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Small businesses have often struggled to provide a wide selection of health plans to their employees, but DC Health Link—a public-private partnership established by the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority (HBX)—helped change that. DC Health Link offers a range of coverage choices to District residents and small businesses. In 2018, DC Health Link has more than 150 indivitual and small-group health plan options offered by CareFirst, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Kaiser Permanente, Aetna, and United Healthcare. These include health-maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred-provider organizations (PPOs), and plans compatible with health savings accounts (HSAs).

DC Health Link has also helped cut the District’s uninsured rate in half; more than 96 percent of District residents now have health coverage. A spring 2016 survey of DC Health Link customers found that 25 percent of people in the individual market were uninsured prior to enrollment, 50 percent of people eligible for Medicaid were uninsured prior to enrollment, and 4 out of 10 small businesses did not offer coverage to their employees prior to introduction of DC Health Link Small Business (SHOP) Marketplace.

The fourth DC Health Link open enrollment, which ended January 31, 2017, resulted in nearly 24,000 residents selecting private health plans for coverage—more new customers than either of the past two years. At the end of 2017, more than 75,000 people were covered through the DC Health Link Small Business (SHOP) marketplace.

Similar to other state-based marketplaces and the federal marketplace, DC Health Link initially used commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products. After the initial build, however, HBX faced millions of dollars in annual licensing fees for COTS products. Change requests cost hundreds of thousands—and at times millions—of dollars due to the complexity of changing hard-coded software. Product development cycles were six to twelve months or longer. Code upgrades and changes required the entire code to be redeployed and the marketplace to be offline in maintenance, which meant customers could not use the marketplace while the system was down. System capacity was low, resulting in system timeouts and other obstacles to enrollment.

HBX’s experience through the first two open enrollments led it to conclude that continued reliance on its COTS products would not be sustainable. These products were not flexible enough to meet evolving business requirements, were expensive to maintain, and were not scalable.

In 2015, to help achieve sustainability and a customer-centric online experience for SHOP and individual marketplace customers, HBX began migrating the DC Health Link IT system from traditional data centers to an agile, cloud-based model using open-source code with no licensing fees. HBX was the first state-based marketplace to migrate to the cloud, and it is still the only such marketplace in the cloud. The agency’s approach was recognized as innovative by the National Academy for State Health Policy.

HBX chose to move to the cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS) because it offers the ability to develop software and new features rapidly, meet federal security and compliance standards, and contain costs. HBX uses a variety of AWS services, including Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for secure file storage, Amazon Macie for data-security services, Amazon Route 53 for Domain Name System (DNS) service, AWS CloudFormation for cloud service provisioning, and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for database services. HBX also takes advantage of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Auto Scaling, which enables HBX to quickly scale computing capacity to meet changes in demand while only paying for what it uses. AWS Service Catalog gives the organization centralized control over cloud configurations, which can be quickly deployed for different users.

HBX obtained AWS-compatible, third-party software and tools through the AWS Marketplace, and used the AWS Partner Network (APN) to tap into the growing local technology corridor to retain qualified software developers with knowledge of agile development and cloud services. HBX used three key strategies to transition to the flexible, cost-effective, and financially sustainable solution required to meet its broad mission with limited resources. These included: adopting open-source software standards and agile development techniques, shifting from capital-intensive, fixed infrastructure models to nimble, scalable cloud services, and building a platform conducive to a shared-services model that would allow HBX to share the costs of continuous platform improvement with other partners if the opportunity arose.

HBX’s decision to replace its initial COTS-based IT platform with a customized, open-source code solution hosted in the cloud has proven successful and has enabled the agency to improve IT operations and services while lowering costs. HBX is saving nearly $1.8 million annually by using cloud hosting and services, in addition to saving $250,000 annually that it would have paid for data-center space to meet the federal 10-year record-keeping standard. Using an agile cloud-based approach and open-source code allows HBX to speed its development cycles and make frequent changes without taking the system down. Finally, using the cloud enables HBX to meet Federal CMS MARS-E 2.0 security standards, an important compliance mandate for all State Exchanges to protect data privacy.

Since deploying the new system, HBX navigated two open-enrollment periods, handled two congressional open seasons, grew enrollment in the SHOP marketplace from 20,000 covered lives to more than 75,000, and deployed a fully functioning, customized version of the platform for another state’s SHOP marketplace. HBX has also deployed best-in-class decision-support tools. Additionally, HBX makes continuous improvements to its solution, with new deployments occurring weekly without the system having to go down. The agency was able to do this while winding down down its federal grant funding and keeping the industry-wide assessment that funds the Authority at the same one-percent level.

Recognizing the IT solution HBX built, another state online-marketplace provider chose HBX to provide its new SHOP IT solution in February 2017. The provider had conducted two private-sector procurements and extensive analysis of the available state partnership options before determining that HBX’s solution surpassed anything offered by the private sector or elsewhere. HBX and the state provider entered into the first state-based marketplace partnership in the nation. HBX deployed the IT solution—with customizations such as rating areas and composite rates—in August 2017 and has provided business support since then. Under this partnership, HBX and the state provider share operational costs for the SHOP solution. This partnership also means HBX and the state provider will share the cost of future improvements and required federal changes.

In June 2016, AWS awarded DC Health Link a Best Practices in Innovation Award. In January 2017, DC Health Link was ranked number one among public marketplaces for its online consumer-decision support tools. Most importantly, its customer satisfaction is up and call volume and escalated cases are down—three metrics considered by HBX to be key success indicators.

The HBX open-source cloud solution is a model with enormous potential payoff for the public sector, because it demonstrates how agencies can align their IT environment with their mission and customer needs by using cloud services, which provide the flexibility to react to ever-changing priorities and are cost-effective to deploy and to maintain.

Learn more about AWS Marketplace.


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Security show 2016

Ayonix exhibits its 3D Face recognition products in SECURITY SHOW 2016 in Tokyo.

Ayonix will exhibit its face recognition products in Tokyo Security Show in Tokyo, Japan.

in this exhibition, Ayonix will exhibit its latest Ayonix Public Security 5.0 and Ayonix Facelogin, Ayonix cloud face recognition as well as Egate passport authentication.

In addition to this, Ayonix will demonstrate its first Marketing tool, AYCA(Ayonix Customer Analytic) which analyzes people ages, genders, face expressions and groups in an intelligent way.

We highly recommend that you register Security Show to have a free entrance ticket before visiting the exhibition hall.

Security Show 2016 official website

exhibition booth　SS3505
-Contents of products to be exhibited:
Ayonix Public Security 5.0
Ayonix Customer Analytics
Ayonix Facelogin
Ayonix Egate passport authentication
Ayonix cloud face recognition

For details, email us at　[email protected]

Ayonix corporation, Japan

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Run Windows Server and SQL Server workloads seamlessly across your hybrid environments

Udgivet den 30 juli, 2019

General Manager, Microsoft Azure

In recent weeks, we’ve been talking about the many reasons why Windows Server and SQL Server customers choose Azure. Security is a major concern when moving to the cloud, and Azure gives you the tools and resources you need to address those concerns. Innovation in data can open new doors as you move to the cloud, and Azure offers the easiest cloud transition, especially for customers running on SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 with concerns about end of support. Today we’re going to look at another critical decision point for customers as they move to the cloud. How easy is it to combine new cloud resources with what you already have on-premises? Many Windows Server and SQL Server customers choose Azure for its industry leading hybrid capabilities.

Microsoft is committed to enabling a hybrid approach to cloud adoption. Our commitment and passion stems from a deep understanding of our customers and their businesses over the past several decades. We understand that customers have business imperatives to keep certain workloads and data on premises, and our goal is to meet them where they are and prepare them for the future by providing the right technologies for every step along the way. That’s why we designed and built Azure to be hybrid from the beginning and have been delivering continuous innovation to help customers operate their hybrid environments seamlessly across on-premises, cloud and edge. Enterprise customers are choosing Azure for their Windows Server and SQL Server workloads. In fact, in a 2019 Microsoft survey of 500 enterprise customers, when those customers were asked about their migration plans for Windows Server, they were 30 percent more likely to choose Azure.

Customers trust Azure to power their hybrid environments

Take Komatsu as an example. Komatsu achieved 49 percent cost reduction and nearly 30 percent performance gain by moving on-premises applications to Azure SQL Database Managed Instance and building a holistic data management and analytics solutions across their hybrid infrastructure.

Operating a $15 billion enterprise, Smithfield Foods slashed datacenter costs by 60 percent and accelerated application delivery from two months to one day using a hybrid cloud model built on Azure. Smithfield has factories and warehouses often in rural areas that have less than ideal internet bandwidth. It relies on Azure ExpressRoute to connect their major office locations globally to Azure to gain the flexibility and speed needed.

The government of Malta built a complete hybrid cloud eco-system powered by Azure and Azure Stack to modernize its infrastructure. This hybrid architecture, combined with a robust billing platform and integrated self-service backup, brings new level of flexibility and agility to the Maltese government operations, while also providing citizens and businesses more efficient services that they can access whenever they want.

Let’s look at some of Azure’s unique built-in hybrid capabilities.

Bringing the cloud to local datacenters with Azure Stack

Azure Stack, our unparalleled hybrid offering, lets customers build and run cloud-native applications with Azure services in their local datacenters or in disconnected locations. Today, it’s available in 92 countries and customers like Airbus Defense & Space, iMOKO, and KPMG Norway are using Azure Stack to bring cloud benefits on-premises.

We recently introduced Azure Stack HCI solutions so customers can run virtualized applications on-premises in a familiar way and enjoy easy access to off-the-shelf Azure management services such as backup and disaster recovery.

With Azure, Azure Stack, and Azure Stack HCI, Microsoft is the only cloud provider in the market that offers a comprehensive set of hybrid solutions.

Modernizing server management with Windows Admin Center

Windows Admin Center, a modern browser-based application free of charge, allows customers to manage Windows Servers on-premises, in Azure, or in other clouds. With Windows Admin Center, customers can easily access Azure management services to perform tasks such as disaster recovery, backup, patching, and monitoring. Since its launch just over a year ago, Windows Admin Center has seen tremendous momentum, managing more than 2.5 million server nodes each month.

Screenshot of the Windows Admin Center - Azure Hybrid Center

Easily migrating on-premises SQL Server to Azure

Azure SQL Database is a fully managed and intelligent database service.  SQL Database is evergreen, so it’s always up to date: no more worry about patching, upgrades or End of Support. Azure SQL Database Managed Instance has the full surface area of the SQL Server database engine in Azure. Customers use Managed Instance to migrate SQL Server to Azure without changing the application code. Because the service is consistent with on-premises SQL Server, customers can continue using familiar features, tools and resources in Azure.

With SQL Database Managed Instance, customers like Komatsu, Carlsberg Group, and AllScripts were able to quickly migrate SQL databases to Azure with minimal downtime and benefit from built-in PaaS capabilities such as automatic patching, backup, and high availability.

Connecting hybrid environments with fast and secure networking services

Customers build extremely fast private connections between Azure and local infrastructure, allowing both to and through access using Azure ExpressRoute at bandwidths up to 100 Gbps. Azure Virtual WAN makes it possible to quickly add and connect thousands of branch sites by automating configuration and connectivity to Azure and for global transit across customer sites, using the Microsoft global network.

Customers are also taking full advantage of services like Azure Firewall, Azure DDoS Protection, and Azure Front Door Service to secure virtual networks and deliver the best application performance experience to users.

Managing anywhere access with a single identity platform

Over 90 percent of enterprise customers use Active Directory on-premises. With Azure, customers can easily connect on-premises Active Directory with Azure Active Directory to provide seamless directory services for all Office 365 and Azure services. Azure Active Directory gives users a single sign-on experience across cloud, mobile and on-premises applications, and secures data from unauthorized access without compromising productivity.

Innovating continuously at the edge

Customers are extending their hybrid environments to the edge so they can take on new business opportunities. Microsoft has been leading the innovation in this space. The following are some examples.

Azure Data Box Edge provides a cloud managed compute platform for containers at the edge, enabling customers to process data at the edge and accelerate machine learning workloads. Data Box Edge also enables customers to transfer data over the internet to Azure in real-time for deeper analytics, model re-training at cloud scale or long-term storage.

At Microsoft Build 2019, we announced Azure SQL Database Edge as available in preview, to bring SQL engine to the edge. Developers will now be able to adopt a consistent programming surface area to develop on a SQL database and run the same code on-premises, in the cloud, or at the edge.

Get started – Integrate your hybrid environments with Azure

Check out the resources on Azure hybrid such as overviews, videos, and demos so you can learn more about how to use Azure to run Windows Server and SQL Server workloads successfully across your hybrid environments.


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Kobe Bryant Embodied Los Angeles. His Death Leaves The City Shaken.

Written by on January 28, 2020

LOS ANGELES — I’m sitting in my favourite sandwich spot greater than 24 hours after and nonetheless visibly shaken. This rapidly turns into apparent to an unknown lady, who hugs me with out us even exchanging phrases. Los Angeles, just like the despondent man whom she found in a classic yellow T-shirt lined with 5 footage of basketball icon Kobe Bryant, stays frozen.

That we are going to converse of Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and 7 others previously tense after a deadly helicopter crash close to Calabasas, California, on Sunday is a tragedy that simply received’t register, and doubtless by no means will.

Definitely, the illuminated “Kobe four Ever” signal is correct there in purple and gold off the 405 freeway. New murals proceed to come up, and his Nos. eight and 24 jerseys lay subsequent to candles and flowers far and extensive. I’ve been surrounded by 1000’s of shocked followers close to downtown LA’s Staples Middle. Numerous others combat by means of tears 10 miles southwest to ship handwritten messages on a big white banner with Bryant’s face on it exterior of the Lakers’ coaching facility.

Bryant is synonymous with banners, however not these sorts. We’re attempting, however we will’t settle for this.

Fans gather outside of the Staples Center in Los Angeles to mourn Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.

Followers collect exterior of the Staples Middle in Los Angeles to mourn Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.

To know this sort of disbelief is to grasp my relationship to Los Angeles. Way back to I can bear in mind, my mother and father would inform me concerning the greatness that stars Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar delivered to the hometown Lakers. The profitable showmanship orchestrated by the slick-haired Pat Riley in Inglewood’s Nice Western Discussion board captivated them.

My mom and I usually re-created a yard model of the NBA Finals after college, with the winner of the seven-game sequence doused in apple cider that was our model of locker-room champagne. The one time I left preschool early was to verify we bought to a Lakers playoff sport in time. Practically each morning of my early childhood was spent studying the Los Angeles Instances’ sports activities part and each night time was spent dreaming of after I may converse of my Lakers with the identical reverence they did.

In June 1996, it was not simply an concept. A 17-year-old Bryant would quickly group up alongside future Corridor of Fame heart Shaquille O’Neal, altering my life and the panorama of sports activities. The Lake Present was again!

Household, mates and colleagues have all the time taken the “ask Joseph” method in the case of studying one thing you didn’t know concerning the Lakers. In consequence, my mom knew my over-the-top pleasure upon studying on the radio that then-general supervisor Jerry West had traded for the Philadelphia space prodigy should have been one thing particular.

Nevertheless, I don’t suppose any of us may have predicted the unforgettable run we have been about to embark on. Besides, after all, most likely Bryant himself.

“LA is the land of alternative,” Bryant stated in an Instagram submit in October 2019. “It’s as huge or small as you need it [to] be. … It’s the place the place you possibly can study from the greats who got here earlier than you. And the place you possibly can proceed their journey farther.”

