Storing and backing up a company’s internal documents has become an imperative as data has become so strategic for the proper conduct of business. Different storage media are available on the market. Which ones? Here are the main ones, the most efficient ones.
Storage media: hard drive is the safe bet
Embedded directly within a computer, the hard drive can be of various storage capacities ranging from from a few mega bytes passing by several hundreds (500 Go frequently) to more than 1To in certain cases. But the hard disk can also be qualified of external In this case, it takes the form of a metal or plastic box, removable and easily transportable, and is connected to the PCs generally via a USB port.
The advantage of this storage medium is that it works in a autonomous way. The company does not risk losing or damaging stored data in the event of a computer failure.
Servers, the new generation of storage media
Network Attached Storage (NAS) hard drives or servers come in the form of boxes, running autonomously with their own operating system. As such, this type of storage medium offers a high level of security for the data stored on it. From the point of view of storage capacity, here again they are advantageous since several hard disks are generally on board, for recording and backup levels that can exceed several TB in some cases.
USB drive
If the first generations of USB flash drives had rather limited storage capacities, the new models put on the market today have performances equal to several GB of recording. All types of files can be recorded there, for a device with a minimum space requirement since a USB key is stored in a pocket for example. It can be plugged and unplugged at will on the USB port of a computer and is easily transportable.
CD and DVD, two classic but safe storage media formats
This is another good way to store, back up and classify the different types of data of a company: text, images, videos… However, a burner is necessary to copy the desired data on these two classic but safe media. Indeed, CD and DVD have the following advantages very low risk of deterioration and thus a good conservation in time. The storage capacities of a CD and a DVD are respectively that is to say of 700Mo and 4,7Go, 8,5Go even 18Go for a double-sided DVD.
Memory cards, for rather limited needs
With capacities equal to a few GB, around 2GB, memory cards allow to have a light storage solution of a reduced format and for a affordable price. Among the various memory cards, we find Flash Cards, Memory Cards or SD Cards. In addition, the market offers different levels of performance including from 128MB to 4GB Fast evolution is coming.
The security of a company’s computer storage network is a major issue. It’s all about the proper conduct of its business and the proper safeguarding of strategic data that is useful for its long-term survival and competitive advantages. Although several backup systems exist, it is nonetheless essential to be able to secure the computer storage network. To achieve this, several solutions exist.
Antivirus, the basis for network security
Install a powerful antivirus and update it regularly allows to obtain a good or even very good first level of network security for data storage. An antivirus will conduct a regular scan of incoming files in the company’s computer network, including downloaded files and incoming emails.
Furthermore, in a more periodic manner this time, monthly in particular depending on what has been programmed by the user, the antivirus also scans external hard drives, RAM and various storage media such as USB keys, networked hard drives and other memory cards. In the event of the presence of malware, a virus or a Trojan horse that could harm the saved files or even completely erase them, the antivirus eliminates this intruder or quarantine it before deleting it. It should be remembered that very frequent, ideally daily, updating of the antivirus software provides an optimal level of protection for network security.
Setting up a VPN, an efficient and effective solution for network security
The Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a technology of securing the computer network translatable as Virtual Private Network. It makes it possible to completely secure the connection between a computer and the network to which it wishes to have access. A network in this case linking it with the saved data. The VPN is based on the principle of encryption and decryption of data. In short, computers that have not been referenced as belonging to this virtual private network cannot access the data. A VPN is a private network built internally to the company.
In addition, the VPN is based on two principles that allow it to display a high level of network security: authentication and encryption.
Authentication implies a prior identification of the user and encryption allows to hide, to camouflage, from indiscreet eyes the data embedded on the computer network.
Firewall, another alternative for more network security
Firewall is a network security technology that allows to block and prevent intrusions from an Internet connection. Because when an employee of a company is surfing the Web, some hackers take advantage of flaws in the security of the network to harm, delete, damage or steal various data.
