Tag Archives: SaaS

Zoom reveals challenges + solutions for hybrid work in APAC!

Take a look at the latest survey by Zoom, which reveals both the challenges and the solutions for hybrid work in APAC!

Zoom reveals challenges + solutions for hybrid work in APAC!

On 22 August 2024, Zoom released a compelling new survey called “Navigating the Future of Work: Global Perspectives on Hybrid Models and Technology,” which revealed key insights into the hybrid work models in Asia Pacific.

Conducted in partnership with ReworkedINSIGHTS, a leading authority on employee experience and digital workplace trends, the survey highlights both the rising dominance of hybrid work models and the pressing challenge of maintaining employee engagement.

Hybrid Work Models: A Growing Trend

The survey, presented at Zoom’s EX Summit 2024, reveals that a significant shift is underway in workplace models across APAC. With 84% of organizations adopting flexible work arrangements, the hybrid model is particularly prevalent, embraced by 58% of companies, while 26% opt for a fully remote approach.

Productivity remains a critical focus for APAC leaders, with 87% prioritizing it when choosing their work models—higher than the 86% in North America and 81% in Western Europe. Notably, employees in APAC report greater productivity in hybrid settings, with 83% indicating they accomplish more work in hybrid or remote environments compared to traditional in-office settings. This trend underscores the importance of effective technology solutions in maintaining workforce connectivity and efficiency, regardless of physical location.

Key Takeaways In Summary

Hybrid Work Models: 84% of APAC organizations are adopting flexible work arrangements, with hybrid models being the most common.
Employee Productivity: 83% of employees in APAC report higher productivity in hybrid settings.
Generative AI Adoption: APAC leads in AI tool usage, but challenges such as learning curves and job impact concerns persist.
Future Outlook: 77% of APAC leaders expect further changes to workplace models, underscoring the need for ongoing adaptation and feedback integration.

The Search for the Ideal Hybrid Model

Despite the preference for hybrid work, companies in APAC are still experimenting with various models to find the most effective fit. The most common configurations are scheduled hybrid (27%) and flextime hybrid (19%), with 13% of organizations using other role-, location-, or outcome-based hybrid models. Impressively, 97% of APAC leaders have increased workplace flexibility over the past two years.

However, hybrid models are not without their challenges. Around 60% of APAC leaders report a decline in employee engagement associated with hybrid arrangements. Ricky Kapur, Head of Asia Pacific at Zoom, notes, “Workplace flexibility is not only becoming increasingly commonplace in the APAC region, but more diverse in itself — ranging from flextime to location, role, and even rotation-based models. Leaders today are faced with a new challenge of finding the best-fit hybrid model while keeping up with the evolving expectations of a multi-generational workforce and the impact of rapidly advancing technologies like AI.”

Generative AI: A Game-Changer for Hybrid Work

The survey highlights generative AI as a transformative tool for enhancing employee productivity and engagement. Despite its potential, many APAC organizations still need to fully leverage AI’s capabilities. The majority of employees (81%) believe their current remote work tools require improvement—an issue more pronounced in APAC compared to North America (79%) and Western Europe (65%).

Generative AI’s impact is already being felt, with APAC leading the adoption of AI-powered tools such as meeting transcripts and chatbots (53% and 59%, respectively). These tools have been beneficial, with 85% of APAC leaders acknowledging AI’s role in boosting workforce productivity. However, challenges remain: 70% of employees view generative AI as having a high learning curve, 63% feel uneasy about it, and 55% worry about its potential negative impact on their jobs.

Addressing Engagement Through Feedback

As hybrid work models become the norm, 77% of APAC leaders anticipate changes to their workplace models within the next two years, slightly higher than the global average of 75%. To thrive in this new landscape, organizations must remain responsive to employee feedback and adapt their technology strategies accordingly. This includes investing in scalable, adaptable AI tools that align with evolving business needs and employee expectations.

