The Launch of AWS Middle East (UAE) Region: Marking a Holistic Shift

The world expects a financial meltdown soon, and everyone has rolled up their sleeves to face it. Recession impacts are like separating rice from its husk; it differentiates winners from losers. Even if it is going to be a rocky year, companies should take it as a wake-up call to adopt new strategies and invest in digitalisation to move ahead.

During the pandemic, digitally advanced companies won a massive market share compared to those lagging in adopting digital transformation. They managed their supply chain and managed to sell through online platforms. It shows that the winners were better equipped, and they invested in facing the future. The pandemic revealed to us a guideline on how to be prepared and how we should respond.

The 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey reports that EMEA CIO business priorities for the remainder of 2022 and next year are growth and digital transformation, with the top areas of increased spending in 2023 including cyber and information security (70%), business intelligence and data analytics (53%), and cloud platforms (48%). Approximately 34% are increasing investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and 24% in hyper-automation as well. https://www.cio.com/article/411566/

How does digital transformation aid during an economic meltdown?

Risks are a common scenario for all kinds of businesses, and minimising risks equals future-proofing your organisation from a significant fall. But how? Through digital transformation, companies enhance consumer experiences, expand digital products, and build brand equity. Companies’ technologies ready bounded on their digital journey by investing in robotic process automation or cloud-based information management technology is sure to reap benefits. Digital initiatives can help to:

• • Manage interactions with clients, projects, and engagements.
• • Cut down on labour-intensive tasks through automation
• • Automate client or customer services
• • To make faster decisions and increase operational efficiency
• • Create a stronghold for information security
• • Develop new products and services
• • Generate a competitive advantage

Major Goals of Digital Transformation

Enhancing Operational Efficiency

Production, marketing, finance, accounting, and other processes are becoming more streamlined and trustworthy because of digital transformation. Digital marketing is becoming considerably more effective due to modern business technologies that enable it to get, analyse, and change crucial data for marketing and other uses.

Faster Decision Making

Most of the time, companies benefit from big data by placing data analysis methodologies at the core of their digital transformation strategy. To make the most of it, this data can be exploited by robust tools and turned into crucial business information. For targeted marketing campaigns and SEO plans, these outcomes can be utilised. With the help of a fully integrated digital transformation making decisions are simple.

Enabling Business Transparency

A company's potential to streamline business operations depends on effective transparency management. Since firms now use new communication channels to create transparency between higher authorities and employees, they can better disrupt the conventional working structure owing to digital transformation. Companies need digital platforms to assign responsibilities and assist them in running businesses. Examples of digital breakthroughs that help with effectively managing corporate transparency include analysed data, forecasting models, and online customer support services.

Driving Digital Transformation Amidst the Upcoming Downturn

CIOs can adopt three effective tactics to move forward with digital initiatives: empowering the workforce, ensuring financial and sustainable growth, and by implementing a robust cybersecurity system.

Empowering the Workforce

Repetitive and time-consuming tasks can be automated to create a more engaged employee group. Tools and technologies using AI can unburden employees, increasing their productivity and capability. Companies can experiment by incorporating online and onsite working modes to stay ahead of the pack.IT and HR can go hand in hand together to provide an elevated employee experience, resulting in a high employee retention level.

Adopting Intelligent Connected Infrastructure

AI, IoT, the cloud, analytics, and edge computing are all blended by Intelligent Connected Infrastructure (ICI) to share data among infrastructures, such as bridges, highways, and ports. Investing in ICI will boost commercial and societal progress while enhancing citizens’ quality of life. Implementing an Energy Management and Optimisation System (EMOS) to reduce energy usage can help to face future challenges and convert that into revenue sources. The strategy of blending finance and sustainability helps to win over customers, employees and investors.

Implementing a Robust Cybersecurity System

Cybersecurity is a rising concern for all enterprises, and not investing in it can invite risks. Developing threat intelligence platforms to prioritise and address cyber security threats is a measure to keep away from vulnerabilities. Continuous monitoring and comparing protection levels with other companies reduces the threat rates.

Summing Up

The future is unpredictable, and so are the risks, but businesses should be well-prepared to face it by taking strategic initiatives for technological developments. Past experiences proved that investments in technology wouldn’t go astray and can reap profits even at times of uncertainty. Recent research advises CIOs should not shy away from changes and be prepared with a roadmap to face macroeconomic uncertainty with digitalisation.

Beinex Offerings

Beinex Digital, a part of Beinex Holdings, is a digital transformation entity with a comprehensive suite of independent products focused on addressing specific business gaps, use cases, and needs. It incorporates a spectrum of solutions related to employee health and safety, enterprise product management, performance management, and audit & risk management.

