Hearing loss is unpredictable and strikes each person uniquely. It won’t necessarily be uniform for you when it happens with different losses in the individual ears. To say the least, it is exceptionally frustrating and, at most, can rob a part of our independence if we allow it, but it doesn’t have to.

There are repercussions when left neglected instead of seeking treatment or obtaining assistive devices. There’s genuinely no reason to make matters worse by ignoring ear health when you could sincerely find a hearing aid under $100, which could potentially preserve the hearing you do have. Many people choose to procrastinate and, unfortunately, suffer the consequences.

The worse the disability becomes, the more significant impact it has on your life. Not only does difficulty hearing limit the industries from which you can choose to work to a degree, but it can restrict your overall lifestyle in numerous different ways, not to mention the changes it creates for listening, understanding, and general communication. 

Why You Should Pay Attention When You Have Trouble Hearing

Generally, with a thorough medical physical, a doctor will either test hearing or request that you go to an audiologist to have your hearing tested and also go for a vision check. Standard yearly exams as part of self-care and wellness. The list gets longer the older you get to ensure long, healthy life and optimum functionality of all your body systems.

If you have a test that shows less than optimum results, the doctor will give you recommendations on steps to take to preserve the hearing you have and avoid further loss. Click for causes of damage to your ear health.

A minor loss is neglected for many people, but doing so can come with significant repercussions since even a small amount of trouble with hearing can impact not only your life but the lives of those around you. Depending on the degree of loss, the following consequences are felt:

** Vocal Changes

Untreated hearing trouble can affect the sound of your voice or, in fact, change it altogether for some people. It can sound different to other people; strangers can comment that you have an unusual accent, or you might hear yourself differently.  

Your perception of volume is thrown off as well. You may feel as though you’re speaking too softly, so you compensate by increasing the volume bit by bit until you sense in your throat that you’re projecting forcibly. It’s not until you get hearing aids, though, that you realize that you’ve been shouting more so than merely speaking louder than usual.

** Films Or Music

You don’t know how much closed captioning means until you go untreated with damage to your ears. It’s challenging when there is background noise in the movie, like with action flicks or if the people are not facing forward, which is often the case. In most romantic movies or dramas, the actors speak in ultra-soft tones and if anyone is wearing anything on their face – forget it. 

Ultimately, you find yourself straining to hear what’s being said in films, making you appreciate the words at the bottom of the screen. If the closed captioning option is not available, most people either choose not to watch movies at all or will go ahead and get the assistive devices they need to hear and be comfortable.

** Noisy Conversations

Ambient noise is harsh even for people who have perfect hearing, making conversations difficult. For those developing challenges trying to hear, it can be impossible to hold a conversation with all the sounds happening around them to the point of overwhelming. 

With specific aids, you can make adjustments to them, so the ambient sounds are controlled, creating fewer distractions and allowing for more focus on the person with whom you’re trying to hold a conversation. But first, you have to go for treatment and be fitted for adequate assistive devices to have this luxury. Neglecting loss creates more harm than good.

** Safety Concerns

For the most part, emergency devices like alarms and safety equipment alert individuals using auditory or visual components, typically not both. If you neglect your auditory issues, you might miss a fire alarm or perhaps a siren for a tornado warning with potential risk for your life.

That would also be the case for alerts for carbon monoxide plus other safety signals inside the home that would require an immediate response and for you to take quick action to leave the house. 

You can’t smell carbon monoxide. You have to hear the detector. The same is true for a home security system. Not taking adequate care of your ear health can result in serious safety issues if not detrimental to your life. If there’s no better reason to get treatment and find out options for correcting the loss, this is the only reason for the need, especially if you have children.

Final Thought

People don’t intentionally choose to neglect their health. It sometimes seems we put it on the back burner because it’s the only thing that can go back there since everything else has priority written all over it, whether it’s kids, jobs, pets, households. 