Bryant, as assured as he was flawed, understood this from the beginning. He understood us. Bryant got here straight from highschool and off the bench, leaping previous grown males within the unwavering pursuit of greatness.

A fan sits outside of the Los Angeles Lakers training facility in El Segundo, California.

A fan sits exterior of the Los Angeles Lakers coaching facility in El Segundo, California.

Many individuals relocate to Los Angeles with grand plans solely to rapidly return to their hometowns on the first indicators of discomfort. Bryant was the other. He stayed, he grew and with each not possible shot made or misstep, a uniquely blended group of various races and religions felt that rather more collectively.

Only a few can deal with being that man. Kobe was that man for Southern California and past. He’s one of many causes I work the way in which I do and selected a profession in sports activities media.

Regardless of the quantity of glitz surrounding him or the franchise, you by no means felt for a second like Bryant cheated the sport. The drama matched the endless want for extra, and that further ardour didn’t simply lead to 18 All-Star choices, 2008 NBA MVP honors, 5 league championships and two NBA Finals MVPs.

It gave Los Angeles, regardless of the place you have been within the metropolis, a shared speaking level as a result of Bryant’s nightly shows. The complete world watched as LA’s brightest rose from fearless teenager to a larger-than-life champion and father.

A fan wears a Kobe Bryant jersey outside of the Los Angeles Lakers training facility in El Segundo, California.

A fan wears a Kobe Bryant jersey exterior of the Los Angeles Lakers coaching facility in El Segundo, California.

Bryant appeared inexhaustible till he ruptured his Achilles over the past section of his basketball profession. Nonetheless, he got here again for extra. It was onerous for a lot of to think about Bryant placing this kind of conviction into anything after he formally informed the basketball world goodbye in 2016 with a 60-point efficiency. Nevertheless, his second act appeared prefer it was going to be even higher than the primary.

Submit-basketball life noticed Bryant change into the primary Black individual to win an Oscar for Finest Animated Brief Movie. He was enthusiastic about storytelling and was targeted on making a ebook sequence to encourage the following technology’s love for studying. He wished to maneuver basketball ahead, as most evidenced when he coached his daughter Gianna’s group.

The legacy Bryant leaves with town and all individuals who love him most is purpose-driven dedication to excellence, unforgiving drive, love of household and provoking the following up. Tears and grief will proceed to embody a metropolis that can by no means be the identical, however so too will the enjoyment and Mamba mentality embedded in its DNA.

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Backus Family History

A Genealogical History of the Backus Family and it's Branches

Norma Jean Marsh

Female 1929 - 1997  (68 years)

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The BLT Cookbook

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Crisp wood-smoked bacon. Thick slices of juicy, vine-ripened tomatoes. Leafy lettuce with a slather of creamy mayonnaise. All brought together on toasted sourdough bread. Who doesn’t love a BLT?

In The BLT Cookbook, Michele Anna Jordan shares her passion and secrets for achieving a seductive harmony of flavors and textures that create the perfect BLT. The sixty mouthwatering recipes range from variations of the classic sandwich to soups, salads, and pastas, all inspired by what Jordan calls the holy trinity of tastes: acid, salt, and smoky, voluptuous pork fat.

Serve up the Grilled BLT Kabobs at your next summer barbecue. Indulge in the tangy Watercress Soup with Currant Tomato Salsa and Bacon on a chilly afternoon. Impress your guests with the elegant Pappardelle, Bacon, and Zucchini with Warm Tomato Vinaigrette.

Has all this talk made you crave the real deal — stacked high with juicy tomatoes, crunchy bacon, and crisp lettuce? The Full-Tilt Boogie BLT will surely satisfy your hunger. In the mood for lighter fare? The Tomato Salad with Bacon Vin-aigrette delivers all the flavor of the BLT in a refined context. The BLT Cookbook also provides details on how to fry bacon, slice tomatoes, and select the perfect leaf of lettuce.

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