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Government CRM System

Salesforce Announces Top Secret Gov Cloud

This advanced cloud solution is hosted on Amazon Web Services’ Top Secret cloud infrastructure. According to Salesforce’s press release, Government Cloud Premium is built with an API-first architecture, enabling agencies to leverage other data sources and systems, including proprietary AI applications, to enhance mission-critical operations.

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Salesforce Government Cloud Premium

Salesforce Government Cloud Premium

Software company Salesforce announced on Monday that it has rolled out a new version of its government cloud that has Top Secret authorization and is geared toward U.S. national security agencies and intelligence organizations.

The new offering, called Government Cloud Premium, is hosted on Amazon Web Services’ Top Secret cloud.

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Einstein Copilot for Healthcare

Einstein Copilot for Healthcare

Einstein Copilot for Healthcare – Salesforce has introduced a new AI-powered healthcare assistant within its CRM system, marking its latest move to expand into the healthcare industry. As AI development accelerates, tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, and Salesforce are capitalizing on the opportunity to integrate AI and cloud technologies into healthcare to streamline administrative and operational tasks. Salesforce’s healthcare-specific AI tool, Einstein Copilot, is a conversational assistant that leverages an organization’s private data to provide relevant responses. Einstein Copilot enables healthcare providers and care teams to digitally capture and summarize information from both clinical and nonclinical sources, update patient records, and automate manual workflows. Key Features of Einstein Copilot Providers can use Einstein Copilot to generate patient summaries that include medications, diagnoses, social determinants, assessments, clinical service requests, and care gaps. A care manager can also ask the assistant to find an in-network provider based on location, specialty, and insurance coverage, and auto-fill referral forms using natural language prompts. The AI assistant can also trigger workflows for tasks such as sending referrals, scheduling appointments, and updating care plans. Salesforce expects Einstein Copilot to be HIPAA-compliant by summer 2024, with Copilot: Health Actions slated for general availability in winter 2024. Digitizing Health Assessments Salesforce is adding a feature called Assessment Generation that allows healthcare organizations to digitize standardized health assessments. These can be automatically populated into Salesforce Health Cloud, filled out electronically, and tracked for progress over time. Reducing Administrative Waste Salesforce cites research from McKinsey & Co. showing that administrative costs account for nearly a quarter of U.S. healthcare spending, with a potential savings of up to $320 billion. By integrating AI and CRM tools, Salesforce aims to reduce the operational burden on healthcare providers and improve patient outcomes. Amit Khanna, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Health at Salesforce, highlighted the value of these innovations: “These new data, AI, and CRM features reduce the administrative and operational burden for healthcare providers, leading to better outcomes for patients. With Salesforce’s trusted AI, healthcare organizations excited about generative AI—but wary of clinical and security concerns—can confidently integrate these innovations into their workflows.” Early Adopters and Impact Healthcare providers including Baptist Health South Florida and HarmonyCares are already leveraging Salesforce to personalize patient interactions and create unified patient views. HarmonyCares, which operates across 14 states with over 150 primary care providers, has used Salesforce’s AI-driven field service platform to streamline patient scheduling. The company reported a 50% increase in self-scheduling efficiency since adopting the platform and plans to expand its use of Salesforce Health Cloud for care management and engagement. Kristin Darby, Chief Information Officer at HarmonyCares, emphasized the benefits of AI in healthcare: “AI will dramatically improve our ability to quickly synthesize patient needs and preferences, enabling us to offer a more personalized experience with greater accuracy.” However, the integration of AI in healthcare is not without skepticism. A recent survey revealed that 69% of individuals are uncomfortable with AI being used to diagnose them, though more than half are open to its use in nonclinical tasks like scheduling and billing. Salesforce’s Healthcare Journey Salesforce first launched Health Cloud in 2015 to help providers manage patients by aggregating data from electronic medical records, devices, and wearables. In 2022, the company expanded this offering with Customer 360 for Health, a unified platform that combines real-time data from Data Cloud, Einstein AI, and automation tools like Flow to streamline processes such as prior authorizations, intake, and patient scheduling. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Small Language Models Explained

