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DataMotion is pleased to introduce our new Developer Advocate, Janelle Phalon. Janelle recently switched careers, coming to DataMotion from the education field. In this interview, Janelle shared a little about herself and her background, her new role, switching careers, and why she is excited to be part of Team DataMotion.

Team DataMotion: Janelle, thanks for your time, and welcome to the team! It’s great to have you here. Tell us a little about your background and how you come to DataMotion.

Janelle Phalon: I want to start by thanking the DataMotion team for the warm welcome. I am excited to be here and happy to shed some light on my role as Developer Advocate. I have a dual degree in Secondary Education and English Literature from William Paterson University, and decided to pursue a career as a teacher. My students’ innate ability to learn inspired me to pick up new skills, which helped me discover my passion for coding. I enrolled in Columbia Engineering’s Coding Bootcamp and completed the course while teaching, earning the title of Full-Stack Developer. This led me to DataMotion as the company’s Developer Advocate.

DM: One interesting aspect of your story is that you came to DataMotion as the result of a career switch. What drew you to the tech industry?

JP: When the pandemic struck, the education field as a whole was forced to adopt new norms. The traditional task of delivering classroom instruction became complex as both teachers and students adjusted to remote learning. This digital transition highlighted the lack of resources available to create engaging lessons, and the scarcity of online teaching tools sparked a new level of creativity within me. I began to compile innovative, simple solutions to everyday challenges – and was driven to develop the programming skills necessary to bring my ideas to life. This pushed me to enroll in Bootcamp, which significantly altered the trajectory of my career.

Starting fresh in a new field isn’t easy, but neither is passing up the opportunity to join an amazing team like DataMotion. The staff works together to create a climate that promotes growth, curiosity, and teamwork – the ideal environment for someone looking to further develop and strengthen their skills.

DM: The role of Developer Advocate is emerging across the industry—could you tell us a little about what a Developer Advocate does?

JP: Although the role does not have a clear definition across companies, all interpretations share the same idea – to empower and support a developer community. We help to bridge the gap between an organization’s internal teams and developers, providing both with helpful feedback to improve their practice. Additionally, an advocate will:

• Continuously educate themselves on popular technologies across the developer community
• Create technical, dev-focused content to aid success with their company’s software
• Engage with developers on Twitter, GitHub, LinkedIn, Stack Overflow, etc., building rapport and providing support as needed

DM: What elements of this role are you most excited about and what do you hope to accomplish?

JP: Teaching and being a Developer Advocate share many similarities, including educating and fostering discussion within a community. I am most excited to continue practicing these skills at DataMotion. My goal as our Developer Advocate is to create high-quality, tech-focused content that supports developers using our APIs. I plan to educate my audience on the DataMotion platform, highlighting the versatility and simplicity of our technologies.

DM: When you meet with a development team, how do you describe what it is we do here at DataMotion, and how our solutions benefit dev teams?

JP: I start by briefly explaining the functionality of our platform – DataMotion APIs and pre-built solutions enable the compliant, secure, bi-directional exchange of data between an organization and their customers and patients, as well as their internal teams. While security is important, I also speak to the ease of use our platform offers, which is a true differentiator from other solutions on the market.

I make sure to speak a bit more about our security, which includes not only military-grade encryption and a governed database, but an overall zero-trust security approach. In short, the DataMotion platform makes implementing and maintaining secure exchange capabilities easy for dev teams.

DM: You just made a great point about differentiators. There are many secure messaging, document, and email exchange solutions on the market. In fact, we’re often called in to simplify the processes involved in those secure send workflows. What are the differentiators that set DataMotion’s services apart from other vendors?

JP: Aside from the ease of use for enterprise staff and their customers, I would say the flexibility and scalability our platform provides are the major differentiators. We meet our customers where they need secure exchange, and make implementation as simple and straightforward as possible, easily integrating into existing workflows. And today’s requirements might not quite align with where an enterprise is tomorrow. This is where DataMotion’s scalability comes in, easily allowing enterprises to meet their future needs, whether it is increasing secure message exchanges or solving additional use cases. The DataMotion team and its customers share a common goal, which sets us apart from other vendors – to easily, and effectively improve the user experience.

DM: Tell us about an interesting project you have worked on.

JP: In Bootcamp I collaborated with classmates to build a full-stack application that helped connect “inventors” and developers. The communication platform targeted two groups – users who have strong ideas but insufficient programming knowledge, and developers looking for work. “Inventors” can share ideas to a newsfeed that developers access in search of projects that fit their interests or skills. Some technologies we utilized include JavaScript, CSS, MySQL, Handlebars, Bcrypt, and Postmark. Overall, the project was a success. What we lacked, however, was a secure message center for confidential, bidirectional communication between parties. Now that I have knowledge of DataMotion’s secure message center API, this sounds like something I should revisit!

DM: Tell us about your experience at DataMotion so far, and your favorite part of being on the team? (Besides the coffee and espresso machine, of course.)

JP: My overall experience has been phenomenal–the DataMotion team welcomed me with open arms. Both the staff and leadership team have been incredibly helpful and have eased my transition into tech. I’ve already gained new perspective from listening to the company-wide team of subject matter experts and industry leaders. Besides the beanbag chairs and M&M dispenser, my favorite part of joining the team is having the opportunity to learn every day. I am encouraged to ask questions, conduct research, and collaborate with teammates to help find success.

DM: Lastly, what is your advice for others who are looking to switch careers and jump into a new industry?

JP: For anyone considering a career change, reflect on the following quote by George Eliot, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” When I first began to digest the idea of switching fields, I was hesitant to leave the comforts of teaching. I had an established, successful career that provided stability in my life. However, the quote by Eliot helped to shift my mindset and just go for it!

DM: Janelle, thanks for your time. And again, welcome to Team DataMotion!

JP: No problem. I appreciate you taking time to speak with me! If any readers are still curious about Developer Advocacy, feel free to reach out via Twitter (@dev_janelle) or LinkedIn to continue the conversation!

Welcome to the latest DataMotion Hot List!

Can you believe that we’re already in June? While summer may be just weeks away, here at the DataMotion Blog we’re bringing the heat with some hot topics! In April and May, we published several entries (including one interview) from Team DataMotion members who attended the HIMSS22 conference in Orlando. In each blog entry our team touched on their experience at HIMSS, highlighting topics and themes that resonated with them. We also finished the Meet the Secure Message Center series, where Christian Grunkemeyer shared a few use cases for organizations in non-regulated industries, then wrapped up the series by addressing a few commonly asked questions.

Today’s posts offer unique insight and perspective on a number of topics, and we think you’ll find them to be interesting and valuable reads. Without further ado, let’s dive into what you may have missed in April and May.

Welcome to part two of DataMotion’s 2021 Year-end Hot List! In part one, we reflected on various collections that were published to the DataMotion Blog, including the Danger for Data series and a look at the rise of Ransomware as a Service. In this installment, we’re sharing a list of notable entries from 2021 including things to consider before developing software in-house, a checklist for vetting API companies, and takeaways from industry events.

Let’s dive in.

Choosing an API Company: 14 Points for Due Diligence When considering an API company, you’ll want to do your diligence. In this post, DataMotion Vice President of Products and Services Alex Mushkin shares a checklist to use as part of the vetting process, covering factors such as security, benefits offered, and technical depth.

DataMotion: A Zero Trust Model You Can Trust “Trust but verify relies on a strong defense, vetting then trusting people and systems. Zero trust is an internal strategy, focusing on hypervigilance around not only system security compliance, but access. Here at DataMotion, we abide by both.” DataMotion CEO Bob Janacek speaks to the zero-trust security model, how it keeps DataMotion’s customers safe, and its benefits to your organization.

5 Things to Consider Before Developing Software In-house Whether or not to develop in-house solutions is a question that almost every enterprise asks at some point. The do-it-yourself approach can offer tremendous benefits, but there is often tremendous costs and additional, unplanned work involved. DataMotion Developer Advocate Heather Post examines this question and offers a list of points to consider before starting an in-house project.

Flexibility, Ease, Security and Compliance: Meet DataMotion’s Secure Message Center “While the secure message center can include email communications, it is really a solution to keep all of your communication tools, including email, customer apps and portals, in one place for simple, secure and compliant communications.” If modernizing customer experience and internal workflows are part of your 2022 resolutions, you are in luck! Christian Grunkemeyer, DataMotion’s Director of Sales Success talks about our secure message center, some general use cases, its impact on the customer experience and internal workflows, and how this solution can benefit organizations across industries.

Team DataMotion attended several industry events this year, both virtually and in person. Below are the post-event blog entries from healthcare and insurtech events, where Christian Grunkemeyer and DataMotion Business Development Director, Healthcare, Doug Rubino shared industry trends, hot topics, and general event takeaways.

Directly Speaking: The 2021 DirectTrust™ Summit “We want a patient, no matter where they are receiving care, to have that doctor immediately be able to pull their medical records from another care provider or organization with the same ease that the patient withdrew money from another bank’s ATM that morning for their coffee shop run.” We sat down with Doug Rubino to discuss takeaways from June’s DirectTrust™ Summit, including challenges faced with healthcare directories and what’s next for the industry.

