Category Archives: Automation

Automation Robotics is dedicated to improving productivity and cutting the cost of your operation. Whatever your needs, our engineering expertise and robotic knowledge make us the ideal partner. Find out what we can do for you today. While most applications have become standardised, we have discovered a surge in the use of automation, especially robotics, by companies looking for improved productivity, economy, quality and safety. For each application there are endless configuration possibilities to adapt our robots. Our most popular machine, the 6-axis robot is versatile enough to be utilised for multiple applications in a range of environments. We also have more specialized robots that cater to more specific jobs. Standard System Packages at affordable prices, and an unswerving commitment to quality engineering, design and manufacture, gives PAK Automation a significant competitive edge in the global robotic packaging industry. Our sales territory stretches through Europe to the Far East, our area of expertise is backed up with a client list that includes household names and SMEs in industries with a tradition of automation, as well as some surprising sectors where automation is a new departure. Read More

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Because of complex sales cycles that often require multiple exchanges with prospects through email and other channels, business-to-business (B2B) marketers rely on automation technology to take repetitive tasks off marketers plates. Its not surprising, then, that business and industry companies accounted for 41% of all companies using marketing automation worldwide in 2016, according to data from agency Bold Digital and marketing tech firm SimilarTech.

Business-to-consumer (B2C) sales cycles are typically much shorter, so the need for marketing automation technology isnt as dire. But that doesnt mean B2C marketers arent using automation. Companies in the internet and telecom space, for example, accounted for almost 10% of those using automation.

Other industries are implementing marketing automation as well. Retail (shopping) brands 5% accounted for 5% of users, and travel companies made up 2%, according to the study.

The adoption of automation technology could be even greater if it werent for tight budgets and other obstacles. According to a February 2017 survey from email marketing provider GetResponse, 36.1% of B2B and B2C email marketers said securing funds for marketing automation technology was a challenge.

Bad data could be a culprit as well35% of marketers in the survey named the quality of customer data as a top challenge.

As the marketing technology landscape continues to grow, the increasing number of available automation tools can be overwhelming for marketers. More than one-third (35%) of marketers said having the knowledge to set up different types of automation was an issue, according to GetResponse.

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Marketing Automation Isn't Just for B2Bs Anymore - eMarketer

The world is becoming increasingly automated.

ForMSPs, this means the key to success is identifying processes that can't be automated and building service offerings around them.

In today's software economy, automation is king.

Automation is the only way you can build large systems at scale.

It's also essential for optimizing maintenance costs and resource consumption.

Tools that provide automation are everywhere you look.

They include solutions like Continuous Integration servers (like Jenkins and Bamboo), orchestrators for cloud infrastructure and containers (such asKubernetes) and Infrastructure-as-Code engines (like Chef andAnsible), to name just a few examples.

You Can't Automate Everything

If you're in the managed IT services business, the proliferation of automation tools may seem threatening.

MSPsmake money by providing services that their clients don't want to provide themselves.

If clients can automate those services using software tools, the burden of providing them becomes smaller, and the clients may no longer seek the help ofMSPs.

However, not all IT tasks and processes can be automated.

MSPswho want to survive the automation revolution need to identify services that are difficult to automate, such as:

Network architecture planning. Software tools can help monitor and manage computer networks. They may also be able to automate some aspects of policy configuration. But planning a network architecture is a complicated task that can't be consigned to a tool.

Security. There is no shortage of tools to help secure networks and data. However, tools alone can't prevent security breaches. (If they could, we would not have so many breaches.) Organizations need security experts to help them protect their assets against attackers.

Data recovery. Data backups are easy to automate, but restoring data following a major failure requires expertise and manual control. This is a serviceMSPscan provide.

Hardware maintenance. No matter how sophisticated software tools become, they can't fix broken disks or dispose of decommissioned hardware.MSPscan do these things and more as part of managed hardware services.

Software support. Tools can automate software maintenance to a large extent. Sooner or later, however, every organization runs into a support problem with an application or infrastructure that can't be solved by a script. This is when manual intervention from an expert becomes a necessity.

Forward-thinkingMSPsshould build managed services offerings around needs like those listed above.

These are the areas where organizations will continue to need help even after they have automated the rest of their software delivery processes.

