“Future-Ready Database Estates: Strategies for Modernization and Migration“ Thursday, November 7, 2024 at 1:00pm ET In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, modernizing your database estate is essential for agility, security, and performance. Join us for an informative webinar that delves into the latest strategies and tools for successfully modernizing your databases. We’ll start by exploring how to safely and securely adopt open-source Postgres with EDB, guiding you through the essential steps of the migration journey. Next, Nutanix will share insights on simplifying database operations, streamlining management tasks, and enhancing overall efficiency. Finally, Prolifics will provide expert advice on managing database migration projects, offering tools and best practices to ensure a smooth transition. Whether you’re considering a shift to open-source solutions, seeking to optimize your database operations, or navigating the complexities of migration, this webinar will equip you with the knowledge and resources to modernize your database estate effectively. Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your approach to database management. Speakers:Julian Moffett, VP Strategic Alliances, EDBJulian has 15+ years of experience working in the Financial Services sector in various different roles from: Infrastructure engineering, Product and Service Management to Business Application Development Lead and CTO / Enterprise Architect. Most recently Julian has been responsible for designing and building out enterprise scale Postgres managed services on premise and in cloud and managing an Oracle Exit initiative. In his current role as VP of Strategic Alliances Julian plays a crucial role in fostering and managing partnerships that drive growth and innovation for EDB’s customers.  Academically Julian comes from a Legal background (LLB, LPC) but has worked in technology all his professional career. Julian is TOGAF 9 certified. Jamie Frampton, UKI Sales Lead, Nutanix Database Service (NDB)Jamie is responsible for Nutanix’s Database-as-a-Service solution Nutanix Database Service(NDB) which offers automated database operation across multiple database engines, wherever you need to run them. Jamie has experience with clients running traditional RDBMS solutions such as Oracle and SQL Server, as well as modern Opensource database engines such as Postgres and MongoDB. Jamie has been looking after NDB across UK&I for the last 2 years and has previous experience of document databases working at MongoDB, as well as working with clients at IBM across integration. Peter McCullagh, Sales Executive, ProlificsPeter is a Database Migration and Decision Optimization Specialist. He works with clients on data projects to enhance their business. Typical projects are along the lines of the following:● Database Migrations – Using the Automated Database Agnostic Migrator (ADAM) service from Prolifics, Pete is able to automate a large component of database migrations. This allows Pete to offer lower risk and lower cost migrations. Typically, businesses are doing this to reduce license costs, and/or to facilitate a move to the cloud.● Decision Optimization – Using advanced technologies to assist customers with complex business decisions involving many large data sources, multiple trade-off possibilities and complex constraints.● General Data Services – With over a decade of experience in the data space, Pete is able to advise on nearly all data topics, as well as providing specialist consultants to help clients take their vision from the whiteboard to the metaverse. Moderator:Peter Krass, InformationWeek  Offered Free by: EnterpriseDB See All Resources from: EnterpriseDB source

The last 24 months have been challenging for the agency marketplace, with depressed tech spending in the US and global dragging of agency performance. In particular, the start-stop nature of existing or newly awarded brand assignments was a source of financial frustration. Yet 2025 shows signs of optimism, including a strong US economy, agency M&A activity, a resurgence of brand spending, and a growing independent agency market. Combine these factors with the marketing agency industry’s continued efforts to unwind legacy systems and structures — redefining the holding company role, redeploying digital capabilities, combining commerce and media, and separating creative ideation from creative production — and 2025 promises to bring new agency offerings and types to address marketers’ continued remit to do more with less. Forrester predicts that, in 2025: AI-powered content production will decelerate marketing in-housing. The growth of in-house agencies will slow (or the project load will shift) as marketers turn to more cost-effective, AI-powered content production solutions developed by external partners to leverage generative AI (genAI) cost and time efficiencies. Sixty-one percent of agencies currently use genAI in marketing efforts, compared to 17% of in-house agencies. Outsourced content production agencies will deliver low-cost marketing at scale while customizing models to produce bespoke, on-brand marketing for brands. One-third of digital media specialists will evolve into full-funnel agencies. The division between performance and brand media assignments collided, and digital media agencies will bridge the gap with full-funnel media capabilities. Barely half of US CMOs plan to integrate performance and brand media assignments, and over a third plan to integrate creative and media assignments in the next 12 months. In 2025, CMOs and agency executives will reconcile full-funnel, full-service capabilities with deep expertise in various disciplines and channels. CRM agencies will transform into data-backed CX agencies. To circumvent growing concerns surrounding third-party data compliance and acknowledge that data is attached to execution, data management agencies will reinvent themselves as customer experience (CX) agencies. Breaking away from the constraints of traditional data brokers, these agencies will redefine their previous focus on data sourcing and management into foundational elements of a wide range of activation services including media planning and buying, as well as loyalty and CRM execution. Modernize Your Agency Model With Contemporary Agency Types The adage “What got you here won’t get you there” rings true. Next year’s marketing agency landscape will be characterized by new models and offerings, designed to meet the performance/brand meld, scale content to the number of media impressions, match media impressions to sales transactions, and integrate the vital components of marketing ideation with execution. Many current partner structures will lend themselves well to adapt to new needs with slight changes in remit and capabilities. Where possible, give your partners the opportunity to show their expanded offerings. Other partnerships will require you to modernize your model to one that combines the necessary scale/quality; brand/performance; media/creative; and data/CX combinations. Start Planning Today For What’s Coming Tomorrow Forrester clients can access our full Predictions 2025: Marketing Agencies report. If you would like to further discuss implications, please schedule a guidance session with me. Be on the lookout for my upcoming Forrester Wave™ evaluation of media management services. If you aren’t yet a Forrester client, you can download our complimentary Predictions guide, which covers our top predictions for 2025. Get additional complimentary resources, including webinars, on the Predictions 2025 hub. source