Then one day, it comes down to where the problem affects all of those other priorities negatively, so it then becomes the primary priority, and you finally take the time to get the treatment. Go to https://www.hearingloss.org/hearing-help/hearing-loss-basics/sudden-deafness/  to learn about sudden deafness and the importance of seeking help for the condition immediately.

Of course, generally, when you finally have time to go for an appointment, it progressively gets worse than if you had gone at the first sign of a problem. But that’s always going to be the case in this hectic, chaotic world that we live in. As long as a parent has life responsibilities or professionals have goals and careers, or students are stressed with school, that’s the way many people sadly deal with self-care, ultimately to the detriment of themselves.

Working from home is the newest phrase of the moment, considering the amount of people who were sent home from their offices and told to log in remotely to their work as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, working from home brings with it a whole series of different challenges compared to working in the office. To make sure that you are equipped with these challenges—whether you work as a freelancer, are starting your own business, or have been employed remotely—read this guide to learn all about how to make your work from home a success. 

Stick to Office Hours 

To make sure that you are not working more than you should, like so many people have done as the lines between work and play have been blurred over the past year, you should make sure that you are sticking carefully to fixed working hours. By doing this you can be sure to mitigate against the very real affects of burnout, which could actually cause you serious mental and physical harm, as well as affect your chances of you effectively completing your work. 

Get a Great Laptop

Although you will be working virtually, this doesn’t mean that you don’t need an actual physical piece of hardware in order to get started. That’s why it’s essential that you either buy yourself a great laptop or ask your workplace if they would be so kind as to provide a laptop for you. If you opt for the former choice, you should definitely take a look around in order to find the best deals on laptops possible. 

Take a Fake Commute 

There are a lot of aspects that people don’t like about the commute: the huge mass of people, the long times waiting in traffic, and the fact that you don’t get any time to yourself in the morning before work. Working from home eliminates all that and can also boost your mental health in the process. The downside of the commute being over is that you don’t have an automatic reason to get out of the house. In order to boost your health and connect yourself with the natural world around you, it is recommended that you take a walk both in the morning and after your work is done. 

Use Videoconferencing Software 

Even though you might have to work away from the office, it is likely that people will still want you to check in for a chat. The best way to do this is to schedule meetings via teleconferencing software, the likes of which skyrocketed in popularity over the past year or so. Make sure that the company that provides this software has the right package, so you have unlimited time limits on meetings as well as the ability to talk to as many people as possible. Additionally, just because you’re on video doesn’t mean that you should look slovenly. Remember to shape up and look professional, just as if you are in the office itself. 

Do you want to win the bets? Do you look for an easy way to make big profits in no time? Try it on this site https://22bet.com.sn/en.

There is no foolproof method that can make you create winning bets. But there is always a but! Find out how to win a football bet, a League ticket, or just a bet today for any sport you just played.

Winning bet: how to create it

Sporting events depend both on probabilistic components and, above all, on factors related to chance and luck. Therefore, you will never know how to play a bet until you decide to change your mind and think of forecasts as real investments rather than just a source of easy income.

So winning bets without losing is never impossible but, we will teach you how to transform your bets into real sports investments. First of all, we invite you to distrust infallible guides and methods that ensure you win 100% of your bets and instead ask yourself if you have all the credentials to become a professional sports trader.

There is only one real secret to winning sports bets: embarking on an investment program that will allow you to generate a positive profit.

Creating an investment plan is simple. All you have to do is apply the three principles that are the basis of today’s successful strategy: study, method, and discipline.

Let’s see them together.

Principle 1 to win the bets: study

The key to winning sports bets is to make a careful analysis of the event you decide to play. Only then can you create the winning bet.

You will have to constantly inform yourself about the past performances of the two teams that will face each other, investigate the state of form of the protagonists who will take the field, and know the statistics of all the matches.

Principle 2 to win the bets: the method

The management of finances in betting is essential to win the tickets, even more so if you know that there is no safe bet.

You can make sound predictions for your League bets, but you will never generate consistent profits if you don’t manage your bankroll correctly. Setting specific investment and earnings goals is the only way to guarantee a positive long-term return. You will have to define a budget to invest in sports and establish a spending limit not exceeded in your football bets.

