Get the most out of CIO Influence’s comprehensive daily IT news picks to stay ahead in the information technology sector. Get current news in the IT sector about key domains such as cloud computing, data management, cybersecurity, and information security. Our curated updates include IT breaking news, tech partnerships, innovative IT solutions, and evolving security policies, keeping you informed on current industry happenings.
#1 Qualtrics Names Lynn Girotto Chief Marketing Officer
Qualtrics, the category creator and leader of the experience management (XM) category has named Lynn Girotto as Chief Marketing Officer. Girotto will be responsible for the company’s worldwide marketing functions, which include brand, communications, demand generation, field marketing, product marketing, and pricing and packaging.
Key Facts:
- Girotto offers more than 25 years of senior marketing leadership for leading technology and consumer brands.
- Most recently, she served as CMO for Vimeo, focusing on enterprise customers and customer experience. Her former roles include senior marketing leadership positions at Microsoft, Starbucks, Tableau, and Getty Images.
- In her new role at Qualtrics, Girotto will elevate brand recognition for the company’s AI-powered solutions, which aim to enable organizations to engage with their employees and customers more personally.
#2 Rackspace Technology Transforms Video Content Management for Young Hollywood
Rackspace Technology announced a collaboration with Young Hollywood to enhance their video content management using a multi-stage Google Cloud solution. This partnership aims to improve video processing speed and data accessibility, leveraging Google Cloud Video Intelligence API. By moving to the cloud, Young Hollywood sought increased flexibility, agility, and technological innovation. In addition, Rackspace Technology facilitated the migration of video assets to Google Cloud, enhancing processing speed and enabling new monetization and distribution opportunities.
Advancements:
- Migrated 5,092 video files to Google Cloud Storage.
- Increased video processing speed from 10 videos per hour to over 100.
- Enhanced data accessibility for over 5,000 video assets with rich video intelligence data.
- Streamlined information retrieval for queries about text, celebrities, and brands.
- Loaded third-party metadata into Google BigQuery™ for comprehensive data analysis.
#3 HP and Canva Announce Partnership to Democratize Design and Printing
HP Inc. has announced a strategic multi-year global partnership with Canva to enable millions of Canva users to seamlessly design and print high-quality visual content through an integrated system. This collaboration aims to benefit both HP Print Service Providers (PSPs) and the Canva community.
The partnership will allow Canva users to design and print various products without compromising quality. It will also expand Canva’s print service to 150 countries by 2026, reducing the carbon footprint through localized operations. HP’s automation software, HP PrintOS Site Flow, will streamline production and shipping processes for PSPs, enhancing productivity and efficiency in print jobs.
Offerings:
- Canva aims to leverage HP’s innovations in cloud software and digital print to accelerate the expansion of Canva Print, extending reach with more PSP locations.
- The partnership will provide Canva users with advanced tools for managing global print orders, ensuring consistent color quality and secure processing.
- HP will implement Canva Enterprise to enhance visual communication within its global marketing and sales teams, improving efficiency and collaboration.
#4 Lenovo Powers AI Avatars to Explore the Role of Technology in Mental Health
Lenovo has launched the latest iteration of its Work For Humankind project, titled ‘Meet Your Digital Self’. This initiative highlights how advanced technology and AI can support mental health professionals in addressing the global youth mental health crisis.
News Highlights:
- Project Focus: The project addresses the disconnect between Gen Z’s online and offline personas, which affects 67% of this demographic and contributes to feelings of loneliness and anxiety.
- AI Innovation: Lenovo’s technology created lifelike avatars of two Gen Z participants, enabling unscripted, natural conversations with their family members. This facilitated meaningful discussions that might not have occurred otherwise, helping family members understand and reconnect with their loved ones.
- Clinical Insights: Sarah Kendrick from Mental Health Innovations noted that AI innovations like Lenovo’s project can help different generations understand each other’s online personas.
- AI and Avatars: The avatars, created using Lenovo’s broad range of technology, including mobile phones, PCs, and cloud solutions, were trained on the participants’ social media data to mimic their online personas accurately.
#5 Huawei Kicks Off 2024 Tech Arena Contests in Europe
Huawei launched the 2024 Tech Arena Contests in Europe at the Viva Technology Summit, emphasizing global talent development in technology. Formerly the Huawei European University Challenge Program, Tech Arena offers global students real-world technology challenges in AI, autonomous driving, optical networks, and wireless network algorithms.
Liu Shaowei, President of Huawei’s European Research Institute, announced plans to host over 10 contests in Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The contests aim to foster cooperation between industry and academia, enhancing students’ practical skills and accelerating technological applications in the real world.