HIMSS 2021 Takeaways: Healthcare, Cybersecurity and Interoperability “Many organizations have a marked lack of internal expertise and knowledge of internal network schematics and topology. This…boils down to a general failure to understand where system vulnerabilities exist, which ultimately leads to the inability to anticipate and identify cybersecurity threats, and to prevent an attack.” Once again, Doug Rubino shared his insights and takeaways from HIMSS 2021. Event discussions included challenges and innovations around cybersecurity in healthcare.

Ensuring Secure and Compliant Exchange for Insurance: ITC 2021 “To sum up, organizations in the space are looking for AI-driven technologies, multiple integration options, and technological methods to automate internal processes and better detect, and prevent, fraud.” In this interview, Christian Grunkemeyer shared hot topics and takeaways from ITC 2021, including improving the insurance policyholder digital experience and the current state of technology at insurance companies.

On behalf of everyone at Team DataMotion, we’d like to thank you for a wonderful 2021, and wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2022! We’re looking forward to another great year in the DataMotion Blog and we hope you can join us. If you have some downtime during the holiday break, please take a minute to follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Finally, stay in the know in 2022 and subscribe to the DataMotion newsletter, which delivers industry insights and thought leadership to your inbox once a month.

Thanks again for a great year—we’ll see you in 2022!

Welcome to the first installment of the DataMotion 2021 Year-end Hot List! As we close out 2021 and gear up for 2022, we’re revisiting the year in the DataMotion Blog. In this blog post, we are showcasing the different series that we’ve published to the blog this year. This includes a look at where data security vulnerabilities may lie within your organization on both the IT and business sides, the rise of Ransomware as a Service, and some tips and tricks for using Postman.

Let’s set the rearview mirror and start our look back at 2021 in the DataMotion Blog.

The Danger for Data Series

“While not every breach will make front page headlines or the 24-hour cable news cycle, organizations should expect a breach at some point and plan a defensive strategy. As I mentioned in the previous installment of this series, it is not a question of if a breach will occur, but rather, where and when.” DataMotion CEO Bob Janacek offers insights into where vulnerabilities may lie on both the IT and business sides of an organization, and how you can protect your enterprise’s data.

Part One: 5 Back-end Breach Factors

Part Two: Seven Pain Points in Your Processes

Part Three: Remedies for Risk

The Rise of Ransomware as a Service

You’ve heard of Platform as a Service and Software as a Service. But Ransomware as a Service? You read this correctly. Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) is a dangerous cottage industry that has upped the ante when it comes to keeping your data secure. DataMotion Developer Advocate Heather Post explored this dark side to innovation in a three-part series, where she outlined the basics of this disastrous digital disruption, how your vendor could unintentionally put your organization’s data at risk, and how you can protect your enterprise. Read on:

The Rise of Ransomware as a Service

The Rise of RaaS: Consolidating the Vendor Risk Factor

The Rise of RaaS: The Real Cost of a Ransomware Attack

We’re Partial to Postman

This fall, we shared a social-media-based series of tips and tricks for using one of our favorite tools, Postman. Heather Post has curated these tips into two posts to the DataMotion Blog:

4 Tips for Becoming a Postman Guru

4 More Tips for Your Journey to Becoming a Postman API Guru

As part of this series, Heather also sat down with DataMotion Security Specialist Kevin Miller, who is an enthusiastic and expert user of Postman. In this interview, Kevin shared a little bit about his role, how he has utilized Postman as part of his job, and his tips for fellow developers on how to successfully leverage Postman for testing APIs.

In our next entry to the DataMotion Blog, we’ll continue our look back at 2021. We will be revisiting the zero-trust model, questions you should ask when vetting an API company, and takeaways from both virtual and live events.

In the meantime, stay up-to-date with industry insights and thought leadership, DataMotion updates and more by following us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. We also invite you to subscribe to the DataMotion newsletter to have all of the above delivered to your inbox once per month.

See you next week!

Greetings, readers, and happy December! We hope that you have had a great start to the holiday season. In this month’s DataMotion Hot List, we’re going to cover posts to the DataMotion Blog during the month of November, which included an interview with a DataMotion Postman expert, and tips for using GitHub. We also shared an up-close-and-personal look at DataMotion’s secure message center—how it works, and how you can benefit from this solution.

And now, without further ado, we present the DataMotion November Hot List.

Flexibility, Ease, Security and Compliance: Meet DataMotion’s Secure Message Center “Unlike regular email, the sensitive data you are exchanging with your client is kept fully secure during transit, and the messages are stored just as securely…Also unlike regular email, this process integrates with your methods of customer communication, such as web and mobile applications and customer portals, delivering messages and documents just as quickly and securely.” The ability to securely send and store messages as part of an existing customer-facing workflow not only helps provide an outstanding customer experience, but can also help keep your organization within regulatory compliance. In this entry to the DataMotion Blog, DataMotion Director of Sales Success Christian Grunkemeyer shares a look at our secure message center, and how it can benefit your enterprise.

Meet Kevin Miller, DataMotion’s Postman Guru “The first tip I would recommend is utilizing variables. If you have to utilize the same information in multiple API calls, you can replace this information with a variable and define the value of that variable for an entire collection of calls.” As part of our Postman tips and tricks series, DataMotion Developer Advocate Heather Post interviewed Kevin Miller, DataMotion Security Specialist and resident Postman guru. In this interview, Kevin shared how he uses Postman, why it is helpful, and his tips on making the most of this tool.

Get Resourceful with GitHub: Four Tips for the Skilled Developer “Have you ever been asked to share your GitHub profile at a job interview, or when meeting other developers at a conference? With GitHub’s growing popularity, it’s now just as common for employers to request a GitHub profile as they would a LinkedIn profile. However, as great as the code hosting tool is for showboating talents, it does so much more.” In this entry to the DataMotion Blog, Heather Post provides a roundup of the first half of our GitHub tips and tricks series.

The October Hot List In case you missed it in October, we published a cybersecurity toolkit, takeaways from InsureTech Connect 2021, and part two of our Postman tips and tricks series.

As part of the monthly Hot List, we’re including a few cybersecurity-related news articles and opinions from around the web, including a look at new rules for rail transit, a cybersecurity incident notification law in Wisconsin, and an opinion piece on why cybersecurity pros need a seat at the table.

From CBS News: U.S. Imposes First Cybersecurity Rules for Rail Transit, Despite Industry Pushback

From Public: Wisconsin Enacts Insurance Data Security Law Requiring Notification of Cybersecurity Incidents to Insurance Commissioner Within Three Business Days

From Infosecurity Magazine: Cybersecurity Pros Need a Seat at the Table

Have YOU followed us social media? You’ll find our tips and tricks series, job openings, links to valuable content such as blog posts and whitepapers, as well as company and industry news and updates, and much more. Follow us today on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Speaking of keeping up with updates and insights, we invite you to subscribe to our newsletter, which delivers industry trends, insights and thought leadership to your inbox once a month.

Finally, with the holidays upon us, the DataMotion Blog will have a hiatus the last week of December and the first week of January.  As we close out 2021 and gear up for 2022, we’ll revisit some of the hottest topics from the year, and we invite you to join us as we look back on this year’s thought leadership. We also invite you to learn more about DataMotion’s secure exchange solutions by visiting our website or contacting our team of experts.

We look forward to seeing you in December!

Greetings, readers, and Happy November! As always, we hope that this blog post meets you in the midst of a positive and productive week.

As you may know, October was Cybersecurity Awareness Month. But as a company with over 20 years of experience in secure exchange, we at DataMotion believe that every month should be cybersecurity awareness month. In this vein, we put together a toolkit to help your organization stay secure year-round. We also published takeaways from InsureTech Connect 2021, and a round-up of the second half of our Postman tips and tricks series we shared on social media. Our next series of tips focuses on GitHub, and we think you’ll find this series helpful! You can find the series by following us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Now, without further ado, let’s dive into October in the DataMotion Blog.

Ensuring Secure and Compliant Exchange for Insurance: ITC 2021 “Suffice it to say, there are ample opportunities for technological innovation in the insurance space for companies to help brokers and advisers better, and more securely, communicate with their policy holders.” In this post to the DataMotion Blog, DataMotion Director of Sales Success Christian Grunkemeyer shared his takeaways from ITC Vegas 2021 and the possibilities in store for the insurance vertical. (Note: Whether you attended this event and missed Christian, or would just like to discuss how DataMotion’s secure exchange solutions can benefit your organization, please reach out to our team of experts, who will be happy to set up an introductory call.)

4 More Tips for Your Journey to Becoming a Postman API Testing Guru “…just like sharks can never stop swimming, developers can never stop learning. When I come across some new tips on how to better use some of my favorite (and arguably, most important) tools, I jump at the chance to learn. And that’s why I want to share some amazing Postman tips for API testing.” A series so nice we rounded it up twice—in this blog entry, DataMotion Developer Advocate Heather Post shared the second half of our Postman tips and tricks series. (In case you missed it, check out part one.)