Europe’s spacetech elite are making their final preparations for a groundbreaking meeting with an asteroid. A spacecraft called Hera — named after the Greek goddess of marriage — will make the rendezvous. The probe is slated for launch on October 7. If all goes well, Hera will then complete a detailed inspection of Dimorphos — a binary asteroid that’s also caught the eye of NASA. Back in 2022, the agency’s DART spacecraft deliberately smashed into Dimorphos. The collision contributed to a test of humanity’s planetary defences. The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! NASA wants to prove that we could divert a giant space rock hurtling towards Earth — and avoid the same fate as the dinosaurs. Hera will measure the impact of DART’s strike. The probe will analyse shifts in the asteroid’s momentum and changes to its composition. The European Space Agency (ESA) is leading the mission. But much of the tech onboard the probe has been built by startups. A public-private mission A stellar set of 28 startups and SMEs have worked on Hera. Among them is Finland’s Kuva Space, which applies a technique called hyperspectral imaging to analyse wavelengths of light. By capturing this data, the company can unravel new insights about scanned objects. For the Hera mission, Kuva has worked on the spacecraft’s life support interface board, which connects the probe and its two CubeSats. Hera will deploy the CubeSats to gather data on Dimorphos. Kuva has also contributed to the probe’s hyperspectral camera, which ESA will use to scan the asteroid. “They want to check whether they can detect the mineral composition of the asteroid without an impact crater on the asteroid,” says Tuomas Tikka, Kuva’s founder and CTO. The mission provides a chance to fine-tune Kuva’s hyperspectral business plan. By 2030, the company aims to deploy a constellation of 100 satellites. Jarkko Antila, the startup’s CEO, wants them to create “the Bloomberg of planetary insights.” Tikka also wants to explore another business idea: mining asteroids. The business case for asteroid mining Asteroids contain a diverse array of valuable materials. Hyperspectral imagery could help find and extract them. “It might be a bit in the future still,” Tikka says with a smile. “But when we make hundreds of millions with the Earth-based applications, then we’ll have the money for the asteroid mining.” ESA can play a key role in bringing dreams like this to reality. The agency’s programmes offer funding for spacetech firms and unique tests in the cosmos. “This ongoing support to startups working in new space is important, because not everything can be commercialised immediately,” Tikka says. Kuva will now head to Cape Canaveral, Florida for Hera’s launch. The probe is due to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this Monday, but there are threats of a delay. Falcon 9 has been grounded since an upper-stage anomaly during a launch on September 28. But if the rocket flies as planned, humanity will move a step closer to deflecting asteroids — and, potentially, mining them. source

