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Emirates Operates Milestone Demonstration Flight Powered by 100% SAF

Emirates Airlines—a subsidiary of The Emirates Group—has successfully tested its first demo flight in which one of the Boeing 777-300ER’s two engines was powered by 100% drop-in sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF.

The aim was to examine the safety and reliability of the synthetically derived SAF when used as a jet fuel at a higher percentage.

Piloted by Captain Khalid Nasser Akram and Captain Fali Vajifdar, this was the first-ever demo flight in the MENA region that was supplied with 100% sustainable fuel. 

Currently, SAF can be mixed at up to 50% with traditional jet fuel for flying aircraft.

The flight departed from Dubai International Airport at around 11:39 pm on January 30 and was flown for more than one hour over Dubai’s coastline.

The test was part of the Emirate’s effort to help hit the Net Zero target by 2050, as the aviation industry is casting about for cleaner fuel solutions like SAF, reported GLOBETRENDER™.

SAF Can Curb Carbon Emission

SAF—a biofuel derived from renewable biomass and waste products—holds the potential to deliver the efficiency of petroleum-based conventional aircraft fuel but with only a fraction of its carbon footprint.

Case in point: Based on the method and feedstock used for production, SAF can curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 80% over the fuel lifecycle, offering the aviation industry solid footing for significantly decoupling GHG emissions from flights.

Since 2011, over 4,50,000 commercial flights have been taken to the skies using SAF globally. 

Even though SAF has capabilities to significantly limit carbon emissions in aviation, global SAF production accounts for only 0.03% of total fuel use (based on pre-pandemic reports).

World leaders are working relentlessly to devise thought-out strategies for scaling up new processes and facilitating the production of commercially usable SAF.

As a result, the production of drop-in SAF has more than tripled in 2022, compared to 2021, according to IATA.

To date, the approved bio-jet fuel production routes include co-processing, hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA), hydro-deoxygenated synthetic aromatic kerosene (HDO-SAK), Fischer-Tropsch synthetic paraffinic kerosene (FT-SPK), and more.

However, with the increasing bio-content in aviation fuels exacerbating microbial contamination, controlling its effects has become a major concern.

That said, leveraging kits like FUELSTAT® for periodic testing of SAF and blended SAF is critical. Thus contamination can be detected at the earliest stages and before severe safety/operational disruptions occur.

More Insights into Emirates Flight Using Biofuel

Emirates partnered with Boeing, GE Aerospace, Neste, Honeywell, and Virent to produce and buy a SAF blend closely identical to the efficacy and properties of traditional aircraft fuel.

“At each blend ratio, various chemical and physical fuel property measurements were carried out,” explained an Emirates spokesperson. “After multiple lab tests and rigorous trials, [we] arrived at a blending ratio that mirrored the qualities of jet fuel.“

A total of 18T of drop-in SAF blend, made up of 50% HDO-SAK and 50% HEFA-SPK, was used for the test flight. This 100% SAF powered one General Electric GE90 engine of the aircraft, whereas; the other GE90 was supplied with petroleum-based jet fuel.

Emirates hopes the data and success of the flight will act as a step-change in facilitating the future adoption and acceptance of 100% SAF blend as a cleaner alternative to conventional fuel—well over the present limit of 50% drop-in SAF blend.

“This flight is a milestone moment for Emirates and a positive step for our industry as we work collectively to address one of our biggest challenges – reducing our carbon footprint. It has been a long journey to finally see this demonstration 100% SAF flight take off,” said Adel Al Redha, chief operating officer at Emirates Airlines. 

Al Redha goes on to explain, “Such initiatives are critical contributors to industry knowledge on SAF and provide data to demonstrate the use of higher blends of SAF for future regulatory approvals. We hope that landmark demonstration flights like this one will help open the door to scale up the SAF supply chain and make it more available and accessible across geographies, and most importantly, affordable for broader industry adoption in the future.”

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Computers & Software Professional Services Technology U.S

Microsoft Is Predicted to Equip Excel with AI

Microsoft Excel is poised to get a deep AI boost, however, this software giant isn’t going to tap into ChatGPT or OpenAI.

According to a new paper, in order to equip Excel with artificial intelligence, the in-house research team at Microsoft is working on bringing out an assistive AI system called FLAME, reported TechRadar.  

