Addressing data-related challenges has been a predominant concern that will continue for the foreseeable future. As budgets are redrawn for next year, investing in your data is a wise choice.
Data Trends in 2020
- The business value of data continues to rise – Every business transformation today—be it greater customer intimacy, more optimized operations, faster innovation, and more—is fueled by data.
- Persistent demand for self-service data is unwavering– Enabled by easier-to-use, more powerful analytic tools, business users now demand access to all data, everywhere, at any and all times.
- Time-to-solution expectations for new data-driven solutions are even faster– With better data-driven solutions often the competitive battlefield, victory goes to the swift.
- Data’s relentless growth accelerates – Captured from the Internet, IoT devices, consumers, vendors, data service providers, and more, these sources combine with increasingly low-cost storage to double the supply of data every 2.5 years.
- Data distribution further widens– Beyond the computer room, data increasingly spans diverse silos on desktops, mobile devices, machines, in the cloud, at third parties, and more.
- Real-time data’s importance soars– Real-time responses to events is increasingly the key to success when engaging with customers and optimizing operations.
- Data quality remains elusive– Diverse and evolving data definitions, syntax, structures, sources, and uses conspire to limit data efficacy.
- New data related regulations will surely arise– Consuming a greater share of data-related spending, compliance with new regulations is not optional as governments respond to citizens’ privacy, security, bias, and other data-related threats.
- Data management becomes even more complex– Effective, efficient delivery of data’s value while addressing data’s myriad challenges stresses every organization’s data management strategy, infrastructure, and organization.
- The data management skills shortage persists –From DBA to data engineer to developer, data management domain knowledge requirements are expanding faster than the complexity itself.
Developing a data management plan with a focus on the projection of expected future storage needs for data, specifications on data sources, data collection and storage, and data security should be at the forefront of the IT Planning list for 2021 for all IT organizations.
How Can Zunesis Help With Your Data Planning
Zunesis can schedule a data management plan “kick-off” with your organization. It is an assessment and inventory of the current state of your environment. The Zunesis Data Management Assessment Service can be used to focus separately on Production Data, Archive Data, Backup/Recovery, or it can encompass all three. The goal of the Data Management Assessment service is to help our customers develop their data management plan. We, then help implement processes that will accommodate data growth and provide data availability, security, and protection of business-critical information.
Zunesis Data Management Assessment Deliverables:
· Storage Architecture Diagram
· Observations about current data management practices
· Recommendations for improving data management practices
· Documentation of short-term and long-term goals and objectives
Zunesis Data Management Assessment Benefits:
· Document current data management practices
· Document strategies for aligning data management to the goals of the business
· Develop processes for protecting data based on business needs
· Document short-term and long-term objectives
Contact Zunesis today to create a data management strategy that fits your individual needs
Heart Disease and Technology
What if heart conditions could be monitored from home?
What if there were predictive analytics to predict someone’s risk of heart disease?
We are getting closer and closer to this being a reality. February is American Hearth Month. Heart disease is the leading killer in the world. It is responsible for over 17 millions deaths each year. This could rise to 23 million by 2030.
The medical costs are astronomical. The American Heart Association states the the annual cost of this disease is over $500 billion in the United States alone.
This topic is close to my heart. Many members of my family as well as friends have suffered from heart complications and strokes. If these evolving technologies were available back then, it would have made a major difference.
More and more technologies are approved by the FDA every day. From wearable technology to digital stethoscopes, technology is being developed to assist humans with heart conditions. I am going to highlight just a few of the products that are gaining traction in the healthcare industry. The cardiovascular disease technology market is expected to exceed $40 billion by 2030.
Digital Stethoscope
Eko‘s digital stethoscope uses algorithms to assist with the treatment and prevention of heart disease. Recently, a suite of algorithms were approved by the FDA. The algorithms can alert technicians of the presence of heart murmurs and atrial fibrillation (AFib) during a physical exam. This is essentially converting the classic stethoscope into an early detection tool.