Firewall software filters the data packets passing between the computer and the web. Because some hackers send a lot of data packets in order to attempt an intrusion. The firewall filters and blocks these packets, allowing the recorded data to remain intact. The firewall also works on the principle of permitting and blocking. In other words, some communications are allowed and some are not.
More and more companies specializing in the niche of IT services for businesses are offering a complete outsourcing service. But what is hidden behind this term? In what does a service of computer outsourcing consist? What are the services provided? What are the advantages for the companies? What you need to know on the subject.
Principles of IT outsourcing
IT outsourcing returns for a company to to entrust the management, the security and the operation of its entire computer system to an outside company specialized on the question. In other words, the customer company mandates the provider in the management of its strategic information, of their good security, and also entrusts the management of its park of computers and the various software solutions which it uses. It is a totally outsourced service.
We speak about outsourcing because the service relates to the taking in hand the vital information of the company. It is either carried out remotely, from the premises of the service provider, who takes control of the customer’s computer system, on his security system that he will have previously set up. But it can also be carried out regularly within the premises of the company this time.
It is also possible to choose among two formulas of computer outsourcing: total or partial. The customer has indeed the possibility of determining which will be the field of actions of the provider: only on the computer park or only on the network for example.
IT outsourcing: services provided
IT outsourcing includes a set of services such as:
maintenance for computer system
The implementation of securing information, systems and networks
A technical help and assistance to each employee of the company
Benefits of IT outsourcing
By outsourcing the functions of managing the computer park and securing data and networks, the client company benefits from serious advantages:
The use of a professional to a specialist in very technical matters
The possibility of stay focused on your core business and thus be able to free up time for the development of the company
The expertise research The IT service provider knows how to secure a network, protect and safeguard the sensitive data of its customers, provide advice, implement corrective actions …
The guarantee of obtaining a high level of security on the company’s data and on its networks (local or Internet)
A economic gain the use of an external service provider is often less expensive than employing several in-house IT experts
To choose the right IT outsourcing provider, the right method is to scan a number of points such as:
The customer typology of the provider: is it related to the company’s sector of activity?
experience number of years of expertise in the market, customer references
The size of the structure SMEs will be satisfied with an independent service provider while larger structures will rather wait for a large company to meet their needs.
The outsourced backup is for a company to entrust the management of the backup and security of its data to an external provider. A solution that more and more companies are using because of the simple and fast method on which the outsourced backup is based but also because it is a source of many advantages.
Outsourced backup: a simple method
Setting up a backup procedure outsourced of a company’s strategic data amounts to having a copy of this information on a remote server. The data thus transit on Internet to be stored within the servers of the provider.
In this respect, companies specializing in this niche offer their customers servers entirely and exclusively dedicated to the copy of information.
All the outsourced backups to be performed are also scheduled to be carried out every day, for example as soon as the employees of the client company finish their workday. An automatic connection is set up between the different computer stations of the employees and the Web server of the provider. The information to be saved are thus synchronized In order not to let any data pass, not to omit any information to be saved.
The company having recourse to the service of externalized safeguard thus does not have to worry about no complex technical handling A single software program is installed on the employees’ workstations to define the data to be transmitted so that they can be copied automatically at the end of each day to fully secure servers.
Benefits of using an outsourced backup service
By opting for an outsourced backup service, companies benefit from advantages of size.
The backup is fully automated no technical and computer manipulation to realize, the data are regularly updated
The storage space on the provider’s servers is particularly large This backup system has the advantage of being able to copy files and data of significant size
The service is scalable : according to the needs of the company, the provider can propose more powerful storage spaces
Data can be consulted from anywhere at any time For an effective collaboration at a distance, on PC, tablet, cell phone…
The provider takes care of all the operations The company’s employees can then free up valuable time to remain focused on their core business, on their daily tasks
Data is protected from various incidents such as fire, theft, flooding, damaged hard drives…
This is a permanent solution
The overall cost of the operation is often less than that of all the storage media traditionally put in place
Data is protected during transfer to the servers The provider has indeed initiated an encryption to prevent any possibility of hacking information.