In conclusion, while hybrid work models are gaining traction, the challenge of maintaining high employee engagement remains. Organizations that prioritize technology adoption and actively seek employee feedback will be better positioned to succeed in the future of work. Embracing flexibility and leveraging AI effectively will be key to creating dynamic, engaging, and productive work environments.

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Business | Software | Tech ARP

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Why Microsoft Teams Suffered Such A Massive Outage!

Leave a reply

Microsoft Teams has finally been restored after suffering a massive outage that lasted many hours!

Here was what happened…

Microsoft Teams Suffers Massive Outage!

On Wednesday, 20 July 2022, thousands of users were unable to access Microsoft Teams, and it continued into Thursdays, 21 July 2022.

This was a big problem, because Teams had become an integral part of daily operations for many businesses that had adapted to a hybrid work pattern during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Microsoft Teams users relied on the service to organise their workflow and communicate internally like making calls and messaging each other.

The MS Teams problem also affected other services downstream, with some users reporting issues with Microsoft Office 365 as well.

Microsoft acknowledged the downstream impact to multiple Office 365 services with Teams integration, like Microsoft Word, Office Online and SharePoint Online.

Why Microsoft Teams Suffered Such A Massive Outage!

After 1.5 hours after Teams went down, Microsoft announced that they found the root cause – “a recent deployment contained a broken connection to an internal storage device, which result in impact“.

That’s tech-speak for “we installed a system upgrade that pointed to a storage device that does not exist, so MS Teams stopped working“.

They quickly redirected traffic to “a healthy service to mitigate impact“, which have allowed unaffected users to continue using MS Teams, but it did not seem to help those who lost access.

Although they identified the root cause, restoration appears to be taking time. Two hours later, they could only report that “Microsoft Teams functionality is beginning to recover“, which they repeated two hours later.

In the meantime, affected MS Teams users are creatively expressing their “frustration” on social media…

Update @ 3:56 PM (GMT+8) : The Microsoft 365 team announced that Teams availability has “mostly recovered“, but “a few service features” still required attention.

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Go Back To > Software | Business | Tech ARP

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Secureworks Launches Red Cloak TDR Cybersecurity Service!

Leave a reply

Secureworks just launched Red Cloak TDR at Dell Technologies World 2019 in Las Vegas! Here is a primer on the Secureworks Red Cloak TDI cybersecurity service!

SecureWorks Launches Red Cloak TDR

At Dell Technologies World 2019, Secureworks, a Dell Technologies subsidiary, unveiled Red Cloak TDR, their software-as-a-service (SaaS) app that allows companies to securely manage their own cybersecurity measures.

Developed with over 20 years of field experience in cybersecurity, Red Cloak TDR offers a new way for companies to detect, investigate and respond to online threats such as malware, ransomware etc. Unlike other cybersecurity services, it is aided by deep learning, and machine learning.

The AI assistance helps it quickly detect new and unknown online threats, while reducing false alarms. It also helps cybersecurity teams focus on the real or high-risk threats.

How Secureworks Red Cloak TDR Will Transform Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity threats can go undetected for hundreds of days in the gaps and disconnected layers of security products. This is particularly problematic with apps and services that are not updated on a daily or even hourly basis.

Red Cloak TDR Is Cloud-Native

As a cloud-native application, it can be quickly updated after investigations revel a new threat. In addition, the service includes the following features :

Intuitive workflows
Automation
Chat feature
Access to Secureworks’ cybersecurity team and network

Software-as-a-Service

As a software-as-a-service (SaaS) app, there is no hassle of installing on-site hardware or software system version upgrades. All updates, back-ups and tuning will be covered by the Red Cloak TDR app.

The app does not charge by data consumption like some apps, so users are free to process and manage all the security data they need to protect their organisation. The app is also designed to integrate into the organisation’s own control framework.