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Managed IT Services: How MSPS Can Survive the Automation Revolution - MSPmentor

To defeat cyber crime, humans and robots are going to have to learn to work together. A new McAfee report released today sees a best case scenario where human threat hunters team with automation and machine learning technology to fight back against digital thieves.

The report Disrupting the Disruptors, Art or Science? makes it clear humans acting without help cant deal with the volume of data needed to thwart cyber attacks. It also stresses that one hand washes the other when it comes to the partnership between humans and technology in the fight against cyber attacks.

The new report classifies companies as mature and immature. The immature ones give their human cyber criminal hunters sophisticated tools and data and turn them loose in an ad hoc manner. But as these businesses mature, they come to rely on automation, analytics and other tools and refine their hunting techniques. The survey shows that once these processes are fully intertwined, the companies that are the most mature are more than twice as likely to automate large parts of their cyber crime investigations.

The results are 70 percent of these investigations are closed in a week or less. This compares with a rate of less than 50 percent for companies that havent optimized this balance between humans and machines.

Mo Cashman, Enterprise Architect and Principal Engineer for McAfee makes an important point about not putting the cart before the horse in the companys Threat Hunting Report Executive Summary.

This research highlights an important point: mature organizations think in terms of building capabilities to achieve an outcome and then think of the right technologies and processes to get there. Less mature operations think about acquiring technologies and then the outcome, Cashman writes.

The tools these firms use also vary with their maturity levels. For example, the organizations classified as the most mature are more than three times more likely to consider using various automation tools. These include user behavior analysis, endpoint detection and response as well as sandboxing. As the name suggests, sandboxing is about isolating suspicious programs or code so they can be tested separately without endangering your systems.

Customizing and optimizing also play key roles for the more successful organizations. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) coupled with custom scripts are just two of the techniques used to automate processes. The human cybercrime fighters working in more mature firms spend 70 percent more time customizing techniques and tools.

The report also underlines the correct use of threat intelligence as another secret sauce to getting the best results.

The processes comes down to combining human judgement and intuition with pattern recognition and speed of automation. The report also stresses that human decision making can make a big difference. It notes successful teams fighting cyber security breaches use a tried and tested process. The Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act template was first documented byU.S. Air Force Colonel John Boyd .

The McAfee report surveyed 700 IT and security experts from firms with 1,000 to more than 5,000 employees worldwide.

Realistically, if you start your business from a laptop on your kitchen table or in the den, you may not have an IT team. But its probably a mistake to believe youll be too small to avoid the notice of cyber criminals.

And after your business has lost important client data, its too late to be thinking what you might have done. One thing the MacAfee survey highlights is the partnership between human judgement and automation.

Even in the early days, look for software and apps that can help you automate some of your security. Youll need to pay attention and update your systems regularly when patches and security improvements become available. Combine human judgement and automation to keep your data safe even when you cant afford an IT team.

Image: McAfee

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Defeating Cyber Attacks on Your Business Will Require Humans and Automation - Small Business Trends

Oxford University's Carl Benedikt Frey is no stranger to controversy. He burst onto the public stage back in 2013 with apaperhighlighting the risks various professions faced of automation in the coming years. He then followed that up with a study exploring the impact of Uber on the taxi industry earlier this year.

It is to automation however that Frey returns, with his colleagues Thor Berger and Chinchih Chen analyzing the voting record of Americans in last year's Presidential election, and cross referencing that with the risk of automation of the professions held by voters.

The authors wanted to explore whether those whose jobs were at risk would be more likely to vote for radical political parties. The analysis revealed that electoral districts where automation was more prevalent were significantly more likely to vote for Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton.

A 5% increase in jobs lost to automation in the past was associated with a 10% increase in voter share for Donald Trump. The authors believe it's the first analysis linking automation with political outcomes.

Our study suggests that automation has been the real cause of voters concern, Frey says. The prime victims of theComputer Revolution (the period starting with the arrival of the personal computer in the 1980s, through to the development of the internet in the 1990s)want anything but the status quo. The populist rebellion in America, Europe, and elsewhere, has many causes, but workers losing out to technology is seemingly the main reason.

