Software & Applications

Avnet, Schneider Electric and Iceotope deliver Micro Data Centre

Avnet, Schneider Electric and Iceotope have been joined by Lenovo to deploy its Lenovo ThinkSystem SR670 servers in a highly scalable, GPU-rich, liquid-cooled micro data centre solution. Sealed at the chassis level, the new solution enables artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads to be deployed in close proximity to the location of data generation and use regardless of how harsh the environment is. Avnet is providing the integration services for the solution on behalf of Schneider Electric and Iceotope to help them deploy globally to a wide range of customers. The unique capabilities and technologies Avnet brings to the partnership include: Conversion of the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR670 to liquid cooling and integration of Schneider Electric’s APC NetShelter liquid-cooled enclosure systemSoftware development to deliver Out of Band Management (OOBM) capability. Through Witekio, an Avnet company, Avnet is working with Iceotope to offer a RedFish-compliant solution that is enabled by Avnet’s MaaxBoard IoT single board computerA full portfolio of lifecycle services such as warranty support, field installation and maintenance, advance exchange, repair/refurbishment, and IT asset disposition and value recovery The groundbreaking solution is based on Iceotope’s Ku:l 2 liquid-cooled chassis which provides unique value by completely isolating the critical IT from the environment with a perfectly sealed and resilient enclosure. This enables secure and tamper-proof computing, storage and networking, providing an extra level of physical and I/O connective security in the most extreme locations and climatic conditions. With Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure IT solution, remote monitoring and management is taken to a new level enabling proactive insights on critical assets that impact the health and availability of IT environments, so infrastructure performance is optimised and risk is minimised. “Liquid cooled servers that are cost effectively deployed at scale will revolutionise the server industry as well as computing in general by cutting energy usage, noise and space requirements,” says Scott MacDonald, President, Avnet Integrated. “As a leader in industrial solutions, Avnet Integrated is uniquely positioned to simplify the deployment of this solution for our customers in collaboration with Schneider Electric, Iceotope and Lenovo. Our ability to solve complex problems on a global scale for large customers while closely collaborating with all partners is what differentiates us as an advanced systems integrator.” David Craig, CEO Iceotope comments, “The infrastructure to provision edge expansion will be installed where space provides, outside traditional data centres – we call this the Fluid Edge. Iceotope is dedicated to ensuring the durability, reliability, efficiency and long-term viability of Fluid Edge facilities, where air cooled approaches have a limited future. Partnering with Lenovo to bring the Ku:l Micro DC to life has accelerated our capability to provide a proven and warranty-backed, chassis-level immersion cooled HPC design solution to this expanding market.” Steven Carlini, VP Innovation and Data Centre, Schneider Electric states: “This integrated, immersion cooled solution brings highly intensive and efficient edge computing capabilities that “drop into” applications from the edge to large scale HPCs. The ability to bring these ready-to-deploy liquid cooled solutions to market proves the strength of the Avnet, Schneider Electric and Iceotope partnership.”

