tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83482274647334656172024-03-09T02:16:59.117-08:00Richard M MarshallMy thoughts on the world of technology and how people interact with it.Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.comBlogger120125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-20736706762272731202023-08-15T08:15:00.004-07:002023-08-15T08:15:37.555-07:00A Prescriptive Path for Digital Resilience<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsDhE9jDfV7Svs6LhiqmMZr8v-x7n-AznwZkPZIWLCIGjJ6SVauX1MFnL2HB2hmqFfh5CfuebvM40UZqm0JCj0ln3AMA4pTNvmKwhqwXQ1vHvCPb13jUAYhBNbSnnpEPjWhSgPDFzXAmRO_jOKhGbOAXlr1o052yznrVK6aSDSWsehWtshuA0-ExyB2ro/s2672/PXL_20230718_154019176.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1499" data-original-width="2672" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsDhE9jDfV7Svs6LhiqmMZr8v-x7n-AznwZkPZIWLCIGjJ6SVauX1MFnL2HB2hmqFfh5CfuebvM40UZqm0JCj0ln3AMA4pTNvmKwhqwXQ1vHvCPb13jUAYhBNbSnnpEPjWhSgPDFzXAmRO_jOKhGbOAXlr1o052yznrVK6aSDSWsehWtshuA0-ExyB2ro/s320/PXL_20230718_154019176.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The four-step process shown in this picture was used throughout Splunk’s recent .conf23 user conference. It was used with different titles, different messages before the arrow swooshing upwards, and with different elements within the product suite linked to the segments. The objective is to show a journey of continual improvement by enhancing organisational ability to respond to problems.<p></p><h1 class="ys yt ts al yu yv yw yx ln yy yz za ls zb zc zd ze zf zg zh zi zj zk zl zm zn bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f94a" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em; line-height: 30px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">Capability Maturity Models</h1><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2d3f" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">A prescriptive path is essentially a <a class="az rq" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maturity_model" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Maturity Model</a>, a mechanism defined in 1986 to measure organisations ability to develop software reliably. This original model was developed at Carnegie Mellon for the US military as a means of assessing software suppliers. This classic model has five steps:</p><ol class="" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; list-style: none none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh zt yi yj yk zu yl ym yn zv yo yp yq yr ako zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2507" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 2em; padding-left: 0px;">Initial (sometimes called disorganised or chaos)</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr ako zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ce0a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">Managed</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr ako zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1895" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">Defined</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr ako zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="39f0" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">Quantitatively Managed</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr ako zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7e95" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">Optimizing</li></ol><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4ec6" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Most organisations were at level 1 — and most of them still are. The objective was to ensure timely delivery of large-scale software projects that met its requirements. Despite many people building complex processes, the sad reality is that <a class="az rq" href="https://www.standishgroup.com/about" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">building large software projects is genuinely difficult</a>. Even when processes are applied rigorously software grows organically and despite everyone’s best efforts results in a <a class="az rq" href="http://www.laputan.org/mud/mud.html#BigBallOfMud" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Big Ball of Mud</a>. Generally these failures are project management antipatterns, however there is also a parody <a class="az rq" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability_Immaturity_Model" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">“immaturity”</a> model which rings all to true.</p><h1 class="ys yt ts al yu yv yw yx ln yy yz za ls zb zc zd ze zf zg zh zi zj zk zl zm zn bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="30fd" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em; line-height: 30px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">A Maturity Model to Digital Resilience</h1><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9746" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The original maturity models were driven by the desire to deliver hugely complex software systems from sprawling specifications; the classic <a class="az rq" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">waterfall model</a>. As such it is largely based on managing projects, things that have beginnings, middles and ends. A maturity model for digital resilience, however, has to be designed for continuous operation and to have objectives that are as clear as delivering functionally on time.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="255a" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">While the proposed journey reads well and ties into the company’s range of products, underneath it lacks the logical progression of the typical maturity model. Admittedly the term maturity model isn’t used, but the intent is clear. The four steps in the prescriptive path are:</p><ol class="" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; list-style: none none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh zt yi yj yk zu yl ym yn zv yo yp yq yr ako zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="eafe" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 2em; padding-left: 0px;">Foundational Visibility</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr ako zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7acf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">Prioritized Actions</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr ako zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="46da" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">Proactive Response</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr ako zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7e53" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">Optimized Experiences</li></ol><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3133" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The first three make sense, but the leap to optimization is premature, and different versions of the chart off different forms of optimization. For the model to work across the whole product range, it needs to encompass the goals of all. It also needs to bridge the gap to optimization; while active response is important, in itself it doesn’t cover the gamut of resilience.</p><h1 class="ys yt ts al yu yv yw yx ln yy yz za ls zb zc zd ze zf zg zh zi zj zk zl zm zn bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="cc4e" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em; line-height: 30px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">Building a true Digital Resilience Maturity Model</h1><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d995" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">As I have already <a class="az rq" href="https://medium.com/@richard-m-marshall/building-digital-resilience-ee0b99f527f6" rel="noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;">mentioned</a>, all organisations need to consider their digital resilience. A maturity model is a great way of providing a structure to assess and achieve that. It could even be used as a form of certification. As I’ve been considering Splunk’s prescriptive path over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about what the ultimate form of this model would take and to whom it would apply. Ideas forming but not yet ready for publication.</p>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-85297573383955337852023-08-15T08:14:00.000-07:002023-08-15T08:14:21.782-07:00Of Course There Was AI at Splunk .conf23<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWAUH4vbtiNgRgz9Sqg1Xn8qvDe1jWsk_-l7OmUIwrBtEpNCMQU-Z48qH7i5UHs4_xB8kXQrHZUcwvnqcgHdEi8Le1LzVH0jMOrlLii7mq7VZxFKJcVjEBxsSihFOsuFoR-fz_ttNTI5E9UXy5inXRbhrPhxCyJoZx5qrr7B9lH2LrRuVj6gxdMcHCh4E/s4080/PXL_20230718_154611491.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2101" data-original-width="4080" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWAUH4vbtiNgRgz9Sqg1Xn8qvDe1jWsk_-l7OmUIwrBtEpNCMQU-Z48qH7i5UHs4_xB8kXQrHZUcwvnqcgHdEi8Le1LzVH0jMOrlLii7mq7VZxFKJcVjEBxsSihFOsuFoR-fz_ttNTI5E9UXy5inXRbhrPhxCyJoZx5qrr7B9lH2LrRuVj6gxdMcHCh4E/w320-h165/PXL_20230718_154611491.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.06px;">Every product announcement in 2023 is required to include AI. It’s the law. However most of them are vague, fluffy and just to keep the investors happy. Only a few offer meaningful benefits. Splunk’s new offerings are in this latter category, eschewing wild claims and big noise, but respecting the importance of humans and the real issues that SREs face in their daily working lives. And refreshingly they are not all generative AI.