IT Solutions and Services

Today, the top 5 largest companies in the world (by market cap) are all based on data and not on a tangible good or service. “Data-based” companies who started 10 to 15 years ago are growing fast and quickly taking market share from more traditional rivals.

Ant Financial in China started about 15 years ago as a financial services company based totally on collecting data and on AI algorithms making decisions. Ant Financial AI algorithms make lending decisions in hours or minutes, depending on the time it takes to collect and analyze data. Ant Financial (20 years old) has a market cap of $150 Billion, half of JP Morgan Chase’s (JPMC) $300 Billion market cap (and point of note, JPMC is 200 years old). Ant Financial has 10% of the staff that JPMC has. Ant Financial has a time-to-decision and cost advantage over JPMC and other more traditional rivals. (P.S.: JPMC is working hard to catch up).

The Fortune 200 in the United States and the Global 2000 worldwide recognize that AI is the mechanism to collect data across all corners of their organizations and to use that wealth of intelligence to make better, more informed decisions faster. And they have the money and staff to do so.

Mid-sized and smaller organizations have exactly the same need for AI applications as do the larger companies, but generally do not have the resources to do so. How do these companies compete?

Enter CPP’s “Data Intelligence” Practice

CPP is helping  firms start their journey into the world of AI. CPP helps these companies find, define, justify, develop, and implement the “AI applications” that make sense. CPP is also helping them develop the mind-set, data awareness, and data skills to compete with the Big Boys. This is a journey, not a destination.

Data Intelligence: The Vertical Market Landscape

Financial Services:
Financial organizations deal with massive amounts of data in their day-to-day operations. Fraud can occur at any point of a credit approval process, or during a financial instrument’s life. What data points are needed to help identify that “anomaly”? How fast can you collect the data and what patterns do you look for? How can you identify, execute and continuously re-evaluate the “collection-analysis-take-action” cycle to enact profit-building changes for your organization?

CPP works with partners who can help financial firms in the many areas that need “AI” applications. From fraud detection, to conduct surveillance, security, compliance, analytics, reporting, improving data workflow, CPP and its partners help our customers identify, prove, and implement their AI applications.

Healthcare:
AI in the medical field has a similar solution architecture: collect, analyze and identify a range of possible root causes of a medical condition, make a “best possible” diagnosis, and then proceed to remediation. Beyond the ability to improve patient outcomes, a small increase in “efficiency” within a healthcare organization can justify the investment in the AI app both technically and from a business perspective.

State/Local Government
Applying data intelligence and machine learning, state and local government can greatly speed up communication response times to citizens inquiring about any matter online (via intelligent chat bots), by phone or in person. In addition, it can help government authorities monitor huge amounts of data generated by public surveillance devices and social media forums to quickly identify and response to anomalies and threats to public safety.

Manufacturing
In manufacturing, collecting data from sensors which are at every possible point along a manufacturing process enables an AI application to develop an integrated view of the entire process. Product defect identification, equipment maintenance scheduling, and proactive supply chain management all become possible. The ability to discover and learn from patterns can help any manufacturer greatly improve the quality and efficiency of their organization.

Solutions for a data-driven business

CPP’s Data Intelligence Practice can assist businesses of all sizes and across a wide range of industries to transform their legacy warehouses and environments utilizing today’s most innovative data intelligence solutions. CPP offers solutions that tackle AI and data analytics workloads from edge to cloud, enabling your organization to:

• Uncover valuable insights that drive business
• Align business needs across the enterprise
• Automate processes
• Lower operational costs
• Reveal new revenue streams
• Increase security and compliance
• Maintain a competitive advantage

High Performance Computing (HPC) and Data Management

When tens of thousands of data points become billions, and when response times shrink from minutes or hours to less than a second, customers need to consider HPC and data management solutions.  Data Management solutions (which partner with high performance compute) will, when properly, architect-ed, enable a customer to collect data from any file or object store in the world, store it  locally for immediate processing, or store it remotely for longer-term retention or archive. When analytics are needed, moving data quickly to the compute engines and processing it within the required response time are keys to a successful application.  Scaling compute and storage separately are keys to predictable costs. CPP and its partners can help our customers address these issues.

IT Infrastructure: (noun): The composite hardware, software, network resources and services required for the existence, operation and management of an enterprise IT environment.

Is the definition of infrastructure really that simple?

In today’s business environment, IT infrastructure is still comprised of all of those fundamental elements – hardware, software, network resources and the required services to support them – but its composition can vary widely depending on the needs of the organization.

It still must meet the requirements of being able to host applications securely, with appropriate performance and scale, and with dependable backup and disaster recovery features. Organizations also need IT operations to be agile, available, meet performance requirements, be easy to use with as much automation as possible, and to be scalable and secure.

And they want all of those technical attributes in a financial model that makes sense for the organization.

Navigating the Options When it Comes to Infrastructure

Only a few years ago, decisions about your IT infrastructure centered on whether you wanted to maintain your systems on premises, in the cloud or in a hybrid cloud arrangement (part on prem, part in the cloud). But today, it’s not just about where your infrastructure resides, but also how it is delivered or consumed and who manages it.

