Business

New agreement with Republic of Korea to spark new era of digital trade

British businesses and consumers are set to benefit as the UK announces an ‘in principle’ deal to boost data sharing with the Republic of Korea. The deal is the UK’s first independent adequacy agreement with a priority country since leaving the European Union and sees the government seizing the benefits of having independent data laws. The ability to share more data without restrictions reduces administrative and financial compliance burdens and makes it easier for more organisations and businesses to trade and operate in both countries. It opens up new markets to digital trade and brings benefits such as lower prices to consumers. Data-dependent trade between the UK and the Republic of Korea is already worth £1.33 billion. This agreement will empower British businesses to build on this and grow the economy. The new agreement means UK-based organisations looking to sustain or grow their operations in the Republic of Korea (such as AstraZeneca and the bank Standard Chartered) and Korean-headquartered companies with operations in the UK, such as Samsung and LG Electronics, will be able to share data freely and maintain high protection standards. Organisations will no longer need contractual safeguards, such as International Data Transfer Agreements and Binding Corporate Rules in place. The agreement will also boost research and innovation, making it easier for experts to collaborate on medical treatments and other vital research that could save lives in the UK. Data Minister, Julia Lopez who signed the landmark agreement, says: “Today marks a huge milestone for the UK, the Republic of Korea and the high standards of data protection we share. Our new agreement will open up more digital trade to boost UK businesses and will enable more vital research that can improve the lives of people across the country.” Republic of Korea Commissioner of the Personal Information Protection Commission, Jong in Yoon says: “I am honoured to agree to this joint statement today. Strengthening cooperation between the UK and the Republic of Korea based on the shared recognition of high standards of protection can contribute to forming a healthier and more sustainable global data landscape.” The deal in principle strengthens the UK’s commitment to championing international data flows as set out in the National Data Strategy. The decision follows a year of detailed technical discussions between officials from the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Republic of Korea, the PIPC and the Financial Services Commission. The deal will promote the trustworthy use and sharing of data between the two countries and spark a wave of digital trade. It is a clear signal that British organisations and consumers can trust data standards in the Republic of Korea. Data-driven trade generated nearly three quarters of the UK’s total service exports and generated an estimated £234 billion for the economy in 2019. The Rt. Hon. John Whittingdale MP, Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to the Republic of Korea, says: “I am delighted that the first new data adequacy agreement to be reached in principle by the UK is with the Republic of Korea. This reflects the strong relationship which already exists between our two countries and our shared commitment to high standards of data protection. By enabling the free flow of data, I have no doubt that this will reduce barriers and help businesses to trade.”

Fire safety amongst topics at Siemens Transform event

Siemens is presenting a two day conference and exhibition entitled ‘Transform 2022’ which will see the largest cross-section of the company’s UK and Ireland customers gather to address some of the most challenging issues currently facing businesses. Staged at the Manchester Central Convention Complex from 12-13 July, the focus will be on how Siemens and its customers can tackle the different pressures that are being brought to bear on business, with discussions, ideas and technologies that can help to provide the transformation required to shape a sustainable future. Amongst the topics under discussion will be fire safety and the role it can play in that process. ‘Digital Fire Safety: The tools you need to transform your fire protection’ will be the focus for a presentation on 12 July led by Rob Yates, Head of Fire Products, Siemens UK and Ireland. Rob says “We, like our customers, are very aware of the economic, environmental and societal pressures and the accelerated rate at which businesses are having to adjust to such challenges. This event will provide an important collaborative forum to address them. Digitalisation is one of the key drivers in ensuring a business is future-ready and fire safety is no exception. We’ll be looking at the significant benefits that cloud-enabled devices can bring to a fire safety system in terms of the availability of data and how it can be used to track compliance, enhance system records and ensure more efficient maintenance.” To register for the event click here.

