Over the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed the way nearly every industry transmits, collects and uses data — and the oil and gas industry is no exception. Energy companies who’ve invested in this new technology are enjoying cost savings, better-streamlined processes, more accurate forecasts for demands and other crucial advantages. And that’s likely...
Consider this inconvenient scenario: It’s 3 a.m., and you’re snuggled into bed, a hundred miles away from your organization’s servers, when an urgent call wakes you. Something has gone awry, your network has crashed, and no one else is available. Begrudgingly, you head out in the dark for the long trek to the data center and spend the next several hours troubleshooting and...
If you haven’t yet developed a disaster recovery plan for your business, you likely haven’t suffered a major outage yet. The cost of downtime is in the thousands per minute for large companies and thousands per day for small companies (The Ponemon Institute, 2016). For companies whose customers depend on your services being available 24×7, outages result in a loss of customer...
Choosing a colocation provider is often a long and grueling process that should involve not only the IT department, but also cybersecurity, finance, executives, and the facilities team, if the company has one. Every team that will be affected by a company’s data center decision should have a say in the process. This will result in the best decision in the long run. Once a...
The Texas Legislature meets every odd-numbered year in the city of our headquarters – Austin. We are excited to track technology policy development in the 2019 session. We hope to see several bills pass that move our state forward in terms of keeping policy up to speed with innovation. This year we are particularly focused on bills submitted in the areas of stingray...
It’s almost the end of another year, and predictions for 2019 tech trends are rolling in. Many of last year’s predictions rang true for 2018, including the rise of cybercrime-as-a-service, data sovereignty, and hybrid cloud connectivity. It looks like some exciting technologies will finally take off next year and become more commonplace, like augmented analytics, AI...
As organizations and businesses increasingly rely on the Internet to conduct standard business operations and generate revenue, DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) are the obvious choice for malicious actors to disrupt the status quo, make a statement, and/or cause serious financial consequences for their targets. Each year, it has become easier to hire third parties...
Digital disruption makes businesses more competitive for many reasons, some of which include a reduction in the need for physical assets and materials and increased efficiency and agility. For example, Nest eliminated the need to have both an HVAC and security monitoring system, smart phones took the place of calculators, alarm clocks and cameras. These innovations disrupt...
As some of you may already know, elections aren’t the only thing Russian hackers are meddling in. They’ve infiltrated our energy and manufacturing sectors as well. This year, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security announced Russian government actors have hacked into energy, nuclear, water and critical manufacturing sectors. In July, they announced Russian hackers had...
You may think your home’s smart devices only send data about temperatures or your exercise activities, so why does it really matter who sees it? Data in aggregate can reveal more than you think about yourself and your family, but even if privacy doesn’t matter to you, lack of data protection isn’t the only risk. Hackers can easily manipulate unsecured IoT-connected devices,...
Web application firewalls or WAFs can protect your website and web applications from a variety of attacks and intrusions that your network firewall can’t. Depending on the WAF your security team chooses, it can protect against XSS attacks, SQL injection, session hijacking and buffer overflows. If your website or application processes payments, it’s especially important to...
For some companies, change management involves throwing things at a wall until something sticks. Needless to say, this is not the ideal system for implementing new technologies. As companies undergo digital transformations to remain competitive and to survive, mastering change management is essential. Because companies only reap the rewards of change after it has been...
It appears we are reaching the zenith of the 2018 hurricane season. The most stressful part of an impending natural disaster is uncertainty, followed by lack of preparation. By preparing for an emergency like a flood or hurricane both in your professional and personal life, you can reduce the impact of a stressful situation on yourself and your family. September...
Compliance is confusing and mind-numbingly boring for most people. Before you can even finish explaining what SSAE stands for (Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements) eyes are glazing over. Unfortunately, data center compliance standards aren’t merely sleeping aids, and not following them is enough to break a company from fines and reputation damage. Data center...
When we think about what AI is today and what it will offer in just five years, the difference is drastic. Today we have algorithms that recognize images and interactive voice applications. In five years, digital personal assistants will likely be the norm, digital research assistants will scan documents and compile relevant data, medical assistants will help diagnose and...