- Hi welcome to OEM TV, my name is Brian Wilson,
I'm a Partner Sales Executive in the Microsoft
Consumer Device Sales Organization here in the U.S.
As you know, we love to introduce you to new partners
that are building and developing innovative,
cutting-edge devices to drive better outcomes
for their end-user customers.
So today, it brings me great pleasure to introduce to you
GoldKey, designers of the GoldBook Pro laptop
designed for education end-users, government end-users,
and really anybody that's got a extreme focus
on device and data security.
So with that, I'd love to start off the conversation today
by introducing you to Dr. Roger Billings,
who is Founder and C.E.O. of GoldKey.
Dr. Billings, thanks for being with us today.
- Brian, it's a pleasure to be here, thank you.
- So one of the things that has really come across
as you and I have gotten to know each other recently
is the passion that you have for education.
And I'd love to spend a few minutes,
as we're getting started today,
hearing your thoughts around education
and how GoldKey can fit in to drive better outcomes
for students today.
- Absolutely.
GoldKey is a security technology
that we market primarily to military organizations.
It uses hardware devices to protect data
online and on a local area network.
But in the last five or six years,
GoldKey is starting to be deployed
by school districts throughout the nation.
In fact, we have over 2,900 schools now using GoldKey
to protect student records.
GoldKey is a way of making it very easy
for people to access information,
and at the same time, making that information very secure.
I have a great interest in education.
I think it's one of the important things
that needs to happen in our country.
And as a result of that, we have developed
the GoldBook Pro computer.
This is a 2-in-1 computer.
Could be flipped over as a touchscreen device,
or it could be used as a laptop.
It's ruggedized metallic case.
And the nice thing about it, it runs Windows 10 S,
which is a very secure version
of the Windows Operating System, perfect for students.
Whether they be in schools, or whether they even be
homeschooled, this computer is an ideal match for them.
- Well, I certainly hope so and think so, as well.
So can you tell us a little bit then about the GoldBook Pro
itself, and why some of the features that you just mentioned
make it such a good fit for a classroom?
What are the things that can be done with the GoldBook Pro
that make it a great fit for a student,
a parent, or a teacher, for that matter?
- Well, there are a lot of features that are important.
It's a good computer, it has an excellent screen.
It's got a nice touch and feel, it's got a heft to it.
It endures the kind of environment or use
of the classroom, or the student environment.
But I think perhaps the most important thing
is it's very secure.
We have these computers secured
with our GoldKey technology.
But they have a lot of other features.
When a student turns on the computer,
it comes up locked in the Acellus Learning Mode.
So the Acellus Learning System is the
fastest growing learning system in America,
and it provides over 300 different courses to students,
and these are being used by more and more schools.
The interesting thing is,
when they bring this computer online,
it won't go do Facebook, it won't do games,
it won't go download viruses.
It sticks specifically to the application
for which it was produced.
Schools love that.
The productivity of the students are great.
A lot of entertainment, excitement,
and most important, educational activities,
are built into Acellus.
So it is a complete environment for the students,
and it keeps them focused on learning
and developing their careers.
- And how about from the aspect of the teacher?
I know that in a lot of scenarios,
the teacher might just be looking
at the back end of the laptop.
Not really seeing what the kids are looking at.
Can you address some of the things that maybe,
some features in the GoldBook Pro that might help make it
easier for a teacher to manage
what's going on in the classroom.
- Yes.
When a teacher authenticates into the learning system
with GoldKey, they then are able to access a mode
called the Live Class Monitor.
And in that mode, they can see each one of the students
and what they're actually doing
at that particular moment in time.
The Live Class Monitor is a very powerful
machine-learning type technology
that monitors the behavior of the students
to determine which ones need a boost,
need a touch, need a little bit of motivation.
For example, if a student is working on an assignment,
and they're entering answers to problems,
but they're not doing it in a genuine manner,
but they're just guessing, the system will detect that,
and flash a warning to the teacher
so the teacher can then help that student
remember that this is serious,
and to be engaged in what they're learning.
- Earlier in the conversation, you'd mentioned
the dedication that your company has around
security on the PC, and you mentioned the GoldKey itself.
Can you share a little bit about that technology,
and what goes into that, and how that's a differentiator
for what you do as well?
I don't know of a lot of companies that incorporate
that level of security into the device like you guys do.
- Well that really is our specialty.
In fact, I have here with me today a GoldKey security token.
This is a USB device that can be inserted
in any USB port on any computer,
and it will secure that computer,
and it will secure all of the communications
over a public network like the internet.
