Identity lockr's Connections Hub Allows Publishers to Seamlessly Authenticate their First-Party Data via Snowflake, InfoSum, Amazon Web Services and MadConnect

lockr, the first platform that allows consumers to manage their identity, consent, and data, today announced the launch of Connections Hub to verify the authenticity of first-party datasets. Connections Hub expands lockr's partnerships with publisher-focused data platforms such as CDPs and Clean Rooms, allowing publishers to easily assess and manage the impact of machine-generated emails on their audience data.

Privacy regulations are causing publishers to shift to email as the new identifier of choice for targeted advertising. Consumers are reacting by relying on machine-generated email services—which allow users to create a new anonymous email address for every online interaction—to minimize interruptions in their inbox. The increasing adoption of these temporary emails is creating a complex web of identity that is negatively impacting publishers' top-line revenues.

Connections Hub is directly integrated with industry-leading platforms such as Snowflake, InfoSum and Amazon Simple Storage Services (Amazon S3) object storage, and is enhanced through a strategic partnership with MadConnect. These integrations make it even easier for publishers to identify machine-generated emails within their user data. Connections Hub empowers publishers to understand the scale of fake email addresses within their data and prevents registration with these emails in real time. This combination of tools will improve the accuracy of data in the publishing space and increase the effectiveness of targeted advertising, bringing greater value to both advertisers and publishers alike.

lockr's analysis suggests that up to 23 percent of email lists are composed of these unmatchable, machine-generated emails. Identity lockr enables publishers to validate their audiences and proactively block machine-generated emails - increasing match rates for the purposes of targeted advertising, subscription marketing, and audience development while incorporating consumer choice and consent.

"We are excited to launch Connections Hub to make Identity lockr more accessible to publishers," said Keith Petri, CEO of lockr. "Machine-generated emails are a growing problem for the industry and they can cause a significant impact on match rates as publishers shift to an email-centric first-party data strategy. Identity lockr gives publishers a powerful tool to assess their exposure to machine-generated emails, and Connections Hub will ensure that publishers can conduct this analysis on an ongoing basis with minimal integration resources - all while maintaining the highest data security standards."

"We are thrilled to partner with lockr to help publishers unlock the most value from their first-party data in a post-cookie world," says Valerie Mercurio, VP of Business Development at InfoSum. "As privacy-first technologies, our integration creates immediate synergies to assist publishers in refining their first-party data strategies."

"AWS provides the secure and reliable infrastructure that lockr needs to help marketers and publishers understand their audiences better," said Tim Barnes, general manager of Advertising and Marketing Solutions at AWS. "With the Amazon S3 integration into lockr's Connections Hub, Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers can simplify the first-party data verification process and improve data accuracy."

Penske Media, an early proponent of Identity lockr, is already utilizing the flexibility lockr's Connection Hub offers. Brett Goverman, Associate VP of Data Strategy for Penske Media Corporation opined, "lockr's Connections Hub made it incredibly easy to share our data for analysis and is an effective solution to respond to market trends and advertiser needs."

lockr is also collaborating with MadTech's MadConnect product to make the tool even more widely compatible in the coming months. MadConnect, which launched in March of this year, is a connector hub for data interoperability that solves some of the industry's biggest issues around the transfer of data between platforms. By leveraging MadConnect, hundreds of publishers will have plug-and-play access to Identity lockr via dozens of publisher data platforms, with the ability to unlock a connection almost instantly upon request.

"MadConnect is excited to support the launch of lockr's Connections Hub by powering the integrations needed for the privacy safe transfer and normalization of data," said Bob Walczak, CEO of MadTech. "Rather than lockr and its partners spending engineering cycles building and maintaining these integrations, MadConnect provides instant access to the pipes that power connections between these data platforms."

Netskope, a leader in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), today announced that it has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide NESaaS 2023 Vendor Assessment (IDC doc #US50723823, June 2023) and a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Zero Trust Network Access 2023 Vendor Assessment (IDC doc  #US50844623). Both reports focus on business-critical aspects of security modernization and network transformation, positioning Netskope as a Leader in each.

An acknowledged leader in SSE and SASE, Netskope's SASE platform includes its award-winning Intelligent Security Service Edge (SSE) and Borderless SD-WAN technologies, all of which are crucial to providing optimized access and zero trust-based security required in a modern networking and security technology stack.

"Our thorough assessment of Netskope's strategy and capabilities led us to recognize the company as a Leader in both the NESaaS and ZTNA reports," said Chris Rodriguez, IDC Research Director, Trusted Network Access and Protection. "Netskope's deep level of expertise in CASB inline and API protection is a key differentiator for organizations that are concerned about the risks represented by managed and unmanaged SaaS applications. And for organizations that prioritize data protection and cloud capabilities, Netskope is a natural shortlist option."

