HUGE thinking

September 21, 2017September 21, 2017

Cooling off with #teampixel

We loved all of the enjoyable within the solar with #teampixel this summer time. From a whirlwind tour across the globe to getting one with nature, our Pixel photographers shared some gorgeous pictures that gave us the chills (in a great way). Before we head into fall, we’re paying one final homage to the hotter months with a sequence spotlighting the cooler tones. Thanks for preserving us cool this summer time, #teampixel. 😎

Shout out to @nemod96, whose picture is featured above and makes an look on our Instagram immediately. Tag your images with #teampixel and you would be featured, too.

Jacuzzi vibes with @mrlipsticks
Swimming in azul waters by @ajay__bhargav
Nothing however blue skies by @s_raisoni
Taking in Lake Ohau with @melancholik_me
Shadow combat by @nemod96
Soft neons by @demetrapanaretou
Pomeranian smiles with @itsveraaaa and driving in type by @vlad_sar

September 21, 2017September 21, 2017

How Google went all in on video conferences (and you may, too)

Editor’s be aware: that is the primary article in a five-part collection on Google Hangouts.

I’ve labored at Google for greater than a decade and have seen the corporate increase throughout geographies—together with to Stockholm the place I’ve labored from day one. My coworkers and I construct video conferencing expertise to assist world groups work higher collectively.

It’s typically straightforward to neglect what life was like earlier than face-to-face video conferencing (VC) at work, however we struggled with lots of the similar points that different firms cope with—cobbled collectively communication applied sciences, dropped calls, costly options. Here’s a have a look at how we transitioned Google to be a cloud video meeting-first firm.

2004 – 2007: Life earlier than Hangouts

In the mid-2000s, Google underwent explosive progress. We grew from practically 3,000 staff to greater than 17,000 throughout 40 places of work globally. Historically, we relied on conventional convention cellphone bridging and e-mail to speak throughout time zones, however cellphone calls don’t precisely encourage creativity and tone will get misplaced in translation with e-mail threads.

We realized that the expertise we used didn’t mirror how our groups really wish to work collectively. If I wish to type out an issue or current an thought, I’d somewhat be face-to-face with my workforce, not ready idly on a convention bridge line.

Google determined to go all in on video conferences. We outsourced proprietary video conferencing (VC) expertise and outfitted massive assembly rooms with these units.

If I have to type out an issue or current an thought, I’d somewhat be face-to-face with my workforce, not ready idly on a convention bridge line.

While revolutionary, this VC expertise was extraordinarily expensive. Each unit may value upwards of $50,000, and that didn’t embrace help, licensing and community upkeep charges. To complicate issues, the items have been powered by advanced, on-prem infrastructure and required a number of help technicians. By 2007, practically 2,400 rooms have been outfitted with the expertise.

Then we broke it.

The system was constructed to host conferences for workforce members within the workplace, however did not cater to folks on the go. As increasingly Googlers used video conferences, we reached most capability on the expertise’s infrastructure and skilled frequent dropped calls and poor audio/visible (AV) high quality. I even bear in mind one of many VC bridges catching on fireplace! We needed to make a change.

2008 – 2013: Taking issues into our personal palms

In 2008, we constructed our personal VC answer that would sustain with the speed at which we have been rising. We scaled with software program and moved conferences to the cloud.

Our earliest “Hangouts” prototype was Gmail Video Chat, a approach to join with contacts immediately in Gmail. Hours after releasing the service to the general public, it had a whole bunch of 1000’s of customers.

September 21, 2017September 21, 2017

Transforming Chile’s well being sector with connectivity

Editor’s notice: From immediate entry to medical data, to telemedicine in rural areas, connectivity within the well being sector has the ability to enhance lives. In this visitor submit, Soledad Munoz Lopez, CIO of the Chilean Ministry of Health, shares with us how Chile carried out a nationwide API-based structure to assist carry higher well being to thousands and thousands.

Not way back, Chile’s Ministry of Health (MINSAL) confronted an infinite problem. Chile’s 1,400 related well being services and 1,000 distant medical services lacked connectivity, and lots of of its healthcare techniques couldn’t simply interoperate. This meant healthcare suppliers couldn’t all the time anticipate to have quick and easy accessibility to medical data.