This way, you will play a stake percentage by linking the statistical probability to a given event and betting only a part of the bankroll.

Principle 3 to win the bets: Discipline

The vast majority of non-professional gamblers lose because they want “everything now.”

And in fact, most of these bettors do not profit from sports betting but allow sports investors to do so. You will have to equip yourself with patience and perseverance. Eliminate the fear of losing: learn to follow your investment strategy without being swayed by instinct. You can establish a beginning balance even after 12 months of activity.

And if the bankroll has not increased by at least 40% during the year, then you can speak of defeat. As we have clarified, gambling is not a mere matter of luck but rather the result of study, discipline, and method. You’re still not entirely convinced, are you? It is normal: they are not very easy concepts to digest.

Money management techniques and investment strategies are essential tools at the foundation of a winning financial strategy. Study, method, and discipline are the only secrets to making money with gambling.

Regardless of size, all companies manage plenty of applications and data, with the IT infrastructure growing exponentially while workflow digitization expands among varied industries. That creates the need to run the different applications and find a way to store the data. Click for guidance on the way cloud computing helps companies.

With cloud computing, there are three options, including public, private, or hybrid cloud. More people are choosing the personal choice due to the advantages it carries over the public cloud. Specifically, there are concerns over the security issues as well as compliance in the public sphincter.

A fair portion of leaders participate with the hybrid cloud since it’s a combination of the public and private, offering the best traits from each option. Many prefer the blend rather than being exclusively committed to one selection. Here, we’ll go over the private cloud and the benefits each industry can see with this particular choice.

What Is The Private Cloud?

A private cloud, also referenced as corporate or internal, is an architecture designated for one establishment using its own infrastructure. With one such company, hosting can either be in-house or external. With a public option, a service operation provides things like computing and storage for a client.

The private and public sectors have some commonalities with their features in that each is scalable, the capacity for virtualization, and allocating computing is possible as needed. 

The public cloud apparently has issues with security and compliance, which is not something noted with the private selection. Let’s check out some distinct advantages of the personal over the public and hybrid.

** Total Cost Of Ownership Or (TCO)

The IT infrastructure costs are a primary concern for all organizations. The indication is that the public offering is not efficient for small businesses. You’ll find that the private solution is exponentially less expensive and offers much more control and efficiency.

These offer hosting at the data center or with a third-party service with a privately hosted setting. In this way, leaders have a greater sense of control over the infrastructure as a whole, plus the data. That lets leaders step in immediately if there are changes necessary. Find out what the solution is and what it’s not capable of at https://www.networkworld.com/article/2159885/cloud-computing-gartner-5-things-a-private-cloud-is-not.html.

An industry’s IT department can predict and stop downtime and bouts of “bottlenecking” throughout by monitoring each application’s deployment and incorporating advanced analytics.

** Not A One-Size-Fits-All Approach

With this solution, you won’t find a universal solution. A significant advantage is the customization these give. Each company has unique requirements in the way of business and technical elements varied based on the size of the establishment, the industry as a whole, the goals, and so much more.

You have customization within the cloud to select the infrastructure that meets your needswith adequate storage and specified network features; all meant to serve not only your particular industry but fits your company distinctly.

** Private And Secure

These clouds offer a preferred advantage in the way of enhancements in security compared to their public counterparts. Any data saves to a particular managed server for which no other establishment can access, offering exceptional privacy with all data. On-site servers receive management by the company’s internal IT department with no fear of a breach of its physical structure.

Servers with a third-party data center, the data will still be accessible via the company’s internal IT department. Still, they will do so using an exceptionally secure network, not the typical day-to-day unsecured connection. 

** National and Internal Policy Compliance

Any business of any size has an obligation to comply with internal/national policies and laws. The private cloud allows the perfect choice because it is deployable with all access-control and retention policies.