Go Back To > Enterprise + Business | Home

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

The Symantec 2018 Cybersecurity Predictions

1 Reply

David Rajoo, Director of Systems Engineering, Symantec Malaysia, reveals the Symantec 2018 Cybersecurity Predictions. They will help CIOs and cybersecurity experts prepare for the onslaught of cybersecurity threats in 2018.

The Symantec 2018 Cybersecurity Predictions

This past year, cyber criminals caused major service disruptions around the world, using their increasing technical proficiency to break through cyber defenses. In 2018, we expect the trend to become more pronounced as these attackers will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to launch even more potent attacks.

Gear up for a busy year ahead. Incidents like the WannaCry attack, which impacted more than 200,000 computers worldwide in May, are just the warmup to a new year of more virulent malware and DDoS attacks. Meanwhile, cyber criminals are poised to step up their attacks on the millions of devices now connected to the Internet of Things both in offices and homes.

The cybersecurity landscape in 2018 is sure to surprise us in ways that we never imagined. As 2017 draws to a close, here is what you can expect over the course of the upcoming year:

The Symantec 2018 Cybersecurity Predictions Part 1/3

Blockchain Will Find Uses Outside Of Cryptocurrencies But Cyber criminals Will Focus On Coins and Exchanges

Blockchain is finally finding applications outside of crypto-currencies, expanding its functions in inter-bank settlements with the help of IoT gaining traction. However, these use cases are still in their infancy stage and are not the focus for most cyber criminals today.

Instead of attacking Blockchain technology itself, cyber criminals will focus on compromising coin-exchanges and users’ coin-wallets since these are the easiest targets, and provide high returns. Victims will also be tricked into installing coin-miners on their computers and mobile devices, handing their CPU and electricity over to cyber criminals.

Cyber criminals Will Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) To Conduct Attacks

No cyber security conversation today is complete without a discussion about AI and ML. So far, these conversations have been focused on using these technologies as protection and detection mechanisms. However, this will change in the next year with AI and ML being used by cyber criminals to conduct attacks.

It is the first year where we will see AI versus AI in a cybersecurity context. Cyber criminals will use AI to attack and explore victims’ networks, which is typically the most labour-intensive part of compromise after an incursion.

Next Page > The Symantec 2018 Cybersecurity Predictions Part 2/3

Support Tech ARP!

The Symantec 2018 Cybersecurity Predictions Part 2/3

Supply Chain Attacks Will Become Mainstream

Supply chain attacks have been a mainstay of the classical espionage and signals-intelligence operators, compromising upstream contractors/systems/companies and suppliers. They are proven to have a high-level of effectiveness, with nation-state actors using a mix of human intelligence to compromise the weakest link in the chain.

These attacks are moving into the cybercriminal space, becoming mainstream. With publicly available information on suppliers, contractors, partnerships and key-people, cyber criminals can find victims in the supply chain and attack the weakest link. With a number of high profile successful attacks in 2016 and 2017, cyber criminals will focus on this method in 2018.

File-less and File-light Malware Will Explode

2016 and 2017 have seen consistent growth in the amount of file-less and file-light malware, with attackers capitalising organizations that lack in preparation against such threats. With fewer Indicators of Compromise (IoC), use of the victims’ own tools, and complex disjointed behaviours, these threats have been harder to stop, track and defend against in many scenarios.

Like the early days of ransomware, where early success by a few cyber criminals triggered a gold-rush like mentality, more cyber criminals are now rushing to use these same techniques. Although file-less and file-light malware will still be outnumbered by orders-of-magnitude as traditional style malware, they will pose a significant threat and lead to an explosion in 2018.

[adrotate group=”1″]

Organisations Will Still Struggle With Security-as-a-Service (SaaS) Security

Adoption of SaaS continues to grow at an exponential rate as organizations embark on digital transformation projects to drive business agility. This rate of change and adoption presents many security challenges as access control, data control, user behaviour and data encryption vary significantly between SaaS apps. While this is not new and many of the security problems are well understood, organizations will continue to struggle with all these in 2018.

