Daily Archives: February 9, 2022

Protecting product quality at the divider means reducing stress on the dough as it goes through the equipment. While this might not be as important for some products, reducing friction opens up the world of automation to more sensitive doughs.

When the dough is stressed during dividing, the gluten structure will be damaged, explained Patricia Kennedy, president, WP Bakery Group USA. With servo technology, we are able to avoid this stress.

With the data provided by the servo controller, WP Bakery Group can minimize pressure inside the divider, allowing delicate doughs to go through the process without losing finished product quality.

There are also ways to build that gentle processing into the divider.

For Middleby Bakery Group, oversizing double screws and divider pumps while also slowing down their rotations has reduced dough pressure and friction. This leads to less stress and heat and creates a more consistent dough. All of this is made possible by servo technology, controls and the companys proprietary software.

Servo technology provides the feedback to the operator and the original equipment manufacturer so we can monitor each lane, said Jay Fernandez, master baker at Middleby Bakery Groups Innovation Center. For example, our ability to see the exact rotations needed to deliver the required dough weight, knowledge and control the specific density of the product. The math works out very well.

The latest technologys ability to provide accurate weights and reduced stress on the dough simultaneously can have some unforeseen results.

Precision servo-driven sinusoidal pumps are delivering very accurate weights across multiple lanes with the added benefit of reduced pressure and stress on the doughs, Mr. Fernandez said. This may equate to cleaner labels due to a reduction in traditional dough conditioners.

Monitoring and control of temperature can also have a direct impact on the dough integrity as well as yeast activity. And controlling these parameters from batch to batch ensures consistency throughout a days production runs.

The ability to set, maintain and re-implement very precise parameters and call them up from the dividers memory helps keep quality levels throughout shifts and across multiple shifts over time, said Cesar Zelaya, bakery technology manager, Handtmann. More than that, the ability to adjust for variables and apply optimized parameters across lines and plants helps maintain product consistency across the enterprise.

This article is an excerpt from the December2021issue ofBaking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Dividing,click here.

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Reducing friction at the divider opens up automation to new products - Baking Business

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brigade Automation Corporation (BaggerBot), a San Jose, California-based startup, has literally reinvented the "sandbag"-filling process and minimized human interaction with the bagger machine itself.

The company's patented, robotic technology minimizes the amount of human labor required to operate the machine and is capable of running 24 hours a day. The BaggerBot can produce up to 1,600 filled bags per hour, can accommodate over 140 different types of bags, and is capable of filling wet or dry contents up to 1.2" in diameter.

The engineers at Brigade Automation Corporation created The BaggerBot with one goal in mind to revolutionize the way that we respond to weather and climate disasters.

Many companies have tried to create bag-filling solutions to combat the onslaught of climate change and natural disasters, but none have incorporated the ability to automate the entire bag-filling process like Brigade Automation Corporation's BaggerBot.

The lightweight design gives the Baggerbot the mobility to be trucked to any destination on-demand and the flexibility to be used for a multitude of different applications. The bags can be filled with sand, gravel, coffee, tea, etc., and, remember, the BaggerBot can accommodate over 140 different types of bags consisting of either wet or dry contents up to 1.2" in diameter.

The BaggerBot's 24/7 operating ability and minimal reliance on human physical labor sets it apart from competitors in the same space. Why? The majority of those companies do not provide fully "autonomous" bagger systems like the BaggerBot, which incorporates a patented robotic technology. Those companies still use manual labor to either fill their bags by hand or use inefficient machinery which (again) still requires demanding physical labor.

BaggerBot was designed to maximize efficiency while reducing and eliminating the risk of human limitations, all with the focus on supporting communities impacted by climate change and weather disasters.

The United States is Bracing for Trillions in Losses From Climate Change

In the United States alone, over four billion sandbags are produced each year (source) and, based on current trends and according to ASCE's 2021 Report Card, the U.S. needs to invest nearly $6 trillion by 2029 to protect against massive economic losses (source). BaggerBot meets a pressing need for better resources to protect against increasingly extreme weather patterns while also serving as an invaluable resource for other high-demand applications, such as erosion control, military operations, landscaping, and construction.