Of course, customer data is exceptionally sensitive for all companies across the board, not only by law but as a matter of sensibility. An establishment should have extraordinary control plus provide privacy for all data in their possession. 

In the example of a public cloud, it could prove challenging in the case of a security breach to gain access to the logs. For those who own a private solution, this is not a problem.

**Continuity Of Business

It’s tough to make sure your business carries a degree of longevity when you don’t have possession of your infrastructure. With the agility of consistently evolving industries, there are no guarantees for any company that a provider will remain relevant any longer than you retain your business. 

Technology changes nearly every day, so if a public provider goes down, it could be an extensive, arduous process migrating your applications and data to a new solution. 

When you own your private cloud, there is greater control, enabling you to maintain a sense of continuity between the provider and the longevity of your business.

** Availability

The public solution is not yet available in all locations, with some global regions not having access. For a company with a few locations worldwide, the requirements for compliance will depend on the area and can become overwhelming and somewhat confusing keeping track of the variances.

Final Thought

A privately-owned cloud offers a plethora of benefits compared to the public option. First and foremost is the level of security and the ease of compliance since the shared solution is limited with its availability. A personal cloud is available for any kind of business or establishment regardless of size or specific requirements as it is customizable for each particular set of needs.

A business can withstand development and growth successes without the fear that it will outgrow the solution, but that’s not true with every selection. With technology constantly changing each day and businesses evolving rapidly, the solution needs to grow with the company. Check out the differences between a private, public, or hybrid cloud here.

Otherwise, there will be a disruption in business while the company migrates its data and applications. That’s not the situation with a privately-owned cloud. The advantages far exceed those offered publicly.

With the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world, millions of people have found their education suddenly stopped. In this scenario, education application development can be a boon for such people. If you are new to the world of app development and don’t know where to start, this blog will be helpful. Not only will you learn how to make an educational app, but you will also learn more about the must-have features that such an app should possess. One of the best articles we’ve ever read on how to make an educational app is the article mentioned; Topflightapps’ experts wrote it. 

How to Make an Educational App From Scratch

Here are the critical steps involved that will help you in developing an educational app. 

Step 1 – Focus On the Product and Design Quality First

While you look up how to make an educational app, you need to recognize that you have to figure out a subtle way to align the design and the usage of your product. Your users are going to be discerning, which is why you need to provide high-quality content. Try to work with domain experts so that your app content is of very high quality. You also need to develop a UI that allows your users to be actively engaged and involved in the learning process.

Step 2 – Explore Your Development Options and Plan the Budget Accordingly

While you focus on educational app development, you need to explore your development options and plan the budget. Knowing the approximate costs you will incur will allow you to develop a well-optimized resource allocation strategy. Make sure that all of the basic features are accounted for in your app. Push notifications, social media links, video and text learning resources, etc., are some of the basic features you’ll need to include. You can also add rewards/levels to enhance user motivation.

Step #3 – Figure Out The Best Monetization Strategy For Your App

Monetization will take some time, but there are many ways to develop a sound strategy that will pay off appropriately in the long run. It would be best if you came up with a free trial version so that your users can get a good taste. There are a ton of great strategies that you can explore – such as ads, freemium plans, subscriptions, in-app purchases, etc. Focusing on educational application development will require you to take a long and hard look at all your available options.

The Best Practices for Educational App Development

Here are some of the essential best practices that will help you boost user engagement and retention for your new educational app.

• Gamification: This is an excellent strategy that you can try out, where all of the elements of the learning process are arranged in game-like layers. By providing incentives for your users, you’ll be able to improve their level of engagement. Duolingo and Khan Academy are fantastic examples in this regard.
• User Profile & Customization: Your app will be successful if you provide your users with a forum to create their profiles. Usernames, avatars, levels, etc., will allow you to provide a better learning experience. Connecting all of the content of your app to social media will also help.

Summing Up

These are all of the steps involved that will help you develop an educational app from scratch. If you’re still wondering how to make an educational app, then you should get in touch with some well–known app development agencies. They will be able to provide you with an app that will suit your exact needs.

