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Prolifics’ Out-of-the-Box Business Approach
Out-of-the-box thinking – it’s thinking in a new, imaginative and innovative way that delivers creative solutions with quality results. During IBM’s Think, the Cube’s Victor Dabrinze interviewed our own Kirsten Craft, Head of Business Development and Marketing here at Prolifics, to learn more about this approach and how it helps Prolifics’ clients gain advantage in their space!
Migrating Away from SAS – You Can Do It!
Statistical Analytics System (SAS) is software used for data analysis. It’s the most widely used data science platform across the globe, so if your organization uses it, you’re in good company. However, SAS is a legacy environment that many organizations find problematic. As with any mature legacy system with tentacles wending their way through an organization’s operating systems, a SAS environment requires a great deal of upkeep — to operate properly, it must be updated and upgraded frequently, which requires purchasing a lot of licenses, and that results in a high cost of ownership.
How Do You Reduce Your Reliance on SAS?
What executives often don’t realize is that there are not only many cloud platform options, but plenty of migration paths, all of which have their own benefits and levels of cost savings.
Why Do Organizations Migrate to the Cloud?
Most organizations cite seven main reasons behind their choice to migrate to the cloud. Read about those reasons here.
Different Migration Paths
- Replatform: This migration path requires very few changes to an organization’s existing legacy code. Instead, systems are simply redeployed to a new platform. Some businesses might choose this method as a proof of concept before undertaking a more complex migration method. It also could serve as a migration’s first phase, before shifting to a second.
- Refactor: In this migration path, a system’s general functionality is not altered, but legacy code is translated to the Python programming language, and technical debt, which is created when development decisions prioritize speed over design, is reduced. An organization may choose to stop at this point, or refactoring can be a step on the path toward total replacement.
- Replace: For a migration that implements a total platform replacement, legacy code is fundamentally rewritten in order to optimize and modernize an organization’s systems and allow them greater ability to innovate. This option requires decision-makers to take part in a Design Workshop, which helps them imagine the possibilities a modern platform would allow and choose the landscape that would best serve them.
What is PAM?
Prolifics literally wrote the book on migrating from a legacy system to a modern cloud architecture environment. Our experts created a business-sensitive Prolifics Agile Migration (PAM) process manual. This manual provides definition, formality and rigor around the process, and provides a jumping off point to create a unique solution for your organization.
Regardless of the path you choose, however, two things are evident: thorough testing is imperative, and Python must be the programming language used to build the new platform.
Why Does the World Love Python?
Python is an agile, sophisticated and robust open-source programming language widely used for data science, and it is the most downloaded one in the world. Dr. G opines that it is above and beyond SAS in data science, and he believes that any organization considering a move to modern cloud architecture has to make Python part of the equation. “The reality is that Python is eroding legacy scripting languages, like SAS,” he said. “These legacy scripting languages evaporate because they’re islands — they are not a part of an integrated system.”
Because it doesn’t require licenses and allows users to pick and choose only the pieces of code they need, Python offers the flexibility and cost savings that legacy scripting languages can’t.
FUN FACT: Legend says that when Guido van Rossum began to implement Python, he was reading scripts of the 1970s BBC television show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” which served as naming inspiration. Presumably, he thought “Python” was a better name than “Silly Walk.”
Let Prolifics Take Charge of Your Migration
Prolifics takes cloud migration, which seems to many organizations an insurmountable task, and breaks it down into a series of simple steps that will help your organization reach its modernization goals.
- Download the Prolifics Agile Migration (PAM) process manual, Prolifics’ business-sensitive approach to cloud migration
- Schedule one of our customized workshops — we offer a range of workshops that can do everything from help you dream of the possibilities that modernization offers to educate your team on how to effectively use the new operating system
- Have our experts walk you through the process
Connect with us at solutions@prolifics.com.
Who Is Dr. G?
Michael L. Gonzales, Ph.D., (Dr. G) is Prolifics’ chief data scientist and an active practitioner in the IT space with more than 30 years of industry experience. He specializes in the formulation of business analytics that give competitive advantages to global organizations. Dr. Gonzales is a successful author, industry speaker, published researcher and lifetime Mensa member.
