Global Lithium Market Industry Forecast

Majorly used in pharmaceutical drugs to treat bipolar disorder, in lubricants, in the glass industry, and in rechargeable batteries, the lithium market forecast indicates a market growth of 8% CAGR till 2025. 

Further, considering the significant negative impact fossil fuel vehicles have on our environment, the shift toward Electric Vehicles (EV) is growing stronger across the world, marking the rise of many potential industries in South-East Asia, USA, UK, etc. 

Market Industry Demand And Price Forecast 

● According to the US Geological Survey, the global Lithium supply has gone up by 23% in 2019 and is expected to rise continuously until 2025. Amidst the bright promise of tomorrow, the global Lithium production industry welcomed five new players in 2018 (North American Lithium, Tawana Resources, Altura Mining, AMG Advanced Metallurgical Groups, and Pilbara Minerals) in 2018 and outlived the fears of oversupply projected at the beginning of 2024. 

● However, 2019 began on a slightly somber note. The EV vehicle sales have increased by 90% in 2019, but this growth rate is half of the EV vehicle sales growth rate in 2018. This affects the Lithium industry significantly because the EV vehicles industry uses almost half of all the Lithium produced today. 

● During Q2 of 2019, all primary producers and suppliers of Lithium reported a fall in profits and a weaker demand. Nevertheless, all significant producers agree on the market forecast for Lithium, which states that its demand will grow in double digits in the coming quarters. 

● The latest estimates from McKinsey’s Future Mobility Initiative indicate that EV vehicle production will touch the 13 million to 18 million units mark, reaching approximately 26 to 36 million units in 2030. This is a substantial increase compared to the current production capacity of 3.2 million units. This projects an average rise of over five times of today’s demand for Lithium. 

● With Tesla’s Hornsdale Wind Farm Lithium battery for renewable energy solution clearing all suspicions of operational efficiency (with approximately two years of a successful run), more governments are chalking out plans to customize the solution for their requirements. This will also prove a major boost to Lithium demand further in 2025 and the future ahead. 

The major players in the Lithium supply industry are Albemarle, FMC, SQM, Genfeng Lithium Wesfarmers’, Tianqui Lithium, and Global Lithium. 

Risk Analysis 

● Communication and Mobility 

Electronic devices are smaller and stronger than ever: smaller size and extended range of such devices demand a stronger power source such as batteries. To make stronger batteries, industries will need to amp up the technology and amount of raw materials used in the batteries. Lithium is an essential component of such batteries, more so for the rechargeable variants. Hence, the increase in demand for these devices will significantly boost Lithium sales. 

● Energy and Natural Resources 

The rising awareness for Renewable Energy has led to governments placing strict restrictions on fossil fuel-run vehicles, affecting the transportation industry significantly. This is an opening for EV suppliers to fill the demand-supply gap for vehicles. A boost in sales of electric vehicles is a direct push for Lithium demand. 

○ Smart Grid and Energy Storage Solutions: Considering the unsustainability of current solutions for power supply, governments are exploring other options like the Hornsdale Farm Battery. These eco-friendly and economical solutions will see a hike in demand and hence augment Lithium demand. 

○ Inclinations Towards Fewer Chemicals and Simpler Processes: EV industry is consistently looking at solutions to make their car batteries more efficient and economical, to bring down the cost of production of EV products. Technologies like solid-state batteries, Li-S batteries, AL-ion batteries, are some examples of these innovations. This will augment sales for EV vehicles which in turn will raise the Lithium demand. 

● Safety and Health: With research unraveling the secret behind how Lithium aids treatment of bipolar disorder, the acceptance of Lithium in the medical field is bound to increase. This will open another avenue of expansion for Lithium suppliers. 

The Constraints 

● According to a report by KPMG, most of the rechargeable battery based vehicles will be launched in and after 2020. This will put an unavoidable pressure on the Lithium supply market, which may result in a steep rise in Lithium prices as the supply falls short. 

● The EV sales growth in China (the biggest EV consumer) is slowing down, and the fabled EV revolution is not here yet. This is the primary reason why the Lithium industry is facing a slump currently. Considering other factors like government regulation, infrastructure support requirements for electric vehicles, and consumer inertia hampering the rate of sales growth, it is quite possible that the EV revolution gets delayed. The Lithium industry will need to survive this period of a slump. It will be particularly tough for smaller players. 

● While there are unexploited Lithium reserves, for example, the Lithium reserve under Salar de Uyuni salt plains in Bolivia; it might not be possible to sustain the high demand for Lithium as it is already a rare material. 

● Only certain forms of Lithium are suitable for high-performance rechargeable batteries, and the process to obtain, refine, and enrich these forms of Lithium is complex and expensive. Scaling up the current production capabilities to match the high market demand will essentially decide which supplier will stay in the industry. 

Conclusion 

Just like EV vehicles are the new diesel engine, Lithium is the new petroleum. The Lithium industry might suffer a period of the slump for the current year; however, by 2050, the Lithium industry is set to soar and be among one of the most competitive markets. Competitors who can scale up in time and can manage to provide a steady supply of Lithium will be the only ones who survive in the Lithium market of tomorrow. 

Consequently, the rise of the Lithium industry is inevitable. Keep yourself updated on the growing and fluctuating lithium market to insure that your investment is optimized and educated. You can even make a living day trading lithium!