To know more about us: https://beinex.com/beinex-digital/

When you gather consumer insights, you will learn about how your prospects interact with your marketing platforms, sales team, support personnel, and product. Your team is equipped with this crucial information, so you can make informed judgements about the efforts they should be making.
The environment of analytics, business intelligence (BI), and data science is changing at an accelerated rate due to increased consumerization of analytics technology and the demand for communities. The introduction of tools like UPI has effectively integrated small and medium-sized businesses into the financial system. The ability to prove creditworthiness through payments placed straight into current accounts has increased for firms.
The goal of marketing has always been to influence consumers. The core purpose of marketing is to alter behaviour, whether it be to encourage the purchase of a new product or merely to increase brand recognition in a crowded marketplace. Therefore, it makes sense for your marketing measurement plan to be centred on the behaviours that bring in money for your company. You can improve the return on investment of your marketing spend by better understanding your market by researching important customer behaviours. The understanding that analysis needs to be more focused on marketing indicators rather than the conventional web metrics like site visits, time on site, bounce rate, etc. that we've grown so accustomed to has also matured along with digital analytics.

The key advanced analytics techniques that help to understand consumer behaviour are enlisted below:

1. Identifying Revenue-oriented Metrics and ROI
2. Understanding the Importance of Multi-Channel Attribution
3. User-centric Monitoring

Identifying Revenue-oriented Metrics and ROI

Understanding how user behaviour on your site translates into money for your company is a crucial point. In other words, are visitors who do particular actions on your website more likely to buy something? The majority of the time, the response is a stunning yes! You can monetize all on-site behaviours by assigning a monetary value to them, even if the behaviour does not immediately result in a sale. The first step is to identify the key customer engagement points and track customers who have taken the desired actions. From there, a simple calculation may be created to calculate the income they produce. Based on this you can calculate your ROI.

Understanding the Importance of Multi-Channel Attribution

Multi-channel attribution has an important part to play here. It is the process of identifying marketing interactions in a customer journey that finally leads to conversions.
It goes without saying that as consumers are exposed to more online and physical marketing channels across more devices, the complexity of tracking keeps growing. But it's critical to keep up with the most recent trends and statistics. The advantages are many. It helps to achieve a more precise understanding of the ways media platforms and devices affect behaviour and financial outcomes. A comprehensive view of how various channels interact and function within your media mix and at various phases of the funnel can also be achieved. Finally, the accumulation of information for scenario modelling and budgeting to enhance ROI and optimise the media mix. Although high-end enterprise clients still have access to the most sophisticated attribution analysis tools, recent acquisitions and mergers indicate that mid-market and small firms will likely use these techniques more frequently in the near future.

User-centric Monitoring

User's "session” starts when a person joins the website and ends when they leave; this has been the primary unit of measurement for traditional web metrics. The growth of technology and the popularity of mobile devices, have, however, given marketers, in general, a new "demand." We now want to be able to track users as they interact with our sites through different channels and analyse their behaviour as they switch between different devices. Modern analytics software is driven by the need to continuously follow individual user behaviour across sessions and devices in addition to gathering data from all these different channels and devices. Understanding these various behavioural patterns is crucial for both developers and marketers to customise messaging and user experiences across a variety of channels and devices.

How to Gather Customer Insights Using Advanced Analytics

Marketing professionals all over the world are utilising analytics, which allows them to gain insights and create customised marketing messages. But, how? In what ways do data analytics and big data assist marketers in creating tailored ads based on consumer behaviour? How can you take advantage of the opportunity to make use of current data and improve consumer understanding?
Any firm that wants to excel at client interaction must have real-time analytics. While businesses of all colours have been substantially investing in technologies to better understand their customers, most of them miss out on the opportunity because of outdated IT systems and deeply ingrained structures and processes. It is no longer enough to just collect client data in your CRM software without figuring out how to interpret it. A successful firm must have a sizable, devoted customer base. However, how can you build such a customer base? You must be intimately familiar with your target market to build and keep consumer loyalty. You will need consumer behaviour analytics for this to better understand them and increase sales.
The necessity to concentrate on consumers' requirements is one thing all organisations have in common. To meet the expectations of the consumer, a thorough understanding of their needs and desires is necessary. Long-term success depends on giving your team the tools they need to gather data on client behaviour. To optimise customer journeys, it is essential to gain insight into the motives and actions of customers. Start utilising customer insights for the expansion of your organisation with Advanced Analytics.

Beinex Offerings

Advanced Analytics services from Beinex explain the why and how of change in your enterprise – the top line, bottom line behaviours and everything in between, from your organisational data. Enhance efficiency and expand your market share and presence. Make the most out of Advanced Analytics by partnering with the right people. Beinex!

Benefits of Snowflake Time Travel

With Snowflake Time Travel, you can access historical data, including data that has been altered or deleted, at any given point. This feature is helpful for various tasks, such as:

• • Querying data that has been modified or erased in the past
• • Duplicating entire tables, schemas, or databases at or before specific dates
• • Restoring deleted tables, schemas, and databases

How to activate Snowflake Time Travel?

Activating Snowflake Time Travel is a simple process that requires no additional effort. It is automatically activated with a retention period of one day. Nonetheless, upgrading to the Snowflake Enterprise Edition is necessary to customise the Data Retention Period and extend it to 90 days for Databases, Schemas, and Tables. It's important to note that increasing the Data Retention Period results in additional storage usage, reflected in your monthly Storage Fees.

Data Retention Period in Snowflake

In Snowflake, Data Retention Period determine how long historical data is retained to support Time Travel functionality. When data in a table is altered, such as through deletions or updates, Snowflake maintains the previous state of the data so that Time Travel operations (like SELECT, CREATE...CLONE, UNDROP) can be performed on it. By default, all Snowflake accounts have a standard retention period of one day (24 hours).

However, the Retention Period can be adjusted at the account and object level in the Snowflake Standard Edition to 0 (or unset to the default of 1 day) for databases, schemas, and tables.

In the Snowflake Enterprise Edition or higher, the Retention Period can be set to 0 for temporary databases, schemas, tables, and temporary tables. For permanent databases, schemas, and tables, the Retention Time can be configured to any duration between 0 and 90 days.

Functions of Snowflake Time Travel SQL Extensions

Snowflake Time Travel SQL Extensions are special SQL commands that allow users to query historical data from a specific point in time using the Time Travel feature. These extensions enable users to perform various Time Travel operations, including:

• a. CLONE: This command creates a copy of a table, schema, or database at a specific point in time using Time Travel.
• b. UNDROP: This command restores a dropped table, schema, or database to a specific point in time using Time Travel.
• c. HISTORY: This command retrieves the history of changes made to a table, schema, or database over time using Time Travel.
• d. AS OF: This command retrieves data from a table as it appeared at a specific point in time using Time Travel.

Specifying a Custom Data Retention Period for Snowflake Time Travel

To specify a custom Data Retention Period for Snowflake Time Travel, you can use the DATA_RETENTION_TIME IN_DAYS argument in the command when creating a table, schema, or database. By default, the maximum Retention Time in Standard Edition is set to 1 day (i.e. 24 hours), while in Snowflake Enterprise Edition (and higher), it can be set to any value up to 90 days.

The Data Retention Time can be set in the way it has been placed in the example below.

To create a schema with a custom Data Retention Period of 60 days, you can use the following SQL command:

create table mytable(col1 number, col2 date) data_retention_time_in_days=60;

Modify the Data Retention Period for Snowflake Objects

To modify the Data Retention Period of a Snowflake object, any change made to the Retention Period affects both active data and data in Time Travel. Depending on whether the period is increased or decreased, the following impacts occur:

• a. Increasing Retention
• b. Decreasing Retention

Let’s dive deep into more details:

a. Increasing Retention
Snowflake Time Travel preserves the data for a more extended period. For instance, if a Table’s Retention Time is increased from 10 to 20 days, the data set to be deleted after ten days will be retained for an additional ten days before being moved to Fail-Safe. However, data over ten days old and already transferred to Fail-Safe mode is unaffected.

b. Decreasing Retention
The duration of data stored in Time Travel is reduced. The shorter Retention Period applies only to active data updated after the Retention Period is shortened. If the data is still within the new Retention Period, it stays in Time Travel; otherwise, it is placed in Fail-Safe Mode. For instance, if a table with a 10-day Retention Period is reduced to 1 day, data from day 2 through day ten will be transferred to Fail-Safe, and only data from day one will be accessible through Time Travel.

Since the background process moves the data from Snowflake Time Travel to Fail-Safe, it may take some time to see the changes. Although Snowflake guarantees that the data will be transferred, it does not specify when the process will be finished. The data remains accessible via Time Travel until the background process is completed. To change an object's Retention Period, use ALTER object command, such as the following command for modifying a table's Retention Period:

alter table mytable set data_retention_time_in_days=30;

Snowflake Time Travel Data Query

To query previous versions of data in Snowflake Time Travel, you can use the AT | BEFORE Clause after making any DML actions on a table. This clause allows you to query data at or before a certain point in the table's history throughout the retention period. The specified threshold can be either time-based (e.g., a timestamp or time offset from the present) or a statement ID (e.g., SELECT or INSERT).

For example, to select historical data from a table as of a specific date and time, you can use a query like:

sql
SELECT * FROM my table AT (TIMESTAMP => 'Fri, 05 May 2023 16:20:00 -

If you want to pull data from a table that was last updated a certain number of minutes ago, you can use a query like:

sql
SELECT * FROM my_table AT(OFFSET => -60*5);

And to collect historical data from a table up to a specified statement's modifications, but not including them, you can use a query like:

Sql
SELECT * FROM my_table BEFORE(STATEMENT => '8e5d0ca9-005e-44e6-b858-a8f5b37c57

How to Restore Deleted Objects by Utilising the UNDROP Command?

To restore a deleted object that hasn't been permanently removed from the system (meaning it can still be seen in the "SHOW object type> HISTORY" output), you can use the UNDROP command in conjunction with Snowflake Time Travel. This command can be applied to various objects, such as tables, schemas, and databases. It effectively reverts the thing to its previous state before it was deleted with the DROP command. For example, the UNDROP command can also restore a dropped database.

Summing Up

Snowflake Time Travel’s features can enhance your decision-making process and overall data experience. If you're looking for a Snowflake service provider, Beinex is an excellent option. Our partnership with Snowflake enables us to offer advanced features like automated tuning, elastic compute, and analytics modernisation services to help your organisation realise exponential Returns on Investment.

What is an AI-based Dictionary Attack

Cyberattacks , known as "dictionary attacks", attempt to crack passwords by using a list of terms from a dictionary. Every word in a dictionary is tested in a traditional dictionary attack until the correct password is discovered. However, using AI algorithms, attackers can now create custom dictionaries based on information about the victim, such as their name, birthdate, and social media activity. These algorithms can analyse large amounts of data and identify patterns to create more accurate and effective dictionaries. As a result, these attacks are becoming more sophisticated and challenging to defend against.

How Do AI-based Dictionary Attacks Operate

AI-based dictionary attacks are far more successful than conventional techniques because they use machine learning algorithms to recognise and forecast patterns in the data. These algorithms look for patterns and correlations in the data and build models that can predict passwords using methods like deep learning, neural networks, and natural language processing.

Attackers can compile customised dictionaries more likely to contain the victim's password by gathering information about their targets from social media platforms and other internet sources. They also have access to reinforcement learning algorithms, which allow them to learn from their errors and gradually increase their success rate. As a result, these attacks may be pretty successful and challenging to identify.

How to Defend Against AI-based Dictionary Attacks

Employ Secure Passwords: One of the most excellent strategies to fend off dictionary attacks is to use secure passwords that are difficult to guess. Long passwords with a mix of capital and lowercase letters, digits, and special characters are recommended. An example is cited below:

Regular Password: Akh!l@5991
Secure Password: VS654a!4@s6d546

Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): By demanding users to enter two or more forms of identity when logging in, MFA adds an extra layer of security. This might require a user's phone to receive a one-time passcode or a fingerprint scan.

Limit Login Attempts: Organisations can restrict how many times a user can try to log in before being locked out. This stops an attacker from trying numerous passwords and guessing the right one.

Monitor User Behaviour: By monitoring user behaviour, businesses can spot suspicious behaviour, such as recurrent login failures or odd login locations. Security personnel should be aware of a potential attack, enabling them to take precautions.

Implement AI-Based Security Measures: Businesses can also put their own AI-based security measures in place to fend off dictionary attacks. AI algorithms can spot and stop suspicious activities or look for trends in user behaviour to spot future attacks.

Summing Up

Dictionary attacks based on AI are growing more complex, making it harder to defend against them. Yet, organisations can significantly lower their chance of being a cyber-attack target by implementing the techniques mentioned above. To protect the security of the business, it is also crucial to keep aware and informed on the most recent cybersecurity trends and dangers.

Do you find it difficult to navigate this new realm? Do you find AI & Automation difficult to implement? How resilient is your AI & Automation power?

