New tech on the block: Data streaming, GenAI, cybersecurity, cleantech, cloud, gaming

The Tech Panda takes a look at recent tech launches.

Data streaming: An upcoming feature on Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT), the data streaming company, announced AI Model Inference, an upcoming feature on Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink®, to enable teams to easily incorporate machine learning into data pipelines. Confluent introduced Confluent Platform for Apache Flink®, a Flink distribution that enables stream processing in on-premises or hybrid environments with support from the company’s Flink experts. Confluent also unveiled Freight clusters, a new cluster type for Confluent Cloud that provides a cost-effective way to handle large-volume use cases that aren’t time-sensitive, such as logging or telemetry data.

“Apache Kafka and Flink are the critical links to fuel machine learning and artificial intelligence applications with the most timely and accurate data,” said Shaun Clowes, Chief Product Officer at Confluent. “Confluent’s AI Model Inference removes the complexity involved when using streaming data for AI development by enabling organizations to innovate faster and deliver powerful customer experiences.”

The Why

Generative AI helps organizations innovate faster and deliver more tailored customer experiences. AI workloads need fresh, context-rich data to ensure the underlying models generate accurate output and results for businesses to make informed decisions based on the most current information available.

However, developers often have to use several tools and languages to work with AI models and data processing pipelines, leading to complex and fragmented workloads. This can make it challenging to leverage the most current and relevant data for decision-making, leading to errors or inconsistencies and compromising the accuracy and reliability of AI-driven insights. These issues can cause increased development time and difficulties in maintaining and scaling AI applications.

Features

With AI Model Inference in Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink®, organizations can use simple SQL statements from within Apache Flink to make calls to AI engines, including OpenAI, AWS SageMaker, GCP Vertex, and Microsoft Azure. Now enterprises can orchestrate data cleaning and processing tasks on a single platform.

AI Model Inference enables companies to:

• Simplify AI development by using familiar SQL syntax to work directly with AI/ML models, reducing the need for specialized tools and languages.
• Establish seamless coordination between data processing and AI workflows to improve efficiency and reduce operational complexity.
• Enable accurate, real-time AI-driven decision-making by leveraging fresh, contextual streaming data.

Confluent Platform for Apache Flink® can help organizations:

• Minimize risk with unified Flink and Kafka support and expert guidance from the foremost experts in the data streaming industry.
• Receive timely assistance in troubleshooting and resolving issues, reducing the impact of any operational disruptions to mission critical applications.
• Ensure that stream processing applications are secure and up to date with off-cycle bug and vulnerability fixes.

Gen AI: Atlassian Rovo, a new product leveraging Gen AI to help teams find, learn & act on info on internal tools

Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ:TEAM), a provider of team collaboration and productivity software including Jira, Confluence and Trello, launched Atlassian Rovo, its new product that leverages generative AI to help teams find, learn, and act on information dispersed across a range of internal tools.

Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-Founder and co-CEO, Atlassian said, “AI presents a huge opportunity for Atlassian. We have over 20 years of insights into knowledge work – how teams go about planning and tracking work, goal setting and unleashing knowledge. A year ago, we launched Atlassian Intelligence to help teams boost productivity with AI. Since then, we’ve woven AI into the fabric of our products across the Atlassian portfolio.”

Features

Rovo, powered by Atlassian Intelligence, takes human-AI collaboration to the next level and teams can:

• Find: Search helps teams find the exact information they need across huge volumes of data. Rovo Search can pull information from popular tools, including Google Drive, Microsoft Sharepoint, Microsoft Teams, GitHub, Slack, and Figma, to deliver even more comprehensive answers.
• Learn: Gain a deeper understanding of their company’s data through AI-driven insights, knowledge cards, and AI chat for deeper data exploration.
• Act: Add specialized agents to workflows to handle time-consuming tasks and to complete projects.
• A common data model called ‘teamwork graph’ is Rovo’s secret sauce, which connects data from Atlassian tools and other SaaS apps to unlock a comprehensive view of any organization’s goals, knowledge, teams, and work. With every new tool connection, team action, and project event, the teamwork graph draws more connections and expands its knowledge to deliver increasingly relevant results.
• Rovo can provide answers in seconds and the search results are personalized and contextual. Permissions are fully respected, so employees see only the information they’re supposed to see, while restricted data remains private.
• Its API will be designed to connect niche and home-grown apps., to deliver relevant answers for any team or industry.
• Get accurate, in-depth answers from any company’s unique data
• When answering questions, Rovo surfaces related topics and follow-up questions teams can use to tease out more details. Plus, it’s an awesome jargon-demystifier.
• With Rovo Chat, teams can engage in interactive conversations to ask questions until they get the answers they need, generate new ideas, get helpful feedback, and resolve issues while they work.

Cybersecurity: A digital experience monitoring copilot to enable IT support & operations with AI

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZS), the cloud security platform introduced ZDX Copilot, Hosted Monitoring, and Data Explorer – to its Zscaler Digital Experience™ (ZDX™) service. The new ZDX Copilot, an AI assistant, instantly analyzes and harnesses knowledge from over 500 trillion data points daily across users, devices, networks, and applications, to provide IT operations, service desk, and security teams insights they need related to digital experience and performance. Teams can ask sequences of questions to effectively converse with Copilot, which uses Generative AI, to review high-level trends and progressively narrow results down to specific actionable insights.

Zscaler also announced the early availability of Zscaler Hosted Monitoring, a service that helps IT operations teams continuously monitor availability and performance of applications and services from globally distributed monitoring infrastructure on Zscaler’s global cloud.

Zscaler Digital Experience has also introduced Data Explorer, which enables IT teams and leaders to easily build and share customized reports that visually correlate data drawn from diverse datasets, contextualizing it for their businesses.

“As organizations adopt Zero Trust architectures, siloed monitoring tools lose visibility across the data path,” said Dhawal Sharma, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Zscaler. “ZDX reinstates end-to-end visibility across devices, networks, and applications. And with this release, Hosted Monitoring extends 24/7 monitoring to SaaS and external websites from several global locations. Using ZDX Copilot, IT teams such as Service Desk and IT Operations can achieve operational excellence by instantly accessing insights drawn from trillions of performance metrics using GenAI to easily analyze IT issues, and to work collaboratively with speed and accuracy.”

Features

ZDX Copilot delivers numerous benefits across IT and security:

• Service desk teams can isolate root cause of user complaints to efficiently triage tickets and collaborate with other teams; they can also easily look up technical information.
• Networking teams can conversationally perform deep analysis across networks, applications and regions to identify trends or find opportunities for optimization.
• Security teams can ensure that their services are performant at all times, and instantly expose root cause of issues and affected parties when performance lags.
• IT leaders can conveniently extract and present digital experience trends and performance insights to show progress, or to identify new opportunities.
• ZDX Copilot also automates common configuration tasks like setting alerts, when asked. Its versatility can help your IT teams significantly improve efficiency, and collaboration across IT operations, service desk, and security. Every customer is equipped with their own Copilot keeping their company’s data private and secure.

With Hosted Monitoring, IT teams can:

• Ensure that external websites perform at their best, no matter where customers are located.
• Monitor SLA compliance for applications and services purchased from SaaS, cloud, datacenter, or network providers.
• Confidently roll out new applications or expand into new regions as businesses grow, whether organically or through M&A.

Cybersecurity: CDR innovations to unify industry-leading managed threat hunting to speed detection & response across cloud attacks

CrowdStrike announced new Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) innovations to unify industry-leading managed threat hunting with deep visibility across cloud, identity and endpoints to speed detection and response across every stage of a cloud attack. Beginning with Microsoft Azure, new CDR innovations expand visibility into cloud control plane activity, strengthening existing threat hunting for cloud runtime environments.