A slow Mac can be annoying at the very least. It can also affect your work and personal life. Having an efficiently running Mac can increase your productivity when working or studying. This is why choosing Mac cleaners to periodically clean up your Mac is vital to the efficiency of your Mac. 

In this article, we will go over why Macs often run slow and how you can fix them. Luckily, most fixes are really easy and free.  

You are out of hard drive space 

If you have owned your Mac for a long time, your hard drive may be getting too full and cannot operate efficiently anymore. Over time, your applications may start running slow or even start crashing if there is no space left on the hard drive. 

By accessing your settings, you can see your hard drive and how much space is being used. If there are files or data on your computer that you do not use anymore, you should delete them to try and free up space. 

You can also buy an external hard drive or use the cloud to transfer data and free up local space. 

Your hardware needs upgrading 

Old hardware will stop being able to run properly with the newest versions of your Mac’s software and applications. You may need to upgrade your hard drive or your RAM. This can be expensive, so there are time other tips you can try before purchasing anything. 

Try resetting your PRAM and SMC. The SMC is in charge of running the things on your Mac like the power, fans, and lights. The PRAM can be reset by shutting down your Mac, turning it back on, and then pressing and holding Command+Option+P+R. Hold down the keys until the computer restarts and chimes. 

These resets can free up space on the local hard drive and make your computer run faster. Before upgrading your hardware, you can also check your RAM. RAMS can also be upgraded or changed at your local Apple store, sometimes for as low as $20. 

You have too many applications 

The number of applications you have installed and running can greatly affect the speed that your computer can run at. While these can drain your computer, the fix is probably the simplest of all the options. 

You can access the Activity Monitor by clicking on Finder, Go, Utilities. The Activity Monitor is usually the first one on the list. Once clicked, it will show you all the apps that you use as well as the energy that they use and the amount of battery that they consume. 

If you see apps that you have not used for a while, they could still be running in the background and make your Mac run slow. Click on the app that you do not use, and force quit the application. This will take it away from running in the background. 

As a side note, even if you do not use apps regularly, you should still recognize or have installed all the apps listed yourself. If there are some you do not recognize, explore what they do and how they got there. Apps can masquerade as viruses and bad software, so you should ensure all the apps on your computer are safe. 

Out-of-date software 

It is easy to ignore software updates especially when you are constantly using your computer. However, ignoring the updates for too long can be detrimental to your Mac’s health. Try to set your updates to happen automatically at times you are usually not on the computer. This will ensure that it does not inconvenience you. 

Updates usually address bugs or battery life issues, so they should not be ignored. Eventually, your computer may stop working altogether if not updated. 

You can use the Mac App store to see if your macOS needs to be updated. It will also show any apps that need to be updated. A certain app could crash or run slow if not fixed promptly. 

Caches and temporary files

Every time you visit a website or use an application, certain files and data are taken and stored on the computer. Over time, these can start to overfill your computer and cause it to run slow. You can use a mac cleaner to help remove all the cache and the files. 

You can also clear it yourself by going into the Library Folder in your Finder tab. Then click on the Caches folder and either clear all or select certain ones and manually clear them. 

Key Takeaways

Getting your app running quicker is often a smooth and easy process. By following the troubleshooting tips and resetting some key data, your app can run like new. 

To understand what Kubernetes are and how they function, you need to know the concept of containers.

In the modern development process, the application is broken down into smaller parts called containers. These containers are self-sufficient and can be used across applications. This gives developers a higher degree of control over the development process.

What is Kubernetes? 

Kubernetes is an open-source container platform. It can be used to automate a number of manual processes involved in developing, deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications.

In simpler words, Kubernetes lets you cluster together with the groups of hosts running Linux containers. You can then manage the clusters using Kubernetes instead of manually managing every individual container. 

Who Developed Kubernetes? 

Google was the company that originally developed and designed Kubernetes. Google was, in fact, one of the pioneers of Linux container technology and is also one of the biggest container users in the world. All of Google’s cloud services run on containers and they deploy more than 2 billion containers a week. 