Combined with new privacy and data protections laws adopted by regulators across the world, these will pose major implications in terms of penalties, and more importantly, reputational damage.

Organisations Will Still Struggle With Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Security – More Breaches Due to Error, Compromise & Design

IaaS has completely changed the way organisations run their operations, offering massive benefits in agility, scalability, innovation and security. It also introduces significant risks, with simple errors that can expose massive amount of data and take down the entire system.

While security controls above the IaaS layer are customer’s responsibility, traditional controls do not map well – leading to confusion, errors and design issues with ineffective or inappropriate controls being applied, while new controls are ignored. This will lead to more breaches throughout 2018 as organizations struggle to shift their security programs to be IaaS effective.

Next Page > The Symantec 2018 Cybersecurity Predictions Part 3/3

Support Tech ARP!

The Symantec 2018 Cybersecurity Predictions Part 3/3

Financial Trojans Will Still Account For More Losses Than Ransomware

Financial Trojans were some of the first pieces of malware to be monetised by cyber criminals. From simple beginnings as credential harvesting tools, they have since evolved to advanced attack frameworks that target multiple banks, and banking systems that send shadow transactions and hide their tracks. They have proven to be highly profitable for cyber criminals.

Today the move to mobile application-based banking has curtailed some of the effectiveness, so cyber criminals are now moving their attacks to these platforms. Cyber criminals’ profits from Financial Trojans is expected to grow, giving them higher gains as compared to Ransomware attacks.

Expensive Home Devices Will Be Held To Ransom

Ransomware has become a major problem and is one of the scourges of the modern Internet, allowing cyber criminals to reap huge profits by locking up users’ files and systems. The gold-rush mentality has not only pushed more and more cyber criminals to distribute ransomware, but also contributed to the rise of Ransomware-As-A-Service and other specializations in the cyber criminal underworld.

These specialists are now looking to expand their attack reach by exploiting the massive increase in expensive connected home devices. Smart TVs, smart toys and other smart appliances can run into thousands of dollars and users are generally not aware of the threats to these devices, making them an attractive target for cyber criminals.

[adrotate group=”1″]

IoT Devices Will Be Hijacked and Used in DDoS Attacks

In 2017, we have seen massive DDoS attacks using hundreds of thousands of compromised IoT devices in people’s homes and workplaces to generate traffic. This is not expected to change with cyber criminals looking to exploit the poor security settings and management of home IoT devices.

Furthermore, the inputs and sensors of these devices will also be hijacked, with attackers feeding audio, visual or other faked inputs to make these devices do what they want rather than what users expect them to do.

IoT Devices Will Provide Persistent Access to Home Networks

Beyond DDoS attacks and ransomware, home IoT devices will be compromised by cyber criminals to provide persistent access to a victim’s network. Home users generally do not consider the cyber security implications of their home IoT devices, leaving default settings and not vigilantly updating them like they do with their computers.

Persistent access means that no matter how many times a victim cleans their machine or protects their computer, the attacker will always have a backdoor into victims’ network and the systems that they connect to.

Go Back To > First Page | Articles | Home

Support Tech ARP!

SAP Powers The ASEAN Data Science Explorers Competition

Leave a reply

The ASEAN Foundation

Since inception in 1967 between Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has expanded to include Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Together, ASEAN members aim to accelerate economic growth and development.

Turning 50 his year the ASEAN Foundation is working with strategic partners to establish several new initiatives centred around building a sense of ASEAN identity. The first of these is the ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEAN DSE).

ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEAN DSE)

The ASEAN Data Science Explorers is a regional competition jointly organised with SAP. It encourages ASEAN tertiary students from any discipline in all ten member states to harness the power of data, highlighting the key issues in ASEAN and derive meaningful insights that lead to innovative solutions.

Titled “Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s World”, this competition will allow all ASEAN youths to play a key role in tackling today’s social issues facing the region and help create positive change for a better future.