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em;">Not AI Newbies</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="32f1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The new AI capabilities were presented by <a class="az rq" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/min-wang-b94b96/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Min Wang</a>, who became Splunk CTO in April 2023 after five years as an ED at Google where she worked on the Google Assistant. While that consumer-focused product may seem adjacent to SEIM, that’s not the point. It’s the experience of rapidly and easily assisting people that counts, augmenting their productivity.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e978" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">This is also not Splunk’s first sortie into machine learning and AI, having launched Splunk ML in 2015. This means that the company not only has deep AI-related experience, it already has a mass of data on which to draw, whether for threat and attack detection, automation or analysis. This means that Splunk have domain-specific models built from a solid base, unlike a generic tool such as ChatGPT which lacks any contextual knowledge.</p><h1 class="ys yt ts al yu yv yw yx ln yy yz za ls zb zc zd ze zf zg zh zi zj zk zl zm zn bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d9dc" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em; line-height: 30px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">Responsible AI, Really</h1><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ac81" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The current boom in AI has lead to a crazy amount of AI washing, irresponsible releases and endless foolishly exaggerated claims. There are a number of basic rules that should be applied to launching any AI product, and Splunk is one of the few organisations actually following them.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7b1c" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The first rule of responsible AI is to always maintain a human in the loop. All too often cost-fixated management try to use AI as a means of eliminating staff, often with catastrophic results. Since security and incident management is a cost that doesn’t directly drive revenue, all too many executives will consider it a grudge purchase.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4bf1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">This means that the Splunk AI tools do not take action directly, always confirming via a human what action, if any, should be taken. This approach maximizes the likelihood of the correct action being taken by combining human insight with the scale of machine detection, while minimizing the risk of humans missing something and machines jumping to the wrong conclusion.</p><h1 class="ys yt ts al yu yv yw yx ln yy yz za ls zb zc zd ze zf zg zh zi zj zk zl zm zn bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c2bc" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em; line-height: 30px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">Explain Yourself, Machine</h1><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f918" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Another rule that <em class="abe" style="box-sizing: inherit;">should</em> be respected by AI systems but all to often is not even considered is auditability. This means the ability for the machine to explain <em class="abe" style="box-sizing: inherit;">why</em> it did something or recommended a particular course of action. Just like with a human, you can ask the reasons behind choices. This is particularly important when there is a chance of legal exposure or an insurance claim, where every little detail of an incident will be dissected and examined.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2a97" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The <a class="az rq" href="https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/AIAssistant/0.2.3/User/AboutAIAssistant" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Splunk AI Assistant</a> is exemplary in this aspect. Its main purpose seems to be helping SREs write custom filtering code in SPL2. Most AI-enabled tools which simply belch out a bunch of stuff and expect the human to check if it is correct.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0d62" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The Splunk AI Assistant uses a conversational approach to go way beyond this. The user can ask it to create a query in plain language (presumably only English at present), and the tool returns the code with a line-by-line explanation of what it does and why. This serves three vital functions:</p><ul class="" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; list-style: none none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh zt yi yj yk zu yl ym yn zv yo yp yq yr zw zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="46f2" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 2em; padding-left: 0px;">Providing an audit history that explains why the actions were taken.</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr zw zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="69ae" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">Allows experienced engineers to spot errors.</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr zw zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ed79" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">Trains junior engineers in developing SPL2 scripts.</li></ul><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5e9d" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Most of us would say that handling an outage of any kind is a learning experience, with the AI Assistant Splunk can turn any operation, routine or emergency, into an educational opportunity. This helps those who may be experienced operators but lack programming skills to develop an understanding of scripting. And given the shortage of staff in the area, this is a useful tool for skills transfer and onboarding new SREs.</p><h1 class="ys yt ts al yu yv yw yx ln yy yz za ls zb zc zd ze zf zg zh zi zj zk zl zm zn bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ce08" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em; line-height: 30px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">Revenge of the Command Line</h1><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b95c" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I found it amusing that amongst all the gorgeously designed, highly-visual user experience tools offered by Splunk, the latest and greatest tool was essentially a return to a command line. Chat interfaces, however, turn the traditional command line interface on its head as the AI Assistant learns what the user wants and needs, not the reverse. No more figuring out the right command and its options, just use plain language.</p><h1 class="ys yt ts al yu yv yw yx ln yy yz za ls zb zc zd ze zf zg zh zi zj zk zl zm zn bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a592" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em; line-height: 30px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">AI and ML Transfusion</h1><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1dd1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">ML and AI capabilities are being rolled out across security, observability and platform Splunk products. Given the existing ML heritage this is no sudden move to keep the vultures on Wall Street happy, but part of a longer roadmap to AI-enable a broad range of capabilities. This careful approach enhances the product line appropriately where AI and ML will add the most benefit to security and reliability professionals.</p>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-14946980759673231642023-08-15T08:10:00.001-07:002023-08-15T08:17:26.838-07:00Big Picture Thinking at Splunk .conf23<p><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoS203sRRqTm44A3hFLJuInKOykaTQgDmV9xzG_t1WN6lDVGIu5mz_RPfgTFsgdvhbVPxkodMUlWVIFmLvaY-HYWBcX1zdyCEHjmS4bOn4HVDjZMP8NRMZpCaeXuCd1FI1CcCr5ahyXmmlACSao7zs1pEjgnYQcQ8huAHjm-Mu9svZB36yRIyYAAbTwMM/s3066/PXL_20230718_005145860.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1797" data-original-width="3066" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoS203sRRqTm44A3hFLJuInKOykaTQgDmV9xzG_t1WN6lDVGIu5mz_RPfgTFsgdvhbVPxkodMUlWVIFmLvaY-HYWBcX1zdyCEHjmS4bOn4HVDjZMP8NRMZpCaeXuCd1FI1CcCr5ahyXmmlACSao7zs1pEjgnYQcQ8huAHjm-Mu9svZB36yRIyYAAbTwMM/s320/PXL_20230718_005145860.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5aef" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, Times New Roman, Times, serif" style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.06px;">What technologies and capabilities, especially new ones, are behind Splunk’s anchor message Building Digital Resilience at their recent user conference, .conf23? The good news for Splunk and its customers is that there was plenty to back up the message. Even better, the new capabilities were wrapped in a message on tool consolidation and collaboration within teams. I’ll call that big picture thinking because it embraces a whole raft of different roles and circumstances where the product capabilities can be deployed.