How To Hire A Private Detective In Contra Costa County

Many people only understand the bit they know about private investigators through movies. Well, this is a shallow way to understand what these professionals have to offer. 

People that have had to engage their services are aware of their importance and how hiring them makes things easier. This is because of the wide range of services they offer and how these services can benefit their clients. 

Speaking of the services that these inquiry agents (as they can also be called) offer; locating missing persons, surveillance, background checks, and judgment recovery are just a few of these services. There are so many others. You can check out Jim Baca Investigations to find out more about this. 

If you need the services of these professionals, you should be deliberate about hiring a very good one. For one, this is because of the cost involved. You need to get value for the money you are spending. 

Aside from this reason, you should be insistent on hiring a capable private detective so that you can get the right results. This is what matters most and this article will offer some tips to help you find the right private detective in Contra Costa County. 

Tips To Help You Find The Right Private Detective In Contra Costa County 

The job of a private detective is a special kind. A private investigator may need to be hired for a variety of scenarios such as potential insurance or disability fraud, affairs, surveillance, or unsolved criminal cases. This is considering how they go about getting the results that their clients need and other reasons. To make sure you engage the services of the very best in Contra Costa County, here are some helpful tips: 

Meet In Person 

If you know so much about a very good private detective, then you would know that time is of the essence to them. They are mostly on the move meeting the information-finding demands of their clients. 

But even at that, they should not be hired without a one-on-one meeting. Frankly speaking, such meetings have a way of revealing if the professionals will be good enough for the task at hand. It would also reveal how interested s/he is in your task. 

For this reason, such a professional should not be hired without a one-on-one meeting. This is very important even in this age when digital technology makes offline contact and transaction very possible and easy. 

No License, No Business 

The operations of these professionals are discreet for the most part. As a matter of fact, they are very helpful in getting information that would fall into the category of confidential. 

But despite the discrete nature of many of their operations, some bodies are set up to license them. You need to work with one that is licensed. The license should not be outdated but up-to-date. 

There are many reasons why this is important. Access to certain information especially from government and public offices is one of the reasons for this. This is because their job is considered legal as long as they do not cross some ethical lines. 

This is why they have access to things that average citizens do not have access to. It is for reasons like this and several others that working with a licensed professional is essential. 

We strongly advise that you are not swayed by the cheaper rates of some unlicensed inquiry agents. Working with a licensed one pays off for the most part. 

Sufficient Insurance Coverage 

You might have thought that a private detective would not need to be insured. Well, this is important and you should only work with options that are insured. This would save you a lot of trouble if things go south in the course of doing their job. So, you should make sure your choice is well insured. 

Well Qualified 

What these professionals do is very important and technical. As a result, they need to have undergone the required training to be good enough. Speaking of the requirements to qualify as a private detective in the US, this is largely determined by state policies. 

So, you need to have an understand of how it works in Contra Costa County and work with this understanding. 

Specialty 

Be sure of why the services of a private investigator are needed. Knowing this will help you get the best of what the professional has to offer. Other than this, it will help you identify a professional that can meet your need very well. 

This is because the private detective's profession is a broad one as many services can be rendered. So, you need to understand what you want. After you have done this, identify a private detective that is very good at rendering the service that you require. 

Experience 

More often than not, working with an experienced private detective is better. There are several reasons for this. 

One is that an experienced private investigator will have a large network of confidential sources and databases that can be utilized in the client’s best interest. Other than this, experienced ones usually have so many professional skills developed over the years. This would also benefit their clients. 

A Member Of Pertinent Associations 

It is strongly advised that you hire a professional that is a member of a pertinent association. If you have to hire one from Contra Costa, for example, there are associations in this location that a good professional should be a member of (at least). Some of these associations include the following: 

• California Association of Judgment Professionals 

• Contra Costa County Bar Association 

• Contra Costa County Criminal Conflict Program 

• California Association of Licensed Investigators 

These are some associations that we expect good private investigators in the Contra Costa County area to belong to. Some very good ones even go as far as becoming a member of pertinent associations that are outside of the state of California. 

Florida Association of Licensed Investigators and Texas Association of Licensed Investigators are just two of such associations. If you would like to know more about the latter association and private investigative services in Contra Costa County that are members, you can check Google. 

Contra Costa County Conclusion 

The services of a private detective in Contra Costa County can come in handy in many situations. But if you have to hire such a professional, you need to be certain that they are good enough. This article has discussed how to choose the right private detectives in the points above and you are advised to make the most of this information when the need arises.

How To Make Money From Reseller Hosting

There are many ways to add income to your budget. Many online businesses allow people to earn more money, with minimal effort, from the comfort of their homes. The reseller hosting business is one of those ways to make an additional income, but it is not a commonly known business, so most people don’t even consider doing it. 

Make Even More Money Online Here With Affiliate Marketing

The reality is that the reseller hosting business can enable you to earn a passive, decent income by selling web hosting plans to customers. This business is attractive because it doesn’t require much technical knowledge and doesn’t cost tons of money to start it. It might sound like a simple way to earn additional income, but we need to emphasize that the industry is extremely competitive, so you need to ensure that you offer the right services to stay on top of the competition and earn money. 