Many companies or organizations outsource the management of their IT security to external service providers rather than recruiting internally. These companies, experts in their field, carry out multiple actions for their customers. What is the role or rather the roles played by IT security companies? Elements of an answer.
Computer security company, upstream actions: analysis and audit
It is indeed the first level of expertise of a computer security company : conduct a first operation analysis and audit of the system. And this with the main purpose to identify the risks as well as to define an effective policy of security .
Among the actions taken at this stage are mainly:
A complete audit of existing security devices
A thorough analysis of risks and possible malfunctions
The realization of a prevention plan of the incurred computer risks
The definition and suggestion of security devices the most adapted to the customer’s problem: firewall, VPN, antispyware…
Implementation of the plan and security tools
After the first phase of analysis and recommendations, it is time for the IT security company to implement the recommended action plan. This is done by playing on several levers, by implementing different levels of benefits:
Implementation of security methods and tools : antivirus, firewall, implementation of NAS server for backup, restrictions of incoming flows…
Support and training of employees of the client company to the new methods of security, to the use of the technical tools of safeguarding and putting in safety of the strategic information of the company.
Initial and continuous supervision of all backup devices
Production of dashboards referencing anomalies noted in the information system if necessary
Real-time management and resolution of security incidents that could jeopardize corporate data
Computer security company, a continuous action downstream
Once all the security and backup measures for the company’s IT system have been defined and put in place, the role of the IT security provider does not stop. Indeed, he continues to carry out actions throughout the collaboration with the customer. Various actions such as :
Initiate regular and detailed reporting of possible flaws encountered in the system
Perform a recurring check of the system’s security level and possible implementation of corrective actions
To develop backup and security methods for then according to the new needs of the company: increase in the number of employees, opening of new offices, need to obtain a superior storage space for the safeguard of strategic data…
IT security companies thus fulfill multiple roles: analysis, consulting, technical implementation, reporting, technological and regulatory watch…And by accompanying their customer, they train their employees to the tools and methods, for a better performance of the devices set up.
A web service solution or platform for task automation, IFTTT is a service that interconnects hundreds of platforms, websites and objects to allow users to automate their most common actions.
IFTTT: what is it?
Launched in 2010, IFTTT is a service that allows you to connect devices to each other and automate certain tasks according to personalized scenarios. In short, IFTTT is a service that bases its operation on programming to automatically trigger an action as soon as another first action occurs. Thanks to IFTTT, it is possible, for example, to trigger your heating as soon as the temperature drops below a certain threshold. Accessible on the web, Android and iOS, IFTTT offers a list of applets (previously called “recipes”) representing all existing actions, which can be configured according to needs.
Is IFTTT free?
The IFTTT web service went live in September 2020 with a paid subscription. By the end of September 2022, the service had 150,000 users, generating $6 million in annual revenue.
Until now, the platform was free and IFTTT users could create as many applets as they wanted even if they were limited to one trigger. Now, this free service is limited to five applets.
Subscribers to the Pro license, sold at 2.6 dollars per month, have access to 20 applets. You have to pay 5.2 dollars per month to access the Pro+ license, which allows you to create an unlimited number of applets and benefit from customer support.
IFTTT can be used in many professional fields to automate repetitive tasks for which human intervention is not essential. For the general public, IFTTT can be used to live in a connected home with, for example, the creation of a recipe that turns off the lights as soon as a person leaves the house.
Which apps and web apps are supported by IFTTT?
IFTTT currently supports many apps including the must-have Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. In the case of these apps, IFTTT can allow, for example, to create an applet (or recipe) in order to receive an email as soon as someone posts on Twitter with an identified hashtag, to turn on a light when the Uber Eats delivery driver is ready to deliver, etc.
End of IFTTT on Google
As of August 31, 2019, several Nest products are no longer supported by IFTTT. Google now favors the control of its objects with Google Assistant. For the web giant, this decision simplifies the use of its products.