</span></span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5aef" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, Times New Roman, Times, serif" style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.06px;"><br /></span></span></p><div><span face="sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em;">Bringing IT Together</span></div><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5aef" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">There were numerous small features announced that clearly delighted the Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) in the audience who whooped in delight. One feature greeted with applause and shouts was unified identity for accessing both Splunk Cloud and Splunk Observability Cloud data. While you would probably have expected it to exist already, this demonstrates that the products are coming together to form a single suite.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5aef" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">Unifying SecOps on a single work surface is the objective of the latest iteration of Splunk Mission Control, and we saw some very nice demos. The user experience is delightfully consumer grade, which is important for many reasons, not just aesthetics:</span></p><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; list-style: none none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh zt yi yj yk zu yl ym yn zv yo yp yq yr zw zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="67e6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 2em; padding-left: 0px;">It helps bring new people into the world of SRE by reducing the learning curve, a theme that applies to several of the new features.</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr zw zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="35bc" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">It reduces error rates by making processes and information easy to follow and key data immediately visible.</li><li class="xy xz ts mj b ya zz yc yd ye aba yg yh zt abb yj yk zu abc ym yn zv abd yp yq yr zw zx zy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4457" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-left: 30px; margin-top: 1.05em; padding-left: 0px;">It eliminates switching between multiple different experiences, accelerating time to finding the trouble.</li></ul><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9fdb" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">There really is no need for enterprise software to be dull and grey any more. Progress. Mission Control brings together Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Attack Analyzer, and Splunk SOAR. Combining these critical services reduces stress during incidents, and allows for teams to work more easily together normally.</p><h1 class="ys yt ts al yu yv yw yx ln yy yz za ls zb zc zd ze zf zg zh zi zj zk zl zm zn bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a543" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em; line-height: 30px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">Reflecting Hybrid Reality</h1><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="acf0" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The reality of digital infrastructure is that it is fragment, poorly understood, and barely documented. Most organisations rely on a mix of on-prem systems, potentially in multiple locations, multiple cloud providers and a mix of SaaS products. This fragmentation clearly adds to the complexity of running the estate, as well as creating many more edges than were previously present with the potential for increasing the attack surface.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4cf4" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Two quotes from Splunk CEO Gary Steele’s keynote stick in my mind: “<em class="abe" style="box-sizing: inherit;">you can’t secure what you can’t see</em>” and “<em class="abe" style="box-sizing: inherit;">you can’t operate what you don’t know exists</em>.” Documentation, where it exists, is usually wrong, sometimes dangerously so. The extension of technology into every branch of business means that things are constantly being changed, with the decentralization of IT budgets resulting in a proliferation of applications, devices and vendors.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e982" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">This organic growth is why observability is so important, however the long and passive-sounding word <em class="abe" style="box-sizing: inherit;">observability</em> itself doesn’t help. All too many IT people are reluctant to admit to not knowing what is on their network and most management are clueless about the whole thing. Observability deserves a dynamic upgrade with a more active, even aggressive, title.</p><h1 class="ys yt ts al yu yv yw yx ln yy yz za ls zb zc zd ze zf zg zh zi zj zk zl zm zn bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7c3c" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.016em; line-height: 30px; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em;">Owning the Edge</h1><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya zo yc yd ye zp yg yh lt zq yj yk ly zr ym yn md zs yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8b0f" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Edges, furthest from central control, are all too often where things go wrong. As mentioned above, current fragmented, federated IT estates introduce many more edges over which data has to flow. Responding to this need, Splunk has launched two products.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ab3a" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><mark class="aih aii ao" style="background-color: #e8f3e8; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;">The first is Edge Processor, a software appliance that implements data transformation pipelines for ingesting information. It uses the second generation of Search Processing Language (SPL2) which allows for continuity across the platform and reusing the</mark></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1c9c" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The second is <a class="az rq" href="https://www.edgehubcentral.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Edge Hub</a>, a hardware appliance. Yes, hardware. Splunk is working with partners to deploy this device. It’s small but heavy, with a chunky heatsink on the back, but a surprisingly bright touch-sensitive display panel on front. This is not your classic hardware interface, but very much a consumer-grade experience. I am curious to know how this will go down with gnarly industrial engineers.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d193" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The device is a veritable <a class="az rq" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Rosetta Stone</a> of industrial protocols, as well as having built-in detectors for temperature, vibration, sound and video. These are designed to support a wide range of operational applications, ranging from monitoring cabinets in a data center or the full industrial spectrum of conveyers, pumps and similar.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d7ac" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The objective is to connect currently unconnected devices, essentially bridging the OT and IT worlds, allowing OT data to be added to the overall pool for analysis. This has the potential to detect all sorts of new trends and opportunities for optimization. It will be very interesting to see what can come from this, I can see immense possibilities for sustainability initiatives.</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph xy xz ts mj b ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh lt yi yj yk ly yl ym yn md yo yp yq yr iy bq" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b956" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">On the other hand I can see the old antipathy between OT and IT resulting in disagreements and less than optimal implementations. This is where the partners come in. Working through partners is a wise move from Splunk. The selected partners already have the trust of the OT world, with the serious operational credentials that Splunk does not.</p>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-46039585239514771452023-08-07T08:00:00.000-07:002023-08-07T08:00:04.592-07:00Building Digital Resilience<p>Digital resilience is a critical topic about which I've already <a href="https://medium.com/me/stories/public" rev="en_rl_none">written</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/B3Ztx7ueOtY" rev="en_rl_none">spoken</a>. Digital resilience should be a concern for every business as everything in every business now depends on digital technology. Unfortunately most business management are ignorant of their total dependency on something they fundamentally don't understand. It's just something that IT does, right? No, wrong. Completely and dangerously wrong.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheIuAxGRY5Qx5L_9F8Yw3p6Ya9LiA_G19bd_cqwbanGepI5PsFSCkfWsqlTdlWlSD3gtVs6VqUyeUobcaZMOOWzdGO6AuA5PE5cVeaDobZu-Yi5Ld-nLpRXBIc-gm71y7n2jlpXceLyRjEDkxhvCqp5EgY68Iq-2UymeYy7Z9kIicBR478ocNEgL3sEwc/s2912/PXL_20230718_010558773.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1714" data-original-width="2912" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheIuAxGRY5Qx5L_9F8Yw3p6Ya9LiA_G19bd_cqwbanGepI5PsFSCkfWsqlTdlWlSD3gtVs6VqUyeUobcaZMOOWzdGO6AuA5PE5cVeaDobZu-Yi5Ld-nLpRXBIc-gm71y7n2jlpXceLyRjEDkxhvCqp5EgY68Iq-2UymeYy7Z9kIicBR478ocNEgL3sEwc/s320/PXL_20230718_010558773.