The predecessor to Kubernetes was Borg, Google’s internal container platform. The lessons learned from Borg were applied to make Kubernetes one of the leading container orchestration platforms on the internet.

Google donated Kubernetes to Cloud Native Computing Foundation in 2015. 

The involvement of Google in the initial development of this technology means that Kubernetes security is the best among all of the container management platforms. 

The Scope of Kubernetes

With Kubernetes, it is possible to make clusters of containers that span across on-premise, private, public, or hybrid clouds. This makes Kubernetes the best platform to develop Cloud-Native technologies that require rapid scaling and real-time data monitoring.

What is Possible With Kubernetes?

The main benefit of making Kubernetes a part of your environment is that it makes it possible for you to schedule and run containers on clusters of hardware or cloud resources. This makes it one of the best platforms to get the most out of cloud-based app development. 

In the broader sense, Kubernetes helps you fully deploy a reliable container-based infrastructure in production environments.

Plus, as Kubernetes is focused on automation, you can get anything that any platform lets you do but for your containers as a whole. This helps you get the most out of automation.

Kubernetes also offers tools called Patterns. These Kubernetes patterns can be used as a runtime platform to create cloud-native apps.

The things that Kubernetes makes possible for you include: 

• Operate and manage containers across multiple physical and virtual host machines. 
• Optimize hardware resource usage by smartly managing the resource consumption of your apps. 
• Have full control over the automation of application deployment and updates. 
• Add and mount storage as and when needed for running stateful apps.
• Scale containerized apps and their resources from anywhere.
• Use the tools like auto-replacement, auto-restart, auto-replication, and auto-scaling to check and mitigate any health issues with your apps.

However, Kubernetes is not a standalone setup. It relies on other projects, services, and resources to provide these functions. 

What Does Kubernetes Need To Run?

The main things needed by Kubernetes to operate the right way include but are not limited to: 

• Registry,  provided by services like Docker Registry. 
• Networking that is made available by projects like OpenvSwitch and intelligent edge routing. 
• Telemetry, generally provided by projects like Kibana, Hawkular, and Elastic.
• Security, made possible by the likes of LDAP, SELinux, RBAC, and OAUTH.

Before you go ahead and get your hands on Kubernetes, you need to have some Kubernetes vocabulary. 

General Kubernetes Terms You Need to Know 

Like any other technology, the specific language of Kubernetes can be a tricky thing to master. Here are some of the most commonly used terms that you need to know before you start using this platform. 

• Control Plane is the place where the task assignment originates from. It is the collection of all the processes that command the Kubernetes nodes. 
• Nodes are the machines that carry out the requested tasks, assigned to them by the control plane.
• Pod is a group of one or more containers that are assigned to a single node. All the containers within a pod have the same  IP address, IPC, hostname, and other resources.
• Replication Controller is the part of Kubernetes that controls how many identical copies of a pod are allowed to run on a cluster at any given time.
• Service is meant to decouple work definitions from the pods. It is the job of the service proxies to transfer service requests to the right pod regardless of it moving anywhere on the cluster or even being replaced.

The Mechanism of Action of Kubernetes

A functional deployment of Kubernetes is known as a cluster. A cluster can be divided into two parts:

• The control plane, and 
• The computing machines or nodes. 

Kubernetes runs on top of the operating system like any other application. It interacts with the pods containing the containers while running on the nodes.

What Does the Control Plane Do?

The role of the control plane is to maintain the desired state of the cluster. This includes determining which applications are running and which container resources are being used. The applications and workloads are actually run by the computing machines (physical or virtual).

What Do the Nodes Do? 

Each node has its own Linux environment and can either be a physical machine or a virtual one. Each node runs the pods assigned to it and the pods are made up of one or more containers.

Conclusion 

The future of application development is all about automation. Kubernetes makes it possible to automate the execution and management of containers on a large scale. 

As a result, you can get more done with less effort and the results are better than what you get by doing the same thing manually. 

