🔒Lewiston tech consulting firm aims to make safer computer networks, smarter factories

As president of an innovative technology company that's just barely a year old, Rob Dolci instinctively understood it was a big deal when his Lewiston-based company, aizoOn USA, was picked to display its cyber-security technology at the 2015 Defense Innovation Technology Showcase in Austin, Texas. Out of more than 1,000 innovative technology companies that had applied to pitch early-stage technologies and products at the Dec. 1-3 event, only 250 were selected.

And of those, only two were from Maine: aizoOn USA (pronounced EYES'-on), pitching its Aramis cyber-security system, and Fiber Materials Inc., a Biddeford company touting a high-temperature high-strength carbon-fiber composite as a product suitable for missile and space flight systems.

Big deal? On the final day of the event, in a telephone interview with Mainebiz, Dolci had first-hand experiences to back up his gut feeling.

“This is really a major event,” he says, noting that as many as 1,200 representatives from more than 15 federal agencies attended the summit, including the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, National Science Foundation, Army, Navy, Air Force, NASA and the Special Operations Command and Defense Threat Reduction Agency. “Everyone is here with an interest to connect, not so much with large companies, but with the smaller innovative companies like ours. It's been three days of lots and lots of meetings for us.”

Produced by TechConnect and the National Security Technology Accelerator, the Dec. 1-3 event's giant carrot for participants was the $100 million the DoD awarded to NSTXL last April for rapid prototype funding of technologies and products suitable for both the military and civilian purposes. Small innovators and non-traditional defense contractors are a prime target, and the Austin event was expressly designed to help them leapfrog the typically cumbersome and challenging acquisition process of the federal government to get a fair shot at those Pentagon dollars.

Dolci says that “dual use” emphasis was very much in evidence at the summit, giving aizoOn USA additional opportunities to meet not only Pentagon officials but also aerospace companies and a host of technology investors and universities to discuss next-step opportunities for its Aramis cyber-security software.

“We're meeting not just potential customers, but potential partners as well,” he says.

Dolci expects that he and the other members of his team who attended the summit will spend several days discussing what they've learned and identifying the most promising leads to pursue going forward. In some cases, prospects expressed interest in aizoOn's other areas of expertise, such as materials handling and “smart factory” processes using new technologies such as 3D printers that can produce prototypes in hours, rather than days, weeks or months.

Tackling old problems in new ways

Formed just a year ago, aizoOn USA is backed by aizoOn Group, a global technology consulting company based in Italy with 500 employees and sites in Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. Dolci says the company's unusual name is derived from a Greek word meaning “forever alive.”

“That's the foundation of the company,” says Dolci. “In terms of fostering knowledge, we're forever alive.”

Dolci is a 20% owner of aizoOn USA, with the remaining 80% owned by the Italian parent company. The U.S. operation is completely independent in its operations and management, he says, but benefits from the parent company's global network of academic and technology partners and the expertise of almost 500 engineers, mathematicians, software developers and researchers. AizoOn USA has 10 employees — seven in Maine and three in Michigan — and 40 U.S. clients, including Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

Both the parent company and its U.S. subsidiary provide consulting services that cut across all industry sectors, including information technology, engineering and manufacturing, innovation and business organization and processes. Both have deep ties to academic institutions, Dolci says, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, universities in Italy and the United Kingdom and the University of Sydney in Australia.

AizoOn's Aramis cyber-security software is a good example of the company's approach to solving complicated problems. Working with leading researchers on “very specific, very detailed research on artificial intelligence and cyber security,” Dolci says his company has developed proprietary algorithms that identify threats inside a computer network by highlighting deviations from its normal behavior. It immediately flags those deviations for closer scrutiny by the network's IT specialists, instead of passively waiting for further evidence that the deviation is, in fact, a type of malware.

He says traditional malware detection software, on the other hand, typically identifies threats based on the “signature” characteristic traits of the various malware families. Problem is, those traits evolve and become harder to detect without an upgrade to the software adding new signature characteristics to its detection filters. The bad guys, obviously, are working constantly to improve the evasive ability of their malware programs.

By comparison, Dolci says, Aramis doesn't rely on signature-identification to trigger its defense. Instead, it collects network traffic passively, which makes it virtually undetectable by malware and malicious hackers. What it's looking for are deviations that seem suspicious enough to be filtered for an analyst to zoom in, analyze and then decide the best course of action. It's not unlike the human ability to intuitively sense potentially dangerous situations before the threat becomes evident and taking steps of avoidance or prevention.

“The average security breach is 200 days before a company understands they've been attacked,” Dolci says. “That's way too long. We've been able to shrink that to one day and immediately tell the server's security personnel that something is wrong.”

There are an estimated 160,000 malware samples being created every day, according to Orlando, Fla.-based Panda Security. So Dolci sees a huge potential market for Aramis based on its ability to reduce the time span between infection, identification and eradication.

“Think about it,” he says. “Cyber threats affect everything from national defense to the food supply to the energy grid to the financial system. State-of-the-art isn't good enough anymore. We have to be ahead of state-of-the-art.”

That mind-set influences aizoOn USA's other consulting services as well, says Dolci, whose resume includes an early stint working as an engineer in the automotive industry focusing on preventive maintenance and overall manufacturing efficiency, followed by 15 years as chief information officer in various manufacturing and supply chain businesses.

As an example of what is sometimes called “Industry 4.0” (signifying the fourth industrial revolution), Dolci says aizoOn is helping companies understand better how new technology such as 3D printers can be used to improve their manufacturing processes by giving them the ability to design, produce and test prototypes in hours rather than days or weeks.

Holding up a brightly colored sneaker made with a 3D printer, he points to its intricate texturing, distinct colors and exact modeling of its threadware. Because that prototype was made in only five hours, he says, a shoemaker could make 20 variations on a new style, each with a different color pattern, and be able to test market their appeal long before going into full-scale production.

“It's a huge gain in productivity,” he says, when manufacturers are able to accelerate product development with a minimal investment of time and costs in labor and materials.

Another example of using technology to create what Dolci and others are calling “smart factories” involves the installation of sensors within the factory to regulate lighting or heating according to the time of day, thereby optimizing energy use and reducing cost. His company also has advised clients both large and small on how to improve their supply chain workflows by analyzing their communication and tracking systems, or, in other instances, by installing software making their warehousing and distribution practices more efficient and customer-friendly.

As a technology consulting company, he says, aizoOn's “product” ultimately is to find the best solution for its business customers' needs.

Looking ahead

A native of Italy, Dolci first came to Lewiston about five years ago as the chief information officer of the Italian company System Group, whose subsidiary System Logistics was in the process of buying Lewiston-based Diamond Phoenix Corp., a leading provider of automated picking, sorting and warehousing systems. He stayed with the company, which took the name System Logistics, before leaving in October 2014 to form aizoOn USA.

He brought with him several co-workers from System Logistics and says it's no accident he chose to locate his company's headquarters at 415 Lisbon St. in Lewiston. The work ethic in Maine, he says, is second to none.

“In a professional services industry, where everything is built on trust, work ethic is what counts,” he says. “Most of our customers rely on us 24/7. They will continue to rely on us if the work ethic of our employees shows them they can work with us 24/7 without fail. If there was one single factor that helped me to decide on Lewiston, it would be the work ethic.”

The second factor, he says, is the work/life balance in Maine is very high. That encourages a stable workforce.

In five years, he hopes to increase the company's workforce from its current 10 to 40 or 50 employees.

“I've learned to be open to whatever the future may hold,” he says. “I don't worry too much about what that might be. I just need to learn and be open to what the future reveals as it unfolds.”