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><div>I was recently a guest at <a href="https://www.splunk.com/" rev="en_rl_none">Splunk</a>'s <a href="https://conf.splunk.com/" rev="en_rl_none">.conf23</a> user conference, a fabulous confection of announcements, technical sessions, customer stories, fez-wearing MVPs, and a giant inflatable pony called <a href="https://www.splunk.com/en_us/resources/videos/who-is-buttercup-anyway.html" rev="en_rl_none">Buttercup</a>. Splunk has grown from log analysis into what is now called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_information_and_event_management" rev="en_rl_none">SIEM</a>, allowing technical teams to find what has gone, or is going, wrong in their networks, especially during security incidents.</div><div><br /></div><div>While Splunk is a leader in SIEM tools, a growing part of Splunk's toolset is observability tools where it's leadership has also been <a href="https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/devops/splunk-named-a-leader-in-gartner-2023-magic-quadrant-for-apm-observability.html" rev="en_rl_none">recognised</a>. These help businesses know what devices and applications are on their network, what data is flowing where, potential vulnerabilities, and other information that a naive business person might think were well known. The sad reality is that most businesses of any size have only a rough idea of what systems they have, how they are connected, and which parts are most important. Of course there's documentation, but it's out of date and mostly wrong. Some key individuals know in what way the documentation is wrong, but don't have the time to correct it; after all they are key individuals. Sometimes they don't have the inclination either, and prefer keeping that knowledge to themselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Clearly SIEM and Observability belong together, with observability providing essential context for security and other incidents. I was, therefore, delighted to find that the big theme of Splunk .conf23 was how the combination was helping<i> Build Digital Resilience. </i>I will be writing about some of the details of new announcements in subsequent posts, but I was really delighted to find the message of Digital Resilience at the core of the vision presented by President & CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gasteele/" rev="en_rl_none">Gary Steele</a>. This was reinforced by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchen-ohara/" rev="en_rl_none">Gretchen O'Hara</a>, VP of Partnerships and Alliances, who called digital resilience a board-level topic. </div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately all too few companies share her enlightenment. While legal and financial non-executive directors are the norm for many boards, the are precious few that see the importance of having independent technical expertise available at this level. The rash of ransomware and other cybersecurity incidents demonstrates the critical nature of our digital infrastructure. It's time for the importance of digital resilience to be fully recognised with a seat on the board.</div>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-34122754222477438132023-02-09T06:23:00.000-08:002023-02-09T06:23:02.668-08:00Would we even notice a digital pound?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDTxUEf6viaqYkySb86jaS2knNGMO5tn8CHU8ARMN5eyfKvczDCK5BeWcNlV4kd0LWkwt8ppornxfQAu0Nse55V-jPjRDgp1wOrh8IUHZg0LPTEr3s_aRMdOIakw8dWiZCBSZqmiZAcFRKGStRt6reARoTxD4MfyApVRlbhYZfISA6m-P14Dua5mqS" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="1024" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDTxUEf6viaqYkySb86jaS2knNGMO5tn8CHU8ARMN5eyfKvczDCK5BeWcNlV4kd0LWkwt8ppornxfQAu0Nse55V-jPjRDgp1wOrh8IUHZg0LPTEr3s_aRMdOIakw8dWiZCBSZqmiZAcFRKGStRt6reARoTxD4MfyApVRlbhYZfISA6m-P14Dua5mqS" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><div data-draftjs-conductor-fragment="{"blocks":[{"key":"bh6m","text":"With the announcement that the Bank of England is consulting on the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) I thought I would write my thoughts about it.","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"c75f7","text":"","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"amlbm","text":"Read the post here. ","type":"unstyled","depth":0,"inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":19,"style":"BOLD"},{"offset":14,"length":5,"style":"UNDERLINE"}],"entityRanges":[{"offset":14,"length":4,"key":0}],"data":{}}],"entityMap":{"0":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"url":"https://richard-m-marshall.medium.com/would-we-even-notice-a-digital-pound-ece8cec524bc","target":"_blank","rel":""}}},"VERSION":"9.3.6"}" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="foo-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="foo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="foo-0-0">With the announcement that the Bank of England is consulting on the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) I thought I would write my thoughts about it.</span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="131qn-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="131qn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="131qn-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_25Ehb _3qYRK Oh89J public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr fixed-tab-size rich_content_P" data-block="true" data-editor="editor" data-offset-key="bcn4s-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bcn4s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bcn4s-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Read the post </span><a class="_3Bkfb _1lsz7" data-hook="linkViewer" href="https://richard-m-marshall.medium.com/would-we-even-notice-a-digital-pound-ece8cec524bc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span data-offset-key="bcn4s-1-0" style="font-weight: bold;">here</span></a><span data-offset-key="bcn4s-2-0" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: underline;"><span data-text="true">.</span></span><span data-offset-key="bcn4s-2-1"> </span></div></div></div>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-73372536776133014192022-11-01T03:17:00.004-07:002022-11-01T03:17:37.854-07:00Building Digital Resilience<p> <span style="font-family: verdana;">Last month I presented at the 7th CENSIS Tech Summit in Glasgow. Here's the video of me speaking:</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="318" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B3Ztx7ueOtY" width="624" youtube-src-id="B3Ztx7ueOtY"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-13878176622361574542022-10-27T02:20:00.001-07:002022-10-27T02:20:35.993-07:00Whatever you think is the “metaverse,” this isn’t it.<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was alarmed at the hype being generated around Meta's metaverse announcements and started gathering up evidence to support my position that it is neither new nor the future. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As part of that process I compared my experience of being very early into the mobile apps space with the current wave of VR/AR/MR/XR claims. I believe I found enough evidence to support my position and that I'm not just being a luddite.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The result was <a href="https://richard-m-marshall.medium.com/please-stop-hyping-the-metaverse-6b0d3657dc56">this post on Medium</a>.</span></p><p><br /></p>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-61874218226672100882022-07-05T04:31:00.006-07:002022-07-06T10:39:52.865-07:00The Business Debugger: Beer and Observability Escape IT<p>I was a guest at .conf, Splunk’s annual event for users and analysts. It was both in person and on line. I was one of the several thousand people there in person, about which I will also be writing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4pn53QEskKLM3MaC5qUGlqZAKvaXcnvTVMH7B3bAGrrpqxylTWBTauIt5LS7GByi8HlUBYZqGbIjX15cqOVgGUtg68mvIZneKmbWKUL6LOYvspQVgcacpuHybrO5vMqs-a1oELanEi2oQJXQyMHjVK3UTJRmup9-04CR2zo9ICkwLLw5PtI5J5zG3/s3445/PXL_20220614_180027071.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1799" data-original-width="3445" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4pn53QEskKLM3MaC5qUGlqZAKvaXcnvTVMH7B3bAGrrpqxylTWBTauIt5LS7GByi8HlUBYZqGbIjX15cqOVgGUtg68mvIZneKmbWKUL6LOYvspQVgcacpuHybrO5vMqs-a1oELanEi2oQJXQyMHjVK3UTJRmup9-04CR2zo9ICkwLLw5PtI5J5zG3/s320/PXL_20220614_180027071.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> Observability was a big topic, as was Splunk’s journey from log analysis tool to extensible platform.<p></p><p>I find observability quite fascinating. Enterprise IT systems are now so complex and have grown organically for so many years that we no longer know what is happening. They work, most of the time, for some definition of work, however when they break we are often at a loss to know why. Observability is the ability to look into the vast, sprawling patchwork. But this really is just the first step into a new and really exciting business role: observability is escaping from IT into the broader business.</p><p>Part of the .conf22 keynote was how Heineken is using Spunk to figure out where lost things go. I’m not sure if that includes socks in the washer, but it definitely included tracking down missing invoices as well as understanding why palettes of beer don’t always end up where they should be. They have used Splunk’s combination of data ingestion, analysis and extensibility to build XOMI (pronounced “show me”) that offers up a comprehensive dashboard of where all sorts of things are across the business, including those missing invoices and the vanishing palettes of beer.