About Prolifics
The Shape of Today’s Cloud – 7 Things You Need to Consider
As kids (okay, and as adults too), we’d gaze at the shapes of clouds in the sky and talk about what they looked like to us. Today, in a technology context, the shape of your cloud takes on a whole new, and much more important, meaning when you’re talking cloud migration.
Whether you’re leaving your on-prem systems behind, or looking to jump from your current cloud set-up, you need to take a hard look at your prospective new cloud homes. Make sure you compare the qualities and benefits in each cloud provider, so you get the combination that’s right for your business goals – not all clouds are created equal.
Here are seven things to think about when you’re gazing at the tech clouds and contemplating migration:
1) Cost. As compared to on-premise, cloud saves you big money on hardware, maintenance and related infrastructure (like climate-controlled rooms). It also frees up IT staff to do more important work. Yet, among the big cloud service providers, things like optimized computing pricing; per second pricing; and available commitment discounts vary, as do data storage and movement costs. While these charges may seem similar on paper, you could save tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars based on choosing the right cloud platform for how your business runs.
2) Scalability. Clouds are certainly scalable. But make sure you only pay for what you need; and know whether you have to purchase access or pay a scheduled fee to scale up or down.
3) Availability and redundancy. What’s the cloud vendor’s uptime guarantee? A 99.95 percent guarantee still means about ½ a workday down in total over a year. But – do uptime guarantees come with any additional costs associated with redundancy? Does it cost you more to get to 99.99 percent?
4) Security and Access. What’s the provider’s approach to security? Have there been any breaches? What enhanced measures are in place? On the flip side, can you access your data at any place (e.g., remotely), method (e.g., mobile) and time?
5) Compliance. Similar to security, does your provider meet all needed provisions for government regulations, like privacy regulations or PII protections? Especially consider the compliance regulations or certifications most important to your industry and company.
6) Compatibility. Again, not all clouds are created equal. There could be compatibility issues with operating systems, apps, image formats – issues you need to know about before you choose your provider, not in the middle of a migration.
7) Lock-in. You may have felt locked-in with your aging on-prem systems or the cloud set-up you’re looking to leave. Don’t let it happen again. Does the provider have high fees for data transition or transfer? Is there a claw back of those original commitment discounts? Know your exit strategy so the next move isn’t a surprise mix of costs and difficulties.
So, keep your eyes skyward and if you need help finding your right cloud shape, feel free to connect with us at solutions@prolifics.com.
About Prolifics
The Open Source Database Trifecta: Innovative, Business-Friendly, Cheaper
Has it always been this way?
It’s there every day you come to work, waiting for you, month after month, year after year. Maybe it’s always been there. If you’re old enough, you may have a vague recollection of what came before it, but otherwise, yes – it’s always been there. Your old, commercial technology databases chugging away on your old on-prem or cloud appliance architecture.
Can it be different? It seems to be a tough sell. This old database / old architecture combo is literally your business. It’s ingrained into every part of your organization. You could have thousands and thousands of users. And it’s still considered by many people – especially the old-timers – to be secure, available and consistent. And others are just too nervous to suggest any type of move.
Yet, there are changes in the air. Data is exploding exponentially – and you can’t seem to get a grip on it, let alone analyze it. If you try to do something different with your current technology – say, something innovative – your provider’s license and audit police wag their finger and say, “no, no, no…” The only solution offered by them is to buy more of the same old stuff. But your budget keeps going down, and they make you buy whole bundles of things you don’t need just to get the pieces you do. And some of what you have is truly end-of-life – the provider will no longer support it. Something’s got to give, and you have to find a way out.
Open source databases on a modern cloud – the new way
You know about open source. A community? To you it seems more like the wild, wild West. Is open source validated, certified, stable, secure? Well, today’s subject matter experts will tell you yes – this isn’t your father’s open source anymore. Organizations give into and take from it – meaning it’s constantly evolving and getting better. There are companies out there that will work with you to innovate the open source to what you need. Draconian licenses are gone. Customer-centric, business friendly terms are in. And your budget? Remember, it’s open source – you’re starting at free. How about a low-cost, innovative, object-oriented (not relational) database?