Calling it a “T5-based model,” the authors stated that FLAME has the capabilities to make the automation on the Excel app more efficient. 

An AI specially designed for Excel-specific tasks, FLAME ensures competitive performance and is more precise than other multipurpose AIs.

Purpose of FLAME

Written by eight of Microsoft’s in-house software developers, the paper highlights Excel as a popular spreadsheet platform that enables users to efficiently organise, format, and calculate data. 

With FLAME, Microsoft is committed to helping users with spreadsheet formulas providing autocomplete suggestions. 

Even better, FLAME can be leveraged to fix buggy and malformed formulas in the future Excel spreadsheet environment when plugged into the software.

“We curate a training dataset using sketch deduplication, introduce an Excel-specific formula tokenizer for our model, and use domain-specific versions of masked span prediction and noisy auto-encoding as pre-training objectives, ” explained the authors. “We evaluate FLAME on formula repair, formula auto-completion, and a novel task called syntax reconstruction.”

The new AI assistant—being a smaller model with 60M parameters and two orders of magnitude less training data—can outshine other larger language models—such as CodeT5 (220M), codex-Cushman (12B) and Codex-Da Vinci (175B).

The result: FLAME is anticipated to be more efficacious and cost-efficient to train or deploy compared with other AI tools.

However, when FLAME will be released or whether it will be free-of-cost for mass use is yet to be revealed.

Microsoft Excel Charts

Even while Microsoft experts contemplate giving Excel an AI boost, the built-in Excel charts are still overwhelming to deal with.

One of the best ways to make large datasets easily discernible is to recapitulate them in visual form. 

Excel’s built-in charts are the go-to option for many when it comes to explaining trends efficiently; deriving actionable insights from massive troves of data; evaluating key values effortlessly, and much more. 

However, for some types of Excel charts, the built-in formatting functionalities are limited, which makes it difficult to create professional-looking PowerPoint presentations. For example, with Excel waterfall charts, users cannot reference cells for titling, change the format (e.g. colour) of the connector lines, etc. 

Again, some charts are not natively available in Excel, requiring users to take the manual approach.

For professionals frequently required to create great-looking PowerPoint presentations with stunning charts, leveraging a high-end add-in like think-cell is a sensible decision. With fewer clicks and less formatting, PowerPoint add-ins streamline the process while significantly saving working hours. 

Microsoft Is Making Incredible Strides with AI

In a move to amplify its offerings in Azure OpenAI service, the software giant has extended its multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI this year. 

Even though Microsoft refused to comment on the deal’s specifics, an investment of around $10 billion is anticipated, with Microsoft getting a 75% of OpenAI’s returns until it recoups the investment. After recouping, Microsoft would hold a 49 % stake in OpenAI.

On top of that, Microsoft has recently demonstrated its plans to integrate the AI engine behind ChatGPT into its Edge web browser and Bing search engine. With Bing’s AI reboot, the company expects to shake up the search business, taking on the search engine giant Google. 

Wrapping Up

Microsoft expects FLAME to boost the process of creating and maintaining Excel formulas, especially for users who need to deal with large spreadsheets with tons of formulas.

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Computers & Software Professional Services Technology

Atlassian’s New Jira Products Will Align Business and Engineering Teams

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The leading provider of productivity software, Atlassian Corporation Plc, has recently unveiled its three new Jira platform advancements—Jira Product Discovery, Jira Work Management, and new Jira workflow templates.

With this new and advanced Jira tools suite, the company is committed to accelerating and supporting each stage of the software development lifecycle—from ideation and delivery to facilitating operations.

The announcement was made by the Australian tech giant during its very first Agile and DevOps event—Unleash—held in Berlin on February 8.

Key Atlassian Product Announcements

Let’s go through the new Jira advancements that’ll help world-class businesses build products faster and more effectively.

Jira Product Discovery

Jira Product Discovery is a dynamic, collaborative, and data-driven solution that aims to democratise product discovery.

With Jira Product Discovery, Atlassian is committed to helping product managers collect, prioritise, and organise product inputs and feedback and make data-driven decisions efficiently. 

Developed by the Point A team, the tool is now available in Beta and will hopefully be available in early 2023.

With this new tool, product managers can connect their entire workflow effortlessly and bring technical and business teams at the same table before the developers start coding. 

No more tabs and spreadsheets to prioritise, deliver and collaborate with teams on product ideas. Business teams—from marketing to sales—can collaborate on a single project, create and manage insights, and prioritise ideas with voting to transform them into active deliverables.

Jira Work Management

In a move to empower organisations with cross-departmental collaboration, Atlassian has made Jira Work Management natively available with all commensurate Jira software licence tiers until March 2024.

The tool is specially developed to facilitate status tracking of all activities regarded as Work. Work can include document creation, handling approval processes, running projects, executing daily repetitive tasks, and more.

It means that organisations no longer have to break the bank by investing in a high-end project management tool. Jira Work Management makes collaboration effortless, allowing business teams to accomplish work faster.

With features such as a kanban-like Boards view, Calendar view, Timeline view, smart links, and sub-tasks, this collaborative system allows teams to manage projects and processes with ease—no matter the complexity.

Atlassian marks Jira Work Management as the most customisable platform that lets an organisation standardise the way it operates, leveraging global configuration workflows, settings, permissions, and rich APIs. 

Jira Workflow & Toolchain Templates

Atlassian has also announced the release of 23 templates that span panning teams, categories and departments, and categories. Carefully curated by experts, these new templates come with automation rules, permissions, workflows, and third-party integration by default.

Even better, these pre-made templates are available natively and for free with the Jira tools suite—Jira Product Discover, Jira Work Management, Jira Software, and Jira Service Management.

Wrapping Up

By leveraging Atlassian products, teams can bolster their productivity while driving business agility. However, for a business using the Atlassian stack for its agility, collaboration, and project management, investing in a managed service provider is a sensible decision. 

With a high-quality Atlassian managed service provider like Automation Consultants, teams can keep their Atlassian solutions performing at their best while slashing the total cost of ownership and minimising the risk of downtime. 

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Health & Medicine Pharmaceuticals & Biotech Science Technology U.S

Underrepresentation & Overconsumption: Analysing the Diversity Gaps in Clinical Trials

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Randomised clinical trials (RCTs) have long been considered the bedrock for evidence-based treatment (EBT). Thus they should be designed to be pragmatic and accumulate data representing the larger population for the disease profile. However, the research output is jeopardised severely by the limited enrollment of social, racial, and ethnic minority groups.

The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) has reported that only 5% of patients partaking in clinical trials are Black, less than 2% are Asian, and as for Latinos, the percentage is as low as 1%.

This disparity is threatening, as it causes trials to show variance in effectiveness. 

Releasing a draft guidance, the FDA has placed emphasis on enhancing diversity in industry-sponsored clinical trials (iCTs), reported Clinical Leader. 

The agency urges investors and sponsors to devise and present a Race and Ethnicity Diversity Plan early in the trial process as per the framework delineated in the guideline.

Why Does Diversity in Clinical Trials Matter

Even though racial and ethnic populations in the United States have a disproportionate burden for specific ailments, they are most often underrepresented in biomedical studies, said the FDA.

With “underrepresented racial and ethnic populations,” the FDA indicates ethnic groups like “Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous and Native American, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders, and other persons of colour.”

Considering the response and exposure of over 20% of drugs vary with racial differences, the FDA marks race and ethnic minority inclusion in iCT as a pressing need.

According to a study, white Americans are predicted to become a minority by 2045. The white demographic decline in the USA makes clinical trial diversification critical to confirm that newly developed drugs are safe and effective for whoever may use them across the country. 

“The U.S. population has become increasingly diverse, and ensuring meaningful representation of racial and ethnic minorities in clinical trials for regulated medical products is fundamental to public health,” said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D. “Going forward, achieving greater diversity will be a key focus throughout the FDA to facilitate the development of better treatments and better ways to fight diseases that often disproportionately impact diverse communities.”

Barriers to Improving Patient Participation Diversity in Clinical Trials

According to the FDA, the scepticism of the trial process stemming from several historical events deter ethnic minorities from participating in iCTs.

Other factors include limited access to healthcare for ethnic minorities, socioeconomic conditions, insufficient patient recruitment and retention efforts, time and monetary restraints, etc.

The result: gaps in clinical trial diversity that affects the trial success rate.

How to Fill the Diversity Gaps

What can help bridge the diversity gaps in iCT and accelerate effective products to market?

