From DevOps to DevSecOps- The Reality and the Challenges Posted on June 28, 2022December 26, 2022 by Admin No organization can afford to ignore the security of their applications in 2022 and beyond, with the threat landscape continually evolving at its current pace. The focus on application security necessitates organizations to move from DevOps to DevSecOps. Agile and DevOps help organizations deliver software products quickly. But is that what organizations prioritize in 2022 and beyond? DevOps and DevSecOps are often discussed in direct contrast to each other or as either/or approaches. But DevSecOps is compatible with DevOps and necessary for organizations to develop secure software quickly. As a quick introduction, DevOps aims to improve the software development flow from coding to testing and deployment while minimizing risk at each step. DevSecOps is a set of guiding principles. It helps organizations secure their infrastructure, software, data, and applications, moving ahead of the traditional perimeter security model. Related Reading: Ensure Smooth DevOps Outsourcing for Your Startup How DevSecOps Differs from DevOps 1. Focus DevOps primarily focuses on enabling IT and operations teams to collaborate smoothly and more frequently. The two groups work together through the development and deployment process and implement shared goals to optimize the speed of development and delivery. DevOps speeds up development and often compromises security. DevSecOps came into the picture as organizations realized that the speed of development should not come at the expense of security. Therefore, instead of viewing application security as an afterthought, DevSecOps integrates security into the development pipeline right from the start. 2. Goal DevOps aims to plug gaps in communication between the IT and operations teams. It uses collaboration, continuous integration, and automation to reduce risk throughout the process. DevSecOps aims to make frequent and informed security decisions through the development cycle. And share them safely within teams while maintaining the speed and control of development. 3. Skills and Competencies The skills and competencies required to work in DevOps are Linux fundamentals and scripting, besides a working knowledge of various DevOps tools. The competencies required to work in DevSecOps include detecting vulnerabilities with automated security solutions, extensive knowledge of cloud security, and the ability to provide support to infrastructure users. Related Reading: 13 Reasons Why Your Startup Needs a DevOps Strategy How DevSecOps Resembles DevOps According to GitLab’s 2021 Global DevSecOps Survey of 4,300 employees, 60% of developers are releasing code twice as faster as ever before due to DevOps. 56% reported that their teams are either fully or “mostly” automated. 72% of security pros rated their organization as “good” or “strong” in their security efforts. DevOps teams are running more security scans than ever before, and 70% of security team members say security has shifted left on the development cycle. The following principles stay the same in DevSecOps as in DevOps: Continuous Integration – This principle asks developers to regularly merge code changes so that the latest version of the software is available for all developers. Continuous delivery and deployment – This strategy ensures automated updates and higher efficiency. Microservices – This principle guides developers to build software as a set of more minor services so that complex code can be broken down into manageable components. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) – IaC prompts developers to plan, design, implement and manage infrastructure needs through code, eliminating the need for developers to install software packages, manage OS or configure servers manually. The DevSecOps approach additionally includes the following: Common weakness enumeration – CWE improves code quality and security in the CI/CD phases. Threat Modeling – This principle guides developers to perform security testing during app development to prevent expensive risks and costs in the future. Automated security testing – This principle requires developers to often test for security threats and vulnerabilities in new builds. Incident management – IM requires creating a standard response system for security occurrences. Advantages of DevSecOps for Startups and Enterprises DevSecOps enhances the security of the entire software development lifecycle. It makes the resulting product more robust and secure. Here are the distinct benefits of DevSecOps for modern startups and enterprises: 1. Save time and cost Address security early on by integrating it right into the DevOps workflow end-to-end. When security is taken care of through the designing, coding, and deployment stages, it ultimately helps save time and money. That later goes in vain due to security loopholes that surface later and security breaches that happen down the line. As developers focus on security through development, the software entering production is ready to use, meaning no back-and-forth fixing security gaps. Contrary to popular notions, DevSecOps accelerates delivery and reduces risks in the more enormous realm. You might also like: Step-by-Step Roadmap to Developing an MVP 2. Shared security ownership When security is part of everyone’s job, development team employees feel responsible for building secure software. As developers focus on security and don’t simply rely on testing analysts and QAs to test the code, there is less rift between the two teams. With shared security ownership also comes uniform security protocols across departments. It stems from collaboration and communication among developers, security, and operations teams. 3. Accelerated remediation from automation Automated application security testing prevents security issues from crawling into apps and helps detect and fix security loopholes early on. Security tools that integrate seamlessly into development environments never interrupt the development process and enable continuous security management. DevSecOps accelerates remediation and prevents security gaps through automation. Related Reading: Why Startups Should Consider Outsourcing DevOps Tips to Transition from DevOps to DevSecOps Frictionlessly Nearly 85% of Upskilling IT 2022 respondents said DevOps or DevSecOps is a “critical” or “important” operating model. Here’s how to move from DevOps to DevSecOps: 1. Pick the suitable security testing method(s) A wide range of testing techniques is available today. Startups and enterprises must choose according to individual project needs. 2. Define coding standards DevSecOps requires assessing code quality so that it can be easily secured in the future. Set up an arrangement to train developers on coding best practices and lay down the coding standards your company will follow. People also liked: Early Startup? Don’t Make These Mistakes Navigating Your First Recession. 3. Secure your software Secure your applications to run robustly on a distributed architecture instead of trying to safeguard the growing and blurring perimeter. An implicit security protocol that DevSecOps brings can ensure that security is addressed internally and intentionally in your enterprise. DevSecOps revolves around: Data security with minimal inconvenience to users in accessing data Development tools that enable risk identification early in the development process Data encryption using VPNs and SSL The focus is justifiably shifting from rapid deployment to secure yet rapid deployment, and DevSecOps is the way to do it. Speak to one of the DevSecOps experts at KiwiTech to outline your own journey from DevOps to DevSecOps.