So where does this database zip (not chug) around on? On a modern cloud architecture. But, cloud decisions are important – while you already know the value proposition of the cloud, you need to choose the right one for your database and business.
Learn more!
Join us for the next episode of Innovation Sandbox, where Prolifics’ Chief Data Scientist Michael Gonzales, PhD (“Dr. G”) will host Tom Rieger, Senior Solutions Engineer for EDB. EDB is a leading contributor to open-source database system PostgreSQL. They’ll discuss modern databases on modern architecture – where there is innovation, business-friendly terms, and less (much less) cost.
Innovation Sandbox – “Commercial databases? You CAN check out anytime you like…”
- Thursday, September 23, 10-10:30 a.m. ET
- Prolifics TV
Prolifics Partners with EDB to Offer Modernization with Savings
Prolifics, a global digital transformation leader, expands its list of advanced technology partnerships with the addition of EDB, a leading contributor to open-source database system PostgreSQL. The partnership combines the migration and integration process methodology expertise of Prolifics and the vast experience of EDB in getting the most out of PostgreSQL for its clients.
Working with EDB allows Prolifics to expand its solutions in today’s key areas such as:
- Migrations that replace older and more expensive legacy database technologies to reduce capital expenditures and support costs; eliminate redundant data; and reduce data center costs
- Modernization that reduces vendor lock-in; allows for faster and more nimble development; and provides easier provisioning and administration
- Development of new apps that are readily scalable, secure and modernized for on-prem, hybrid or cloud deployments
- Cloud re-platforming that effectively identifies cloud-ready workloads; utilizes containers more efficiently; reduces the data center footprint; and makes it easier overall to commit to the cloud
Prolifics Chief Data Scientist Michael Gonzales, PhD said, “For open-source database technology, PostgreSQL is the way to go, and EDB has a long track record of helping clients use PostgreSQL to its fullest. Prolifics has the assessment and roadmap know-how to move and connect data to avoid business disruptions and generate value faster. Together, it’s a win-win combination.”
“With Prolifics, EDB has a partner with a wealth of resources and expertise in digital transformation, which complements our approach to offering databases and tools that extend PostgreSQL for the enterprise. Together, we’ll create greater opportunities for our end users to build more agile, innovative businesses with enterprise-class performance, security and manageability.” said Mike Coffield, VP of Global Alliances and Channels at EDB.
About Prolifics
Prolifics is a global digital transformation leader with expertise in Data & AI, Integration & Applications, Business Automation, DevXOps, Test Automation, and Cybersecurity across multiple industries. We provide consulting, engineering and managed services for all our practice areas at any point our clients need them. Vision to Value. Faster. It’s not just the Prolifics’ tagline, it’s what drives us. Email solutions@prolifics.com or visit us at prolifics.com.
For media inquiries, contact Pamela Roman at 818-877-0073 or pamela.roman@prolifics.com.
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PROLIFICS NEWS – Prolifics Agile Integration Modernization Solution Recognized by IBM
ORLANDO, FLA., May 20, 2021 – Prolifics, a global digital transformation leader and a longtime IBM business partner, is thrilled to announce that IBM named Prolifics as a finalist in its 2021 Beacon Awards. Our “E&U Agile Integration Modernization” solution is recognized in IBM’s “Outstanding Application & Integration Modernization Solution” award category.
Now in their 22nd year, the IBM Beacon Awards celebrate the next generation of innovators, creators and thinkers that use IBM technology, like hybrid cloud and AI, to power innovative solutions for partners and their clients.
Prolifics’ E&U Agile Integration Modernization solution specifically serves energy and utility (E&U) companies that are facing challenges in our current digital environment. Today’s customers demand open, transparent and real-time access to their usage, billing and outage information over various platforms, in a self-service environment. Regulatory agencies connect rates to new kinds of key performance indicators (KPIs), often based on customer satisfaction, efficiencies and cost ratios. E&U companies face non-traditional competition and must look for new revenue streams from non-traditional sources. But these E&U companies cannot begin to deal with any of this if they’re operating older and outdated legacy systems.