For more information about the BaggerBot and to learn more about our goals to help communities: contact Thomas Burns, President / CFO, Brigade Automation Corporation at 408.230.6567 or visit our web page to invest at equity crowdfunding platform StartEngine.

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Image 1: BaggerBot

BaggerBot: a mobile, highly sophisticated robotic machine that rapidly and safely produces sand and gravel bags to prepare and protect communities against natural disasters and other weather emergencies

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

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Brigade Automation Corporation is Reinventing the Sandbag-Filling Process to Expedite Water Flood Protection and Humanitarian Efforts to Communities -...

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Sales Automation Powers Sales Teams Globally, 2021" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This research service aims to decode the benefits and role of sales automation in sales enablement for organizations. The study will also focus on growth opportunities for vendors and offer commentary on some key participants in the market.

COVID-19 has caused a tremendous disruption in sales globally. Customers are canceling contract renewals and ongoing deals, even as businesses are facing revenue losses. Sales employees, as well as vendor partners, are feeling threatened in this unprecedented environment. Therefore, businesses are being forced to look at newer and innovative ways to sell more with effective processes.

The study also touches upon the correlation between sales automation and customer experience. The key technologies (also covered in the research service) transforming the sales automation market globally include Natural Language Processing (NLP), smart workflows, and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

It also provides the growth opportunities available to stakeholders and the action they can take to capitalize on them.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Strategic Imperatives

2. Sales Automation Overview

3. Vendor Scoping

4. Market Environment - Key Growth Drivers and Restraints

5. Growth Opportunity Universe

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/cnv3gn

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Global Sales Automation Market Report 2021: The Benefits and Role of Sales Automation in Sales Enablement for Organizations - ResearchAndMarkets.com -...

Consolidation and automation key as cybersecurity becomes a competitive edge in 2022 | Security Magazine This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more. This Website Uses CookiesBy closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn MoreThis website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.

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Consolidation and automation key as cybersecurity becomes a competitive edge in 2022 - Security Magazine

One of the biggest benefits of Ethernet on the plant floor is the ability to remotely connect to plant floor systems. But along with the benefits of remote access come the heightened risk of cyber-attacks.

Despite this, more and more manufacturers believe the risks are worth managing to drive their operations into the future and ease the process of accessing and sharing data across sites for better decision-making, as well as reducing the cost of onsite troubleshooting and repaira great deal of which can now be accomplished remotely.

Considering that a key initial Industry 4.0 achievement is remote access to SCADA (supervisory control and acquisition) systems, we spoke with Ben Manlongat of Outbound Technologies, an industrial automation system integrator to learn more about how manufacturers can best manage the risks associated with remote SCADA access.

Beyond the obvious concerns about a hacker taking control of any aspect of your production operations, Manlongat say its also important to consider the impact of an outsider gaining access to your SCADA data.

Ben Manlongat, Outbound TechnologiesIf someone were to intercept your data, how could that affect your business? asks Manlongat. You have to think about how you could be harmed if your competitor were to get that information. And don't think that because everything [on your SCADA system] is read-only that everything is safe. If a COM (communications) port is open, a hacker could gain access to any laptop on the network to get to the COM port of the device and then start making programming changes. And once those programming changes are made, the hacker can take control of your system. Its critical to ensure the COM ports on your devices are protected and make sure there are no available device tags that are predefined by the manufacturer for use in controlling the device.

Core external aspects to consider about SCADA remote access security include:

Internal risks include:

Given the ever-growing level of risk to industrial control systems, we asked Manlongat if it was even possible to truly protect a SCADA system that has been networked for remote access.

The quick answer is yes, because there are different ways to configure an internet-connected plant floor network for remote access and read-only viewing, he says.