Just 20% of voters are highly confident the Supreme Court would be politically neutral if it rules on legal issues in 2024 election A voter drops off their mail-in ballot in a collection box on Oct. 15, 2024, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. (Hannah Beier/Getty Images) Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans’ views of voting and their expectations around the 2024 presidential election. For this analysis, we surveyed 5,110 U.S. adults – including 4,025 registered voters – from Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, 2024. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Surveys were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology. Here are the questions used for this report, the topline and the survey methodology. With voting underway in the 2024 presidential race, majorities of American voters are at least somewhat confident that the election will be run smoothly, that votes will be counted accurately and that ineligible voters will be prevented from casting ballots. But supporters of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have sharply different expectations for how this year’s election may unfold. In many cases, these differences are as wide as they were in the lead-up to the 2020 election. Harris supporters are more optimistic about the way the election will be run: 90% say they are at least somewhat confident that elections across the United States will be administered well. This compares with 57% of Trump supporters who are confident the election will be run smoothly. This pattern in views extends to other aspects of the presidential race: Harris supporters are more confident than Trump supporters that, after all the votes are counted, it will be clear who won (85% vs. 58%). Harris supporters are much more confident that mail-in ballots will be counted as voters intend (85% vs. 38%). Harris supporters also are more confident that election systems across the U.S. are secure from hacking and other technological threats (73% vs. 32%). The latest national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted among 5,110 U.S. adults (including 4,025 registered voters) from Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, 2024, finds that voters who support Harris are more confident in the way the 2024 election will unfold than President Joe Biden’s supporters were four years ago. And those who support Trump are deeply skeptical about the way the election will be conducted – expressing even less confidence on some election issues than his supporters did four years ago. Wide partisan gaps in election confidence since 2020 In 2018, Republican candidate supporters were 8 percentage points more likely than Democratic candidate supporters to say that year’s midterm election would be run well. By 2020, Biden’s supporters were 22 points more likely than Trump’s to expect the election to run smoothly. The gap this year is even wider: 33 points between Harris and Trump supporters. Harris, Trump supporters differ on whether votes will be counted accurately  As was the case four years ago, Trump supporters are particularly skeptical that absentee and mail-in ballots will be counted as voters intend. Harris supporters are more than twice as likely as Trump supporters to say they are very or somewhat confident that absentee and mail-in ballots will be counted accurately (85% vs. 38%). By contrast, sizable majorities of both coalitions (93% of Harris supporters, 77% of Trump supporters) are at least somewhat confident that in-person votes will be counted accurately. However, far more Harris (57%) than Trump (24%) supporters are very confident this will happen. There is broad confidence among voters overall that local poll workers and state election officials will do a good job during the upcoming election. Yet Harris supporters are more likely than Trump supporters to express a high degree of confidence in these administrators. Read more on views of election administration and vote counting in Chapter 1 Related: Key facts about U.S. poll workers Voters’ views of illegal voting, access to voting Roughly nine-in-ten among both Trump and Harris supporters are confident that eligible voters will be able to cast a ballot if they want to. But there are bigger divisions on whether people who are ineligible to vote will be prevented from doing so. Today, 87% of Harris voters are at least somewhat confident that ineligible voters will be prevented from casting ballots. Just 30% of Trump supporters say this. Most voters are at least somewhat confident that it will be clear which candidate won the election after all the votes are counted. But here again, Harris backers (85%) are much more likely than Trump supporters (58%) to express confidence that the winner will be clear. Do voters think election systems in the U.S. are safe from hacking? Overall, 52% of voters are at least somewhat confident that U.S. election systems are secure from hacking and other technological threats. Nearly as many voters (47%) are not confident about this. 73% of Harris supporters say they are confident that election systems are secure. This is higher than the share of Biden supporters who said this in the weeks before the 2020 election (53%). The pattern is reversed among Trump supporters: 32% now say election systems are secure from hacking and other technological threats, down from 60% four years ago. Other findings: Voters’ plans for casting ballots, confidence in Supreme Court to be politically neutral if it must resolve 2024 election challenges A smaller share of voters plan to cast ballots by mail compared with 2020. Four years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a record share of voters cast ballots by mail in the presidential election. Today, a much smaller share of voters plan to vote by mail

As the GCC countries continue to evolve into global digital hubs, the adoption of technologies such as 5G, AI, and IoT is accelerating rapidly. These advancements offer immense economic growth and innovation potential, but they also introduce new cybersecurity challenges. To explore how organizations in the Gulf region are addressing these challenges, CIO Middle East discussed with Sultan Mahmood Malik, Chief Security Officer at Huawei Gulf North, who shared insights into the latest cybersecurity trends and how Huawei is helping its clients secure these cutting-edge technologies while ensuring data privacy and regulatory compliance. The introduction of 5G has been a game-changer for the region. Malik noted that 5G has been in the GCC for more than five years, enabling both carriers and industry customers to explore the possibilities of a truly digital world. “New technologies like AI and IoT are coming into play,” he said, underscoring how these innovations are driving transformation across sectors. However, the increasing integration of AI and IoT into everyday operations also brings new risks, including the potential for cyberattacks on interconnected devices, data breaches, and vulnerabilities within complex networks. Securing these technologies is paramount in a region where digital infrastructure is critical to national development. source