“CrowdStrike pioneered EDR, we established MDR before it was a category and now we’re setting the standard for what CDR delivers and can do for customers. Stopping cloud breaches requires rapid detection and response, but too often, Cloud SecOps teams are forced to manage multiple platforms and point products to get the visibility they need across their cloud infrastructure,” said Michael Sentonas, president at CrowdStrike. “The combination of CrowdStrike’s industry-leading cloud threat hunting services and comprehensive CNAPP provides a powerful force multiplier for Cloud SecOps teams to consolidate tools, close gaps in visibility and deliver the security outcome that matters most – stopping the breach.”

The Why

With cloud intrusions growing 75% in the past year, cloud is the new battleground as adversaries increasingly leverage identity-based attacks to exploit visibility gaps created by fragmented platforms and cloud security point products. At the same time, Cloud SecOps teams face an emerging skills gap in cloud security expertise that can significantly delay detection and response times to threats. With this release, the powerful combination of CrowdStrike’s proven expertise in 24/7 managed threat hunting and its industry-defining Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) sets a new standard for CDR by delivering the visibility across and within clouds, identities and endpoints needed to stop cloud breaches, even as threats move laterally from cloud to endpoint.

As noted in the DHS Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), the Summer 2023 breach of Microsoft Exchange Online was “preventable and should never have occurred.” Adversaries commonly use identity-based attacks to breach customer cloud environments, and the security lapse noted in the CSRB report highlights the critical need to proactively detect and respond to cloud attacks, especially for Microsoft Azure environments.

Features

With this release, CrowdStrike delivers the world’s most comprehensive cloud detection and response service by:

• Protecting Cloud Control Planes: Beginning with Microsoft Azure, CrowdStrike expands visibility into cloud control plane activity, complimenting existing threat hunting for cloud runtime environments.
• Stopping Cloud Identity Threats: CrowdStrike’s unified platform approach enables cloud threat hunters to proactively monitor and prevent compromised users and credentials from being exploited in cloud attacks.
• Preventing Adversary Lateral Movement: The unified AI-native CrowdStrike Falcon platform empowers CrowdStrike cloud threat hunters to track lateral movement from cloud to endpoint, enabling rapid response and actionable insights for decisive remediation from indicators to root cause.

Cleantech: Building a carbon emissions calculator

Varuna Group, a supply chain provider, has partnered with Climes, an Indian climate finance company, to build a carbon emissions calculator for their clients, a dashboard that calculates their carbon footprint for all shipments. This includes their fleet as well as market vehicles. This dashboard will enable clients to gain real-time insights into their environmental impact, facilitating informed decision-making and encouraging proactive measures to reduce emissions.

Sudipt Juneja, Director and Chief Business Officer, Varuna Group said, “This collaboration highlights our dedication to cultivating sustainable business practices and promoting meaningful environmental change. Through the synergy of our efforts, we stand ready to empower organisations, providing them with insights into carbon emissions and the essential resources required to make informed decisions and achieve their sustainability goals.”

Anirudh Gupta, Co-Founder, Climes said, “Backing innovation and collaboration, we are shaping the future of our business. Together, we are starting a journey, utilising our collective expertise to build a more sustainable and resilient world for future generations.”

Features

• The easy to use tool provides real-time monitoring of carbon emissions, allowing businesses to track their progress towards reduction targets and comply with regulatory requirements.
• Integrating seamlessly with existing systems and processes, the platform streamlines data collection and analysis, enabling organisations to optimise resource usage and minimise environmental impact.

Cybersecurity: A new cybersecurity risk management suite to evaluate risk exchange indicators powered by threat intel from its global network

Cloudflare announced Cloudflare for Unified Risk Posture, a new cybersecurity risk management suite that evaluates risk exchange indicators powered by threat intel from its global network.