Prolifics E&U Agile Integration Modernization solution is a key enabler for E&U modernization initiatives. It is built on IBM Hybrid Cloud Technology (IBM Cloud Pak for Integration) with accelerators and assets specifically curated to lead a successful, agile integration – in fact, a digital transformation – for E&U companies. Prolifics E&U Agile Integration Modernization helps companies move from a point-to-point or legacy integration model to a Hybrid Cloud integration platform. This change can be accelerated leveraging a number of assets we have as well as our experience in Hybrid Cloud deployments.
The Prolifics E&U Agile Integration Modernization solution helps utilities rise to the higher level of expectation from consumers and transform their organizations to operate in more of a customer-focused, innovative style that the market demands. The end result is a modernized, automated, secured approach to energy management – with a platform to support future innovation such as increased customer engagement through the use of predictive analytics.
Prolifics CEO Satya Bolli stated, “Energy and utility companies are the most critical component of our infrastructure. This solution speaks directly to their specific issues and situations, and it helps move them into the digital environment they need for their long-term growth, success and security.”
About Prolifics
Prolifics is a global digital transformation leader with expertise in Data & AI, Integration & Applications, Business Automation, DevXOps, Test Automation, and Cybersecurity across multiple industries. We provide consulting, engineering and managed services for all our practice areas at any point our clients need them. Vision to Value. Faster. It’s not just the Prolifics’ tagline, it’s what drives us.
Email solutions@prolifics.com or visit us at www.prolifics.com.
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PROLIFICS NEWS – IBM Recognizes Prolifics’ Healthcare Interoperability Solution (Quick FHIR)
ORLANDO, FLA., May 20, 2021 – Prolifics, a global digital transformation leader and a longtime IBM business partner, is thrilled to announce that IBM named Prolifics as a finalist in its 2021 Beacon Awards. Our “Prolifics Healthcare Interoperability with Quick FHIR” solution is recognized in IBM’s “Best Hybrid Cloud Value to Client” award category.
Now in their 22nd year, IBM Beacon Awards celebrate the next generation of exceptional innovators, creators and thinkers that use IBM technology, like hybrid cloud and AI, to power innovative solutions for partners and their clients.
As the healthcare industry moves to value-based care, both providers and payers must have access to a more holistic view of patients through easy-to-use tools. These tools must consolidate patient data across all of the scattered silos that exist today. To overcome those silos of information, organizations must implement data sharing through interoperability across systems, enabled by new standards – the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, or FHIR (pronounced “fire”) – published by Health Level Seven International (HL7).
Prolifics Healthcare Interoperability with Quick FHIR provides that data sharing backbone. It is a digital healthcare integration, interoperability and data platform based around FHIR. It allows organizations to share and consume data using FHIR application programming interface (API) standards, expose existing data behind these APIs, produce data insights from machine learning (ML) models trained on aggregated sets of FHIR data, and integrate the APIs, data and insights into digital business applications in the Cloud, on-premises, or a Hybrid Cloud platform.
Leveraging IBM Cloud Pak for Integration and Cloud Pak for Data, we have architected a secure solution to be modular in nature so that organizations can choose to implement either the entire solution set or individual modules. Our Quick FHIR solution can run on premise, in the cloud, or on a hybrid cloud platform. Unlike other existing solutions in the market, our solution addresses the complete set of FHIR aspects – 1) FHIR APIs, 2) FHIR data, and 3) data insights by applying artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI/ML) to aggregated FHIR data.
Prolifics CEO Satya Bolli stated, “Healthcare payers and providers know that interoperability is a ‘when,’ not ‘if,’ scenario, and the ‘when’ is coming very quickly. Our solution gives healthcare companies a path that addresses their interoperability needs with options and modules to do it on their terms.”
About Prolifics
Prolifics is a global digital transformation leader with expertise in Data & AI, Integration & Applications, Business Automation, DevXOps, Test Automation, and Cybersecurity across multiple industries. We provide consulting, engineering and managed services for all our practice areas at any point our clients need them. Vision to Value. Faster. It’s not just the Prolifics’ tagline, it’s what drives us. Email solutions@prolifics.com or visit us at www.prolifics.com.