The best thing about Kubernetes is that it can run equally well on physical and virtual machines and can even work for hybrid cloud infrastructures.

Data science platforms have been a major topic in numerous industries since the past decade. Telecommunications, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and government, almost every major sector has been taken over by these platforms. Leading experts even suggest that by 2026, its market value will skyrocket to $165.5 billion.

But while it’s not new to data science experts, the majority of people, including you, might not know what a data science platform does or how it works. But now there’s another new trend in this sector–in-house data science platforms.

At this point, your questions must be piling up one after the other, but rest assured, this guide will answer your questions and more regarding in-house data science platforms. 

What Is A Data Science Platform?

At its core, a data science platform is a digital workstation for data scientists. It’s where the majority of data science tasks are done. It’s where they find the necessary tools, too. 

Basically, it’s a platform that helps data science experts throughout a data science project’s life cycle, including:

• Data Collection
• Data Preparation
• Training
• Development
• Parameter Tuning
• Deployment

Data science platforms are popular for several reasons. Smoother communication, easier collaboration, and web accessibility are just a few examples. Eventually, this technology reached the commerce sector, which is probably where your company belongs to, and this then led to the term ‘in-house data science platforms.’

What Makes In-House Data Science Platforms Different?

When a company wants a dedicated data science platform, they usually hire a third-party agency to develop the platform for them. In other words, they outsource the data science platform.

Conversely, if your company wants to create a data science platform without any agency’s help, that’s what we call in-house data science platforms. Simply put, it’s when a company develops the platform independently by using their own employees and resources.

However, creating a data science platform can be challenging and requires a considerable investment. As such, a company must first consider a few things. Here’s an official source to help you in that aspect. 

Regardless, business owners often have second thoughts about developing an in-house data science platform due to its difficulty, so is it really worth it?

Should You Develop Data Science Platforms In-House? 

If your company doesn’t have as many data experts as other agencies, it would seem like developing a data science platform is a bad choice. While that’s partially true, there are cases where ‘insourcing’ data science tasks offers more benefits than when you outsource them. 

Here are some examples: 

• Developing a data science platform in-house provides greater control over your data. 
• It’s easier to add functions and tools into the platform than when you outsource the development to a third-party agency. 
• Outsourcing leads to the risk of exposing confidential information to outsiders.
• Misunderstanding is common when collaborating with a third-party agency.

Unfortunately, struggles are inevitable, even if you outsource the platform. You’ll have to organize a team of data science experts, purchase data science tools, and more. Naturally, you’d want to know if it’s worthwhile to develop a data science platform. 

Why Do You Need A Data Science Platform?

If your company has been around for a long time, there must already be a few teams within the organization. Sales, customer support, and human resources (HR) are some examples. While you may not be aware of it, each team uses different platforms. 

For example, the sales team uses Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. The customer support team uses a ticketing platform, and the HR team uses team management software. Either way, each team will often require a platform to aid with their operations; the data science team is no exception. And yes, what they need is a data science platform.

But you have to remember that not all in-house data science platforms are useful. Put simply, the concept of success and failure also applies to the development of data science platforms. So, how will you know if the platform is a success?

What Makes A Data Science Platform Effective?

Data science platforms are, without a doubt, powerful tools that aid in data science tasks. So, if you feel like there’s no change within your company’s data science operations, there must be something wrong with the platform, which begs the question, ‘what makes an in-house data science platform effective?’ 

Here are a few things a data science platform must do: 

• Allows collaboration between other teams within the company. 
• Makes complex data science tasks possible without the help of DevOps.
• Produces data science insights and conveys them to the company’s stakeholders. 
• Enables the use of open-source tools. 

Conclusion 

While in-house data science platforms certainly have tremendous benefits to a company, it’s not always a good idea to develop the platform right off the bat, especially if your company is currently busy with some other matters. Perhaps you’re busy with product development or maybe you’re currently working on cybersecurity. Regardless, it’s essential to know when’s the right time to develop an in-house data science platform.

