BrightCloud shows the following Reputation icons prefixed to web sites. Hovering over the icon will display a risk statement:

trustworthy Reputation: TRUSTWORTHY – When visiting this website there is a very low probability that you will be exposed to malicious links or payloads.

low-risk Reputation: LOW RISK – When visiting this website there is a low probability that you will be exposed to malicious links or payloads.

moderate Reputation: MODERATE RISK – When visiting this website there is some probability that you will be exposed to malicious links or payloads.

suspicious Reputation: SUSPICIOUS – When visiting this website there is higher than average probability that you will be exposed to malicious links/payloads.

high-risk Reputation: HIGH RISK – This website is a “Malware Site”; there is a high probability that you will be exposed to malicious links or payloads.

These icons are displayed on your Internet browser pages and define the risk associated with clicking on a particular site.

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By default, HIGH RISK sites are blocked with the following pop-up.

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REFERENCES

1Wikipedia history of Webroot.

2Please see the 2015 Frost and Sullivan review WebRoot Smarter CyberSecurity.

Case Study – Transportation Company Relies on Bryley Systems to Stabilize Technology

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The Company: RTA Transit Services, Inc., a private company operating on behalf of the Worcester Regional Transit Authority

The Worcester Regional Transit Authority (WRTA) service area includes over half a million in population and is the second-largest regional transit authority in Massachusetts, serving 35 communities. WRTA maintains a fleet of 47 buses including four clean diesel-electric hybrid buses for 23 fixed routes in Worcester and 10 surrounding communities. WRTA also provides para-transit and special services for elderly and disabled passengers. The organization is a state-run agency, and as mandated by federal law, is operated by a private company—RTA Transit Services, Inc.

The Challenge: Build a Stable, Redundant and Scalable IT Infrastructure

To help manage WRTA daily operations, RTA Transit Services previously relied on a variety of software solutions that each functioned on separate hardware system in the data center—with each software vendor specifying its own needs. To address the issue, RTA and its previous IT solution provider deployed virtual machines to handle the application load. But the architecture did not account for future growth, and the two host virtual servers operated independently. A hardware failure on either one would have taken down half the operation.

“We wanted to transform our data center into a more robust platform that could scale easily and adapt to new technologies as our needs change over time,” said John Carney, RTA Transit Systems General Manager. “We also wanted to add a high level of redundancy since it’s critical that we maintain service to our customers in the event of a system failure or a power problem at one of our operation centers.”

At the time that RTA Transit Services considered these changes, the IT team also planned to deploy a new intelligent transit system from Clever Devices that helps manage bus maintenance and provides bus-schedule updates to customers via the Internet and digital signs at stations. In addition to ensuring Clever Devices would run properly, RTA also needed to migrate all of its operational software systems to the new platform.

This included CyberAudit by Videx for security; a PTM Brokerage Services system that interfaces with an SCM Elderbus system for handling transportation services for handicap passengers and requires virtual-private-network connections; and a HASTUS group-scheduling and planning solution from GIRO that helps with bus scheduling and operations.

“Finding a new technology partner with the expertise to help us build a platform that could handle all of these systems was critical since the level of service we received from our previous IT support vendor had reached its limit,” Carney said. “We also wanted to partner with a solutions provider that could work within our budget but still design and deploy an effective solution.”

The Solution: A Virtual Server Data Center Designed by Bryley Systems

RTA Transit Services appointed a committee to search for an IT solutions provider and considered multiple firms. Bryley Systems won the project based on its ability to offer a team with a wide breadth of experience across all the different technologies involved in the project. “Bryley also has the ability to provide remote support and fix problems behind the scenes, which is important for us going forward,” Carney said. “When we submit a request, Bryley assigns an appropriate-level resource with the right expertise to address the issue.”

Bryley first assessed the overall server infrastructure at WRTA and designed a new platform that could run all of the various software applications effectively and scale as needs emerge. Bryley also documented the components that required upgrades and provided a blueprint for how to add computing resources in the future.

“Bryley developed a comprehensive plan and recommended clear steps to advance to where we wanted to be,” Carney said. “They then broke it down for us into components to help us determine what we could reasonably do so within our budget.”

Because of the complexity, the WRTA hired a consultant to assist its internal resources with the project. The consultant’s recommendations confirmed the need to deploy the infrastructure that Bryley recommended. “The consultant’s viewpoint confirmed that Bryley had the expertise we would require over the long term and gave us confidence that the project would be handled effectively,” Carney said.