Aggregating Awareness: Your Cybersecurity Month Arsenal “…the digital landscape is changing rapidly.  New opportunities for digital business also present new opportunities for internal and external security threats…But armoring your systems for security and compliance should not hinder a smooth customer experience, nor should these factors interfere with your organization’s workflows.” DataMotion Content Manager Andrea Meyer and Content and Digital Marketing Specialist Sarah Parks have compiled a number of DataMotion Blog posts and other reference materials to help you keep your data secure year-round.

The DataMotion September Hot List In case you missed it in September, the DataMotion Blog played host to the first half of the Postman tips and tricks series, a list of five things to consider before developing software in-house, and more.

As we have over the past several months, we will once again present cybersecurity news and insights from around the web, including an article from Forbes as to why cybersecurity awareness must extend beyond the official month (we couldn’t agree more). We’re also sharing an article that explores why so many enterprises are not effectively managing cyber risks and resilience, and a list of what you need to know about keeping your data secure going into 2022.

From Forbes: Cybersecurity Awareness Must Extend Beyond The “Month”

From SiliconANGLE: Study Finds Over Half of Enterprises Are Not Effectively Stopping Cyberattacks

From Security Intelligence: What You Need to Know About Data Security Heading into 2022

This month and next, we’re looking forward to sharing news about new DataMotion products, more tips and tricks for using Postman, and some of this year’s editor’s picks. And as a quick note, like so many of our American readers, the DataMotion Blog will take a break the week of November 22^nd to observe the Thanksgiving holiday.

But before breaking for the holiday, don’t forget to get a jump on 2022 and subscribe to the DataMotion Newsletter, which delivers industry insights, news, and trends to your inbox once a month.

That is about all for now. Thanks for a great October, and we look forward to seeing you in November!

Welcome to another edition of the DataMotion Hot List! Our monthly hot lists give you a quick recap of the month’s content, updates, news, and more. September was a busy month for the DataMotion Blog, where we published the third and final installment of our Rise of RaaS series, offered tips on becoming a Postman guru, and shared five things to consider before building software in-house.

We were also pleased to attend the InsureTech Connect conference this week in Las Vegas! Team DataMotion was represented by Christian Grunkemeyer, who shared his thoughts on returning to trade shows, and insights on some of DataMotion’s secure exchange projects for insurance and financial services organizations. Whether you attended the event and missed connecting with Christian, or would simply like to learn more about how DataMotion’s secure exchange solutions can benefit your organization, we’d love to speak—please contact us to set up a quick chat.

The Rise of RaaS: The Real Cost of a Ransomware Attack “Understanding how companies recover from a breach, as well as the obstacles they often face in the wake of an attack, can help with financial planning and crafting a security strategy… In this installment, I will go over the financial cost, the required manpower, and reputation damage that is often the residue of ransomware.” In this entry to the DataMotion Blog, Developer Advocate Heather Post explored the real costs of a ransomware attack. In case you missed them, we’ve included the first two installments of the series below:

The Rise of Ransomware as a Service

Consolidating the Vendor Risk Factor

5 Things to Consider Before Developing Software In-house To build or to outsource? That is the question facing many organizations when it comes to developing software solutions. In this post to the DataMotion Blog, we explore five points of consideration when mulling the decision over whether to build in-house.

4 Tips for Becoming a Postman Guru “Through extensive use and some research, my colleagues and I have found there are many tips and tricks to using Postman, which I think you’ll find extremely helpful while testing APIs and building your collections.” In case you missed our Postman #tiptuesday series on social media, Heather Post has rounded up the first four tips into a handy blog post.

The DataMotion August Hot List In case you missed it in August, the DataMotion Blog featured the final installment of the Danger for Data series, kicked off the Rise of Ransomware series, offered a checklist of what to look for when choosing an API vendor, and shared a glimpse into HIMSS ‘21.

We’re kicking off Cybersecurity Month with a roundup of news stories to help inform you and your strategy. This month’s news aggregate includes an article on supply chain risk, how working from home is creating new business for cybersecurity, and why officials say that ransomware is here to stay.

From the Hill (MSN): Supply chain risk matters when it comes to cybersecurity for next-gen 911

From Bloomberg: Home Working Is Creating Dangers, New Business for Cybersecurity

Healthcare Info Security: Top US Cyber Officials Say Ransomware Is Here to Stay

If you’re not yet doing so, give us a follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for company and industry news and updates.

Finally, remember to subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates, industry insights and best practices delivered to your inbox on a monthly basis.

That is all for now. We look forward to seeing you in October!