DisplayNote Screen Sharing Software Updates October 2024

Enhanced Session Control with “Control Your Session”

The “Control Your Session” feature allows users to manage screen sharing from their personal devices, ensuring control over session flow. Integrated with Moderator Mode, it restricts screen sharing to invited participants, giving presenters the freedom to manage sessions securely and efficiently from anywhere in the room.

Related: DisplayNote and Promethean Partner to Enhance Meeting Rooms

Infrared Remote Compatibility for Broader Hardware Support

DisplayNote has expanded compatibility with infrared remote controls, making it easier for users to interact with the screen on both interactive and non-touch displays. For screen manufacturers, this means their hardware solutions can cater to a wider range of users, providing flexibility and ease of use across different environments.

Commenting on the latest updates, Luke McSorley, head of product, says, “Our ‘Control Your Session’ feature gives users unmatched flexibility, allowing them to manage screen sharing seamlessly from their personal devices. Combined with Moderator Mode, it ensures that only authorized participants can share content, giving presenters full control over their sessions. Additionally, by expanding compatibility with infrared remotes, we’re enabling easier interaction with both touch and non-touch displays, providing greater versatility for screen manufacturers and end-users alike.”

Additional Features:

• Device Discovery for a Seamless Connection Experience: Connecting to devices is now more straightforward than ever. Whether using AirPlay, Miracast, or Google Cast, the Room Name will be the consistent identifier, reducing confusions and enabling quick, hassle-free connections.
• Audio Sharing with Window Content: Expanding on the “share a window” option, users can now share audio along with their content, providing a richer, more immersive experience.
• Access to DisplayNote Academy: users have access to tutorials, guides, and support via the newly integrated DisplayNote Academy link on the join page.

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on October 23, 2024. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

The post DisplayNote Updates Screen Sharing Software appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The event illustrated two things:

1. how deep the roots of digitization have become globally;
2. the fragility of the global technology ecosystem, exacerbated by an overreliance on a select number of cloud providers.

This is a wake-up call for us all. Although not a cyber attack, imagine if a nation state was able to find and exploit such vulnerabilities through a coordinated and sustained attack?

It’s given us a glimpse into what cyber armageddon could look like; how should we respond?

The Interconnectivity Trade-Off

Dubbed “the largest IT outage in history,” the global technology outage was caused when an update to one of CrowdStrike’s pieces of software, Falcon Sensor, malfunctioned, paralyzing computers running Windows and resulting in widespread tech failures around the world.

While not the cause, the severity of the impact was only made possible as a result of the increasingly interconnected systems and software that have become so entrenched in our digital infrastructure. The effects were also inflamed by the global reliance on a select number of cloud providers – with Windows devices the worst impacted, many initially thought it was solely a Microsoft issue.

This dependency has brought with it many benefits – global connectivity, efficiency and innovation. But it’s a simple fact that it leaves us all more vulnerable. If a major cloud provider goes down or is impacted, the world grinds to a halt.

For many of us in the business of IT and security, questions are starting to be asked about the trade-off: can we find a way to remain connected, but become more resilient and lessen the impact of events like these?

The initial discussion has been around reassessing cloud strategies, such as avoiding the automatic updating of patches. Some may also be thinking about a multi-cloud approach, where more than one cloud provider is used to ensure continuity if one goes down – “Microsoft is down? That’s ok, we can just switch to Google.” However, despite being a relatively simple undertaking, it would be an expensive luxury that’s out of reach for most.

Build Something from the Ground Up

Rather than trying to patch up ever more complex and interdependent legacy architecture, company boards should use this opportunity to explore shifting their legacy digital architecture to something built from the ground up and future proof.

That is, firms should be viewing this as an opportunity to run an entirely new, low-cost, digital infrastructure in parallel, which is independent of their primary cloud provider and legacy applications. The idea is that in the case of a major systems outage, organizations would have the ability to seamlessly switch over to this secondary infrastructure without manual intervention, allowing them to perform critical functions throughout the crisis. This infrastructure would be backed up with essential data, with advanced security protocols to protect against cyber threats. As a minimum, this provides an out-of-band communications channel for the board and senior management to tell staff and clients what to do and ensures they are not swamped by fraudulent scams after the Crowdstrike outage.

Imagine an airline affected by a major software outage. Having an independent backup system would allow them to continue day-to-day operations such as booking passengers, handling ticket changes and scheduling flights. Instead of relying on extensive manual interventions to recover the primary system, backup protocols would prevent disruption while the main systems are brought back online.