</p><p>They key point here isn’t really knowing where those lost items happen to be, it’s more about working out which wormholes they managed to fall through to get there. This is the magic, and as a software engineer it suddenly felt very familiar to me. Observability provides the same view point into the state of the overall machine of the business as a debugger does when showing the contents of variables at a breakpoint.</p><p>It is axiomatic that once you know what is actually happening it is much easier to fix a problem. Some of the missing invoices were due to software allowing dates to be entered into what should have been purely numeric fields, resulting in the invoice being silently rejected by a more fastidious downstream process. Identifying that missing data entry validation was the root cause would have been an epic task without full observability across the network.</p><p>Further, given Splunk’s collection of integrations and ease of adding new connections, it is possible to directly open the appropriate piece of software to fix the problem, at the problem location. This is just like a traditional debugger firing up the IDE from a crash, at the line of code that has failed — but at the macro network level. Incredible power.</p><p>This is why observability forms what I think we should call the <b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEidrMbl2cfLbbzuPUm4z0Wg7wZhWXcbgnO_XxaTbAt33pelKhK5kXXIKLRLzjTZUrQ04aE0fYCZM5Boj1OrQj1kNmMxVetSQxy7Oj4o8buQJmIAlsRqfGJEgBI5lrHfzkYVKnAv0GGa_RxYnORjrxQmzcbaSpNqDGiycLH3ECCCECUxJ4REwdNCbYnA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1799" data-original-width="3445" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEidrMbl2cfLbbzuPUm4z0Wg7wZhWXcbgnO_XxaTbAt33pelKhK5kXXIKLRLzjTZUrQ04aE0fYCZM5Boj1OrQj1kNmMxVetSQxy7Oj4o8buQJmIAlsRqfGJEgBI5lrHfzkYVKnAv0GGa_RxYnORjrxQmzcbaSpNqDGiycLH3ECCCECUxJ4REwdNCbYnA" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /></b>. Stuff goes wrong all over businesses, from exceptions constantly firing silently into logs to disappearing product, the combination of data ingestion, analysis and extensibility now provides a powerful tool for sorting it all out. The pandemic and recent supply chain issues has finally put business resilience back on the agenda, and this ability to identify and rapidly correct problems, provides a hugely important tool to build that resilience.<p></p>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-84108710233695645342021-10-26T10:44:00.006-07:002021-10-26T10:44:52.266-07:00Improving the Signal-to-Noise Ratio<p> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdNp15NpJ013XpecBGBzRsfenh5sfm8v-MBRqev-obtqhwnBZk7hTx9hJPW7WShsizwPRz9wOx_ISVLhpKE2FumZOh8BH_a_P2I78w9Ck-lirWKCmG_r3F6YIuo99BPKKTikn0aAusJGo/s2048/IMG_20200308_094027.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdNp15NpJ013XpecBGBzRsfenh5sfm8v-MBRqev-obtqhwnBZk7hTx9hJPW7WShsizwPRz9wOx_ISVLhpKE2FumZOh8BH_a_P2I78w9Ck-lirWKCmG_r3F6YIuo99BPKKTikn0aAusJGo/w240-h320/IMG_20200308_094027.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">L</span><span style="color: #0e101a;">ast week was </span><a href="https://www.splunk.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a6ee0;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Splunk</span></span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true">‘s
2021 event .</span><a href="https://conf.splunk.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a6ee0;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">conf21</span></span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true">, held virtually for the second year and generally
offering a great experience and a wealth of content for most people who should
be interested in Splunk’s products. I say </span><em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">generally </span></em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">as the video stream slowed down at one point while
the platform provider worked out what was happening. This put Splunk’s core
message into sharp focus: things are complicated and finding the problem is
becoming exponentially more difficult.</span><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Splunk started addressing the concept of observability head-on
in 2020, proposing their SIEM heritage as an antidote to the complexity of
modern IT estates. The reality of modern IT is not all shiny new cloud-native
apps. Instead, the typical landscape is littered with legacy systems, multiple
cloud providers, spreadsheets, SaaS products, quick hacks gluing things
together despite multiple, duplicative integration platforms. Figuring out what
broke, not to mention why, in this typical environment is massively difficult,
rising exponentially with the number of systems in play. The world needs tools
to help find the problems and provide both immediate remediation and long-term
insight for prevention.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The industry desperately needs tools that do not just recognise
but positively revel in the messy reality of organically grown IT systems. And
that is anything that is more than a year or two old. Splunk is making a strong
play for this role under the slogan </span><em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">turn data into doing</span></em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">. Any running system generates masses of data, the
hard part is pulling the important bits from it and acting on them – extracting
the signal from the noise, as the Splunk execs said.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Observability is right into the literal hands of users with the
new Splunk RUM (Real User Monitoring) product for mobile apps. Several other
new capabilities have been added, many recognising that the Splunk portfolio
itself is suffering from the complexity of scale. Templated content packs and a
new visual editor to enable automation are just two of them.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The notion of a single surface on which to examine the data
extracted by data collector tentacles tapping into <i>all</i> the elements of
the infrastructure is very appealing. An observatory, or perhaps a microscope,
for all that is both good and bad in the IT estate is very appealing. The idea
of filtering weak signals out of a barrage of noise is also compelling. The
question remains whether these benefits will be understood by the broader
business audience without an engineering understanding.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-65020034450027894102021-03-05T06:17:00.000-08:002021-03-05T06:17:13.016-08:002021 Trends in Low Code<p><span style="color: #494949; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZPY3vMHeKEspc7MM4Jz9LH7WlhJGlbPO_ovAqSEgYBShhNX0bRhsaBV_Az4f_V7nSYXtYCr5PKjLXfIeSHlQBS9n4X8HwH0kPkypG5NQm0PB2jpFVHkVWLPjaKV_SRKwSwWRg_bRDTBQ/s2048/shutterstock_567301279.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1347" data-original-width="2048" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZPY3vMHeKEspc7MM4Jz9LH7WlhJGlbPO_ovAqSEgYBShhNX0bRhsaBV_Az4f_V7nSYXtYCr5PKjLXfIeSHlQBS9n4X8HwH0kPkypG5NQm0PB2jpFVHkVWLPjaKV_SRKwSwWRg_bRDTBQ/w200-h131/shutterstock_567301279.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />New ways to make software are not new, but it is only now that the true potential is being </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">unlocked. It has taken many attempts to find the right formula, but new low-code tools are now finally delivering on that promise of enabling the creation of great software safely, quickly, and without programming. The first generation of low-code tools was the proverbial faster horse — it worked in much the same way as existing developer tools but with a few shortcuts. The next generation tried to let almost anyone build an app quickly, but without consideration of any potential risks: a classic example of the dangers of power without adequate control. 2021 heralds the arrival of the third generation of low-code tools that balance speed and governance to truly transform business software delivery.</span><p></p><p></p><div class="yF0IC" data-hook="post-description" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 25px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="blog-post-page-font" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="post-content__body" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="f-0hV _1LHlu _1ltva" data-rce-version="8.24.1" style="--rce-active-divider-color: rgba(73, 73, 73, 0.5); --rce-divider-color: rgba(73, 73, 73, 0.2); --rce-header-three-font-size: 22px; --rce-header-two-font-size: 28px; --rce-highlighted-color: rgb(73, 73, 73); --rce-link-hashtag-color: rgb(212, 96, 119); --rce-mobile-font-size: 16px; --rce-mobile-header-three-font-size: 20px; --rce-mobile-header-two-font-size: 24px; --rce-mobile-quotes-font-size: 20px; --rce-opaque-background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); --rce-text-color: rgb(73, 73, 73); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex: 1 1 auto; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="kcuBq _1PkHV blog-post-page-font _3f8WX uatYj" dir="ltr" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; height: 359px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="kaqlz _1FQ9t blog-post-page-font zJfAe" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; height: 359px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height,unset); outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 740px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="color: #494949; white-space: pre-wrap;">Check out my </span><a class="_2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _2xVcV _2E8wo" href="https://richard-m-marshall.medium.com/2021-trends-in-low-code-cf0e3f3e419b" rel="noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #d46077; cursor: pointer; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: var(--ricos-custom-link-line-height,unset); margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-link-min-height,unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank"><u class="sDZYg" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">latest post on Medium</u></a><span style="color: #494949; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to discover why 2021 is the year that low code happens. Learn how low-code tools can modernise your IT estate and deliver the advanced software that your enterprise demands, faster than even before.