Eko’s AI is able to identify the heart murmurs with 87% sensitivity and 87% specificity. The average traditional stethoscope only has a sensitivity of 43% and specificity of 69% when detecting valvular heart disease. When detecting AFib, AI can detect 99% sensitivity and 97% specificity when analyzing the one-lead ECG tracing. The algorithms reports fast or slow heart rates which is typically indicative of heart disease.
A simple part of your annual exam that has been the front line tool for over two centuries could be the game changer when detecting life threatening conditions. Treating these conditions early could make all the difference.
Technology developed using artificial intelligence (AI) could identify people at high risk of a fatal heart attack at least 5 years before it strikes. This is according to new research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
Remote Management of Heart Disease
Some of the biggest trends around cardiovascular disease revolve around remote patient monitoring. Remote Patient monitoring is where consultations can be consulted over video calls. Patient reads and information are accessible through a digital platform. The patient uses wearables such as skin patches, accessories and smart clothing to monitor the patient’s condition.
Beyond disease management, remote patient monitoring can help to see if patients are adhering to their current regiments. It is can also be vital for clinical trial monitoring and pre/post op monitoring. The ability to predict or prevent future cardiac events may occur based on the data being relayed. At home innovations are used to monitor hypertension, heart failure and arrhythmias.
In-body microcomputers have been developed where a pea-sized V-LAP sensor sits withing the heart. The sensor provides real time data to health professionals. When pressure in the heart elevates, it sends alerts the doctors in time. It charges remotely via an external chest strap that is fitted by the patient. It can collect and transmit data to doctors at anytime.
Do you own an Apple Watch? The optical sensor can detect atrial fibrillation in the background. The market for these items will continue to grow. We live in a world where data is everywhere.
Being able to access that data from the comfort of your home, can alleviate the stress of some patients. In addition, it will help alleviate medical costs by reducing visits to the hospital.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Virtual and Augmented Reality is the new reality for training medical staff. A training in a VR headset can put the operators in a virtual cath lab with a 360 degree view of the room and equipment. 3-D renderings of diseases vessel segments are viewable as well.
NovaRad has FDA clearance for the first surgical AR system. The surgeon wears an AR headset. He or she can superimpose and co-register a CT or MRI dataset onto a patient on the OR table. They can virtually slice through a patient to pre-plan a procedure and mark the skin for incisions.
Philips Healthcare is developing a cath lab AR system which allows interventional radiologists or cardiologists to use hand movements or voice commands without breaking a sterile field. They will be able to call up an ultrasound in their AR visor. Review CT imaging datasets that they can slice in mid-air or view 3-D holograms of the anatomy. Hand movements rotate or slice the images .
The Future
These are just a few of the technologies out there that are helping improve the lives of cardiac patients. I can only imagine the developments that are to come.
Pets suffer from heart disease as well. Colorado State University is already using cutting edge technology to assist with heart disease in dogs.
Some of these things I could only have imagined in Sci-fi films are now a reality. I only can hope that these developments will help save lives for years to come.
Zunesis already actively works with some medical institutions. My hope would be that some tools that we can provide them will take them to the next level in heart disease prevention.
Though not a new phenomenon, ransomware has made some serious headlines this week.
With the recent wave of Ransomware attacks, it is becoming increasingly important for organizations to protect themselves and their sensitive data.
There are different types of ransomware. They can target any PC users – whether it’s a home computer, endpoints in an enterprise network, or servers used by a government agency or healthcare provider.
Ransomware can:
- Prevent you from accessing Windows,
- Encrypt files so you can’t use them,
- Stop certain apps from running (like your web browser).
Ransomware will demand that you pay money (a “ransom”) to get access to your PC or files. However, there is no guarantee that paying the fine or doing what the ransomware tells you will give access to your PC or files again.