How the Metaverse Will Transform the Way We Work Posted on June 24, 2022June 24, 2022 by Admin Today’s remote/hybrid workplace already stands in stark contrast to the one we had pre-pandemic. It is yet light years away from where it will be in the metaverse, a term initially coined by Neal Stephenson in 1992 to draw a future world of virtual reality. The metaverse is a network of three-dimensional virtual worlds where people conduct business, transact and create social connections through their virtual “avatars”. While the metaverse is still in its infancy in many respects, it’s getting a lot of traction in terms of investment in technology, people and strategies working toward it. The market opportunity in the metaverse is estimated at $1 trillion, and every sector will be impacted by its realization. Like everything else, working in the metaverse will be quite different from today. Related Reading: The Next Evolution of the Internet: From Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 Possibilities in the Metaverse Meetings and Collaboration Employees will meet and collaborate at any instant by transporting themselves into the virtual world, eliminating the need for travel and even a walk across the workplace. These meetings will be more collaborative than those conducted over video conferencing today. For instance, design teams can closely collaborate on products or software designs using appropriate tools. Metaverse believers also say that the cool-down time between meetings will be more fun with watercooler chats and bowling competitions alongside well-being spaces such as a forest trail or aquarium tour. Since the metaverse gives a sense of presence, it will accelerate product collaboration and development cycles. NextMeet is an India-based immersive reality platform that enables avatars to interactively work, collaborate and learn in a less isolated environment. New Jobs When the internet was born, it led to several jobs that look commonplace to us today but were unimaginable only decades ago. For instance, a digital marketer’s job was unimaginable in an era where social media didn’t exist. Similarly, experts suggest we be ready for new jobs to emerge from the metaverse. As businesses set up shop online, use AI-powered bots as customer agents and deliver experiences virtually, there will be newer jobs we can and can’t imagine today. The metaverse will also hold a special space for individual creators who make and sell their own virtual products in the metaverse- art, outfits, music, make-up, furniture, stickers and more. Talent Acquisition As the metaverse eliminates the need for employees to share a physical workspace, it opens up hiring avenues globally. According to Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of modern work at Microsoft Corp., at least part of the interview process will take place in the metaverse, where candidates will need to be mindful of their attire. “How you represent yourself in the virtual world will be just as important as how you represent yourself in the real world”, he says. Related Reading: Are Metaverses Happening? The Potential for Startups Upskilling and Learning in the Metaverse The metaverse has the potential to cut back the time needed to acquire new skills, revolutionizing training and development. AI-powered digital coaches would assist with employee training and offer personalized career advice. Training can be made highly immersive and interactive in the metaverse to accelerate learning with practice.VR role-play scenarios can enable exercises and simulations to help employees learn to negotiate, deliver a sales presentation, perform complex surgeries or anything in between. Virtual Reality technologies are already employed by the likes of Bosch and the Ford Motor Company to train technicians on electric vehicle maintenance. With the potential of gaming already evident in the metaverse, companies can also gamify learning experiences for higher learner engagement and boosted ROI. Accenture PLC already runs its own VR environment for training courses. In a conversation with HBR, Satya Nadella remarked, “Accenture is basically building what they describe as the Nth floor in Altspace where literally anybody across Accenture globally can any time drop in on the Nth floor and meet other Accenture employees.” Eventually, employees may be able to enter VR to practice their skills in sales, give managerial feedback or engage in simulated training. Challenges to Working in the Metaverse Despite all of its promises, the metaverse is in its nascent stage. Significant hurdles line the path to the successful realization of the metaverse and its many workplaces. Let’s look at a few of those challenges: Today’s metaverse isn’t as consolidated as the early internet was. So, instead of looking at a metaverse, we may be looking at many metaverses that may or may not be interoperable, creating silos and fragmentation.The workplace of the metaverse raises issues around regulatory and HR compliance- risks of addiction, unacceptable behaviors, avatar appearances that are allowed and not in the workplace and more.Skills, qualifications and experience gained in one virtual world should be transferable to another for employees and educators to develop an upward career trajectory.Enterprises will need to put up robust workplace structures to support a truly hybrid work model by updating policies, infrastructure and expectations from people.It would also be critical to draw the line of privacy vs. personalization in the metaverse as technology hones its potential to read human emotions and track them through headsets. Related Reading: The Current State of DeFi and Potential for Startups How Startups Can Bag the Opportunity Bill Gates predicts metaverse will change the way we work faster than we imagine. On his blog, Gates writes, “within the next two or three years, I predict most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids to the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars.” Startups are always ahead of the curve and move quickly to break the long-standing status quo in industries. Interested startups can look to solve a niche problem in the metaverse or introduce a new paradigm of working differently instead of recreating the physical workplace virtually. No matter what stage you are at with your software or product idea, KiwiTech consultants can help. KiwiTech offers a suite of services and opportunities for startups to scale and succeed.