The best thing about the reseller hosting business is that it is easy to start. Many companies, like Verpex, offer reseller hosting plans, which you can purchase and then start reselling to your customers. These companies make it easy for people to start their reseller hosting business and earn money without investing a small fortune. 

What Is Reseller Hosting? 

A reseller hosting business is where you buy server space from a hosting company, then use that server space to create your hosting plans and sell your plans to your customers. Starting a reseller hosting business is a great way for web developers to add income, and the best thing is that they’ll broaden the range of their services. Reselling will enable you to create your hosting brand with your hosting plans. The reseller package differs from one host to another, but most include disc space, unlimited bandwidth, white label branding, cPanel, customized account and website management for clients, technical support, etc. For a decent price, you can purchase a reseller hosting plan, start your reseller hosting business without a fuss and earn some money along the way. 

How To Make An Income From Your Reseller Hosting Business 

If you are considering starting your reseller hosting business, here is some advice that will help you make a decent additional passive income from your business online. 

Choose The Right Reseller Hosting Company 

The most important thing before starting your reseller hosting business is choosing the right hosting company. What do we mean by the right? Choose a hosting company that offers top performance, high-quality servers, has high uptime guaranteed, and has the best cybersecurity. If the hosting company doesn’t fulfill the requirements, customers won’t be satisfied with the service, and they will leave. 

Determine Your Offerings 

Decide on the hosting style you will offer and the add-on features. When you start reselling hosting, you will have several different types of hosting you’ll be able to offer. You can choose from offering VPS hosting, dedicated server hosting, shared hosting, WordPress hosting, etc. Depending on the hosting company you are going to work with, you can also include additional services into your plans, such as email features, domain name management, etc. The more services and features you offer, the more different clients you’ll be able to attract. 

Set Up Proper Marketing 

When you decide on a specific niche, creating a proper marketing strategy will be easier. Instead of focusing on everyone, focus on a small segment of a larger market because that will be more successful. The first step is to choose how you are going to reach customers. The most affordable way is to create a blog to rank for organic search with keywords related to web hosting. If you have a bugger budget, you can try social media advertising and search engine. Decide on your approach and plan it according to your budget. If you don’t have a bug budget, don’t worry because you can take a more organic approach. 

Offer Stellar Customer Service 

The best way to ensure that your reseller hosting will be successful and bring you a decent income is to have the best customer support. Most people who start websites aren’t experts and have average or non-technical knowledge about hosting and websites. This means they’ll need a lot of help to keep things running. That is why you need to offer stellar customer support; believe me, customers will be grateful for it. Make sure that you have at least two channels for communication in the website host business. Customers prefer phone services, but email and chat is also great way to offer proper support. Social media is also an excellent channel to help customers. 

Lastly, the most important thing when it comes to customer support is always to make sure that you resolve the issues with your affiliate marketing business as quickly as possible. You can have the best customer support in the world, but if you can’t solve customer’s issues the fastest way possible, it can all go down the drain, and your business can start losing web host customers. 

Conclusion 

Starting a reseller hosting business in the website hosting space might be the right step if you are already in the tech business and need additional income. The reseller hosting business is a great idea because it doesn’t require a lot of money to get things going, and it is a great opportunity to add a passive income. Although all this might sound super simple, you need to focus on creating a proper marketing strategy and find customers that are willing to pay for your plans.

How To Protect Your Client Data Properly

As time progresses, threats of data security breaches increase. The reason for this is that every day we find ourselves using the World Wide Web more and more for even the most basic tasks of living life. This looks like dollars signs in the eyes of many criminals. Every day, cyber criminals are finding ways to get their hands onto information that's classified as sensitive and quite valuable when they obtain it. 

However, the sad part of this scenario is that many consumers and businesses alike blow it off because they don't think it could happen to them. This is especially true in the health and fitness industry. But as it has been proven through many cyber-criminal sting operations (composed of experts on a hacker hunting mission) and infiltrations by the Secret Service, nobody is immune. So, when you ask yourself whether or not data protection is needed, don't think twice, it is something that should be seen as mandatory regardless of whether its for commercial or personal use. 

How Do These "Ethical Hackers" Pursue Their Craft? 

It used to be in the earlier days of hacking (aka hacker hunting), those catching criminal cases would be put to work for the federal government as a way to get off their charges. Now that ethical hacking has become more popular, they tend to unveil ethical hacking tricks online as well as pursue a degree in computer security just for the trill of it. It is a life like no other. 

These geeks as we call them today are able to help prevent data breaches, track down criminals, and much more. Ethical hackers have helped develop a more sophisticated and secure world online. If this was a game, it would be checkmate. 

Here's how you can implement secure data protection for fitness software or mobile apps. While there are plenty of lengthy guides out there with so much information that it becomes confusing, a few simple steps could help you more than you think. Here they are ways to secure client data and PII. 

1. Don't Just Hand Over Your Identity So Easily 

Anything as far as conducting business online and sharing personal information needs to be done only with a trusted party on a secure website or via secure email (using SSL). By keeping this in mind you're protecting your identity from becoming the next example of identity theft. 

2. If The Link Looks Just A Little Spammy, Don't Click It Instantly! 

We find them on websites and within our inboxes. More so than we have ever seen, because SPAM works, and it has for years. If the link appears to be spammy, approach with caution as it could be how a door to a virus is opened. Then you become the next victim of cyber crime. 