Earlier efforts to centralize and handle medical data throughout services fell aside as a result of they have been pricey and much too laborious. And consequently, we missed out on numerous alternatives. We got here to understand that we wanted a brand new method to IT structure.

To assist be sure that information, functions and companies are securely obtainable when and the place they’re wanted, I’m serving to to steer the implementation of a nationwide API-based structure, powered by Google Cloud’s Apigee. From facilitating smoother public-private partnerships to enabling wider use of companies resembling telemedicine, we see this as a vital and aggressive transfer to quickly enhance wellness for our thousands and thousands of residents and guests.

The API-first structure aligns with a wide range of MINSAL’s healthcare efforts, together with a nationwide program to attach unconnected healthcare facilities, and a plan to digitize all clinic and administrative processes, each for main hospitals and native clinics and first care facilities. It additionally helps MINSAL’s strategic work, resembling higher leveraging information and connectivity for public alerts, inhabitants well being administration packages and the Public Health Surveillance initiatives wanted for planning and execution of public well being coverage.

Connecting Chile’s healthcare system

One of the first areas of concern addressed by the brand new digital structure is the benefit and velocity of integration. As famous above, it’s vital that every time a affected person is handled wherever in Chile, the scientific groups and the affected person have entry to all the knowledge that has been generated for that affected person, no matter the place this data was recorded. This contains information from different well being clinics, public or personal establishments, laboratories, radiology and pictures and scientific tools.

This number of information sources typifies the various heterogenous surroundings that an API-first structure wants to deal with: functions, units, affected person document techniques, administration techniques, scheduling and so forth. Most of those items throughout the MINSAL ecosystem have been by no means designed to interoperate. We selected an API-first method as a result of APIs summary all of this back-end complexity into predictable, constant interfaces that permit builders to extra rapidly and effectively join information, companies and apps throughout the nationwide system. The result’s a extra seamless expertise for medical doctors and sufferers and a safe however agile infrastructure for MINSAL.

In a earlier try to effectively and scalably combine well being data, began in 2005, Chile utilized a centralized SOA-based structure. This technique turned out to be an costly and rigid strategy to attempt to obtain interoperability. The integration bills have been projected to require at the very least thrice the present funds—untenable in a rustic the place the entire funds for growth of scientific data is about $40 million yearly.

Yet far bigger are the prices to the customers of an unconnected system, together with pointless journey, duplication of exams and out of pocket prices typically.

Working with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and native system integrators resembling Tecnodata, MINSAL is implementing a well being techniques expertise funding technique that’s way more environment friendly. The API-based structure permits any IT skilled in any of Chile’s organizations, services, establishments and suppliers to onboard their data techniques in an organized, safer, self-service method.

This helps make the nationwide program way more scalable, and entails native business consultants extra intently. In addition, these entities can proceed to evolve their very own native techniques as they want, so long as they’re compliant with the widespread integration technique. MINSAL has established the coverage that every one information data be primarily based on API-centric requirements like FHIR and HL7, with pictures primarily based on DICOM.

All of those connectivity and interoperability efforts assist allow vital companies that profit Chilean residents, resembling telemedicine. Telemedicine, which permits sufferers to keep away from pointless journey and relocation whereas below medical care, is very developed in 5 specialties in Chile: teledermatology, teleophthalmology, telenephrology, teleradiology and tele-electrocardiography.