Any solution developed in this way needs to be quick-to-implement and must be able to initiate a contingency command and control process, handle basic tasks and keep the company running in the event of a major attack or outage. Our mission critical clients are beginning to build these fail-over systems that can handle basic tasks and keep the company running in the event of a major attack or outage. In some instances, these shadow systems operate entirely through a mobile messaging platform.

Continuity and Resilience are Possible

As businesses now begin to revisit how they can ensure a return to business as usual as quickly as possible when disaster strikes, they should not be clouded by all the technical terms and confusing offerings, and just focus on three simple and fundamental principles when assessing their current and future risks: completeness, accuracy and validity.

Shifting legacy digital architecture towards something that is built from the ground up ticks all these boxes.  Moreover, it addresses the inter-connectivity, inter-dependency and relatedness and reputational risks that we all face in the digital world today. This may just be the difference between surviving the next global meltdown or being left in its wake.

Andersen Cheng is the founder and chairman of Post-Quantum.

The post CrowdStrike Cyber Armageddon: How Do Firms Now Build Resilience? appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Reportedly, a single replacement part, such as a keyboard, costs nearly half the cost of a complete Chromebook. As a result, many school districts are buying extra devices to serve as spare parts.

This is just one example of the technological dilemmas facing school districts today. What’s more, limited capital prevents them from buying the newest hardware or upgrading to the latest software versions. With technology rapidly changing, how can educational institutions keep up?

For school districts, a hardware purchase will need several years to get a substantial return on investment (ROI). Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of students using older technology.

The Wave of Device-Agnostic Systems

A growing wave of educators also allow learners to use their existing smart devices when attending remote classes—a so-called Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policy. Instead of providing the required equipment or specifying specific operating systems (OS), they run systems that accommodate devices regardless of OS or hardware configurations. As long as they meet minimum requirements, any smart device will do.

While this benefits many students, some school districts may have trouble implementing this system. Even if they don’t have the funds to provide students with ideal devices, they’re also unable to maintain the necessary system that accommodates virtually all types of devices.

In addition, when class hardware requirements get more complex due to evolving software, many students become marginalized as their devices can’t keep up. As a result, schools either abide by the lowest common denominator or require students to make costly upgrades.

Unlocking the Power of DaaS: How It Can Revolutionize Education

Can school districts actually implement a digital transformation strategy that doesn’t involve hardware purchases? Yes, through a Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) approach.

Schools usually operate on the premise that students log into the system through either school-issued or personal devices. However, advancements in software development often require users to ensure their hardware keeps pace. For cost-conscious organizations such as school districts, it’s a never-ending cycle of hardware and software upgrades.

A DaaS service provider solves this problem by supplying the computing environment students need and giving customers the choice to upgrade their hardware.

Instead of getting stuck with their initial investment—even when it turns obsolete—DaaS ensures users always have the latest hardware to go with their software. In return, clients pay a fixed subscription that covers hardware and software costs and maintenance and management tasks.

Planning for Change: Steps to Develop a Digital Transformation Strategy for Schools

As you develop a digital transformation strategy, there are a few things to consider:

• The needs of your school, teachers, and students: What are your pain points, and where could you use more support?
• Your current technology: Is there anything you can keep? What gaps need to be filled?
• Key stakeholders: Your digital equipment must serve students, teachers, and IT administrators, so get buy-in from each group.
• The technology you actually need: Don’t just follow trends. Look for solutions that meet your needs now and can be scaled up or down as things change.

For school districts, enacting a digital transformation strategy means going beyond the cycle of sticking to what they can afford. School districts typically mandate their IT department to keep using existing equipment until it breaks down or becomes unusable. But the DaaS model enables schools to acquire new technology regardless of whether funding is available.

DaaS also reduces the time your IT team spends evaluating and purchasing devices, making them work together, and then keeping them in line with user needs. This frees them to look toward the future and propose systemic improvements to the learning process.

Maximizing ROI: Evaluating the Benefits and Costs of DaaS in Education

A DaaS digital transformation strategy provides many benefits. For instance, school districts won’t have to manage hardware or get stuck with old equipment until achieving an ROI. Additionally, administrators will no longer accumulate obsolete hardware in their storage areas or be tasked with disposing of old devices cheaply and ethically.

