TechTouch Asia

Source: Cisco. Cisco Networking Cloud aims to simplify networking. Managing networks in today’s era of connecting everyone, everywhere is hard, Cisco has said. The company explained that simplicity has become increasingly important with the advancement of cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT), Wi-Fi + 5G, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), and security. With so many technologies and applications coming together, it can be difficult for IT staff to deliver a consistent, unified experience whether in the office, at home, or on the go. Cisco noted that there are struggles with fragmentation, lack of visibility, security threats, and time-consuming integration that get in the way of delivering better experiences. It understands that the journey to simplification is defined by each operator’s business objectives, functional needs, and preferred consumption model. A simplified IT experience influences customer satisfaction, employee retention, and competitive differentiation. T...

Cisco is investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) innovations that will empower security teams by simplifying operations and increasing efficacy. The company has pointed out that cloud adoption is accelerating. Remote and hybrid users are now the majority. Most organisations rely on a complex web of point products that weren’t designed to support today’s highly distributed environment. Users are further forced to navigate inconsistent access experiences and reauthenticate throughout the day—disrupting productivity.  Cisco Secure Access, Cisco’s new security service edge (SSE) solution, enables decisions about how users connect to applications to be handled behind the scenes, so users get to what they want more quickly. The result is users who are more secure with less hassle. “With Cisco Secure Access, we are removing the burden from the user and providing a superior experience with frictionless access to all applications—not just some—to enable secure, ...

HR, payroll, and employee engagement platform Employment Hero aims to reinvent the employment relationship with its employment superapp, Swag . Employment Hero has been digitising employment for SMEs by creating a platform that gives employers confidence in the accuracy, compliance, and transparency of their HR and payroll processes. It is now tackling the employee side of the equation: making the traditionally tedious (and discouraging) task of job hunting better. Swag has artificial intelligence (AI)-powered recruitment functionality designed to streamline the job search for small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and jobseekers, making the finding, onboarding, and rewarding of talent easier. This is complemented by Employment Hero's network of 200,000+ employers and 1 M+ employees. According to Employment Hero, there are two massive issues in today’s employment landscape: Expectations of a global recession and slower growth in Malaysia/ Singapore have driven up SMEs' o...

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has ranked Xiaomi 29th on its 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023 list, two places higher than last year. The designation is recognition that Xiaomi makes innovation a priority, commits investment and talent to it, and works to transform investment into results. In this year's first quarter, Xiaomi's research and development (R&D) expenses increased by 17.7% compared to the year before, reaching RMB4.1 B. Xiaomi's R&D efforts have yielded the company more than 32,000 patents worldwide as of March 31, 2023. Total R&D investment for 2023 is expected to exceed RMB20 billion. The company has embraced technological transformation, including artificial intelligence (AI). The company will continue to expand AI-related user scenarios, maximise advances in technology, and explore opportunities with potential partners. BCG’s Most Innovative Companies ranking is based on a survey of more than 1,000 global innovation executives w...

by Gibu Mathew, VP and GM APAC, Zoho Corp Source: Zoho. Mathew. When data abuse is discussed, people immediately think of data breaches or data leaks. While data privacy and data security are interrelated, the two are not the same. Data breaches are easier to identify, and during the pandemic, Interpol* found a surge in cybercrime and data theft throughout the Southeast Asia region. It is no surprise that findings from IDC note that Asia Pacific spending on security-related products has been increasing year after year, and would reach US$39 B by 2025. Improving data security is always a good idea, but is merely scratching the surface of data privacy abuse, as the same tools to fight hacks cannot be applied for data privacy. Fortunately, data privacy has gained greater attention recently with regulators and technology companies pushing the privacy agenda for end consumers. However, this is still insufficient. Data privacy adoption has been at differing rates in Southeast Asia, where so...

UiPath , an enterprise automation software company, has found that 69% of workers in Singapore believed that automation can address burnout and improve job fulfillment, higher than the global average (58%) and third-highest of all countries surveyed* globally. In the Asia-Pacific region, the numbers range from Japan at 36%, and India at 86%. Nearly three quarters (73%) of workers in Singapore also reported that they view employers that use business automation to help support employees and modernise operations more favourably than those that do not. Employees are being asked to do more work with less support, with 47% of all Singapore respondents saying they’ve been asked to take on more tasks at work in the past six months because of layoffs or hiring freezes (globally, 28%; Australia 32%; India 53%, and Japan, 5%). As work piles up, it takes a toll on employees — about one in four workers (26%) in Singapore report feelings of burnout — more staffers are leaning on AI tools to provide...

Forrester Research has named CrowdStrike a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Managed Detection and Response (MDR), Q2 2023 report*. According to the report, “few companies can boast a string of successes like CrowdStrike. The vendor became a pre-eminent incident response firm and a dominant player in the endpoint security space. It delivers an exceptional MDR service and taught cybersecurity firms how SaaS businesses work.” As the Forrester report states, “CrowdStrike’s extensive view of the threat landscape and incident response services give it an advantage when it comes to threat intelligence and managed detection...For companies that are looking to source products, platforms and services from one provider and that want superior threat intelligence added in, then CrowdStrike is the right choice.” In Forrester’s evaluation, CrowdStrike received the highest score possible in 12 of the 23 criteria: - Current offering: Threat hunting, threat intelligence, managed detection, m...