Sitecore®, a global leader in end-to-end digital experience management software, has been positioned as a Leader in two IDC MarketScape Evaluations*.

First, Sitecore was recognized as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Hybrid Headless Content Management Systems 2023 Vendor Assessment. This study provides an evaluation of the hybrid headless content management systems used for persuasive digital experiences and presents the criteria most important for companies to consider when selecting a hybrid headless content management solution.

The report cites Sitecore's key strengths in headless support, content services, and privacy and governance. According to the IDC MarketScape, "Sitecore has transitioned from a full-stack CMS platform to support a headless environment with a cloud-native SaaS architecture, API access. While it is still early in its rollout, Sitecore supports front-end delivery models, such as static site generation and server-site rendering and provides a site preview option for the editors."

"We believe being evaluated and recognized by IDC MarketScape as a Leader in Headless CMS validates our strategy and transition of our core product to a cloud-native, modern DXP with the introduction of XM Cloud last year," said Steve Tzikakis, Sitecore CEO. "Sitecore XM Cloud provides marketers with a truly end-to-end, SaaS-based solution that not only helps brands meet consumer expectations but also deliver personalization and a best-in-class omnichannel customer experience."

"Organizations are adopting hybrid headless CMS because they want both the ease of the full-stack presentation control and the flexibility of a presentation-agnostic headless CMS to support the variety of digital experiences the business demands and consumers expect," said Marci Maddox, research vice president, IDC's Persuasive Content and Digital Experience Strategies program. "Organizations are recognizing the value that the hybrid headless CMS brings to use one content source to publish across many digital channels."

In addition, Sitecore was also named a Leader among 17 total vendors in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Full-Stack Content Management Systems 2023 Vendor Assessment.

In this document, IDC Research Director Marci Maddox cited Sitecore's key strengths in content services, privacy and governance, and editorial environment. The report notes that "Sitecore offers a composable data model to handle multi-jurisdictional requirements without storing personally identifiable information (PII)."

The investment will allow enterprises to further secure non-human identities and safely leverage the soaring adoption of third-party apps and generative AI services

Astrix Security, the enterprise's trusted solution for securing non-human identities, has secured $25 million in Series A funding led by CRV with participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and F2 Venture Capital. This new investment brings Astrix's total funding to almost $40 million.

Fueled by the increased adoption of automation and generative AI initiatives, the enterprise's connectivity to third-party applications is growing, resulting in an increase in cyber attacks targeting non-human app-to-app connections (via API keys, access tokens, service accounts, etc.) – as seen in high profile attacks against CircleCI, Mailchimp, GitHub, Microsoft, and Slack.

Despite financial instability within the market, Astrix is experiencing exponential year-over-year growth and momentum as a leader in securing this growing threat vector. The company recently added Figma, Priceline, Bloomreach, Rapyd and many others to its customer roster and was recognized as a finalist in the 2023 RSA Innovation Sandbox contest. The business also doubled its headcount, and will use this funding to continue expanding the team in both the U.S. and Tel Aviv offices, including its research team who recently discovered GhostToken, a critical 0-day vulnerability in the Google Cloud Platform.

"We founded Astrix to close a significant and unaddressed security gap, by allowing security teams to extend access management and threat detection to the non-human identity layer," said Alon Jackson, CEO and co-founder at Astrix. "It's amazing to experience the tremendous adoption by security teams, as well as see Astrix's capabilities become essential to their every-day security arsenal. We look forward to continuing to expand our capabilities and partnerships, allowing organizations to truly reap the benefits of third-party services, especially Gen-AI apps, without compromising security."

The enterprise environment depends on a vast web of interconnected apps, supported with an average of 10,000 app-connections for every 1,000 employees. More so, with AI-powered apps being downloaded 1506% more than last year, and often connected by employees across departments without the security team's knowledge, having visibility and governance into every third-party connection is virtually impossible. While existing solutions focus on securing user-connections, Astrix is the first solution to focus on securing app-to-app connections, allowing the enterprise to ensure their core systems are securely connected to each other and to third-party services.

"As a growing threat vector, there has been a shift in the market to focus on third-party connectivity," said James Green, General Partner at CRV. "Astrix caught our eye for their innovative approach to extending IAM and threat detection to all non-human identities, giving unprecedented capabilities to manage the growing API-based third-party attack surface across all environments."

"Partnering with Astrix from inception, we've seen the vast impact they've had on the industry in a short amount of time," said Amit Karp, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. "From raising awareness to this growing attack surface to supporting some of the leading companies in the world, we're excited for what's to come as Astrix expands and continues protecting customers from the next supply chain attack."

"The progress Astrix has made from seed funding to now is incredible," said Jonathan Saacks, Managing Partner at F2 Venture Capital. "The company has made a mark on the industry already, and with the wealth of knowledge and experience from this team, we are confident they will continue to be the security asset every business needs and relies on in their toolbox."

