Technology

Marriages are like festivals for the families and a milestone for an individual. It not just bonds two individuals but brings together a fusion of two cultures, two ideas, two perspectives. In a marriage, it is essential that the two opinions of the two individuals intertwine and move ahead in the same direction. This is why compatibility is an important factor that strengthens the bond between a couple. Since the Dotcom bubble in 1999, we have seen the rise of several matrimonial sites which have been developed and are still upgrading with the aim of bringing two compatible singles together. After carefully analysing the drawbacks of the traditional online matrimonial platforms, Pawan Gupta and Rahul Namdev, both MIT alumni from San Francisco ventured into the idea of developing an AI-based matchmaking platform. This led to the birth of Betterhalf.ai in 2021.

The USP of Betterhalf is its Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning based matchmaking algorithm. The platform’s AIbased partner prediction engine starts learning about a user’s personality as soon as the user starts the on-boarding process. Betterhalf’s AI engine uses the technology at five different stage -during registration, pre-chat stage, product gamification, postchat stage and removal of any biased data using ML. Users can sign-up for the service by giving answers to 16 personality questions, which are used to find suitable matches.

Rahul Namdev, the co-founder, is credited with the patent and the invention of the ‘1-click matchmaking’ AI algorithm. The algorithm is said to have garnered popularity for being a very fast executing process and having an accuracy of about 80-90 percent in matching the community, the interests and other such factors between two individuals. Pawan claims that this is one of the first apps in India that offers compatibility information through questions about an individual’s interests and expectations.

Clicking the right soulmate

Currently, Betterhalf claims to have one of the highest number of connections made per user with over 2 lakh matches happening every month over the app. Unlike the traditional matrimonial apps, where they have to unlock features, Betterhalf is taking an approach where it is more focused towards the benefits for the users. So, Betterhalf has introduced plans where if a user opts for a 6 months plan, they guarantee 4 connections or its is free till it happens. They are extending the match guarantee and at some point in the future, Pawan has revealed plans of introducing a feature where when a user signs up, they are already informed of a date of the first connection.

Betterhalf is also looking to automate the process where even if the user is busy for 3 days, the app would be sending specific requests on the behalf of the users and it would also be auto accepted if it is confirmed by the other party as well. So when you login to the app after 3 days, your automated connections would be ready. This would also make it easy for both the parties to start a conversation as both of them are already a potential match.

Keeping vulnerabilities at bay

Taking cue from certain grim incidences in the matrimony market, Betterhalf has extended its verification process wherein the submission of the government IDs is compulsory for all profiles. Betterhalf also verifies the gender, employment status, the salary status, the community and even the address. It is even extending its verification to the ‘born and brought up’ status, especially for the NRIs who consider the type of Visa as well. Each individual profile verifications are carried out manually by 2-3 experts at Betterhalf.

goes through a rigorous 6-level profile verification process, including their mobile number, work e-mail, personal e-mail, Government ID, Facebook and Linkedin. Only profiles that receive a compatibility score of over 70 per cent are matched. Betterhalf.AI also has a private ratings and feedback option that helps it to “filter out the non-serious and creepy daters off the platform.”

Even after the profile has been created, Pawan has come across certain incidents where the users have detected anomalies or inactivity for the connections suggested. Betterhalf has certain parameters installed which could lead to a profile to go offline if the concerned profile does not reciprocate to the customer service verification team for a long time. Pawan claims that due to their stringent verification process, the quality of the profiles and the connections have improved considerably and hence the retention rate on the platform has also increased.

Capital gains in matters of heart

The Matchmaking market is estimated to grow at a rate of 10 percent year on year with a forecasted size of 26 billion USD by 2026. This factors into the reports that Betterhalf was able to garner 3 million USD as part of its series A funding on a daily basis and is growing at 100 percent week on week, with the majority from the age group of 25-35 year. Currently Betterhalf.ai user monthly activity grew from 20K MAU (monthly average user) to 150K MAU, and monthly revenues from 10,000 USD to 75,000 USD at 25% Monthover Month.”

round from venture capital firms, including S2 Capital and Quiet Capital in the month of May. Prior to this, Betterhalf was also able to raise around 2.3 million USD as part of its seed funding from Y Combinator, Tribe Capital, and Nurture Ventures. Their Group partners are reportedly already invested in different matchmaking apps in several other countries. They have been getting insights from them and it has been boosting their scaling process.