Small Language Models Explained

Exploring Small Language Models (SLMs): Capabilities and Applications Large Language Models (LLMs) have been prominent in AI for some time, but Small Language Models (SLMs) are now enhancing our ability to work with natural and programming languages. While LLMs excel in general language understanding, certain applications require more accuracy and domain-specific knowledge than these models can provide. This has created a demand for custom SLMs that offer LLM-like performance while reducing runtime costs and providing a secure, manageable environment. In this insight, we dig down into the world of SLMs, exploring their unique characteristics, benefits, and applications. We also discuss fine-tuning methods applied to Llama-2–13b, an SLM, to address specific challenges. The goal is to investigate how to make the fine-tuning process platform-independent. We selected Databricks for this purpose due to its compatibility with major cloud providers like Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform. What Are Small Language Models? In AI and natural language processing, SLMs are lightweight generative models with a focus on specific tasks. The term “small” refers to: SLMs like Google Gemini Nano, Microsoft’s Orca-2–7b, and Meta’s Llama-2–13b run efficiently on a single GPU and include over 5 billion parameters. SLMs vs. LLMs Applications of SLMs SLMs are increasingly used across various sectors, including healthcare, technology, and beyond. Common applications include: Fine-Tuning Small Language Models Fine-tuning involves additional training of a pre-trained model to make it more domain-specific. This process updates the model’s parameters with new data to enhance its performance in targeted applications, such as text generation or question answering. Hardware Requirements for Fine-Tuning The hardware needs depend on the model size, project scale, and dataset. General recommendations include: Data Preparation Preparing data involves extracting text from PDFs, cleaning it, generating question-and-answer pairs, and then fine-tuning the model. Although GPT-3.5 was used for generating Q&A pairs, SLMs can also be utilized for this purpose based on the use case. Fine-Tuning Process You can use HuggingFace tools for fine-tuning Llama-2–13b-chat-hf. The dataset was converted into a HuggingFace-compatible format, and quantization techniques were applied to optimize performance. The fine-tuning lasted about 16 hours over 50 epochs, with the cost around $100/£83, excluding trial costs. Results and Observations The fine-tuned model demonstrated strong performance, with over 70% of answers being highly similar to those generated by GPT-3.5. The SLM achieved comparable results despite having fewer parameters. The process was successful on both AWS and Databricks platforms, showcasing the model’s adaptability. SLMs have some limitations compared to LLMs, such as higher operational costs and restricted knowledge bases. However, they offer benefits in efficiency, versatility, and environmental impact. As SLMs continue to evolve, their relevance and popularity are likely to increase, especially with new models like Gemini Nano and Mixtral entering the market. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Agentforce and Thinking AI

Agentforce and Thinking AI

Agentforce is how humans with AI drive customer success together, equips organizations with autonomous agents that boost scale, efficiency, and satisfaction across service, sales, marketing, commerce, and more New Agentforce Atlas Reasoning Engine autonomously analyzes data, makes decisions, and completes tasks, providing reliable and accurate results With Agentforce, any organization can build, customize, and deploy their own agents quickly and easily, with low-code tools New Agentforce Partner Network allows customers to deploy pre-built agents and use agent actions from partners like Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, Workday, and more Customers like OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley are turning to Agentforce because it is integrated with their apps, works across customer channels, augments their employees, and scales capacity for business needs SAN FRANCISCO — September 12, 2024 – Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the world’s #1 AI CRM, today unveiled Agentforce, a groundbreaking suite of autonomous AI agents that augment employees and handle tasks in service, sales, marketing, and commerce, driving unprecedented efficiency and customer satisfaction. Agentforce enables companies to scale their workforces on demand with a few clicks. Agentforce’s limitless digital workforce of AI agents can analyze data, make decisions, and take action on tasks like answering customer service inquiries, qualifying sales leads, and optimizing marketing campaigns. With Agentforce, any organization can easily build, customize, and deploy their own agents for any use case across any industry. The future of AI is agents, and it’s here. Our vision is bold: to empower one billion agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This is what AI is meant to be.” MARC BENIOFF, CHAIR, CEO & CO-FOUNDER, SALESFORCE “Agentforce represents the Third Wave of AI—advancing beyond copilots to a new era of highly accurate, low-hallucination intelligent agents that actively drive customer success. Unlike other platforms, Agentforce is a revolutionary and trusted solution that seamlessly integrates AI across every workflow, embedding itself deeply into the heart of the customer journey. This means anticipating needs, strengthening relationships, driving growth, and taking proactive action at every touchpoint,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “While others require you to DIY your AI, Agentforce offers a fully tailored, enterprise-ready platform designed for immediate impact and scalability. With advanced security features, compliance with industry standards, and unmatched flexibility. Our vision is bold: to empower one billion agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This is what AI is meant to be.” In contrast to now-outdated copilots and chatbots that rely on human requests and struggle with complex or multi-step tasks, Agentforce offers a new level of sophistication by operating autonomously, retrieving the right data on demand, building action plans for any task, and executing these plans without requiring human intervention. Like a self-driving car, Agentforce uses real-time data to adapt to changing conditions and operates independently within an organizations’ customized guardrails, ensuring every customer interaction is informed, relevant, and valuable. And when desired, Agentforce seamlessly hands off to human employees with a summary of the interaction, an overview of the customer’s details, and recommendations for what to do next. Industry leaders like OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley are already experiencing the transformative power of Agentforce. For example, Agentforce is helping organizations like Wiley provide customers with dynamic, conversational self-service. Agentforce is configured to answer questions using Wiley’s knowledge base already built into Salesforce so it can automatically resolve account access. It also triages registration and payment issues, directing customers to the appropriate resources. With Agentforce handling routine inquiries, Wiley has seen an over 40% increase in case resolution, outperforming their old chatbot and giving their human agents more time to focus on complex cases. Why it Matters An estimated 41% of employee time is spent on repetitive, low-impact work, and 65% of desk workers believe generative AI will allow them to be more strategic, according to the Salesforce Trends in AI Report. Every company has more jobs to be done than the resources available to do them. As a result, many jobs go unaddressed or uncompleted. Agentforce provides relief to overstretched teams with its ability to scale capacity on demand so humans can focus on higher-touch, higher-value, and more strategic outcomes. The future of work is a hybrid workforce composed of humans with agents, enabling companies to compete in an ever-changing world. Supporting Customer Quotes “Piloting Agentforce has made a noticeable difference during one of our busiest periods — back-to-school season. It’s been exciting to go live with our first agent thanks to the no-code builder, and we’ve seen a more than 40% increase in case resolution, outperforming our old bot. Agentforce helps to manage routine responsibilities and free up our service teams for more complex cases.” – Kevin Quigley, Senior Manager, Continuous Improvement, Wiley “Every interaction that restaurants and diners have with our support team must be accurate, fast, and reflective of the hospitality that restaurants show their guests. Agentforce has incredible potential to help us deliver that high touch attentiveness and support while significantly freeing up our team to address more complex needs.” – George Pokorny, SVP Customer Success, OpenTable “As we advance our personalization strategy, we believe Agentforce and its AI-powered capabilities have the potential to make a real impact on our approach to customer engagement, raising the bar in luxury retail. Agentforce will improve our effectiveness across customer touchpoints, empowering our employees and augmenting their ability to deliver the elevated and more individualized shopping experiences for which Saks is known.” – Mike Hite, Chief Technology Officer, Saks Global Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced

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Connected Vehicles

Connected Vehicles

Revolutionizing the Automotive Industry: Salesforce’s Connected Car App The automotive industry has always been a beacon of innovation, consistently pushing the boundaries to enhance the driving experience. From the iconic Model T and the assembly line to today’s electric and autonomous vehicles, the evolution of automobiles has been driven by an unyielding pursuit of progress. I actually purchased a new-to-me car today, and with the connected vehicle on the horizon I’m kind of glad I’ll be able to upgrade in a couple years. Bluetooth and back up cameras are great. But a car that can tell the dealership to get me on the horn before some automotive calamity occurs? The future is here, my friends. Connected Vehicles for Better Experiences Now, as digital transformation reshapes industries, a new chapter is emerging in automotive innovation: the connected car. Leading this charge is Salesforce, a global powerhouse in customer relationship management (CRM), with the introduction of its groundbreaking Connected Car App, poised to redefine in-car experiences for both drivers and passengers. From my personal buying experience today, the car business could use some customer relationship management! The Future of In-Car Connectivity Salesforce’s Connected Car App is more than just a technological enhancement; it represents a fundamental shift in how we interact with our vehicles. By leveraging Salesforce’s Customer 360 platform, this app creates personalized, engaging experiences that go far beyond traditional automotive features. The Connected Car App is designed to make every journey more intuitive and efficient, offering real-time insights and services tailored to the unique needs of each driver. Whether it’s maintenance alerts, optimized route suggestions based on traffic, or personalized entertainment options, the app transforms the car into a truly smart companion on the road. A GPS feature? I guess I can plan on deleting Waze off my phone in the near future! Powered by Salesforce Customer 360 At the heart of the Connected Car App is Salesforce’s Customer 360 platform, which delivers a comprehensive, 360-degree view of each customer. This integration ensures that the app provides tailored experiences based on a deep understanding of the driver’s preferences, habits, and history. It isn’t going to just know you by a vehicle loan number, a VIN number, or even just an email address. For instance, a driver who frequently takes long road trips might receive customized recommendations for rest stops, dining options, and attractions along their route. Meanwhile, commuters could benefit from real-time updates on traffic, weather, and parking availability. The app’s ability to anticipate and respond to the driver’s needs in real time distinguishes it from traditional in-car systems. I can just hear my car now, advising me it has been one hour since I stopped for coffee, and she’s worried about my sanity. Enhancing Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction with Connected Vehicles The Connected Car App offers significant potential to boost customer loyalty and satisfaction. By delivering a personalized driving experience, automakers can strengthen relationships with customers, transforming each driving journey into an opportunity to build brand loyalty. If Toyota is suddenly going to treat me like Shannan Hearne instead of customer # xxxxx would be ecstatic. Additionally, the app’s capability to collect and analyze data in real time opens new avenues for automakers to engage with their customers. Predictive maintenance reminders, targeted promotions, and special offers are just a few examples of how the app fosters a deeper connection between the brand and the driver. Oh, yeah. My connected vehicle app is DEFINITELY going to be talking to me about changing my oil (I’m not exactly diligent), how great the latest model of Toyota is (I drove a Corolla for 18 years and have also owned a Tacoma, a Tundra, and a Prius), and if it would add coffee coupons I would be golden. A New Era of Automotive Innovation Salesforce’s Connected Car App marks a pivotal moment in the automotive industry’s digital transformation. As vehicles become increasingly connected, the opportunities for innovation are boundless. Salesforce is at the forefront with a solution that not only enhances the driving experience but also empowers automakers to build stronger, more meaningful relationships with their customers. In a world where customer expectations are constantly growing, the Connected Car App is a game-changer. Customers, even car owners, expect their brands to know them and recognize them. By integrating Salesforce’s CRM capabilities directly into vehicles, the app creates a seamless, personalized experience that stands out. As we look ahead, it’s clear that the Connected Car App is just the beginning of an exciting new era of automotive innovation. As a marketer at heart and a technologist by trade, I’m really excited about the potential here. Connected Vehicle: A Unified Digital Foundation Salesforce’s Connected Vehicle platform provides automakers with a unified, intelligent digital foundation, enabling them to reduce development time and roll out features and updates faster than ever before. This platform allows seamless integration of vehicle, Internet of Things (IoT), driver, and retail data from various sources, including AWS IoT FleetWise and Snapdragon® Car-to-Cloud Connected Services Platform, to enhance driver experiences and ensure smooth vehicle operation. Can you imagine a smart app like the Connected Vehicle talking to your loyalty apps for gas stations, convenience stores, and grocery stores? I would be driving down the interstate and the app will tell me there is a Starbucks ahead AND I have a 10% off coupon. Automakers and mobility leaders like Sony Honda Mobility are already exploring the use of Connected Vehicle to deliver better experiences for their customers. The platform’s ability to access and integrate data from any source in near real time allows automakers to personalize driver experiences, in-car offers, and safety upgrades. Why It Matters By 2030, every new vehicle sold will be connected, and the advanced, tech-driven features they provide will be increasingly important to consumers. A recent Salesforce survey revealed that drivers already consider connected features to be nearly as important as a car’s brand. Connected Vehicle accelerates this evolution, enabling automakers to immediately deliver branded, customized experiences tailored to