According to Manlongat, if youre looking to do read-only remote access with no potential for remote control: 1) Dont connect directly to controllers performing operations; 2) use a VPN to connect the plant floor to the internet to establish a private, encrypted connectionwith traffic on the VPN encrypted. With this setup, even if someone were able to access the networks traffic, they wouldn't be able to read or understand it; and 3) use MFA so that, in addition to user name and password requirements, you also need to the authorized person's smartphone or other mobile device.

If you're looking to do read-only remote access and send data to the cloud for artificial intelligence/machine learning analytics, Manlongat offers two recommendations:

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Managing the Risk of Remote SCADA Access - Automation World

SINGAPORE, Feb. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- OMRON Corporation (HQ: Shimogyo-Ku, Kyoto. President and CEO: Yoshihito Yamada) has announced the future course of "innovative-Automation", OMRON's manufacturing innovation concept, as the direction of manufacturing evolution for its next decade in light of the diversified and complex changes in the market environment and based on its past achievement of three "i's" of automation.

OMRON aims for on-site innovation by embodying three goals of renewed automation concept: "Digital engineering transformation", "Automation beyond human abilities," and "Advanced collaboration between people and machines."

Currently, manufacturers around the world are facing the challenge to renew and evolve manufacturing toward the post-COVID world. In addition to responding to technological innovations and changes in products and manufacturing methods, manufacturers' emphasis is placed on the transformation of manufacturing processesthat takes into consideration of the global environment represented by the SDGs, the diversification of people's values, and the wellbeing of their employees. Since 2016, OMRON has solved the manufacturing issues of many customers through realizing its unique manufacturing innovation concept of innovative-Automation.

For achieving this new course of innovative-Automation, OMRON will enhance its collaboration with the customers to solve the issues of the manufacturing industry, which are becoming more diversified and complicated, with unique automation that realizes coexistence with the global environment and wellbeing of the employees.

According to Mr Takehito Maeda, MD, Industrial Automation Business, OMRON Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, "The concept of 'innovative-automation' has helped OMRON a lot in enhancing its presence in the industrial automation segment by solving manufacturing issues of many sectors across Asia Pacific such as automotive, food & beverage, FMCG, infrastructure & digital to name just a few. With this evolution, we are confident to contribute more via advanced technology solutions, better reach and improved service."

1. Manufacturing site innovation by "Digital engineering transformation"

At OMRON, simulations and remote monitoring using virtual technology played a major role in the development of our products and the maintenance of our manufacturing sites in terms of movement restrictions and access restrictions faced by the COVID-19 pandemic. OMRON believes that such on-site innovation based on Digital Experience (DX) is indispensable for the sophistication of manufacturing even in the post-COVID world and will strengthen the development of technologies and solutions that accelerate the DX evolution of manufacturing sites.

2. "Automation beyond human abilities," Let the machine do what the machine can do

While manufacturers are faced with the difficulty of securing human resources, they are also under pressure to continuously improve production efficiency in order to fulfill their supply responsibilities and maintain and strengthen their competitiveness. In the concept of the "Automation beyond human abilities", based on high-speed and high-precision control application technology, OMRON aims to innovate manufacturing sites where people can engage in creative work with feeling at ease by making full use of IoT, AI and robotics technology, and leaving the work that depended on people to the machine. In addition, with the automation that balances productivity and energy efficiency, OMRON will contribute to establish new manufacturing that meets the rapidly changing product needs while considering the global environment.

3. "Advanced collaboration between people and machines" that allows people to maximize their potentials.

Human dexterity and creativity are indispensable for manufacturing that responds to the diversification and personalization of product needs. It is necessary for the evolution of manufacturing to maximize human abilities. OMRON aims to develop new manufacturing that allows people to maximize their potential and experience growth and motivation by making people as a leading role while advancing the substitution from people to machines. Leaving the heavy labor and simple repetitive work to robots, machines support human proficiency, and in the event of a sudden trouble, people and robots shall cover each other. OMRON aims to realize a manufacturing site where workers can enjoy their work and enjoy manufacturing, and at the same time achieve high productivity by embodying the concept of the "Advanced collaboration between people and machines".