[adrotate banner=”4″]

By using the SAP BusinessObjects Cloud tool, the initiative encourages participants to deliver data-driven insights which highlight issues in ASEAN across six United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, namely;

Good health and well-being
Quality education
Gender equality
Clean water and sanitation
Decent work and economic growth
Sustainable cities and communities

Competitors will be judged along the lines of four key criteria; Visualization, Data, a Compelling story, and User experience. Through visual analysis, compelling charts and graphs, competitors must depict the datasets and give viewers meaningful insights. Volume, variety and relevance of data used to support themes are important, along with the design and creative layout of storyboards. Competitors must also be able to “Wow” judges in total user experience.

Through this initiative, it is also hoped that a competitive effort will produce better quality results towards the realisation of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025 vision of creating an ASEAN community that engages and benefits the people, and is inclusive, sustainable, resilient and dynamic.

The competition will be organised in all 10 ASEAN Member States in October, with winners of the respective in-country competitions going into a regional final that will take place in Jakarta, Indonesia in November this year.

Students can find out more about the competition and register online via the ASEAN DSE’s official website: www.aseandse.org. The registration portal is open until 16 June 2017.

Support Tech ARP!

Technology-Driven Education: Rethinking Employability In 2017

Leave a reply

2016 saw a shift from personalized learning to student centered learning. Students demanded always on, anytime learning, coupled with the provision of modern learning tools that were a catalyst for independent, self-directed learning. Universities took notice in 2016 and have already begun the evolution process, spurred by the demands on their well-informed students.

The shift towards a more student centered learning environment allowed teachers to deliver problem solving, and outcome based self-directed learning, which increased student autonomy over time, skills that were imperative as each student prepares for today’s workforce.

Moving into 2017, Canvas foresees an even bigger demand for student centered learning, spurred by four digitally-driven educational disruptions – analytics, open technologies, preparatory education and 24/7 access to course materials. These four trends will force academic institutions to re-evaluate the services they offer with a focus on enhancing the student experience.

Four Major Technology-Driven Education Disruptions

Analytics: Harnessing the Power of Data

A decade ago, it was easy to find education leaders who dismissed student achievement data as having only limited use for improving schools or school systems. Today, we have come full circle with the education industry broadly embracing data-based decision making and research-based practice. In 2017, Canvas predicts the education market will adopt analytics-based modelling, using data to make more accurate predictions about performance. They also expect a shift towards big data, where sharing machine data between schools will allow for insights at the industry level, not just the institution level.

Researchers however, warn that this enthusiastic embrace of data must not move the industry directly from blind resistance to performance measures with an inflexible reliance on metrics that uses data in a passive way to predict success. Rather, success will depend on how schools harness data for good, and turn tests and measures into actionable insights. Being able to alter teaching quickly to address student needs can increase student engagement and motivation, and ultimately, improve results.

Open Technologies: The Year of Open Source

Technology experts are united in the view that schools and colleges can reap the same benefits of virtualisation and cloud services as their counterparts in commercial industries. But despite this assertion, many schools have been reluctant to embrace this new technology. In 2017, we’ll see lingering concerns around privacy and security diminish as institutions build closer relationships with technology providers, working in partnership to build systems that are adaptable, safe and able to evolve within an agile ICT environment. Cloud computing will help unleash the next wave of tech-enabled innovation in schools by enabling educators to change the way that courses are delivered to a new generation of tech savvy, social students.

In 2017, we will also see other tech-providers following Canvas’ lead as they embrace open technology and move away from a proprietary model. As the industry asks, “which is better: a product created by a handful of developers, or one built by a community of thousands?” the role of collaboration in technology development will become more pressing and prominent. A move to open source will lead to bold innovation and will empower schools to shape the products they buy to meet their own challenges.

24/7 Student Experience: Always Learning

With students calling for always-on access to course materials, institutions will demand improved availability from their technology partners.