Infinidat advances partner portal and expands channel sales with STaaS

Infinidat has announced new moves to advance its strong position in partnering, supporting and co-selling with channel partners, accelerating adoption of storage-as-a-service (STaaS), and significantly enhancing partner sales enablement. Infinidat will roll out a new global version of its partner portal in July, rebuilt from the ground up, to train and equip solution providers worldwide to grow their revenue at a faster pace and deliver their customers true business and technical value with Infinidat’s platforms. In addition, the company announced that it has integrated Infinidat’s STaaS solution into Arrow Electronics’ ArrowSphere in North America. “Our latest investments for our partners to have best-in-class tools and access to leading-edge ecosystems reflect our ongoing, strong commitment to our channel-centric model for go-to-market execution,” says Eric Herzog, CMO at Infinidat. “We’re streamlining and simplifying the partner experience to boost channel participation and success. We’re making it easier for solution providers to sell Infinidat’s industry acclaimed enterprise solution portfolio, including enhanced AIOps capabilities, industry-leading real world application performance with the lowest latency, and the rollout of our innovative InfiniSafe technology across our platforms for groundbreaking levels of cyber resilience, all with the choice of flexible consumption models.” Partner portal gets a makeover Infinidat has rebuilt its partner portal to deliver an enhanced experience for the channel. It is designed to catapult partners forward with dynamic and relevant information to enable competitive advantages. The new portal features the following: Easier navigation to simplify use of the knowledgebase and enablement tools in the portal in support of new and expanding market opportunities.Refreshed, modernised, and expanded content, including detailed information about the new InfiniSafe technology on InfiniBox and InfiniGuard. In addition, localised content in different languages for its global partner ecosystem.Streamlined training experience to make partners more technically adept to sell Infinidat’s portfolio for mutual benefits. Accreditation, also, continues to be part of the program. “We have been a strong partner of Infinidat for several years, and their partner support, programs, and portal have been top-notch,” says Jan Veith, Sales Director, Hansen & Gieraths IT Solutions GmbH. “We are very excited about the new, streamlined Infinidat partner portal and how it will help us grow our business, deliver better solutions leveraging Infinidat’s award-winning platforms, and keep our teams up-to-date on all things Infinidat.” Infinidat has worked with third-party vendors to bring state-of-the-art capabilities into its new portal for channel partners. One of them is Highspot, the sales enablement platform that increases the performance of sales teams by bridging the gap between strategy and execution. “We’re proud that Infinidat has chosen Highspot's sales enablement platform to deliver the right resources to their channel partners at the right time within their new partner portal,” says Gwen Sheridan, Vice President of Customer Services, Highspot. “With Highspot, Infinidat’s partners can utilise rich content, guidance and insights to effectively engage buyers and improve sales performance.” Infinidat’s STaaS solution integrates into ArrowSphere in North America  Arrow’s ArrowSphere platform helps channel partners manage, differentiate, and scale their cloud business. Its marketplace includes leading hyperscale providers, as well as public and private IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, HaaS and cloud software offerings, such as Infinidat’s STaaS. “Infinidat is creating more value for its partners by leveraging ArrowSphere to more easily deliver to customers Infinidat’s storage-as-a-service offering,” comments Shannon McWilliams, Vice President of Supplier Alliances, Arrow. “Storage-as-a-service is a significant revenue growth opportunity for channel partners. Providing a new option for integration, automation, and streamlined ordering of enterprise storage, Infinidat’s STaaS now joins the increasing list of solutions available ‘as a service’ through Arrow’s award-winning cloud management platform, ArrowSphere.”

Cisco commits to help accelerate a more inclusive, digital United Kingdom

By 2030, a more inclusive digital society could add £168 billion to the UK economy. That is why Cisco has committed to help accelerate economic growth across the UK through digital inclusion and innovation. Through investment in partnerships, projects and initiatives focussed on creating opportunity for people, organisations, industries, and regions across the UK, Cisco will expand its Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) programme, which has formed the core of Cisco’s decade long investment in UK innovation. Aligned to both the national and regional ambitions of the UK, the programme will focus on industries and public services best positioned to benefit from digital acceleration, aiming to support improvement on key issues such as digital skills, productivity, sustainability and the UK’s levelling up agenda. Guy Diedrich, Senior Vice President and Global Innovation Officer, Cisco comments “Today we mark a decade of collaboration between Cisco, the UK government, industry and academia to accelerate digital outcomes for the UK.” He adds, “From initiatives to train hundreds of thousands in digital skills, connect the most remote parts of the UK with 5G, and partnerships to foster a culture of innovation, we are helping cement the UK’s place as a leader in fields such as AI and quantum computing. We are extremely proud of what we have achieved together and delighted to be furthering our commitment to help the UK realise the potential of a more inclusive, digital economy - where no one is left behind.” New research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), commissioned by Cisco, finds that a more inclusive digital economy, that connects everyone in the UK, equips them with digital skills, and digitises key industries and public services, has the potential to not only add £168bn to the UK economy, but will provide societal, industrial and regional benefit. David Meads, Chief Executive, Cisco UK & Ireland says “As a nation, we have a heritage of invention that comes from all corners of the UK. With the power of technology, we believe that economic opportunity can follow that tradition.” He adds “Organisations are looking to digital to improve the way they work, operate, and compete on a global scale, but to fully embrace a more digital economy, with talent and innovation to support, there are fundamental issues that we must address. From the role of digital in creating more equitable opportunity and across the UK, to how we as a technology industry lean in to help close the digital skills gap.” Cisco’s CDA programme, which is a long-term partnership programme with governments, industry and academia, will focus on initiatives in sectors that underpin the UK economy and provide critical services that have opportunity to benefit from digital. From healthcare to education, utilities and transport infrastructure. In addition, the programme will align to emerging sectors – including those with a focus on technology to drive sustainable outcomes towards national net zero targets. To encourage innovation in industry and to recognise the need for support and guidance to bring solutions to life, Cisco will launch the first Fast Future Innovation Awards in the UK. From September, organisations will be able to enter to win one of three prizes to realise their ideas.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and Lenovo announce partnership