What is Hybrid Intelligence and Why is it the Future of AI Posted on June 21, 2022December 26, 2022 by Admin According to Moravec’s paradox, it’s easy to make computers perform intelligence tests or play chess but difficult or close to impossible to impart the ability to perceive and mobilize like a one-year-old human child. In the digital age, hybrid intelligence will do the significant heavy lifting, bringing human and artificial intelligence together to augment each other. Machine learning algorithms still struggle to apply knowledge to decision-making, planning, and creative activities and find it hard to adapt to dynamic environments. Artificial intelligence is narrow. It may be good at conducting specific, defined tasks that can be mathematically computed and reasoned, but it also fails many times. In this article, we will unveil the importance of hybrid intelligence, the hype around it being the future of AI, and its use cases within various industries. We’re going to discuss:What is hybrid intelligence Why hybrid intelligence is the future Use cases of hybrid intelligence How to get started with hybrid AI What should your next steps be How can KiwiTech help you What is Hybrid Intelligence? Consider a situation where an artificial intelligence system (a BOT) does not understand the term “context.” At such points, human supervision or assistance is required to allow the bot to proceed and ensure that the end user receives a satisfactory response. This is where hybrid intelligence enters the picture. Hybrid intelligence combines the strengths of human intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI) to produce results that ensure an accurate understanding of the context. Why is Hybrid Intelligence the Future? Microsoft’s research titled Hybrid Intelligence and the Future of Work remarks that the performance of automation on perception tasks such as object and speech recognition is approaching human-level abilities. However, the research also notes that “AI systems still have limitations in carrying out complex activities that come natural to humans; machines are far from carrying out a natural dialog with humans or accomplishing a task like trip planning. They also make mistakes that can be upsetting or harmful for users.” The answer is hybrid intelligence if you wonder how AI is deployed in critical industries such as medical diagnosis and autonomous vehicles. In April 2022, McKinsey integrated QuantumBlack, a “sophisticated analytics startup of more than 30 data scientists, data engineers and designers based in London”, and called it the “unified AI arm of McKinsey.” According to Alex Sukharevsky, one of the leaders of QuantumBlack at McKinsey, one thing that didn’t change with the integration was their “original principle of combining the brilliance of the human mind and domain expertise with innovative technology to solve the most difficult problems. We call it hybrid intelligence, and it starts from day one on every project.” Finally, for industrial analytics, hybrid intelligence is where it’s at. According to Francois Laborie for Forbes Technology Council, “if a predictive algorithm fails in the consumer industry, it’s not the end of the world. In asset-heavy industries such as oil and gas, power and utilities, and manufacturing.” In these high-stakes industries, failure from AI can lead to equipment failure, a halt in a process, or even life risk. Hybrid AI is the answer for these reasons: Industrial equipment undergoes operational changes over the years, so even though sensors may have been collecting data in industries, much less is for actual use. So, there are fewer resources you can learn for AI applications. The quality of data from sensors and other IoT devices installed within industrial settings is low as the data is subject to harsh conditions and noise that biases data. Related reading: Should You Indulge in Conversational AI for Your Startup? Use Cases of Hybrid Intelligence New disruptive technologies and data appear everywhere, radically altering all industry sectors. The resulting wave of transformation will reshape competitive landscapes and redefine industry boundaries for the foreseeable future. Medicine research, advanced manufacturing, telecommunications, energy, and autonomous transportation are just a few industries that have already made significant investments to accelerate progress in this area. On the other hand, Hybrid Intelligence is equally applicable and crucial to all industries where high-risk/high-reward expert decision-making plays a role. 1. Intelligence Industry Data integration, deployment, tooling, technology selection, change management, and strategy are all part of the intelligent industry. For example, a pharma R&D drug discovery transformation could entail implementing various technologies and techniques such as data analytics platforms, automation, collecting and purchasing new data sets, mRNA, and new data architecture. All this is to collaborate smoothly within and beyond the department and organization. 2. Crisis Management Hybrid intelligence-powered crisis management systems would significantly transform Crisis Management Hybrid intelligence-powered crisis management systems. Multidimensional big crisis data informatics encompasses massive amounts of data and diverse data sources (which can consist of various data types). Each of these large-scale crisis data sources provides a distinct (but necessarily incomplete) view of what occurred and why it occurred on the ground. How to Get Started with Hybrid AI? Hybrid AI makes artificial intelligence accessible to more and more high-stakes industries. However, the steps further minimize any erroneous implementation of hybrid AI. Lead with strategy What are you trying to achieve? Hybrid AI will be a tool to achieve objectives tactically. How does your hybrid AI strategy align with your business objectives? Do you want to reduce operational costs or accelerate growth? Think of the critical questions before diving into implementation. Fit the technology to solve the problem rather than the other way around. Get access to the data Start considering the information you need to make AI answer questions, albeit with human intelligence integrated into the process. Data can be structured or unstructured depending on the use cases. Sophisticated AI projects also work with streaming data in real time, yielding current insights that are immediately actionable. Implement the tools and infrastructure What does your ideal infrastructure look like in hybrid AI? These tools may allow you to quickly extract value from the underlying data, saving time and cost. Some of these systems may be simple for your internal teams, and others may need external intervention. Know the range of services and techniques you need and how you would want it set up on the cloud, on-premises, or as a hybrid infrastructure. Find or build relevant skills and talent. We find ourselves in the middle of an AI skills crisis. The industry implementing AI is moving faster than universities training people to work with them. In building hybrid AI, you will need domain experts and people with AI skills and knowledge. You can choose to expand or upskill your workforce. Another great option is to hire outsourced consultants or teams to deliver their expertise at a lower cost than is required for hiring talent. What should your next steps be? Combining artificial intelligence with human intelligence can open up newer, more reliable avenues for applying AI systems. The demands for human intelligence and talent are likely to increase as hybrid intelligence gains prominence, which addresses concerns about unemployment stemming from automation. Startups that can move early and fast to make AI more accessible by augmenting it with human intelligence will see success. For a detailed overview of implementing AI for your startup, download our latest white paper here. How can KiwiTech help you? Hybrid Intelligence requires human skill, creativity, and technical mastery to deliver these complex programs. We investigate unusual and complex data challenges that require a thorough understanding of the context and business requirements. Our team members have diverse software, data, applied, and theoretical sciences, engineering, and technology skills. For example, we combine knowledge of how to build AI-enabled systems with domain, cultural, and business process knowledge. Finally, we use our expertise to create strategies that achieve business objectives while remaining sustainable, fair, accountable, transparent, and safe. There is a significant promise in hybrid intelligence and many essential challenges. Get in touch with our AI & ML consultants today!