The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies. source

Frustrations with generative artificial intelligence flaws run high and solutions are in high demand. First came the move from large language models to small language models to curb errors through data and task specializations. Then came mini model versions. Now there are highly specialized autonomous AI agents (bots) that work in teams called multi-agent systems.   “This shift leverages specialized AI agents to handle narrow tasks more accurately and cost-effectively, as each agent doesn’t need to be state-of-the-art but simply good enough for its specific role,” says Jesal Gadhia, head of engineering at Thoughtful AI.   The applications for multi-agents appear limitless but they are not a panacea for all AI use cases.  “It’s worth noting that while agents are an important piece of the AI puzzle, they do not replace some LLM-based GenAI tools, nor do they replace predictive AI/ML tools,” says Paul Harmon, senior manager, data science, at Atrium, a consulting firm for data, CRM, and analytics/AI.   “In some cases, AI-based tools may be better used to augment humans, providing insights and recommendations — in such cases an agent may not be needed. But in cases where AI-driven actions can replace rote tasks, agents can provide some significant productivity gains,” says Harmon, who’s also a distinguished member of the American Society for AI.  Related:The Rise of Autonomous AI Agents Ultimately, the concept is to leverage a blend of AI models and data to create a more powerful and targeted mix of tools to handle even the most complex and delicate tasks. For example, consider multi-agents in a customer care scenario for a telco company.   “Because the care agent and network agents leverage different domain-specific contexts, and may also leverage different underlying models and infrastructure, the outcome will theoretically be the ‘best of both worlds’ in terms of accuracy and speed,” says Anthony Goonetilleke, group president, technology and head of strategy at Amdocs, an Israeli multinational telecommunications technology company. “From an end-user perspective, their experience will be more fulfilling as they will not only simplify their care interaction, but also realize a meaningful outcome from the interaction in significantly faster time.”   So much for the high view, let’s now take a closer look at what all of this means to the rest of us:  1. Seismic shift from application to system integrations   Companies are eager to move beyond using GenAI in improving employee productivity to tackle complex use cases but they’re mostly hitting a wall in the process. It won’t be until most or all of an organization’s technology is fully integrated by AI bots that the real magic will occur, let alone at scale.  Related:Is This the End of Mass Production in Everything From Education To Manufacturing? “Today, the challenge for GenAI is that business operations are integrated, but software systems are not,” says Babak Hodjat, CTO of AI at Cognizant. “Multi-agent architectures create a “system of systems” that allows LLMs to interact with one another. AI agents — generative AI LLMs wrapped around any software, function, module, or app — interact with one another within this network, functioning as a virtual working group that can analyze prompts and draw information from across the business. The result? A comprehensive solution not just for the original requestor, but for other teams as well.”  2. Shift of artificial thinking from one agent to a hive mind  GenAI flaws and limitations are glaringly evident. Among them is difficulty in managing complex tasks and long, complicated inputs. Switching from one GenAI tool or “single agent” approach to a “multi-agent” approach instead enables a collection of AIs to each focus on a single task that they can do well.  “The limitations of single agent AI in handling complex, multifaceted tasks have become apparent,” says Loris Degioanni, founder and CTO at real-time cloud security firm, Sysdig. “This inherent limitation has driven a shift towards agentic AI, where multiple agents work collaboratively, much like human teams. This shift is also fueled by advancements in AI technologies that enable more sophisticated coordination and decision-making across agents, and 2024 has become the year when these systems have gained widespread recognition.”   Related:AI and Quantum Computing: High Risks or Big Boons to Fintech? 3. Multi-agents already exist but largely haven’t joined forces yet  Use them if you’ve got them, right? Multi-agents are “out there” they just aren’t organized yet in bigger systems. It’s not that doing so is necessarily an easy task, it’s just that it would be a terrible waste of potential if no one bothered to do so.  “In some ways, multi-agent architectures are already here,” says Deon Nicholas, CEO of Forethought AI. “Most systems are leveraging dozens of separate prompts under the hood, so in a sense these systems are already multi-agent. Unlike humans where each human has a distinct separate consciousness, it’s all kind of working in concert … For example, at Forethought, we have one agent for resolving customer service issues, and a completely separate agent for evaluating the quality of the conversations. This ‘supervisor’ or ‘evaluator’ agent is being used to check the answers of the first, generate further insights, and even provide policy updates for future training of the model. To the customer, it all appears as one cohesive ‘agentic’ system,” Nicolas says.   4. Multi-agent systems won’t replace single-agent applications  The switch to multi-agent systems will not trash any former investments in single agent applications. For example, if your company has already built a GenAI chatbot for HR and another one for customer service, you get to keep using them. Similarly, any investment made by any stakeholder can be protected and bolstered.  “AI can help optimize or create compromise for data gathering — specifically where satellite vs. drone vs. individually gathered sampling is acceptable or required. It is a complicated space with many views. A multi-agent model can ensure each stakeholder has control over their own reasoning and needs,” says Yvette Kanouff, partner at JC2 Ventures.  Kanouff points to the use of AI in land reclamation for mines, oil, and gas