A research agreement has now been signed between the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and Lenovo to advance research in multiple Spanish and EU priority sectors for high-performance computing. Through this collaboration, Lenovo will invest $7 million over three years to advance precision medicine through the use of supercomputing, the design and development of open-source European chips and the creation of more energy-sustainable supercomputers and data centres. The event took place at the BSC-CNS headquarters with its Director, Mateo Valero, its Deputy Director, Josep Maria Martorell, and Executive Vice President of Lenovo and President of Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, Kirk Skaugen. Mateo Valero, Director of the BSC-CNS states: “I am very proud of this important collaboration with Lenovo as we continue our longstanding work together tackling the great challenges of these priority lines of research from the Spanish and European Commission's agenda. This research collaboration will generate significant returns for the region, not only human and scientific, but also technological and economic." Noam Rosen, EMEA Director, HPC & AI at Lenovo says, “We are excited to announce the agreement to jointly develop novel European supercomputing technologies for the exascale era, which extends from our six year partnership with BSC. Our shared goal is to embrace open architecture to support scientists and researchers with smarter, more efficient and sustainable supercomputing platforms. This agreement, and our investment contribution, are just the latest examples of Lenovo’s ongoing commitment to Europe, joining our new manufacturing facility in Hungary and the AI Innovation Centre Germany. Lenovo is passionate about helping researchers at BSC solve one of humanity’s greatest challenges and is proud to support BSC’s leadership driving European innovation in HPC.” Supercomputing: key to advancing precision medicine The exponential increase in the production of genomic data produces multiple petabytes of information, requiring the use of high-performance computing (HPC) resources for analysis, such as those of the MareNostrum supercomputer at the BSC-CNS. The efficient analysis of large-scale genomic data will be key to advancing precision medicine and the generation of new treatments against diseases such as cancer. Thus, one of the collaboration projects between Lenovo and the BSC-CNS is aimed at improving and accelerating precision medicine using supercomputing. In this context, the BSC-CNS team, led by the researcher Miquel Moretó, will study genomic analysis algorithms to design new accelerators that will be integrated into the HPC platforms of the future that will serve to improve the efficiency of these highly sophisticated analyses. The algorithms created and optimised by the BSC-CNS team will target GOAST (Genomics Optimisation and Scalability Tool) developed by Lenovo to optimise and improve genomic analysis. In addition, these analysis tools will be extended to other disciplines such as epigenetics, metagenomics, microbiology, virology, and other areas of life and health sciences. More sustainable and energy-efficient supercomputers The growing need to provide researchers with more powerful supercomputers and data centres requires considerable increases in energy consumption, which is no longer sustainable. An estimate of the consumption of some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world can be around 25MW, which is equivalent to the consumption of a medium-sized city. The joint research between BSC-CNS and Lenovo will seek to build more energy-efficient, sustainable and lower-cost supercomputers and data centres. The group (coordinated by the researcher Julita Corbalán) will lead this challenge at the BSC-CNS. In 2016, this team developed, together with Lenovo, new system software (EAR, Energy Aware Runtime) for the optimisation and energy efficiency of HPC tools, and together with the UPC launched the spin-off EAS (Energy Aware Solutions) to continue advancing in this direction. This new research project will seek more powerful, flexible, and robust systems for energy-saving within infrastructure solutions, such as software for energy optimisation and management. They will look to incorporate new technologies developed by INTEL within the algorithms recently developed by Corbalán's team. The project will also seek to extend and monitor energy expenditure to the entire infrastructure architecture. European autonomy in chip design In 2019, the BSC announced the creation of the European Laboratory for Open Computing Architecture (LOCA), whose mission is to design and develop chip technology within Europe, based on open -RISC-V instruction set architecture. This laboratory, led by researcher John D. Davis, was born as a collaborative project with companies, foundations, and academic institutions to create open-source hardware that guarantees transparency, competitiveness, and technological autonomy. The incorporation of Lenovo in this project will help facilitate progress towards this priority objective for Europe. In the same context of LOCA, the BSC also recently announced the creation of a joint laboratory with INTEL to develop chips with European technology. The collaboration between BSC-CNS and Lenovo is the continuation of joint work that dates to 2016, aimed at studying the use of artificial intelligence in the field of precision medicine or the sustainability of supercomputers, amongst others.