The Deployment: Project Moves Forward Even When Unplanned Roadblocks Occur

Based on the value of the Bryley assessment and design as well as the consultant’s recommendation, RTA then asked Bryley to deploy the new data center infrastructure. Bryley deployed a VMware-based virtual server environment with a P4500 series storage area network from HP. The design also included five HP DL360 servers running Microsoft Windows Server operating systems, and high-end Cisco firewall equipment. In addition, Bryley created a dual-location disaster recovery solution with completely-redundant systems and full failover capabilities between the WRTA operations and call-center locations.

As part of the project plan, Bryley assembled the virtual server rack and shipped it to Clever Devices in New York where Bryley experts worked side-by-side with the Clever Devices team to configure the servers. Clever Devices then installed their solution on the servers, which were then shipped back to WRTA.

When the rack arrived back at WRTA, it had sustained minor damage during the shipping process, and the ramps that allow the racks to be rolled into place were missing. But Bryley adjusted quickly and was able to move the rack into place without the ramps. Bryley also assessed the damage to help WRTA with the insurance claim.

“Bryley reacts to changes like this very well and can address project-schedule adjustments caused by circumstances outside of their control,” Carney said. “They helped keep the project moving forward and demonstrated solid project management skills in addition to their technical capabilities.”

Bryley also evaluated the connectivity circuits between the operations and call-center sites and established a virtual-private-network connection between the two buildings that can be accessed by key vendors such as Clever Devices and Elderbus. Bryley then updated the system security with a Cisco ASA appliance and set up 10 desktops from which RTA personnel manage the Clever Devices software.

The Benefits: New Infrastructure Platform Enables Improved Customer Service

WRTA now has 21 virtual Windows servers running on five physical servers at its Grove Street location and three physical servers at the Main Street location. The agency also now has a stable platform on which RTA can run the business as well as add on to in order to meet future needs. RTA will also continue to consult with Bryley when working with software vendors to ensure any new solutions are deployed correctly within the new infrastructure

“Bryley helped us greatly in organizing and stabilizing the environment,” Carney said. “They know how to utilize hardware effectively and prepare for the future by designing scalable systems. In addition to adding high-level redundancy, we also eliminated unnecessary hardware so that we have a data center that’s much easier to manage.”

The Clever Devices application, powered by the platform designed by Bryley, allows bus passengers to use smartphones to check on bus schedules. The software also processes next-stop announcements on buses and next-arrival announcements at stops. In addition, the application also counts passengers.

“With the new technology platform empowering Clever Devices, we are greatly enhancing the level of service we offer to our customers,” Carney said. “By using smartphones, the Web or viewing digital signs, passengers can now see the status of any bus at any moment. This not only helps customers avoid missing buses that are ahead of schedule but also eliminates the frustration of arriving too early for a bus that is running late.”

RTA also plans to rely on the Clever Devices solution to replace its radio system with a VoIP solution. The complexity of this project generated a lot of logistical challenges for which Bryley provided its expertise. “We were not sure if we should replace our radio system with a Verizon VoIP system,” Carney said. “But Bryley met with us and Verizon to help us understand how the solution works and confirm VoIP was the way to go.”

The server infrastructure that Bryley designed and deployed is now the backbone that keeps all IT systems running at WRTA. The overall system also helps improve services to disabled people since RTA has backup systems for monitoring customers that might need rides to medical care appointments. RTA can also move the phone system to a new location if it there’s a problem at the main phone center.

“Bryley has turned out to be the perfect IT partner for us,” Carney added. “They first helped us develop a plan for future technology investments that we can consider as our budget allows. They then built an IT infrastructure platform that supports technologies that allow us to improve the services we offer to customers and ensures we have sufficient redundancy in place should any of our systems experience a failure.”

Major Benefits—WRTA Technology Platform Designed and Deployed by Bryley: 

  • Stability: Enables applications that run the business to perform consistently
  • Sustainability: Supports future enhancements as business requirements change
  • Redundancy: If main location goes down, system automatically fails over to backup site
  • Improved Customer Service: Supports applications that enable efficient phone, texting and Web services to provide passengers with immediate access to bus information

 

For more information on how Bryley can assist your organization with IT goals, please contact us at 978.562.6077, or email us at ITExperts@Bryley.com.