Data

DataStax launches hyper-converged data platform

DataStax, a Generative AI data company, today announced the upcoming launch of DataStax HCDP (Hyper-Converged Data Platform), in addition to the upcoming release of DataStax Enterprise (DSE) 6.9. Both products enable customers to add generative AI and vector search capabilities to their self-managed, enterprise data workloads. The company describes DataStax HCDP as "the future of self-managed data", and the platform is designed for modern data centres and Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) to support the breadth of data workloads and AI systems. It supports powerful on-premises enterprise data systems built to AI-enable data and is ideal for enterprise operators and architects who want to take advantage of data centre modernisation investments to reduce operating costs and operational overhead. HCDP brings OpenSearch and Apache Pulsar for generative AI RAG knowledge retrieval The combination of OpenSearch’s widely adopted Enterprise Search capabilities, with the high-performance vector search capabilities of the DataStax cloud-native, NoSQL Hyper-Converged Database, enables users to retrieve data in highly flexible ways, catalysing the ability to get RAG and knowledge applications into production. “With more than 2,000 contributors, including upwards of 200 maintainers spanning 19 organisations, OpenSearch has built a vibrant, growing community and is used by companies around the world,” says Mukul Karnik, General Manager, Search Services at AWS. “We’ve seen a growing number of companies building AI-powered capabilities using OpenSearch, and RAG workloads in particular can benefit from OpenSearch’s extensive full-text search capabilities. We are excited to have DataStax join the community and offer OpenSearch as part of HCDP, and we look forward to seeing how their customers use it to build a range of new generative AI-powered services and applications.” Hyper-converged streaming (HCS) built with Apache Pulsar is designed to provide data communications for a modern infrastructure. With native support of inline data processing and embedding, HCS brings vector data to the edge, allowing for faster response times and enabling event data for better contextual generative AI experiences. With the ability to consolidate workloads from legacy applications, HCS provides application communication modernisation and enables users to operate across multiple cloud environments or between on-premise and cloud to provide a high-performance, scalable data communications layer that simplifies data integration across all environments. HCDP provides rapid provisioning and powerful, intuitive data APIs built around the DataStax one-stop GenAI stack for enterprise retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and it’s all built on the proven, open-source Apache Cassandra platform. DataStax 6.9 brings generative AI capabilities to existing on-premises data DataStax Enterprise 6.9 offers enterprise operators and architects with massive on-premises Cassandra and DSE workloads the fastest upgrade to lower total cost of ownership and operational overhead, while adding powerful GenAI capabilities to their existing on-premises data. Its vector add-on brings vector search capabilities to both existing DSE and lift-and-shift Cassandra workloads, and the addition of DataStax Mission Control makes the operations of on-premises data workloads dramatically easier with cloud-native operations and observability on Kubernetes. “We're looking forward to DSE 6.9 for its advancements in real-time digital banking services. Currently, we use DSE for critical tasks like data offloading and real-time data services. Its full-text search enhances customer engagement without adding to core system loads,” notes Marcin Dobosz, Director of Technology, Neontri. “With features like the Vector Add-On and DataStax Mission Control, DSE 6.9 aligns with our goal of modernising technology stacks for financial institutions, enhancing productivity, search relevance, and operational efficiency to better meet clients' needs." Ed Anuff, Chief Product Officer, DataStax, concludes, “We’re delivering the future of self-managed data for modern infrastructure and AI systems, and enabling enterprises to get the most out of their data centre modernisation and total cost of ownership. In addition to supporting all of the new HCI investments on the most powerful systems in new AI data and edge clouds, we’re also enabling users to benefit from powerful integrations with leading technologies like OpenSearch and Apache Pulsar.”