BSI recognises Corero Network Security as a provider of DDoS defence for critical infrastructure

Corero Network Security has received the BSI DDoS mitigation service provider qualification. The BSI has recognised the increase in the number of cyber attacks, both in number and intensity. Cyber breaches can affect any organisation, not only financially but also damaging its reputation and its customer’s trust. To give organisations a better chance of withstanding an attack, BSI recommends that organisations improve their cyber defences by partnering with a service provider with a high level of specialised knowledge. To help organisations make an informed choice, BSI has compiled a list of recognised DDoS mitigation service providers, including Corero Network Security. Qualifying for BSI recognition involved completing a rigorous selection criteria. The audit included a comprehensive technical assessment, where Corero proved its capacity to identify and handle both massive DDOS incursions as well as the smaller, sub-saturation attacks which are becoming an increasingly common threat. A technical review of DDoS protection solutions was conducted, and all supporting documentation reviewed. Corero’s CEO Lionel Chmilewsky comments on the achievement, “This acknowledgement from BSI comes as result of our continuous investment into our solutions, R&D, as well as our significant growing presence in the EMEA market. We are extremely proud to be the only on-premise DDoS protection provider to be qualified by such an important organisation. This is a major step towards expanding our success in the DACH region.” Corero’s mission is to make the internet a safer place by protecting against the downtime and disruption caused by DDoS attacks. Corero is enabling organisations around the globe to maintain business continuity in the event of DDoS attacks, with its SmartWall DDoS protection solution. As DDoS attacks continue to grow in magnitude, frequency, and sophistication, it is no longer safe to address this growing problem with traditional blackholing or manual interventions. Corero’s real-time automatic approach is the only way to effectively prevent DDoS-downtime as it blocks over 98% of attacks in seconds, with no operator intervention required. Its ongoing market growth is being further propelled by multiple new product enhancements which ensure we continue to do so.

Outreach cements commitment to EMEA with new data centre in Ireland

Outreach has opened a dedicated EU data centre in Dublin, Ireland, to support its EMEA customers go beyond GDPR requirements and meet stringent data residency requirements. This cements Outreach’s commitment towards helping its global customers adhere to tight privacy regulations. The new data centre helps Outreach achieve customers' data residency within the European Union. Hosted in Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) regional data centre in Dublin, it stores customer-owned data associated with Outreach instances. These include prospects, accounts, organisations, and workflow data such as sequences, calls, and meetings contained within the EU infrastructure, all of which are processed using Outreach. Outreach EMEA customers who opt in to the new data centre will be able to use Outreach Engage, Outreach’s sales engagement platform that enables organisations to maximise prospecting productivity and continuously optimise their sales execution. With proven engagement workflows that turn insights into actions, Outreach Engage helps sellers make the best decisions to advance their deals across every moment of the sales cycle. Outreach plans to introduce additional features and services, including Outreach Insights reports, Outreach Commit and Outreach Guide, to its new data centre to optimise sales execution across its customer base in EMEA. This will enable salespeople all over EMEA to capitalise on sales automation and buyer sentiment to deliver tailored services to their prospects. “Our new data centre allows European sales leaders and their teams to drive growth with an intelligent system that meets the most rigorous data security and privacy requirements in the world,” said Manny Medina, chief executive officer and co-founder at Outreach. “Over the past two years, we opened our UK office and Prague innovation centre, and launched a series of EMEA-focused features, including support in 18 languages and multiple currencies, as well as local schedule-based sequence setup to allow for different work week configurations and holiday support. Our new data centre is the latest addition to our ongoing support for our European customers so they can capitalise on the full potential of our sales execution products and services.” Outreach is committed to meeting rigorous data security and data privacy requirements as supported by key independent third party certifications. The Outreach Sales Execution Platform already meets key requirements of the EU and UK GDPR. Outreach is also one of the first within its category to meet ISO 27701 data privacy certification to demonstrate compliance with GDPR and other data protection regulations. The additional provision of a data centre within the EU ensures that businesses operating in the EU that require data residency within the same geography as part of the security and privacy policies can do so using Outreach Engage.