Cloud computing or managed services will again prove appealing as institutions realise the value of consumption versus ownership. But maintaining uptime and data integrity requires trust, which many technology vendors will have to build with the schools and colleges they serve. When selecting a partner in 2017, institutions must navigate those issues, considering uptime, reliability and a partner’s credentials to ensure that they have robust disaster recovery procedures.

Preparatory Education: Teaching for Life

[adrotate banner=”4″]

Global research by Canvas showed that just 10 percent of students believe that their education adequately prepares them for the workplace. Pressure from students, combined with an increasing need for institutions to demonstrate the return on investment from education will put renewed focus on employability in 2017. Higher education institutions particularly must adapt or die, demonstrating their value by fuelling the economy with graduates primed to succeed at work.

Whether it’s changing curricula to allow for lengthier work placements or updating course materials to ensure relevancy, there are many ways universities can adapt to focus on employability. But the key is to ensure students are primed for lifelong learning. Instead of teaching students to be critical thinkers and problem-solvers, teachers are too often asking them to memorise facts and regurgitate rote materials. In 2017, institutions at all levels must redress the balance, helping to create a learning environment that teaches the skills needed for employment and citizenship—instead of focusing on classroom tests and measures.

An Opportunity Not to be Missed

Our 2017 outlook covers a diverse range of issues but all our predictions are shaped in some form by digital disruption, the global force that continues to drive nearly every industry. But while many sectors have embraced this tech-driven opportunity to re-invent themselves, the structure and processes of education institutions have remained largely unaltered.

The year 2017 presents an opportunity for educators to catch up. For us, the year ahead is ‘do or die’ for educators who have a clear opportunity to dramatically enhance teaching and learning, and to deliver more value to students through the proactive and strategic use of technology.

Support Tech ARP!

F-Secure Explains Security as a Service (SaaS)

Leave a reply

Security as a Service offers business stronger cybersecurity profiles

The age of information technology has brought with it many business advantages. In fact, much of the world today is still constantly adapting to ongoing advances and innovation. Borderless trade and digital economies thrive and offer business large and small endless potential.

Yet the benefits of digital comes along with an ugly side – cyberthreats. Once merely the domain of bored young tech gurus, cyberthreats today have grown to become one of the largest dangers to businesses. From malware to ransomware, cybercriminals cost organizations billions of dollars in damages and lost revenue globally.

Gone are the days where simple anti-virus platforms could protect business systems. Yet with rapidly evolving and increasingly advanced cyberthreats on the horizon, how many organizations can create and maintain teams of cybersecurity experts to defend their systems?

Focus on innovating for business objectives

According to Amit Nath, Head of Asia Pacific – Corporate Business at F-Secure, Fundamentally, operational business issues and in-house technical limitations face uphill challenges compounded by malware, trojans, phishing, social engineering, ransomware and more. These threats occur at almost every single layer of all business verticals.

Even as technical departments struggle on increasingly limited budgets to innovate within the organization to support business functions, malicious hackers are spitting out variants of their harmful code on a daily basis.

“Even a few small tweaks to change a piece of malicious code needs to be recognized in order to be defended against. Chunks of code beings transferred to unknown destinations of the Internet through the dark web further escalates the problem,” said Nath.

The most frightful thought of all now is that ‘black hats’ are catering to the uninitiated and offering for sale destructive code in ready to use formats. Almost anyone who wants to cause trouble or mount advanced cyberattacks against any organization can do so; for a price.

Fight the war with Security as a Service

Knowing that cybercriminals are now offering what is essentially Cybercrime as a Service, organizations need to recognize that this is a fight they cannot win on their own.

“We are increasingly seeing that firms fail to protect themselves properly up to the extent that many don’t even realise when breaches occur. By the time they realise it, problems are often to the extent that they have no option but to outsource ‘cures’ to specialists for exorbitant fees,” said Nath.

This results in organizations paying to maintain their own technical teams, paying for outsourcing for problem clean-ups and yet still facing the potential financial and reputational damage from data loss!