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AI as a Service

AI as a Service

The latest research study from HTF MI, titled Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) As a Service Market Size, Player Analysis & Segment Growth 2020-2032, offers an in-depth evaluation of market risks, opportunities, and strategic decision-making support. The report delves into trends, growth drivers, technological advancements, and the evolving investment landscape within the Global AI As a Service market. Key players featured in the study include Google, Amazon Web Services, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce, Intel, Baidu, FICO, SAS, and BigML. Market Overview: The study provides an extensive view of the AI As a Service market, with segmentation across industries such as banking, financial services, insurance, healthcare, retail, telecommunications, government and defense, manufacturing, and energy. Covering 18+ countries globally, it also highlights both emerging and established players. The report offers tailored analysis based on specific business objectives or geographic requirements. AI As a Service Market: Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2030 This research defines the market size across various segments and countries by analyzing historical data and forecasting future values through 2030. It combines qualitative and quantitative insights, including market share, value, and volume forecasts from 2019 to 2023, with projections extending to 2030. Key elements such as growth drivers, restraining factors, and critical statistics shape the market’s outlook. Market Segmentation: The report categorizes the AI As a Service market into the following: Key Players: The study profiles major industry players such as Google, Amazon Web Services, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce, Intel, Baidu, FICO, SAS, and BigML, analyzing their market strategies and positioning. Geographic Scope: The global report covers multiple regions, including: Key Questions Addressed: Report Chapters Overview: For more information, request a sample report or inquire about the full research study through the provided links. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Google Wiz and Cybersecurity