About innovative-Automation

Recently, OMRON has developed a manufacturing innovation concept, called "innovative-Automation". With this concept, OMRON is currently committed to bringing innovation to manufacturing sites through three key innovations, or three "i's." Through these innovations in the area of automation, OMRON aims to enable significant productivity improvements in manufacturing sites in order to achieve high-value-added manufacturing. With the first "i," "integrated" (control evolution), OMRON will seek to advance automated control technology so that virtually any operator, even inexperienced operators, can effortlessly perform work that previously required the expert skills of experienced workers. With the second "i," "intelligent" (development of intelligence by ICT), OMRON seeks to create constantly evolving equipment and production lines. By adopting a wide range of control devices and artificial intelligence (AI), machines can learn through experience and maintain themselves in optimal condition. For the third "i," "interactive" (new harmonization between people and machines), OMRON pursues the development of a new harmonious relationship between human operators and machines; as they work together in the same workspace, machines will be able to assist human operators by recognizing human thoughts and behavior in a way that only OMRON, a specialist control equipment manufacturer who knows production floors inside and out, can realize.

About OMRON Corporation

OMRON Corporation is a global leader in the field of automation based on its core technology of "Sensing & Control + Think". OMRON's business fields cover a broad spectrum, ranging from industrial automation and electronic components to social systems, healthcare, and environmental solutions. Established in 1933, OMRON has about 30,000 employees worldwide, working to provide products and services in around 120 countries and regions. For more information, visit :

https://www.omron.com/global/en/

https://www.omron-ap.com/

SOURCE OMRON Asia Pacific

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OMRON Announces its Future Manufacturing Innovation Concept based on Evolution of "innovative-Automation" - PR Newswire India

Your new car is packed with a bunch of driver-assist features. But that doesnt exactly make it an autonomous vehicle. So whats the difference?

Driver-assist is also called Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS). It refers to, and encompasses functions and technology that augment the driving experience of the driver. These include:

For example, Volvos driver-assist functionality is called Volvo Pilot Assist and provides steering assistance to help the driver stay within lane markings on a road.

It provides audible, visible, and brake pulse warnings upon detecting cars, bikes, or pedestrians unexpectedly. If a collision is imminent, the car can brake automatically. It also helps maintain a set speed and the distance between your car and the vehicle ahead.

An autonomous vehicle comes with technology to enable it to drive without any assistance from a human driver. Its able to make decisions of its own volition and respond in real-time in response to the challenges of the road, such as oncoming traffic, turns, and traffic lights.

Tesla has a subscription feature called Full Self-Driving (or FSD). Despite a name that suggests otherwise, Teslas FSD is not self-driving but a driver-assist system. As you can see in the video below, Tesla still requires a lot of testing:

The company admitted last year inemails to the California DMV, that its subscription service is not self or autonomous driving.

To recap:

There are five levels to categories of vehicle automation, originally defined in 2018, which have further evolved as the technology has advanced over the last few years.

Driver Assist programs typically fall under Level 2 meaning they require an alert driver able to take the wheel at all times.

Level 3 and 4 vehicle automation places limits on specific environments and conditions of vehicle automation.

For example, in December 2021, the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) granted Mercedes-Benz system approval of a Level 3 autonomation pilot to enable drivers to engage in activities like watching films while driving applications that are otherwise blocked while driving under certain conditions. (Its not publicly released yet).

L4 autonomous driving does not require human intervention, but the driver still has the option to manually override and take over control of the car.

By comparison, Level 5 is a car that is able to make decisions completely independently the car is the driver. A driverless car can include no drivers seat, steering wheel, gas pedal, or even brakes.

A small number of autonomous vehicles are commercially available albeit in beta testing programs for ride-hailing and delivering goods:

Googles Waymo One became the first service provider to offer driverless taxi rides to the general public in a part of Phoenix, Arizona in 2020, with an expansion of the program to San Francisco.

People can hail the cars via smartphone, with travel restricted to certain areas within the city where the vehicles have been extensively tested.