Veeam extends data freedom for customers with Proxmox support

Veeam Software, a provider of data protection and ransomware recovery technologies, has announced that it will now deliver support for Proxmox VE. Support for this virtualisation platform has been a popular request from Veeam’s existing small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers and service providers. Veeam will showcase this new data protection capability live for the first time during VeeamON 2024, taking place 3-5 June 2024, at the Diplomat Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and online. As organisations embrace new technology and evolve their business, it is critical they can choose the business platforms and applications optimised for their particular needs. This is at the core of data freedom. Veeam enables organisations to protect, move and recover their data from and to the platforms they prefer, and the company is also committed to extending support for new platforms giving customers freedom of choice. Following the recently launched support for Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager, Veeam is again extending the breadth of Veeam Data Platform, which provides data security, data recovery, and data freedom to backup and use data from anywhere without platform or cloud lock-in to soon also include the Proxmox VE hypervisor. Veeam currently supports VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager and Red Hat Virtualization, as well as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. John Jester, Chief Revenue Officer at Veeam, says, “When we talk with customers, one of their most common questions is how they can move between their preferred platforms both in the cloud and on-premises. It is why Veeam champions data freedom – giving customers the ability to move to new platforms with the peace of mind we provide through data protection and cyber recovery. “This introduction of Proxmox VE support extends our comprehensive data management solution to address the challenges currently faced by our customers as they struggle with hard decisions in order to keep their data safe and protected, and their businesses running. As we continue to advocate for data freedom and choice for our 450,000 customers, backup for Proxmox VE provides them with an additional option for the tools and flexibility they need to optimise their data management practices, enable cyber resiliency and accelerate business growth.” Veeam Data Platform gives users even greater freedom of choice to best fit changing business needs for both virtualisation and cloud. Key highlights of Veeam’s Proxmox VE support include: Immutable backups: Keep on-premises and cloud backups of Proxmox VE VMs safe and protected from encryption by ransomware, accidental deletions, or malicious destruction during cyberattacks with storage-based immutability. Or, leverage native support for tape and for rotated drives to achieve true airgap at the lowest possible cost. Uncompromised backup performance: Powered by advanced changed block tracking (CBT) integration and hot add backup mode, Proxmox VE users can now enjoy faster and more efficient virtual machine (VM) backups, minimising disruptions from long-running backups and ensuring smooth day-to-day operations. Veeam BitLooker: By automatically excluding unused disk blocks, such as those belonging to deleted guest OS files, this intelligent feature significantly enhances backup performance while conserving valuable storage space. Storage flexibility: Support for all Veeam Backup and Replication backup repository types, including hardened repositories and object storage, empowers customers to easily create backup repositories from any storage that suits their RTO/RPO requirements and budget. Freedom of full VM recovery: VMs from key virtualisation platforms such as VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V or public cloud can be promptly restored to Proxmox VE – and the other way around too, reducing downtime and maximising productivity. Advanced granular recovery capabilities: Effortlessly identify and quickly recover all changed and deleted files, due to a ransomware attack for example, ensuring business continuity and peace of mind in the face of unexpected data loss or unplanned disruption. “Veeam’s upcoming support for Proxmox is a testament to the customer value delivered by Proxmox VE during this time of market transformation,” says Martin Maurer, CEO of Proxmox. “We are excited that so many customers are making it clear that Proxmox VE is the hypervisor that meets their business objectives. Veeam delivering comprehensive Proxmox VE backup in Veeam Data Platform further validates and acknowledges customers’ demands and desire for data freedom of choice.” “Veeam has developed comprehensive platform support over the past few years and is constantly evolving how it can better protect environments of all sizes,” notes Christophe Bertrand, Practice Director at ESG. “This is why providing resilience to Proxmox VE environments – the sixth hypervisor the company now supports – is not only a logical step, but one that should further confirm Veeam’s focus on customer and SMB market requirements around the protection of data, and its mobility.” General availability for Proxmox VE support is expected in Q3 2024. For more from Veeam, click here.