The Astrix Security Platform is the first solution to provide holistic visibility into all non-human connections and identities. Astrix provides a consolidated, comprehensive view of all the internal and third-party integrations within a business environment, as well as all access keys in use (i.e., API keys, OAuth tokens, service accounts, and webhooks) and the permissions and level of access granted to each one. With Astrix, businesses can extend their identity threat detection and response capabilities to non-human identities by continuously running behavioral analysis of internal and third-party apps connected to core SaaS, IaaS and PaaS systems to detect anomalies that may indicate compromised access tokens and automatically remediate risky connections.

SAP SE today announced that Silver Lake Management, the global leader in technology investing, and its co-investors along with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), have completed the acquisition of all the issued and outstanding shares of Qualtrics, including all shares owned by SAP, at a purchase price of US$18.15 in cash per share. SAP will remain a close go-to-market and technology partner to Qualtrics, servicing joint customers and continuing to contribute to their success.

70+ Unique, Pre-Built Data Segments Enable Marketers to Tap into Statara’s Industry-Leading Identity Insights to Maximize Digital Ad Buys

Statara Solutions LLC, a leading provider of data analytics and customer intelligence solutions, today announced the availability of Statara Intelligent Digital Audiences to help brand marketers and agencies reach the right people with the right messages. Intelligent Digital Audiences is available on popular DSPs and DMPs including The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, AdGear, StackAdapt, and more, for addressable marketing program integration.

Based on its extensive Statara Identity Insights identity graph and industry-leading age and critical demographic data, Statara’s 70+ proprietary Intelligent Digital Audiences enable marketers to maximize the impact of their digital ad buys. Marketers can also tap into Statara Identity Insight’s Data Dictionary to develop their own unique audience segments.

“Our goal is to deliver our marketer and agency clients the most accurate and comprehensive datasets available so that their campaign activations are highly targeted and effective in maximizing conversions,” said Lindsey Schuh Cortes, CEO of Statara. “The strength of Intelligent Digital Audiences comes from our regulated industry roots and enables marketers to leverage our world class identity Insights with complete transparency, which is often missing in the data partner relationship.”

Statara’s age data has been highly rated for its accuracy by Truthset, the industry's leading recognition for data accuracy, quality, and transparency. Age data is essential for compliance in highly regulated industries like cannabis, where multiple clients use Starata’s proprietary Baked Audiences solution. Truthset has also recognized the strength and accuracy of Statara’s data on education, gender, race/ethnicity, political affiliation, language spoken, and home ownership/renter status.

Climb Channel Solutions, an international specialty technology distributor and wholly owned subsidiary of Climb Global Solutions, Inc. has announced a new partnership with SaaS security provider, AppOmni.

With AppOmni, Climb now offers universal security across all SaaS applications with centralized visibility and data access management. This critical addition to Climb's repertoire enables resellers to round out their security solutions, strengthen their customers’ overall security posture, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance with industry regulations. 

“AppOmni is radically advancing the way businesses implement common security capabilities across their entire SaaS ecosystem. Our technology enables businesses to establish rules for data access, data sharing, and third-party applications that are continuously and automatically validated,” noted Donald Shake, Director, Channels North America at AppOmni. “Organizations from technology, healthcare, government, and finance are eager to deploy AppOmni to protect data across all of their SaaS applications. Through our partnership with Climb, more channel partners and customers can benefit from AppOmni’s comprehensive security model and the team’s security and technical expertise.” 

Limited-to-zero visibility into the configuration and state of SaaS applications is a major threat for every business. As Gartner forecasts worldwide SaaS spending will reach $195 billion by the end of 2023, the opportunity for solution and technology leaders to protect their clients’ SaaS data with advanced security tooling and expert insights powered by AppOmni is soaring. AppOmni makes it easy for security and IT teams to secure their SaaS data during new implementations and in environments currently operating with SaaS. 

"Climb is always on the lookout for top notch security solutions for our resellers," says Dale Foster, CEO at Climb Channel Solutions. "Adding AppOmni to our transacting vendors list not only provides cutting-edge security solutions for our valued resellers, but this collaboration opens doors for our resellers to tap into the growing demand for compliance, robust security, and visibility sought by IT and security teams." 

Appointment comes as leading multicloud solutions provider announces Generative AI offerings aimed at accelerating the responsible adoption of AI in organizations of all sizes

Rackspace Technology^® a leading end-to-end, multicloud solutions company, today announced the appointment of Rackspace Technology CTO Srini Koushik as the global head of the company’s new spin-up Foundry for Generative AI by Rackspace (FAIR™.)

In a recent survey by Rackspace of more than 1,400 IT decision-makers, 90 percent of respondents said their cloud modernization efforts are motivated by their desire to leverage AI technologies.

Rackspace Technology has been at the forefront of innovation since its founding in San Antonio in the late 1990s. The company has celebrated a history of industry firsts - as it was one of the first to offer web hosting and deliver a hosted private cloud, to launch OpenStack public cloud in collaboration with NASA. Now, Rackspace is helping customers in their multicloud journey and enabling customer transformation through the rapid adaption of generative AI.

