In order to compete today, enterprises have to offer staff and customers a fast, secure and flexible experience that’s up to the task of responding to a dizzying array of business needs. Trends and market needs can evolve as rapidly as a weather system, making an agile platform vital to keeping companies in tune with the business-critical demands.  Business critical processes are core activities that are essential to meeting an organization’s mission — such as paying bills, making appointments, filling out time sheets, applying for permits, or filing a claim. Some of these processes are invisible to the customer and some can be seen.  This includes the fulfillment of company operations, protection of assets, and satisfying of regulatory requirements, and occur on all levels of an organization.    Whether it’s centered on sales and marketing, accounting and finance, HR, or customer service, these business activities can be optimized by the platform they’re on, or not.  A dynamic publishing platform that can handle the business-critical needs of a company, regardless of industry, is a distinct advantage for enterprises in competitive markets.  With all the factors to be considered, what are 3 capabilities an elite publishing platform needs to have?   Data Security and Privacy  There’s a saying that a band is only as good as its drummer, and the same is true for the technology and security of digital experiences and platforms.  The greatest user interface in the world is worthless if it's not secure from digital threats.    Ensuring a secure platform includes protecting private data while it’s on-site and in-transit, with encryption that is flexible enough to connect users anytime anywhere while meeting all industry compliance requirements.    If that sounds like a tough balancing act, well that’s because it is. But you don’t want a beautiful guitar solo being drowned out by a wildly inconsistent drumbeat, so it’s worth investing in the...

Hosting a digital enterprise platform on a cloud-native setting sounds like a dream: more speed, agility, scalability, integration, and cost-savings. But is a cloud-native environment so different from a cloud-hosted one, and how do those differences manifest in workflow solutions for enterprise companies?   Let’s look at what makes a cloud-native digital experience unique, and why the distinctions in capability are important.   Cloud-native means more than just a digital platform   Cloud-native describes not just an environment but an approach to design and deployment.  It is a more progressive use of cloud technology that goes beyond the previously accepted benefits — primarily storage and convenience — and features applications designed specifically to run on the cloud.    By being “native” to the cloud — built for the cloud from day one — these applications have a scale and deployment velocity that can’t be easily matched by on-premise or even cloud hosted platforms.  Enterprise companies that adopt a cloud native system can tap into a digital experience built to thrive in a constantly evolving digital workspace where time matters more than ever.    Cloud-native is not the same as cloud-hosted  It could sound obvious, but it’s worth mentioning because understanding the differences between the two systems can help shine a light on the advantages of cloud-native infrastructure.    Cloud-hosted applications are designed for on-premise environments but are deployed and managed from the cloud by a service provider.  This model was originally born from a desire to save money by shifting premises systems from a capital expense to an operating expense, saving enterprises the added financial burden of capital expense costs.    A cloud-hosted system is a compromise which combines some aspects of cloud storage and management with legacy systems of security, maintenance and infrastructure.  Cloud-hosted services, however, can still be bogged down by clunky and time-consuming updating protocol and can be more difficult to scale as needed.  Whereas cloud-native services and applications are designed strictly for cloud environments and can respond accordingly.    ...

Developers are becoming increasingly used to hearing the names Kubernetes and Docker in conjunction with one another. They’re both technologies associated with containers (packages of software that include all of the parts required to run an app, like the code and system libraries), but a common misconception is that they’re competing solutions. Developers might be familiar with “Kubernetes vs. Docker” discussions when, in fact, using Kubernetes with Docker is an excellent method of running containerized applications. But to understand what that means, we first have to look at what each platform does separately.  What Does Docker do?  Docker is currently the most popular container platform. In this context, containers are the solution to a classic developer dilemma: Often developers will write code that works perfectly well on their own machine, but fails when they try to implement it into the program it needs to live in. Containers are the solution to this dilemma — developers can package their code into one cohesive container image, which can then be run on any computer that also hosts a container platform.   30% of enterprise companies use Docker, and that number is steadily rising. If a developer can benefit from containerization, chances are they’ll look to Docker for their solution.  So, What Does Kubernetes Do, and How are They Related?  Now that you have a grasp on what Docker does and why it’s an important tool to be aware of, the first thing that’s important to understand about the Docker/Kubernetes relationship is that the two technologies serve fundamentally different purposes. As the Container Journal nicely put it, “Kubernetes takes containerization technology ... and turns it up to 11.”   Kubernetes arrived as a solution to the next conundrum that comes with containerization: Now that the containers exist, how can they be organized? If Docker is in charge of packaging and distributing an application, Kubernetes is in charge of scaling and monitoring those...