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Top Five Benefits of AWS GRC Solutions

Implementing AWS’s GRC solutions offers several advantages that go beyond compliance. Here are the top benefits: • Data-Driven Decision Making: Real-time monitoring and analytics enable organizations to make informed decisions that align with both strategic goals and compliance objectives. • Fostering Responsible Operations: By promoting a culture of governance and ethical practices, AWS helps organizations operate responsibly and build trust. • Advanced Security Measures: Features like encryption, identity management, and continuous threat detection provide robust protection for sensitive data. • Scalability and Flexibility: AWS solutions scale with your business, ensuring that governance and compliance measures grow alongside your operations. • Cost-Effective Operations: AWS’s pay-as-you-go model allows organizations to optimize their IT budgets while maintaining governance and compliance standards.

AWS and GRC Tools

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a comprehensive set of GRC tools and practices that can be integrated into the Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) framework that empower businesses to effectively manage their data while adhering to industry standards and regulations. Below are some examples of AWS and GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) tools and practices:

Governance: Establishing a Solid Framework

In the AWS ecosystem, governance refers to setting up policies, guidelines, and processes to ensure effective data and resource management. This framework supports business objectives while promoting ethical practices, transparency, and adherence to regulatory requirements. AWS provides several GRC tools and practices that centralize governance and enhance control over accounts, resources, and configurations. • AWS Organizations: This tool helps organizations manage multiple AWS accounts in one place, allowing for the easy implementation and enforcement of policies across the enterprise. Through Service Control Policies (SCPs), organizations can control permissions and ensure only authorized actions occur. • AWS Config: AWS Config is essential for governance as it tracks changes in AWS resource configurations. By providing detailed insights into the state and relationships of these resources over time, AWS Config ensures compliance with internal and external standards. • AWS Service Catalog: The AWS Service Catalog allows organizations to maintain oversight of their IT environment by managing catalogs of approved services. This guarantees that only pre-approved and compliant software, databases, and configurations are deployed. • AWS Control Tower: AWS Control Tower simplifies setting up and managing a secure, multi-account AWS environment. It automates governance best practices and continuously monitors compliance with pre-configured guardrails.

Risk Management: Safeguarding Against Threats

Identifying and managing risks is crucial in today's digital landscape. AWS offers a range of services to help organizations monitor their infrastructure, detect potential vulnerabilities, and respond to security threats swiftly. • AWS CloudTrail: CloudTrail logs and monitors API activity within AWS, allowing organizations to trace user actions and conduct investigations after security incidents. It’s also useful for forensic analysis to determine the cause of issues. • AWS Security Hub: As a centralized security dashboard, AWS Security Hub aggregates findings from multiple AWS services, helping businesses streamline incident response and maintain compliance. • Amazon GuardDuty: GuardDuty is a security service that detects suspicious activities and unauthorized behavior in AWS accounts. By leveraging machine learning and threat intelligence, it helps organizations preemptively address potential risks. • AWS Config Rules: These customizable rules automatically check resource configurations for compliance. If a resource deviates from the expected settings, alerts are triggered, enabling proactive issue resolution.

Compliance: Ensuring Adherence to Regulations

Compliance is vital for any organization handling sensitive data. AWS simplifies the process with a variety of tools to help organizations meet regulatory requirements and reduce audit burdens. • AWS Artifact: AWS Artifact offers on-demand access to important compliance documents, such as SOC reports and certifications like ISO and PCI DSS. This is especially helpful during audits, providing immediate access to evidence of AWS's adherence to standards. • AWS Shield & AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF): These services protect against DDoS attacks and unauthorized access attempts, ensuring web application availability and data integrity. Shield and WAF work together to filter out malicious traffic and ensure the security of incoming requests. • AWS Key Management Service (KMS) & AWS Certificate Manager (ACM): Data encryption is critical for compliance, and AWS KMS helps manage encryption keys securely. ACM automates the deployment of SSL/TLS certificates, protecting data both in transit and at rest. • AWS Audit Manager: AWS Audit Manager automates evidence collection for audits, continuously assessing your environment against industry standards. This reduces manual effort and ensures that organizations remain consistently compliant. AWS’s robust GRC framework empowers organizations to effectively manage data, mitigate risks, and ensure regulatory compliance. Leveraging AWS’s advanced tools not only supports meeting industry standards but also fosters innovation, resilience, and future-readiness within businesses.

Beinex: AWS Partner for the Middle East

Beinex is an AWS consulting partner, and we empower customers with AWS managed services to host their BI solutions and much more on the cloud. Our cloud migration experts bring in best-in-class stability and reliability by understanding your business strategy and working closely with you to deploy AWS infrastructure as a service. Connect with Us for a Free Demo Interested in our services? Try AWS for free: https://beinex.com/beinex-amazon-web-services/