“The situation is critical. So many backdoors are left poorly or totally unguarded. With increasing data privacy laws being enforced around the world the situation looks ire for many businesses,” he said.

Business today need to recognise that failing to protect themselves is no longer an option. However, they also need to realise that they don’t have to cope with these massive barriers on their own. Security companies today offers levels of protection that even malicious hackers find daunting, so the simplest solution would be to opt for Security as a Service as the most rational route of their predicaments.

How does Security as a Service work?

[adrotate banner=”4″]

“The companies that rely on themselves very often find themselves in extremely defensive positions. It likens to an infantryman in a battle, where he sits in a foxhole and has no scouting support, simply dealing with attacks that come in one after the other. Sooner or later, the enemy will get through,” said Nath.

“We have for so many years built on the security business, evolving ahead of the threats. Our business is security and we not only deal with what we see, but work ahead to predict what we cannot see. Thanks to this mindset and capability, we are able to offer unprecedented degrees of robustness and resilience to organization,” he explained.

The path towards a safer future is a tough and long one and security-aware businesses soul adopt the right level of strategic planning. Options such a Security as a Service can offer protection not only from current, but also future threats.

“As businesses work towards digital transformation goals, they need to know that they have the option to ensure painless high-levels of security at any time, thanks to Security as a Service,” he concluded.

Support Tech ARP!

Instructure Announces Canvas Integration With Office 365

Leave a reply

27 July 2016 — Canvas by Instructure , a leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes software that makes people smarter, announced recently at InstructureCon the Canvas integration with Microsoft Office 365 to provide instructors and learners around the world with an improved educational experience.

“Teachers need these new capabilities for their education platforms, and we have continuously focused on providing the best technology we could design and build,” said Mitch Benson, Vice President of Canvas Product. “What happened next was that two of edtech’s most established forces connected and worked together to meet the expressed needs of these educators. We’re extremely proud of the result and can’t wait to roll it out to our robust, global list of educational institutions.”

Responding to the needs of educators, representatives from the Canvas Platform Team collaborated with Microsoft to help develop improvements to the Canvas base platform that facilitate the best integration experience possible for their millions of users. The Canvas Platform Team believes this integration will be both a model and a catalyst for change to propel greater innovation to rusty technology in edtech.

“Across the Asia Pacific region, schools rely heavily on Canvas and Microsoft for their daily educational functions, and these platforms have grown essential to the learning process of our K–12, further and higher education teachers and students,” said Troy Martin, Director, Asia Pacific, Instructure. “The integration of two of our most prominently used technologies will only help further streamline and enhance learning development within each classroom.”

Canvas has millions of active users and is employed by hundreds of universities and colleges in 40 countries. Canvas combines innovative education tools, a platform for hosting those tools and institutions using the platform to transform learning and teaching in the classroom. The Canvas integration with Microsoft follows other critical Canvas innovations, including a transformation of their user interface.

“Our relationship with Canvas helps us bring the best tools for learning into the classroom. We know teachers and students are strapped for time and we want to help them focus on what’s really important: teaching and learning,” said Eran Megiddo, Corporate Vice President of engineering, Education at Microsoft. “By integrating Office 365 with Canvas, teachers and students can now collaborate online with Office 365, including OneNote Class Notebooks, Word, Excel and PowerPoint directly within their Canvas LMS, saving valuable time so the teachers can remain focused on their students, and students can leverage the best tools available and focus on learning.”

[adrotate banner=”5″]

Canvas Integration With Office 365

Canvas and Microsoft provide seven main points of interoperability that make using the Canvas integration with Office 365 seamless. Those points are:

Submit files directly from Office 365 into Canvas Assignments.
Access Office 365 documents through SpeedGrader to add feedback.
Link Office 365 documents anywhere you use the Rich Content Editor.
Include Office 365 documents in your Modules.
Create Collaborations using any type of Office document.
Create and grade assignments in your Microsoft OneNote Class Notebook, then push those grades to Canvas.
Sign in to Canvas with your Office 365 login using single sign-on.