Both of the IDC MarketScape reports also recognized Netskope as a Leader based on the underlying infrastructure of, Netskope NewEdge. The reports state, "Netskope leverages its extensive cloud architecture to offer a ubiquitous, performant, edge-delivered zero trust access model across all users and devices. Netskope NewEdge is the company's cloud architecture that includes extensive numbers of POPs and capabilities for maximal edge performance."

"Since day one, we've prioritized solving our customers' biggest challenges in cloud security, network transformation and data protection," said Jason Clark, Chief Strategy Officer, Netskope. "We are proud to be recognized by the IDC MarketScape as a Leader in these two important reports. We believe the recognition underscores our innovation in SSE, SASE and ZTNA, and our commitment to the best in customer experience."

Netskope's SSE and SASE solutions continue to garner industry recognition and accolades. Last month at the 2023 SC Europe Awards, Netskope SASE was named the winner of Best Cloud Security Solution.

SCADAfence will integrate into the Honeywell Forge Cybersecurity+ suite providing expanded asset discovery, threat detection, and compliance management capabilities.

SCADAfence extends Honeywell's OT cybersecurity portfolio to build upon its comprehensive professional services, managed security services, and software solutions.

Honeywell today announced it has agreed to acquire SCADAfence, a leading provider of operational technology (OT) and Internet of Things (IoT) cybersecurity solutions for monitoring large-scale networks. SCADAfence brings proven capabilities in asset discovery, threat detection and security governance which are key to industrial and buildings management cybersecurity programs.

The OT cybersecurity industry is expected to grow to greater than $10 billion in the next several years. Particularly in the industrial sector, cyberattacks focused on OT systems can be a significant source of unplanned downtime, with estimates that unplanned downtime represents over a trillion dollars in lost revenue for the industrial and critical infrastructure sectors.

"It is essential to protect and maintain the integrity of operational systems like process control equipment in manufacturing facilities. A simple breach in the OT environment has the potential to create safety and business continuity risk for organizations of all sizes. OT assets are inherently different than those in the IT environment as they are domain specific. Honeywell has been delivering and installing these systems for decades, which is why we launched our cybersecurity business more than twenty years ago. Adding SCADAfence's product portfolio will strengthen our capabilities and help our customers defend themselves against cyber security risks which are progressively increasing," said Kevin Dehoff, president and chief executive officer, Honeywell Connected Enterprise.

The SCADAfence product portfolio will integrate into the Honeywell Forge Cybersecurity+ suite within Honeywell Connected Enterprise, Honeywell's fast-growing software arm with strategic focus on digitalization, sustainability and OT cybersecurity SaaS offerings and solutions. This integration will enable Honeywell to provide an end-to-end enterprise OT cybersecurity solution to site managers, operations management and CISOs seeking enterprise security management and situational awareness. The acquisition strengthens existing capabilities in cybersecurity and bolsters Honeywell's high-growth OT cybersecurity portfolio, helping customers operate more securely, reliably and efficiently.

"SCADAfence is an ideal complement to Honeywell's OT cybersecurity portfolio and, when combined with the Honeywell Forge Cybersecurity+ suite, it enables us to provide an end-to-end solution with applicability to asset, site and enterprise across key Honeywell sectors," said Dehoff. "By enhancing our cybersecurity portfolio, we are accessing a growth engine and enabling our customers to operate their OT environments more securely and help to avoid disruption and possible catastrophic events."

"We are thrilled to join Honeywell as we work towards fulfilling our mission of empowering industrial organizations to operate securely, reliably and efficiently. This combination creates significant opportunity for growth, allowing us to combine our top-tier OT cybersecurity products with one of the world's leading companies in industrial software," said Elad Ben Meir, chief executive officer, SCADAfence. "With this acquisition, we are poised to deliver some of the most advanced OT security technology to Honeywell's broad customer base, bolstering the comprehensive Honeywell Forge Cybersecurity+ offering. We remain committed to proactively serving and supporting our customers across all verticals and geographies where we currently operate."

The Breakthrough Institute, a global research center that identifies and promotes technological solutions to environmental and human development challenges, is pleased to announce the appointment of Varun Sivaram to its Board of Directors. 

Mr. Sivaram is a physicist, policy advisor, and expert in innovation systems. He most recently held the position of senior advisor to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. Prior to that, he held academic positions at Georgetown and Columbia, was the director of the energy and climate program at the Council on Foreign Relations, and served as CTO for ReNew Power, India’s largest renewable energy developer. 

Mr. Sivaram has been a board member or advisor for the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, Stanford's Woods Institute and Precourt Institute, the Aspen Institute, ITIF, the Energy for Growth Hub, and the cities of Los Angeles and New York City. He is the author of Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet, and coauthor of Energizing America: A Roadmap to Launch a National Energy Innovation Mission, along with numerous other reports and essays.