Suffice to say, given Frey's earlier work, he believes that this is only the beginning of such phenomenon and that as automation kicks up a gear, people will be increasingly attracted to radical politicians for answers to their situation. Frey likens the 2016 election with the political upheaval caused by the industrial revolution in Britain, where the Luddite rebellion raged against the machines that they believed were destroying their livelihoods.

He predicts that there are many countries where the risk of automation is higher, and therefore the risk of political upheaval is similarly high. Political leaders are therefore forewarned that their own jobs may be about to be disrupted.

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Are Trump Voters More At Risk Of Automation? | HuffPost - HuffPost

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BLACK HAT - McAfee, one of the worlds leading cybersecurity companies, today announced several new innovations that expand machine learning and automation capabilities to strengthen human-machine teams. Plus, McAfee announces support of OpenDXL.com, a new, independent collaboration portal that offers forums, free apps and more, giving OpenDXL users easy access to ideas and resources available for application integrations. These new advances build upon the companys commitment to innovation, collaboration and trust, bringing McAfees mantra Together is Power to life.

Todays security teams are facing 244 new cyber threats every minute, amid a serious talent shortage. Siloed security, without automation, managed by overwhelmed teams is not a sustainable defense strategy, said Raja Patel, Vice President and General Manager, Corporate Security Products, McAfee. Expanded machine learning and integrated analytics are part of McAfees vision for a fundamental shift in the way humans and machines work together to secure our digital world. By aligning the strengths of humans and machines, organizations elevate their operational maturity to better defend against the cyber threats we face todayand tomorrow.

Machine Learning and Automation

McAfee technology seeks to improve the way humans and machines work together to protect the digital enterprise, through implementation of an intelligent security platform, that takes advantage of powerful new technologies, such as machine learning and automation. McAfee Advanced Threat Defense (ATD) software now joins the growing portfolio of McAfee products that incorporate machine learning, including McAfee Endpoint Security with Real Protect and McAfee Global Threat Intelligence (GTI).

The newly released McAfee ATD v4.0 software introduces an innovative deep learning technique to enhance detection and expands advanced analysis capabilities within email attachments, resulting in more comprehensive protection across the network as new threat intelligence and reputation updates are shared throughout the ecosystem. New capabilities include:

New enhancements for McAfee Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) include integrated, patented countermeasure-aware risk analysis to help security operations teams identify threats and assess the impact of new vulnerabilities, as well as new support for critical SOC use cases.

Fully Unified Data Loss Prevention

McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint, DLP Prevent, DLP Discover and DLP Monitor are now fully unified. New capabilities include:

Dynamic Endpoint Protection

McAfees dynamic endpoint protection collaborates across products, allowing new technology to easily integrate without a complete architecture rebuild, and leverages machine learning to improve detection capabilities. New capability includes:

Continued Commitment to Open Source and Industry Collaboration

McAfee believes that no one person, product or organization can fight cybercrime alone, which is why McAfee announced the OpenDXL initiative in 2016, launching an open industry standard for all developers to increase integration flexibility, simplicity and opportunity. McAfee has now expanded its commitment to open source through support of a new, independent open source community, OpenDXL.com. This vibrant, collaborative portal includes:

The McAfee Security Innovation Alliance, the industrys premiere technology partner program, providing a truly integrated and connected security ecosystem, welcomes twelve new members:

For more information on McAfee you can visit the following:

About McAfee

McAfee is one of the worlds leading independent cybersecurity companies. Inspired by the power of working together, McAfee creates business and consumer solutions that make the world a safer place. http://www.mcafee.com/

No computer system can be absolutely secure. McAfee and the McAfee logo are trademarks of McAfee, LLC in the United States and other countries. Other marks and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

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McAfee Expands Machine Learning, Automation Capabilities to Strengthen Human-Machine Teams - Business Wire (press release)

Recently, McDonald's shares hit an all-time high, buoyed by Wall Street's expectations that investments in automation technologies will drive business value: As part of its "Experience of the Future" initiative, McDonald's announced plans to roll out digital ordering kiosks that will replace cashiers in 2,500 of its locations. The company will also extend its customer self-service efforts, deploying mobile ordering at 14,000 locations.

Given McDonald's bold bet, where does your company currently stand in its use of automation technologies to transform your workforce and reshape customer experience?