How to use the IFTTT API?
The IFTTT API is used like most web services dedicated to task automation. Compared to the Zapier API, the IFTTT API is less complex to learn.
IFTTT vs Zapier
IFTTT offers much the same functionality as another task automation platform, Zapier created in 2011. However, there are some differences between these two platforms, especially in terms of availability as apps for iOS and Android and possibilities as to the integration of business applications.
What are the alternatives to IFTTT?
Besides Zapier, there are platforms or services developed by Google (Google Assistant: Actions on Google), Microsoft (Microsoft Flow) or Amazon (Alexa Skills Kit).
Most users of the free version are content to manage the existing applets on IFTTT that meet their needs. But they are limited by the fact that only one action is possible between two services, and only two services can be connected together. As a result, for an intensive or experienced user, it can quickly become tedious since it is necessary to initially create and parameterize multiple applets to design a chain of consecutive interactions mixing different services. With IFTTT Maker, this problem has been solved: it is possible to cumulate several actions in a chain, by adding as many instructions as necessary. IFTTT Maker also allows designers, developers and companies to add new services to make them accessible to the greatest number of people. This is particularly useful for connecting the new connected objects that arrive on the market every year.
Originating from the Japanese automotive industry, Kanban aims at the continuous improvement of processes. Companies massively use this agile method and its flow visualization mode in the form of a board for their project management.
What is Kanban?
Kanban is a work method inspired by the Lean approach focused on the continuous improvement of production processes. It was conceptualized in 1950 by the Japanese industrial engineer Taiichi Ōno for Toyota in order to optimize the car manufacturer’s manufacturing. It is based on a “pull flow” system, taking into account consumer demands, and not push flow.
Kanban thus consists in constantly adapting to the customer’s needs. Objective: to limit the risk of overproduction and waste, but also to reduce delays and costs. Qualified as an agile method in the same way as Scrum, Kanban advocates the visualization of workflows through a Kanban board. A board allowing to prioritize and follow the progress of tasks to be accomplished.
Why use a Kanban ?
A Kanban board is a project management method that aims to optimize team work through a visual modeling of tasks and workflow. The challenge of this method is to limit the number of tasks in progress at each stage of the project to make the work flow more smoothly and efficiently. These optimization actions will be carried out during regular meetings of the project team, with the objective of rationalizing the distribution of tasks over time.
The Kanban method is based on a card system. It was named after this process. Kanban means labels in Japanese. The cards or labels will represent the tasks to be accomplished in order to respond to a customer’s order.
These graphic objects are a simple tool to understand and quickly decipher. To visualize the progress of an order or a project, they will be distributed in a Kanban board generally divided into three parts: “To do”, “In progress” and “Done”. This way, everyone knows what they have to do, when and how.
A kanban board is divided into columns allowing you to visualize the progress of tasks to be done. Here is an example of a Kanban board in the Trello project management application. Trello
The creation of a kanban board for a given project involves several steps:
Identify the successions of tasks to be performed that can be modeled as collaborative flows,
Map each phase of the process,
Identify phases that are resource intensive or dependent on many subtasks,
Name the steps/columns in the table according to the business workflow.
The definition of the columns or lists in the table depends on the business process. For example, a content publication workflow could be broken down into the columns “Proposed topics”, “Validated topics”, “Drafting in progress”, “Completed articles”, “Reviewed articles” and “Published articles”. Obviously, the stages will be different for an IT project, which could be broken down into “To be developed”, “Under development”, “Completed development”, “Testing phase”, “Acceptance phase”, “Deployment”.
What are the 3 types of Kanban?
A Kanban card will be able to contain three types of information:
the description of the task to be accomplished,
The contents useful for the realization of the task: reference links, drafts, models,
Comments submitted by project team members,
The subtasks to be completed to accomplish the task.
What is the role of kanban daily meetings
Agile methods have revolutionized traditional meetings around a table. We now use daily meetings. These are short meetings (no more than 15 minutes) that are held every morning, usually standing up. Each team member must answer three questions: What did I do yesterday? What will I do today? What are the obstacles I am likely to encounter?
Daily meetings allow the whole team to be informed of each other’s tasks and to find solutions to certain problems. As a result, they are often considered as a complementary tool to the Kanba approach.
Kanban with Jira
To implement the Kanban method, many companies use the Jira software. Designed by the Australian editor Atlassian, this application implements the visualization approaches promoted by the Scrum and Kanban agile methods. It allows to create customizable and interactive Kanban boards.
Kanban with Trello
Directly inspired by the Kanban methodology, the Trello application is defined as a project management tool in SaaS mode. This service offers a free version and a paid version with more advanced features (especially in terms of card management, automation and security).
One of Trello’s main assets is its collaborative work features. In particular, it allows members of a project team to post their comments in the tags.
Kanban vs Scrum
Scrum advocates short development cycles (or sprint), from two to four weeks, at the end of which a new version of the project is delivered. As we have seen, Kanban emphasizes continuous improvement, with permanent evolution possible.
The two approaches therefore seem to be in opposition. They are nonetheless complementary, and are often used together. A kanban board can indeed be used to manage the progress of tasks to be completed within a Scrum sprint.
A feature store manages the storage, updating and sharing of features of machine learning pipelines and models. A solution that is essential for an AI factory.
What is the feature store?
The notion of feature store was first introduced by Uber in a 2017 published post. Under this term, the VTC refers to the repository it uses to store the features of its machine learning models. The challenge? Making it easier to share these features from project to project. Uber claims to be confronted with numerous modeling problems involving similar or identical attributes. Hence the idea of pooling them through a central database.
In the context of an AI factory, the feature store is central. It allows to capitalize on the learning functions already created for new developments. So much time is saved in feature engineering. In the field of health, features can refer to an individual’s blood type, height curve, weight… The feature store centralizes the features and allows them to be easily shared with other machine learning models.
Example of a feature store
Features refer to the information used to feed the machine learning. In the case of a recommendation AI on a music streaming platform, it is for example the songs already listened to, their playback time or their ranking in terms of audience.
Thanks to a feature store tool, the streaming platform will typically be able to reuse the traffic ranking used here for other models, on the advertising targeting front for example.
What is the advantage of a feature store?
The feature store consolidates machine learning workflows around a single pipeline for training, testing and validating models, as well as executing them in the field. It allows you to benefit from a single source of truth with a single data transformation method per feature. Federating transformation methods in this way facilitates their monitoring and validation, and simplifies the tracking of biases that may arise from the features or data. The repository also stores feature metadata and their history. This makes it possible to keep track of the comments made by data scientists on the influence of features on a given model, and thus to better identify the types of problems to which they can respond.
During the training phase, the feature store is also there to guarantee the integrity of the data sets. “The training data may mistakenly include information dedicated to testing the model once it has been trained. This obviously distorts the results. This is called a feature leak,” explains Ismaïl Lachheb at Octo Technology. Such a leak happens quickly. “In the case of a database with a dozen joins (between the tables, editor’s note), all it takes is an error in one of them for the learning set to access data intended for testing,” says the data scientist. During the creation of the various data sets, the feature store is responsible for guaranteeing the watertightness of the data, regardless of the number of joins and tables used. “It manages the versioning and execution of the learning process in line with the evolution of the state of the data over time,” adds Sergio Winter, machine learning engineer at Revolve, a Devoteam entity with expertise in AWS.
The last major benefit of the feature repository is that the feature store ensures standardization of feature formatting and calculation between learning and real-world prediction. “If the data preprocessing is not exactly the same in both cases, a learning/invocation bias will appear with a negative impact on the quality of the results,” warns Ismaïl Lachheb. This difference may be due to negligence or to the management of the learning and inference data sources by different teams. By controlling the featuring of the data during both prediction and training, the feature repository ensures consistency between the two sources.