Keepit crowned a winner in 2024 Cloud Security Awards

Keepit, a provider of SaaS data protection solutions, achieved success in the 2024 Cloud Security Awards programme by being named a winner in the 'Best Security Solution for Data Management / Data Protection' category. Now in its second year and with an expanded range of categories, The Cloud Security Awards programme celebrates the pivotal innovations in cloud-based security solutions from around the globe. In addition to the aforementioned success, Keepit was also a finalist in the 'Best in Information Security' category. Speaking on the company's success, James Williams, CEO of The Cloud Awards, comments, “Keepit has successfully navigated all three rounds of judging during a rigorous selection process, impressing the judges with their innovation and commitment to keeping data and other assets safe, secure, and private. We look on with interest to see what Keepit has in store for its customers throughout the rest of 2024, and beyond. Many congratulations to them, and our other winners.” Michele Hayes, CMO at Keepit, adds, “Keepit supports customers around the globe by future-proofing their security strategies. This accolade underscores our commitment to innovation, security and reliability, and further positions the company as a leader in the cybersecurity industry.” Built for the cloud, the Keepit platform is designed for usability, security and scalability. With a user-friendly interface, robust data security, and the ability to adapt to the user's cloud environment, Keepit ensures the user's data is always accessible and protected. The Cloud Awards is an international programme which has been recognising and honouring industry leaders, innovators and organisational transformation in cloud computing since 2011. The Cloud Awards comprises five awards programmes, each uniquely celebrating success across cloud computing, software-as-a-service (SaaS), cloud security, artificial intelligence (AI), and financial technologies (FinTech). Winners are selected by a judging panel of international industry experts. For more information about the Cloud Awards, click here. For more from Keepit, click here.

Collab seeks to accelerate modern virtualisation adoption

Pure Storage, an IT company that delivers advanced data storage technology and services, and Red Hat, a provider of open source technologies, have announced an optimisation for Portworx by Pure Storage on Red Hat OpenShift to enable streamlined integration and provide enterprises with a more seamless path to modern virtualisation. By delivering a single platform to deploy, scale, and manage modern applications, and a single control plane for both virtual machines (VMs) and containers, Pure Storage and Red Hat can help accelerate time to market and provide a consistent and flexible data experience. Enterprises are increasingly moving applications to containers to speed and scale deployment. However, many enterprises remain significantly invested in large traditional application footprints that run in VMs. Supporting multiple platforms based on both VMs and containers is cumbersome and expensive, and is often exacerbated by the need to re-architect VM-based applications for compatibility with modern frameworks. This can slow development, create operational complexity, and hinder data visibility. In fact, according to a recent survey, more than four out of five (81%) of data management stakeholders are planning to modernise or migrate existing VM workloads to cloud-native options, with 79% citing operational simplicity as a key driver for these plans. Portworx by Pure Storage and Red Hat OpenShift, through Red Hat OpenShift Virtualisation, support both containers and VMs, enabling customers to standardise end-to-end application modernisation at scale. With this latest optimisation and co-development, enterprises can run traditional virtualised applications side-by-side with modern containerised applications, streamlining operations, reducing costs, and bringing the entire application development process together. Portworx brings enterprise-grade data management capabilities to Red Hat OpenShift customers to not only migrate VMs to Red Hat OpenShift but also provide developers with a single, self-service portal to build, test, and deploy applications, with integrated support for storage, data, and the entire application lifecycle management. Benefits include: Faster time to market with enhanced operational efficiency: Enterprises can improve time to production with self-service options for development teams to quickly migrate VMs, and apply cloud-native operational and development practices to VMs, accelerating time to value. Additionally, Portworx and Red Hat offer more cost-effective options for customers to shorten ramp-up time and day two operations resulting in an estimated 63% cost reduction encompassing infrastructure expenses, licenses, and subscriptions when compared to alternatives. Simplified, more consistent development and management: Together, Portworx and Red Hat help simplify the management of VMs and containers with a unified view, and a more consistent set of storage, data, and application management tools, creating better alignment between virtualisation admins and platform engineering teams. Flexibility to deploy VMs and containers anywhere: Enterprises can modernise their VM-based applications by benefiting from the modern storage, data, and application management principles by integrating Portworx with Red Hat OpenShift. This enables enterprises with greater flexibility to deploy VM and containerised applications on any on-premises, cloud, hybrid or multi-cloud infrastructure while maintaining consistent storage and data services. Murli Thirumale, GM, Portworx by Pure Storage, comments, “Enabling integration for Portworx on Red Hat OpenShift represents a pivotal advancement in modern IT infrastructure representing the modern storage and compute building blocks, respectively. By combining the Portworx platform’s robust data management capabilities with the agility and scalability of Red Hat OpenShift, enterprises gain the foundation for building a modern virtualisation stack, achieving the benefits of Kubernetes without rearchitecting VMs. Our collaboration with Red Hat not only accelerates application development and deployment but helps drive enterprise reliability and operational flexibility across complex, hybrid cloud environments.” Mike Barrett, Vice President and General Manager, Hybrid Platforms, Red Hat, comments, “Portworx offers enterprise-class storage capabilities such as high availability, performance, backup and disaster for both VMs and containers running in Red Hat OpenShift. Together, we are providing a powerful solution for enterprises seeking to modernise their application development without the complexities of managing disparate development platforms. “By seamlessly integrating VMs and containers within a unified framework, we offer enterprises flexibility and efficiency in infrastructure deployment, storage management, and the overall application lifecycle. Our partnership with Portworx empowers customers to standardise their IT environments while accelerating their journey towards modern virtualisation.” Archana Venkatraman, Research Director, Cloud Data Management, IDC, adds, “The virtualisation landscape is undergoing rapid transformation, prompting organisations to re-evaluate their IT infrastructures and application architectures, particularly those heavily reliant on VMs. Many are now accelerating the modernisation of monolithic applications into cloud-native or microservices-based architectures. “The integration of Portworx and Red Hat OpenShift arms enterprises with the tools they need to seamlessly integrate containers and VMs on a unified infrastructure while driving efficiency, agility, and significant cost savings.” For more from Pure Storage, click here.