While the online dating app market comes to the size of 10 billion USD and the marriage service provider market comes to the tune of 2 billion USD across the world, in India, the offline and the online matrimony market combined is at around half a million USD. Markets such as the casual dating, serious dating, matrimony, which is further bifurcated into couples controlled or parents controlled, is further seeing a boost with the nextgen proactively taking the calls in the whole decision-making process. Instead of just being a matchmaking process, Betterhalf intends to dive into the entire matchmaking/matrimony/courtship/wedding activity under its aegis in the coming six months.

Pawan revealed to us, “The platform currently is used by more than a thousand users

Creating new-gen responsible decision-makers

The team of 40 employees at Betterhalf are working and listening to the users and are making sure that the new-gen singles have complete control of their decisions at all times. Pawan wants Betterhalf to be considered as the next alternative to the traditional matrimonial websites.

It is very important to understand that there would be lot of apps like Betterhalf that would help someone find his/ her soulmate. These platforms only help in reducing the matchmaking process but Pawan explains that the offline experience should not be undermined. It is very essential for the couples to step out, spend time together in the real world and learn more about each other’s preferences and inhibitions.

Jack Dorsey recently stepped down as the CEO of Twitter and announced Parag Agrawal as the new chief executive. Reportedly, Parag joined Twitter almost a decade ago as a software engineer. He gradually climbed the corporate rankings to become the CTO and now the CEO. The IIT-B graduate and a Ph.D. holder from Stanford University was personally recommended by Jack as the new CEO because of his deep understanding of the company and his working style.

The board members of Twitter and the brokers at Wall Street have accepted a software engineer as the head of the social media platform. So, what exactly are the qualities of a software engineer that makes them eligible to become the head of a social media organization. First and foremost are the problem-solving and strong analytical skills that help an engineer to adapt to most industries or service sectors in the world. The perennial demand for software engineers and the increasing size of their salaries combined with the privilege of flexible working conditions does not alleviate them from stress and other health conditions. tion’, when employees across sectors are re-evaluating their career choices and employer perspectives, it is imperative for employers to probe the conveyances and the benefits that are on offer for an employee. Everest Engineering, an Australia-based software engineering firm has been quite vocal about prioritizing employee wellness. Its 100+ strong team has built web apps, mobile native and hybrid apps, conducted debugging and performance improvements and similar other projects.

We spoke to one of the founders of Everest Engineering, Ranganathan Balashanmugam, to understand some of the modern-day challenges, trends and learnings from the pandemic for a multi-national software engineering company. Ranganathan Balashanmugam is also the CTO of Everest Engineering.

List out a few challenges that you have come across as a CTO and Software Engineer. Can you portray an evolutionary timeline of the kind of challenges engineers like you have been facing since 2000?

With the increase of mobiles and apps, an app can be hit overnight. And if the app does not scale the unpredicted demand, a competitor can come and replace it overnight. So, the need for building an elastically scalable app has become very important. And the cloud-first approach became demanding. In the beginning, it was challenging to adapt to the cloud because engineers were uncomfortable with someone else owning your servers and more uncomfortable with the data sitting in a shared server with others. Now, it is a lot more mature.

Engineers were expected to build applications that integrate with apps that they had no idea about. There was not much prior knowledge or maturity in that space. Even now, there are no standards around that, but now at least, there are enough frameworks and patterns that can support those needs.

One big challenge all tech companies face is the adoption of new technologies. The company would have built software and a vast user-base since they have an existing product and are busy addressing their users, as well as adding new features.

Everest Engineering employees meeting and interacting offline after a long time

At the same time, with the rate at which technology is evolving, businesses face challenges to take steps to adapt to the latest technologies that give them a competitive advantage. Many startups come with that competitive advantage and then take over by leveraging the technology.

What have been your biggest learnings from this pandemic?