</span></span><p style="color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-decoration-line: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap !important;"></p></div></div></div></div></article></div><div class="_1yEvn" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="_3YxRQ" data-hook="post-main-actions-desktop" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 50px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-43657176985952152052020-10-27T08:03:00.001-07:002020-10-27T08:03:17.129-07:00Deep Dive into Splunk .conf20<p><span style="color: #0e101a;"><a href="https://www.splunk.com/"></a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtD8fcS7l6LFoJLtzt0-xp0F7ew8jwK10vzDV9BpH1bWhHbQo-YsE5tT-lupnWShQKnoTnrVgbhTo_pkQjJVg1awi8WQencY7fheFyhhw_1MhjJAU8XUSOnF1t-r7Y27k7xiqzXvhizAE/s3968/IMG_20201027_093444.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1472" data-original-width="3968" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtD8fcS7l6LFoJLtzt0-xp0F7ew8jwK10vzDV9BpH1bWhHbQo-YsE5tT-lupnWShQKnoTnrVgbhTo_pkQjJVg1awi8WQencY7fheFyhhw_1MhjJAU8XUSOnF1t-r7Y27k7xiqzXvhizAE/s320/IMG_20201027_093444.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Splunk started as a logfile analysis tool, a
category that has now been gentrified into the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_information_and_event_management" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a6ee0;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">SIEM</span></span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true"> category. That is how it works, but what it
does is best captured by one of the company’s famous t-shirt slogans: <i>looking
for trouble</i>. The latest evolution of the Splunk product offers timely and
necessary tools that further that goal, but as with any increasingly complex
solution, there are corresponding challenges in reaching the audience.</span><p></p><p style="margin: 0cm;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The Event</span></span></strong><span style="color: #0e101a;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Being
2020 this was, of course, a virtual event. I was mainly involved in the private
analyst sessions, but the website was easy to navigate and well designed to
support a global audience. Content was available in multiple languages and
structured around roles and skill levels and there was an impressive roster of
outside speakers including actors, a singer, and restaurateurs. I don’t
normally pay attention to sessions with sportspeople, however this is Splunk so
it was a bit different as the chat was with skateboarding legend </span><a href="https://www.tonyhawk.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a6ee0;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Tony Hawk</span></span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true">. He had also recorded a special video explaining,
and demonstrating, the history of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollie_(skateboarding)" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a6ee0;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Ollie</span></span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true">. Both were excellent.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Despite
the content being virtual, we did not miss out on the usual free food and
merchandise that make events popular and special. Ahead of time, we received a
kit of cool </span><a href="https://twitter.com/rmmarshall/status/1318637272875601921" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a6ee0;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Splunk-branded material</span></span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true"> and a treasure </span><a href="https://twitter.com/rmmarshall/status/1318637476051931136" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a6ee0;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">trove of munchies</span></span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true"> to keep us attentive and not wandering off for
snacks. This hybrid format is definitely the future of events.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The Product</span></span></strong><span style="color: #0e101a;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">While
the theme of .conf20 was creating a platform for “Data-to-Everything”
innovation, for me the key message was that the tool is expanding to meet the
needs of a world going cloud. Splunk Cloud was launched back in 2013, but in
line with any sensible IT organisation, the focus is now fully on cloud
delivery. This is particularly important at a time when most businesses are
fighting with workload spread across multiple cloud providers, SaaS vendors and
legacy on-premises systems. The complexity of hybrid cloud needs to be matched
by a cloud native SIEM approach, and this is precisely what Splunk is offering.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The
Splunk Observability Suite is their answer to providing a universal window into
the innards of your IT estate, reaching across the spectrum of IT roles,
including developers as well as technical and operations support functions.
Developers will welcome a more </span><a href="https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/SCS/current/Search/StartSearchingSPL2" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a6ee0;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">standard
programming language</span></span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true">, SPL2,
and commitment to </span><a href="https://github.com/open-telemetry" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a6ee0;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">open
source</span></span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true">. Great support too
for a DevOps approach, and they are quick to emphasise that this is using the
actual data for feedback, not sampling or predictive, and from some of the
client examples that includes a vast amount of data even by modern standards.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Given
the ability to handle petascale data, Splunk is also addressing the growing
world of machine learning, with the intention of adding data scientists to
their target market. Part of this is the introduction of SMLE, Splunk Machine
Learning Environment, which I will write about another time.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The Pricing</span></span></strong><span style="color: #0e101a;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">Splunk
is moving its clients from fixed licenses to workload pricing, basically
charging for what they use. This is, of course, in line with other SaaS and
Cloud vendors, and it makes absolute sense in the new world where workload
volumes may change dramatically from unexpected events. That flexibility is
invaluable, although it does require a change in thinking from CFOs and the
budgeting process. It also allows us This is clearly a big step forward in
business model, and judging by the financial figures shared with us, it has
been a big success.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The Problem</span></span></strong><span style="color: #0e101a;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">All
this is great, but Splunk now faces three challenges. The first is getting over
that </span><em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">looking for trouble</span></em><span data-preserver-spaces="true"> message to an ever-broader constituency, many
of whom will not understand the mechanisms in the same way as those of us who
are used to debugging systems. The messaging will have to be adapted to
describe the business benefits more directly, and not the unquestionable
technical capabilities.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The
second issue, and thanks to </span><a href="https://www.ccsinsight.com/blog/author/bolarotibi/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a6ee0;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Bola Rotibi</span></span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true"> for highlighting this, is the need for
vertical solutions that address industry-specific needs. Splunk needs to expand
its range of implementation partners to achieve this, rather than attempting to
develop domain expertise in house.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true"><span style="color: #0e101a;">The