Nuro is the first-ever autonomous vehicle to receivean approved exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. These exemptions remove the requirement for safety measures such as interior mirror, windshield, and backup camera requirements that are only designed to provide safety benefits for occupants these are not necessary as the vehicle holds no occupants.

Nuro was the first company granted a commercial deployment permit by the State of California.

The company currently operates its delivery vehicles in Silicon Valley, Houston, and Greater Phoenix.

In late December, truck company TuSimple became the first business to achieve a successful fully-autonomous run by a class 8 vehicle, or semi, on open public roads with no human intervention. One of its semi-trailer trucks completed an 80-mile route in Arizona.

Vehicle technology is evolving rapidly, making it vital to have legal frameworks and industry standards. But in a competitive market, where automakers have promised vehicle automation for a long time, there are still a lot of challenges. Stay tuned as we dig into these in more detail.

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Whats the difference between autonomous vehicles and driver-assistance tech? - The Next Web

On today's show

Shankar Kurra, MD, is here with our weekly South Dakota COVID-19 update. We talk about hospital capacity, crisis communication, and the call for vaccinations.

In 2016, then-Vice-President Joe Biden led the Cancer Moonshot for the Obama administration. This program has been resurrected by President Joe Biden. It has a lofty goal of reducing death rates from cancer by 50 percent over the next 25 years. What does this mean for South Dakota doctors and patients? Steven Powell, MD, is an oncology and hematology specialist with Sanford Health.

The pandemic has caused labor shortages in every facet of the economy. It's also forced many businesses to resort to automation of sorts. What are the implications of labor saving automation? Joe Santos, Ph.D., is professor of economics and Dykhouse Scholar of money, banking, and regulation at South Data State University.

In 1900, a small hole in the ground with cold air coming from it was discovered. Upon making this hole larger, a pair of brothers found several calcite crystals shining in the light. Jewel Cave is 13 miles west of Custer. In 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt made this a national monument.

Dakota Territory was formed in 1861 and 14 counties in South Dakota were established. Today's Images of the Past will look into Union County which is located in southeast South Dakota.

It all began by singing in choir and church. Since 5th grade Soleil Bashale and his family have been singing together. As an adult, Soleil is still making music. His song "Red Eyes" has almost 3 million views on Spotify. Soleil is with us for a "Moment in Sound" segment.

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Labor-saving automation, and the 'Cancer Moonshot' - SDPB Radio

Over the past year, weve witnessed businesses accelerate digital adoption by leveraging a vast scope of technologies, such as eSignature, no-code, robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and more. Simultaneously, for many organizations, the perception of hybrid/remote work has changed from being a workaround for the conditions created by COVID-19 to a full-fledged mode of operation. In this article, Borya Shahknovich, CEO, airSlate, discusses the importance of no-code and workflow automation in this scenario.

As the number of remote work offerings is steadily increasing, creating an even higher demand for digital collaboration, its safe to say that the hybrid/remote work trend will continue into 2022 and beyond. According to Gartner, 31% of all workers worldwide will be hybrid or fully remote in 2022. The U.S. is projected to harness the trend, with remote workers reaching 53% of the total workforce. It is evident that businesses must leverage an effective system for work collaboration to ensure better visibility and accountability. In fact, 50% of U.S. businesses are interested in implementing workflow collaboration tools in 2022, according to a recent airSlate survey. The elimination of paper-based workflows and the automation of mundane, repetitive tasks are among the challenges that businesses must address to elevate workforce productivity.

Understanding the importance of workflow automation technology in managing a remote workforce and its benefits to remote collaboration and human resources is crucial for business owners and leadership teams.

The COVID-19 crisis resulted in mass layoffs, leading to HR departments experiencing a tremendous overload of manual, paper-based processes. Instead of tackling more strategic work, like recruiting, onboarding, and developing company culture, most HR departments found themselves bogged down with the back-and-forth paper-pushing required to offboard employees. This comes as no surprise since, according to research, a typical HR department dedicates up to 60% of its time and resources to transactional and operational tasks. That is approximately 24 of the 40-hour workweek spent executing repetitive manual processes.