Can Agile Development Thrive in the Hybrid Workplace? Posted on June 17, 2022June 17, 2022 by Admin A report by Accenture confirmed that 83% of 9,326 workers surveyed prefer a hybrid work model, where they can work from remote locations at least 25% of the time. Organizations with high technical and strategic resilience were already planning hybrid work models even before the worldwide pandemic hit. Data shows that enabling a resilient workforce to be productive and healthy can lead to financial rewards. 63% of high revenue growth companies have already allowed hybrid work models. In contrast, 69% of negative or nil growth companies are still squarely focused on where their people physically work, favoring and rewarding on-site instead of rolling out healthy hybrid work. A Statista report from 2021 states that 73% of employees want flexible remote work options to stay at the end of the pandemic. Organizations not only cut costs through a hybrid workplace but also encourage a healthy work-life balance for their employees, increasing employee loyalty and reducing churn rate, among many other benefits. As many organizations follow Agile methodology, is a hybrid workplace compatible with the workflow they have in place? Let’s dig in deeper. Agile Development and Face-to-face Communication Agile says that face-to-face communication is the best because that was true in 2001 when Agile was defined. The state of technology lacked back then in terms of connectivity software, remote collaboration tools and capabilities, leaving software developers desk-chained. This was two decades ago. Today, remote web cameras, connectivity software and video conferencing tools make remote collaboration possible and even the only viable option in a pandemic. So, we need to redefine what we mean by face-to-face communication to include video conferencing, not just in-person meetings. Agile Supports the Idea of the Hybrid Workplace Gartner quotes Graham Waller, Distinguished VP Analyst, saying, “The agile work process is structured around ley events and ceremonies that happen regularly – for example, a two-week scrum sprint that is repeated again and again. Certain activities happen on certain days, so it becomes even more important in a hybrid environment to get team members together based on critical, not arbitrary, moments”. Well-designed hybrid work models offer employees the autonomy to decide where they want to work, when and how. Agile sprints show how workstreams can be effective with intentional and careful planning in a hybrid work setting. The key activities in a two-week agile sprint are planning, daily scrum, backlog grooming, sprint review and sprint retrospective. While it’s okay for team members to not be in the same room for most of those, it can be precious to bring a team together for, say, a sprint retrospective. A human-centric workflow design, in this case, would amplify in-person moments by combining the sprint retrospective with onboarding, mentoring and team building activities. Tips for Implementing Agile in a Hybrid Scenario As the hybrid work model gains permanence in organizations, it’s important to carefully plan Agile moments and bring transformational changes to how teams operate to accommodate remote work. Here are a few tips: Evolve communication protocols Here are a few communication protocols that evolve cultural norms to create a stronger bridge between in-office and remote workforce: Issue guidelines on when in-person meetings are preferred and times when asynchronous communication can be more appropriate.When scheduling meetings, honor all participant’s timezone and switch up meeting times so that meetings are convenient for every team member. Communicate meeting schedules well in advance so all participants can expect to free up slots in their day.Establish no-meeting periods so that all team members can perform ‘deep work’ without continuous distraction from meetings.When working remotely, encourage members to turn on video and normalize showing up on video in casual clothes, without make-up, with kids sitting in their lap.When facilitating a meeting, encourage everyone to participate and keep each team member involved by using their first names frequently. Boost SRE and test automation Hybrid work is also an opportunity to enhance how people collaborate in your organization. Establishing integrated tools, workflows and responsibilities ensures that each person works productively and efficiently, whether they choose to work from the office or remotely. Hybrid teams can improve release cycles by focusing on testing and the role of site reliability engineers. Site reliability engineering methodology changes user acceptance testing from a checklist on a production to a place where engineering fixes, security, instrumentation and performance are measured. SREs bring reliable, high-quality, secure applications through AIOps, DevOps and test automation to reduce toil, increase productivity, develop insights and prioritize work. Connecting and automating workflows is key to fast-paced hybrid work. Build timezone friendly teams One of the biggest challenges of hybrid work is managing teams with polar timezones and establishing convenient communication schedules. Besides working around the problem, organizations may choose to assemble teams with members who live no more than three timezones away from each other. This ensures an overlapping work schedule so that meetings and collaboration are smooth. Of course, in organizations where this gets hyper-complicated, it helps to establish boundaries around asynchronous communication and switch meeting times. Use empathy The best way to bring hybrid employees together is to build empathy and connection. In offices, employees drop by each other’s workspaces to share a lunch or coffee, better understanding each other’s worlds. Create opportunities for such connection virtually through online social events, group projects, and 1:1 conversations with colleagues. The Agile methodology thrives with better communication and understanding between team members. Analyze and adapt This concept is already a part of Agile but replicate the analyze and adapt concept not just in the project but also in organizational and team design. Ensure that you and your team reflect and adapt to the hybrid environment. This is an exciting place to be- a hybrid work model that allows all of us more freedom with responsibilities. It’s appreciable that the Agile methodology works well with the values and methods of the hybrid workforce. If you’re facing challenges in skilfully implementing Agile for your newly hybrid workplace, speak to one of our Agile / DevOps consultants today.
Leveraging Blockchain Technology in Marketing Posted on June 9, 2022June 9, 2022 by Admin The power of a distributed ledger. There are many reasons to invest the time now to understand the technology and begin exploring specific marketing applications for your industry. Like digital platforms, social media, martech, fintech, and numerous other innovations, the spoils of blockchain may go to early adopters who commit mind blowing innovation. Its transmission model reduces the costs of transactions, enables verification and efficient exchange of ownership, and opens the door to real-time micropayments. It may make it possible for payment frictions to shrink, intermediaries to fade away, and consumers to own and control their personal information. Here, we see the disruptive potential of blockchain in marketing. The Marketing Impact of Near-Zero Transaction Costs Today, financial transactions have considerable costs. Retailers routinely pay credit card companies 3% payment processing fees. Vendors using eBay and Shopify pay listing and sales fees, and consumers pay transaction fees on payment portals like PayPal. These fees increase the cost of goods and are generally passed on to consumers. Blockchain technology allows for near-zero transaction costs—even on microtransactions. Financial corporations like Mastercard and Visa already offer the ability to send money in any local currency over a blockchain rather than swiping a credit card, taking advantage of the technology’s additional layers of security and transparency. On top of that, cutting intermediaries and connecting directly to the banks of both ends of each transaction can avoid most cross-border fees. There are implications for marketers and advertisers as well. Today, marketers often try to access customer data by paying third parties (like Facebook) to share information. But blockchain could allow merchants to use micropayments to motivate consumers to share personal information — directly, without going through an intermediary. For example, a grocery store chain with a mobile app can pay users $1 for installing the app on their phones, plus an extra $1 if they allow it to enable location tracking. Every time they open the app and spend at least a minute on it, the retailer can pay them a few cents or loyalty points’ worth of store credit, up to a maximum per day. During that time, they push deals and special offers to the user. Ending the Google-Facebook Advertising Duopoly A similar model could be used with website ads by compensating consumers for each page view. In 2016, HubSpot published a research study showing that most Internet users dislike pop-ups and mobile ads and see online advertisements as intrusive and negatively disruptive. An increasingly common response is to install ad blockers, a trend that is having a major negative effect on the industry. By 2020, it is estimated that ad-blocking adoption will cost publishers $35 billion. Blockchain-enabled technology potentially allows marketers to recapture some of that revenue with a different model type: marketers pay consumers directly for their attention—and cut out the Google-Facebook layer. According to Harvard Business Research, Blockchain technology will soon threaten the Google-Facebook duopoly in digital advertising. While keyword-based search will not disappear completely, it will become much less prominent. Ending Marketing Fraud and Spam Fraud verification via blockchain will also help verify the origin and methodology of