Decentralised Clinical Trial (DCT) Platforms 

The COVID-19 outbreak has made sponsors realise the significance of DCTs in filling the diversity gaps in healthcare research and accelerating the long-overdue changes in trial design.

Let’s see how:

  • DCTs and hybrid study models allow trial teams to expand their participant pools. 
  • DCT platforms such as ObvioHealth that include ePRO and eConsent enable patients to contribute to clinical trials from the comfort of their homes.
  • By helping overcome barriers to participant recruitment, DCTs and hybrid models have encouraged a much higher enrollment rate.

The result: augmented trial outcomes that represent real-world patient populations.

Ethnically Diverse Workforce

According to research, the lack of workforce diversity in the USA has been highlighted as a leading factor impeding the inclusion of diverse populations and causing disparities in oncology trial results.

The good news? Studies found that 74% of Black and 81% of Latinx people are willing to volunteer for clinical trials if their physicians advise. With that said, engaging the workforce in clinical trials from underrepresented groups can help build trust with at-risk participants. 

On top of that, the NHS recognised workforce diversity as the key factor to bring clinical trials closer to underserved folks. 

Patient Expense Reimbursement

The FDA recognised patient expense reimbursement as an effective way to enhance clinical trial diversity. However, the lack of a consistent approach among CROs and regulators makes the process slow and ineffective. 

Wrapping Up

The FDA sheds light on the significance of global efforts in increasing patient diversity. DCT can be a step change in helping sponsors improve the enrollment of participants from underrepresented racial and ethnic populations in clinical trials. 

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Energy & Environment Government & Politics Technology U.S

US Energy Department to Invest as Much as $74M in Enhanced Geothermal Systems

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As part of its efforts to ensure carbon emission-free electricity generation, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently declared it would provide up to $74 million for up to seven EGS-based pilot projects.

The aim is to ramp up the development of the geothermal industry by continuously testing the scalability and efficacy of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). 

DOE hopes these pilot projects will help trap the Earth’s nearly inexhaustible heat resources in different geologic settings.

A lion’s share of this $74 million investment will come from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) that helps facilitate the use of breakthrough technologies and advanced techniques.

DOE’s Fourth Energy Earthshot

In a move to slash the cost of geothermal power by 90% to $45 per MWh by 2035, DOE launched the new Enhanced Geothermal Shot™. 

The Enhanced Geothermal Shot™ is part of DOE’s Energy EarthShots Initiative, which was launched in September 2022.

This $74M is the first funding opportunity announced as part of DOE’s effort to produce clean, safer energy since the launching of the Enhanced Geothermal Shot™ last year.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems

The EGS—human-made geothermal reservoirs—are built to inject high-flow water/fluid into naturally hot (~150°C) and impermeable deep rocks through an injection borehole and extract heat by forming or re-opening a subsurface fracture network. 

The high-temperature dry rock (HDR) area acts as a heat exchanger in an EGS reservoir. 

In an EGS system, the reservoir’s natural permeability is boosted by stimulating fracture formation and ensuring a constant water flow. 

The result: increased size and connectivity of water pathways that allow water to circulate through the fractures of the deep rocks

This constant flow of fluid, when in contact with the subsurface rock areas, gets heated up, backs to the surface through the production barehole, and finally is extracted for electricity generation.

The concept behind the EGS system is to enhance the economics of geothermal resources without adequate water and/or permeability.

EGS aims to tap a continuum of geothermal resources—ranging from dry rocks to traditional hydrothermal resources.

After deployment, EGS functions just as naturally occurring hydrothermal systems.

When it comes to ensuring the safe deployment of EGS reservoirs while also maximising its operational efficiency, leveraging a high-end geothermal monitoring tool is a sensible decision. 

A solution like the one offered by Silixa can effectively facilitate the long-term monitoring of geothermal reservoirs and help operators comply with regulations.

EGS’s Potential to Increase Electricity Production

Geothermal power plants currently generate 3.7 GW of electricity in the US, accounting for around 0.4% of the net.

However, with EGS deployed, geothermal energy which is inaccessible using conventional technologies, can be tapped to generate as much as 90 GW of electricity by 2050.

“Advances in enhanced geothermal systems will help introduce geothermal energy in regions where, until recently, the use of this renewable power source was thought to be impossible,” said United States Secretary of Energy, Jennifer M. Granholm, in a statement last Wednesday. “These pilot demonstrations will help us realise the enormous potential of the heat beneath our feet to deliver clean, renewable energy to millions of Americans.”