Instead, school administrators can breathe easier knowing that, regardless of how computing requirements change from year to year, their tech budget will remain fixed. In fact, they won’t have to worry about capital expenditures every time better and more powerful technology arrives. DaaS provides predictable operational expenses.

Common Challenges and Solutions in Implementing a Digital Transformation Strategy in Schools

To keep the school district’s entire device fleet synced with each other, you’ll need powerful and reliable device management software. Modern cloud technology can maintain secure, encrypted, and reduced-latency connections when monitoring or updating devices.

For this purpose, outmoded software that uses legacy protocols should give way to platforms that harness modern solutions like Amazon Web Services (AWS). This way, even the smallest IT staff can perform remote updates, fixes, and installations to a single device or the entire fleet with just a few button clicks.

The platform should be OS agnostic to easily connect to and manage all allowed devices. What’s more, the task of protecting each connected device means better management and security options. Forget device access as a yes-or-no equation; the ideal device manager should have no problem creating different user access levels that match their job descriptions.

In addition, security means having the capability to remotely disable units or erase data from compromised devices.

Prioritize DaaS Providers Using a Central Device Management Platform

A DaaS approach enables school districts to build a digital transformation strategy that maintains the most updated hardware and software while keeping costs static. Look for a partner that can help your IT team manage, maintain, and secure all subscribed devices.

When choosing the right DaaS vendor to support your digital transformation strategy, choose the one that places a premium on superior device management capabilities. A central device management platform should be easy for your team to use, OS- and device-agnostic, and built for multiple users under one account. It should also enable app and device management, remote support, monitoring and analysis, and automation.

Nadav Avni, CMO of Radix Technologies

The post Preparing for the Future: Why Schools Need a Digital Transformation Strategy With DaaS appeared first on My TechDecisions.

After integrating automation and cloud computing into its platform, the Union City, Calif.-based company is now introducing VR into design and sales processes to create a new benchmark for the AV industry. X-VRSE lets users enter into and explore their spaces using an interactive VR platform.

The technology of X-VRSE allows users to add, alter and customize the products and aesthetics of the room while witnessing all of it, in front of them, in the X-VRSE environment. With a range of room options, users can simulate meeting rooms, classrooms, immersive rooms, etc., using X-VRSE. Device coverages, sitelines, sound pressure levels can be visualized, enabling users to change or reposition their devices, choosing the right product for the right environment.

Additionally, X-VRSE lets users “Bring their own Rooms,” 3D renders made in tools like Revit and Google sketchup and visualize them in X-VRSE VR environment. X-VRSE automatically creates multiple drawings in 2D such as Line Schematics, Signal Flow Diagrams, etc.

“We are excited to launch X-VRSE, a VR solution that is going to transform design and sales processes in the AV industry. After streamlining the platform with technologies like automation and cloud computing, and winning awards and even a patent for these, VR was the next big thing that XTEN-AV had its eye on!,” says Vibhav Singh and Sahil Dhingra, co-founders, XTEN-AV.

They continue, “Our aim is to give our users a world-class VR experience and equip them with the latest technology to create even more comprehensive designs & spaces. X-VRSE offers multiple ways to utilize the platform by either using a VR headset or by using a standalone version on any laptop or desktop, essentially working as a game on your computer.”

Incorporation of virtual reality with AV design and sales offers the ease of visualizing 2D designs, as an immersive experience, even at the conceptualization/design stage of a project, says XTEN-AV.

The X-VRSE technology not just makes it easier for the AV designers and integrators to create comprehensive, stimulating AV designs but also for sales to convince decision-makers and clients to select appropriate products right from the start, sys the company.

XTEN-AV will be showcasing X-VRSE LIVE at booth #4260 at InfoComm 2023. Visitors can experience the VR solution and its immersive environment, interact with the founding team, and avail exciting offers and discounts.

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on June 6, 2023. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

The post XTEN-AV Unveils X-VRSE VR Solution appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The Stamford, Conn.-based firm’s newest IT spending forecast report suggests that IT leaders are looking to optimize spending and using emerging technologies to transform their organization’s value proposition, revenue and client interactions. ‘

That spending is largely fueled by software and IT services, which Gartner predicts will rise by 12.3% and 9.1%, respectively. The software spending increase is due to organizations helping to increase productivity automation and other software-driven initiatives, while the services increase is driven by the infrastructure-as-a-service market, which is expected to reach over 30% growth this year.