3. Know Who It Is That You Are In Communication With 

Always do your homework when adding someone to your network that you will be communicating with. A new contact could just as easily be someone set out to do nothing but bad things for you. And having a lock on your network is one of the best protective measures of all. 

4. Software Could Be Your New Best Friend And Bodyguard 

It can help identify potential intruders, viruses, and even harmful links on websites. The power that software has today is one that can't come with a price tag. Just like the old ad campaign that ran for 17 years promoting MasterCard, it is priceless. 

5. Update, And Update Again. As Much As Necessary

Updates come out almost daily, and you want to check for updates on a daily basis anyways for your fitness business. It will help uncover new security flaws in fit technology as well as strengthen your cyber-security measures as you progress and as computer experts progress the world of tech.



Client Data Protection Conclusion

When it comes to fiscal fitness apps and financial software, there is always a risk for losing your data. Make sure to protect your client data and practice proper cybersecurity, it could be the difference between your business succeeding or failing.

Understanding Reverse ETL And How It Works

In today’s economy, data has become increasingly important. As technological capabilities advance, more and more businesses are beginning to use data to track and optimize their performance. 

One of the main processes used to source and organize data is ETL, or “extract, transform, load.” Within this process, users are able to extract data from different sources, transform it into a functional, safe resource, then load that data into systems that other users can access. 

Essentially, ETL is used to centralize data in a data warehouse. However, it is also used to send data from data warehouses to third party systems. This process is known as “Reverse ETL” and is quickly becoming an industry standard among tech companies. 

If you’re looking to set up your data team for success, you’ll need to educate yourself on a few key points. To learn more about reverse ETL and how it works, keep reading below! 

ETL 

To understand reverse ETL, you need to first gain a firm grasp on traditional ETL. This process fits under the category of data integration methodology. 

Through ETL, raw data is extracted, transformed on an alternate processing server, then loaded into a target database. This database can be loaded with a myriad of different data cells and organized according to the user’s preferences. 

ELT 

Recently, as more companies have moved to cloud data warehouses, ELT (extract, load, transform) is starting to replace ETL. Unlike the ETL process, users do not have to transform their data before loading it. 

Instead, they can load the raw data directly into a cloud data warehouse. From there, users can conduct data transformations from inside the warehouse through SQL pushdowns, Python scripts, and other code. 

ETL and ELT both move data from third party systems to target data warehouses. The third party systems used are typically business applications like Hubspot and Salesforce, while the databases are usually cloud applications like Oracle and MySQL. 

The Reverse ETL Process 

With reverse ETL, the source is the data warehouse, not the target. The target acts as a third party system. Data is sourced from the warehouse, transformed within that warehouse to meet data formatting requirements of the target, then loaded into the target for action taking. 

This method is known as reverse ETL, rather than reverse ELT, since data warehouses are unable to load data straight into third party systems. However, this process deviates from the traditional ETL process because data transformation is done within the warehouse. As of right now, there is no intermediate processing server that can transform the data. 

To illustrate how this process would be used in the real world, consider this: if you have a customer lifetime value score in a Tableau report, you can’t process it in another app like Salesforce. This is because the data requirements of these apps are different. 

In order to transfer the data, a data engineer would first have to apply an SQL-based transformation to the data inside of Snowflake to isolate the LTV score, format it for Salesforce, then move it to a Salesforce field. 

Impact Of Reverse ETL 

This process allows businesses to operationalize their data by pushing data back into third party systems like business applications. 

Any team can benefit from using reverse ETL, whether you are in sales, marketing, or product. There are an innumerable amount of applications for reverse ETL. 

Some popular examples include syncing internal support channels with Zendesk to enhance customer service, moving customer data to Salesforce to optimize sales, adding product analytics to Pendo to improve customer experience, and organizing support, sales, and product data to customize marketing campaigns for customers. 

Even if your company already uses a cloud data warehouse, you can benefit from reverse ETL. Sometimes, data ends up in the wrong hands. Reverse ETL solves this issue by transferring data directly into applications leveraged by line-of-business (LOB) users. 

Some teams already have access to data via BI reports but unfortunately, these reports are often underused. The data that really is impactful for teams are the systems and processes that they already know. 

This is where reverse ETL comes in. Reverse ETL allows businesses to utilize data in an operational capacity. In real-time, teams can make decisions based on this data. 

Reverse ETL can also help streamline data automation by eliminating manual data processes like CSV pulls and imports. These processes can be time-consuming and slow down your workflow. 

You can use reverse ETL to complete a step in a broader data workflow. For example, if you’re creating an AI/ML workflow on top of your Databricks stack, you can use reverse ETL to move formatted data into the sequence.

How Is Shelfware Limiting Business Growth?

Shelfware is a term used in the technology industry for software that is purchased and then rarely ever, if at all, used. The business software just sits on the shelf collecting dust, even if it's a software-as-a-service (SaaS) program where the shelf is digital or cloud-based. 

While a company may have the best of intentions for the software initially, somewhere down the line, the momentum decreases or there is no longer use for it as plans across the business change. This is especially common when an IT department is not working efficiently with the business management team and communication is less than ideal.