With this suite, Cloudflare has eliminated the manual and tedious process of evaluating for cyber attacks, streamlining a CISO’s ability to control the risk of cyber breaches and lock down potential threats in real time.

“Attacks are only becoming more sophisticated and causing more damage. In the last 12 months, Cloudflare has discovered and mitigated some of the largest and most complex online threats in the history of the Internet – while we continue to see bad actors weaponizing emerging vulnerabilities faster than ever,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare.

“The security landscape is complex enough, organizations need to have a clear view of all of the threats and risks inside and outside of their environments. Cloudflare Unified Risk Posture is one of the only tools that equips companies to continuously identify and address threats at the breakneck speed required to stay safe against an ever-evolving threat landscape.”

Features

• Customize policies based on risk scores across users and applications: With AI/machine learning techniques, Cloudflare analyzes real-time telemetry of user activities and suspicious traffic that pass through its network, to identify abnormal behavior, malicious payloads and potential indicators of compromises. Security teams can lock down suspicious activity and adapt security posture in the face of changing risk factors and sophisticated threats.
• Maintain flexibility of unique security ecosystems: Cloudflare ingests risk scores from endpoint protection (EPP) and identity provider (IDP) partners and shares telemetry back with SIEM and XDR platforms. Integrations with tools such as CrowdStrike’s Next-Gen SIEM (NG-SIEM), allow customers to tap into deeper analysis and further investigate potential risks, from a unified API. Unifying first and third-party data, native threat intelligence, AI and workflow automation, enables overall better threat protection.
• Enable control locally, on a global scale: Based upon the first and third party data ingested, Cloudflare enforces consistent risk controls for people, apps and networks, globally. Powered by the Cloudflare global network – one of the largest in the world – Unified Risk Posture supplies unique real-time telemetry to enrich risk posture long-term.

Cloud gaming: Subscription service model offering a pay-as-you-go model

Ant Cloud, a cloud gaming and PC service, launched today in India.

Himanshu Jain, CEO at Ant Cloud, said, “Ant Cloud represents a leap forward in the world of gaming and PC services. By providing an accessible and versatile platform, we are empowering users to unlock the full potential of gaming and PC usage, without being limited by hardware capabilities or geographical constraints.”

Features

• Ant Cloud is the first-of-its-kind subscription service originating from India, offering a pay-as-you-go model. Prices start from just INR 599 per month.
• Users can play on smartphone, tablet, or an older PC, and on select Samsung Smart TVs.
• Seamless access to AAA video games on any compatible device
• Ability to use productivity tools for work and editing tasks
• Access to a diverse and extensive game library, including a multitude of genres and titles
• Access to a Dedicated High Power Gaming PC.

Cryptocurrency: Bitget Onchain Layer to revolutionise Web3 experiences for users

Bitget Wallet launched the blueprint of its upcoming product, the Bitget Onchain Layer, which promises to revolutionise the Web3 experience for its users. The new initiative is supported by a dedicated $10 million BWB Ecosystem Fund. Initially, the ecosystem fund will support various Web3 trading services, including three already in the pipeline: Pre-Market, on-chain derivatives market, and Trading Bot. These Modular Feature-DApps (MFDs) will complement Bitget Wallet’s Swap trading service.

Alvin Kan, Chief Operating Officer of Bitget Wallet, said, “Bitget Onchain Layer removes complexities for users to interact with the Web3 world. It’s achieved with the help of MFDs, which function as standalone DApps and Bitget Wallet’s native features. Bitget Wallet aims to work with developers to create effective and purposeful MFDs to meet users’ needs efficiently. Besides trading, Bitget Onchain Layer plans to provide native accessibility for new Web3 narratives, assets, and opportunities. To this end, it plans to introduce an open and collaborative ecosystem covering a spectrum of financial services”.