Conversely, the spending on devices will decline nearly 5% this year as consumers defer device purchases due to declining purchasing power and a lack of incentive to buy.

“CIOs face a balancing act that is evident in the dichotomies in IT spending,” says John-David Lovelock, a distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner. “For example, there is sufficient spending within data center markets to maintain existing on-premises data centers, but new spending has shifted to cloud options, as reflected in the growth in IT services.”

The 5.5% growth in IT spending comes after the company’s January forecast suggested an increase of just 2.4%, with the company citing inflation impacting consumer spending along with an otherwise steady enterprise market.

Another reason for the increased spending on IT services is the lack of skilled IT talent, Gartner says. The demand for tech talent dwarfs the supply, and that is a trend that will continue until at least 2026, the firm says.

In fact, IT spending on internal services is slowing across all industries, and enterprises aren’t keeping up with wage increases, according to Lovelock.

“As a result, enterprises will spend more money to retain fewer staff and will turn to IT services firms to fill in the gap,” Lovelock says.

The post IT Spending to Grow 5.5% This Year Due to Software, Services appeared first on My TechDecisions.

It all stems from a lack of control and insight. Simply put, you can’t govern, secure and optimize what you can’t see. And much of what’s happening in the SaaS tech stack is hidden.

Why? Because many (if not most) cloud applications are acquired by end-users, without the knowledge of IT or procurement teams. These end-users are searching for the best tools to accomplish their job. But for the most part, they’re not sensitive to the downstream impacts on IT, procurement, security and finance.

The Scary Truth of Distributed App Adoption

Ownership and data associated with cloud apps are distributed across the company—but most organizations are either not aware, not accepting of, or not adapting to this reality. We see this illustrated in recent studies. In its Market Guide for SaaS Management Platforms, Gartner states, “SaaS spending continues to grow by 15-20% annually, as organizations maintain an average of over 125 different SaaS applications totaling $1,040 per employee annually. IT typically is aware of only a third of those due to decentralized ownership and sourcing.”

And they don’t see this threat alleviating on its own. Gartner predicts that organizations that fail to centrally manage their SaaS life cycles will be “five times more susceptible to a cyber incident or data loss” and will “overspend on SaaS by at least 25%.”

This sounds stark, but there is hope. It starts with a new perspective on how to manage SaaS.

A New Approach to SaaS Management

The traditional approach to software management – where IT has centralized command and control – is simply not possible anymore. There are too many apps, too many owners, and too many ongoing changes to users and licenses. Instead, management must empower key stakeholders – IT, app owners, procurement, security and finance teams – to contribute their voices and efforts to managing SaaS.

This does not mean IT is removed from leadership; rather their work becomes more strategic.

IT is no longer the sole bearer of SaaS responsibility, but they still lead the charge. Their orchestration skills, familiarity with automation, and insight into technology place them at the nexus of Distributed SaaS Management. The difference is, IT no longer executes this strategic vision alone – they enlist the aid of other stakeholders.

Not only does this share the workload and make effective SaaS management possible, but it also scales the company’s ability to address security and budget concerns head-on without fear of limited bandwidth. The result is a more flexible, responsive, and mutually invested SaaS management approach that doesn’t burden any single person or group with all the work or all the accountability for things they don’t control. Instead, departments and app owners become teammates in their shared goals, and IT’s role is akin to the coach.

4 Phases of Distributed SaaS Management

There are four crucial phases of modern Distributed SaaS Management:

1. Comprehensive discovery
2. Strategic decisions
3. Collaboration through automation
4. Cost optimization

At each phase, the picture of SaaS becomes more clear. Phase one, discovery, is about uncovering which tools exist within your SaaS portfolio and pulling together relevant data about contract terms, ownership, utilization rates, and more. The second phase focuses on making strategic decisions based on newfound, data-driven insights. Phase three is about enabling everyone – especially the app owners – to help in the effort of SaaS management. Notably, phase three becomes much more effective if critical bottlenecks are automated. For example, task delegation via manual emails or isolated ticket systems adds friction and can hamper a collaborative effort. By trying to automate these processes, overall cross-team workflows become more efficient and sustainable. Things like offboarding former employees from apps happens automatically with information from HR systems feeding directly into SaaS management systems and triggering offboarding workflows.