The forward march of automation technologies -- which include hardware (e.g. robots, digital kiosks), software (e.g. AI), and customer self-service (e.g. mobile ordering) -- continues to reshape the world economy. Automation has already started to reshape every company's workforce, including yours.

Leaders across all roles, companies, and verticals are taking note. My research on the future of jobs caught the attention of many business leaders when Forrester forecasted that automation will cannibalize 17 percent of US jobs by 2027, partly offset by the growth of 10 percent new jobs from the automation economy. Most importantly, we see human-machine teaming as a key workforce trend in the future, as more and more human employees find themselves working side-by-side with robotic colleagues.

To follow up on this research, I recently published a second report that digs deeper into the automation technologies, robotics, and AI in the workforce that will reshape how work is done. As automation technologies become more prevalent, organizations need long-term strategic plans for their workforce.

Why? For starters, companies face the new challenge of implementing and managing a mixed human/machine workforce. To navigate this world, they must understand the use cases and relative maturity of key technologies that will power this new era, then build a strategic plan to support long-term investments.

In this research, Forrester identified and evaluated twelve key automation categories -- including virtual agents, retail/warehouse robots, and cognitive AI -- that will drive change in the workforce. Our analysis groups these technologies into specific maturity phases and their potential for business value creation. Here are a few key takeaways:

There are five automation technologies that have proven to be more than just an idea -- and all have received investments from companies like AWS, IBM, and Microsoft. One of the five, AI solutions solving complex problems, will grow to $48.5 billion by 2021. An example in this category is that in 2000, Goldman Sachs employed 600 equity traders; Today, the investment firms employs only two -- but it has hired 200 computer engineers to support automated trading efforts.

Automation technologies with longer histories are seeking reinvention, and three of the technologies I analyzed fall into this category. For example, while industrial robots have operated at scale since the 1980s, they're now transforming due to current technologies and are working better with humans as a result.

Read also: Prepare for increasing 'nation-state' cyberattacks with strategy, not technology | How to get in front of digital disruption | The shift away from bimodal is already happening and CIOs need to get on board -- fast | Three key challenges that could derail your AI project

Because the AI and robotics technologies evaluated in this research are immature, enterprises must tread carefully. While some automation solutions -- like robotic process automation (RPA) or self-service kiosks -- have broad deployments to learn from, in other cases you'll be at the vanguard of inventing the future. But it's imperative to experiment now, because over the next five years, companies that fail to bring robots into their workforce will under-perform those that do it well.

In the end, enterprises need to develop a strategic plan as automation technologies continue to change the workforce. To start, companies can benchmark their use of a wide variety of automation technologies against their maturity, tap into technologies they've not previously deployed (but that are making a big impact on other companies), and begin to develop their own five-to-10-year strategic digital workforce transformation plan around automation.

J.P. Gownder is a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.

Interested in hearing more? Listen to Forrester's 'What It Means' podcast where I discuss the future of jobs and how these technologies are changing the workforce.

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The future of jobs: Automation technologies, robotics, and artificial intelligence - ZDNet

Introduction Smart homes are homes which have enough home automation within them to be almost fully automated (at least according to the standards of the day), and they are becoming more and more common around the world. The internet of things is partially responsible for the recent explosion in smarty homes, as the new ways in which appliances can now be connected to each other and the homeowner continue to expand. Linear actuators and motion systems are two other pieces of technology which have also revolutionised the home automation scene, as they both, in their own ways, have changed the way in which it can work. Electric actuators are extremely useful pieces of equipment, as they can be used in a number of different applications to improve and expand on their previous functions. Its a similar story with motion systems they can allow for more home automation to occur, and for the home automation which already exists to be expanded upon and given new functions. There are a number of companies which specifically focus on home automation, all of which have different focuses which could be interesting to people who want to expand their own home.

Inorganic Mind Automation This company has focused primarily on what they have termed the iSwitchBox; a centralised piece of equipment which helps people to run their smart home. The iSwitchBox keeps track of all the individual automated devices which are present and running in a home, by linking with them all, and providing information when needed. The iSwitchBox is both iOS and Android enabled, so homeowners can link to it remotely, and use it to control their home. The company designed the iSwitchBox to be able to co-ordinate timers and schedules for all the various pieces of home automation, meaning that homeowners do not have to. The company also created a means for the iSwitchBox to be able to communicate with linked home automation through a local network, so that it could still function without any internet. Dome Home Automation This company does not focus on one specific piece of equipment, but instead produces a number of different things, including motion sensors, door sensors, and smart plugs. These are fairly common parts of the home automation package, and Dome Home Automation has a high standard for all of them. Where the company moves away from the expected smaller pieces of automation technology is in the package that is offered along with it a leak and flood protection package, to keep damage to a minimum. These packages include sensors which are specifically designed for notifying home owners of a problem, as well as the means to shut off the water.