marketers. Micropayments will also effectively destroy the current concept of mass phishing spam that dilutes marketing effectiveness for everyone. Some 135 billion spam emails are sent daily, accounting for 48% of all emails. Spammers receive only one reply for every 12.5 million emails sent. Blockchain could make it difficult for bots to set up fake social media accounts, flood users with deceptive messages, and steal online advertising dollars from big brands. Online authenticity is baked into blockchain technology. It will make the impact of marketing easier to track and marketing expenditures easier to justify — both are big wins for the profession. As of 2016, $7.6B (or 56% of total display ad dollars) was lost to fraudulent or deceptive activity, which is expected to grow to $10.9B in the next few years. By using blockchain technology to track their ads, marketing teams can retain control over all their automation practices, ensure that marketing spend is focused on ROI-generating activities, and directly measure the impact of marketing down to a per-user, per-mail metric. Remonetizing Media Consumption Blockchain-enabled editorial content will likely allow companies to enhance quality control and copyright protection. Online content theft is a pervasive problem, and creators have little recourse to recoup lost monies other than expensive lawsuits.They will automatically and easily receive payments for content usage in the future. In addition, the average person who creates viral content, such as much-watched videos or social posts, could receive compensation for every click. (Currently, they receive little or no money unless their work is shown on online channels with subscribers.) Content creators are empowered to produce relevant work valued proportionally to its success in these scenarios. Better Results for Companies and Consumers As blockchain goes mainstream, all intermediaries will need to adapt their business models. The decision chain will be structurally altered: Individuals will have more control over how they share personal information and spend their time interacting with advertisers. Their nature will stop spam and phishing scams—the more spam spammers, the more unsustainable they become from an economic standpoint. For companies, this could mean higher control over the quality of inbound traffic for all their marketing efforts and a much-needed improved understanding of customers’ behavior. Blockchain technology holds the potential for societies to become more trustworthy and empowered, increasing visibility, connecting parties, and rewarding individuals for their contributions to transactions. These changes fundamentally impact marketing and advertising. Finding ways to design and implement measures to make blockchain-related transformations should be a priority for CMOs and all strategic, financial, and technological decision-makers. Operationally, companies may be able to build new levels of trust with individuals and ultimately connect their products and services with consumers in a manner and scale impossible to achieve without blockchain. Marketing and technology leaders have the potential to leverage blockchain to reinvent their customer relationships. Early action on this far-reaching technology will put companies in the best position to benefit from what we think will be widespread adoption. If you’re a business looking to leverage blockchain to scale your solution and make it market-ready, contact our Blockchain experts today.
Web3 & Metaverse: Key Challenges Posted on June 6, 2022August 18, 2022 by Admin The metaverse is a network(s) of 3D immersive virtual worlds that blur the boundaries between our physical and digital lives. While gaming experts have created immersive environments, the metaverse exaggerates how immersive it can be. The metaverse promises B2B and B2C applications such as trying out clothing or accessories using a digital twin, shopping for real estate, holding conferences and events, and trade shows. Several industries are inching toward this newly promised reality, hoping to get a share of the pie. According to research published by Morgan Stanley, advertising and e-commerce alone represent an $8.3 trillion opportunity in the metaverse to monetize U.S. consumer spending on games, music, apparel, automobile, and real estate. That said, the metaverse comes with its dangers and pitfalls. This piece explores the most prominent challenges in the metaverse. Why Web 3.0 Will Not be Utopian? (Lessons From Web 2.0) Like Web 3.0, Web 2.0 promised a utopian internet where it would directly empower people to stay connected and would transform the world. The world has been transformed, albeit not without consequences. We have interacted with our loved ones from miles away throughout the COVID-19 outbreak through access to the internet and a mobile device. We have built communities around shared interests globally, seen the explosion of social media, and witnessed our lives transform through technology. However, we must not look past the following challenges in our world today: Misinformation spreads on social media and chats mediums like wildfire causing poor consequences.International bad actors can stir up riots and dissent through the comfort of their spaces.Children face cyberbullying and suffer a low mental state.We would lack focus and discipline unless we were raised with proper boundaries around using technology and gadgets.Malicious actors use the same technology to globally gather and carry out evil actions.The human brain struggles to retain information and suffers sensory overload as we didn’t evolve fast enough to meet the pace of technology evolution.Humans today struggle with addiction issues around social media and technology usage, losing their life’s purpose to convenient distractions. None of us predicted these imbalances. Lessons from the advent of Web 2.0 warn us that the metaverse will be no different. It may bear positive possibilities, but it hides ugly aspects of reality that will hit us like bricks. A Statista report highlighted the dangers of the metaverse as per internet users worldwide in 2021. Nearly half of the respondents see “addiction to a simulated reality or virtual world” as the most prominent threat, followed by 41% of respondents concerned about privacy issues and 41% threatened by mental health issues. Related Reading: The Next Evolution of the Internet: From Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 Challenges in the Metaverse Interoperability One of the great achievements for the builders of the metaverse will be to propose one virtual universe that we can all inhabit. However, it is unlikely that the metaverse will be one interoperable space with several players. Those investing in the space, such as Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, are far from considering one collaborative space. However, interoperability being key to the metaverse will warrant an “Umbrella Universe” that other metaverses can rest and interoperate. Thus, Meta’s vision for an Umbrella Universe might become the bridge between all other metaverses that coexist. However, interoperability will stay a challenge until it is realized. Cybersecurity & Safety Submerging into the metaverse means creating more data points than usual. Even though businesses take steps to revolutionize their security systems, data privacy and security are already a concern in the good-old Web 2.0. Cyberattacks have no reason to be less rampant in the metaverse than in the 2D online world today. One can catch a glimpse of potential safety risks in the metaverse in virtual gaming platforms that have already simulated reality, albeit not that immersively. One such grave example is the recreations of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting aimed at very young children found multiple times on the Roblox platform despite significant efforts on the company’s part to stem the tide of such content. Other disturbing events, such as a racist tirade on Facebook’s Oculus Quest VR Headset, have also surfaced, warranting immediate attention and redressal. Digital safety and cybersecurity risks in the metaverse will feel more real than anticipated because our brains can turn immersive experiences into actual emotions and reactions. Identity & Reputation Management Personal identification and representation are straightforward in the real world but get tricky in a space where we come with avatars. How will we be identified in the virtual world where our names or faces don’t matter as much? What will constitute our digital identity? And most importantly, how will a person prove their identity in the digital world? How would an establishment in the metaverse know it’s you and not someone else posing as you? Forging facial features, videos and voice can hamper identity and reputation management in the metaverse, requiring newer identification and authorization systems. Related Reading: Are Metaverses Happening? The Potential for Startups. Financial Systems The metaverse will have its full-fledged version of a marketplace and need financial systems to power those. Digital currencies such as Bitcoin have been around for a while now, and it will be interesting to see how a layman trusts them to carry out transactions in the metaverse. A unique transaction verification system might be the need of the hour to convince users to rely on the underlying system to carry out transactions securely. Law & Jurisdiction A new reality calls for unique processes and laws, requiring nations to dig deeper into virtual legal domains. While users will hold many possibilities in the metaverse, they will also be vulnerable to cruel practices and fraud. It looks like a hefty challenge to set up laws, jurisdictions, and legislation to ensure that the virtual space is secure enough for its inhabitants. One of the methods popularly making rounds is rewarding positive interactions and behaviors in the metaverse to encourage fairness and justice. The metaverse will create a new reality with possibilities, opportunities, and challenges. Have an idea you want to realize for the new reality? Write to us at info@kiwitech.com for a consultation.
