Yonas Tibebu

Infrastructure as code (IaC) is an approach to software development that treats physical compute, storage and network fabric resources as web services and allows apps to run where they are best suited, based on cost and performance data. Essentially, IaC negates the need for software engineers to be concerned with the physical location of infrastructure components. Instead, when a software application requests infrastructure to run, available services are located through an automated discovery process and resources are allocated on demand. When an infrastructure resource is no longer required, it is re-appropriated so it can be allocated to another application that needs it. Examples of IaC tools include AWS CloudFormation, Red Hat Ansible, Chef, Puppet, SaltStack and HashiCorp Terraform. Each of these tools has its own way of defining infrastructure, and each allows an administrator to define a service without having to configure a physical infrastructure. These to...

An artificial neuron is a connection point in an artificial neural network. Artificial neural networks, like the human body's biological neural network, have a layered architecture and each network node (connection point) has the capability to process input and forward output to other nodes in the network. In both artificial and biological architectures, the nodes are called neurons and the connections are characterized by synaptic weights, which represent the significance of the connection. As new data is received and processed, the synaptic weights change and this is how machine learning occurs. Artificial neurons are modeled after the hierarchical arrangement of neurons in biological sensory systems. In the visual system, for example, light input passes through neurons in successive layers of the retina before being passed to neurons in the thalamus of the brain and then on to neurons in the brain's visual cortex. As the neurons pass signals through an increasing num...

Deepfake is an AI-based technology used to produce or alter video content so that it presents something that didn't, in fact, occur. The term is named for a Reddit user known as deepfakes who, in December 2017, used deep learning technology to edit the faces of celebrities onto people in pornographic video clips. The term, which applies to both the technologies and the videos created with it, is a portmanteau of  deep learning  and  fake . Deepfake video is created by using two competing AI systems -- one is called the generator and the other is called the discriminator. Basically, the generator creates a fake video clip and then asks the discriminator to determine whether the clip is real or fake. Each time the discriminator accurately identifies a video clip as being fake, it gives the generator a clue about what not to do when creating the next clip. Together, the generator and discriminator form something called a generative adversarial netwo...

A customer data platform (CDP) is software that allows non-technical marketers to digitally manage customer relationships easily and efficiently. The term was coined by martech consultant David Raab in 2013. Raab defines CDP as any system that can gather customer data from multiple sources, identify when data is related to the same customer, perform predictive analytics using the database and allow marketers to use the results to make informed decisions. A customer data platform combines customer data from internal and external sources in a variety of formats, including structured and unstructured data, to create a single profile for each customer. In addition to being able to handle queries like a regular database, CDP software can also include tools for data management and operations, along with ancillary features, such as analytics and reporting. Some CDP products also use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in their feature set. Many vendors h...

Immersive virtual reality (immersive VR) is the presentation of an artificial environment that replaces users' real-world surroundings convincingly enough that they are able to suspend disbelief and fully engage with the created environment. Immersiveness is an important element of virtual reality applications, such as VR gaming and VR therapy. Immersiveness is usually considered on a scale or along a continuum, from least immersive to fully immersive. Typically, user engagement will vary accordingly, although to some extent dependent on individual differences. An inadequately immersive environment will not engage the user, while one that completely replicated the real world could have unpredictable psychological effects. To date, the latter scenario is not an issue because that level of immersiveness has not been achieved. Elements of virtual environments that increase the immersiveness of the experience: Continuity of surroundings: The user must be able to look ar...

Privilege creep is the gradual accumulation of access rights beyond what an individual needs to do his or her job. In information technology, a privilege is an identified right that a particular end user has to a particular system resource, such as a file folder or virtual machine. Privilege creep often occurs when an employee changes job responsibilities within the organization and is granted new privileges. While an employee may need to retain his or her former privileges during a period of transition, those privileges are rarely revoked and result in an unnecessary accumulation of access privileges. Privilege creep, which is a common problem in IT organizations of all sizes, creates a two-fold security risk. First, an employee with excess privileges may be tempted to use those privileges inappropriately. Second, if an intruder gains access to an end user's account -- and that end user has excess privileges -- the intruder will also have excess privileges. Either scena...

BlueKeep (CVE-2019-0708) is a vulnerability in the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) that can affect the Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Server 2003 and Server 2008 operating systems. Microsoft is urging computer users running these versions of Windows to update their operating systems as soon as possible. A BlueKeep exploit has the potential to spread in a worm-like fashion and self-replicate without requiring any user interaction. According to Microsoft, an attacker could potentially send specially crafted malware packets to an unpatched Windows operating systems that has RDP enabled. After successfully sending the packets, the attacker would then have the ability to perform a number of actions, including adding new user accounts, installing malicious programming and making changes to data. BlueKeep proof of concept (PoC) exploits for denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and limited remote code execution (RCE) on unprotected systems have been demonstrated by researchers f...