“The generative AI market is moving at a pace we haven’t seen since the emergence of technology and certainly in my 30-year career. Our new spin-up FAIR is addressing the urgent needs of businesses of all sizes by accelerating the secure, responsible, and sustainable adoption of generative AI solutions across industries,” said Amar Maletira, CEO of Rackspace Technology. “As a pure-play multicloud provider, we build on our industry-leading public and private cloud solutions to help our vast installed base of over 20,000 customers across all segments drive innovation in their businesses using generative AI. FAIR operates at start-up speed to serve these customers' rapidly emerging needs, which will be paramount to our mutual success.”

Maletira also praised 35+ year technology industry leader and seasoned visionary Srini Koushik for accepting the role as the global head of FAIR and noted his proven track record of execution.

Koushik has been the Chief Technology Officer at Rackspace Technology since 2021 and is responsible for technology strategy and roadmap, thought leadership, information technology, and security. Koushik will retain his CTO responsibilities while leading the FAIR spin-up business.

"The convergence of cloud computing and AI has sparked a transformative revolution, democratizing access to artificial intelligence and ushering in the age of limitless possibilities with AI," said Srini Koushik, CTO of Rackspace Technology and Global Leader for FAIR. “Whenever our customers needed to capitalize on the latest technology, we have been there with innovative solutions. From web hosting to the first public cloud based on OpenStack and modernization of application and data workloads to the Cloud – Rackspace has been there to help them. As our customers chart new territories with generative AI, we will help them become trailblazers in their transformative journeys by pioneering the responsible and sustainable use of AI solutions.”

Before his position at Rackspace Technology, Koushik was General Manager and Managing Partner for Hybrid Cloud Advisory Services at IBM Consulting. He worked closely with CIOs there, shaping their hybrid cloud strategies and fostering innovation. Earlier, he was the CIO & CTO for Magellan Health, where he built an Exponential IT organization that helped the company double its revenue over four years. Koushik was also President and CEO of NTT Innovation Institute Inc., a Silicon Valley-based start-up building multi-sided cloud platforms for digital businesses. Earlier in his career, he held C-Level roles at HP, Nationwide Insurance, and IBM.

Koushik has received numerous accolades for his innovative thinking and dynamic leadership. He was inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame in 2023 and received the Global Ohio CIO ORBIE^®. Koushik has been named an IBM Distinguished Engineer twice and is an inductee into the IBM Academy of Technology. Among his global recognitions include the Sustainable IT Social Impact award (2023), Computerworld Premier 100 Leader (2014), an Elite 8 CIO (2002), and Infoworld's Top 25 CTOs (2004). Koushik also serves on the advisory boards for GmbH, SustainableIT.org, Platform9, and Clarigent Health.

Nasmedia, the No. 1 leader in the digital advertising platform in Korea, announced today that it has been awarded the TAG Brand Safety Certified Seal for its global operations for adopting industry best practices to protect its partners from brand safety threats. Nasmedia is the first Korean company to achieve this certification from TAG (the Trustworthy Accountability Group), an organization dedicated to increasing trust and transparency in digital advertising.

TAG is a cross-industry initiative that combats fraudulent activities and strengthens brand safety in digital marketing. The purpose of the TAG Brand Safety Certified program is to assure advertisers that their partners have taken essential measures to mitigate brand safety risks, thereby allowing marketers to purchase advertising inventory with confidence.

Nasmedia's certification from TAG underscores its commitment to protecting brand advertisers by adhering to industry best practices for brand safety. This includes actively monitoring and detecting ad misplacement, ensuring that all partner agreements adhere to brand safety and anti-piracy principles, documenting policies and procedures to minimize ad misplacement, and implementing pirate mobile app filtering.

To achieve TAG Brand Safety Certification, Nasmedia was required to demonstrate the following:

• Compliance with TAG's Brand Safety Certified criteria, policies, and procedures for all digital advertising.
• Transparency regarding AI and human content moderation policies.
• Review of 100% of monetizable transactions by one or more independently validated content verification services or through the use of inclusion and exclusion lists specific to each agreement.
• Establishment of compliance monitoring policies to demonstrate adherence to each applicable Brand Safety Principle.

To obtain global certification, Nasmedia underwent an independent audit conducted by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd (ABC). The audit reviewed Nasmedia's policies, training procedures, back-end systems, monitoring tools, content reviews, and more to ensure that all operations met the comprehensive criteria necessary to receive the certification.

"Brand safety is a top priority for advertisers, and Nasmedia is committed to implementing stringent processes and solutions to protect them from potential brand safety threats and provide assurance that their ads will be placed in safe and suitable environments," said Park Pyoung-Kwon, CEO of Nasmedia. "We are honored that TAG has recognized our global efforts to build a safer, more transparent, and accountable platform, marking a significant milestone for Korean companies. We look forward to further collaboration with TAG to promote brand safety and elevate industry standards."

"The TAG Brand Safety Seal demonstrates that a company has established rigorous standards to safeguard its partners from emerging brand threats," said Mike Zaneis, CEO of TAG. "We are delighted to recognize Nasmedia for taking the necessary steps to achieve this certification. We look forward to continuing to work with Nasmedia and other partners around the world to further raise our industry's standards for brand protection."