The French contest focuses on designing packet scheduling algorithms for deterministic latency, as highlighted by Jeremie LEGUAY, Huawei’s Chief Expert for Network Optimization. Huawei invested 23.4% of its revenue in R&D in 2023, ranking 5th on the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. Its European R&D centers, staffed primarily by local researchers, support regional scientific and technological advancements.
#6 Reliance Cyber and Google Cloud Security Unite to Transform Cybersecurity for UK Businesses
Reliance Cyber, a leading Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), has been chosen as one of only four MSSPs to partner with Google Cloud Security (GCS). This collaboration aims to enhance cybersecurity for businesses throughout the UK and Ireland by making it more effective and less complicated.
Importance of the Partnership:
- Challenges Addressed: Businesses face escalating cyberattacks, numerous security alerts, rising cybersecurity costs, and a shortage of skilled professionals. This partnership addresses these issues by providing improved security postures through insightful, data-driven analytics, which underpin Reliance Cyber’s XDR service.
- Relevance in Changing Times: As businesses navigate economic, social, and technological changes, including COVID-19 impacts, hybrid and remote work, AI advancements, and budget pressures, this partnership offers enhanced cybersecurity without high costs or complexity.
#7 Astro Partners with Amagi and AWS to Transition Playout Services to the Cloud
What is the news? Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad, the largest broadcaster in Malaysia, has partnered with Amagi, a leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV (CTV), to transition its playout services to the cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS). This strategic move aims to modernize Astro’s systems and infrastructure, enhancing business agility and service resilience.
Significance of the news: Astro will modernize its playout and disaster recovery capabilities, transitioning from legacy systems to AWS. This transition marks a significant milestone in the ASEAN broadcast industry.
Astro will implement Amagi’s flagship products on AWS, including the Amagi CLOUDPORT channel playout platform and the Amagi MONITORING solution. These solutions optimize workflows, enhance media operations, and streamline playout system management. The upcoming AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region launch will support Astro’s broadcast transformation, improving network infrastructure resiliency and performance.
#8 Opera Collaborates with Google Cloud to Enhance Browser AI with Gemini Models
Opera, the innovative browser company, has announced a partnership with Google Cloud to integrate Google’s Gemini models into its Aria browser AI. This collaboration enhances Opera’s multi-LLM Composer AI engine, enabling the delivery of tailored experiences for its users.
Opera’s Aria browser AI leverages a unique multi-LLM Composer AI engine, which processes user intent and selects the most appropriate model for each task. This flexibility distinguishes Aria from other browser AIs that rely on a single provider or LLM. Google’s Gemini model, known for its modern, powerful, and user-friendly attributes, will now be integrated into Opera’s AI capabilities, providing users with up-to-date information and high performance.
Strategic Benefits:
- Enhanced User Experience: The integration allows Opera to offer the most current information to users, improving the overall browsing experience.
- Long-standing Partnership: Opera and Google have been collaborating for over 20 years. This new development marks a significant deepening of their cooperation in the field of generative AI.
- Innovative Features: The partnership includes new AI features such as free image generation using Google’s Imagen 2 model on Vertex AI and voice output capabilities powered by Google’s text-to-audio model.
#9 FrogData Revolutionizes Service Management with FixedOps Mojo AI Analytics
FrogData, a leading data analytics company in the automotive industry, has launched FixedOps Mojo, a cutting-edge Service Management Dashboard designed to optimize fixed operations for auto dealerships. Part of the WarrantyBoost+ solution, FixedOps Mojo uses AI-driven data analytics to provide actionable insights, significantly improving service management performance.
FixedOps Mojo includes a range of features tailored to the needs of auto dealerships:
- Fixed Ops Control: A central hub for service department reporting.
- Open RO Snapshot: Real-time updates on repair orders.
- Express Service Analysis: Evaluate the efficiency and profitability of express services.
- Op Codes & W******* Analysis: Detailed analysis of operation codes and w******* repair orders to maximize profitability.
- Technician and Advisor Comparisons: Performance comparisons across technicians and service advisors to identify improvement areas.
- Body Shop Analysis: In-depth insights into body shop operations.
#10 Uptycs Announces a Strategic Partnership with Kite
Uptycs, the pioneering cloud-native application protection platform, has partnered with Kite, a value-added distributor focused on new technologies, to deliver innovative cloud security solutions to UK enterprises. The partnership will ensure the security of critical workloads and compliance.
The alliance brings Uptycs’ Unified Risk Prioritization Platform together with Kite’s market wisdom, fulfilling the growing demand for hybrid cloud security solutions. Uptycs’ CNAPP is designed to provide complete security across cloud environments and developers’ endpoints by natively detecting vulnerabilities in advance.
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