Research suggests that a significant portion of new tech investment is being wasted. On average, each computer in every office around the world has about $259 of unnecessary, unwanted, or unused software on it. According to a new study, businesses wasted a staggering $30 billion (yes billion!) on unused software over the course of a four-year study. Nearly £5.7 billion of this sum, is accredited to the cost of shelfware across UK businesses – an average of approximately £159 per work desktop user. 

A recent discussion with MHR Analytics, a provider of financial performance management and business intelligence consultancy, found that only 4% of businesses are actively using every software licence purchased; with 20% of respondents stating that more than a quarter of their business intelligence software is lying idle on a shelf. This suggests that powerful tools are being ignored or under-utilised which means that businesses are missing out on a valuable stream of insights despite software being present within the system. 

But how can using Business Intelligent tools help? 

Recent reports found that 64% of business leaders who use powerful Business Intelligence software, claim it has given them a competitive edge. Not only does it help businesses to make sense of data, enabling faster, more confident decision-making, but it also offers quick access into performance insights, data patterns and relationships. This detailed level of data gives further clarity and allows enables businesses to create more accurate reports. This is a clear indicator, that not using our purchases BI software could be directly stunting the growth of your business. 

Nick Felton, Senior Vice President at MHR Analytics, said: “BI software that remains in the cupboard as ‘Shelfware’ is a major waste of resources and business potential. Business intelligence software makes decision-making 5 times faster through revelatory insights that enable the transformation of an organisation. IT leaders need software and implementation partners who understand their needs better, match their exact SaaS solution requirements and are ready to provide the right level of training. 

If you are a business owner who is concerned about Shelfware within your organisation, it could be time to check exactly what is and isn’t being utilised. If you have any unused BI software, now is the time to implement it within your business strategy to get the upper hand on competitors and stand out against the crowd. 

Your business needs all the intelligence and tools it can get in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace driven by the new most valuable currency: data. Just don't let these software programs and SaaS solutions go to waste!

How To Evaluate Network Detection And Response (NDR) Solutions And Software

The digital era has made many things easier in business, but other things like cyber attacks have become all the more threatening. Company and organization networks are being hacked at rapid rates with the damage is climbing into the trillions of dollars for businesses worldwide. If there is anything that is a surefire bet about network security today, it’s that it will only become a greater concern for enterprises going forward. The combination of more devices, changing technology, greater speed and productivity, as well as classic human error, are all contributing to this. 

But what are organizations supposed to do to protect themselves from malicious threats? Network detection and response is one such approach that covers many bases for the enterprise. In essence, network detection and response (NDR) is a way for businesses to stop threats in multiple ways through a single solution. 

This works in 3 primary stages: delivery, dormancy, and detection. 

If the threat is detected right away in the delivery state, it can be surrounded and neutralized with minimal damage. Recent research from IBM shows the average threat takes 280 days to be understood and contained. That’s a lot of time. NDR combats this by using enterprise networks as a sort of immune system that roots out unwelcome guests. Finally, NDR can stop extensive damage from advanced threats by detecting when they attempt to communicate outside of the network. Quarantining these dangers as soon as possible can mitigate maximal data loss. 

Now that you have a grasp on the broader concepts of NDR, it’s time to dig into some of the details that will affect the quality of products and services. Here’s what you need to know when evaluating network detection and response solutions. 

What Kind Of Visibility Is Offered? 

If you want to stop cyber threats from causing problems for your enterprise networks, you need to have as much visibility as possible. There are a few ways organizations should think about this when searching for network detection and response tools. 

On the most basic level, you’ll want to have the ability to view threat assessments across your entire enterprise network. Seeing overarching performance and security readouts will be helpful in evaluating whether or not your networks are actually sufficiently secure. This, however, isn’t the only thing that needs to be considered here. 

While having a wide focus is important, the devil is often in the details. This is especially true when dealing with network security. Just because the whole system is working fine right now doesn’t mean nothing is amiss. This is why it’s important to have the ability to view things at a more granular level. Without this, it’s possible to miss threats that are sitting at the packet level. 

Can They Triage Without Internal Intervention? 

Time is of the essence when dealing with network threats. The longer an attack goes unnoticed, the more time it has to spread and cause damage throughout a network. Therefore, it’s a huge deal if an NDR service is able to triage for you, even if you don’t have anyone at the helm. 

Threats don’t sleep. It doesn’t matter if your top IT person is on vacation; attacks on your network need to be remedied immediately. Not only are the going to be financially damaging the longer they persist, they can lead to legal and reputation issues as well. Having network detection and response services provided by a third-party organization means you’ll always have experts monitoring your networks, and ready to triage. 

What Technology Is Powering Them? 

In today’s world, the power of your technology can make a big difference in an organization’s ability to fight cyber threats. This is why it’s important to look at how a NDA solution uses modern tech in its approach. 

Machine learning is a particularly valuable asset here, as it’s constantly refining its methods and improving the discovery process. Services that utilized ML and AI are likely going to have a more robust product with far greater capabilities. This is an essential consideration when your whole organization is on the line. While this might seem like an exaggeration, it’s really not when you consider over 50% of small businesses shut down permanently within less than a year after a data breach. 

Protect The Network

Overall, network detection and response is a great way for enterprises to protect themselves against threats. Keep these important concepts in mind while searching for the right NDR for your business or professional organization.