Marking geothermal as an enormous source of renewable energy, the secretary of energy anticipates that around 45% of U.S. houses can be powered by the Earth’s heat at some point.

Wrapping Up

DOE hopes these BIL-funded EGS pilot demonstration projects would act as a step-change in meeting the booming demand for electricity while also helping hit President Biden’s goals of attaining deep decarbonisation in electricity generation by 2035.

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Business Computers & Software Employment Technology U.S

High-Value Excel Skills Employers Frequently Look For

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Possessing work-level proficiency in Microsoft Excel is critical, with more than 82% of middle-skill jobs now being “digitally intensive.”

If you are presently flowing into the job marketplace, you will find most employers seek candidates with expertise in Microsoft Excel, and you should have the chops to stand out from the pack.

That said, honing your Excel skills is a no-brainer if you want to land a freakin’ job—faster. 

A recent article published in Fitwirr discusses the top Excel skills that can help you stay ahead of the competition, taking your career to new heights.

Basic Excel Skills

Getting the hang of high-level Excel skills is always a plus. 

But please understand that Excel is a data manipulative solution with a swarm of functionalities that you may require a lifetime (a long time, if not a lifetime) to master. However, grasping the basics can help you get a head start.

1. Cell Formatting

Excel deals with data, graphs, charts, and numbers. Because Excel applies the same formatting for all cells by default, it gets difficult to decipher the information conveyed by the displayed data. 

Don’t let massive troves of data inundate you. Master cell formatting skills and cut out repetitive tasks to better demonstrate your knack to your employer. 

Auto adjustment of cell size, conditional formatting, adding multiple rows and columns at a time, etc., are a few of the cell formatting capabilities in Excel that can help.

2. Basic Excel Functions

Getting the hang of basic Excel functions is the key to simplifying complex calculations, especially when you are sorting and analyzing a massive volume of data. 

For an entry-level job, ensure you have a great command of the basic Excel functions like IF, COUNTIF, SUM, SUMIFS, TRIM, etc.

3. Excel Shortcuts

To know how to use Excel keyboard shortcuts efficiently is a must-have skill if you don’t want to spend hours preparing a single report. Get your work done faster and amaze your employer with these super-handy shortcuts. 

Mid-Level to Advanced Excel Skills 

If you are applying for a position that may require you to deal with massive troves of complex datasets, make sure you know the inside out of advanced Excel functionalities. 

4. Data Validation

Data validation is an indispensable aspect of any data handling task—whether you’re accumulating information, interpreting data to facilitate decision-making, or presenting data to stakeholders. Unless you enter accurate and specific types of data into cells, your results will be erroneous. 

Thankfully, Excel can confine data entry to specific cells by applying data validation upon input. With data validation, Excel prompts you to enter only valid data when a cell is selected and shows an “error” when invalid data is entered. 

5. Charts and Graphs

One of the best ways to make datasets easily discernible is to turn them into interactive visuals. On top of that, getting the hang of Excel charts is a must if you are hired for a position that requires you to present data to stakeholders using PowerPoint presentations. 

Excel’s built-in charts and graphs are great at helping you recapitulate a large dataset in visual form; efficiently compare multiple data sets; better explain trends; estimate key values at a glance, and more. But the built-in charts in Excel come with limited functionalities that make it really difficult to build professional-looking presentations. 

On top of that, some charts are not natively available in Excel. For example, the Marimekko chart, frequently used by professionals to efficiently visualize categorical data over a pair of variables, is not supported even in the latest version of Excel. It means that you’d have to take the manual approach, which requires too many clicks and includes fewer formatting capabilities. 

If you need to make professional-looking PowerPoint presentations with stunning charts while significantly saving your working hours, using an add-in is a sensible decision. A high-end PowerPoint add-in like think-cell, for example, can seamlessly integrate your Excel charts into PowerPoint slides and help you add the “wow” factor to your presentations.

6. Data Protection

Because Excel files usually contain mission-critical business information, knowing how to keep them out of the reach of cybercriminals is critical. 

With that said, unprotected Excel files can be exploited by hackers looking to exfiltrate and expose sensitive data. With Excel, now, you have the power to limit access to your workbook. You can lock your Excel file with a password, grant reading-only access or even protect your workbook without a password so you don’t inadvertently delete any formulas.

Wrapping up

With the world quickly moving to data-driven business and processes, the demand for Excel experts is on the rise. Master the featured Excel skills above to impress your potential employer. 

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Computers & Software Professional Services Technology U.K

Mitigating Cloud Security Risks During Migration

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The multinational professional services company, PwC, released the annual Digital Trust Insights research for 2023. This research reveals the top cybersecurity trends for organisations in the UK this year. 

And, it will come as a surprise to no one that cloud security is everyone’s biggest concern.

In fact, cloud-based threat vectors are considered a bigger threat this year than compromised endpoints, web applications, or even software programs by 39% of senior executives in the UK.

The Cloud Security Threat From Digital Transformation

According to 33% of senior executives, attacks against cloud management interfaces are expected to go up this year.

The reason why cloud-based threats are such a concern is accelerated digital transformation. This is a belief held by 90% of the senior executives who took part in the survey. 

Several companies are migrating to the cloud, using digital currencies, and moving to e-commerce and digital service delivery as part of their digital transformation. Businesses are also converging IT and operational technologies.

According to the executives surveyed, this rapid adoption is “the biggest cybersecurity challenge their organisation has experienced since 2020.”

In spite of the high levels of concern, around two-thirds of the senior executives say they haven’t fully mitigated the cyber risks they face due to the digital transformation.

So, of course, cloud technology and migration are being looked at with concern.

If you’re one of the people who are worried about your organisation’s cybersecurity because of cloud migrations, it’s not all bleak and hopeless. There are ways of ensuring security when your business decides to move to the cloud.

Tips to Ensure Secure Cloud Migration

Create a Migration Plan

A rushed migration can be bad for so many reasons, and data security is one of the major ones. When you start the process, it’s best to migrate low-priority data first. That gives your team time to get used to the new system without risking important information.

That will also give you time to test the system for security. At this point, if you find security gaps, you can fix them without stressing about losing sensitive data.

Migrating in phases also gives you time to do things slowly, in a considered way. As you know, rushing through a process makes you more likely to make mistakes. And, threat actors are lying in wait, ready to exploit any errors in your systems, processes, or software.

Consolidate Your Threat Prevention Cloud Tools

When you were protecting your company from cyber threats on your company’s premises, it was relatively easy. You mainly needed a secured network. All employees went through that single point, making it easier to manage threats.

With cloud-based systems, ensuring cybersecurity becomes slightly more difficult. Each cloud service you use, each user who accesses these services, each employee and new data storage, and each application operating in the cloud is a potential “entry point”.

You need a threat prevention tool that covers a broader range of security issues. That way, you don’t have to manage multiple applications and still get better visibility across your cloud systems.

Thoroughly Understand Your Compliance Needs

This is especially necessary when you’re in a highly-regulated sector. However, even if you’re not, you need to know your industry’s requirements for data encryption, backup, and transfer.

This will save you not only from the wrath of regulatory bodies but also make it difficult for threat actors to fly in and steal valuable data.

Perform Regular Risk Management Exercises

The best way to ensure cybersecurity is through prevention rather than mitigation and remediation. Regular vulnerability scans and services like DigitalXRAID’s Cloud Penetration Services will help you keep on top of any exploitable chinks in your cloud service’s armour.

Also, review your API security stacks and consider investing in a virtual SOC service if you don’t have an in-house cybersecurity team.

Find a Trusted Cloud Security Advisor

Cloud security misconfigurations can be disastrous. To ensure proper security and to get the benefit of industry best practices, find yourself an expert to help you transition to the cloud safely and securely.

So, there you have it. Digital transformation is not all that scary when you have a solid plan in place. Do your due diligence and plan the process well to keep your business safe through cloud migration.

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Computers & Software Law & Legal Living Society & Culture Technology

Make Informed Decisions with Legal “Non-Advisor” – The Revolutionary New Feature from Legalese Decoder

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Vancouver, Canada – Legalese Decoder, the game-changing app that makes legal language simple, is thrilled to announce a new feature for its Professional Plan subscribers. The Legal “Non-Advisor” tool is designed to help users understand complex legal documents by providing answers based on the context of user-supplied documents.

This new feature enhances the app’s existing capabilities and provides a more comprehensive solution for anyone dealing with legal documents. With the Legal “Non-Advisor”, users can now access a wealth of information that helps them understand legal terms, phrases and concepts, and make informed decisions based on their unique circumstances.

The Legal “Non-Advisor” takes the guesswork out of deciphering legal language, providing clear, concise answers to your questions about contracts, legal agreements, banking documents, and other everyday legalese. This innovative tool leverages AI, NLP, and machine learning to analyze the structure and content of your legal documents, identify key terms, and provide definitions in plain language.

Never get lost in legal jargon again! With the Legal “Non-Advisor”, you can confidently make informed decisions about your legal matters with the information you need at your fingertips. Whether you’re a business owner, lawyer, or just someone looking to understand legal language, the Legal “Non-Advisor” is the perfect solution.

“Our mission is to make the legal system accessible and understandable to everyone,” says Legalese Decoder founder William Tsui. “With the Legal “Non-Advisor”, we’re making that a reality by providing a tool that empowers users to understand complex legal documents and make informed decisions.”

So, if you’re a Professional Plan subscriber, be sure to take advantage of this new feature and start using the Legal “Non-Advisor” today. And, if you’re not yet a subscriber, now is the perfect time to upgrade and enjoy the benefits of this amazing new tool. With Legalese Decoder, understanding legal language has never been easier.

** Disclaimer: The Legal “Non-Advisor” feature offered by Legalese Decoder is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. The information provided by the Legal “Non-Advisor” is based on the context supplied by the user and is subject to the limitations of the artificial intelligence algorithms used by the tool. No jurisdiction has approved the use of this tool as a substitute for professional legal advice, and Legalese Decoder makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided by the Legal “Non-Advisor”. Users are advised to seek the advice of a licensed attorney for all legal matters.

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Business Finance Financial Market Technology U.S

NYSE Disaster Recovery Blunder Triggered Major Trading Glitch

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The NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) is beleaguered by criticism after an unexpected outage and IT error caused drastic price fluctuations in blue-chip stocks and billions worth of trades to be called off.

The NYSE blamed the ‘technical’ glitch on a manual error with its disaster recovery (DR) system, according to The Register. 

Let’s Flesh out the Reasons Behind the “Mayhem”

The exchange’s secondary Chicago data centre is supposed to protect US stock markets in the event of an outage or when a natural disaster strikes the venue.

As part of regular maintenance activities, the DR system should be tested daily and shut down manually after the closing bell.

However, on Monday, January 23rd, after the market was closed, an NYSE staffer failed to turn off the disaster recovery system correctly.

The result: the backup system, which is meant to be turned on in the event of a disaster incident only, was left operating overnight. 

It means that the exchange’s trading acted as if Tuesday’s trades were being carried on with the prices of Monday’s trade. 

The consequence: at 9:30 am on Tuesday, as trading started, the NYSE software malfunctioned, and skipped the day’s opening auctions which set prices incorrectly and unfortunately, led to a debacle.

The NYSE, in a statement, said, “The root cause was determined to be a manual error involving the exchange’s disaster recovery configuration at system start of day.“

What Was the Consequence?

The technical error triggered a string of events with catastrophic repercussions.

What NYSE addressed as a “system error” caused shares in over 250 firms to go haywire, with some firms encountering fluctuations in their stock prices by around 25%. 

As reported, a total of 84 stocks saw their valuations drastically plunge or surge until they had reached the limits set to thwart securities from trading at extreme prices.

According to a statement released on Wednesday morning, due to the system disruption, 81 stocks had short-sale restrictions (SSR) implemented “erroneously,” with Snap and Morgan Stanley being badly affected. 

While Morgan’s share price dropped by 13%, Walmart saw an increase of 12% in its share price due to the error.

Soon after NYSE halted the most egregious transactions, it stated: “Approximately 4,341 trades in 251 symbols should be busted (canceled).”

NYSE Fielding Claims

NYSE officials spent hours hunting down the reason behind the turmoil until it was confirmed that no such trading chaos would occur again.

“The issues around our market open on Tuesday are our collective responsibility, and we have moved swiftly and decisively to resolve them as a team,” explained a spokesperson from NYSE to Bloomberg. “A core value of ICE (Intercontinental Exchange, NYSE’s parent company) and the NYSE is our commitment to collaboration.”

NYSE is evaluating the financial losses stemming from this “wreck” and is fielding claims from the affected businesses as per exchange regulations.