Acronis issues warning of critical risks in 2021 on Data Protection Day

Acronis has issued a warning that, based on their research of recent cyberattack trends and existing business practices, organisations around the world currently face a global threat to data privacy and security in 2021. The company announced its findings on European Data Protection Day to alert organisations that immediate action is needed to avoid costly attacks. The latest research by the cybersecurity experts at the global network of Acronis Cyber Protection Operations Centers (CPOCs) revealed that 80% of companies do not have an established password policy. Between 15-20% of the passwords used in a business environment include the name of the company, making them easier to compromise. Two recent high-profile breaches illustrate this problem: before its Orion compromise, SolarWinds was warned that one of its update servers had a publicly known password of “solarwinds123”, while former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account was hacked because the password was allegedly “maga2020!”. Of the organisations that do have a password policy in place, the researchers found many rely on default passwords – and up to 50% of those are categorised as weak. Attackers know these weak password practices are widespread and, with so many employees working from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, cybercriminals have targeted the less secure systems of these remote workers. Acronis analysts observed a dramatic increase in the number of brute force attacks during 2020 and found that password stuffing was the second most used cyberattack last year, just behind phishing. “The sudden rush to remote work during the pandemic accelerated the adoption of cloud-based solutions,” explains Candid Wüest, VP of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis. “In making that transition, however, many companies didn’t keep their cybersecurity and data protection requirements properly in focus. Now, those companies are realising that ensuring data privacy is a crucial part of a holistic cyber protection strategy – one that incorporates cybersecurity and data protection – and they need to enact stronger safeguards for remote workers.” Financial and reputational risks While the business community is recognising that better cyber protection is needed to ensure the privacy of their data and their customers’ data, awareness among digital users continues to lag. One report found that 48% of employees admit they are less likely to follow safe data practices when working from home. Poor password hygiene and lax cybersecurity habits of remote workers are among the reasons Acronis CPOC analysts expect the financial impact of data exfiltration will soar in 2021, as bad actors can more easily access and steal valuable company data. The trend is similar to one now seen among ransomware attackers, who are stealing proprietary or embarrassing data and then threatening to publish it if the victim doesn’t pay. Last year, Acronis identified more than 1,000 companies around the world that experienced a data leak following a ransomware attack. Implementing tighter authentication requirements To avoid the costly downtime, significant reputational damage in the marketplace, and steep regulatory fines in 2021 that can be caused by a data breach, organisations must strengthen the authentication requirements needed to access company data. Acronis and other cybersecurity experts recommend the following best practices: Multifactor authentication (MFA), which requires users to complete two or more verification methods to access a company network, system, or VPN, should be the standard for all organisations. By combining passwords with an additional verification method, such as a fingerprint scan or randomised PIN from a mobile app, the organisation is still protected if an attacker guesses or breaks a user’s password. Zero trust model should be adopted to ensure data security and privacy. All users, whether they are working remotely or operating inside the corporate network, are required to authenticate themselves, prove their authorisation, and continuously validate their security to access and use company data and systems.User and entity behavior analytics, or UEBA, helps automate an organisation’s protection. By monitoring the normal activity of users with AI and statistical analysis, the system can recognise behaviour that deviates from normal patterns – particularly those that indicate a breach has occurred and data theft is underway. While European Data Protection Day 2021 is an ideal opportunity to bring attention to the risks to data privacy, the researchers at the Acronis CPOCs have identified additional cyberthreat trends that will challenge sysadmins, managed service providers (MSPs), and cybersecurity professionals during the coming year.

Data privacy day: Expert data privacy trends and predictions for 2021

Thursday January 28 marks Data Privacy Day, an international effort to empower individuals and encourage businesses to respect privacy, safeguard data and enable trust. With 2021 set to present us with new challenges and ways of working, businesses need to prioritise data privacy now more than ever, resulting in arguably the most significant Data Privacy Day on record. On the back of 2018, which saw the implementation the ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ (GDPR) act, data privacy was at the top of the corporate and consumer priority lists, giving people more control over their personal data. However, looking back at the last 12 months, it is evident that data privacy is no longer taken quite as seriously. The pandemic and the ‘new normal’ appears to have changed public attitudes on data privacy, which once called for ‘more privacy’. With widely accepted systems such as ‘Track and Trace’ it has become more culturally acceptable for people to willingly share their data. For example, Statista has reported that the NHS contact tracing app has been downloaded nearly 21 million times (20.9m) in the UK.  The same shift in data privacy attitude can be said for businesses and monitoring employee behaviours. Since the pandemic, businesses are faced with the majority of their staff working remotely and, whilst it was once a questionable practice between privacy and corporate necessity, many are now considering ways to keep an eye on productivity, whether employees like it or not. Pedro Martins, Co-Founder & Technical Director of London’s leading IT support experts Totality Services, comments: “As we all know, security breached can be catastrophic to businesses and with the majority of employees now working remotely, we’ve seen a rise in malice attacks across devices. “Business leaders need to understand the importance and actions to keep their data secure. The key is ensuring the organisation's workforce are educated and understand the measure that must be taken to keep key information secure.” “Ahead of Data Privacy Day, we’ve outlined our top predictions for the year and the actions we expect businesses to take to keep their key data as secure as possible.” As businesses consider how to approach data privacy amidst the ‘new normal’ of 2021, Pedro Martins shares some projected trends and predictions for the year ahead. MORE STRINGENT VETTING ON COLLABORATION APPLICATIONS Whilst communication platforms inheritably started as direct Instant Messaging applications, they have, for the most part, been developed into collaboration platforms, used to share important company data both internally and more importantly, externally. This will drive businesses towards more policy-driven and tightened controls, to protect themselves and their data from being shared with the outside world. We're currently seeing this with all collaboration platforms, which are able to share data and files outside of trusted networks. This in turn will lead to businesses running more stringent privacy vetting on all collaborative applications. MORE PROMINENT DATA PROTECTION GUIDELINES WITHIN ORGANISATIONS  Every employee should be vigilant when it comes to Data Privacy, unfortunately, humans tend to fall back into old habits, so whilst GDPR went a long way to emphasise the importance and need for Data Protection, it should be an on-going activity as opposed to a one-off. This in turn helps employees place value and importance on much needed Data Privacy and Data Protection.  There are accreditations and certifications such as ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials which are set out for businesses to follow and commit to. This helps emphasise the importance of employees understanding both Data Privacy and Data Protection in the workplace. With the majority of organisations currently operating a 'work from home' model, it’s imperative to ensure organisations are adhering to these standards on how to manage information security. A RISE IN EMPLOYYEE MONITORING On the whole, we expect to see a slight increase in monitoring employees whilst businesses are working remotely, more noticeably for ones that have not incorporated a remote working policy before the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote working has taken a shift for obvious reasons and will force businesses to adopt important privacy policies during the pandemic. It will be an important step in the direction of a Digital Transformation.  MORE SECURE TECHNOLOGY WILL BE INSTALLED  We expect to see some minor tweaks to existing laws and regulations over the coming year; however, the emphasis is going to focus more around the technology itself as that helps determine how secure company’s data is. There is of course always room for human error and malice behaviour, having the right technology platforms will aid businesses in the prevention, resolution and transparency of potential breaches. In essence, it’s more around the platforms and systems in this case, such as email secure filtering, secure DNS, data encryption, secure email sending and dark web monitoring. REVISED REMOTE WORKING POLICIES TO ALLOW FOR LONG TERM REMOTE SET-UPS Businesses will utilise this time to re-visit their Remote Working Policies. In most cases, no policy was designed for prolonged Remote Working in mind. We also expect organisations to factor in standard security, information and data confidentially for home workers. The systems and security platforms used day to day are key but as is the hardware being used in the home environment, which in most cases is not fit for business use.  EMPLOYEE DATA PRIVACY EDUCATION We expect to see businesses focus their attention on educating their workforce on the importance and value of Data Privacy. Employees must understand what measures to take in an unlikely security breach, such as reporting incidents and the relevant processes to follow.

MediaTek, Swisscom, Ericsson and OPPO enable 5G carrier aggregation

MediaTek has announced it has reached a 5G carrier aggregation (CA) and Voice over New Radio (VoNR) milestone in collaboration with Swisscom, Ericsson and OPPO, advancing 5G networks across Europe. Through this joint initiative, 5G CA between frequency division duplex (FDD) low band and time division duplex (TDD) mid band was achieved in both Non-Standalone (NSA) and Standalone (SA) network architectures. FDD was deployed simultaneously with LTE using the same spectrum resources and utilizing the Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technique. Aggregating the FDD band with its wider coverage capabilities together with the TDD band will help to extend the coverage of the higher peak rate capabilities of the TDD band and increases network capacity. FDD-LTE and FDD-TDD are both important in paving the way for 5G SA deployment, ensuring a seamless 5G user experience and extended capacity. “As a 5G innovation pioneer, MediaTek has a long history of working with Swisscom, Ericsson and OPPO on 5G to usher in this new era of ultra-fast connectivity,” says JS Pan, General Manager of Wireless Communication System and Partnership at MediaTek. “This is just the beginning of the 5G SA journey in Europe and MediaTek is committed to bringing it live to its full extent. We are prepared to meet the increasing demand in new 5G services and applications. Our Dimensity series of powerful and energy-efficient 5G SoCs are designed to support NR CA across multiple configurations, as well as native VoNR support, to ensure a seamless user experience.” VoNR represents a major step towards the migration to 5G SA systems. This will allow OEMs to bring innovative new services to market. With SA networks, 5G applications will be able to go beyond enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) targets of high data throughput to meet the ultra-low latency and reliability requirements of mission-critical use cases and enable next generation of massive IoT deployment. Both accomplishments were made on Swisscom’s commercial 5G network using Ericsson’s network infrastructures including its RAN, Core Network and IMS solutions. Additionally, the milestones were reached on commercially available OPPO Reno 4Z 5G devices powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 800 SoC and MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ SoC test user equipment (UE). “In our labs we are showcasing that the technologies we invest in today will benefit our customers tomorrow. This was confirmed again recently with Swisscom topping the latest Umlaut Connect best network test in Switzerland for the fourth year in a row,” comments Christoph Aeschlimann, Chief Technology and Information Officer at Swisscom. “The future of 5G services will be centred around 5G standalone networks, and by investing in 5G standalone, we are also investing in new opportunities for Switzerland, such as through network slicing and dedicated on-premises 5G deployments.” “Through this joint initiative, we’re taking another big step towards the commercialization of 5G standalone networks in Europe,” adds Maggie Xue, President at OPPO Western Europe. “As 2021 will be a pivotal year for accelerating 5G rollouts, we’re eager to bring the best 5G experiences to European consumers with the help of MediaTek, Ericsson and Swisscom.” “Bringing 5G standalone to the market requires a strong collaboration with our customers and partners. This latest achievement using industry-leading solutions like 5G carrier aggregation is an important step towards realizing the full benefits of 5G,” concludes Hannes Ekström, Head of Product Line 5G RAN, Ericsson. “Ericsson is proud to drive the innovation in this area together with MediaTek, Swisscom, and OPPO. We are enabling a reliable, secure, and flexible 5G standalone architecture that will push Europe’s digital transformation forward.”

Semtech releases new Digital Baseband IC in the LoRa Core portfolio

Semtech Corporation has announced the LoRa Core portfolio with a new chipset. The LoRa Core portfolio provides global LoRaWAN network coverage and is targeted to several vertical industries including asset tracking, building, home, agriculture, metering, and factory automation. The LoRa Core portfolio consists of sub-GHz transceiver chips, gateway chips and reference designs including SX126x series, SX127x series and LLCC68 transceiver chips, as well as the SX130x series gateway chips, legacy gateway reference designs and the LoRa Corecell gateway reference designs. Together, they represent the essential capability of Semtech’s LoRa devices including long range, low power and cost effective end-to-end communication. New additions to the LoRa Core portfolio are a gateway baseband processor integrated with LoRa (SX1303) and an associated LoRa Corecell gateway reference design that supports the fine timestamp feature. “The new LoRa Core gateway IC enables the network-centric geolocation of LoRa devices without requiring the inclusion of GPS hardware at each individual end node. Based on a fine timestamp capability that provides accurate time of arrival information for each demodulated message, the new chipset allows gateways to perform network-centric geolocation based on Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA). This is ideal for several cost-sensitive asset tracking applications,” says Pedro Pachuca, Director of Wireless Products in Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “The new LoRa Core IC helps customers accelerate the development of their applications operating the LoRaWAN protocol. Semtech is committed to delivering solutions to customers that simplify their application development cycle when using LoRa devices.” The new LoRa Corecell gateway reference design, with fine timestamp, is available for U.S., Europe and China regions, and will enable developers to produce gateways integrating LoRa with optimal bill-of-material (BOM) and the lowest power profile, while offering the latest performance for network-centric geolocation. Key Features of the new LoRa Core chipset (SX1303): Provides accurate time of arrival information for each demodulated LoRa frameFine timestamp is a nano second resolution value references to a PPS (pulse per second) signalGeolocation accuracy is around 75–150m depending on many different factorsSize and pin-to-pin compatible with LoRa Core SX1302Featured for implementations leveraging the LoRaWAN protocol and worldwide sub-GHz bands Up to -141dBm sensitivity with LoRa Core SX1250 Tx/Rx front-endUnique 64-bit serialized number for identification and security purposesGateway offers lower power consumption and smaller size than legacy gateways

NAKIVO launches v10.2 with support for S3 object lock

NAKIVO launches v10.2 of NAKIVO Backup & Replication. The latest release expands the scope of Microsoft 365 data protection with support for SharePoint Online, adds ransomware protection for backups with Amazon S3 Object Lock Support and introduces Tenant Resource Allocation. The new features are powerful additions to the core functionality of the award-winning solution, which continues to meet the evolving needs of its 16,000+ customer base.  SharePoint Online Backup  With the skyrocketing adoption of Microsoft 365, cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting data in the cloud for financial gain. In addition to cyber threats, Microsoft 365 data faces other data loss threats like accidental data deletion and retention policy gaps. To help companies address SaaS data protection issues, NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides comprehensive data protection and recovery for Microsoft 365 data with support for Exchange Online and OneDrive for Business. The latest 10.2 version adds another layer of protection for Microsoft 365 users with support for SharePoint Online.  SharePoint Online Backup allows companies using Microsoft 365 to:  Back up SharePoint Online sites and subsites. Recover document libraries and lists to the original or a different location. Use the search functionality to locate and recover items quickly for compliance and e-discovery purposes.  Ransomware-Proof Backups with Amazon S3 Object Lock  After introducing Backup to Amazon S3 in 2020, NAKIVO adds support for Amazon S3 Object Lock in v10.2 to help businesses mitigate the threat of ransomware to their backups and backup copies. The Amazon S3 Object Lock functionality uses the write-once-read-many (WORM) model meant to ensure that objects are immutable for as long as required. Once set, the retention period cannot be shortened or disabled, not even by the root user.  Amazon S3 Object Lock support allows companies to: Protect their backups stored in Amazon S3 from overwriting and deletion. Set retention periods to keep objects immutable for as long as you need. Protect their backup data against ransomware and meet compliance requirements.  Tenant Resource Allocation  NAKIVO Backup & Replication v10.2 offers more control and flexibility for managed service providers (MSPs) and large enterprises using the multi-tenant mode. The new Tenant Resource Allocation feature provides an effective means of allocating data protection infrastructure resources to tenants. Administrators can assign hosts, clusters, VMs, Backup Repositories and Transporters to the tenants.   This feature complements other tenant configuration options in multi-tenant deployments of NAKIVO Backup & Replication. In addition to allocating resources, administrators can implement role-based access control and grant permissions to tenants to perform specific data protection activities in the Self-Service Portal.   Feature Availability  SharePoint Online Backup is available with a Backup for Microsoft 365 subscription, which is licensed per user and comes with 24/7 Support. Data protection for SharePoint Online starts at as low as $0.75 per user/month for a three-year subscription. NAKIVO customers can combine a subscription license for Backup for Microsoft Office 365 with any NAKIVO Backup & Replication edition and license.  Ransomware-Proof Backups with Amazon S3 Object Lock is available with perpetual or subscription licenses for Enterprise, Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Plus editions of NAKIVO Backup & Replication.  Tenant Resource Allocation is available in multi-tenant deployments of NAKIVO Backup & Replication. For MSPs, multi-tenancy is available with a monthly or annual subscription with the MSP Pro, MSP Enterprise and Enterprise Plus editions. For large enterprises, multi-tenancy is available with subscription or perpetual licenses in the Enterprise and Enterprise Plus editions. The 15-day Free Trial comes with full access to all NAKIVO Backup & Replication features, including Backup for Microsoft Office 365, Amazon S3 Object Lock Support and Tenant Resource Allocation. “We’re always trying to anticipate business needs when it comes to data protection. NAKIVO Backup & Replication v10.2 expands Backup for Microsoft 365 functionality with SharePoint Online Backup and addresses ransomware threats with the S3 Object Lock functionality,” says Bruce Talley, CEO of NAKIVO. “The move to cloud storage and cloud services continues, and we are always ready to meet evolving market trends, so our customers have the tools they need to keep their data safe wherever it resides.” 

Six Degrees achieves Microsoft Azure Expert MSP status

Six Degrees has announced that it has become a Microsoft Azure Expert MSP. Six Degrees is one of only eight UK organisations to be awarded this accreditation. Six Degrees also has an Azure-aligned UK onshore Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC), enabling customers to enhance their cyber maturity by identifying and addressing cyber threats. With the COVID-19 pandemic leading to the widespread adoption of remote working, and consequently an acceleration in cloud adoption, it’s unsurprising that the global public cloud infrastructure market is predicted to grow 35% to £88 billion ($120 billion) this year. However, this hasn’t come without its challenges. 2020 saw the rise and amplification of cyber-attacks, with threat actors trying to capitalise on the vulnerabilities that emerged from the shift to new ways of working. With the uncertainty around the business impact of the pandemic continuing into 2021, remaining agile and getting security right first time have never been so important.  This is why Six Degrees is today also launching its new Beyond Cloud proposition, giving customers 'the most flexible, secure cloud services available' so they can look beyond the day-to-day and focus on the future of their organisations. With its range of secure cloud services, and the new Microsoft Azure Expert MSP status, Six Degrees can now offer a coupling of managed services with security expertise to UK businesses.  David Howson, CEO, Six Degrees, says: “At Six Degrees we want to go beyond what other MSPs offer. In today’s world it’s never been more important for organisations to continuously transform and innovate. We help our customers do exactly that through best of breed technology, deep technical expertise and proven best practice service delivery. Everything we do has our industry-leading cyber security at its core giving us, we believe, the best cloud solutions available in the UK. “Being a Microsoft Azure Expert MSP is a great validation of our approach and solutions. We’re proud to be part of a very small group of providers who are using the transformational power of Azure to take customers to the next level.” James Chadwick, Interim General Manager - Commercial Partner, Microsoft, comments: “We welcome Six Degrees to the Azure Expert Managed Services Provider (MSP) program after passing the qualifying process and we look forward to continuing to work together on delivering innovative solutions to our customers.”

What an intelligent approach to digital transformation can provide for companies

Lindsay Lucas is Managing Director of Software Solved  It might seem counter-intuitive to focus on data integration and data management in the middle of a global pandemic, but if your company wants to survive and thrive, that is precisely what you should be focusing on right now.  Over the past 3-5 years, many companies have set out on journeys to digitally transform their business processes to leverage modern technology trends and re-imagine the relationship between workers, IT systems and ultimately the customer.    Although digital transformation has forced companies to change their business models in order to adapt, it’s not necessarily the companies that are driving this change. Instead, this change is being driven by the customer.   Customer expectation has changed; digital transformation has to reflect this  Inarguably, customers’ expectations, preferences, and reasons as to how and why they choose a vendor should be at the core of any digital transformation project. Customers are now used to an online world where the levels of customer experience are extraordinarily high, driven by the likes of Amazon. Customers do not differentiate between ordering online to any other interaction they have with companies.  This, coupled with the pandemic, has meant that sectors who were traditionally slower to embrace digital transformation or just didn’t adapt because it wasn’t a high priority, have had to accelerate the digitisation of their customer and supply chain interactions and internal operations to meet the new demands placed on them.  Whether it is a short-term fix or long-term solution, digital transformation initiatives have introduced a new cultural mind-set within companies about the use of data to drive strategic and operational decisions.   The impact of the pandemic  The pandemic has meant that there has been a dramatic shift to working online meaning that digitalisation has seen a rapid increase at both operational and industry levels. This is unprecedented compared to the first digital transformation initiatives where most companies focused on specific business processes – sales, customer service, supply chain management.  With companies shifting to remote work models and no-contact work environments for on-site workers, leaders need to accelerate the delivery of digital transformation initiatives across the enterprise – enabling all workers to leverage technology to be productive without traditional face-to-face interactions.  Company leaders also realise that, if they want to be effective in leading remote organisations, they need more complete, accurate, and real-time data from across the company to make informed business decisions. That is where data integration and transformation comes in.  Quick-fix solutions to ensure business continuity can’t be considered for the long-term  When entire workforces shifted to remote working at the same time, it wasn’t practical to take a top-down, waterfall project management approach to digital transformation, business process re-engineering, and enterprise data integration. Therefore, many quickly implemented short-term, quick fix solutions to ensure immediate business continuity, understandably putting it ahead of looking for a longer-term strategy.  With too many moving parts to manage, there hasn’t in some cases been the time to develop an “all-encompassing plan” before implementing it. However, quick-fix strategies to keep companies going will most likely only work in the short-term.  Companies need to be looking at long-term solutions now in order to maintain business continuity in the coming months rather than relying on the short-term solutions that they have put in place. The key to success here is to empower individual business functions (and employees) to make decisions to optimise their work locally-within a global (enterprise-wide) framework and set of standards that enable cross-functional integration and data aggregation for decision making.  Data integration is the key  Data integration is the key to leading a dispersed organisation. If the data from all of the operational systems are integrated, aggregated, summarised, and curated into a set of informative and actionable dashboards; business leaders and employees who use it day-to-day, are well equipped to manage operations, even without physical face-to-face interactions or even being in the same office.  Recent disruptions have only reinforced the prevailing notion that data warehousing isn’t some future aspiration, it’s an urgent mandate at the heart of the business. But a rushed migration without a clear strategy can end up costing the business more, leaving existing legacy applications racking up costs.  An intelligent digital transformation needs to balance speed and value. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, each should start with defining the value, mapping out the journey and determining how cloud will enable the overall business strategy and ambition.  

BATM's NFVTime now available for public Cloud Networks

BATM has announced that it has enhanced its NFVTime virtual networking solution to enable deployment via public cloud environments, such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Network function virtualisation (NFV) enables network functions to be run in software, with a single piece of equipment, rather than requiring multiple pieces of physical hardware. The Group’s NFVTime operating system, which was developed by its wholly-owned Telco Systems subsidiary, is licensed by telecommunications and managed service providers (network operators) to allow them to create these virtual networks for their customers.  NFVTime was initially available to be run in a network operator’s data centre. The Group has now enhanced NFVTime by enabling its compatibility with, and receiving certification of use for, public cloud environments, including adding further layers of security to the platform. This expands the addressable market for the product to customers that operate cloud-based networks – which is typically enterprise customers or larger operators with a multinational footprint – as well as those that lack the internal resource to run the software in their data centre. Dr Zvi Marom, Chief Executive Officer of BATM, says: “This is a significant development for our NFVTime solution as we can now offer it to customers who use cloud networks as well as those with data centre-based networks. With NFV, operators benefit from lower costs and deployment times as network functions are run in software rather than hardware – which we are now taking a step further by enabling this to happen in the cloud. We have continued to receive strong interest in NFVTime, which we expect to increase with this broadening of the addressable market at a time when the adoption of cloud-based networking is expanding. We look forward to reporting on our progress.”

Spectra logic announces latest version of StorCycle

Spectra Logic has announced the latest release of its award-winning StorCycle Storage Lifecycle Management software. StorCycle 3.3 comes with a range of new features including an open RESTful API that allows users to integrate StorCycle into a broader set of workflows, as well as new enhancements that advance the software’s ability to migrate data to disk, tape and cloud storage, including all tiers of Amazon and Microsoft Azure. StorCycle is a storage lifecycle management software solution that ensures data is stored on the right tier throughout its lifecycle for greater IT and budgetary efficiencies. Created for organisations that need lasting protection and access to data which is no longer active, but still critical to retain, StorCycle scans primary storage for inactive files and migrates them to a lower cost tier of storage, which includes any combination of cloud storage, object storage disk, network-attached storage (NAS) and object storage tape. Interoperable with Linux and Windows, StorCycle migrates data, without changing original formats, and allows users to have easy access to all data including data migrated to higher latency storage mediums like cloud “cold” tiers and tape. StorCycle 3.3 delivers the following new benefits: Open API With the exposed RESTful API, users can take advantage of StorCycle’s core features, including scanning, migrating, and restoring data to build integrations and applications that leverage StorCycle’s Storage Lifecycle Management capabilities. The exposed API is an excellent tool for advanced users who wish to integrate StorCycle into wider workflows. In addition to providing core commands to configure storage locations, the API helps users build applications to better manage jobs or perform bulk actions without using the web interface. Extended Cloud Support to Microsoft Azure and Amazon StorCycle 3.3 extends cloud support to Microsoft Azure, including both the standard (hot/cool) and archive tiers. Azure can be used as a storage target for migrate/store jobs, helping organisations leverage the cost-effectiveness and ease of cloud storage. This is in addition to StorCycle’s existing support for Amazon S3 standard and archive tiers. Additional support for Amazon has also been added in StorCycle 3.3 so that users can leverage StorCycle’s capability to tier data to Glacier and Deep Archive from standard tiers after a migration. Automated Restore Notification Alerts When configuring a restore job, StorCycle users now have the ability to request automatic email alerts when the restore job completes. This is especially helpful and convenient for restore jobs which may take several hours (such as with Amazon Glacier or Azure Archive). Real Time Performance and Progress Data Real time performance and progress data is now displayed when a migrate or restore job is active. Migrate/store and restore jobs will display the data rate (MB/s), the amount of data transferred thus far and the job size. Scan jobs will display the total directories and files migrated per second. Each performance chart is easily available on the respective jobs pages (migrate, restore, scan), as well as the main jobs page which will display all active jobs in StorCycle. This feature is especially useful when many large jobs are running in parallel and other organisational tasks depend on job completions. OpenLDAP In addition to Active Directory, StorCycle now provides full support for OpenLDAP for user authentication. When configured, users on the LDAP domain can be given Restore User permissions where they are able to restore migrated data without Administrator assistance. Configuring OpenLDAP also makes it easier for Administrators to add named users to StorCycle, where they can be given additional permissions in the application, such as Administrator or Storage Manager roles. StorCycle -- Award-Winning Software StorCycle won several product awards for excellence in innovation, data management and cloud enablement in 2020. The list includes: Digital Media World 2020 Gold Awards – StorCycle Storage Lifecycle Management software earned the 2020 Digital Media World Award in the Best Digital Asset Management award category. Spectra’s StorCycle was recognised for its ability to bring visibility and insight to better manage storage volumes through intelligent tiering and data migration, while maintaining direct, consistent access to migrated assets and enhancing search capabilities with the use of metadata tags. The Cloud Awards – StorCycle was a finalist in the international Cloud Computing Awards program, The Cloud Awards. StorCycle was recognised as the Best Hybrid Cloud Solution for enabling organisations to implement a more effective and efficient hybrid cloud solution which reduces data storage costs while optimising data protection. The Storries – StorCycle software was honoured with the Storage Innovation of the Year award by Storage Magazine, which recognises Spectra’s innovation in providing one of the industry’s most effective storage lifecycle management software solutions to enhance IT infrastructures. DCS Awards – StorCycle software was a finalist for the Product of the Year category by the 2020 DCS Awards, which rewards the achievements of product designers, manufacturers, suppliers and providers operating in the data centre arena in Europe.