Google Wiz and Cybersecurity

Google is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz for up to $23 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. While the sum is substantial, some have expressed surprising discontent, viewing it as “very good, but not great.” This sentiment revolves around the missed opportunity for an IPO and the loss of an Israeli giant that will no longer grow locally. Additionally, if Wiz had been registered in Israel, the transaction would have generated higher revenues for the state treasury. Google Wiz and Cybersecurity certainly aren’t hard to fathom. Founded by Assaf Rappaport, a former officer from Israel’s elite 8200 intelligence unit, Wiz has quickly risen in value. The unit has a track record of producing tech entrepreneurs, significantly contributing to Israel’s robust tech industry. The potential deal underscores the resilience of Israel’s tech sector, which accounts for about 20% of the country’s output and 15% of jobs, even as the war in Gaza pressures the economy. However, with today’s massive cyber attack inadvertently caused by a cybersecurity company, some may hesitate to make such an investment. The attack, linked to a faulty system update from CrowdStrike, a U.S. firm used by over half of Fortune 500 companies, resulted in widespread disruptions. These included grounding flights, hampering public transit systems, and affecting operations at banks and hospitals globally. CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, apologized for the disruptions and noted that the issue had been identified and resolved. The incident, not a security breach or cyberattack, caused Microsoft Windows systems to crash, affecting public transit systems, stock exchanges, and various institutions worldwide. Google Wiz and Cybersecurity Despite this, Google’s acquisition of Wiz appears strategically sound, aiming to enhance its cloud security capabilities and position Google Cloud as a major competitor to Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. The advanced technology from Wiz will help Google close the gap in the fiercely competitive cloud security market. Cybersecurity expert Chuck Brooks sees the acquisition as a game-changer, enhancing Google’s ability to conduct comprehensive threat assessments on IT infrastructure and improving DevOps processes. By integrating Wiz’s framework, Google aims to streamline development jobs and make them more secure. However, such bold mergers are not without risk. Tech advisor Vaclav Vincalek cautions that mega transactions can be dangerous for both companies, citing historical examples like Microsoft’s acquisitions of Skype and Nokia, and Google’s purchase of Motorola. Pierre Bourgeix, CEO and Founder of ESI Convergint, believes the acquisition could position Google to compete head-to-head with Amazon, especially given Microsoft Azure’s recent security breaches. Omri Weinberg, Co-Founder and CRO of DoControl, views the deal as a significant statement about the importance of cloud security. In summary, Google’s potential $23 billion acquisition of Wiz not only highlights the value of Israel’s tech talent but also represents a strategic move to enhance its cloud security capabilities. This positions Google as a major force in the cybersecurity market, with the potential to set new standards for cloud security and influence industry best practices. More on today’s outage Public transit systems in the U.S. reported impacts. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington, D.C., said its “website and some of our internal systems are currently down,” but that trains and buses were running as scheduled. In New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority also said its buses and trains were unaffected but that “some MTA customer information systems are temporarily offline due to a worldwide technical outage.” Around the world, the outages disrupted London’s Stock Exchange, caused major train delays in the U.K., sent British broadcaster Sky News off air, forced medical facilities in Europe and the U.S. to cancel some services and caused disruptions at airports in Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong and India. Some U.S. border crossings saw impacts amid the outage: Traffic stalled on the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, Canada, as well as at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the Detroit Free Press reported. CBP One, the Customs and Border Patrol app, and the agency’s border wait times website, each appeared to experience outages. On a sweeter note, Krispy Kreme is giving away free doughnuts Friday due to the global tech outage. Dubai International Airport said on X it is operating normally following “a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines.” It added the affected airlines “promptly switched to an alternate system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume swiftly.” Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler issued an emergency declaration Friday over the tech outage, with a statement noting the outages are affecting city servers, employee computers and emergency communications. Meanwhile, the Maryland Department of Emergency Management increased its state activation level from “normal” to “partial,” citing the tech outage. A post on X says a “partial” activation is for incidents that require “significant monitoring or resources,” with additional emergency operations staffing from other agencies, functions and supporting organizations. CrowdStrike is a popular cybersecurity software company created in 2012 by CEO George Kurtz, along with Dmitri Alperovitch, and Gregg Marston. According to its website, CrowdStrike has the “world’s most advanced cloud-native platform that protects and enables the people, processes and technologies that drive modern enterprise.” According to an alert sent by CrowdStrike to its clients and reviewed by Reuters, the company’s “Falcon Sensor” software caused Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the “Blue Screen of Death.” Kurtz said “there was an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts” but customers “remain fully protected,” according to Kurtz’s post on X. The CrowdStrike outage crashed some computers at colleges Friday and hampered a popular software for enrolling students in K-12 schools for the fall. The University of Rochester, a private school in New York, told students to keep rebooting their systems until the problem was fixed. The University of Alabama’s technology office said its campus computers using Microsoft Windows crashed. Rutgers University and the University of Kentucky also reported disruptions. State and local law enforcement agencies across the country reported disruptions to 911 services after

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Private Connectivity Between Salesforce and On-Premise Network

Private Connectivity Between Salesforce and On-Premise Network

Salesforce is an AWS Partner and a trusted global leader in customer relationship management (CRM). Hyperforce is the next-generation Salesforce architecture, built on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Private Connectivity Between Salesforce and On-Premise Network explained. When business applications developed on Hyperforce are integrated with on-premises systems, traffic in both directions will flow over the internet. For customers in heavily regulated industries such as the public sector and financial services, programmatic access of the Salesforce APIs hosted on Hyperforce from on-premises systems is required to traverse a private connection. Conversely, accessing on-premises systems from business applications running in Hyperforce is required to use a private connection. In this insight, AWS describes how AWS Direct Connect and AWS Transit Gateway can be used in conjunction with Salesforce Private Connect to facilitate the private, bidirectional exchange of organizational data. Architectural overview How to use AWS Direct Connect to establish a dedicated, managed, and reliable connection to Hyperforce. The approach used a public virtual interface to facilitate connectivity to public Hyperforce endpoints. The approach in this insight demonstrates the use of a private or transit virtual interface to establish a dedicated, private connection to Hyperforce using Salesforce Private Connect. Approach AWS Direct Connect is set up between the on-premises network and a virtual private cloud (VPC) residing inside a customer’s AWS account to provide connectivity from the on-premises network to AWS. The exchange of data between the customer VPC and Salesforce’s transit VPC is facilitated through the Salesforce Private Connect feature, based on AWS PrivateLink technology. AWS PrivateLink allows consumers to securely access a service located in a service provider’s VPC as if it were located in the consumer’s VPC. Using Salesforce Private Connect, traffic is routed through a fully managed network connection between your Salesforce organization and your VPC instead of over the internet. The following table shows the definitions of inbound and outbound connections in the context of Salesforce Private Connect: Direction Inbound Outbound Description Traffic that flows into Salesforce Traffic that flows out of Salesforce Use cases AWS to Salesforce Salesforce to AWS On-premises network to Salesforce Salesforce to on-premises network Inbound and Outbound This pattern can only be adopted for Salesforce services supported by Salesforce Private Connect, such as Experience Cloud, Financial Services Cloud, Health Cloud, Platform Cloud, Sales Cloud, and Service Cloud. Check the latest Salesforce documentation for the specific Salesforce services that are supported. Furthermore, this architecture is only applicable to the inbound and outbound exchange of data and does not pertain to the access of the Salesforce UI. The following diagram shows the end-to-end solution of how private connectivity is facilitated bidirectionally. In this example, on-premises servers located on the 10.0.1.0/26 network are required to privately exchange data with applications running on the Hyperforce platform. Figure 1: Using AWS Direct Connect and Salesforce Private Connect to establish private, bidirectional connectivity Prerequisites for Private Connectivity Between Salesforce and On-Premise Network In order to implement this solution, the following prerequisites are required on both the Salesforce and AWS side. Salesforce Refer to Salesforce documentation for detailed requirements on migrating your Salesforce organization to Hyperforce. AWS Network flow between on-premises data center and Salesforce API The following figure shows how both inbound and outbound traffic flows through the architecture. Figure 2: Network flow between on-premises data center and Salesforce Inbound Outbound Considerations for Private Connectivity Between Salesforce and On-Premise Network Before you set up the private, bidirectional exchange of organizational data with AWS Direct Connect, AWS Transit Gateway, and Salesforce Private Connect, review these considerations. Resiliency We recommend that you set up multiple AWS Direct Connect connections to provide resilient communication paths to the AWS Region, especially if the traffic between your on-premises resources and Hyperforce is business-critical. Refer to the AWS documentation on how to achieve high and maximum resiliency for your AWS Direct Connect deployments. For inbound traffic flow, we recommend that the VPC endpoint is configured across Availability Zones for high availability. Configure customer DNS records for the Salesforce API with IP addresses associated with the VPC endpoint and implement the DNS failover or load-balancing mechanism on the customer side. For outbound traffic flow, we recommend that you configure your Network Load Balancer with two or more Availability Zones for high availability. Security For inbound traffic flow, source IP addresses used by the incoming connection are displayed in the Salesforce Private Connect inbound configuration. We recommend that these IP ranges be used in Salesforce configurations that permit the enforcement of source IP. Refer to the Salesforce documentation Restrict Access to Trusted IP Ranges for a Connected App to learn how you can use these IP ranges can to control access to the Salesforce APIs. You access Salesforce APIs using an encrypted TLS connection. AWS Direct Connect also offers a number of additional data in transit encryption options, including support for private IP VPNs over AWS Direct Connect and MAC security. An IP virtual private network (VPN) encrypts end-to-end traffic using an IPsec VPN tunnel, while MAC Security (MACsec) provides point-to-point encryption between devices. For outbound traffic flow, we recommend that you configure TLS listeners on your Network Load Balancers to ensure that traffic to the Network Load Balancer is encrypted. Cost optimization If your use case is to solely facilitate access to Salesforce, you can use a virtual private gateway and a private VIF instead to optimize deployment costs. However, if you plan to implement a hub-spoke network transit hub interconnecting multiple VPCs, we recommend the use of a transit gateway and a transit VIF for a more scalable approach. Refer to the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud Connectivity Options whitepaper and AWS Direct Connect Quotas for the pros and cons of each approach. Conclusion Salesforce and AWS continue to innovate together to provide multiple connectivity approaches to meet customer requirements. This post demonstrated how AWS Direct Connect can be used in conjunction with Salesforce Private Connect to secure end-to-end exchanges of data in industries where the use of the internet is not an option. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words

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Cyber Group Targets SaaS Platforms

Cyber Group Targets SaaS Platforms

Cyber Group UNC3944 Targets SaaS Platforms like Azure, Salesforce, vSphere, AWS, and Google Cloud UNC3944, also known as “0ktapus” and “Scattered Spider,” has shifted its focus to attacking Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, as reported by Google Cloud’s Mandiant threat intelligence team. This hacking group, previously linked to incidents involving companies such as Snowflake and MGM Entertainment, has evolved its strategies to concentrate on data theft and extortion. Cyber Group Targets SaaS Platforms Attack Techniques UNC3944 exploits legitimate third-party tools for remote access and leverages Okta permissions to expand their intrusion capabilities. One notable aspect of their attacks involves creating new virtual machines in VMware vSphere and Microsoft Azure, using administrative permissions linked through SSO applications for further activities. The group uses commonly available utilities to reconfigure virtual machines (VMs), disable security protocols, and download tools such as Mimikatz and ADRecon, which extract and combine various artifacts from Active Directory (AD) and Microsoft Entra ID environments. Evolving Methods Initially, UNC3944 employed a variety of techniques, but over time, their methods have expanded to include ransomware and data theft extortion. Active since at least May 2022, the group has developed resilience mechanisms against virtualization platforms and improved their ability to move laterally by abusing SaaS permissions. The group also uses SMS phishing to reset passwords and bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA). Once inside, they conduct thorough reconnaissance of Microsoft applications like SharePoint to understand remote connection needs. According to Google Cloud’s Mandiant team, UNC3944’s primary activity is now data theft without using ransomware. They employ expert social engineering tactics, using detailed personal information to bypass identity checks and target employees with high-level access. Social Engineering and Threats Attackers often pose as employees, contacting help desks to request MFA resets for setting up new phones. If help desk staff comply, attackers can easily bypass MFA and reset passwords. If social engineering fails, UNC3944 resorts to threats, including doxxing, physical threats, or releasing compromising material to coerce credentials from victims. Once access is gained, they gather information on tools like VPNs, virtual desktops, and remote work utilities to maintain consistent access. Targeting SaaS and Cloud Platforms UNC3944 targets Okta’s single sign-on (SSO) tools, allowing them to create accounts that facilitate access to multiple systems. Their attacks extend to VMware’s vSphere hybrid cloud management tool and Microsoft Azure, where they create virtual machines for malicious purposes. By operating within a trusted IP address range, they complicate detection. Additional targets include SaaS applications like VMware’s vCenter, CyberArk, Salesforce, CrowdStrike, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud. Office 365 is another focus, with attackers using Microsoft’s Delve tool to identify valuable information. To exfiltrate data, they use synchronization utilities such as Airbyte and Fivetran to transfer information to their own cloud storage. The group also targets Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) to extract certificates and employ Golden SAML attacks for continued access to cloud applications. They leverage Microsoft 365 capabilities like Office Delve for quick reconnaissance and data mining. Recommendations – Cyber Group Targets SaaS Platforms Mandiant advises deploying host-based certificates with MFA for VPN access, implementing stricter conditional access policies, and enhancing monitoring for SaaS applications. Consolidating logs from crucial SaaS applications and monitoring virtual machine setups can help identify potential breaches. Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Unity Catalog Open Sourced by Databricks

Unity Catalog Open Sourced by Databricks

Databricks Announces Open Sourcing of Unity Catalog for Data and AI Governance Databricks, the Data and AI company, has announced the open-sourcing of Unity Catalog, the industry’s only unified solution for data and artificial intelligence (AI) governance across clouds, data formats, and data platforms. This initiative underscores Databricks’ commitment to open ecosystems, providing customers with the flexibility and control they need without vendor lock-in. The announcement marks a new era for open catalog standards for data and AI, with support from major partners such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Salesforce, and others. Unity Catalog Open Sourced by Databricks. Key Features of Unity Catalog OSS Interoperability: Unity Catalog OSS offers a universal interface supporting any data format and compute engine. It can read tables with Delta Lake, Apache Iceberg™, and Apache Hudi™ clients via Delta Lake UniForm, and supports the Iceberg REST Catalog and Hive Metastore (HMS) interface standards. It is interoperable with all major cloud platforms, compute engines, and data and AI platforms. Unified Governance: Unity Catalog OSS enables unified governance across tabular data, non-tabular data, and AI assets such as ML models and generative AI tools, simplifying management, discovery, and development at scale. Openness: With open APIs and an Apache 2.0 licensed open source server, Unity Catalog OSS maximizes flexibility and customer choice by enabling broad interoperability across various engines, tools, and platforms. Industry and Partner Support Unity Catalog OSS is the industry’s only universal catalog for data and AI. Since its introduction in 2021, Unity Catalog has helped over 10,000 organizations break down silos created by multiple single-purpose solutions. Customer Testimonials: Supporting Cloud Partners: Supporting Data and AI Partners: The Future of Data and AI Governance With the open-sourcing of Unity Catalog, Databricks continues to lead in data and AI governance, fostering an ecosystem of interoperable tools, universal support for data and AI assets, and built-in security. Unity Catalog OSS will be available at the Data + AI Summit, furthering Databricks’ mission to empower organizations with the tools needed for modern data and AI applications. Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Salesforce Unified Knowledge