Prolifics Named IBM Think Build Grow Winner
Prolifics, a global digital transformation leader and a long-time IBM business partner, is proud to announce IBM has selected Prolifics as one of its 2020 IBM Think Build Grow winners.
Think Build Grow is a part of IBM PartnerWorld. It recognizes achievements in innovation, leveraging cloud and AI technologies.
Prolifics’ winning submission was its “Quick FHIR” solution leveraged with IBM’s Cloud Pak for Integration and Cloud Pak for Data. Prolifics Quick FHIR is a digital healthcare integration and data platform based on the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards for exchanging electronic health records. Quick FHIR allows organizations to easily use and share information with application programming interfaces (APIs) and use artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) to derive useful, actionable insights from de-identified data.
“The increasing need for participants in the medical industry to quickly share data has driven the popularity of the FHIR standard, aimed to help ease the challenges of data sharing and interoperability, said Greg Hodgkinson, Prolifics Chief Technology Officer. “Our winning submission, Quick FHIR built on IBM Cloud Paks, was designed to help healthcare organizations better share and leverage healthcare data, ideally leading to improved healthcare outcomes and reduced claims processing costs.”
About Think Build Grow
Interested organizations register and submit business plans for the development of next generation solutions on the IBM Watson and Cloud platform. IBM provides resources such as Cloud credits, subject matter expert (SME) workshops, code patterns, hackathons, and incentives to build solutions using the applicant’s intellectual property and IBM technology. In addition, there is a co-created go-to-market strategy and launch, with dedicated IBM resources for brand and digital marketing support.
About Prolifics
Prolifics is a global digital transformation leader with expertise in cloud, data and analytics, DevOps, digital business, and quality assurance across multiple industries. We provide consulting, engineering, and managed services for all our practice areas at any point you need them – giving you fast, complete solution delivery experiences that you will find nowhere else. Whether it’s initial advising and strategy; design and implementation; or ongoing analysis and guidance, Prolifics will help you take charge of your digital future. Visit www.prolifics.com.
Media Contact: Pam Romanemail: PamelaRoman@prolifics.comphone: 818-877-0073
What’s Integration Without Visibility?
Interoperability – the frictionless, secure exchange of electronic health data – is an ongoing goal for all healthcare organizations, whether payer, provider or otherwise healthcare related. If we define interoperability as being among different organizations, then it all has to start with integration within any one organization. You can’t effectively share with others if your own internal systems are siloed and don’t communicate well.
And while integration is key, there are different integration methods that provide great benefits and opportunities to an organization, outside of the integration itself. At Prolifics, we don’t believe that integration should just be a “black box” connecting A to B to C. The company should be able to see, collect and work with data and information anywhere along the new integration pathways.
So, as part of our Healthcare Integration Kit projects, we offer Global Transaction Monitoring (GTM), a solution built with the latest emerging technologies. It provides a customized, document-centric, end-to-end transaction tracking framework and automated managed file transfer. GTM minimizes data changes while still achieving end-to-end integration. GTM captures, records, and exposes events, made visible via customized dashboards and tracked in accordance with user-defined key performance indicators (KPIs). In addition, it offers reporting and filtering to help with self-service requests to track transactions and documents.
Honda Bhyat, Prolifics Integration Practice Director, said, “We believe that the integration and storage processes should ‘match the data.’ This means that data retains its business terminology and document-centricity, so that everyone who works with the data is already familiar with it and understands it. This is true visibility that comes out of integration, and that’s the real value to business operations people. Instead of data being dispersed into relational databases, we create ‘electronic filing cabinets’ that layer complete histories. For example, data for a healthcare insurance claim will show the original claim, the payment history, dates, places and any related issues or problems, all together – the complete digital trail in just a few clicks. Business people can readily access this, and no longer need to rely on IT queries and reports. Our clients are amazed by the views and drill downs they can do from a dashboard format. It’s a dream for compliance and auditing. Clients refer to it as their own ‘portal’ into their organizations’ data.”