10 Benefits Of An Operational Data Store

Database sizes are increasing all the time and to reap its benefits, companies need to find ways to process data with as little disruption to business operations as possible. With the growing demand for speed, low latency and scalability, new solutions are necessary to help solve challenges. 

Collecting and storing data is useless unless companies can use it to achieve business objectives. An Operational Data Store (ODS) can be a real benefit, especially if it is a next-generation ODS rather than a traditional one. 

1. A Consolidated Repository For Previously Isolated Systems 

An Operational Data Store integrates data coming from a variety of different sources and puts it in consistent format while business operations continue. It, therefore, provides a consolidated repository for previously isolated systems of record. According to GigaSpaces, the main advantages of integrating data from the various systems of record is for analysis and reporting. 

Business owners and employees can make more informed decisions by having a more comprehensive view of data than when it is siloed in the different systems of record. The integrated tables contain the most recent, relevant snapshot of operational activities and therefore, reports on operational processes are more sophisticated and holistic than reports coming from individual systems. 

2. Real-Time Processing 

One of the problems when dealing with huge quantities of data is high latency. Making API calls to various data sources for each action makes real-time processing impossible and customers are unable to get the response times they demand today. An ODS focuses on a single business concept, such as a customer, service or product and constantly updates data, overwriting previous data. 

As the data is in real-time or as close to real-time as possible, it enables excellent operational decision-making. For example, creating a marketing plan today involves using real-time data to target customers and hone in on their preferences and needs. Data analysis can also help with monitoring performance and improving marketing campaigns. 

3. Very Fast Performance 

A next-generation ODS uses a distributed in-memory core and this means back-end systems are unaffected by unplanned loads or unexpected volumes. Over-provisioning with expensive resources when volumes fall is inefficient and this becomes unnecessary with an ODS in place. 

The ability to scale autonomously means that companies can maintain customer experience when volumes peak and a high concurrency of users does not affect performance at all. 

4. High Availability 

When many systems of record need managing, the chance of a system of record going down is high. Decoupling the API layer from the systems of record means applications can continue working even when a particular system of record isn’t available. 

For example, checking the credit card status of a customer against the ODS is possible without having to interrogate an authorization system that may be down. Customers today expect 24/7 service and are not satisfied if service is disrupted for any reason. 

5. Better Predictive Modeling 

When real-time or near real-time data is available for analysis, predictive modeling is more robust and accurate. Predictive modeling is a process used by businesses, involving the use of data and statistics to predict outcomes. Forecasting outcomes can reduce time, efforts and costs. 

For example, businesses can predict potentially late deliveries, sales orders, and other impacts or risks. Variables such as regulation changes, market conditions and environmental factors can be factored into calculations to offer more complete views. 

6. Easier Diagnosis Of Problems 

By having a current view of operational status, users can diagnose problems without having to go to individual systems of record. For example, a service rep could find a customer order and determine its status quite easily. 

7. Time-Sensitive Business Rules 

Businesses can build time-sensitive business rules on an ODS. They can automate certain processes and improve business efficiency. Without current, integrated operational data, this would be impossible. The rules engine can recommend a certain action to an appropriate system for execution. For example, if fraud is suspected, an authorization system may be alerted to take an appropriate action. 

8. Remote Data Center Synchronization 

Global organizations often have data centers in remote sites due to the need to keep to certain regulations and offer high availability. An ODS makes it possible to synchronize remote data centers and allow for cross-site replication in real-time. Data synchronization ensures secure, accurate and compliant data and successful customer experiences. 

Clean, consistent data is essential for product and service competence but also for data governance issues like regulatory compliance. Without seamless synchronization, data transactions can be delayed, and decisions can be affected by inaccurate data. A glitch can also have a negative impact on customer retention and sales. An ODS allows for unaffected performance and accurate decision-making. 

9. Effective Security 

With mobile apps and the rise of online transactions, security issues such as data breaches and cyberattacks are on the increase. Data privacy regulations are stricter than before and organizations need to secure even their internal systems. 

A modern ODS can effectively support role-based security, data masking and advanced encryption systems. Only a few people have security to access systems of record but an ODS doesn’t have the same security issues as it doesn’t contain historical data. 

10. Handles Data On-Premise And In The Cloud 

Many organizations today have data on-premise and in the cloud. They adopt a hybrid solution so they can enjoy the benefits of each to the needs of the business. An ODS can handle data from many different sources without compromising performance. It can orchestrate data in real-time or near real-time from on-premise or in the cloud data sources. It doesn’t matter what systems data comes from or where it is stored. 

A Final Word On Operational Data Stores

Companies choosing to modernize their architecture with a next-generation ODS will drive their digital transformation and improve their throughput and scalability dramatically. They can upgrade their operational capabilities as an ODS enables better decision-making and reporting. By becoming more productive and efficient with company data, they can maintain a competitive edge and stay profitable.

Why AWS Cost Optimization Should Be Part Of A Cloud Strategy

One of the main reasons why companies move their workload to cloud services is for economic benefits. However, many firms ignore the opportunity to make higher AWS cost optimization as they are satisfied with the initial OpEx and CapEx gains. Even if they move their workloads to AWS (Amazon Web Services), most of them retain the approach they used on the physical infrastructure. But they might fail to see that this approach might end up costing more than them saving up. 