Halo Home What does the tagline Intelligent Luxury mean to you? According to Halo Home, it should conjure up images of high quality, functional home automation devices; ones which are minimalistic and artful in a way that others arent. The company itself has only just launched, but they promise all of the above descriptions in their promotional material, and the website they have seems to bear the promises out. Postal Notice Postal Notice is an unusual company because it allows for the use of an existing system (the GPS system used for the postal service) to be re-appropriated for use in telling people when their home automation devices are going to come in.

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Top Automation Companies Who Will Run Your Home - Nibletz

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said hes optimistic about the potential for Google Assistant, and the voice-activated Google Home speaker that it powers.

Pichai said the Assistant SDK released in April should bolster the number of devices developers can create that tap into the power of Google Assistant. He noted that there are now more than 70 home automation partners that let users control devices using Assistant on Google Home and phones including Honeywell, Logitech, and LG.

And he said the company is investing in this area by beefing up the headcount and marketing dollars dedicated to these products.

People are no longer only using a keyboard, mouse, and multi-touch, but are also using emerging inputs like voice and camera to ask questions and get things done in the real world, he said during an earnings call with analysts on Monday. We are seeing this in the way people interact with the Google Assistant, which is already now available on more than 100 million devices since launching last year, and there is more to come.

Interestingly, Google last mentioned Assistant is available on 100 million Android devices in May. The fact the company didnt update the figure suggests Home isnt growing very quickly and neither is Assistant on iPhone, which arrived in May.

The market for virtual assistants has become hot over the last couple of years thanks to the success of Amazons Echo and Dot devices powered by Alexa.In a report released in May, eMarketer said 35.6 million Americans use a voice-activated assistant device as of April, up128 percent from the previous year.

Alphabet and Amazon also face competition from Microsofts Cortana and Apples Siri.

Google Assistant should get a further boost as Alphabet rolls out Google Home to more geographies. Besides the U.S., its now available inCanada, Australia, and the U.K. And in early August, it will go on sale in France and Germany.

We are very focused over the long-term on making sure the Assistant can actually help people get things done in the real world, Pichai said.

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Google Assistant now has 70 home automation partners - VentureBeat

The combination of Raytheon and CyberSponse capabilities will give existing security operations centers the ability to collect data and react at near machine speed. This approach improves the efficiency of security operations by removing the time consuming and repetitive manual tasks found throughout the incident response lifecycle.

"Our enhanced offering enables our expert human defenders to do what they do best: hunt for more sophisticated, evolving threats," said Mark Orlando, chief technology officer for Raytheon's managed security services business.

SOC orchestration, the method of connecting security tools and data, and automation platforms are gaining traction in the security product market because they automate time-consuming incident response tasks across multiple point security products and case management tools.

"CyberSponse's advanced technology coupled with Raytheon's expertise in managed security services bring together a powerful combination of experience and technology to advance protective measures for customers," said Larry Johnson, CEO of CyberSponse. "Our collaboration with Raytheon enhances our security automation platform which is essentially the central nucleus of security operations teams and toolsets."

About CyberSponseCyberSponse is an automated orchestration engine that fills the gap between automation-only and human dependent security platforms. The CyberSponse Operations Platform permits automation of security tools within an incident management console for easy use and rapid deployment. CyberSponse is backed by a team of self-made entrepreneurs looking to disrupt the security industry with true grit, hard work, and innovative execution. For more information visit CyberSponse or follow us on Twitter.

About RaytheonRaytheon Company, with 2016 sales of $24 billion and 63,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 95 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5ITM products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Follow us on Twitter.

Media ContactRaytheonKate Goulding +1.571.250.2426 iispr@raytheon.com

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Raytheon enhances cyber threat hunting with CyberSponse automation tools - PR Newswire (press release)