（相）合作夥伴合照。 為響應十月「照顧者月」，以及社會各界對照顧者支援的重視， 太古地產於即日至10月27日假太古城中心舉辦「陪您森呼吸–照顧者療癒之旅」展覽，合辦單位包括太古地產愛心大使、香港基督教女青年會及香港復康會。參觀者可以學習如何放鬆身心，以及自製小禮物。 一連三天的展覽以「放鬆五感」及「森林療癒」為主題，透過大型3D立體森林場景藝術裝 置、由藝人陳錦鴻及太太杜雯惠聲音導航照顧者故事、以及一系列免費心靈療癒工作坊及其他活動，讓大眾了解照顧者所面對的挑戰，也為默默付出的照顧者提供身心放鬆的五感療癒體驗。 展覽為太古地產連續第三年策劃關注身心健康的展覽，今年更連繫多家社區伙伴攜手策動，提供全面社區資訊及服務，鼓勵大眾在日常生活多關心身邊的照顧者，攜手營造一個互助互愛的共融社區。 「陪您森呼吸–照顧者療癒之旅」展覽詳情: 日期:2024 年 10 月 25 至 27 日 時間:中午 12 時至晚上 7 時 地點:太古城中心地下 (近誠品生活太古店) （相）參觀者可以自製小禮物。 LinkedIn Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp source

AI startup Poolside has raised a whopping $500mn — and it still hasn’t even launched a product. Despite the barren release schedule, the company has become an investors’ darling. The new Series B round brings Poolside’s total funding to $626mn. Its valuation now stands at a cool $3bn. The cash magnet is a AI-powered coding. Poolside has developed its own language model, which promises to accelerate software development. The company also boasts two eye-catching co-founders. CEO Jason Warner helped create GitHub Copilot, while CTO Eiso Kant is a serial founder of AI startups. Calling all Scaleup founders! Join the Soonicorn Summit on November 28 in Amsterdam. Meet with the leaders of Picnic, Miro, Carbon Equity and more during this exclusive event dedicated to Scaleup Founders! At Poolside, the pair are building three things: foundation models, an API, and a coding assistant. According to Warner and Kant, the tech is currently undergoing “pressure-testing” in “the toughest” office environments. “The enterprise is the proving ground,” they said in a blogpost. “But our goal is over time to make Poolside accessible to anyone in the world who wants to build software.” Poolside is not the the only company with this objective. The market for AI coding assistants has become fiercely competitive, with Copilot at the lead and a range of challengers chasing. The emerging rivals are attracting major capital. August alone saw a $320mn investment in Magic, a $150mn round for Codeium, and a $60mn raise Anysphere. Replit, Augment, Supermaven, Cognition have also recently received big cash injections. Poolside’s Series A adds another eye-watering sum to the sector. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures, Bloomberg reports. Additional funds came from HSBC Ventures, DST Global, StepStone Group, and Citi Ventures. You can learn more about Poolside first-hand at VDS, one of Europe’s premiere tech events. Poolside’s VP of Operations, Margarida Garcia, is speaking at the show, which takes place in Valencia on October 23 and 24. TNW is a strategic partner at the event. Update (11:00PM CEST, October 3, 2024): A previous version of this article referred to Poolside as a “Paris startup.” This was based on reports that the company had relocated to Paris. Poolside has now confirmed that it remains headquartered in San Francisco. source

In an earnings call with analysts on Wednesday afternoon, ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott championed Zavery’s hiring. “During his tenure, he helped build Google Cloud into the fourth-largest enterprise software company by increasing annualized revenue from $7 billion to over $41 billion. Before joining Google Cloud, Amit had a distinguished career at Oracle, where he presided over their growth and Platform as a Service and data analytics,” McDermott said. “With sterling educational and career credentials, Amit is a world-class engineer and engineering leader. From a commercialization perspective, he’s also an expert in packaging and pricing.” In his farewell LinkedIn post, Zavery said leaving Google was “the toughest goodbye,” but added, “I’m excited about the new adventures and opportunities ahead.” One of his first adventures at ServiceNow will be figuring out how best to package and price the company’s new tools for creating AI agents, introduced in September in the Xanadu release of the company’s Now Platform for managing workflows. source