Web3: The Next Generation of Internet Posted on May 30, 2022July 28, 2022 by Admin There’s a new buzzword in the tech world that has taken the Internet by storm and has even sparked the curiosity of tech billionaires like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who have shared their thoughts on Web3 on Twitter. While terms like Web3, Crypto and Blockchain have entered the everyday conversations around us, there is still a lack of clarity and understanding on what exactly these terms mean and how they change the entire spectrum of Internet, technology and connectivity. So, this poses questions like- what is Web3? Is it another buzzword or the future of the Internet? Why and how does it matter to us? Origin of The Term Web3 Referred to as the third iteration of the Internet, Tim Bernes-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and one of the earliest predictors of Web3, called it the “Semantic Web” or the “read-write-execute” version of the web that will transform our internet experience and directly engage with users, devices, and systems in smart vehicles, homes and workplaces. In 1999, Lee described it as a web where computers will analyze all internet data, and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking with one another. However, the term Web3 was coined in 2014 by computer scientist Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum blockchain, that presented his idea of Web3, a decentralized and more democratic version of the current Internet built around decentralized blockchain technology that is used by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, non-fungible tokens or NFTs and in the metaverse. Woods told CNBC’s “Beyond the Valley” podcast that Web3 is an alternative vision of the web where a single service provider or data does not host the services and isn’t managed by a centralized service or authority but hosted by everybody. Describing it as a peer to peer network built on trust, Wood added that in Web3, no one has an advantage over anyone else anymore, like in the cases of Amazon, eBay or Facebook, where companies have the absolute power over providing the service. What Does Decentralized Web Mean? Described as a decentralized version of the current Internet, based on blockchain that comprises virtual metaverse, AI models, big data analytics for targeted marketing and cryptocurrency. Based on peer-to-peer technologies, it isn’t controlled by a handful of players like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon; hence, it has no central point of control. However, these same tech giants, from Microsoft to Twitter, are not only taking an interest in Web3 but investing too. Microsoft has recently invested in blockchain start-up ConsenSys, founded by Joseph Lubin in 2014, a co-founder of Ethereum. As in the case of Web2 in the mid-2000s, where players like Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and Google ruled the Internet, the critics question who holds the power of the Internet. In Web3, users take back control of their data and content, eliminating middlemen on the Internet. Focused on user-created content, users would be responsible for their data, making it difficult to manipulate or censor content online and challenging the monopoly of a few tech giants by resting the data and power in users’ hands rather than tech companies. As no single entity owns the data, it becomes almost impossible to shut down the Internet as data is distributed across networks. What Is Blockchain Technology? The key technology behind Web3 is Blockchain which is often associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. In Web3, it will help achieve decentralized storage; hence, users can have independence over their data. Also considered the driving force behind Web3, blockchain, just like Web3, strives for openness and transparency. It renews the way data is stored online by organizing it as blocks with a cryptographic hash to keep it inalterable and secure that is collectively managed, therefore, almost difficult to breach. Imagine it like a network of houses around the globe that one needs to break in to get information, but each with its security systems. Similarly, data is stored in multiple copies in the P2P network and introduces a universal state layer that runs on top of the current Internet, enabling P2P transactions by eliminating intermediaries. Likewise, in the case of the Bitcoin blockchain, it is not controlled by a single entity or a person or a central authority but is a decentralized network maintained globally by a large group of people running specialized computers. Experts believe and rightly so, Web3 isn’t just a buzzword but the future of the Internet, a new infrastructure layer that will power the next generation of computing innovation. Are you looking for Blockchain Consultant Services? Reach out to us today!
Is Your Technology Stack Resilient? Posted on May 24, 2022May 23, 2022 by Admin Digital transformation isn’t a new pursuit for businesses today. Instead of a destination, businesses have started seeing it as a continuum- the further along a company is, the better it will adapt and thrive in the face of change and uncertainty, similar to the COVID-19 pandemic. Download the full whitepaper – Building a Resilient Company in the New Normal Introduction to IT Resilience Until the pandemic struck, organizations were crawling within their comfort zone, looking at digital transformation projects as long-horizon initiatives that stretched into the future. The horizon accelerated into view at a much quicker pace, exposing organizations to their reality of IT resilience. IT resilience is commonly defined as a company’s ability to deal with technology disruption. Organizations with proficient digital capabilities have systematically future-proofed themselves with faster, cheaper and agile ways of working remotely- gaining a competitive advantage over competitors during the pandemic. Moreover, the latest technology helped companies develop newer ways of making themselves available and preferred by their customers. Technological capabilities helped them keep a tab on the market’s pulse and adapt their offerings in-tune with customer needs. Technologically resilient firms continue to thrive in a period of adversity. Although, we can’t say that the pandemic was the only time organizations came across said tech disruption. While global uncertainty peaked during the pandemic, according to the International Monetary Fund and Stanford University, it had been rising for over 30 years, especially in the last decade. Severe Tech Outages and Their Impact In September 2019, the stock of Slack took a 14% dip after its quarterly earnings report revealed that the company took an $8.2 million revenue hit after giving credits to customers following service-level disruptions. In October 2021, Facebook and its family of apps, including WhatsApp and Instagram, faced a six-hour-long outage, rendering its services inaccessible to billions of global users. Technology resilience is a vital aspect of any organization today. The Ponemon Institute estimated the average cost of an unplanned tech outage to be nearly $90,000 per minute. Businesses have been dealing with hundreds of resilience incidents perpetually as the associated expenses escalate both in money and customer satisfaction. When faced with a tech disruption, many companies focus on restoring service and fixing the issue. Understandably, technology teams reach for the solution that would solve the problem in the moment. However, duct-taping gaps might work only so long. Consequently, organizations are constantly grappling with technology flare-ups, fixing one issue before the next one. Let’s look at how startups can build a resilient tech stack and strengthen IT resilience. Download the full whitepaper – Building a Resilient Company in the New Normal Designing a Resilient Tech Stack McKinsey identifies seven critical steps to building a resilient technology stack. Focus on User Journey Instead of focusing on the critical assets- systems and applications- organizations should solve the weakest link in the customer journey. This will help organizations move away from the duct-taping approach and help identify the critical components of the user journey that may make or break their experience. IT resilience, in effect, is not about modernizing applications but about understanding how all applications, API calls and third-party dependencies work in tandem to result in a unified customer journey and then identifying the critical components to strengthen. Risk Management Instead of viewing resiliency as an IT infrastructure issue, companies should take a risk-based approach. The first can be a business-driven, top-down approach that prioritizes journeys related to risk. For instance, companies should ask which customer journeys significantly impact revenue and customer satisfaction. And the second approach can be bottom-up, which calculates a technology component’s risk profile to create a risk profile of that particular asset. A detailed risk profile will include the probability of failure, its impact and the ability to detect and minimize it. Data and Analytics No matter how strong an organization is technologically, there will be IT incidents and related IT data. Many organizations have disparate and legacy tools to handle IT incidents, meaning their data isn’t ripe for insights, discovery and decision-making. By using artificial intelligence and data analytics, organizations can get better insight into the why of tech disruption instead of getting to know only the when. Better data and analytics can inform IT departments and senior leadership around the most common tech disturbances. Design for Anomalies Traditionally, organizations undertake capacity planning and maintain a buffer of 50 percent on top of it for higher traffic. The pandemic resulted in surges in digital traffic to 300 to 500 percent, rendering many legacy systems useless and incapable of handling such traffic. Infrastructure capabilities such as containerized applications can augment capacity across the technical stack and address issues in the middleware, such as message queues. Designing for anomalies means organizations are more resilient to sudden surges in traffic. Automate and Address More resilient organizations continually invest in talent acquisition and reskilling initiatives around DevOps automation. These initiatives enable modern engineering practices such as CI/CD pipelines to automate software deployments. Companies can improve uptime by employing these engineering practices and quickly identify and address IT issues with automation. The One-person Syndrome Delegating too many responsibilities to a few people can be a bottleneck to resiliency. If you notice a few people in your organization helping everyone, knowing how to take care of everything, it’s time to appreciate teams that promote better resilient behaviors team-wide. The one-person syndrome harms an organization in many ways. One of them is it discourages other employees from stepping up and learning how to handle responsibilities and fix gaps. People are also a significant part of your technology stack. Promote resilience within teams. Proactive IT Failure is inevitable and a constant. Companies should get more proactive in identifying gaps in IT before they expand and become glaring. Some methods companies can employ include pre-mortem analysis, chaos engineering, strategy testing and problem simulation. In the big picture, the livelihood of your business and employees depends on the technology working for your customers. A combination of reliability, scalability and redundancy can achieve organizations the needed resilience. Conclusion As organizations accelerated innovation in the wake of the pandemic, they faced severe service disruptions. However, it’s not too late to build more resilient tech organizations. Download the full whitepaper – Building a Resilient Company in the New Normal
Role of Branding in Crowdfunding Campaigns Posted on May 23, 2022May 23, 2022 by Admin If you’re thinking about launching a crowdfunding campaign, it’s important to remember that your success will hinge on more than just your product or service quality. Your brand is also vitally important, and if you don’t put enough thought into it, you could fall short of your fundraising goals. So what exactly is a brand, and why does it matter? Branding is the practice of establishing a company or individual’s unique selling position in the marketplace. What makes you different from your competitors? What value can customers expect from your products and services? Branding helps you communicate these things to potential buyers. Branding is an essential part of any campaign because it allows potential contributors to connect with you and your product deeper, more personally. Your Brand is Your Story Branding in the context of crowdfunding campaigns refers to the association made between a product and its founder. It allows a business or a person a more human side of their product. It will enable you to tell people more about where you came from, how this all started, what you are trying to do, and how it will benefit people allowing a product to be seen not just as something used but also as something that has value. Better Reach It allows your business or project to have more visibility among potential contributors. Everyone likes to contribute to a good cause, but without branding, your project will be left up to the luck of the draw when it comes to attracting support from the people who would most likely want to contribute. In addition, branding in crowdfunding allows people to feel like they are buying into a product and someone’s dream, which makes it that much harder for potential contributors to pass by without helping. It Gives Your Business a Personality It allows a project to have a personality rather than just a cause and product. Branding your crowdfunding campaign is an essential step in allowing potential contributors to see you as a professional business or individual who has passion and drive for their idea. Branding can help encourage supporters to contribute by allowing them to put themselves into an emotional connection between someone’s dream and those who would like to help turn that dream into a reality. It helps potential supporters feel like they are buying into something bigger than just an idea; they support someone’s dream. Forms of Branding Branding means different things for different projects, but it is typically used to help consumers better understand and relate to a product. Branding for a crowdfunding campaign should be similar to the branding of any other product — clean and straightforward. You should keep it consistent throughout all elements of your project: main video, supplementary videos, rewards, and social media pages. Branding can come in many forms, such as photography or public appearances. However, it is essential for crowdfunding because it allows potential contributors to connect with you and your product on a deeper, more personal level. Crowdfunding as a Brand Building Strategy Crowdfunding is a way to communicate who you are and what you do in a professional, personal, and memorable manner. Branding for crowdfunding is slightly different from branding in other contexts because you are trying to convince contributors that your project will do well and that you will be able to deliver on your promises. It can help by making potential contributors feel connected with your product and, therefore, more likely to trust you. So, if you are planning to launch a crowdfunding campaign, you must think about your branding strategy and how it can help you achieve your goals. Your brand should be consistent with the message you’re trying to send with your crowdfunding campaign – after all, this is the first impression potential backers will have of your project. If you take the time to create a powerful and effective branding strategy for your crowdfunding campaign, you’ll be more likely to reach your funding goals and build a successful brand in the process.