An API platform for a wholesome future

The Apigee platform has been the accelerator for the whole program, offering visibility and controls that make APIs simpler to handle. It additionally saves MINSAL from needing to develop API administration options that Apigee offers constructed proper into the platform, resembling key administration, identification brokering, site visitors routing, cyber-threat administration, information caching, assortment of analytics, developer administration, developer portal and lots of others. As a results of the success of this program, we’re shifting in the direction of API-based methods in additional than simply the well being sector. Here are a couple of examples:

A single registry of particular person and institutional well being suppliers
An identification service built-in with the National Identity Registry
A delivery pre-registry
A verification of identification service to be used throughout emergency medical companies
A nationwide pharmaceutical terminology service
A affected person portal (together with being pregnant assist, for instance)
Electronic immunization data
Traceability and administration of nationwide medical insurance accounts
An digital medical prescription mannequin

The API platform helps professionals in the whole community of healthcare techniques in Chile entry affected person data all through the care cycle. MINSAL was in a position to scale back prices via sharing data, eliminating delays and lowering the duplication of medical checks. The platform additionally offers data to apps and web sites utilized by sufferers, enabling them to see and regularly empower themselves with their very own well being information.

The promotion of preventive healthcare is a critically vital initiative in Chile. API expertise helps the monitoring of epidemiological modifications within the inhabitants, consuming data from operational techniques, via the identical Apigee API platform that’s already interfacing with all of the well being institutions. This means we now have much better information to start testing machine studying and use our large information to assist focus our well being packages on impactful outcomes.

Chile is a chief amongst Latin American nationwide well being packages, and works intently with different nations and organizations to develop and coordinate packages and insurance policies. By working with GCP and adopting an API-based structure with the express objective of bettering outcomes and the efficacy of the well being care system, we hope to encourage others and pave the best way to raised well being for billions of individuals.

Continue reading here.

This article sources data from The Keyword

September 21, 2017September 21, 2017

Android zero-touch enrollment: seamless and safe enterprise deployment

Companies around the globe deploy Android to mobilize workers and remodel their companies. No matter the use case, we all know that a profitable deployment is about extra than simply deciding on the fitting gadgets; it is about getting them configured and rolled out into the fingers of customers as shortly and simply as potential.

Today we’re launching a brand new deployment methodology referred to as zero-touch enrollment to make Android rollouts extra seamless and safe. With zero-touch enrollment, corporations can configure the gadgets they buy and have them shipped with administration and settings pre-configured, so workers can rise up and operating out of the field.

For directors, zero-touch enrollment removes the necessity for customers to configure their gadgets manually and ensures that gadgets at all times have company insurance policies in place. Support can also be a lot simpler, with no additional steps for end-users; they only sign up and get entry to their work apps and knowledge.

Zero-touch is accessible on gadgets bought from our zero-touch service companions, and we’re excited to accomplice with Verizon to supply zero-touch enrollment on the Pixel, cellphone by Google, beginning in the present day.

“For our enterprise prospects, deploying new gadgets and companies securely with the flexibility to implement device-specific insurance policies is crucial for shielding proprietary info and a corporation’s model,” says Ryan O’Shea, vp of National Business Channels with Verizon Wireless. “The Android zero-touch enrollment program permits our enterprise prospects to rise up and operating seamlessly and securely, and we’re excited in the present day to introduce this initiative on the Pixel cellphone and different future Android gadgets.”

We’re working with our machine companions together with Samsung, Huawei, Sony, LG Electronics, HMD Global Oy Home of Nokia Phones, BlackBerry smartphones, HTC, Motorola, Honeywell, Zebra, and Sonim with further OEMs to be added quickly to ship the zero-touch expertise to enterprises. The Huawei Mate 10, Sony Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact particularly will probably be among the many first gadgets to assist zero-touch within the coming weeks and of course, different gadgets from our OEM companions will launch quickly.

Organizations can use software program from main enterprise mobility administration suppliers (EMMs) together with VMware AirWatch, BlackBerry, MobileIron, IBM, SOTI, GSuite and others to specify configurations and machine insurance policies which are routinely utilized to workers’ cellular gadgets throughout the preliminary setup.

If your organization already makes use of different enrollment strategies, don’t be concerned — you’ll be able to combine enrollment strategies to fit your specific wants. Samsung will proceed to supply Knox Mobile Enrollment (KME) on Samsung gadgets, together with pre-Oreo gadgets. Samsung gadgets that improve to, or ship with, Android Oreo may have zero-touch as an extra choice. Other present enrollment strategies like QR code and NFC bump will proceed to be supported throughout Android.

Keen to get began with zero-touch? Talk to our service companions who plan to supply zero-touch: