Data

Organisations struggling to control sensitive content, study finds

Kiteworks, which delivers data privacy and compliance for sensitive content communications through its Private Content Network, has unveiled its 2024 Sensitive Content Communications Privacy and Compliance Report, offering critical insights into the current state of sensitive content communications. The report, based on a comprehensive survey of 572 IT, security, risk management, and compliance leaders, reveals significant vulnerabilities and challenges faced by organisations in managing and securing their sensitive information. Among the key findings, the report highlights significant global challenges in managing sensitive content communications. When data is sent or shared externally, 57% of global respondents said they cannot track, control, and report on these activities. Not surprisingly, compliance reporting is a major challenge, with 34% of respondents generating audit log reports over eight times per month to satisfy internal and external compliance requests. This frequent reporting requirement reflects the ongoing struggle to meet stringent regulatory demands. Tim Freestone, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Kiteworks, emphasises the urgency of addressing these vulnerabilities: “Our report uncovers significant gaps that organisations must address to protect their sensitive content and comply with increasingly stringent regulations. The insights provided are a call to action for businesses to re-evaluate their content communication strategies and invest in robust security solutions.” Proliferation of content communication tools leads to risks The 2024 Kiteworks report highlights significant shifts and ongoing challenges in the use of content communication tools. Nearly one-third of respondents said their organisations rely on six or more content communication tools. In addition to ratcheting up risks, managing this tool soup decreases operational efficiency and makes it difficult to generate consolidated audit logs. Preventing leaks of intellectual property (IP) and sensitive secrets is a top priority for 56% of respondents, underscoring the critical importance of protecting valuable information assets. In contrast, fewer organisations prioritise the impact on brand reputation (15%) and cost savings (26%). This shift indicates a growing focus on the direct risks associated with data breaches and information leakage. Particular sectors express heightened concerns over IP leakage. In the legal sector, for example, 75% of respondents cite this as a significant risk, reflecting the industry's reliance on confidential information. Similarly, the oil and gas sector, with its proprietary technologies and sensitive data, shows considerable concern over IP leakage. These findings highlight the need for sector-specific strategies to address unique vulnerabilities and reinforce the importance of robust content communication practices across all industries. Impact of data breaches External malicious hacks of sensitive content communications remain a serious risk globally. 32% of organisations reported experiencing seven or more sensitive content communications breaches last year. This is a slight improvement from 2023, where 36% of organisations reported such breaches. However, 9% of respondents globally admitted they do not know if their sensitive content was breached, indicating a significant gap in advanced security detection and incident response capabilities. The federal government sector reported the highest incidence of breaches, with 17% indicating they had 10 or more breaches and another 10% reporting seven to nine breaches. Alarmingly, 42% of security and defence organisations admitted to having seven or more breaches, highlighting the critical need for enhanced security measures in these sectors. Geographically, APAC had the highest percentage of organisations reporting seven or more breaches, at 43%. This high number is concerning given the extensive third-party exchanges in the region. The legal costs associated with data breaches remain high, with 8% of organisations incurring over $7 million (£5.4m) in legal fees last year, and 26% reporting costs exceeding $5 million (£3.9m). Larger organisations, especially those with over 30,000 employees, faced even higher costs, with 24% reporting legal fees over $7 million. Higher education emerged as the most affected industry, with 49% of respondents indicating they paid over $5 million in legal fees last year. Geographically, the Americas topped the list, with 27% of organisations reporting legal costs over $5 million, while 12% of EMEA respondents were unsure of the financial impact. Organisations struggle to manage third-party risk Managing third-party risk continues to be a significant challenge for organisations worldwide. The report reveals that 66% of organisations exchange sensitive content with 1,000 or more third parties, although this is a decrease from 84% in 2023. This reduction suggests that organisations are increasingly recognising the risks associated with extensive third-party interactions and are implementing measures to control access more effectively. The APAC region has the highest volume of third-party connections, with 77% of organisations exchanging sensitive content with 1,000 or more third parties. Within the professional services sector, 51% of organisations exchange sensitive content with 2,500 or more third parties, significantly higher than the next highest industry, higher education, at 47%. A concerning 39% of organisations globally are unable to track and control access to sensitive content once it leaves their domain. Surprisingly, compared to IT and risk and management professionals, cybersecurity professionals cited greater confidence in their organisations’ ability to track and control access to content once it leaves their domains (48% said they track and control three-quarters or more). This issue is particularly pronounced in the EMEA region, where 43% of organisations admit to losing the ability to track and control access to more than half of their sensitive content once it is shared externally. Local government organisations face the greatest challenge, with 54% unable to track and control sensitive content after it leaves their organisation, followed by pharmaceutical and life sciences companies at 50%. Sensitive content communications security needs improvement The report underscores the pressing need for improvements in managing sensitive content security. Only 11% of organisations believe no improvement is needed, a significant drop from 26% in 2023. This indicates a growing awareness of security risks and the necessity for enhanced security measures. The need for significant improvements is especially pronounced in the professional services sector, with 47% of firms acknowledging this need, and in large organisations where over half of respondents from companies with 20,001 to 30,000 employees reported a need for significant improvement. When it comes to using advanced security technology for internal sensitive content communications, only 59% of respondents indicate they do so all the time. The EMEA region lags, with only 53% consistently using advanced security measures, compared to 67% in the Americas and 57% in APAC. State governments are leading in this area, with 71% reporting consistent use of advanced security technologies, followed by higher education institutions at 65%. Organisations are also prioritising security certifications and validation, with ISO 27001, 27017, and 27018 topping the list as the most critical certifications. These were followed by NIST 800-171/CMMC 2.0. Notably, 59% of EMEA organisations prioritise ISO certifications, higher than other regions. In contrast, IRAP was more frequently selected by APAC organisations. The findings reflect a strong regional focus on different security standards based on local regulatory environments. File size limitations pose additional challenges, particularly in the energy and utilities sectors. About 34% of respondents implement over 50 workarounds monthly due to email file size restrictions. For managed file transfers and SFTP, 27% and 31% respectively face similar limitations. Energy and utility firms are significantly affected, with 29% encountering email file size issues 50 times or more monthly, and 36% facing managed file transfer limitations. Compliance challenges persist for sensitive communications This year, 56% of organisations indicated that they require some improvement in compliance management, a significant increase from 32% in 2023. This growing concern reflects the increasing complexity and stringency of regulatory requirements. Key compliance concerns for organisations include GDPR and US state privacy laws, with 41% of respondents citing each as their primary compliance focus. This aligns with regional priorities, as a higher percentage of EMEA organisations emphasise GDPR compliance, while US organisations focus more on state privacy laws. Risk and compliance leaders pinpointed GDPR as their biggest compliance area (52%). IT leaders, in contrast, listed US State data privacy laws as their top priority (52%). The frequency and burden of generating audit log reports remain substantial. About 34% of organisations report that they must generate audit logs more than eight times per month to satisfy internal and external compliance requests. This task consumes significant resources, with 31% of respondents spending over 2,000 staff hours annually compiling these reports. Larger organisations face an even greater burden, with 32% of those with over 30,000 employees spending more than 2,500 hours annually on compliance reporting. Notable compliance gaps persist across various industries. For example, only 38% of security and defence contractors prioritise CMMC compliance, which poses a significant risk given the impending enforcement of CMMC 2.0. Failure to comply with these standards could result in the loss of Department of Defense contracts. These gaps highlight the critical need for organisations to prioritise and invest in robust compliance strategies to address evolving regulatory demands and mitigate associated risks. Organisations struggle to classify data and assess risk Organisations continue to face challenges in effectively classifying data and assessing associated risks. More than half (51%) of organisations report that less than 50% of their unstructured data is tagged and classified. This lack of comprehensive data classification poses significant risks as unstructured data often contains sensitive information that needs protection. Additionally, 40% of organisations indicate that 60% or more of their unstructured data requires tagging and classification. This highlights the growing recognition of the importance of data management practices in mitigating security and compliance risks. Sector-specific risks are also prominent. For instance, energy and utilities firms are particularly concerned about the integration of generative AI (GenAI) technologies, with 50% citing this as a significant risk. Higher education institutions focus on protecting personally identifiable information (PII), with 50% highlighting this concern. In the healthcare sector, 58% of organisations prioritise the protection of protected health information (PHI). When it comes to data types that are the biggest risk, IT as well as risk and compliance leaders ranked financial documents (56% and 61% respectively) at the top of their lists. Cybersecurity leaders, in contrast, listed IP at the top of their risk priorities (51%) followed by financial documents (46%). These findings underscore the critical need for organisations to enhance their data classification efforts and adopt tailored risk management strategies to address the unique challenges of their respective industries. Actionable Kiteworks report outcomes The 2024 Kiteworks report highlights an urgent need for organisations to address gaps in sensitive content communications security and compliance. As the threat landscape evolves, it is imperative for businesses to implement robust strategies to protect their sensitive information. Patrick Spencer, VP of Corporate Marketing and Research at Kiteworks, emphasises the importance of sensitive content communications privacy and compliance: “The 2024 report exposes critical gaps in how organisations manage and secure their sensitive data. With a significant number of organisations experiencing multiple data breaches and struggling to meet compliance requirements, it is imperative that businesses take proactive steps to fortify their sensitive content communication strategies. The report’s findings underscore the need for organisations to adopt comprehensive solutions that incorporate next-generation digital rights management (DRM) capabilities. By maintaining control over sensitive content even after it has been shared externally, businesses can effectively mitigate risks and ensure the privacy and compliance of their most valuable information assets.” Kiteworks addresses these challenges by providing a comprehensive Private Content Network for managing sensitive content communications. The platform offers advanced encryption, secure file sharing, and compliance management tools, all integrated into a single platform to enhance security and operational efficiency. Recent next-gen DRM additions to the Kiteworks platform, SafeEDIT and SafeVIEW, further enhance the protection of sensitive content. SafeEDIT enables secure editing and collaboration on sensitive documents, tracked and controlled. SafeVIEW provides a secure environment for viewing sensitive content, preventing unauthorised copying, printing, or sharing. To read the full report, click here.

Report explores the gap between AI ambition and maturity

Vultr, the world’s largest, privately-held cloud computing platform, has released a new industry report, The New Battleground: Unlocking the Power of AI Maturity with Multi-Model AI. The new study reveals a clear correlation between an organisation’s AI maturity and its ability to achieve superior business outcomes, outpacing industry peers in revenue growth, market share, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. Commissioned by Vultr and conducted by S&P Global Market Intelligence, the research surveyed over 1,000 IT and digital transformation decision-makers responsible for their organisation’s AI strategy across industries, including healthcare and life sciences, government/public sector, retail, manufacturing, financial services, and more. Of the respondents surveyed, almost three-quarters (72%) are at higher levels of maturity of AI use. The report also includes a qualitative perspective on AI use by enterprises of varying sizes through in-depth interviews with AI decision-makers and practitioners. “As organisations worldwide capitalise on strategic investments in AI, we wanted to look at the state of AI maturity,” says Kevin Cochrane, CMO of Vultr’s parent company, Constant. “What we’ve found is that transformational organisations are winning the hearts, minds, and share of wallets while also improving their operating margins. AI maturity is the new competitive weapon, and businesses must invest now to accelerate AI models, training, and scaling in production.”The number of models actively used within an organisation is a reliable measure of its deployed AI capabilities and overall AI maturity. The data reveals that advanced AI adopters leverage a multitude of models simultaneously as part of a multi-model approach. On average, the number of distinct AI models currently operational stands at 158 with projections suggesting this number will rise to 176 AI models within the next year. This growth highlights remarkable acceleration in AI adoption across industries, underscored by the 89% of organisations anticipating advanced AI utilisation within two years. AI is poised to permeate throughout the enterprise with 80% adoption anticipated across all business functions within 24 months. This will include AI being embedded across all applications and business units. As AI builds on its new foothold across businesses, there will be an immense impact on enterprise-wide performance. According to the report, those with transformational AI practices reported that they outperformed their peers at higher levels. Specifically, 50% of transformational companies are performing "significantly better" against industry peers than those at operational levels, while a large majority of AI-driven organisations say they improved their 2022/2023 year-over-year performance in customer satisfaction (90%), revenue (91%), cost reduction/margin expansion (88%), risk (87%), marketing (89%), and market share (89%). Meanwhile, nearly half (40-45%) of organisations say AI is having a “major” impact on market share, revenue, customer satisfaction, marketing improvements, and cost and risk reduction. “AI's transformative impact is undeniable - it's devouring industries and is becoming ubiquitous in every facet of business operations. This necessitates a new era of technology, underpinned by a composable stack and platform engineering to effectively scale these innovations,” Kevin notes.To fully harness AI’s potential, 88% of the enterprises surveyed intend to increase their AI spend in 2025, with 49% expecting moderate to significant increases. Findings related to key infrastructure, partner, and implementation strategies include: • For cloud-native applications, two-thirds of organisations are either custom-building their models or using open-source models to deliver functionality.• In 2025, the AI infrastructure stack will be hybrid cloud with 35% of inference taking place on-prem and 38% in the cloud/multi-cloud.• Thanks to the skills shortage, 47% of enterprises are leveraging a partner to help them with strategy and implementation, and deployment of AI at scale. Only 15% are leveraging hyperscalers such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.• Open, secure, and compliant are the top attributes of cloud platforms for scaling AI across the organisation, geographies, and to the edge. “For years, the hyperscalers have dominated the infrastructure market, relying on scale, resources, and technological expertise, but that is all about to change,” Kevin adds. “Over the next decade, everything will be rebuilt with AI at the core, with organisations integrating the principles of cloud engineering into their operations. As a result, we will see the rise of AI specialists and independents as they empower organisations to do transformative work and gain a competitive edge.”As the race to AI heats up, it will not be without its share of obstacles. Budget limitations, building or obtaining AI algorithms, lack of skilled personnel, and data quality are among the top hurdles organisations say they must resolve to graduate to the next stage of AI maturity. For those at a transformational level of maturity, governance (30%) becomes much more of an issue, while company culture is the larger issue for those still in the accelerating stage. For more information, or to download a copy of the full report, click here. For more from Vultr, click here.

Google’s emissions soar 48% over five years due to AI

Google’s greenhouse gas emissions have soared 48% over the past five years, with its Artificial Intelligence (AI) products relying on energy-intensive data centres. Google labelled "increases in data centre energy consumption and supply chain emissions" as the primary driver behind the rise, with total emissions reaching 14.3 million metric tons, according to its annual environmental report. It is estimated that data centres contribute 2.3% to 3.7% of the world’s CO2 emissions, surpassing the global aviation industry, which accounts for 2.1%. In the report, Google said that "reaching net zero emissions by 2030 is an extremely ambitious goal and we know it won’t be easy", citing that the future of AI and its environmental impact is "complex and difficult to predict". Last week, Microsoft’s Co-Founder, Bill Gates, downplayed AI’s climate impact, saying that it would be more of a help than a hindrance. He also said that big tech is "seriously willing" to pay the extra premium to bootstrap clean energy capacity. At the end of 2023, Google released Gemini, which is positioned as a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 and Google’s biggest leap into the AI trend. The tech giant is also placing AI at the heart of its new Pixel phones in order to make them ‘even more helpful’. John Kirk, CSO at ITG comments, “The insatiable demand for AI adoption is already fuelling a wave of increased emissions, leaving big brands open to scrutiny around their sustainability credentials. Forward-thinking organisations will need to look again at the impact their operations are having on the environment and work with partners in the supply chain, such as creative agencies, to provide a more open and honest account of their activities. Customers now expect both accountability and a clear action plan to offset or reduce emissions, and without it, trust will be lost.”

Juniper to partner with the 2026 Olympics and Paralympics

The Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation and Juniper Networks, a leader in secure and AI-Native Networking, have signed a partnership agreement for Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The collaboration aims to optimise network systems and protect data and virtual information for the major sporting event. Making its Olympic and Paralympic debut as a partner of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Juniper’s entry significantly enhances the project and the organising committee’s team. Juniper will help manage the event’s digital complexities such as real-time data management, cybersecurity and high-volume network demands, enabling a smoother operation. Sujai Hajela, Executive Vice President, AI-Driven Enterprise at Juniper Networks, comments, “Juniper leverages the right data, the right real-time response and the right infrastructure to provide predictable, reliable, measurable and secure connections for every device, user, application and resource. With our unique AI-Native Networking Platform featuring industry-leading wired, wireless, routing and security solutions, users will have simple and reliable access to digital assets and online information throughout the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.” The partnership is built on technological excellence and shared values of inclusion and employee well-being, Juniper states. Furthermore, the company says that it prioritises people, equality and diversity - principles which align with the organising committee’s vision, making the Games a model of people-centric values.  Chris Barnard, Vice President, Telecoms and Infrastructure (Europe), IDC, adds, “The partnership between Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation and Juniper Networks highlights the experience-first value that intelligent technology can bring to large-scale sports events. Juniper’s AI-Native Networking Platform is designed to provide the data-driven reliability and security needed to manage the relentless demands of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, delivering exceptional connectivity and robust protection of digital assets.” Mario Manfredoni, Senior Sales Director, South Europe, Juniper Networks, concludes, “Juniper’s partnership with Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 will showcase Juniper’s services and high-performance networking. As the official secure IP network provider of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Juniper will support in addressing the complexity of the major event across multiple locations. "Additionally, Juniper will employ a circular economy approach by collecting and re-cycling all equipment once the event concludes. Juniper’s goal is that none of the equipment goes to waste or ends up in landfill, and instead foster a more environmentally friendly business model. The products will be returned to the production process as pre-owned items through Juniper’s partner." For more from Juniper, click here.

NGMN unveils new roadmap for more energy efficient networks

The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) has published Green Future Networks: A Roadmap to Energy Efficient Networks, offering new guidance and recommendations on reducing energy consumption in mobile networks. This comprehensive roadmap aims to enhance energy-saving methods for MNOs and the wider industry. This latest NGMN publication outlines 16 different energy saving techniques and intelligent solutions that are currently used or under development in the industry. Supported by real-world data, the publication highlights the energy saving potential of each solution and classifies each by type and by the time needed to develop and deploy them. “Reducing energy consumption while maintaining service performance is a key ongoing challenge for the industry,” says Arash Ashouriha, Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board and SVP Group Technology at Deutsche Telekom. “NGMN’s Green Future Networks Programme continues to provide the industry with valuable actionable guidance by pooling the very best of industry knowledge and shaping clear recommendations.” According to the publication, energy consumption can be reduced through process optimisations, engineering and operational improvements, and the deployment of recent technologies. This is the latest phase of NGMN’s Green Future Networks programme, building on the previous publications that addressed the short-term solutions that mobile network operators (MNOs) could deploy. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to better plan and manage networks and match planned and operational capacity to predicted traffic is a key new addition to a number of the identified solutions. The publication outlines that AI can help estimate energy consumption, AI algorithms can help MNOs make improved energy saving decisions and highlights the importance of identifying low energy efficiency sites. Laurent Leboucher, Member of the NGMN Alliance Board and Group CTO at Orange adds, “Finding ways to reduce energy consumption and meet our climate goals is of utmost importance to the industry. The solutions span multiple domains: better network planning and engineering, improved network management, the application of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and the development and use of new technologies. Only by working together and collaborating within industry alliances such as NGMN can we achieve these goals.” As part of the publication, MNOs are encouraged to share wireless and RAN infrastructure and utilise the network resources to limit energy consumption and carbon emissions. It is also recommended that standards development organisations enhance interworking between mobile networks and energy suppliers as a method to reduce carbon footprints and costs, while maintaining service availability. The publication was developed with input from across the industry, with NGMN Partners representing operators, vendors, and research institutes. NGMN invites all parties across the entire value chain to join the Alliance in this important endeavour, namely Green Future Networks.

Migration to full fibre essential for truly sustainable networks

Five key areas in the telecom sector, including migration from legacy copper networks, need addressing if optimal energy efficiency in fixed networks is to be achieved, according to a new report from the World Broadband Association (WBBA). The report, which was launched for the first time at BDC Shanghai, notes that fibre optic networks are the most energy-efficient of existing broadband technologies and says that by decommissioning legacy copper and coaxial infrastructure, operators can achieve significant energy consumption improvements. “Improving energy efficiency is a core element of most modern environmental sustainability policies,” says co-author Alzbeta Fellenbaum, Principal Analyst, 5G and Broadband, Pricing and Strategy at Omdia. “It’s a strategy capable of minimising the environmental impact associated with fixed broadband connectivity. It’s also a key component of a broader goal of achieving carbon neutrality and addressing environmental concerns.” Alongside copper switch off, the industry must ensure network migration through simplified network architecture and new Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions, as well as creating energy-efficient facilities such as buildings and central offices. A focus on the energy efficiency of Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), and the adoption of unified efficiency measurement indicators and methodologies will also prove vital. Network migration can also considerably reduce the need for server spaces and enable the decommissioning of entire buildings. Because less servers are required, cooling demands also drop significantly, with only a number of racks requiring air conditioning. As site facilities consume as much energy as the main equipment on a site, this will help service providers improve the efficiency of their cooling and power supply systems. “The migration to full fibre is essential, but further network innovation is also required,” continues Alzbeta. “Though connectivity demands have grown exponentially in the last 20 years, the telecom industry has kept these in check through technological advancements. For today’s networks, we need simplified network architecture because it has the least pass-through traffic and can reduce energy consumption. AI-powered solutions should also be introduced to optimise this further, as they can monitor and manage traffic changes, route paths, volumes and allocation policies.” “CPE is currently responsible for over three quarters of the power consumption of fixed access networks, and this needs to be addressed,” says co-author James Zhou, Head of Huawei Europe Optical Standard. “By lowering targets for energy consumption per device and increasing the lifespan of products through future-proof technologies, overall energy consumption can be successfully brought down.”  A lack of standardised measurement indicators has also been identified as hampering the potential for unified action to reduce the industry’s environmental impact. “With the publication of our toolkit, we hope the industry takes note of the available technologies and solutions that can help improve the energy efficiency of fixed broadband networks,” continues James. “By identifying the key areas for improvement, stakeholders are now empowered to decide which direction to focus their attention and resources on their sustainability journey.” The Fixed Network Energy Efficiency Toolkit report is available on the WBBA website.

Nasuni strengthens European footprint with French expansion

Nasuni, an enterprise data platform for hybrid cloud environments, has announced further investment and expansion into the French market, strengthening its European presence. The company's data platform built for hybrid cloud supports enterprises facing growing unstructured data volumes with scalability, built-in security, fast edge performance, and AI-ready data. Organisations across France are embracing the AI revolution, a market which is set to grow by over 28% from 2024 to 2030. This is unearthing a critical need for enterprises to unlock unstructured data repositories and curate AI-ready data. In parallel, the evolving cybersecurity threat landscape in France (the fifth most attacked country by ransomware) is putting enterprise data at risk. Operating in France since 2017, Nasuni is experiencing strong demand from organisations across France and Europe for its data platform. The company says that organisations rely on Nasuni to turn unstructured data into rich repositories in order to drive AI implementations across their businesses, while strengthening cyber resilience and cutting infrastructure costs. Nasuni’s client roster already includes nine of France’s top 50 market cap companies, with customers including the likes of Pernod Ricard, TBWA, Colas, Safran, and France Habitation. “We’re seeing a rapid rise of forward-thinking French businesses undergoing cloud transformations to accelerate AI implementations and secure data in the face of evolving ransomware threats,” says Chris Addis, Vice President of Sales, EMEA at Nasuni. “Our expansion in the French market across sales, technical sales, and partnerships reflects the growing demands we’re seeing for the Nasuni File Data Platform in supporting enterprises with these challenges and driving growth. We are excited to have now achieved critical mass in France, and this rapid growth alongside the growth of our partner network marks an exciting time for Nasuni as we continue to expand operations in Europe.” Nasuni’s key partnerships in France include arcITek, an innovative French IT services provider. Together, Nasuni and arcITek support French businesses by accelerating cloud transformations, delivering robust cyber resiliency, and enabling successful AI implementations. Nasuni also works closely with hyperscalers Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud, and supports enterprise customers across a host of different sectors in France, with a focus on automotive, manufacturing, consumer goods, engineering, and energy. “It’s an exciting time as enterprises are rapidly adopting AI to drive efficiencies and innovation, and accelerating cloud transformations to enable this,” notes Taniel Doniguian, President at arcITek. “It’s great to see French businesses adopting modern data platforms to drive their business growth, and we’re delighted to work with Nasuni to provide this critical solution. We support enterprises in implementing these technologies and Nasuni has been a key partner of ours for a number of years, helping us to provide firms with the efficient and secure ability to access and manage their unstructured file data while readying for the adoption of GenAI.” Nasuni’s expansion in the French market follows another year of strong momentum for the company, as it added more than 120 new large enterprise customers across all verticals in 2023. For more from Nasuni, click here.

NetApp receives AAA rating for its AI ransomware detection

NetApp, the intelligent data infrastructure company, today announced that NetApp ONTAP Autonomous Ransomware Protection with Artificial Intelligence (ARP/AI) has received a AAA rating from SE Labs, an independently-owned and run testing company that assesses security products and services. SE Labs validated the protection effectiveness of NetApp ARP/AI with 99% recall - a metric that measures malware detection rates - for ransomware attacks, while noting the absence of false positives. When responding to ransomware attacks, seconds can make the difference between ensuring continuity and a massive business disruption. Organisations need fast, automated, and accurate detection and response capabilities built into their primary storage systems to minimise the damage done by lost production data and downtime. NetApp ARP/AI, with its AI-powered ransomware detection capability, addresses this gap by providing real-time detection and response to minimise the impact of cybersecurity threats. SE Labs rigorously tested NetApp ARP/AI against hundreds of known ransomware variants with impressive results. NetApp ARP/AI demonstrated 99% detection of advanced ransomware attacks. NetApp ARP/AI also achieved 100% detection of legitimate files without flagging any false positives, indicating a strong ability to operate in a business context without contributing to alert fatigue. Ensuring data is secure against internal and external threats is a critical part of making data infrastructure intelligent, which then empowers customers to turn disruption into opportunity. This validation of NetApp’s AI-powered ransomware detection capabilities underscores how NetApp is staying at the forefront of AI innovation by both enabling AI adoption and applying AI to data services. NetApp’s newly released more powerful, all-flash storage systems help enterprises leverage their data to drive AI workloads, built on NetApp’s secure storage infrastructure. "NetApp has passed a significant milestone in the fight against ransomware as the first and only storage vendor to offer AI-driven on-box ransomware detection with externally validated top-notch protection effectiveness,” says Dr. Arun Gururajan, Vice President, Research & Data Science at NetApp. “Ransomware detection methodologies that rely only on backup data are too slow to effectively mitigate the risks businesses face from cybersecurity threats. NetApp ARP/AI hardens enterprise storage by providing robust, built-in detection capabilities that can respond to ransomware threats in real time. The AAA rating we achieved from SE Labs is the result of our commitment to innovation in intelligent data infrastructure and our drive to find new ways to make NetApp the most secure storage on the planet.” By embedding ransomware detection in storage, NetApp ARP/AI helps customers improve their cyber resilience while reducing the operational burden and skills required to maintain their intelligent data infrastructure. NetApp ARP/AI’s detection technology continuously adapts and evolves as new ransomware variants are discovered. This continuous retraining on the latest ransomware strains ensures that NetApp ARP/AI remains at the forefront of protection effectiveness, offering organisations a future-proof defence against the dynamic ransomware landscape. To see the full results of the tests, read the SE Labs Report by clicking here. NetApp ARP/AI is currently in tech preview. Customers can request to participate in the tech preview by reaching out to their NetApp sales representative. For more from NetApp, click here.

Pure Storage introduces unified data storage platform

Pure Storage, an IT pioneer that delivers advanced data storage technologies and services, has announced new capabilities in the Pure Storage platform that are evolving the ways IT and business leaders can improve their ability to deploy AI, improve cyber resilience, and modernise their applications. The Pure Storage platform delivers agility and risk reduction to organisations with a simple, consistent storage platform and an 'as-a-service' experience for the broadest set of use cases across on-premises, public cloud, and hosted environments. At the heart of the platform, the Evergreen architecture brings continuous and non-disruptive upgrades helping enterprises adapt to dynamic business environments. With the industry’s record number of concurrent SLAs, customers get the reliability, performance, and sustainability their business requires. Charles Giancarlo, Chairman and CEO, Pure Storage, says, “Pure is redefining enterprise storage with a single, unified data storage platform that can address virtually all enterprise storage needs including the most pressing challenges and opportunities IT leaders face today, like AI and cyber resilience. The Pure Storage platform delivers unparalleled consistency, resilience, and SLA-guaranteed data storage services, reducing costs and uncertainty in an increasingly complex business landscape.” Pure Storage announced new innovations in the platform including: Storage automation: Pure Fusion unifies arrays and optimises storage pools on the fly across structured and unstructured data, on-premises, and in the cloud. Now fully embedded into the Purity operating environment designed to continually get better over time via non-disruptive upgrades, the next generation Pure Fusion will be available across the entire Pure Storage platform to all global customers. Generative AI co-pilot for storage: Extending Pure Storage’s leadership position as the innovator in simplicity, the first AI co-pilot for storage represents a radically new way to manage and protect data using natural language. This leverages data insights from tens of thousands of Pure Storage customers to guide storage teams through every step of investigating complex performance and management issues and staying ahead of security incidents. In the new Innovation Race survey of 1,500 global CIOs and decision makers commissioned by Pure Storage, nearly all respondents (98%) state that their organisation’s data infrastructure must improve to support initiatives like AI - which is evolving so rapidly that IT is struggling to keep up, much less predict what’s next. Companies large and small are realising that they are locked into inflexible storage architectures lacking enterprise-grade reliability, unable to resize or upgrade performance without complex and risky infrastructure planning. Pure Storage is introducing new innovations in the platform that help businesses accelerate successful AI deployments today, and future-proof for tomorrow. The Pure Storage platform empowers organisations to unlock the value of their data with AI, while delivering agility to instantly scale capacity and performance up and down independently, without disruption. New Evergreen//One for AI - First Purpose-Built AI Storage as-a-Service: Provides guaranteed storage performance for GPUs to support training, inference, and HPC workloads, extending Pure Storage's leadership position for capacity subscriptions and introduces the ability to purchase based on dynamic performance and throughput needs. The new SLA uniquely delivers the performance needed and eliminates the need for planning or overbuying by paying for throughput performance. Secure Application Workspaces with Fine-Grained Access Controls: Combines Kubernetes container management, secure multi-tenancy, and policy governance tools to enable advanced data integrations between enterprise mission-critical data and AI clusters. This makes storage infrastructure transparent to application owners, who gain fully automated access to AI innovation without sacrificing security, independence, or control. For more from Pure Storage, click here.

