As corporations move more and more processing resources and data storage to the cloud, and more and more employees work from home, the demand for remote system management and data analysis has gained major visibility. At the same time, the volume and variety of data to be managed and analyzed has increased exponentially. Throughout the world, companies are looking to find their niche and settle into a new normal – while still maintaining a data-driven approach to IT and IIoT management.
Additionally, now more than ever manufacturers are looking for solutions that protect their critical business operations and valuable data assets. Cyber attacks against industrial operations are becoming more commonplace and manufacturers are increasingly finding themselves at greater risk. Just this past February, a cyberattack caused major disruptions to the operations for a US Natural Gas pipeline operator causing it to shut down for two days while engineers raced to get the threat under control. The facility’s network was breached via a malicious link sent in an email, according to CISA. And in June, Honda was forced to bring its operations to a complete standstill due to a ransomware attack.
A veteran in the performance analysis and security solutions space is Sightline Systems, a software provider that has been helping corporations leverage their data by providing sophisticated yet remarkably easy-to-use business intelligence and advanced analytics solutions since 1990.
Sightline Systems’ solutions leverage time series data, predictive analysis, visualization, advanced alerting capabilities, and more – all in real-time – to assist customers do more than simply gathering data and highlighting challenges. By simultaneously collecting and correlating thousands of data points, Sightline Systems has distinguished itself from other software companies in the market by providing higher levels of insight in shorter amounts of time.
Enhancing Customer-Centric Solutions
The ability to uncover critical system failures, improve operational performance, and plan for capacity growth is at the core of Sightline Systems’ innovative solutions. Sightline empowers its customers with access to an advanced platform where they gather the right data at the right time and utilize that information to make well-informed business decisions PRO-actively instead of RE-actively. The solutions offered by Sightline have helped companies improve production efficiency, reduce costs, prevent downtime, ensure quality, and enhance their overall ability to strategically plan business operations.
Brandon Witte (President and CEO) believes the innovation that has helped its customers improve their operations is the key to Sightline’s thriving business. The innovation introduces new ways to solve problems. “I am very excited about our newest solution, SIAS. By joining forces with long time partner Unisys, a global security solutions provider, we have a solution which addresses the cyber threats facing companies today”.
SIAS is a state of the art software platform that combines two proven technologies into a single integrated solution. With SIAS, you can collect and analyze your data across all locations, as well as treat the underlying infrastructure as untrusted. Data in transit is protected in a Zero Trust environment, and SIAS can automatically alert on operational abnormalities which may represent security issues. This approach brings proven top-class security concepts into the converged IT/OT cybersecurity space. SIAS enables organizations to address challenges with the benefits of multi-vendor solutions from a single supplier.
Both Unisys and Sightline have had a long history of working with major customers around the globe helping them utilize IT-based technologies to constantly adapt to the challenges and opportunities they face.
Helping Companies Manage Their Data During COVID
The Coronavirus outbreak has caused a major upheaval in virtually every industry. Companies are facing challenges they’ve simply never faced. It’s forced companies to layoff staff and put critical system updates on hold. Some are developing new procedures for working remotely in environments that never otherwise supported this sort of business practice. Travel restrictions have made it difficult to visit customers and prospects to conduct critical site visits that are a vital part of finding relevant solutions to their needs.
According to Brandon, software companies are not immune to the fallout of these newfound challenges. Many of the companies Sightline engages with are tackling an overwhelming increase in demand, while others are being forced to temporarily close their doors. Some are planning new strategies for adjusting to a slow in demand without any sort of clarity for how long or severe this impact will truly be. “Some of that burden falls on us to provide solutions that will help alleviate these new business pains,” he says. “Though we’re not top of mind right now, our solution can truly be a critical part of helping our customers keep the lights on during these challenging times.”
However, organizations are finding it challenging to justify the inherent business risk of implementing a new solution. Although Sightline’s solutions address the needs of the time, the pandemic has also forced them to be more conservative with regard to their risk tolerance. This has posed a challenge for Sightline in cutting through the noise to help key businesses understand that NOW is the time to bring Sightline on board because of the impact it can have in making operations more efficient, achieving less downtime, saving money, and more.
Keeping Team Members Animated
To Brandon, Sightline’s team members are its most important asset, and taking care of the business is equally as important as taking care of his team when things get overwhelming. Keeping this in mind, the company has outlined a strategy to help overcome those stresses during these unnerving times. One of those strategies involves scheduling virtual meetings regularly to keep everyone feeling connected and informed of new developments and corporate activities despite being remote. Another comes in the form of involving team members in new research initiatives that include putting team members into cross-departmental collaboration efforts to maintain the human element of working at Sightline. Brandon also makes a point to recognize individuals for their various achievements to help maintain a sense of morale. Apart from that, Brandon likes to try and keep the mood light with informal challenges and contests – for instance, recently the team completed a Music Video Challenge.
Looking Forward to New Advancements
Sightline’s solutions already excel at forecasting and deep root cause analysis but Brandon and the team are looking forward to creating new and innovative ways to predict system performance. EDM™ incorporates machine learning and forecasting predictions based on data, but it is aiming to further enhance those capabilities through behavioral analytics that better address emerging security challenges faced by today’s market. In partnership with Unisys, Sightline is excited to deliver powerful security solutions that create different use cases for its software.
