Channel Bytes December 23, 2022 – Forcepoint appoints execs; Iridium launches satellite IoT service; Jasper Commerce management changes; and more

Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.

Forcepoint appoints trio of sales execs

Global security vendor Forcepoint has announced the appointment of three sales executives to promote global market demand for data-first SASE (secure access service edge) security.

James McCarthy was appointed senior vice president of North America sales. Myles Bray was promoted to chief revenue officer and Thierry Bedos to senior vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) sales.

McCarthy and Bedos will report to Bray.

Jasper Commerce announces strategic changes in management

Jasper Commerce Inc., a Vancouver-based provider of product information management (PIM) offerings, has implemented changes to the company’s management team.

Jon Marsella will be stepping down from the role of chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman, and will become the firm’s chief growth officer. The company’s board has appointed Gerry Hurlow interim CEO and chairman. Hurlow is also president of Meteor Capital Inc., a company that invests in emerging Canadian technology companies.

The board also appointed Sean Coutts as president, in addition to his current role of chief operating officer with Jasper.

Iridium launches new satellite IoT data service

Iridium Communications Inc. has announced the introduction of Iridium Messaging Transport (IMT), a two-way cloud-native networked data service optimized for use over Iridium Certus and designed to make it easier to add satellite connections to existing or new IoT devices.

“IMT provides an IP data transport service unique to the Iridium network, designed for small-to-moderate-sized messages supporting satellite IoT applications,” the company said. “Integrated with Iridium CloudConnect and Amazon Web Services (AWS), the new service can reduce development costs and speed time to market for new Iridium Connected IoT devices.”

IMT is currently available for the Iridium Certus 100 service, with introduction on Iridium Certus 200, 350, and 700 planned for the first quarter of 2023.

Ada leverages OpenAI to deliver AI-powered customer service

Ada, a Toronto-based customer service automation company, is now leveraging technology from OpenAI, the AI research and deployment company responsible for the ChatGPT application.

Over the past year, the company said it has been employing Large Language Models (LLM) to automate billions of customer interactions for hundreds of clients. In March, Ada introduced a new generative AI capability that reduced the time and effort needed to build, train, and maintain a customer support chatbot by 10 times compared to traditional enterprise automation offerings.

The company is already using GPT-3 to automate the training of customer intents and the integration will be pushed further by automatically building answer flows and content from its customers’ knowledge bases, it said in a release.

Neoflow Inc. completes U.S. DHS Red Team evaluation

Neoflow, a Calgary based blockchain company focusing on the energy industry, said this week it has successfully completed U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Red Team testing of the Neoflow Platform for Crude Oil.

Red Team testing is an in-depth review conducted by a team of security experts engaged by the DHS under the Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP). The review includes functional tests, penetration testing, data privacy, and vulnerability testing.

According to Neoflow, the test is required by the U.S. government to provide assurances of the correct functionality and level of security and platform robustness necessary to become a long-term technology provider to the U.S. Customs Border Protection (CBP).

VMware Canadian channel lead takes role for North America

After serving as interim lead for VMware’s North American channel organization following the departure of Bill Swales in September, as of Dec. 1, Tara Fine has officially taken over as vice-president, Americas partner organization for the company, with responsibility for the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. In her new role, she reports to Dan Zugelder, senior vice-president and general manager, Americas sales.

Microsoft releases OOB patch to fix Hyper-V issue caused by bad update

Microsoft has pushed out an emergency patch to correct problems caused by two December Patch Tuesday updates: KB5021249 and KB5021237. After installation, some Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022 users were unable to create VMs for hosts that are managed by System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) and leverage software-defined networking (SDN) technologies. The company has published details of the fixes, along with workarounds, on its Windows Release Health page.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Lynn Greiner
Lynn Greiner
Lynn Greiner has been interpreting tech for businesses for over 20 years and has worked in the industry as well as writing about it, giving her a unique perspective into the issues companies face. She has both IT credentials and a business degree

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