Related: How Can IT Companies Manage Their Spend With Digital Procurement

Finally, the fourth phase of Distributed SaaS Management is about the impact of SaaS Spending. Today, more than ever, companies are focused on reducing technology costs – but doing so in ways that don’t negatively impact productivity and results. To do this, they must uncover the true cost and value of their applications. But without the right data, insights are hard to find. And, to make matters worse, research shows that collaboration between IT and Finance and Procurement departments has some of the lowest rates in a company. When we surveyed 300 IT pros, only 14% reported collaborating “often.”

Distributed SaaS Management offers a solution for better cost optimization. By following the four phases, SaaS spend becomes another set of data points ready for action. Finance can ask questions, IT can provide centralized insights (through their discovery of applications and the usage and cost data associated with them), and application owners can take actions across their various apps to eliminate wasted spend on idle or unassigned licenses, and eliminate apps that have redundant functionality. With time, this process becomes systemic, with app owners conducting license utilization reviews on a regular basis.

Similarly, Procurement has a single source for their contract data. This will reduce or eliminate surprise renewals and break the cycle of sprinting from one renewal negotiation to another without the proper insights.

As SaaS adoption continues to grow, so will the risk of cybersecurity threats, spiraling spend, and general inefficiencies – unless IT can change course. With a Distributed SaaS Management strategy designed for today’s scattered app reality, course correction becomes much easier, collaboration is streamlined, and goals around productivity, SaaS savings, security and innovation are much easier to achieve.

The post The Inconvenient Truth about SaaS Management appeared first on My TechDecisions.

These cloud-based solutions from Sony provide end users with the ability to automate BRAVIA professional display provisioning, configuration and enrollment processes to reduce time required to deploy at scale, while dramatically improving accuracy for MSP asset management tools, says Sony. Additionally, the platform offers remote capabilities, making the displays easily manageable on-premises or offsite.

Powerful Device Management Platform

“With the introduction of our powerful Device Management Platform, our professional BRAVIA displays can now be quickly deployed, automated and controlled from virtually anywhere,” Rich Ventura, vice president of professional display solutions, Sony Electronics, says. “This new platform not only substantially reduces installation times, resource demands and complexity for Managed Service Providers, but it helps contribute to users’ sustainability goals by reducing the need for operators, technicians and support personnel to travel on-site which translates to a smaller carbon footprint.”

The professional display DMP can be employed on singular installations. Alternatively, it can provide a path for scalable provisioning across large-scale deployments.  The platform’s provisioning tool can be used separately or in conjunction with the remote device management option.

The user-friendly solutions also provide valuable and granular insights, such as device location alerts and on/off status. These, of course, can reduce the likelihood of, or the average resolution time for, potential performance issues. With a set of device management tools and open APIs, MSPs can also perform remote software and firmware updates, analysis and issue resolution for Sony’s professional BRAVIAs from the Network Operations Center (NOC).

Sony’s Professional 4K HDR BRAVIA System-on-Chip displays, available in sizes ranging from 32 inches to 100 inches (diagonal), are based on a secure Android TV operating system. With the use of Sony’s DMP, the displays add SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 compliant cloud management solutions. This, therefore, provides IT and AV professionals with additional confidence, security and peace of mind.

Sony’s Device Management Platform for the company’s professional display solutions is expected to be available in early 2023.

Don’t forget to shop and compare Sony products on MyTechDecisions’ sister-site AV-IQ.com.

This article originally appeared on MyTechDecisions’ sister-site CommercialIntegrator.com.

The post Sony Electronics Launches Device Management Platform for Professional Display Solutions appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The Mountain View, Calif. company’s report, “The Cost of Poor Software Quality in the US,” finds that software quality issues may have cost the U.S. economy more than $2.4 trillion this year as the software industry is building up what the company calls a historic number of deficiencies.

The report, sponsored by Synopsys and produced by the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ), finds that cybercrime is a leading cause of these issues, with losses due to cybercrime rising 64% between 2020 and 2021, with 2022 on track for another 42% increase.

According to the report, cybercrime is predicted to cost the world $7 trillion in 2022, and the average cost of a data breach in the U.S. is now $9.44 million, up from $9.05 million the year prior.

In fact, the quantity and cost of cybercrime incidents have been on the rise for over a decade, and now account for a sum equivalent to the world’s third largest economy after the U.S. and China, the report found.

The software supply issues continues to be a major IT problem and are getting worse, with the report finding that the number of failures due to weaknesses in open-source software components accelerated by 650% from 2020 to 2021.