What are the feature store tools?
To get started, there are several open source feature store tools. The most popular ones are :
Feast,
Hopsworks,
Tecton.
Tecton was created by the developers behind Uber’s AI platform (read the article Feature store comparison: Tecton outshines Feast and Hopsworks).On the cloud side, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google also market managed feature repositories. AWS’ offering has the advantage of integrating with Data Wrangler. “Unlike Google’s Cloud Dataprep (which is based on a third-party application from Trifacta, ed.), it’s a graphical tool that not only handles batch but also data transformations and data set updates in real time,” compares Sergio Winter (see the article AI Cloud Platforms: Amazon and Microsoft outpaced by Google).
Databricks Feature Store
Databricks offers its own AI platform: Databricks Machine Learning. Designed to run on the editor’s infrastructure designed to federate big data analytics and machine learning, it includes a feature store.
Feast: open source feature store
Feast is an open source feature management library. This library allows to define feature stores to help building models and retrieving data.
Feature store vs data warehouse
A data warehouse is a data warehouse (or EDD). It is a relational database that collects data from a wide variety of sources. Its main function is to validate an analysis and optimize the decision-making process of a company.
The feature store is a kind of data warehouse (feature-oriented) at the service of machine learning. The feature store is different from an architectural point of view, insofar as it is a double database with its own particularities:
A database that contains data distributed by the SDK (Software Development Kit), with a large temporal depth.
A database that contains fresh data and streaming data, this DB (database) is faster to serve “fresh” data.
Narrow artificial intelligence or Narrow AI, is AI focused on a given task. Its machine learning model is trained to solve a specific problem.
What is narrow AI?
Narrow artificial intelligence (or Narrow AI) focuses on a specific problem, in this sense it is monotask. narrow AI aims at reproducing specific cognitive faculties, such as natural language processing or image recognition for example.
We can thus say that it simulates a human behavior or faculty, but without consciousness. It is a particularly powerful tool in the sense that it is able to automate tasks. It draws from the algorithms of machine learning.
What about some examples of narrow artificial intelligence?
The current applications of narrow artificial intelligence are numerous. narrow AI allows indeed to treat precise tasks, and in a faster way. In short, to be as good or even better than a human brain when performing these same tasks. Among the application cases of narrow AI, we can mention :
Understanding and interpreting (to some extent) natural language,
Reproduce the musical style of a famous musician,
Produce images that appear to be grounded in reality,
Recognize and identify people in a photograph,
Make a diagnosis of a disease.
Siri, the intelligent assistant on Apple devices, is a perfect example of narrow artificial intelligence. Able to understand certain requests, it answers a number of questions asked by humans. It is thus able to understand and interpret language, or part of it. This is a technological feat that has revolutionized usage. However, it has only a small number of predefined functions and there is neither true intelligence nor consciousness.
What can narrow AI do?
While applying narrow artificial intelligence, professions could be automated. Some studies show that in the context of the coming decades, 10% of jobs could be eliminated, and 50% transformed due to the potential intervention of narrow AI in certain professions.
What is the difference between narrow and strong AI?
Narrow artificial intelligence reproduces a human mode of operation without consciousness or sensitivity. There is no “true” intelligence.
The ambition of strong artificial intelligence is to develop models allowing the creation of machines endowed with mind, consciousness and sensitivity. These machines would have the subtlety of the human brain coupled with the performance and computing power of AI as it exists today. This is one of the main challenges for artificial intelligence.
The Notion platform federates task and project management, note taking, online document editor… Oriented no code, it is presented as an all-in-one digital workplace oriented to team management.
What is Notion?
Claiming 20 million users worldwide, Notion.so is an all-in-one digital workplace. It combines various collaborative tools for note taking, task management, project management (around a kanban board) and document storage and exchange. Oriented to no-code development, its graphical interface, in wiki mode, is fully customizable. Like Airtable, it allows you to create a database. But also formulas to automate calculations, display content under certain conditions, or edit and share web pages.