Whenever HR professionals feel overwhelmed with inefficient processes, the employee experience suffers too. A remote onboarding process can turn into a time-consuming ordeal because of the back-and-forth document exchange via email or messenger, as well as the ample room for errors and delays. This cumbersome process impacts the employees first impression of a company, not in a good way. Businesses can avoid this by streamlining their remote onboarding processes via a workflow automation platform that automates sending, eSigning, and sharing documents between all involved parties and populates documents and forms with employee data. The streamlined and simple processes can and do positively impact an employees overall experience. Reliance on manual processes in HR also often leads to errors, data loss, delays across the business, and, as a result, the loss of time and money. The typical list of burdensome HR processes includes hiring, onboarding, and offboarding, performance reviews, leave requests processing, benefits enrollment, and, as of recently, COVID-19 vaccination status updates. These processes can be automated using no-code bots and integrations with productivity apps to make remote collaboration more efficient and cost-effective.

Adopting workflow automation solutions in HR has proven to eliminate human error, cut operational expenses, bridge process gaps for remote work, enhance productivity, elevate employee experience, and finally, improve margins. Research indicates that simplifying and/or automating HR processes could elevate human resources efficiency by 20 to 30%. As a result of leveraging these solutions, HR departments can focus on finding and attracting new talent and fostering human-oriented initiatives, such as hiring, retaining, and upskilling the workforce with digital skills.

See More: If You Want to Run the Table, Automation Is Your Trick Shot

With digital adoption on the rise, businesses are looking to motivate their employees to advance their digital skills, and workflow automation and no-code tools are a great way to do so. Employees can explore and learn about the capabilities of these automation tools while also helping to solve pressing business issues, like the lack of software developers, the need for new business apps, limited resources, and the loss of productivity.No-code technology democratizes software development by making development tools accessible to individuals with little-to-no technical training both in-office and remotely. These citizen developers are essentially business users without technical backgrounds who can build apps to streamline business processes and automate workflows. These could be business analysts, project managers, or system administrators capable of optimizing their typical workflow with macros, a spreadsheet data model, CRM integration, automated reporting, or even eSignature. Leadership teams and CIOs prioritizing workflow automation only stand to benefit from fostering citizen development initiatives like upskilling/reskilling programs in their organization and the use of no-code solutions.

See More: How Remote Teams Benefit From OKRs

Despite modern no-code tools being quite universal, businesses need to have a clear understanding of what no-code can do for them and what it cant. No-code tools are not meant to help businesses create a product, so if youre trying to build, for example, a complex platform for online booking, you should look elsewhere. No-code tools are meant to help you easily address specific business issues without involving your IT team.

No-code tools enable citizen developers to create certain repeatable functions without writing code. That means they can tackle automating mundane tasks such as data entry, importing and exporting, or data processing and mapping with little effort. Lets say you want to automate the process of data export from one document to another. A no-code tool with a drag-and-drop interface allows you to configure the process of taking data from, say, a Google Spreadsheet and transferring it into a CRM system like Salesforce. This process of data export is governed by bots, so after the automation is set up, little human involvement is required.Before the emergence of no-code, critical business processes were handled manually. Now, automation is giving companies back time and resources to devote to what technology cant quite do: think creatively. Employees have more bandwidth to brainstorm solutions to key business issues and see strategic initiatives out. With the range of issues companies are facing because of COVID-19, the more space for creative collaboration they can create, the better.We are seeing the number of active no-code developers rapidly growing at large enterprises. It is projected that, by 2023, they will exceed the number of professional developers by up to four times. Business opportunities lie in automating repetitive business processes to maximize creative thinking from talented employees and, ultimately, boost your bottom line. How are you using workflow automation and no-code tools in the era of remote/hybrid work? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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Importance of Workflow Automation and No-Code in Managing a Remote Workforce - Toolbox

Penetration testing provides companies a picture of the successes -- or shortcomings -- of existing security measures. This picture can then be used to adjust security programs and proactively find vulnerabilities.