"We’ve got to talk about AI"

Centiel, a global Uninterruptible Power Supply manufacturer, looks at the role of AI in relation to data centres while exploring some of the challenges and opportunities. There is much talk about how data centres will deal with AI (machine learning). One major challenge is that AI requires three times the power needed compared to normal servers. Facilities will also need extra space to house additional equipment to manage and power the data. We are already seeing AI in use in our daily lives. On LinkedIn we are invited to use AI to help us write a social media post and ChatGPT has caught the imagination of copywriters across the world. However, this is just the start. AI’s capability will grow exponentially over the next few years. This phenomenon is set against a society already struggling to provide enough energy and infrastructure for existing services. Data centres are already placing a huge strain on the national grid and we also have EV chargers and additional homes to add to the grid. We must look at alternatives. At Centiel, members of our team have been at the forefront of technology for many years bringing to market the first three-phase transformerless UPS and the first, second, third and fourth generations of true modular, hot-swappable three-phase UPS. Most recently, we turned our attention to helping data centres achieve net-zero targets. Following four years’ development we recently launched StratusPower a UPS to provide complete peace of mind in relation to power availability while helping data centres become more sustainable. StratusPower shares all the benefits of our award-winning three phase, true modular UPS CumulusPower - including '9 nines' (99.9999999%) availability to effectively eliminate system downtime; class leading 97.6% on-line efficiency to minimise running costs; true 'hot swap' modules to eliminate human error in operation – but now also includes long-life components to improve sustainability. Large data centres can need 100MW or more of power to support their load and in the future, they will need to generate their own power through renewables like photovoltaic arrays, perhaps located on the roofs of their buildings, or wind farms located in adjacent fields. Currently, mains AC power is rectified to create a DC bus that is used to charge batteries and provide an input to an inverter. But what about a future where the DC bus can be supplied from mains power and/or renewable sources? There is little doubt that future grid instability and unreliability will need to be corrected by the use of renewables, and StratusPower is ready to meet this future. The product is built with the future of renewables in mind, ensuring stability and reliability as we transition to cleaner energy sources. With a power density greater than 1MW per M2, StratusPower also offers a compact solution. Al is set to put more strain on infrastructure and power supplies which are already struggling to cope. However, the technology is now available to harness alternative energy sources, and our team of trusted advisors at Centiel can discuss the options to help future-proof facilities in the face of the AI revolution. We’ve got to talk about AI, so why not give Centiel’s team a call? To learn more, visit www.centiel.co.uk. For more from Centiel, click here.