Avaneidi secures funding to advance data security

Avaneidi, an innovative Italian start-up specialising in security enterprise storage systems, has announced an €8 million (£6.7m) Series A funding round by United Ventures. The investment underscores a shared commitment to advancing solid-state storage technologies, enhancing data security, and promoting a sustainable digital transition. Avaneidi develops comprehensive enterprise storage systems based on a rigorous 360-degree, multi-level 'security by design' approach, enabling an unprecedented degree of cyber security, protection and data reliability for enterprise-grade applications. Avaneidi’s storage technology advancements boost performance, security and reduce energy consumption. This allows electronic devices and data centres to increase their operating efficiency and limit their carbon footprint, addressing key sustainable development goals such as clean energy and sustainable industry innovation. Avaneidi’s Enterprise Solid State Drives (ESSDs) utilise tailor-made chips and advanced algorithms, providing a bespoke solution optimised for performance and cyber security applications. Designed for on-premise data centres, their storage appliances offer a cost-effective, highly efficient alternative to traditional storage solutions, featuring extended drive lifetime, improved security and significant energy savings. “Our mission at Avaneidi is to pave the way for more secure, efficient, and sustainable data storage solutions,” says Dr. Rino Micheloni, CEO of Avaneidi. “This funding will keep us at the forefront of the market, enabling us to accelerate the development of our enterprise ESSDs and all-inclusive storage appliances. Unlike off-the-shelf products, our solutions address cyber security and data governance issues by leveraging a tight hardware-software co-design while offering extensive customisation options.” Avaneidi targets organisations and industries that are highly sensitive to data governance and security, particularly within the rapidly evolving field of AI applications, where these issues are of paramount importance, such as finance, defence, automotive and healthcare. By prioritising data integrity and protection, Avaneidi empowers entire industries to better leverage AI technology safely and effectively when it comes to storage solutions. Avaneidi’s technology’s potential has attracted the attention of major industry players, the company states. Negotiations and preliminary agreements are in place to validate and expand the market reach of its innovative products. “United Ventures invests in technologies that have a tangible positive impact,” states Massimiliano Magrini, Managing Partner at United Ventures. “Avaneidi's vision and mission to enable organisations to make better and more sustainable storage decisions, focusing on governance and data security, align with our investment philosophy. By channeling resources into AI infrastructure like Avaneidi’s, we aim to facilitate the development of technologies that will redefine industries and transform tomorrow's society.” As the AI sector rapidly expands, robust infrastructure for advanced AI applications is paramount. According to recent estimates, the AI infrastructure market is projected to grow from $25.8 billion (£20.3bn) in 2022 to $195 billion (£153.9bn) by 2027, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50%. This surge is driven by significant advancements in AI computing, which is expected to escalate from $15.8 billion (£12.4bn) in 2022 to $165 billion (£130.2bn) in 2027, achieving a 60% CAGR.