If you’re looking for the latest version of IBM Websphere Portal you’ve come to the right place. IBM Websphere Portal (IBM Digital Experience) became HCL Digital Experience back in 2019 and since then has released two major updates making HCL Digital Experience the most flexible and compatible digital experience platform on the market today.  As HCL Digital Experience, IBM Websphere Portal, has undergone a major transformation. HCL Digital Experience built upon the legendary reliability and security of IBM Websphere Portal by adding future ready features and intuitive UI redesigns to boost productivity by up to 60% and increase your ROI by up to 661%.  The New Features in HCL Digital Experience  With these new revolutionary updates, HCL Digital Experience (DX) currently ranks highest worldwide amongst providers of web experience management solutions. When organizations partner with HCL DX, they can expect:   The Ability to Integrate all the Things!  HCL DX delivers customer-centric and personalized experiences by integrating your organization’s data, services, and workflows to fully integrate your current technology stack into Digital Experience. The new Experience API interface makes it easy to manage all your API connections in an easy drag and drop way.   New Reliable and Scalable Technology  HCL Digital Experience utilizes Docker and Kubernetes to provide rapid installation, near-zero downtime and auto-scale capabilities. The automated provisioning, load balancing, and self-healing that Kubernetes offers significantly reduce the total cost of site ownership as well. Read more on how the State of Ohio was able to utilize these new features to handle a 3000% increase in traffic.   Rock-Solid Security and SSO  Intelligence-agency-grade encryption and cross-system authentication, even while at rest, is built into the core of HCL Digital Experience. Single Sign-On (SSO) ensures that team members can be securely authenticated and jump right into their secured, protected work.   New Practitioner-Friendly Tools  HCL Digital Experience took the robust content authoring capabilities of IBM Websphere Portal and turned it up to an 11 with a new reimagined user interface that dramatically reduces the learning curve and enables content to be created in half the time. Quickly build new content that responds to the market and industry needs without having to rely on IT. As agility is an increasingly important team...

An intranet is a private, secure computer network that is only accessible internally (thus, the “in” in its prefix) to a company’s employees.  Intranets surfaced in tandem with the internet in the 1990s and exist as a secure alternative to the public internet network that could be used by anyone online. It can be an integral tool for enterprises looking to improve employee communication and engagement. Employment engagement is key to an organization’s success. A recent Gallup study1 said that only a third of employees are truly engaged in their work — and that organizations with higher engagement levels are not only more productive, they achieve four times higher earnings per share growth.  An intranet platform provides enterprises with useful collaboration tools that can open up dialogue among co-workers while streamlining certain processes within the organization as a whole. A good one also serves as a vital tool for sharing HR and other information, as well as providing operational and computer services within an organization. Let’s look at five ways the intranet can boost productivity in the workplace.  1. Improved Communication  Not only can it act as a direct link between staff from all departments within a sprawling organizational flow chart, it can host blogs and forums that provide employees with a unique outlet to collaborate. An intranet network can allow employees to communicate in creative and empowering ways that might not otherwise occur, promoting a much-needed sense of community. Given the way the world has moved more toward remote work, this is more important than ever.   Intranets can have communities and discussion boards, so that instead of employees having to sift through an unwieldy company directory to find another staff member, they can easily use the intranet to connect with them and quickly enhance the work they are doing.   Additionally, an intranet network can distribute company updates, alerts and action items efficiently to everyone, saving time and streamlining internal...