Digital Realty partners with Oracle to accelerate AI growth

Digital Realty, a global provider of cloud and carrier-neutral data centre, colocation, and interconnection technologies, has announced a collaboration with Oracle to accelerate the growth and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) among enterprises. The strategic collaboration aims to develop hybrid integrated innovations that address data gravity challenges, expedite time to market for enterprises deploying next-generation AI services, and unlock data and AI-based business outcomes. As part of this collaboration, Oracle will deploy critical GPU-based infrastructure in a dedicated Digital Realty data centre in Northern Virginia. This deployment, which leverages PlatformDIGITAL - Digital Realty’s open, purpose-built global data centre solution - will cater to a wide range of enterprises and AI customers, helping them to address critical infrastructure challenges, including those experienced with NVIDIA and AMD deployments. By leveraging the expertise and resources of both Oracle and Digital Realty, customers with mixed requirements can benefit from a tailored and efficient offering that meets their specific needs for GPU-based infrastructure. This announcement further strengthens Digital Realty's existing partnership with Oracle, which currently encompasses multiple deployments across the globe, 11 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) FastConnect points of presence, a global ServiceFabric presence, and a recent Oracle Solution Centre deployment in one of Digital Realty’s Frankfurt data centres. In the fourth quarter of last year, Digital Realty successfully implemented an OCI Dedicated Region deployment for a major financial services customer, showcasing the potential of the collaboration between Oracle and Digital Realty in meeting enterprise customers' hybrid cloud requirements. Patrick Cyril, Global Vice President, Technical Sales & Customer Excellence – Revenue Operations, Oracle, says, “We’re excited to be working with Digital Realty to bring innovative solutions to the market that empower our enterprise customers workloads and their ecosystems to harness the boundless possibilities of AI. Together, we're not just pioneering technology; we're unlocking a future where every challenge is met with unparalleled innovation and every opportunity is maximised.” Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer at Digital Realty, comments, “We’re delighted to build upon our relationship with Oracle and enable the next generation of hybrid and private AI adoption among enterprises. Together, we're bringing the extensive capabilities of the cloud to enterprises’ private data sets through secure interconnection, unlocking new data-driven business outcomes.” Digital Realty states that its collaboration with Oracle signifies a significant step forward in the advancement of AI technologies. Furthermore, the company hopes that by combining their expertise and resources, together they can revolutionise the AI landscape and empower enterprises to unlock the full potential of their data. For more from Digital Realty, click here.