Free cooling is an approach to lowering the air temperature in a building or data center by using naturally cool air or water instead of mechanical refrigeration. In actual practice, free cooling is not entirely free, because pumps, fans and other air/water-handling equipment are needed, and that equipment also requires periodic repairs and maintenance. The prevailing air at many latitudes and elevations can be considerably cooler during certain seasons and times of day than the air that is warmed by data center equipment. By filtering, humidifying and introducing cooler prevailing air directly into the data center, it is possible to reduce or eliminate the use of industrial-grade CRAC systems. Cooling systems that use this approach are sometimes called air-side economizers. Alternatively, a source of cold water from local rivers, lakes or ocean sources can be circulated into a data center and used instead of undergoing the traditional method of refrigerating a close...

A flaky test is a quality assurance (QA) test that fails to produce consistent results. Typically, a flaky test using the same software code and the same configuration will produce both a passing result and a failing result. Whenever new code is written to develop or update computer software, a web page or an app, it needs to be tested for quality assurance. Ideally, each time the code is tested, the results are consistent. The code will either work as expected and pass the test, or not work as expected and fail the test. Sometimes, however, QA tests on the exact same code, using the exact same configurations, will produce inconsistent results. When this happens, the test is labeled "flaky." Unfortunately, flaky tests are not uncommon -- Google, for example, reports that 16 percent of its tests show some level of flakiness. Flaky tests can be caused by various factors, including: an issue with the newly-written code an issue with the test itself some external...

Design thinking is an iterative approach to problem solving that intentionally seeks out people with different perspectives, knowledge, skills and experience and has them work together to create a practical solution for a real-world problem. Design thinking uses a process-based approach to solve problems and like any process, it involves a series of steps that are carried out in a particular order to achieve a goal. In this case, the goal is to identify a solution that is capable of succeeding, can be carried out in a timely manner and is likely to be accepted by all stakeholders. The five steps in design thinking are empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. Empathize  - This step involves interviewing stakeholders and asking open-ended questions. The goal is to learn more about the problem from multiple perspectives. Define  - This step involves synthesizing all the information that was gathered during the previous step and arriving at a group co...

Presentation management is the supervised creation, distribution, updating and publishing of messages and visuals in presentations across an entire enterprise. Managing presentations strategically encourages organizations to treat all internal and external presentations as communication assets. Businesses use presentations every day to convey information. Despite the critical role that presentations play, many organizations overlook the workflows around the creation and distribution of these assets. For example, PowerPoint presentations can be found scattered across network folders, laptop desktops and old email chains. As a result, when it is time to create a new presentation, an employee might waste time searching through old decks with outdated slides, before piecing together a one-off presentation that contains off-brand imagery and inaccurate information. Presentation management software allows businesses to control the brand and message across the entire enterprise...

Data management-as-a-Service (DMaaS) is a type of cloud service that provides enterprises with centralized storage for disparate data sources. The label "as-a-service" references a pay-per-use business model that does not require the customer to purchase or manage infrastructure for data management. In this business model, the customer backs up data to the DMaaS service provider. This is typically done by installing agents on the data sources being backed up, although in the case of cloud data sources, a simple authentication process may be the first step. DMaaS is typically an operating expense that goes up and down based on how much service the customer is consuming. It is technically possible to provide DMaaS using on-premises infrastructure or a private cloud offered by the DMaaS vendor, but all infrastructure must be provided and managed by the DMaaS vendor to be considered a service. Although it may be possible to do DMaaS this way, it is prohibitive to do so for...

Computational storage is an information technology (IT) architecture in which data is processed at the storage device level to reduce the amount of data that has to move between the storage plane and the compute plane. The lack of movement facilitates real-time data analysis and improves performance by reducing input/output bottlenecks. In many respects, a computational storage device may look just like every other solid state drive (SSD). Some products have a large number of NAND flash memory devices that actually store the data, a controller that manages writing the data to the flash devices and random access memory (RAM) to provide a read/write buffer. What is unique about computational storage devices is the inclusion of one or more multi-core processors. These processors can be used to perform many functions, from indexing data as it enters the storage device to searching the contents for specific entries to providing support for sophisticated artificial intelligence (A...

A buyer persona is a composite representation of a customer that aggregates the attributes and demographics of a segment of target customers. Attributes are based on market research and data on the company's existing customer base. As companies create their buyer personas, they should consider factors such as customer demographics, customer preferences and behavior patterns, motivations and goals. Behavior and preferences may be indicated through digital communications such as browsing behavior on a company's website or items chosen in a shopping cart, items that users click on in newsletters as indicated by marketing automation software, or preferences as expressed in customer satisfaction surveys and customer valuations. Companies also need to develop buyer personas based on customers' activities in various communications channels, including company websites, live chat windows, social media platforms, mobile devices and email. Customer journey mapping may also ...