While most companies are familiar with and conduct manual pen tests, automated pen testing has become an option to consider in recent years.

How does automated pen testing compare to manual? Is one better than the other? Let's explore the pros and cons of each.

The top benefits of manual pen testing are it offers flexibility and a higher likelihood of discovering and mitigating vulnerabilities within the tested systems. Manual pen testing can find cleverer vulnerabilities and attacks that automated tests may miss, such as blind SQL injection attacks, logic flaws and access control vulnerabilities. A trained professional can examine the responses of an application to such an attack in a manual pen test, potentially catching responses that may appear legitimate to automated software but, in reality, are a problem.

Some pen tests can also only be performed manually. If a company wants to examine social engineering preparedness, for example, manual pen testing is needed, especially when testing for vishing.

Manual pen testing can also enable more creativity when looking for flaws. "A good penetration tester will use their instincts and, based on the results, may opt to go into testing further in an unexpected direction," said Jon Oltsik, analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, a division of TechTarget.

Another benefit of manual pen testing is having an expert on hand to review reports. While automated pen testing tools also generate reports, security analysts still have to review and remediate many of the issues detected.

The top cons of manual pen testing are cost and time. Depending on a pen test's thoroughness, it could take weeks to get results, which isn't always ideal -- especially if major vulnerabilities exist.

Manual pen testing can also be expensive, which is why many companies do it only to fulfill compliance and regulatory requirements. When companies can't afford an internal red team or pen testing team, third-party service providers are used for testing needs -- another cost.

Pen testing is complicated and expensive, so many companies conduct tests infrequently. The benefits of less expensive and easier access to testing via automation could change that.

"There is an appetite from organizations to do more frequent testing," said Mitchell Schneider, analyst at Gartner. "One of the benefits we have seen from automated pen testing tools is an increase in testing frequency. Companies want to address pertinent risks and threats in a timely manner versus having to wait for a test to be scheduled."

Frequent automated pen testing also helps companies evaluate their entire computer systems, which may get updated -- for example, during rapid release cycles -- more often than testing occurs. "You need something that's automated to really get a view of the environment," said Jeff Pollard, analyst at Forrester Research.

Another benefit of automated pen testing is it frees up security analysts' time so they can focus their attention on other tasks that may get put on hold during testing periods. Automation can also handle repetitious tasks that aren't necessarily complicated but are time-consuming for humans to complete.

One potential con of automated pen testing is analysts still see it as an emerging market. "Standalone automated tools have evolved over the last few years," Oltsik said. "It's an innovative and growing market as venture capitalist investment continues."

Another downside of automation is testing results depend on how good the penetration tool itself is, as well as how knowledgeable the person using it is. "The baggage of automated testing is people," Oltsik said. "The software is only as good as your knowledge base. You've got to program in certain tactics and techniques for vulnerabilities." If the pen testing software developer didn't do their job well, for example, then the automated pen test is flawed and could miss critical issues.

Some also worry automated tools could displace human pen testers, but Oltsik said that's not necessarily the case. "It's possible that these tests get so good you'll just need overseers and auditors to managed automated tests," he said. "But I don't see that anytime in the near future."

Additionally, automated pen testing remains limited in function and cannot be deployed for every testing scenario. Pen tests on wireless networks, web apps and social engineering, for example, aren't supported by most tools.

When it comes to choosing manual vs. automated pen testing, it's often not a question of either/or. Rather, automated pen testing tools should augment manual pen testing efforts.

Automated pen testing tools won't fully work for every type of pen test out there, Schneider said. "And, at least for the next few years, they will never fully replace a pen tester or red team," he added.

Another option automation has also enabled is penetration testing as a service (PTaaS). Some services are already available from vendors such as NetSPI, Cobalt and Pentest People. PTaaS offerings are a mix of manual and automated pen testing that make it easier for companies to fulfill specific pen testing needs, such as to satisfy compliance or regulatory requirements.

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Pros and cons of manual vs. automated penetration testing - TechTarget