GoldKey was developed primarily for military applications.
And it's widely deployed by the military,
by organizations like NASA and banks and other people,
and the reason that it's deployed
is that it's so very secure.
The GoldKey is actually a standalone computer
with a lot of very powerful features built into it.
There's a GoldKey core technology
that is built into each key.
Not only allows it to secure your stuff,
but GoldKeys are rolled over, or managed,
by what we call Master Keys.
Master Keys are similar in appearance,
except rather than gold, they're silver.
But a Master Key can actually let a person
that's forgot their pin for their key,
can let them in if they lose their key,
they can disable it.
They can perform all sorts of management functions.
They can give keys privileges or membership
in user communities or groups.
And so it becomes a hierarchically managed thing.
In all other systems that I'm aware of,
this management of security privileges
is done in programs, or in software.
And, inherently, that's hackable.
And so what we want to do is make something that isn't
hackable, and so that's why we took this approach.
If you can have security that can be recoverable,
in other words, if you create a file,
and you store it encrypted, with strong encryption,
and you can't find the key, you've lost the file.
But by having this hierarchy of the Grand Master
and the Master, you're never gonna lose your data.
It's a pretty exciting technology.
- That's amazing, and I love the way,
we'll come full circle, how in court,
you mentioned a full solution.
And so by incorporating an additional layer of security
like the GoldKey, with the device, the GoldBook Pro,
plus the layers of security inherently built into Windows.
Windows 10, Windows 10 S mode.
That really creates a very secure, very safe device
that addresses all points of the security triangle.
So that's the data, the device itself,
and the end user information, right?
So that really is a very robust strategy,
and I love to hear the way that you guys think about that.
I think that's very important for the schools
and the teachers, the students, and the parents,
and anybody that is in that ecosystem.
- Well first of all, I'd like to say that I think Windows 10
is a major step forward in security, in many, many ways.
Some that may be more technical
than we wanna get into today.
But as a security token provider, we love Windows 10.
On the other hand, Windows 10 in S mode
is like another layer magnitude of security
than regular Windows 10.
And it's something that I think really should be
seriously considered by any school
that's putting computers in their school.
And frankly by any company that has
computers going into the hands of employees.
It really will keep a lot of malware off of your network.
When people install bad things on their computers,
quite often they're reaching out to get a game,
or get even something they think may be a productivity tool,
but they're getting it from someone that's unscrupulous,
and they don't have any way of knowing what's there.
In fact, there are many cases where a good, genuine provider
of a productivity tool releases it to the market
not knowing that somebody working for them
is actually injecting malware into their code.
So it's a problem.
Now with Windows 10 in S mode, something marvelous
has been done to patch up that vulnerability.
And what's happened is the people that are in S mode
are required to only get apps that have been vetted
through the Windows store.
- Correct.
- And having vetted apps through all kinds of stores,
I can tell you, this Windows store is pretty good.
They look at them like no consumer ever could,
and they make sure that there are not things
hidden in that code that are going to mess up your computer.
I think that is really important,
and I think it's a tremendous safety advantage.
There's other things, too, about Windows 10 in S mode.
For example, you can't use your old drivers.
You've gotta have stuff updated to the new 64-bit standard.
A lot of hassle for guys that are trying to
bring stuff out like us.
I mean, we had to make some effort,
but so worth it!
Because many of the problems that have existed
have been because of those old drivers.
So we're pretty excited about Windows 10 in S mode,
and I would recommend it to anybody that's gonna be
running Windows 10 in these kinds of environments.
- I appreciate that, that's great to hear.
Just as we're summing up today again,
I want to thank you, first of all,
for sharing your story on GoldKey, and on the GoldBook Pro,
and your unique approach to security and learning outcomes.
That's so very, very important.
So thank you for sharing that.
And in closing, we'll just have a little plug here,
how does one, a student, a teacher, a school district,
a home-teaching parent, how would they go about learning
more about the GoldBook Pro, and even acquiring one?
- Well, the place to go to find the GoldBook Pro
for education is a website called acellus.com.
A-C-E-L-L-U-S.com.
On that site, they can find out about the courseware,
the way it integrates, the GoldBook Pro,
and the advantages, and...
Things that it brings to the table.
- Okay.
- And they can order them, too.
- Well, we'll make sure everybody understands where to go.
So again, thanks for your time today, Dr. Billington.
It's always a pleasure for me to talk to you,
but I'm so glad we're creating an audience
much broader than just ourselves and our two companies.
Because I do think you guys have an amazing product,
and thank you for sharing that with us today.
- Thank you very much, Brian.
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