“We have been fellow travelers with Varun for years, and we’re really excited to now have him on our board,” said Breakthrough’s Executive Director Ted Nordhaus.

Previously, Varun has offered counsel on Breakthrough Institute research projects, spoken on panels at Breakthrough events, and been published in the Breakthrough Journal.

Breakthrough’s Board is also comprised of Bill Budinger, Chris Foreman, Jennifer Hernandez, Ross Koningstein, Ray Rothrock, Tisha Schuller, Matt Winkler, Ted Nordhaus, and Board Chair Rachel Pritzker. For additional information about the individual Board members, please visit here. 

“Varun has that rare combination of vision and pragmatism,” said Rachel Pritzker. “We know he will be a valuable addition to the organization, especially to Breakthrough’s new policy staff in Washington, D.C.”

ActivePort and Radian Arc join forces to enable high-performance AI.

ActivePort (ASX:ATV) and Radian Arc are excited to announce an expanded relationship that will accelerate AI deployment within the telecommunications industry.

The collaboration aims to leverage Radian Arc's AMD-based GPU platform, already installed in a rapidly expanding network of 50 telco customers worldwide, to offer GPU-as-a-Service (GaaS) for AI. This ground-breaking partnership will enable telcos and their enterprise customers to easily deploy AI models within their networks, resulting in unique low-latency AI solutions.

By combining Radian Arc's industry-leading telco infrastructure solutions with ActivePort's state-of-the-art orchestration technology, the two companies are poised to transform the way telcos and enterprises approach AI model training and deployment. By leveraging Radian Arc's AMD-based GPUs and FPGA encoders, Telcos can now offer high-performance AI models directly within their networks, delivering reduced latency and enhanced data security.

One key advantage of the ActivePort and Radian Arc solution is the preservation of data sovereignty. With the model data never leaving the secure confines of the telco's network, customers can be assured that their sensitive data remains protected. This data sovereignty feature positions the ActivePort and Radian Arc collaboration as a powerful solution for projects with strict security requirements.

"We are thrilled to expand our partnership with ActivePort and introduce GPU as a Service capabilities to our telco customers," said David Cook, CEO at Radian Arc. "By leveraging Radian Arc's cutting-edge GPU-as-a-Service technology, we are enabling telcos and their enterprise customers to harness the power of AI within their networks, empowering them to deliver unique low-latency AI solutions. The added advantage of data sovereignty ensures that our solution is well-suited to projects where training data, input data and results are country-specific or highly sensitive."

Through this collaboration, ActivePort and Radian Arc are taking a significant step forward in accelerating AI innovation and addressing the evolving needs of telcos and their enterprise customers. By integrating AI and video streaming directly within telco networks, organizations can unlock new possibilities for AI applications, benefiting from reduced latency and enhanced data security.

ActivePort's Chairman and CEO, Peter Christie said "AI models that process video in real time are particularly suited to the technology we are currently deploying to more than 50 telcos world-wide for Radian Arc. ActivePort's orchestration software makes that platform readily available for telco customers to consume GPU and FPGA capacity for AI as a service. We are seeing a significant up-tick in demand for AI processing capacity and are perfectly positioned to deliver into that demand immediately." 

ActivePort and Radian Arc are actively working together to deploy the GPU-as-a-Service solution to their existing and rapidly expanding network of telco customers. The partnership will accelerate the adoption of AI technologies, offering telcos and enterprises unprecedented opportunities for innovation and competitive advantage.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face the challenge of fragmented data and limited AI capabilities, but by streamlining operations and adopting a unified platform Mikel Lindsaar of StoreConnect says they can leverage AI, optimize sales, and achieve substantial growth—or will be left behind the AI revolution.

A significant hurdle awaits eCommerce small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) venturing into the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) implementation. The prevalent challenge lies in the lack of connectivity among their systems, resulting in a fragmented data landscape. SMBs are faced with the daunting task of establishing connections between multiple systems, a time-consuming endeavor that proves arduous for businesses with limited resources. Statistics from Salesforce's research report highlight the need for immediate action, as the average SMB operates on average 4-7 SaaS systems, leading to wastage of both time and money.(1)

Mikel Lindsaar, CEO of StoreConnect, says the flaw in the terminology itself highlights the disconnect between perception and reality. “AI, as it exists today, primarily operates on machine learning principles, rather than true intelligence,” Lindsaar explains. “It functions by predicting responses based on the data it has been trained on. However, if flawed or incomplete data is fed into the system, it will generate inaccurate predictions. Small eCommerce businesses, already burdened with numerous disparate apps, find it nearly impossible to integrate accurate and comprehensive data into AI systems.”