Salesforce Unified Knowledge

Salesforce Inc. is introducing a novel feature within its Data Cloud data lake, addressing the growing need for organizations to develop their own artificial intelligence models. This new feature, termed Unified Knowledge, integrates data from various third-party sources into the Data Cloud, facilitating the collection and curation of data crucial for training AI models, particularly for customer service agents. Unified Knowledge enables the importation of unstructured data into the Data Cloud, where it undergoes transformation, tagging, and quality assurance processes. This feature, developed in collaboration with Zoomin, primarily targets the enhancement of Salesforce’s Einstein for Service customer support application. However, its data integration capabilities extend to other Salesforce applications like Sales Cloud, Health Cloud, Financial Services Cloud, and Field Service. The administrative setup process for Unified Knowledge is described as relatively straightforward. Within Salesforce’s knowledge management tool, tagging tools are available, and once content is integrated into the system, much of the content can be automatically processed. Data from external sources such as Microsoft’s SharePoint, Atlassian’s Confluence, Google Drive and YouTube, Amazon Web Services’ S3 storage, Adobe’s Experience Platform, Guru Technologies’ Guru, Zendesk’s customer service platform, and company websites can be utilized to train customer-facing answer bots, streamline employee access to internal information, and facilitate quick searches within company knowledge bases. Unified Knowledge is available in a free beta test for Salesforce customers with Service Cloud Unlimited Edition, Einstein 1 Service Edition, or the Knowledge Add-On. A freemium version of Unified Knowledge will continue to be included with those applications, with Salesforce Lightning Knowledge being a requirement and Classic Knowledge not being supported. In essence, Unified Knowledge aims to consolidate organizational knowledge from disparate third-party systems into Salesforce, thereby improving service agent efficiency, resolving customer cases faster, and enhancing the quality and accuracy of generative AI content. By Tectonic Salesforce Marketing Architect, Shannan Hearne. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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AWS Salesforce

AWS AppFabric Supports Salesforce

Today, AWS AppFabric announces support for three new data sources: Salesforce, Azure Monitor, and Google Analytics. Starting now, IT administrators and security analysts can use AppFabric to quickly integrate with 29 supported SaaS applications, aggregate enriched and normalized SaaS audit logs, and audit end-user access across their SaaS apps.  AWS AppFabric Supports Salesforce. AWS AppFabric quickly connects SaaS applications with security tools like Barracuda XDR, Dynatrace, Logz.io, Netskope, NetWitness, Rapid7, and Splunk, or data lakes like Amazon Security Lake. With AppFabric, IT and security teams can more easily manage and secure SaaS applications by aggregating and normalizing log data into a central repository, and employees can soon complete everyday tasks faster using generative artificial intelligence (AI). With today’s announcement, IT and security analysts can improve their SaaS security posture across 29 SaaS applications without managing application specific API integrations. AWS AppFabric is generally available in the following AWS Regions: US East (N. Virginia), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), and Europe (Ireland). AWS AppFabric Supports Salesforce What is AWS AppFabric? AppFabric quickly connects software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications across your organization. IT and security teams can then easily manage and secure applications using a standard schema, and employees can complete everyday tasks faster using generative artificial intelligence (AI). The core of the data fabric architecture is a data management platform that enables the full breadth of integrated data management capabilities including discovery, governance, curation, and orchestration . Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Salesforce OmniStudio Summer 24 Release Notes

Salesforce OmniStudio Summer 24 Release Notes

In Summer ’24, OmniStudio (when the Managed Package Runtime setting is disabled) supports features from OmniStudio for Vlocity, including filling address fields in omniscripts with Google Map data, using Salesforce private connect for HTTP actions in integration procedures, and choosing whether to merge entries within a list in an integration procedure list action. Also, DataRaptor is now Omnistudio Data Mapper. For Winter ’25 upgrades, disable New Order Save Behavior. To prepare for future releases, remove organization and profile standard objects from data mappers, remove OmniStudio components with unlocked packages, and check the impact of the date change in the ADDDAY function return. Salesforce OmniStudio Summer 24 Release Notes. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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