Before the pandemic, a critical number for any business was profits. So, most of the decisions were based on reducing costs and increasing profits. After the pandemic, resilience is another important dimension. For example, if you are a physical store with no online presence, one essential thing post-pandemic is setting up online deliveries or having a delivery partner. Some businesses went beyond being resilient in what Nassim Taleb calls “Anti-Fragile”. It took a shock to grow the business and work around the factors affected by that. A few restaurants created a good online presence, with fast and safe deliveries that their business is far more than when they were a physical store.

Communication was an essential tool during the pandemic. When we were working in the same office, we used to talk and know what was going on with watercooler conversations and other general chitchats. During the pandemic, with a lot of news around, people are anxious. There are a lot of things that change every day, like losing or gaining a customer. These changes will have an impact. It is essential to keep communicating frequently. It helps to reduce anxiety. Adaptability is important but more important than that is the pace of adaptability responding to change. We all would have heard of the fable of the frog when dropped in hot water jumps out instantly, but when placed in a gradually heating water cannot recognize the change and eventually ends up getting boiled. Unlike the frog, adaptability is not just reacting when everything has changed; it is about forecasting and reacting continuously when the change is gradually happening.

What has been the changing face of consumer-led software solutions and service-based software solutions in India? We would like to know the current trends of both types.

I see a lot of adoption of customer-led software in India. Unlike in the past, people ex-

pect high-quality software and service or switch to competitors very fast. If one app takes ten steps to do something and another takes two steps to reach there, people choose the latter. And more importantly, people switch fast to the new app. Though it sounds fundamental, the trend is high quality, simplicity, user-friendliness, and reliability at some level.

What are your experiences in turning a team of programmers into a team of software engineers?

I like that question. We distributed t-shirts at a conference, saying, “Software engineering is not just programming”. It is a mindset. I meet many software engineers who think writing code or writing better code is the right way to build software. I believe software engineering is about keeping the client in the center and the product, design and engineering team coming together and solving the program together.

To start, we hire people with that problem-solving attitude and coach them. We expose the programmers to the customer conversations directly. The designers, product and engineering team come together and solve the problem along with the customer. It gives them a better understanding of the problem and offers different perspectives. Making programmers understand why we build a feature with a customer-first approach provides a better approach to software engineering. Regular demos, end-user testing will fine-tune the approach.

According to you, what are the pros and cons of our Indian Education system? How has it been affecting the work habits and the work culture at Everest Engineering?

With the scale of people graduating and the scale of the education system in India, it is tough to be specific on feedback. I believe that there are good students in both great and average institutions. They leverage all the support the system provides and keep moving forward. Some institutions are very good at providing that support.

We try to hire people with that attitude of learning and problem-solving. We have a training and coaching program to bring all the people to a common ground. We have hired a diverse range of people who from completely different disciplines and train them to be successful at software engineering. They come with excellent ideas and perspectives. And with continuous feedback, we learn from each other.

Article by Ujal Nair. Excerpts of an email interaction with Everest Engineering

Terrible traffic and the rising number of vehicles have made road infrastructure the government’s priority for development and improvement. But the pandemic has shifted attention on a type of infrastructure that has likewise been underdeveloped but sadly overlooked: digital infrastructure.

With underinvestment in digital infrastructure both from the public and private side, it’s no wonder that fixed broadband penetration rate in the Philippines is less than 20%, way behind its regional peers.

Dennis Anthony Uy, CEO and Co-Founder of Converge ICT Solutions Inc., saw this gap and dared to do better. Recently, Converge announced the completion of its domestic subsea cable network, connecting the submarine segment with its pure fiber terrestrial backbone, linking the whole archipelago from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao. With this, Uy proclaims, “The country’s most advanced digital infrastructure – which we call our national digital highway, is finished.”

Digital Mapping and Converge ICT’s Operational Work across Philippines

Recently, Converge announced the completion of its domestic subsea cable network, connecting the submarine segment with its pure fiber terrestrial backbone, linking the whole archipelago from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao. With this, Uy proclaims, “The country’s most advanced digital infrastructure – which we call our national digital highway, is finished.”

“When we say the national digital highway, we mean the fiber backbone connecting all the major islands across the country. With this in place,

Digital Mapping and Converge ICT’s Operational Work across Philippines

we can already fan out to the provinces, and soon serve more than half of the Philippines’ population,” Uy pointed out.