The breadth of options now available means that you have the opportunity to precisely calibrate an infrastructure solution that is perfect for your company’s unique needs – now and into the future.

As experts in infrastructure architecture and management, CPP Associates is uniquely positioned to help our clients navigate all of the possible scenarios available to you in today’s IT marketplace. Our proprietary Infrastructure Anywhere Assessment (IAA) allows us to conduct a highly sophisticated cost/benefit analysis of a myriad of options available to your organization, factoring in vertical market specific regulatory/compliance/security factors in the process. In less than two weeks, and no more than three hours of your staff’s time, we can present our findings in a concise report. From there, you can choose to implement the new infrastructure configuration internally, with support from CPP’s Managed Services Division, or as a complete outsourced engagement with CPP’s Infrastructure team.

It is by far the most intelligent, cost-effective, and direct path to your company’s ideal infrastructure.

Traditional (On Premises) vs. Software-Defined Infrastructures

Traditional or converged infrastructure is a standalone set of servers which represent a preconfigured package of software and hardware in a single system for simplified management.

Software-defined infrastructure (SDI) offers an environment where all the infrastructure elements — networking, storage, processing, and security — are virtualized and delivered as a service. With SDI, software can control the entire computing infrastructure without physical human intervention. Examples of software-defined infrastructure are Composable Infrastructure and Hyper-Converged Infrastructure.

It is not uncommon for organizations to have a traditional infrastructure that may be running legacy systems that are mission-critical and yet, also have the need and desire to tap into the benefits of a software-defined infrastructure (i.e., speed, cost-efficiency, flexibility, etc.) Fortunately, there are significant advances in infrastructure management tools and solutions to manage both environments simultaneously.

CPP can support our clients’ complex infrastructure through tools like HPE OneView, which allow for the management of disparate, multiple data centers from a single “pane of glass.”

HPE GreenLake Hybrid Cloud is an agnostic multi-cloud, multi-stack managed service for public and private clouds that simplifies operations to help you reduce risk, eliminate complexity, and accelerate cloud adoption.

CPP’s InVision® Managed Services offers Infrastructure Management Solutions on a fully outsourced basis. CPP can manages data center, compute, and network resources across the entire organization, using AI to keep your infrastructure primed and ready to provide you with the data you need to make business decisions, to automate processes, and lower operational costs.

In a busy enterprise, competing needs often vie for the attention of generalist IT staff taking their eyes off important tasks in favor of fire-fighting. According to industry estimates*, more than 60 percent of security breaches occurred where there were patches available that were not yet installed.

Master your environment.

Increasing complexity makes managed IT service delivery a highly-sustainable model for enterprises regardless of size. Organizations save on the upfront hardware and licensing costs, and avoid training costs associated with multiple, highly-specialized systems. External oversight enables the internal IT team to maintain forward-focus and concentrate on value-added activities while avoiding falling behind securing systems with updates.

Proactive. Integrated. Experienced.

InVision is an assessment-driven managed service that gives organizations integrated support that enables you to look ahead and proactively manage resources. It provides for a detailed asset inventory, risk analysis, network mapping, project planning, and extensive real-time reporting capabilities. Highly-experienced subject matter experts up to date on the latest tools and training are available and managing your enterprise 24x7x365, performing triage, escalation, and remediation, while you stay focused on your core business competency.

What is the ZTSF?

CPP’s Zero Trust Security Fabric (ZTSF) follows a “least privilege” model of access using proven solutions to protect an environment from bad actors. We strive to leverage industry leading analytics, detection, and control solutions that go beyond traditional signatures. Providing future-ready, visionary products enables us to help protect environments on multiple fronts. This approach allows us to extend the borders of infrastructure to anywhere and still be protected.

How does it work?

CPP’s ZTSF offering protects customer environments by implementing leading products within these core areas:

Network Infrastructure and Edge

• Aruba Wireless and Switching, Cloud Management, Remote Access Points (RAP’s), and ESP
• Fortinet FortiGate Firewalls and other Fortinet Solutions
• Citrix NetScaler Solutions

Server Hardware Security

• HPE Silicon Root of Trust on HPE Gen10 Servers, HPE OneView, and HPE InfoSight

Advanced Endpoint Protection

• VMware Carbon Black Suite
• Sophos Antivirus and Mobile Device Encryption

Backup Solutions with MFA/2FA

• Veeam
• Zerto
• BaaS/DRaaS

Security Assessments and Monitoring

• Penetration and Vulnerability (Internal & External 3rd Party Penetration Testing)
• InVision Vulnerability Assessment (Internal)
• SOCaaS – SOC As a Service
• DarkWeb ID Domain Monitoring

Authentication Solutions Aruba ClearPass

• MFA/2FA Solutions
• Microsoft LAPS
• Others

How Can CPP Help?

• Provide Insight and Guidance into the current environment via assessments Identify weak points and provide actionable remediation options based on vertical (i.e., SOX, HIPAA, PCI, State and Local regulations/requirements)
• Design and Implement New Solutions to fit into any environment (regardless of current vendors)
• Managed Services Options for environments where a dedicated security team or SME is not present
• Technology Refresh within the existing environments to remove aging insecure infrastructure