Uptime Institute finds downtime consequences worsening as efforts to curb outage frequency fall short

The digital infrastructure sector is struggling to achieve a measurable reduction in outage rates and severity, and the financial consequences and overall disruption from outages are steadily increasing, according to Uptime Institute, which today released the findings of its 2022 annual Outage Analysis report. “Digital infrastructure operators are still struggling to meet the high standards that customers expect and service level agreements demand – despite improving technologies and the industry’s strong investment in resiliency and downtime prevention,” says Andy Lawrence, Founding Member and Executive Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence. “The lack of improvement in overall outage rates is partly the result of the immensity of recent investment in digital infrastructure, and all the associated complexity that operators face as they transition to hybrid, distributed architectures,” comments Lawrence. “In time, both the technology and operational practices will improve, but at present, outages remain a top concern for customers, investors, and regulators. Operators will be best able to meet the challenge with rigorous staff training and operational procedures to mitigate the human error behind many of these failures.” Uptime’s annual outage analysis is unique in the industry, and draws on multiple surveys, information supplied by Uptime Institute members and partners, and its database of publicly reported outages. Key Findings Include: • High outage rates haven’t changed significantly. One in five organisations report experiencing a ‘serious’ or ‘severe’ outage (involving significant financial losses, reputational damage, compliance breaches and in some severe cases, loss of life) in the past three years, marking a slight upward trend in the prevalence of major outages. According to Uptime’s 2022 Data Centre Resiliency Survey, 80% of data centre managers and operators have experienced some type of outage in the past three years – a marginal increase over the norm, which has fluctuated between 70% and 80%. • The proportion of outages costing over $100,000 has soared in recent years. Over 60% of failures result in at least $100,000 in total losses, up substantially from 39% in 2019. The share of outages that cost upwards of $1 million increased from 11% to 15% over that same period. • Power-related problems continue to dog data centre operators. Power-related outages account for 43% of outages that are classified as significant (causing downtime and financial loss). The single biggest cause of power incidents is uninterruptible power supply (UPS) failures. • Networking issues are causing a large portion of IT outages. According to Uptime’s 2022 Data Centre Resiliency Survey, networking-related problems have been the single biggest cause of all IT service downtime incidents – regardless of severity – over the past three years. Outages attributed to software, network and systems issues are on the rise due to complexities from the increasing use of cloud technologies, software-defined architectures and hybrid, distributed architectures. • The overwhelming majority of human error-related outages involve ignored or inadequate procedures. Nearly 40% of organisations have suffered a major outage caused by human error over the past three years. 85% of these incidents stem from staff failing to follow procedures or from flaws in the processes and procedures themselves. • External IT providers cause most major public outages. The more workloads that are outsourced to external providers, the more these operators account for high-profile, public outages. Third-party, commercial IT operators (including cloud, hosting, colocation, telecommunication providers, etc.) account for 63% of all publicly reported outages that Uptime has tracked since 2016. In 2021, commercial operators caused 70% of all outages. • Prolonged downtime is becoming more common in publicly reported outages. The gap between the beginning of a major public outage and full recovery has stretched significantly over the last five years. Nearly 30% of these outages in 2021 lasted more than 24 hours, a disturbing increase from just 8% in 2017. • Public outage trends suggest there will be at least 20 serious, high-profile IT outages worldwide each year. Of the 108 publicly reported outages in 2021, 27 were serious or severe. This ratio has been consistent since the Uptime Intelligence team began cataloguing major outages in 2016, indicating that roughly one-fourth of publicly recorded outages each year are likely to be serious or severe.