DE-CIX report reveals growth in turnover and data exchange

DE-CIX, an operator of Internet Exchanges (IXs), has released the company’s Annual Report for the financial year 2023, which confirms continued strong growth in global turnover and data exchange. Global revenues of all company parts continued to grow, reaching €63 million (£53.8m), an increase of 8 million (up 14%) compared to 2022. Reflecting the trend of previous years, connected customer capacity on the DE-CIX Internet Exchanges grew by 14% to more than 140 terabits, and connected networks ended the year at over 3,600 worldwide. With close to 60 exabytes of data throughput globally during 2023, DE-CIX experienced 23% growth in total traffic volume. DE-CIX Frankfurt, one of the largest IXs in the world, achieved peak traffic speeds exceeding 16 Terabits per second (Tbit/s), while the global peak traffic across the company’s interconnected platforms rose to over 22 Tbit/s. In terms of geographical expansion, the interconnection specialist took platforms into operation in a further 14 metro markets in 2023, increasing its reach to more than 50 metro markets globally, spanning North America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Six DE-CIX-owned IXs (five in the Nordics and one in India) and three DE-CIX as a Service IXs (two in Africa and one in Jordan) were taken live during the year, while two further IXs were launched in Mexico. The first three of DE-CIX’s new model of dedicated Cloud Exchanges were also added to the global footprint during the year, in the USA and Japan. Technical work was also undertaken on a further six platforms, taken live in early 2024. The interest in DE-CIX’s enterprise-facing services grew strongly in 2023, with a 50% increase in cloud connections year on year and close to 4 terabits of booked capacity to clouds by the end of the year. The company extended its backbone network to circumnavigate the planet and interconnect the vast majority of its operations, enabling globally-operating enterprises to build their own worldwide networks using the DE-CIX infrastructure. In addition, the company established a Customer Success Management, Presales and Consulting team in 2023 to support the design, implementation, and delivery of customised solutions for enterprises and large-scale customers, providing a service unique in the enterprise interconnection market. “With the continued success and growth of DE-CIX around the world in 2023, we see 2024 as a pivotal point in the history of the company. Twelve years after our first international expansion, we have now built up a crucial geographical presence around the globe to achieve our strategic goals,” comments the company's CEO, Ivo Ivanov. “We enable organisations of all types and sizes to provide secure, scalable, and controllable digital experiences for their customers and staff by leveraging the strength and reliability of a global interconnection ecosystem. This has become even more critical for both infrastructure providers and enterprises with the current and sustained boom in AI. “The whole realm of innovation demands digital infrastructure networked in a fine mesh to allow data to flow where it is needed. These infrastructures must also be interconnected with the relevant recipients to allow the seamless interweaving of human and artificial intelligence in order to create societal and economic benefits for people and businesses. At DE-CIX, we are working with our excellent team and our valued partners to make this future a reality.” For more from DE-CIX, click here.

New capabilities for MongoDB platform unveiled

MongoDB has announced new capabilities for its MongoDB Atlas platform that make it faster and easier to build, deploy, and run modern applications with the performance and scale organisations require. MongoDB Atlas is one of the most widely distributed developer data platforms in the world, and tens of thousands of customers and millions of developers rely on its operational database and integrated data services to power business-critical applications across cloud providers. The general availability of MongoDB Atlas Stream Processing makes it easier to use real-time data from a wide variety of sources to run highly responsive applications. MongoDB Atlas Search Nodes on Microsoft Azure give organisations more flexibility for optimising the performance and cost of generative AI workloads that drive intelligent applications at scale. MongoDB Atlas Edge Server reduces the complexity of managing data for distributed applications that span locations from the cloud to on premises to devices at the edge. “Customers tell us they love MongoDB Atlas because it provides an integrated set of capabilities on one platform that can store and process their organisation’s operational data across all of their applications,” says Sahir Azam, Chief Product Officer at MongoDB. “Customers also tell us that MongoDB’s highly flexible and scalable document data model is a perfect fit for powering modern applications that can take advantage of generative AI and their real-time proprietary data. The additional services we’re launching today for MongoDB Atlas not only make it easier to build, deploy, and run modern applications, but also make it easier to optimise performance while reducing costs.” The new MongoDB Atlas capabilities announced today enable organisations of all sizes across industries to build, deploy, and run next-generation applications with the security, resiliency, and durability today’s business environment demands. Specifically, they can now: Simplify building highly responsive applications with streaming data. Now generally available, MongoDB Atlas Stream Processing enables developers to take advantage of data in motion and data at rest to power event-driven applications that can respond to changing conditions. Streaming data - coming from sources like IoT devices, customer browsing behaviours, and inventory feeds - is critical to modern applications because it allows organisations to create dynamic experiences as end-user behaviours or conditions change. However, streaming data is highly dynamic, and inflexible data models are not ideal for building event-driven applications that need to continuously adjust to the real world. Because it is built on a flexible and scalable data model, MongoDB Atlas Stream Processing allows organisations to build applications that analyse data in motion and at rest and make adjustments to business logic in seconds. For example, organisations can build applications that dynamically optimise shipping routes based on weather conditions and supply chain data feeds, or can continuously analyse financial transaction data feeds and purchase histories for AI-powered fraud detection in near-real time. By using MongoDB Atlas Stream Processing, organisations can do more with their data in less time and with less operational overhead. Optimise the performance and efficiency of generative AI applications. MongoDB Atlas Search Nodes - generally available on AWS and Google Cloud, and now in preview on Microsoft Azure - provide dedicated infrastructure for generative AI and relevance-based search workloads that use MongoDB Atlas Vector Search and MongoDB Atlas Search. MongoDB Atlas Search Nodes are independent of core operational database nodes and allow customers to isolate workloads, optimise costs, and reduce query times by up to 60%. In addition to helping optimise performance and cost, MongoDB Atlas Search Nodes enable organisations to run highly available generative AI and relevance-based search workloads at scale for the most demanding applications. For example, an airline company can use MongoDB Atlas Search Nodes to optimise the performance and scale an AI-powered booking agent experiencing a surge in usage by seamlessly isolating the vector search workload and scaling the required infrastructure - without resizing the required compute or memory resources for their operational database workload. Deploy applications that seamlessly connect from the cloud to the edge. Now available in public preview, MongoDB Atlas Edge Server gives developers the capability to deploy and operate distributed applications in the cloud and at the edge. MongoDB Atlas Edge Server provides a local instance of MongoDB with a synchronisation server that runs on local or remote infrastructure and significantly reduces the complexity and risk involved in managing applications in edge environments. With MongoDB Atlas Edge Server, applications can access operational data even with intermittent connections to the cloud. For example, a hospital system can use MongoDB Atlas Edge Server to help enable applications running on patient healthcare devices to remain functional during power outages and connectivity disruptions. With Atlas Edge Server, their data will automatically synchronise once connectivity is restored. MongoDB Atlas Edge Server also supports data tiering to prioritise the synchronisation of critical data to the cloud, reducing network congestion. And, MongoDB Atlas Edge Server maintains a local data layer to reduce latency and enable faster actions based on real-time data. With MongoDB Atlas Edge Server, organisations can seamlessly run highly available, modern applications closer to end-users with less complexity. For more from MongoDB, click here.