Support Tech ARP!

Instructure Expands Canvas LMS In APAC

Leave a reply

28 APRIL 2016 – Instructure, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company and creator of the Canvas LMS (learning management system), announced today that it has grown its operations in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region by doubling its staff. Additionally, four prestigious customers in the APAC region have selected Canvas as their LMS of choice, bringing a modern learning platform to schools and universities across the region.

Canvas was recently implemented by SCEGGS Darlinghurst in Sydney, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, SIM University in Singapore, and University of Auckland in New Zealand. In addition to the four customer wins, Canvas has more than doubled its headcount within the sales, marketing, and customer success functions across APAC over the past 12 months.

Troy Martin, Director of APAC for Canvas said of the LMS’ momentum within the region: “The success that Canvas has seen over the past 12 months in the APAC region indicates that there is a growing and real need for cutting edge technology that becomes an enabler, allowing the institutions we work with to deliver the best and most compelling learning experience possible.

“We’ve seen how progressive Asia-Pacific can be when it comes to driving innovation in education and student-centred learning, and Canvas is uniquely placed to facilitate that transition towards a digital teaching model. Our APAC customers, including SCEGGS, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, SIM University and University of Auckland have selected Canvas as their LMS platform partner of choice to tackle head-on the challenges and opportunities presented by the global education marketplace. We are delighted to be working with them moving forward.”

SCEGGS Darlinghurst, an independent Anglican girls school of 920 students based in Sydney, is planning to roll out Canvas to the school in May 2016. Ken Emeleus, Director of ICT said that the school had selected Canvas LMS due to the platform’s solid feature set, user experience, and manageability.

“A significant number of our staff were not engaging with our previous solution. They felt it was inefficient and provided a poor user experience.” said Emeleus. “The team at Canvas really recognised the need for schools to follow their own processes when choosing technology solutions.”

Following years of using its homegrown LMS, the University of Auckland – New Zealand’s most highly ranked university – recognized the need to find a modern platform that would provide greater usability and functionality for its faculty and students. Specifically, the university – which boasts over 33,000 students and nearly 5,000 staff – wanted a system that would integrate seamlessly with external tools and applications that the faculty use, while also working across operating systems and devices that students expect to use in conducting their learning.

Dr. Kevin Morris, Director of Teaching and Learning at University of Auckland notes that “the shift to Canvas LMS is an important part of our plan to enhance the learning experience, by providing our staff and students with a flexible, modern tool to support student success.”

[adrotate banner=”5″]

For The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (the Academy), which has a 1,500-strong staff and student body, selecting Canvas was an integral part of meeting the academy’s 10-year strategic plan, in which they sought new technologies that would ‘enrich educational opportunities for students, enhance international engagement, and improve operational efficiency.’

Head of the Academy’s Innovation Hub (iHub), Peter Duffy, says, “The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts chose Canvas LMS for a two-year trial because of its ease of use and intuitive design, as well as the high quality of technical support provided. We were also particularly impressed with Canvas’ ability to demonstrate how its platform excelled by providing a benchmark across other performing arts institutions.”

SIM University (UniSIM) in Singapore, which has 13,600 students, also chose Canvas as its LMS of record. UniSIM’s Director of Learning Systems and Applications, Chye Seng Lee shared that the University has been using the incumbent LMS since 2006, and had started to evaluate and identify a future-ready LMS platform that can better meet the University’s teaching and learning needs for the years ahead in January 2015.

“’Future-readiness’ refers to the teaching and learning requirements required by the new and modern online learning environment that we envisage our students and faculty to be using in the near future. We chose Canvas because it is more forward-looking and future-ready, and matched our key teaching and learning requirements in the areas of ease of use, mobile learning, social earning, outcomes assessment, learning analytics and learning personalisation,” says Lee.