Hoxhunt raises $40M to solve the hardest part of cybersecurity: people

Hoxhunt has announced that it has raised $40 million in its Series B round led by Level Equity Management, along with participation by existing investor Icebreaker.vc. The new funding will aid the development of Hoxhunt’s edge technology and accelerate growth in new markets, particularly North America. Hoxhunt makes good email cybersecurity a habit. Hoxhunt’s gamified platform rewards employees for reporting simulated and real email threats, using machine learning to create millions of individualised phishing simulations. Hoxhunt lightens the load for security teams who, aided by an elite customer success team, can upskill whole organisations with unprecedented engagement rates at the push of a button. Cybercrime represents an ever-worsening pandemic costing global businesses trillions of dollars per year. Email is the main vector of transmission as 90% of all breaches, from ransomware to Business Email Compromise, are initiated by a phishing email. Hoxhunt is turning the tide on phishing attacks with breakthrough innovation. Their unprecedented results are supported by hard data and glowing testimonials from partners like Microsoft and Deloitte, and customers such as DocuSign, G2 and a number of governmental agencies. “Email is the biggest threat to enterprise security; that’s why human nature is the most important cybersecurity challenge to solve, instead of building incrementally better mousetraps at the technical perimeter,” says Hoxhunt CEO Mika Aalto. “Our first-to-market platform enables measurable behaviour change and cultural transformation. Our fundamentally different approach combines personalised and hyper-realistic training, adapted to each individual's skill, role, location, and language.” The cybersecurity market has seen explosive growth over the past two years. Cybersecurity spending is projected to grow from $262.4 billion in 2022 to $458.9 billion in 2025, with tightening regulatory and insurance pressure driving higher expenditure on awareness. Cybercrime costs are projected to swell to $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. “There is tremendous growth potential in the cybersecurity awareness category, which we at Level Equity Partners are thrilled to invest in again with Hoxhunt, who we see as best-in-class in terms of innovation, product design, and leadership,” comments Sarah Sommer, Co-Founder and Partner at Level Equity Management. “In just two years, the number of cybersecurity unicorn companies has jumped from six to over 50, but too few are security awareness vendors. Next-level security training represents a huge opportunity in terms of ROI and, more importantly, doing good for the world.”

CityFibre investing £23m in High Wycombe to deliver full fibre rollout

CityFibre has named High Wycombe as the next UK town in line for a multi-million-pound investment in its digital infrastructure – a move that will see it join the nation’s growing list of full fibre enabled communities. CityFibre is investing £23m in a new town-wide network that will bring fast and reliable full fibre-enabled internet services within reach of almost every home and business in High Wycombe. Construction work on the full fibre network will start in June in West Wycombe, with Instalcom appointed as build partner. As work is completed in each neighbourhood, CityFibre will designate the homes ‘ready for service’, which means residents can choose to connect to full fibre-enabled broadband services when they go live in their area. Nationally, CityFibre is building new and better digital infrastructure for up to eight million homes and businesses through its up to £4bn Gigabit City Investment Programme. Full fibre networks, unlike many of the copper-based ‘fibre broadband’ services available today, use 100% fibre optic technology to carry data at light speed all the way from the home to the point of connection. This gives users speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps for upload and download (up to 1,000 Mbps), near limitless bandwidth and connectivity users can depend on. A full fibre connection also goes far beyond simply enabling access to the latest entertainment at lightning speed. As an essential digital utility, full fibre boosts households and businesses alike, with experts saying it will drive a range of economic benefits, such as making us more productive and innovative. As Area Manager, Neil Madle will lead the delivery of the High Wycombe project. He will be responsible for ensuring works are delivered efficiently and considerately, while also acting as the main point of contact for all stakeholders. Neil says: “The next chapter in High Wycombe’s story starts here. Our builders will soon get to work on a town-wide full fibre network – and we think people will be blown away by the difference it will make, both now and for generations to come. We cannot stress the importance of digital connectivity and the major benefits it will reap now and long into the future and can’t wait for residents and businesses to enjoy the results.” Speaking of CityFibre’s full fibre rollout plans for High Wycombe Peter Strachan, Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration at Buckinghamshire Council comments: “We welcome the strategic investment CityFibre are making in High Wycombe. A full fibre infrastructure will help businesses and residents right across the town to unlock the power of full fibre connections which offer unrivalled speeds. Full fibre connections carry data at light speed all the way directly from the home right through to the point of connection. These kind of speeds boost households and businesses alike, whether it’s a case of enabling access to the latest entertainment at lightning speed or helping to unleash productivity and innovation in local businesses. By offering such superfast speeds the City Fibre network could help transform the digital lives of around 125,000 people in High Wycombe.”