STACKIT and Dremio partner to pioneer data sovereignty

Dremio, the unified lakehouse platform for self-service analytics and AI, and STACKIT, a data-sovereign cloud provider in Europe and part of the IT organisation within Schwarz Group, today announced a strategic partnership that provides European organisations with the first fully managed, cloud-based modern lakehouse offering capable of meeting today’s stringent data residency requirements. Unveiled at Dremio’s annual user conference, Subsurface Live, this collaboration reportedly marks a significant milestone in STACKIT's mission to expand its expertise and product range in data and AI across Europe. Data residency requirements are the legal and regulatory stipulations that dictate where a company's data must physically reside. This means that physical servers hosting a business's data need to be located within a specified country or region to comply with local laws. With this partnership, STACKIT not only embraces open standards like Apache Iceberg, but also reaffirms its commitment to empowering customers with data sovereignty and freedom from vendor lock-in. By leveraging Dremio's unified lakehouse platform, STACKIT is set to overhaul data management by enabling organisations to transition seamlessly from traditional data lakes to high-performance and agile data lakehouses. Walter Wolf, Board Member of Schwarz IT, comments, “Our approach to data sovereignty hinges on leveraging open standards to facilitate seamless integration with applications spanning various business domains. Dremio serves as a solid foundation for this endeavour due to its emphasis on open formats such as Apache Iceberg.” Key benefits of the STACKIT and Dremio partnership include: ● Lower total cost of ownership: Customers can expect up to an 80% reduction in costs associated with analytics and AI projects thanks to Dremio's efficient data processing capabilities.● Faster time to market for analytics and AI: With Dremio, analytics and AI projects will see a significant boost in productivity enabling organisations to complete projects five to ten times faster than conventional methods.● Improved discoverability and governance via Iceberg Data Catalogue: Leveraging Git-inspired versioning, Dremio provides a robust data catalogue that supports data integrity, governance and traceability throughout the entire data lifecycle.● Flexibility and scalability: With the ability to run on any infrastructure, Dremio offers unparalleled flexibility and scalability allowing customers to adapt to changing business needs seamlessly. With its open lakehouse architecture, Dremio allows users to access and process data independently on the STACKIT platform through a data lakehouse service that ensures data protection and promotes data sovereignty. Together, the two companies enable businesses to derive valuable insights from sensitive data while adhering to the highest standards of data privacy and security. Thanks to the partnership, STACKIT customers can expect a significant cost reduction, flexible and consumption-based billing options, and overall affordability in their data residency and sovereignty efforts. Andreas Vogels, Central Europe Lead at Dremio, comments, "The collaboration between Dremio and STACKIT not only empowers organisations with the freedom to scale their data operations seamlessly but also ensures they can derive actionable insights from their data without constraints, no matter where the data resides. By leveraging Dremio's cloud-native architecture and STACKIT's commitment to digital sovereignty, customers can unlock the full potential of their data while maintaining control and flexibility in their cloud strategy.” Customers will be able to access the new data lakehouse service via a private preview, with support from STACKIT's data and AI consulting team to guide them through the initial steps. For more from Dremio, click here.

Object First selects Vitanium as UK partner for Ootbi launch

Object First, the developer of Ootbi (Out-of-the-Box-Immutability), the ransomware-proof backup storage appliance purpose-built for Veeam, has announced Vitanium as its first partner in the UK market. Object First states that this new partnership demonstrates its commitment to delivering customers an innovative and secure data protection solution to the region. "As one of the largest markets in Europe for Veeam, the UK presents a significant growth opportunity for us," says Mark Haddleton, EMEA Channel Sales Director at Object First. "We are excited to partner with Vitanium, a company known for its expertise in data protection and strong partnership with Veeam." Ootbi is a ransomware-proof and immutable appliance-based solution designed specifically for Veeam customers. It offers secure, simple, and powerful backup storage with out-of-the-box immutability and zero access to root. It is a secure, simple, powerful storage appliance that is purpose-built for mid-size Veeam customers. Vitanium, a UK-based company with over 20 years of experience delivering enterprise backup innovations, is well-positioned to support Object First's growth strategy in the UK market. With a team of certified Veeam engineers and ISO 27001/ ISO 9001 accredited data backup services, Vitanium offers agile, dynamic, and secure data protection services to MSPs, Enterprise customers, and end-users in various sectors. “In response to the ever-present threat of ransomware, we've observed a notable shift in customer preference for data protection solutions that are both highly effective and easy to manage, says Paul Houselander, Technical Director at Vitanium. “Our search for a solution prioritised ease of deployment, secure and immutable storage capabilities, scalability, and the ability to handle modern workload demands efficiently. Opting for Ootbi by Object First was a clear choice. The tight Veeam integration enables our customers to safeguard their backups with on-premises immutable object storage purpose-built for Veeam, ensuring the highest level of protection is achieved.” By partnering with Vitanium, Object First gains access to a team of certified Veeam engineers and taps into the company's extensive partnership with Veeam, which has spanned nearly half a decade. This collaboration opens up new avenues for both parties, allowing them to reach a broader customer base and deliver unmatched value to clients.