Smart Communications expands cloud archive platform with Joisto
Smart Communications has acquired Joisto, a cloud data archive company, expanding its cloud-based platform for enterprise customer communications.
The acquisition will allow Smart Communications' customers to store, manage, and retrieve digital records and documents securely, supporting compliance with regulatory data retention requirements in highly regulated sectors.
Leigh Segall, Chief Executive Officer of Smart Communications, said, "We're delighted to incorporate Joisto's deep expertise in cloud archival into Smart Communications. Our leading Conversation Cloud Platform already enables our customers to manage sophisticated customer conversations at tremendous scale. With the addition of Joisto, we will extend these capabilities to meet an increasing need for regulatory-compliant and readily accessible storage of these conversations in the cloud. Together we will support customers worldwide as they continue their journey to modernise and transform customer conversations."
Joisto's solution integrates with a variety of corporate systems through comprehensive APIs, allowing organisations to store documents regardless of source. It features extensive data-ingestion capabilities and a scalable cloud architecture, supporting large document volumes and remote access. The system is designed to comply with industry regulations, including GDPR, focusing on document integrity, authorisation, and user validation.
Tommi Hänninen, Chief Executive Officer of Joisto, said, "Joisto is thrilled to join forces with Smart Communications. We deeply understand the importance of archival in regulated industries and we are especially proud to partner with an organisation that is equally passionate about providing industry-leading capabilities through a modern, cloud-based architecture. The combination of Smart Communications and Joisto represents an exciting step forward for both companies and our customers."
The acquisition follows a period of rapid growth for Smart Communications, which has consolidated its presence in the cloud Customer Communications Management (CCM) and Interaction Experience Management (IXM) sectors. The company has attracted industry recognition for its work with healthcare, financial services, insurance, and government clients.
Industry analyst groups such as IDC, Aspire, Aragon, Datos, and Celent have rated Smart Communications as a strategic leader, citing its vision, cloud strategy, and product development.
Smart Communications has indicated that it will continue to extend its Conversation Cloud platform through ongoing integrations and partnerships with other vendors, as well as facilitating seamless conversations and archival solutions for enterprise customers.
Follow us on:
Share on:
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
Paul Henry Appointed To TVNZ Board
Broadcaster Paul Henry has been appointed to the TVNZ Board, Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith says. 'Mr Henry has spent nearly his entire career involved in the broadcasting industry, producing news, current affairs, and entertainment programming both here in New Zealand and overseas. 'He was integral in the establishment of the successful multi-platform Paul Henry breakfast show, established and sold a radio station in the Wairarapa, and was heavily involved in the launch of the former radio network Today FM. 'He has a deep and passionate understanding of the sector and will enhance the board's insight and strategic decision making. 'I am aware Mr Henry is set to host The Chase New Zealand. However, I am advised any perceived conflict can be effectively managed. 'I am also reappointing John Quirk, who has served on the TVNZ Board since 2023. 'Mr Quirk brings over 20 years of governance, strategic leadership, investment, and corporate advisory experience, with a particular focus on technology, digital transformation, and high-growth companies.'
Techday NZ
2 days ago
- Techday NZ
Verax launches Protect to tackle AI data leak risks for firms
Verax AI has announced the global launch of Verax Protect, a solution designed for enterprise use to uncover and mitigate risks associated with Generative AI, with a particular focus on preventing the unintended leakage of sensitive data. The adoption of Generative AI in workplaces is continuing to rise, with many businesses turning to such technology to enhance productivity. However, this rapid integration is exposing us to a number of significant risks, particularly the risk of data leakage. One key concern is that employees might input sensitive data or proprietary information into AI prompts, unintentionally sharing it with external third-party platforms. Recent data shows that over 40% of businesses in the United States now have paid subscriptions to AI models, platforms, and tools, a substantial increase from just 5% in 2023. At the same time, 30% of organisations using AI have already experienced incidents related to AI security. These incidents are also becoming increasingly costly; the global average cost of a data breach reached an all-time high of USD $4.88 million in 2024, a 10% increase from the previous year. Verax Protect is positioned to assist enterprises, including those operating in highly regulated sectors such as finance, healthcare, and defence, in harnessing the advantages of AI while maintaining compliance with data privacy and cybersecurity standards. The solution is designed to support these organisations in avoiding compromises in their stringent data protection regimes as they expand their use of AI. Core features Verax Protect features several core components designed to address key enterprise concerns. The solution aims to prevent proprietary and sensitive data from being inadvertently leaked into third-party AI tools. As AI platforms encourage users to input as much information as possible for optimal results, this has sometimes resulted in employees exposing confidential information to providers that their organisation has not fully vetted. Another key capability is preventing AI tools from disclosing information to staff who are not authorised to access it. The growing use of AI for tasks such as generating reports and summarising company documents increases the risk that internal data could be overshared, placing sensitive material at risk of being viewed by unauthorised personnel. Verax Protect also facilitates the enforcement of organisational AI policies by automating compliance measures. Traditionally, companies have relied on approaches such as employee training sessions and reminder pop-ups to ensure compliance, though these methods have proven largely ineffective. The automated approach aims to reduce the chances of both accidental and deliberate violations of internal policies. In addition to these controls, the solution is designed to help organisations meet security and data protection certification requirements. Many regulatory frameworks, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe or sector-specific laws in the United States, like HIPAA for healthcare and GLBA for financial services, mandate demonstrable efforts to safeguard sensitive data. The adoption of Generative AI presents new challenges around implementing and demonstrating such protections. Verax Protect provides tools to support compliance initiatives and document data safeguarding activities even as AI use increases. Executive insight The launch of Verax Protect is the latest step for the company, which was founded in 2023 by Leo Feinberg, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Oren Gev, Chief Technology Officer. The two previously founded CloudEndure, a cloud migration and disaster recovery business, was later acquired by Amazon Web Services for USD $250 million. Leo Feinberg, commented: "Generative AI is a double-edged sword. It promises unprecedented gains in productivity, but it also introduces unprecedented risks. With Verax Protect, we're enabling enterprises to stay competitive by leveraging the power of AI without compromising the security, privacy, and compliance of their most sensitive data." Verax AI also offers other products designed to govern AI usage, including Verax Explore and Verax Control. These tools are intended to help organisations monitor and manage both their internal and external use of AI technologies. According to the company, Verax Protect operates as a real-time oversight and risk mitigation tool tailored to the requirements of modern enterprises. The system integrates with internal business systems and provides adjustable controls that reflect both technical and organisational policy requirements. The increasing prevalence of AI adoption in regulated industries underlines the need for effective risk management and oversight. Verax Protect is designed with these requirements in mind, aiming to help businesses benefit from the productivity enhancements of AI while continuing to meet regulatory and security expectations.
Techday NZ
2 days ago
- Techday NZ
Milestone & Genoa launch EU-compliant AI for smart cities
Milestone has commenced work on Project Hafnia in Europe, collaborating with the city of Genoa, Italy, to develop AI-driven solutions for traffic management and urban infrastructure using NVIDIA technology. The project's primary objective is to use artificial intelligence to enhance city operations by leveraging regulation-compliant video data, ensuring alignment with European legal frameworks, including GDPR and the EU's AI Act. Project Hafnia, after its launch in the United States, will provide high-quality video data that have been processed using NVIDIA NeMo Curator on the NVIDIA DGX Cloud platform. Milestone is adopting the NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint for Smart City AI, which is a reference framework designed to optimise city operations through digital twins and AI agents. In addition to this, Milestone is expanding its proprietary data platform using NVIDIA Cosmos. This approach enables the generation of synthetic video data based on real-world inputs, combining both real and synthetic datasets to build and train vision language models (VLMs) responsibly. The company has engaged Nebius, a European-based cloud provider, to supply the GPU compute required for the training of these models. This partnership is intended to ensure that all data processing and storage remain fully compliant with European data protection regulations, while supporting digital sovereignty objectives and keeping sensitive public sector data strictly within EU jurisdiction. Urban AI applications Project Hafnia seeks to harness the potential of VLMs, which are AI models capable of mapping relationships between visual data—such as images or videos—and corresponding text. This enables the models to generate summaries and insights from visual sources, which can be applied across multiple domains including transportation, safety, and security within city environments. Emphasising the importance of regulatory compliance and ethical data sourcing, the project aims to support cities throughout Europe in building and refining computer vision and AI applications that align with the region's standards for privacy, transparency, and fairness. "I'm proud that with Project Hafnia we are introducing the world's first platform to meet the EU's regulatory standards, powered by NVIDIA technology. With Nebius as our European cloud provider, we can now enable compliant, high-quality video data for training vision AI models — fully anchored in Europe. This marks an important step forward in supporting the EU's commitment to transparency, fairness, and regulatory oversight in AI and technology — the foundation for responsible AI innovation," says Thomas Jensen, CEO of Milestone. The company states that the compliant and ethically sourced data library enabled by Project Hafnia provides the necessary foundation for developing advanced video analytics models and vision language models. The models are configured for optimal performance on NVIDIA GPUs and are compatible with NVIDIA AI Blueprint frameworks focused on video search and summarisation (VSS). Application in Genoa The first practical implementation from Project Hafnia is a European Visual Language Model purpose-built for transportation management. This VLM is developed using transportation data sourced directly from Genoa, Italy, ensuring that only compliant and responsibly gathered data are used. "AI is achieving extraordinary results, unthinkable until recently, and the research in the area is in constant development. We enthusiastically joined forces with Project Hafnia to allow developers to access fundamental video data for training new Vision AI models. This data-driven approach is a key principle in the Three-Year Plan for Information Technology, aiming to promote digital transformation in Italy and particularly within the Italian Public Administration," says Andrea Sinisi, Information Systems Officer, City of Genoa. The framework developed through Project Hafnia is designed for scalability, allowing it to extend across multiple domains and accommodate future technological developments. The resulting compliant data set and the fine-tuned VLM will be made available to participating cities under a controlled access licence model, facilitating broader AI adoption across Europe whilst upholding ethical standards. Nebius as cloud partner Nebius will provide the cloud infrastructure underpinning Project Hafnia in Genoa, ensuring that all processing power and data handling are carried out within the jurisdiction of the EU. This guarantees adherence to European data handling regulations and digital sovereignty imperatives. "Project Hafnia is exactly the kind of real-world, AI-at-scale challenge Nebius was built for," says Roman Chernin, Chief Business Officer of Nebius. "Supporting AI development today requires infrastructure engineered for high-throughput, high-resilience workloads, with precise control over where data lives and how it's handled. From our EU-based data centres to our deep integration with NVIDIA's AI stack, we've built a platform that meets the highest standards for performance, privacy and transparency." Milestone's approach with Project Hafnia positions it as an early adopter within the sector of European AI development, focusing on regulatory-compliant, ethically sourced, and technologically advanced infrastructure solutions for urban environments. Through partnerships with city administrations such as Genoa and technology providers including NVIDIA and Nebius, Milestone aims to facilitate responsible deployment of AI for urban improvement initiatives across Europe.