With problems with underlying third-party components rising significantly, Synopsys and CISQ urge the importance of responsible and comprehensive open-source security and risk management. The report of course highlights high-profile incidents, including the Log4Shell vulnerability which surfaced last year and is still causing problems for organizations.

However, the CISQ and Synopsys report identified technical debt as the largest obstacle for organizations to overcome. Technical debt, the cost of rework in software development and accumulated deficiencies that are time-consuming and expensive to fix, is leaving systems and organizations vulnerable, the report says.

Due to these issues, the technical debt in the U.S. has risen to more than $1.5 trillion this year, the report found.

Herb Krasner, the report’s author and a retired professor of software engineering at the University of Texas, Austin, says the report offers proactive advice for engineers, project teams and organizational leaders to improve the quality of the software the use and build.

“Now is the time to turn our attention to recent developments and emerging solutions to help improve the poor software quality situation as it now exists and stabilize and reduce the growth rate of CPSQ in the near future,” Krasner says.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anita D’Amico, the Synopsys Software Integrity Group vice president of cross-portfolio solutions and strategy and CISQ Board Member, urges the IT industry to adopt software bills of materials (SBOM) to help give organizations a comprehensive inventory of components used to make a piece of software.

“That means when a new vulnerability is identified in an existing component, organizations can quickly identify where it is in their software and take action to remedy it,” D’Amico says.

The post Software Inefficiencies are Costing U.S. Economy Trillions, Study Says appeared first on My TechDecisions.

According to Jetbuilt, utilizing technical data fields provides a clear view of information that will help ensure a project has a proper design. It also ensures accounting of components, such as rack space, power, heat ventilation and weight capacity. Thus, the data fields enable a smooth installation process.

“The introduction of technical data fields will save time, money and aggravation as the project moves to the installation stage,” remarks Tom Peters, director of business development at Jetbuilt. He gives one example where understanding a rack space for a particular installation, especially for a small space like a credenza, can ensure ordering of the proper size credenza.

Peters continues, “Additionally, you can warn the HVAC contractor that there will be 1000 BTU in a closet to ventilate, and easily view the total weight of a speaker system or videowall included in the project, to check against the building structure. Basically, the technical data in the Jetbuilt builder will provide a clear view of what is needed to accommodate the system being installed.”

Expanding Valuable Functionality

Technical data fields is the latest feature to support the platform’s engineering efforts. It will also pair well with Jetbuilt’s engineering scrub feature. Launched early in 2022, the feature allows companies to enforce a technical review as part of the workflow.

Related: Jetbuilt Partners with AV-iQ

Scrub also ensures approval of every item from an engineering perspective before the project moves to the next stage. By having key technical data at the ready and auto-calculated, users can streamline this process as well.

Jetbuilt will showcase the technical data fields at CEDIA 2022. It will also highlight engineering scrub and JEL, the Jetbuilt Engineering Lab.

Also launched in 2022, JEL provides the ability to commission CAD drawings, REVIT drawings, 3D renderings and presale engineering as needed. All of this is possible within the integrated workflow of Jetbuilt.

Paul Dexter, Jetbuilt founder and chief executive officer, remarks, “While Jetbuilt is known as a sales and project management tool, in 2022, we committed to better serve consultants and the engineering side of our design teams using Jetbuilt. To that end we are proud to have launched engineering scrub, JEL, and now technical data fields, with more valuable functionality to come.”

Jetbuilt will exhibit at CEDIA in booth #9017, September 29 – October 1 in Dallas, Texas.

This article originally appeared on MyTechDecisions’ sister-site CommercialIntegrator.com.

The post Jetbuilt Adds Technical Data Fields to Project Management Software appeared first on My TechDecisions.

That is especially true if that provider is part of an unstoppable trend of cloud, software-as-a-service or cybersecurity providers taking on the responsibility of handling and safeguarding its customer’s data. Without those internal controls over a cloud-based technology that is being handled in a vendor’s environment, trust is now more important than ever.

Offloading that responsibility to a technology and putting them in the position to make critical business decisions for your organization should require a high level of trust. IT buyers should ensure that not only are the right security practices in place at the prospective vendor, but that they also have the resources and the right philosophy when it comes to customer data, says Robb Reck, a security professional currently working to uphold standards of trust and transparency as the chief trust officer at managed detection and response provider Red Canary.

“All of those questions should work to determine if the technology vendor is a trustworthy partner or not,” Reck says.