The icing on the cake, Notion is equipped with an API designed to connect the platform to third-party applications: Office 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Salesforce … According to the latest Okta Business at Work 2022 barometer, Notion is the fastest growing app in terms of adoption in 2021, both in terms of number of customers (+240%) and users (+663%).
If you are not familiar with task management applications, Notion.so may take some getting used to. The way it works is quite simple. Each task or note is synchronized with different views: document, calendar, timeline… It is also possible to create a mini-database through a data table, and to apply tags, filters, sorting or calculate sums and percentages.
Available online, access to Notion involves creating an account by filling in a simple e-mail address. The solution can then be used immediately at no cost. Called Teams, a feature currently being deployed will allow to organize documents according to distinct teams (development, support, marketing, finance…) or projects (product launch, conference organization…).
Is Notion free?
Notion.so offers a free plan, called Notion Personal. It targets small teams of up to 6 people. Allowing to create an unlimited number of pages and blocks, Notion Personal opens access to the platform’s API. Besides its web version, it allows to use Notion via its different applications (for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS).
Depending on your needs, several paid subscriptions allow you to unlock these limitations while giving access to more advanced features (see below)
What is the price of Notion.so?
Notion has three paid offers. Notion Personnal Pro shows a price of 4 dollars per month, Notion Team 8 dollars per month per user. As for Notion Enterprise, its price is not public.
Notion Personnal Pro is limited to the management of a single team, but gives the possibility to invite an unlimited number of participants. Unlike the free offer, it manages a version history (over 30 days) and an unlimited volume of files. Unlike Notion Personnal Pro, Notion Team is designed for multi-team management. It introduces administration tools, as well as collaboration workspace to control access rights individually or by group. Finally, Notion Enterprise extends the functional palette to include support for single sign-on (via SAML), user management via the API and more advanced access policy management.
In addition to its website, Notion is also available as applications for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS:
Notion templates
Notion offers a gallery with several hundreds of templates, most of them developed by external contributors. This Notion Template Gallery federates very diverse application templates: weekly agenda, daily planning, to-do list, kanban board, budget management, roadmap, company journal, mini-CRM, recruitment pipeline… It includes templates for both personal and collective organization.
Notion API
Accessible from the free mode, the Notion API allows to automatically import data from third party tools or conversely to manage exports. And this with about twenty applications: Asana, Confluence, Trello, Office 365, Google Workspace, Slack… Another possibility offered by the programming interface is to trigger an update in a third-party software in response to an action performed in Notion (change in the status of a task, a document, etc.), or to send an email, or an alert by SMS, etc.
For the future, Notion is working on the Synced Databases feature which will allow to synchronize its database with structured data from third party tools like Google Calendar, GitHub or Jira.
Does Notion.so integrate with Zapier or IFTTT?
Notion.so benefits from the task automation tools Zapier and IFTTT. The first one allows to connect the platform to hundreds of applications, and the second one to about twenty. The advantage of these two tools? To offer a no-code integration environment that is much easier to use than Notion’s API, which by definition involves getting your hands into the code.
Is Notion.so usable offline?
Notion.so offers an offline use of its services on any type of device, including in web mode. This is a particularly practical feature, especially when traveling.
Is Notion.so available on Android?
In order to offer a smooth and pleasant experience, Notion.so can be used on Android and iOS from a smartphone. The editor offers applications for both mobile systems, which provide access to the same features.
Notion : tutorial and other links
Since mastering Notion can be a bit tricky as the possibilities are so extensive, using tutorials and forums can be a good idea.
What are the alternatives to Notion?
Comparable solutions to Notion.so include clickup and monday.com. To date, these are without a doubt its main competitors. The first one is comparable in terms of features, templates and price. As for Monday, it has a plethora of templates, but its prices are much higher. Its entry price is 8dollars per user per month.