Features

Bitget Onchain Layer will be powered by native Modular Feature-DApps (MFDs). These are specialised applications that streamline user interactions, improve liquidity aggregation, and strengthen security. Bitget Onchain Layer will integrate native DApps through collaboration with builders. It will also try to position Bitget Wallet, a leading non-custodial wallet, as the future of the Bitget ecosystem and a primary on-chain extension.

Bitget Wallet also prioritizes the meme ecosystem as a new focus area of its product roadmap. After its experimental meme token $MOEW, Bitget Wallet plans to enhance integrations and community engagements in the meme coin space. It would include Meme Grants and promoting meme culture through events.

You can find a dedicated meme token leaderboard with the Bitget Wallet interface. It provides up-to-date information on trending meme coins and meme coin price movements, ensuring our users have a competitive edge in the meme coin market. Bitget Onchain Layer is anchored by BWB, the native token of Bitget Wallet. BWB plays multiple roles within the ecosystem, including payment of multichain gas fees, and governance voting, among other utilities. Bitget Wallet has also announced allocation plans for the BWA token. With the total supply of BWB tokens set at 1 billion, nearly 47% will be allocated to the community treasury, 10% to investors, and 5% to pre-token generation event (TGE) airdrop. 

AI: A new virtual appliance for its AppDynamics On-Premises application observability

Cisco announced a new virtual appliance for its AppDynamics On-Premises application observability. This employs AI in self-hosted observability deployment for automated anomaly detection and root cause analysis, application security, and SAP monitoring.

“Many of our customers continue to rely on self-hosted observability to manage business critical applications, and we are thrilled to deliver these AI-powered innovations as part of Cisco AppDynamics On-Premises for the first time,” said Ronak Desai, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cisco AppDynamics and Full-Stack Observability. “Customers can now use this virtual appliance together with our Smart Agent capability to deploy new innovations faster and simplify lifecycle operations.”

The Why

For key industries, including public sector, finance, manufacturing, healthcare and retail, the option to have cutting-edge, self-hosted application observability solutions ensures that they can continue to provide end-to-end monitoring of their most critical business systems.

Features

• AI-Powered Detection and Remediation with Cognition Engine: Dynamically detect anomalies and root causes in application performance, significantly reducing mean time to identify (MTTI) issues and enabling faster resolution through automated transaction diagnostics.
• Application Security: Identify and prioritize application security vulnerabilities based on business impact with Cisco Secure Application, utilizing automated business risk scores and Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP) to defend against exploits.
• A Resilient SAP Landscape: Ensure service availability and performance with full-stack observability for on-premises SAP and non-SAP environments, surfacing insights to address performance issues before they impact the business.
• Self-Hosted Offerings in AWS and Azure: In addition to on-premises deployments, you can now manage observability deployments in AWS or Azure, maintaining full control over sensitive workloads and data residency requirements.

Streaming: Kia Krystal, a new innovative digitized aftersales initiative

Kia, India, the carmaker, launched Kia Krystal, a new innovative digitized aftersales initiative. The initiative is aimed towards offering utmost transparency to the Kia customers through video consulting and live video streaming of the service of their cars.

Hardeep Singh Brar, National Head – Sales and Marketing, Kia India, commented, “Our research indicated that most of our customers are opting for our Advance Pick and Drop Service or send their drivers for their vehicle service procedures. Due to this, they miss supervising the effort, which can lead to dissatisfaction in the longer run. Through Kia Krystal, we are aiming at building more trust by facilitating greater transparency to position ourselves as a customer-centric brand.”

Features

• The Live Consultation service is now available at 237 Kia dealerships nationwide, while 25 dealers are already currently live streaming the service procedure.
• Kia India aims to start the live streaming in another 60 dealerships by the end of 2024.
• The initiative offers Kia customers easy access to all the details, including explanations of work, costs, and real time resolution to any query they have, all from their smartphone.
• This service is available through the ‘My Kia’ app, making it convenient for customers to stay informed.