AI technologies, previously dominant in large global companies, are now making their way downstream to SMBs, becoming increasingly accessible to smaller businesses. As AI technology becomes more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses, challenges arise including budget constraints, justifying expenses, implementation difficulties, limited time for employee training, and scalability concerns as businesses grow.(2)

Strategies for SMBs to Embrace AI
To address these critical challenges, Lindsaar claims SMBs must take the initiative to streamline their operations. By organizing their data within a unified platform, they can leverage the AI capabilities embedded in enterprise-level solutions. Enterprise platforms provide a centralized hub where all data is consolidated, enabling small businesses to benefit from sophisticated AI algorithms despite their limited dataset.

The efficacy of AI hinges on the availability of extensive and diverse datasets for training. Large enterprises with access to vast amounts of data have been at the forefront of AI adoption due to their ability to ingest substantial volumes of information. In contrast, SMBs grapple with the limitations of their smaller datasets, hindering their AI capabilities and limiting potential growth opportunities.

Leading players in the industry, including prominent e-commerce platforms, are now utilizing AI to predict customer behavior and enhance the shopping experience. By offering tailored product recommendations based on machine learning models, these platforms empower businesses to optimize sales opportunities. To access such benefits, small businesses must align themselves with platforms that already possess extensive data resources, allowing them to harness the power of AI and drive business expansion.

The Caveat of Enterprise Platforms
But building a business solely on e-commerce or marketplace platforms like Shopify or Amazon poses inherent risks. Small businesses find themselves at the mercy of these platforms, with limited ownership of customer data. Additionally, the complexity of managing various systems outside the e-commerce domain hampers scalability. Attempting to integrate AI across multiple systems simultaneously becomes an insurmountable challenge, plunging businesses into the abyss of “SaaS hell and plugin purgatory.”

StoreConnect, built on the robust foundation of the world’s #1 CRM, offers a solution to this predicament. By consolidating all data within one enterprise platform, businesses gain access to a comprehensive overview of their operations. This holistic approach facilitates better marketing and sales strategies, inventory management, and data-driven decision-making. Embracing a single source of truth empowers small businesses to thrive in the AI revolution and surpass their growth ceilings.

The time to act is now. Small businesses must avoid complacency and proactively create their business framework around one master data management (MDM). Failing to do so risks being left behind as competitors harness the full potential of AI-enabled insights.

Additional AI Obstacles for SMBs
In addition to the issues of integration with existing systems and scalability, Lindsaar says implementing AI poses additional several challenges for SMBs, including:
1. Lack of expertise: Finding and retaining skilled AI professionals can be difficult for SMBs.
2. Data quality and availability: Ensuring clean, relevant, and sufficient data for AI training can be a hurdle.
3. Ethical considerations: SMBs must address data privacy, security, and algorithmic biases.
4. Change management: Adoption of AI requires managing workflow changes and employee acceptance.
5. Regulatory compliance: SMBs must navigate AI-related regulations and standards.

The benefits of transitioning to a unified platform are immense for SMBs, Lindsaar says. Not only do businesses free up valuable resources by automating inter-system communication and reduce the need for multiple SaaS apps, but they also enable their marketing and sales teams to focus on revenue-generating activities. With AI's analytical prowess, small eCommerce businesses can capitalize on precise and targeted marketing strategies, leading to substantial revenue growth. Embracing the efficiency gains and unlocking the full potential of AI through a single source of truth holds the key to explosive growth for small businesses.

By being able to capitalize on enterprise capabilities and large data sets, SMBs can benefit from the AI revolution. And by using solutions that eliminate the need for repetitive data entry, SMBs can focus their time and efforts on core operations, leading to improved efficiency and productivity.

Company appoints industry exec to lead Product, Design & Engineering and take automation to the next level.

Nintex, the global standard for process intelligence and automation, today announced the appointment of Niranjan Vijayaragavan as Chief Product Officer. He brings more than two decades of technology leadership experience to Nintex, having driven product strategy, vision and execution at organizations like Microsoft, BCG, Expedia, Avalara and—most recently—at Nuna, a health-tech company.

Niranjan will work closely with the executive team and the board to help define Nintex's product strategy and execute for scale. Process automation is being transformed through artificial intelligence, creating new opportunities for innovation and growth.

"To lead in this new era of automation and artificial intelligence requires someone with perpetual curiosity and a growth mindset," said Amit Mathradas, Nintex CEO. "Niranjan, is a proven product leader who's capable of building innovative products and solutions at scale."

"Despite step changes in technology, several sectors and domains remain under-automated, impacting the pace and effectiveness of their businesses. Many SaaS companies are exploring to serve this need, but few can do it at scale in the way Nintex can," said Niranjan Vijayaragavan, Nintex CPO. "Nintex's deep process expertise and portfolio of automation products, combined with the power of artificial intelligence, can unlock incredible value for customers that will transform their business. I'm excited to join this talented team and help unlock this potential." 

Niranjan will start with Nintex on July 10^th, 2023, and report to Amit Mathradas, Nintex CEO.