This is one of the main things that the in-house technology lacks, the operational, architectural, and financial knowledge to manage costs. Hence, AWS Premier Consulting Partners are available to ensure that the company's current cloud strategy is integrated with the AWS cloud and cost optimization is maintained. 

Begin By Understanding The Present Cost Of The Company 

A good AWS cost optimization application in the company requires gaining a deep understanding of the company's current costs, identifying opportunities for cost optimization, and then implementing the new ones. Software like SWS provides those tools for the customers to understand the pattern of expenses. Additionally, the consultants will be required to implement things like using appropriate tools, system analysis and results, and other changes to make the work optimized. They ensure that these changes do not affect the security or the performance of the company negatively. 

Cost Management Tools That Companies Must Have 

AWS issues cost management tools to help companies understand how they are using their resources and how to save them. 

1) The AWS Cost-Usage Report 

This provides a detailed report of the day-to-day or the hour-to-hour usage of all the company's resources, their use, and the cost incurred. 

2) Cost Explorer 

This tool provides aggregate and detailed reports that can be custom-designed, including charts and tabular data to understand and manage company expenses. This tool also allows to filter different costs and usage and group them to identify any recurring trends, detect anomalies and manage the factors influencing the costs. 

3) Cloud Watch 

It is an efficient tool that gathers and tracks metrics and provides an insight into the performance of the application and utilization of resources. 

4) CloudCheckr And CloudHealth 

They provide detailed billing analytics of the company. CloudCheckr, for instance, can identify unused and idle resources and services, mismatched EC2 (Electronic Compute Cloud), and provide suggestions for resource re-sizing. 

What Are The Cost-Cutting Opportunities That An AWS Consulting Partner Can Find? 

There are numerous tools available to understand and analyze the current cost of the company. With a thorough understanding of the company's business goals and the AWS environment, they can create a custom dashboard containing default usage reports and cost management reports. There are some changes that they can make to lower expenditure, and they are: 

1) Taking The Spot Instances Into Account 

They help find EC2 on sale, which are largely unused and available at steep discounts. If the company has a little flexibility about a few interruptions when their applications run, the EC2 costs can be lowered using Spot instances. 

2) Substituting Monolithic Applications 

Consultants can help replace old applications with high-performance, cost-efficient, and highly specific tasks like AWS Lambda functions. 

3) Identifying And Removing Unused Resources 

They help determine the resources that are no longer in use in the production units, testing, and development and remove them from consuming the company's resources and additional costs. 

4) Adding the Most Efficient Resources 

The consultants refer to the AWS cloud's performance data, and they make sure that the right services and resources are used in the company to provide maximum efficiency. 

5) Using Additional AWS Services 

Additional AWS services like CodeCommit, CodeDeploy, and CodeBuild are implemented to ensure organized and automated deployment processes. 

Overall Benefits Of Having An AWS Cost Optimization Strategy 

A strong foundation for an AWS cost optimization strategy can be laid by working with a consultant from an AWS Premier Consulting Partner. Many companies may find it difficult to analyze their resources, cost, suggesting changes, and implementing improvements, when done alone. Due to this, numerous businesses end up impacting their performance and security. This can happen because of under-providing the resources or not attempting to take full advantage of the AWS infrastructure. But working with AWS Premier Consulting Partners like Mission can help companies avoid these issues and make the expenses more economical. With continuous monitoring of the cost and resources and AWS cost optimization methods, the company is bound to make significant gains.

How To Look At The Big Picture In Business

It's 2021 now, so stop living your personal and professional life in snapshots. Almost everyone I know uses data in snapshots, and it’s almost completely the wrong way to use data for businesses. By snapshots, I mean looking at your data once in a while, peeking at it, opening up a dashboard, whatever. We look using snapshots of data rather than seeing our data as a living, breathing entity - and then we’re taken by surprise when our occasional glances at our data reveal something we didn’t expect. 

You know these snapshots well. They’re your monthly report, your quarterly board review, your occasional deep dive into Google Analytics. Is living in snapshots better than not looking at your data at all? Sure. But it’s substantially worse than having your data snippets be part of your routine, of your life. When you live in snapshots, you miss trends and changes in your data. For example, I watch COVID-19 data daily as part of my daily pandemic newsletter. Every day I see what’s happening with three KPIs: new cases, new hospitalizations, and new deaths - and because I have my finger on the pulse of the data, I can more accurately predict what’s going to happen. 

When the most recent Coronavirus case surge began, I knew we were headed for lockdowns because the surge was so much bigger and faster than the previous two surges. What did I do? You’ll remember  when I said how it hurt to tell my parents we weren’t coming for the holidays. They didn’t see what I saw in the data. Fast forward a month and every government official and scientist is telling us the same - stay home for the holidays. I restocked everything that needed restocking six weeks ago, and told my newsletter readers to do the same. 

Go ahead, ask me how much toilet paper I have in my basement. Fast forward to today? Headlines in the news about panic buying and shortages again as lockdowns commence (that same toilet paper I bought six weeks ago is out of stock on Amazon). When you live in the data, you are a part of its story and you can see where the story is going. How do you make data part of your life instead of living in snapshots? Make it someplace you go regularly to think of the big picture in business. 