Positions such as Reck’s are typically security or risk management initiatives from leadership that go beyond the scope of a typical security program and look critically at the company’s transparency with customers.

A chief trust officer defines how the software vendor talks to customers about security issues, including proactively bringing issues to customers, oftentimes before they even know about it.

Can you trust your technology vendor?

According to Reck, technology providers are trustworthy when they follow two simple rules: fulfilling their promises and being proactively transparent.

“You probably learn this at age 2—the idea of doing what you said you were going to do and saying what you’re going to do. Telling a customer what is coming and delivering that thing over and over again is a way to earn an awful lot of trust,” Reck says. “When you become predictable, you become trustworthy.”

Equally as important when selecting a technology vendor is their track record when it comes to transparency, and not just being honest when asked about security incidents. For example, a vendor should tell its customers about a security incident that went unnoticed, even if it could have gotten away without any negative press.

Reck used the analogy of borrowing a friend’s car, getting in a minor fender-bender, and not telling the owner.

“Am I willing to be the person who proactively tells the truth and apologizes and explains how they’re going to make it better? In the future, you know I’m not going to lie to you.”

Another key pillar of trust is around aligned incentives of the software vendor and customer that prioritize positive outcomes rather than just business transactions.

“If they’re making money on me all the way until I go bankrupt, I don’t feel like that’s a very good partnership,” Reck says. “Finding ways that you can align incentives between the provider and customer is a big part of it.”

Cloud, SaaS providers and trust

While cybersecurity providers may top the list of tech companies that should be trustworthy, organizations consuming any software-as-a-service (SaaS) and other cloud-based deployments of their enterprise technologies should demand a higher level of transparency and trust.

With data storage and management shifting from on-premises and an organization’s own data center to the cloud, organizations are essentially trusting the control of their data, infrastructure and services to an outsider. Before, the enterprises themselves were their own backstop and were able to make changes, and evaluate how the software was running.

Customers of security providers like Red Canary—that monitor telemetry and essentially decide what behavior to ignore and what behavior warrants an alert and investigation—have to trust that the software is both made well by the vendor and that is running well, and that any human interaction is not costing them downtime.

With that in mind, a wide range of cloud-based technologies should be looked at from this angle, including customer relationship management tools and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

Warning signs

According to Reck, these are several warning signs that indicate a software vendor is not transparent or trustworthy.

Downplaying the incident in first communications about an incident

Those first few messages about a security incident need to clearly outline what is known and what is not known. Too often software vendors will say only a certain portion of customers are affected, only to later revise that to a larger number and undermine the trust their customers place in them.

No transparency about any security incidents

Every company has security incidents, so a lack of disclosures should be alarming—regardless of how insignificant the incident is. Reck provided one example from his experience at Red Canary in which a customer stopped sending the firm its telemetry to be monitored for threats for about 12 hours. Once the company noticed the issue and fixed it, it combed through the data to make sure nothing malicious was missed. After that, the company had a brief internal conversation about informing the customer, and it quickly decided that the customer should know, even though nothing bad happened during those 12 hours.

“I see each of those opportunities as a way to not only build trust with our customers … but also to build that internal understanding of what it means to be a trustworthy company,” Reck says.

No status page

Public-facing resources or information detailing the status of services are the low-hanging fruit of any technology vendor’s transparency.

Government-mandated transparency

This level of transparency is now being required by certain agencies in the U.S. government, including the SEC, which has proposed new rules that would require publicly traded organizations—which include many leading software providers—to report about material cybersecurity incidents and provide updates about previously reported incidents.

In addition, organizations would be required to detail their security policies and procedures to identify and manage cybersecurity risks, per the proposals.

As a result of President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on cybersecurity, software providers will be required to be more proactively transparent about the security of their products and their own environment, including a software bill of materials that details the different components in a piece of software.

In a recent blog, Brookings Institution notes that the recent RSA Conference highlighted offerings to secure the supply chain and increase vendor transparency, with many referencing the Executive Order.  The Institute calls Biden’s decree a “set of goals” designed to create a transparent marketplace for technology and security tools.

“The creation of a transparent market for software and provision of information for operators and purchasers leverages the greatest competitive advantage of the United States: the rule of law required to support a trustworthy marketplace,” the research group wrote.

The post How to Vet a Vendor’s Transparency and Trustworthiness appeared first on My TechDecisions.