What makes a good highway? If it’s a roadway, it’s not just about the length, or the number of cities connected – it’s about the traffic flow too, or how many cars it can accommodate at any given time.

Thus, Converge ensured its “highway capacity” – or data transmission capacity – is the most advanced in the industry.

“Our network runs on both 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps per lambda. These refer to the amount of data that can be pushed through between and among data centers in our network. The fiber backbone running on the industry-leading standard of 800 Gbps, the only one in the country today, makes possible high-speed data transfers that are needed for streaming, remote storage, and next-generation technologies,” he said further.

With its 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps capacity, Converge encompasses the needs of any sector – from the small, fledgling SME in need of a stable connection, to an entire government department handling massive amounts of national data. And what about service reliability? Fiber can be prone to fiber cuts, which cause outages in serviced areas. With the national digital highway now having redundancy loops – think of these as alternative routes – the network is now resilient against outages and service interruptions.

“With the way our network is designed, we have achieved a Level 2 redundancy. That simply means we have a layered protection against network failures,” he explained.

The world-class, resilient, and high-speed pure fiber digital highway of Converge is ready for service and is one step in firming up the country’s digital infrastructure.

With this digital infrastructure, the dream of democratizing connectivity – making it available to every Filipino, regardless of economic standing – is one step closer to being a reality.

“Digital access is no longer a privilege of a few but a right of everyone. This digital highway of Converge is the key to that dream. We will continue to work hard until every Filipino, no matter where they are or what economic class they belong to, will have access to fast, stable and reliable connection,” Uy said.

Trend Micro bags topmost score in the XDR Offering Evaluation

Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity solutions leader recently announced as the leader and scoring highest in the current offerings category evaluation amongst 14 other vendors for its Trend Micro Vision One platform as per The Forrester New Wave: Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Providers, Q4 2021 report.

“Trend Micro’s capabilities of providing a full view of the environment from the security stack is unusual and impactful,” stated the customers cited in the report.

Forrester Report Findings

As per the Forrester report, “the firm’s

Vision One platform is the best fit for firms that require a robust, easy-to-operate security suite. Organizations that want a platform to deliver cross-telemetry integration of traditional security tools and top customer service will benefit from a relationship with Trend Micro.”

Statement from Dr. Moataz Bin Ali, Vice President, and Managing Director, MENA for Trend Micro

“The new normal has presented enterprises with daunting challenges which require them to be alert at all times to safeguard their digital infrastructures from being affected,” he stated.

As per the firm’s announcement, today enterprises require a robust platform that is well prepared to combat the modern-day threats and offer the required respite to the SOC teams, and we at Trend Micro considered this to be our responsibility to device a solution that is fully equipped to take on this task.

This recognition is a testament to the efforts of our teams and further motivates us to endure innovating and investing in solutions that are built in to secure the future as we accelerate the journey of digital transformation.

The New Wave report also stressed that Trend Micro possesses loyal customers who are highly confident in the security efficacy of their solutions. “They refer to Trend Micro’s roadmap transparency and above-and-beyond customer support (including support at the prospect stage) as key to its success,” the report added.

Of the 14 vendors evaluated, Forrester gave Trend Micro’s XDR solution differentiated scores in seven out of ten criteria: Visibility, Detection, Investigation, Product architecture, Threat The New Wave report follows a series of recognitions by Forrester this year of Trend Micro products that comprise the company’s Vision One platform. The analyst firm named Trend Micro a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Email Security, Q2 2021 report and in The Forrester Wave™: Endpoint Security Software as a Service, Q2 2021. Also, A separate commissioned Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Trend Micro this year found that Trend Micro Cloud One can deliver a projected ROI of up to 188% over three years.

Trend Micro Vision One goes beyond any other XDR offering or legacy EDR solution to connect email, endpoints, servers, cloud workloads, and networks – and uses powerful security analytics to correlate data with Trend Micro’s global threat intelligence. The result is fewer, higher confidence alerts and earlier detection, all from a single location.

It also enables integrations with third-party Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) tools as well as Azure Active Directory to maximize value for customers.

As a company with a full suite of industry-leading products, Trend Micro leverages deep product and domain knowledge of email, endpoint, servers, cloud workloads, network, and more to provide an XDR offering that exceeds other providers.