Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said that whoever cracks automated intelligence (AI) first will dominate the world. He made the point that any country with a ‘monopolist’ position in AI will be all-powerful economically, politically and militarily.
In response to Putin’s comments, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that "competition for AI superiority at national level is the most likely cause of WW3."
“If we understand what the technology is capable of, we will be in a better place to tell you how our organisation can leverage it” - says one business leader.
“This is what we want the business to achieve and how we’re going to get there. Go find technology that helps make this happen” - says another.
So which comes first?
Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) will take place in November. It is the world’s biggest celebration of entrepreneurship - with over 35,000 events taking place in more than 160 countries.
So, this is perhaps a useful juncture to reflect on entrepreneurship in this part of the world – not least as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Ireland) 2017 was announced on Thursday past.
Layering can seem a complicated concept at first; once you look under the hood though, the rationale, benefits, and purpose all becomes clearer.
A layer is a container which allows for the storing of file systems, objects, and registry entries which are all unique to that layer. For example, an ‘Application Layer’ is a layer where the files and registry entries that have been added, changed, or even removed during the application install, uniquely reside.
Following on from World Mental Health Day last week, I thought it was important to discuss why openness, awareness and support of mental health in the workplace is vitally important. It’s because of this importance that we at Novosco are proud of our focus on wellbeing in the workplace.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and XenApp (Shared Desktop/Session Based Computing) environments are used by companies to improve security and compliance, particularly where sensitive data is being dealt with regularly. Users do their work in a virtual desktop or application hosted in the secure datacentre. Working with Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop has many advantages for Novosco and our customers.
The concern with Virtual Desktops may be that using Skype for Business with full audio and video may require heavy loads of audio and video processing on VDI or shared desktops.
If you want an example of how important company culture is, look no further than Uber.
There’s no doubt that it is a poster child for important innovations. It has been one of the most talked about brands in the world in recent years and has been treated as an extremely important company by the tech community, investors, the media, consumers and others.
There is some fantastic innovation going on all around us. In England, for example, they are about to start custom-building homes in a factory before delivering them for final assembly. Customers can choose, online, the layout and specifications they want - conservatory, playroom, or a downstairs bathroom, for instance - before the house is created in a 75,000 sq ft facility and shipped.
The social housing market continues to be under huge pressure from all sides to provide more for tenants with very little in the way of incremental resources. Set against the backdrop of a digital revolution and an intimidating rise in cybercrime, few social housing organisations have sufficient security skills in-house to keep tenant data and services safe.
While every organisation has their own particular challenges at different times, conversations with our customers in this sector tend to fall into the following areas;
Well, I do for a start. I believe that building and developing a corporate culture of engagement, caring and appreciation is a necessity to any successful business. The saying goes that, ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast;’ developing a great corporate culture is something we at Novosco care deeply about.
Laura Henry is a service desk engineer who has been with Novosco for two years. When not overseeing the technical side of Novosco's managed services, she dreams of living in a hobbit-home, in Tolkein's The Shire, or failing that, New Zealand.
Question: Laura, describe a typical working day for you in Novosco?
Are you using Office 365? Do you know where your data is stored?
For UK companies that have specific data residency requirements, Microsoft have provided a window to request that your data is moved to UK datacentres. The deadline to request this move is 15th September 2017.
Karen Shearer is the Financial Director for Novosco; she is a member of the Chartered Institute of Directors, and when not overseeing all-things-Novosco, she likes sunshine, walking, gardens and gin.
Question: Karen, you’re our Finance Director, what does that actually mean?
July’s Let’s Talk webinar saw cloud expert, amateur chef, and webinar host Mal Toner delve deep into the mysteries of Software Defined Networking. However, unlike conventional mysteries such as those you might find on TV, this one doesn’t involve a cliff-hanger ending.
This month saw a new chapter in the Novosco story.
In June last year we acquired NetDef, the Manchester based IT security solutions and managed services experts. We have spent the last year getting to know each other, working together and building our relationship. In reality this was an easy transition to make. The cultural fit between the two teams meant that we have found it easy to work together for the common good of our customers.
On that cold and dark evening a few years ago when I decided to put on my running shoes, get off the couch and do something different for a change, I could have never imagined the changes and benefits that would begin in my life. It started off small; I joined my local running club, met some really great people and it went from there…
42,000 metres, or 137795 feet. That’s how far Team Novosco aimed for in the Bowel Cancer UK Row a Marathon fundraising event. And achieve it we did, and then some!
We teamed up with Edwards & Co to bring together 14 other companies from across Northern Ireland; all pulling towards the same goal of raising £15,000.
Eamon McNally is a Senior Infrastructure Consultant with Novosco. He has spent over 15 years working with Microsoft and Citrix technologies including Metaframe XP, XenApp, Netscaler, Active Directory, and Exchange, amongst others.
Eamon is an expert in the design, migration, deployment, and support of remote desktop services, and loves almost nothing as much as he loves a good cup of coffee.
Those who know what a Raspberry Pi is will know that computers come in all shapes and sizes (for those who don’t, it’s a very small computer). And those who know the IT sector will know that IT professionals do too. That is to say they come from all kinds of backgrounds.
Following the event of the successful and large scale ransomware attack, and a very busy weekend for a lot of Managed Service Providers, we wanted to inform you and your organisations what actions you can take now, and in future, to assist in reducing the exposure and risk from these types of cyberattacks.