Automated DR Systems Can Decrease System Failure Risks

Analysts unanimously agreed that automation could help avoid such system errors entirely.

“Automation eliminates human error,” according to Dennis Hahn, an analyst at Omdia. “If this [DR system] required to be manually shutdown, this is ridiculous and asking for trouble.”

In short, when it comes to disaster planning for data centres, one of the key elements is deploying an automated DR framework. 

Future-focused DR solutions like Protera enable customisable and automated backup scheduling. Plus, it frees users from manually configuring each device while also allowing them to back up their business-critical data in multiple locations. 

The result: significantly minimised human intervention, ensuring business continuity.

With customisable RPO and RTO objectives, users can set their systems for backup—every day, every hour, or even every few minutes—based on their backup policies.

Wrapping Up

Unfortunately, the NYSE backup blunder is not the only high-profile operation disruption occurring in January due to manual errors. The recent massive system crash in NYSE raises concern among US retail investors. The occurrence indicates that NYSE should “come up with something better” and implement automation and best practices for disaster recovery management. 

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Business Computers & Software Professional Services Technology U.K

Designing Digital Products in 2023: UX Trends in the Spotlight

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Community by NASSCOM Insights recently released a guide on digital products, complete with projected trends in 2023. 

The article talks about the importance of user experience (UX) in digital product design and why creating an effective digital product design strategy is essential. Then, it lays out a design process.

Finally, it talks about digital product design trends for the year.

But, if you don’t know what digital products are, this report won’t make any sense to you. So…

What Is a Digital Product?

A digital product is an intangible item that is delivered and consumed electronically. An example of a digital product might be a music file or video, a PDF, or an ebook. It could also be an app, a software program, a template, or a plug-in.

If you have the right resources, you can create digital products on your computer. Of course, some products require more technical knowledge than others. But, yeah, they don’t need a workshop, where they are made piece by piece.

Since the product is digital, you don’t need physical inventory. And, delivery is quite literally as fast as the consumer’s download speed.

So, if you’re planning to start a business, selling digital products could be a good idea, especially if you’re looking to keep your overhead costs down. App development, for example, is a great way to get started if you have an innovative idea.

But, as I said earlier, you need to spend time on the UX of your product.

Why Is UX Important for Digital Products?

In case you were wondering why UX is so important for digital products, here are some reasons:

It Enhances Usability

Users tend to like digital products designed with UX in mind. That’s because UX enhances the… ummm…user’s experience. 

It takes into consideration how the consumer will interact with the product and removes any potential pain points. The result is a product that is a pleasure to use.

It Can Improve Engagement

A well-designed digital product can encourage users to engage and interact with it more and more. And, it can give them a push in the right direction—encouraging them to take the action you want them to take.

It Makes Your Spending More Effective

Constant improvement can help keep your product relevant and in demand. However, if you spend time—and money—at the beginning of the design process, you can ensure that your future improvements are less expensive. 

You can invest in more features instead of trying to get people to like what you’ve already created.

It Improves Conversion Rates and Retention

An important part of UX design is identifying what your customers need and want. By giving them a product designed for them, you can get them to convert quickly. More importantly, you will retain them.

It Helps Your Brand’s Reputation

So, you create products that are easy to use, efficiently designed, and meet customer requirements. That’s a good reputation to have. Keep doing that consistently and you will find people buying your products because they were built by you.

Now that you know why you need UX, here are some of the UX trends for digital product design in 2023:

UX Trends For Digital Product Design in 2023

According to the report, here are the top UX trends you need to keep in mind when designing your digital product.

UX Copywriting

Quick, snappy copy. Don’t bore users with long, wordy essays.

Inclusivity in Design

Design products so everyone can use them. Bear in mind cultural differences as well as physical disabilities.

AR/VR

It’s a lot more ubiquitous now, so use the power of augmented reality and virtual reality to make your digital product more interesting, exciting, and relevant.

3D Graphics

3D graphics give depth and detail to your product design. Make use of it—especially since modern technology can handle it without lagging or getting overloaded.

Innovative Landing Pages

Hook your audience with impressive landing pages. At the same time, remember that too much detail can be distracting. 

So, now that you know why you need UX in your digital product design, stop and plan your idea in a bit more detail. And, if you need professional help, you have companies like Luminos Software to help you.

Good luck!