final challenge is that of converting insights into action. Observability is a
great start, but even better would be the ability to recommend fixes or indeed
to activate them in well-defined cases. Automating finding the trouble and
solution is an obvious objective, but until that can be done reliably,
non-technical people will struggle to understand the value proposition as
currently expressed.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-41781173813994135612020-10-16T09:54:00.002-07:002020-10-16T09:54:12.397-07:00Reporting from Slack Frontiers<p><span style="color: #494949; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8kD4dJ20hh5joG3nfaJyNfIzbrgJ4QBL5j4TBmA2-DgOhEuO5KMPZa4VBtzjyoLbwOKAmBumww7MagddDjVjLsfXFRIhR2gNzyaGzrwJbwHUbCAkg82PosrHJN1xfqIERizg4_hXsods/s658/Slack2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="658" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8kD4dJ20hh5joG3nfaJyNfIzbrgJ4QBL5j4TBmA2-DgOhEuO5KMPZa4VBtzjyoLbwOKAmBumww7MagddDjVjLsfXFRIhR2gNzyaGzrwJbwHUbCAkg82PosrHJN1xfqIERizg4_hXsods/s320/Slack2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />This was my first time attending Slack’s annual event, and of course the 2020 edition was the first virtual version of the event. This was the best virtual event I have attended so far this year but a long way. It was both a superb experience and a great source of insight. Let us look at each in turn.<p></p><h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: var(--rce-header-two-font-size);">The Event</span></h1><h1 class="_1EKGD _208Ie blog-post-title-font z6qNR BOfyy _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-fj8fb" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: var(--rce-header-two-font-size) !important; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; min-height: 42px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></h1><h1 class="_1EKGD _208Ie blog-post-title-font z6qNR BOfyy _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-fj8fb" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: var(--rce-header-two-font-size) !important; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; min-height: 42px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">I have been saying all year that virtual events lack buzz and are generally very dull, no matter how good the speakers and interesting the sessions. Having been involved in theatre and dance productions for years I know that it’s often the small things that make a difference, and while traditional theatres are all about opulent looking buildings, even a scruffy temporary venue can be given a really exciting atmosphere. This does not translate to skeuomorphic on-line virtual buildings. It translates to more visceral things such as music, count downs, easy to use discussion areas and easy ways to identify who the guests are as well as more private, more privileged areas for people such as the analysts or major customers.</span></h1><div class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-esvsk" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-1p3nr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Slack Frontiers was the first event to get this stuff right. It also had a number of other sensible items, such it running for two mornings rather than a single, exhausting day, and using that to run in three times zones to provide global coverage. As well as video sessions there were live round tables where delegate could join and debate that ran faultlessly, as well as live humans on Slack, although by the end of the two days of global coverage they must have been worn out but well satisfied with their efforts.</p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-920v8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-4pjel" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another interesting advantage of using recorded videos was that you could turn on captions and watch two sessions simultaneously, jumping into different points as and when they became directly relevant. There was gamification too, logging points for joining sessions, downloading materials and the like. There was even a high-score table with people competing for various levels of bits of swag. I qualified for a pair of brightly colored Slack socks.</p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-4ejuj" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></div><h1 class="_1EKGD _208Ie blog-post-title-font z6qNR BOfyy _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-67rdr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: var(--rce-header-two-font-size) !important; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; min-height: 42px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Slack is where the work happens</span></h1><h1 class="_1EKGD _208Ie blog-post-title-font z6qNR BOfyy _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-7pn5s" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: var(--rce-header-two-font-size) !important; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; min-height: 42px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">When you work from anywhere, as I have done for a long time, what does workplace mean? Is it my home office, coffee shop, or before the pandemic, airports, and hotel lobbies? Or should we think about it in more technical terms? I am increasingly of the view that we should be looking at what we might call worktops, borrowing a British term for the kitchen counters on which you prepare food.</span></h1><div class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-cto8i" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-5lo6k" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Laptops and tablets have displaced desktop computers for mobile workers, so using desktop as an analogy is as anachronistic as “dialling” a telephone. Normally the software tools we use sit on the operating system desktop, and the users must go to them, switching context as they do. What we are now seeing with Slack, Teams and other collaboration tools is an inversion. The workflows and activities move <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">inside</em> the collaboration tool.</p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-bhfpm" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-bam9" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In some ways this is similar to the notion of container that we had for a while in the world of enterprise mobile apps. It brings advantages for security and ease of use. But these containers did not form a valid destination on their own, while Slack is a key work destination. Slack presented some impressive stats on how Slack accelerates work across the whole business: 13% faster sales cycles, 16% faster marketing campaign execution, and 24% faster HR and engineering where it all started.</p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-7nd0v" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-6t4sq" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These make Slack a comfortable and popular destination in the first place, with users engaging with it automatically while they are working. Slack now provide a range of tools that allow other enterprise applications to be brought into the Slack environment so there is no loss of context, in fact quite the reverse because many work items are trigger on communication anyway.</p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-2ksn7" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-56l5o" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And triggers are a fundamental aspect of how Slack is providing an event-driven worktop that has the potential to transform and enhance how many people do their jobs. From a programming point of view there are several ways of firing these triggers. At the simplest level you can use the built-in Workflow Builder to automate tasks without any technical understanding whatsoever. As an experiment for a client project I made a few simple workflows in an afternoon. One sent a message to users freshly joined to a channel – it offered a link to video content describing the team culture. Another, most subtle one, is based on reactions. People who responded to messages with a weeping emoji are asked it they are having mental health issues, and if they are offered a choice of a chat, some learning material or coaching.</p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-a7m7p" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-2q6l3" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While these are, obvious, quite trivial from a programming point of view, the mechanism is hugely powerful. However this is nothing compared to the <a class="_2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _2xVcV" href="https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/help/articles/360041352714-Create-workflows-using-webhooks" rel="noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #d46077; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">webhook</a> capabilities of Slack apps and the socket-based <a class="_2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _2xVcV" href="https://api.slack.com/rtm" rel="noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #d46077; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">real-time messaging API</a>. The former allows developers to activate workflows within Slack channels directly. The latter provides what we might call serious integration possibilities, bringing enterprise apps right into the colorful and collaborative Slack experience.