The Current State of DeFi and Potential for Startups Posted on May 12, 2022May 23, 2022 by Admin The introduction of decentralized finance has been pivotal, offering us yet another chance to build a digital economy- one that is decentralized. Applications on the blockchain work in tandem, and the information they store is visible to all. This evokes the idealism of the internet’s first architects, back before tech giants built up walled gardens and we embraced them. DeFi enables its users to get loans, trade assets and store deposits. Since 2020, the total value of assets locked in DeFi protocols has grown from $1bn to over $200bn at the beginning of 2022. This value refers to all deposits locked in the form of cryptocurrencies for staking, lending, liquidity pool and more. Understanding DeFi and its place in Web 3.0 The idea behind DeFi is that blockchains- decentralized databases distributed over many nodes worldwide and secured by cryptography- can replace intermediaries in financial transactions, like banks and tech platforms. Through DeFi lending, users can lend out cryptocurrencies, like a traditional bank operates with fiat money, and earn interest as lenders. Borrowing and lending are the most popular use cases of the DeFi, besides more complex ones like becoming a liquidity provider and liquidity farmer to a decentralized exchange. It’s possible now on smart contract blockchains like Ethereum. Smart contracts are programs that run on the blockchain and execute automatically when certain conditions are met. These contracts are why developers can build sophisticated functionality rather than simply sending and receiving crypto assets. The functionalities are held in decentralized apps or dapps. Today, DeFi apps allow us to create stablecoins (cryptocurrencies with their value pegged to the USD), lend money and earn interest on crypto, take out a loan, exchange assets and implement advanced investment strategies. DeFi apps differ from traditional counterparts in that they are decentralized, not managed by an institution, transparent, global, permissionless, flexible and interoperable. All of that to say that Web 3.0 is focused on decentralized data, is more open and powered by distributed ledger technology, AI and ML. DeFi, tokenization of assets, distributed ledgers, online gaming, CDBC, NFTs and P2P transfers are all use cases of Web 3.0. What was wrong with Ethereum? How DeFi is Emerging Ethereum, one of the leading DeFi platforms, is losing its near-monopoly. Ethereum was created in 2015 as a general-purpose version of Bitcoin, whose database stores transactional information about the associated cryptocurrency, providing proof of who owns how much at any time. The current blockchain technology is unwieldy with mechanisms such as “proof of work”, where computers or nodes solve mathematical problems to verify transactions in exchange for a reward. This computation slows down the network and limits capacity. Bitcoin can process seven transactions per second, while Ethereum only handles 15. During busy hours, transactions are either painfully slow or astonishingly expensive. DeFi’s backers brag about being able to transact securely without centralized intermediaries. In early 2021, all assets locked in DeFi applications resided on Ethereum’s network. But, in a recent report by JP Morgan Chase, the share of DeFi applications using Ethereum fell to 70% by the end of 2021. Growing networks such as Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, Solana and Terra now use a more efficient mechanism called “proof of stake”. Avalanche and Solana both process thousands of transactions in a second. As long as Decentralized Finance holds promise and attention, competition will continue to be fierce for the network of choice. Related Reading: Are Metaverses Happening? The Potential for Startups Quantifying DeFi Adoption and Future Trends In 2021, the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies hit $3tn for the first time from $800bn at the beginning of 2021. Here are a few trends taking place as you read and some we are looking at into the future: Metaverse – The year 2021 was all about the metaverse. Facebook rebranded itself as Meta and highlighted its focus alongside multiple other organizations such as Epic Games, Coinbase, Microsoft and Tencent joining the game. While the hype continues and we see brands investing in the future of virtual reality as it is, 2022 and a few next years will be profoundly developmental in the building of the metaverse. As per Grayscale Investments, the metaverse is to become a trillion-dollar revenue opportunity. NFTs – Non-fungible tokens are growing in criticality, evident from OpenSea’s $13.3bn valuation after a Series C funding round. The NFT aggregator and marketplace continues to dominate decentralized platforms, as other competitors give it a run for its money. OpenSea hit an all-time high of $5bn in monthly trading volume between Ethereum and its marketplace Polygon in Jan 2022. According to Deloitte, between four to five million sports fans globally will purchase or be gifted an NFT sports collectible in 2022. NFTs will also play an integral role in giving gamers ownership of their digital assets purchased within a game, highlighting its significance in the gaming industry. Virtual real estate – Prices on digital property in the metaverse rose 700% in 2021. Rapper Snoop Dog built an interactive Snoopverse, in which users can pay as much as they would to buy a physical house in the real world to become his virtual neighbors. All these quantifiable trends point us to the fact that Web 3.0 or the metaverse is just beginning to take shape and that DeFi will be an integral part of it. Related Reading: How Crypto and Blockchain are Changing the Online Gaming Industry The Potential for Startups in DeFi Every financial service can be rebuilt and redesigned with DeFi for better accessibility, efficiency and innovation. Explosive growth creates opportunities for startups. As DeFi continues to grow, it is upon enthusiasts and developers to figure out how they can create space for themselves in the metaverse. While the total addressable market for DeFi financial services is not yet quantifiable, the opportunity can be predicted by the state of DeFi today. Therefore, startups can be sure of the growth. To know how KiwiTech helps startups innovate and compete in the metaverse, learn more about our blockchain development services.