If there are marketing metrics that are critical to you, put them on a Google Data Studio dashboard and make that the start page of your browser, so that every time you go to post a rant on Facebook or mindlessly watch cat videos on YouTube, your data is the first thing you see. Once you build the habit of seeing your data as often as you see other things important to you in your life, you’ll make better decisions and faster decisions with it. Think big picture!

At the end of a livestream I was doing last week, a viewer questioned the advice I was giving out about not using pre-pandemic data to forecast the next year, since the world is fundamentally different. They asked, “Can you make reliable strategic decisions based on a short window of data (daily), compared to year over year? Do seasonal differences not matter right now because the world is so different?” This is a really good question. 

The way I’m thinking about the world right now is like holiday driving, back when we used to travel for holidays. Holiday traffic was always a series of snarls that required a lot of agility and Google Maps. Traffic jam? Accident? Lane closure? Bad weather? You had to route around traffic jams, somethings pre-emptively if you know the area well, all while making progress towards your destination. You couldn’t rely on long-term forecasts for long drives. If you’re driving from Boston to New York, you can’t look at traffic in New York City now while you’re just leaving your house in Boston - by the time you get there, the situation will totally have changed. Some things remain relatively constant - you know that certain roads are ALWAYS a mess, even on good days. You know that people generally stop to eat at certain times. So even though the specific details are obscured, experience plus great data let you navigate the issues and get to your destination. 

That’s how I feel about forecasting right now. It’s fine to set goals, just as it’s fine to put a destination in Google Maps. You kind of have to if you want to get where you’re going. But you have to be able to adapt, adapt, adapt - and quickly - to deal with exceptionally uncertain circumstances. The way you’ve done things in the past doesn’t necessarily apply, so be ready to make significant changes while still driving towards your goals. And like driving in holiday traffic, to the best of your ability, try to enjoy what you can of the journey as you drive towards your goals in the year ahead. We know it’s not going to be a smooth ride. We know that we’re in for some rough spots. But that shouldn’t preclude us from enjoying ourselves when we’re not in those sticky spots, just like we can still make the most of bad traffic and sing along to our favorite playlists when no one’s listening.

If you happen to be a small business owner, business management should be a leading priority.  Business management could be defined as the process of planning, directing and controlling a company.  Business management is used to successfully address and fix the problems that a business might be having in establishing its role as an organization, which delivers and generates value.  Creating and offering value for the customers of a company will allow that business' profits to exceed the total costs of operating that business. 

Business management is going to include advertising, finance, accounting, production, human resources, product research and development as well as management information systems.  To manage your own company, you will need to have expert knowledge in all of these fields.  Larger businesses and companies generally have different managers throughout the company for each of the fore mentioned business management areas.  For example, large companies will have an advertising and marketing manager, finance manager, accounting manager and so on.  However, there are some small business owners who are going to want or need to take on all of these positions themselves. 

Some small business owners will simply be unable to afford all of these different employees.  Other small business owners may perhaps simply want to take care of the business management on their own.  Of course, there are quite a few small business owners who don't want to entirely take business management into their own hands and will hire employees to be leading managers.  Any small business owner who decides to take business management concerns into their own hands needs to remember that this is a substantial job and the work will generally be tedious. 

Business managers will need to be able to recognize the talents and weaknesses of their company in relation to other businesses in their industry.  They must also be able to set objectives and goals for the business and implement the business plan or strategy.  A manager must also be able to alter business plans and strategies if they must be revised. Business management also includes ensuring that all employees are properly trained and have a good attitude.  The employees will need to be educated on all of the goals of a company so that they can help to achieve these goals.  

Whether you hire qualified personnel to assist you with managing your company or decide to take on all of the managing yourself, business management is highly crucial to the vitality of your business. See the big picture in business and act on it! 

When it comes to delivering the best possible experience for your clients, it’s important to have access to the best loans, technology, and training. With us, not only do you get exactly that, but also a support team to help your business, Account Executives to guide you, and a Tech Team ready to help you with personalized training as soon as you partner with us. If that sounds like something you want to experience, here are three more reasons why you should become a Frugal Finance Partner. 

Reason #1: Project Your Presence - Have you been running your own marketing campaigns, developing the strategies, and posting to your own social media? Is that cutting into client time or lead follow-up? When you partner with us, you gain access to professional-quality marketing materials through Frugal Finance. Everything you need to further your marketing will be at your fingertips, with the ability to customize the materials to best represent your brand. 

Reason #2: Keep Your Clients - One of the biggest fears that brokers have when it comes to working with lenders is knowing what happens to their clients. But with Frugal Finances, you can rest easy. When you partner with us, you keep them. You fostered the relationships, you put in the legwork, and it’s our job to make sure they keep coming back to you for all their mortgage needs. We’re able to do this because we don’t sell off your loans to the highest bidder; we keep them with us. We stay connected with them on your behalf, and when they show interest in a new loan, refinancing, or referrals, we’re here to let you know and help you in that process! 

Reason #3: Education And Training - With the way the market fluctuates, it’s important that you stay on top of all the new trends that pop up. In addition to that, new technology has been consistently coming out to help brokers in the loan process. Frugal Finance provides top-quality training and education on all technologies we offer to help you grow your business to new heights. Our unique programs will teach you all the skills you’ll need to succeed in your industry. 

Big Picture Business Building

Make sure that in 2021 you look at the big picture in business and in your personal lives as well, not just small snapshots! Think big and build bigger.