Microsoft provides a complete portfolio of Cloud services to protect your data from these types of attacks. One of our specialties is helping customers transition from on premise to either hybrid or full cloud environments. Often, customers just do not know where to start. We have a complimentary assessment that can establish the basics called a “Cloud Migration Health Check,” by which we can provide you with a report outlining current on premises investments compared to what those same investments would cost in the cloud, highlighting cost savings in the process.
In light of this week’s events, (WannaCry), would it be worth a few minutes of your time to review your current environment and projects to see if Microsoft Cloud and Microsoft Office 365 & Azure would be a good fit for your organization?
Please contact us to learn more on how Microsoft dedicated Office 365 and Azure: Storage, Backup, and Disaster Recovery solutions can help optimize and protect your IT investments.
Helping Organizations Maximize Their Investments to Drive Optimal Performance
Organizations need to do four things well in order to survive and thrive in the idea economy.
These are four areas our customers have told us are impacting their business the most as they transform to a digital enterprise. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Zunesis are helping organizations develop in these areas in order to maximize their investments to drive optimal performance.
Transform to a hybrid infrastructure: Accelerate the delivery of apps and services to your enterprise with the right mix of traditional IT, private, and public cloud. This is about having the right infrastructure optimized for each of your applications whether in your traditional data center or in a public, private, or managed cloud. It all has to work together seamlessly. In order to create and deliver new value instantly and continuously, businesses need infrastructure that can be composed and re-composed to meet shifting demands, infrastructure that will allow organizations to adjust when the inevitable disruption arrives. Your infrastructure has to be everywhere, at the right cost, at the right performance, with the right management, at the right scale. A hybrid infrastructure, one that combines public cloud, private cloud, and traditional IT can maximize performance, allowing for continuous delivery, improved efficiency, and optimized costs.
Protect the digital enterprise: Protect your most prized digital assets whether they are on premise, in the cloud, or in between. This is about security and risk management in the digital world. IT security used to be about defending the perimeter from external threats. The transformation of enterprise IT has created a matrix of widely distributed interactions between people, applications, and data on and off premise, on mobile devices and in the cloud. Security threats can be external or internal in nature and can represent malicious or unintentional actions. Enterprises lack the skills, resources, and expertise required to proactively manage this threat. Enterprises must adhere to complex regulatory, compliance, and data protection issues and ensure enterprise-wide resiliency & business continuity in the face of natural and cyber disasters. All of this requires new thinking and security strategies that enable new ways to do business.
Empower the data-driven organization: Harness 100% of your relevant data to empower people with actionable insights that drive superior business outcomes. This is about how companies harness all relevant business, human, and machine data to drive innovation, growth and competitive advantage. This means empowering stakeholders to make timely and targeted decisions based on actionable, data-derived insights. A data-driven organization strives to rapidly discover the value of its data through an optimized data-centric infrastructure. This foundation understands and engages with customers by listening and interpreting patterns within customer data, uncovers competitive advantages and new market opportunities, and uses data to streamline operations and enable a leaner and faster organization.
Enable workplace productivity: Deliver experiences that empower employees and customers to achieve better outcomes. The workplace is now digital, with interactions and experiences delivered to employees and customers across a multiplicity of locations, time, and devices. Enterprises must deliver rich digital and mobile experiences to customers, employees and partners, in order to engage employees and improve customer experience. Users expect personal, contextual and secure experiences. As enterprises look to improve productivity and drive customer loyalty, they must deliver highly engaging employee experiences and better serve customers through seamless, personal, contextual experiences.
Success in these four areas requires a partner able to bring all these elements together, aligned to your industry and your enterprise. This is the heart of what Hewlett Packard Enterprise and their trusted Platinum Partner Zunesis deliver. The process is unique for every organization, and the goal is about building business services to drive new products, services, business models, and experiences to compete in the idea economy. HPE and Zunesis help customers deal with big IT challenges and major shifts in technology. To thrive in the idea economy, you have to pick a transformation partner with the vision and breadth to create the best possible future.