Endpoint protection is something that many businesses and even government systems don’t think about, but it’s becoming more and more necessary as the internet of things continues to grow. Protecting businesses is one thing, but protecting municipal and government systems is critical to the integrity of government systems as a whole. 

Let’s look at what endpoint protection is, and why it’s so important to municipal/government systems. 

What is Endpoint Protection?

We can define endpoint security as:

“The practice of securing endpoints or entry points of end-user devices such as desktops, laptops, and mobile devices from being exploited by malicious actors and campaigns. Endpoint security systems protect these endpoints on a network or in the cloud from cybersecurity threats. Endpoint security has evolved from traditional antivirus software to providing comprehensive protection from sophisticated malware and evolving zero-day threats.”(Definition from Mcafee.com).

So, to put it plainly, endpoint protection helps armor all of your entry points against attack, including your IoT devices. This is crucial protection to have as more and more devices connect to networks in businesses and cities. 

IoT Devices

What is the internet of things, anyway?

The IoT devices we use on a daily basis include:

• Smart cars
• Smart TVs
• Smart homes/locks
• Home security systems
• Some appliances
• Sensors
• Analytics tools
• Alexa/Google home controllers
• Doorbell cameras
• Smart light switches
• Air quality monitors
• Smart smoke alarms

These are just a few examples of how the internet has infiltrated our everyday lives and networks. Each of these devices, even though they don’t seem like something a hacker would focus on, is a potential entry-point for hackers and viruses. That’s right—your refrigerator is a potential viral entry point.

City systems include many of these and more, making them potentially more vulnerable to an attack with so many entry-points to cover. That’s where an endpoint protection platform comes in. The system covers all entry points, provides threat detection, monitoring, and response, and more to ensure all the points are covered and the entire system is well-protected. 

Growing Threats

So, why is endpoint protection becoming such a necessity at the individual, business, and governmental levels? The answer is simple: cyber crime is on the rise, and viruses and attacks are more sophisticated than ever before. The more viruses and hackers advance, the more careful we have to be.

The scary part is that most breaches occur due to human error. The average employee at a business, including at the government level, has access to nearly 11 million files (on average), and security is, unfortunately, not the prime concern. The problem is that we can’t fix human error permanently. All we can do is design more sophisticated protection in order to meet the sophistication of hackers and viruses.

The average cost of a data breach today is around $3 million dollars, according to IBM. Most businesses don’t have the money to cover such an expense, and a city system can potentially be crippled by such a breach. 

Vulnerability of City Systems

Municipal systems can contain far more sensitive information than any one business. If a hacker breaches a municipal system, he can potentially gain access to tax records, addresses, birth certificates, criminal records, and more. This is a troubling thought, but it’s not far from reality.

The SolarWinds breach of last year showed us that even the top government systems aren’t safe from hacking. In what’s been dubbed as the largest single cyber attack in history, Russian hackers were able to breach the federal government’s internal systems, as well as high-level tech companies. 

The bottom line is that municipal and government systems aren’t automatically safe. Even they require endpoint security to ensure such a massive breach doesn’t occur again. 

The Risk

Leaving systems vulnerable could cause disastrous consequences. As we saw in the SolarWinds attack, targeted breaches can inflict massive damage without being noticed for several days, weeks, or even months. The scale of breaches is beginning to rise, as hackers look towards larger prizes than the average bank account. Ransomware has been shown to affect businesses more in the previous years, and we’ve seen some of the worst cybersecurity disasters in the last two decades. 

So, where do we go from here? How does a municipal system protect itself? First and foremost, endpoint security should be a standard platform for any high-level system. Closing the gaps prevents intruders from entering in the first place, either directly through the network or via IoT devices. Second, we need to respond to threats quicker, which an endpoint security system can also help with. 

Conclusion

It’s time to look closer at our municipal and government systems to ensure maximum security. In the growing internet of things, vulnerabilities can go unnoticed until it’s too late. We need to start protecting all of our devices with endpoint security software.