</p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-6iild" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And of course all this is backed up by analytics that allow insight into team behavior and performance, as well as optimizing workflows. This is designed to ensure that when organizations do bring their enterprise apps together into a single, unified interface that IT has tools that they have been painfully missing: understanding where the sharp edges are, the tools nobody uses, and the hot stuff where investment needs to be directed for best return.</p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-5eb02" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie ljrnk blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _1Fao9 ljrnk public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" id="viewer-bb6mt" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #494949; direction: ltr; font-family: proxima-n-w01-reg, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 8px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All this drives Slack’s aspiration to become a “business operating system.” This great objective sets some very high standards for real-time operating, integration, case management and security all combined with employee experience. Slack also has the advantage of being independent of other platforms making it ideal for companies that have a legacy of M&A or departmental purchases that have left a patchwork of productivity suites. Whatever your circumstances, the idea of bringing the work, tools and content to the user is a huge advantage over making the user hunt about for them. This approach should be informing all CIO strategies.</p>Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-87292420249289572762020-05-11T02:18:00.008-07:002020-05-11T02:18:54.651-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #40<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKlchXglkBAjoFUff9azcmfUqgz1T1AzNQoSVdM2XoFNW9cFETNBCV-Ozdr_IuO-AmmKB-cukW0u759y_l8NXhE4hoOf1CI-Xydr-vjf2oTlKiATbVS2GkHaNrRw3TEPedBt-0QF-cnE/s1600/Slide20.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKlchXglkBAjoFUff9azcmfUqgz1T1AzNQoSVdM2XoFNW9cFETNBCV-Ozdr_IuO-AmmKB-cukW0u759y_l8NXhE4hoOf1CI-Xydr-vjf2oTlKiATbVS2GkHaNrRw3TEPedBt-0QF-cnE/s640/Slide20.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-55336555927120590782020-05-11T02:18:00.003-07:002020-05-11T02:18:24.435-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #39<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8FgV3UWnLcrptd_BAmcA_Bimg89i9-_RkhDD6zswvzaUQQAUtnvmhoXmp_elNnM_pmSTzzNPDpFg4CGLPz7JcZIrmm_fGKCKK1XbYJbk8_Y-xuTR6TpkUj-GkA-sDLVI2W1y0X0TqLYo/s1600/Slide19.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8FgV3UWnLcrptd_BAmcA_Bimg89i9-_RkhDD6zswvzaUQQAUtnvmhoXmp_elNnM_pmSTzzNPDpFg4CGLPz7JcZIrmm_fGKCKK1XbYJbk8_Y-xuTR6TpkUj-GkA-sDLVI2W1y0X0TqLYo/s640/Slide19.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-55282633842168131892020-05-11T02:17:00.007-07:002020-05-11T02:17:55.819-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #37<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJrFieOsPgbvp9jyhxfx8hWixErLxpQ1t6i0o6wSckTWLiE7Vt6k9VSYtpKby4GPdvCJh4ACIIeUwfG7YqscmKWRbKloZxtrhXwygtQRcFLjHIX8Ci1ij4ZsHb5LHvWm8IV3Ll4i85DLU/s1600/Slide17.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJrFieOsPgbvp9jyhxfx8hWixErLxpQ1t6i0o6wSckTWLiE7Vt6k9VSYtpKby4GPdvCJh4ACIIeUwfG7YqscmKWRbKloZxtrhXwygtQRcFLjHIX8Ci1ij4ZsHb5LHvWm8IV3Ll4i85DLU/s640/Slide17.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-45955519278015213252020-05-11T02:17:00.003-07:002020-05-11T02:17:26.774-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #36<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhksZY4_TNeZMFQPswKJQpFtjozLvskWfv-5TPEcR5bS5se5AY839Jy2ZmC44lva5OJ_Y3jb6iJi7_XWkEOpWMwSkhx9d9SNUZQklUnQyw5Wq62OAd2m1A_z-SenFg-LN3wm7_ao194PCM/s1600/Slide16.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhksZY4_TNeZMFQPswKJQpFtjozLvskWfv-5TPEcR5bS5se5AY839Jy2ZmC44lva5OJ_Y3jb6iJi7_XWkEOpWMwSkhx9d9SNUZQklUnQyw5Wq62OAd2m1A_z-SenFg-LN3wm7_ao194PCM/s640/Slide16.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-11754562405658366272020-05-11T02:16:00.006-07:002020-05-11T02:16:50.296-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #35<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi84Fz3tHYY1Cv-GBybYsH22ZwcFF4zylcBkysflagSQWF-bUv0kAz7VlDBUW5y-OOJmG5CoasKGteYkoLf-B0QY2_nmu_3q00d9x7lvsjK6mSTXZN3aInvbcfAF0e206G39RayaCPJxo/s1600/Slide15.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi84Fz3tHYY1Cv-GBybYsH22ZwcFF4zylcBkysflagSQWF-bUv0kAz7VlDBUW5y-OOJmG5CoasKGteYkoLf-B0QY2_nmu_3q00d9x7lvsjK6mSTXZN3aInvbcfAF0e206G39RayaCPJxo/s640/Slide15.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-40896932994666147902020-05-11T02:16:00.003-07:002020-05-11T02:16:26.012-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #34<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbs75j2_9f7L-gQ8721xAi8Vhp_A022lqa7NgouYkTWKuG8zumMglYjNvVo5nPPmcYjLwXE4IUIAbiKAawCO5O95fIqub03AOrG_2MHuRyeaqMSAxoBlhTYJVYkFAoq6xuqDXVthTgTGQ/s1600/Slide14.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbs75j2_9f7L-gQ8721xAi8Vhp_A022lqa7NgouYkTWKuG8zumMglYjNvVo5nPPmcYjLwXE4IUIAbiKAawCO5O95fIqub03AOrG_2MHuRyeaqMSAxoBlhTYJVYkFAoq6xuqDXVthTgTGQ/s640/Slide14.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-44678166203849975682020-05-11T02:16:00.000-07:002020-05-11T02:16:04.070-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #33<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijN9b3Q4KYiUPlY2kSGsXkb6tmgxggQzEG6PvVMihVi9HH6YA9BbFSr9c_6GzdxM0kjhsnJgEQeyxfqEwM7WkCz-QnM0wJYvhF1ZIhR0AYbNnoAEdOwL49HJFznWSGpU7N3tcbD1kTlVQ/s1600/Slide13.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijN9b3Q4KYiUPlY2kSGsXkb6tmgxggQzEG6PvVMihVi9HH6YA9BbFSr9c_6GzdxM0kjhsnJgEQeyxfqEwM7WkCz-QnM0wJYvhF1ZIhR0AYbNnoAEdOwL49HJFznWSGpU7N3tcbD1kTlVQ/s640/Slide13.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-18522726274253742042020-05-11T02:15:00.005-07:002020-05-11T02:15:42.823-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #32<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nmR-WlbPFDwgDymbY4LRvFlCQKU1eaYsQnFRlPdHpAuGsm_A0Hv9jvSGF-q2Inr1ziw43kgbVHcVSosoD0Pm39cnbVWg7cnx80XRngxfgn3Lwwxep2rXMChrt_-FvdOzwgy4RfcHisw/s1600/Slide12.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nmR-WlbPFDwgDymbY4LRvFlCQKU1eaYsQnFRlPdHpAuGsm_A0Hv9jvSGF-q2Inr1ziw43kgbVHcVSosoD0Pm39cnbVWg7cnx80XRngxfgn3Lwwxep2rXMChrt_-FvdOzwgy4RfcHisw/s640/Slide12.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-56249098896432758392020-05-11T02:15:00.002-07:002020-05-11T02:15:22.754-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #31<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPbWRNf9FCxW7X5NEHwh1rVvsuDzx5YI4zQAQf4-Qbdv9-ZL11wMBw6z-bxgpYL0dkS3yORDmkt5_7NhBgFis93BNs9jIImkN1dqRuSEIcC8ZtEL_WahEF94Z5H3ji2h0Fuw9AZKX8VHY/s1600/Slide11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPbWRNf9FCxW7X5NEHwh1rVvsuDzx5YI4zQAQf4-Qbdv9-ZL11wMBw6z-bxgpYL0dkS3yORDmkt5_7NhBgFis93BNs9jIImkN1dqRuSEIcC8ZtEL_WahEF94Z5H3ji2h0Fuw9AZKX8VHY/s640/Slide11.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-48981714738953574742020-05-11T02:14:00.006-07:002020-05-11T02:14:55.522-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWrNd_dkYG2HQpAybOPyauinWr-YGC1lcieFF6nbkzLyuly_i7lnfP2SFJHcYe9xrMZxi-B6pQv_uwyEzBoF0r8K1nGAF9BRl6HLT_CHYCgrJfdypRyUpepykMJ9qE9WAZaaWG0tTA5bE/s1600/Slide10.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWrNd_dkYG2HQpAybOPyauinWr-YGC1lcieFF6nbkzLyuly_i7lnfP2SFJHcYe9xrMZxi-B6pQv_uwyEzBoF0r8K1nGAF9BRl6HLT_CHYCgrJfdypRyUpepykMJ9qE9WAZaaWG0tTA5bE/s640/Slide10.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-78738441611986040202020-05-11T02:14:00.002-07:002020-05-11T02:14:30.812-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #29<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_P2niIlQQ2CnQYHegusnwFAhXwiQKG4g1EqSmIVU-h_Nj3_aVkv5o09rB-RJjZuHZ5s6ZIS2HA0luoWrxCKn30cOc4YdWjwcdA58nNW2ZiYK_JXxcopnPREdYAxdyEQwGOaueu9gCoNc/s1600/Slide9.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_P2niIlQQ2CnQYHegusnwFAhXwiQKG4g1EqSmIVU-h_Nj3_aVkv5o09rB-RJjZuHZ5s6ZIS2HA0luoWrxCKn30cOc4YdWjwcdA58nNW2ZiYK_JXxcopnPREdYAxdyEQwGOaueu9gCoNc/s640/Slide9.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-11491504354046665632020-04-23T04:51:00.000-07:002020-04-23T04:51:16.155-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #28<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW1akpUMjVKhRId9l8A9Mde8mT_SvY_JNFi8k0NFkanGmu8-L-sFblNbxjq5VQNSGDhQlLJj7syp9ovBX_csJIk-Q4mIQtr_0oFWVd3yVIVQQAT_CJuHGL3fMDmUMk9BAwezc-doqizqg/s1600/Slide8.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW1akpUMjVKhRId9l8A9Mde8mT_SvY_JNFi8k0NFkanGmu8-L-sFblNbxjq5VQNSGDhQlLJj7syp9ovBX_csJIk-Q4mIQtr_0oFWVd3yVIVQQAT_CJuHGL3fMDmUMk9BAwezc-doqizqg/s640/Slide8.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348227464733465617.post-31214777079377121332020-04-22T04:25:00.000-07:002020-04-22T04:25:12.476-07:00Working from home Pro Tip #27<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr8_nRAcspx128TQ9Q9dYuTEtIcK46LEdDrSYunE3ZbqifzQPtO0dcSUbYQXpZbo4K86KPXM2fZldTuqDKZAYMwCsXMba0T0p3dLle13xxauIGXqf5_OLMaCAlJcGPaPnfT06ru5uxQx0/s1600/Slide7.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr8_nRAcspx128TQ9Q9dYuTEtIcK46LEdDrSYunE3ZbqifzQPtO0dcSUbYQXpZbo4K86KPXM2fZldTuqDKZAYMwCsXMba0T0p3dLle13xxauIGXqf5_OLMaCAlJcGPaPnfT06ru5uxQx0/s640/Slide7.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Richard M Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01009187212235290816noreply@blogger.com0