How appropriate that the largest snowstorm in years hit the Northeast at the end of 2020. Can we ever forget this year? Depends on your therapist. No matter how good your therapist, you can’t forget this batch of newsbits that are so good they’re like hot chocolate on a snowy day.
One last round of AWS re:Invent news. Anyone involved in Internet of Things projects should pay attention to the new AWS IoT Greengrass 2.0, which aims to make life easier on device builders and integrators. Greengrass 1.x devices will run without any changes.
Integrators read the previous newsbit and immediately asked, “”How do we connect?”” Here you go: AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN. Connect and manage wireless devices that use long-range, low-power wide-area networks to link IoT devices.
Again, those skeptical integrators ask, “”What if the network has issues?”” Hello to AWS IoT SiteWise Edge, which brings AWS IoT SiteWise to the customer’s premises. Works on a variety of local devices and AWS Outposts.
A little Wintel news. Remember these bits: Intel announced two new additions to its Intel Optane Solid State Drive (SSD) Series: the Intel Optane SSD P5800X, allegedly the world’s fastest data center SSD, and the Intel Optane Memory H20 for clients. And three new NAND SSDs including a 144-layer QLC NAND.
In a blow to online meeting blooper collections, Microsoft Teams AI-based noise suppression is now available as an option. WFH-ers with noisy dogs say, “”Challenge Accepted!“”
Security news. Security discussions lately have a distinctly Russian accent, but the new WatchGuard Firebox M4800 and M5800 (pictured) clearly say they provide the security services and flexibility businesses need to stay ahead of miscreants, no matter where they’re located.
Want to cut out another attack vector? Maybe the new Trend Micro Cloud One—File Storage Security, called the first cloud-native, fully serverless file storage security tool can help. Block known bad files and look for hidden or changing malware variants.
Sectigo’s IoT Security & Identity Management Platform just got revved up with multiple goodies. This includes a PKI Client software dev kit (SDK) for Sectigo IoT Manager, a Secure Boot SDK, and much more.
Rapid response against cyber threats sounds good, right? Check out the new automated response solution for AWS environments, Alert Logic MDR SOAR.
Few emails hurt as much as ransomware demands. Hence Clumio RansomProtect, the first air-gapped ransomware protection for VMware, VMware Cloud on AWS, and Microsoft 365 data.
Asigra announced Cloud Backup with Deep MFA integration with Microsoft 365.
IoT security is difficult for many reasons, but the new DigiCert IoT Device Manager can erase some headaches. Built on DigiCert ONE, it moves PKI down to the resource-constrained IoT device.
Devolutions says its products have been integrated into a set of essential IT management applications. Designed for SMBs, the Devolutions IT Management Suite includes Remote Desktop Manager, Password Hub, and more.
Phishing combatant SlashNext has released its 2.0 Real-time Phishing Defense APIs. There’s also a free community version for threat hunters, researchers, and incident response teams.
Other product news. MigrationWiz from BitTitan now includes expanded PowerShell SDK capabilities. Great for MSPs.
Ivanti Wavelink Velocity just upgraded to 1.1.15, which seeks to help businesses migrate mobile devices away from Windows OS-based products to iOS-powered endpoints and peripherals.
RingCentral Glip (pictured) offers high-quality and high-availability video and audio conferencing that integrates with team messaging, file sharing, and more. Designed to make video meetings smarter. Boy, do we need that, but the problem may be the participants, which RingCentral doesn’t control.
To help healthcare providers, the new suite of digital communications tools in Avaya OneCloud CPaaS is HIPAA-compliant. Helps with many areas, including the current vaccine rollout.
The Google Cloud automation folks at itopia announced a new management platform to deploy and manage Windows 10 Client OS virtual desktops and apps. Also helps with Windows Server VDI environments.
Non-product vendor news. Kevin Torner (pictured), CryptoStopper’s former channel director, has a new business card reading “”CEO””.
Al Morales, previously of AmerisourceBergen, has a new business card too. His reads “”Chief Transformation Officer”” of Tech Data.
Centrify rolled out a red carpet for new Chief Financial Officer Charlie Velasquez.
Hello to the new Sage Partner Cloud Program in the U.S. and Canada. Partners can deploy and customize their customers’ Sage 300 product line all while working remote.
Network access and automation players might like the new Opengear Channel Certification Program for its Network Resilience platform.
SYNNEX inked an agreement with Broadcom to deliver the latter’s Symantec Enterprise products. The deal makes SYNNEX one of only two distributors in North America that support the entire Symantec product portfolio.
Tech brokerage firm TBI added Imagit to its provider portfolio, bringing IT professional services to TBI’s partner community. TBI added fiber network provider Everstream as well.
DobiMigrate and DobiProtect now integrate with Wasabi cloud storage, thanks to a Technology Alliance Partnership between Datadobi and Wasabi.
The Microsoft Intelligent Security Association has a new member. Digital Defense and its management and threat assessment solutions joined, and Frontline ATS and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint are all integrated.
This week’s stats ticker:
The Infrascale SMB survey, conducted in November 2020, found that 68% of SMB and mid-market business execs believe working with an MSP helps them stay ahead of the competition. The top reason to start an MSP relationship? Saving costs, say 51% of respondents, followed by increased security (46%). Almost every respondent says it’s important to have a predictable IT budget today (96%). The largest expense areas are information security (60%), application licensing (24%), and data center automation (21%). How do these execs choose their MSPs? Quality of solution (52%), attention to security (46%), and 24/7 support (45%). At 98%, a backup solution is the most popular service provided, and 80% says they use an MSP for backup and disaster recovery.
The Dell’Oro Group’s SD-WAN Advanced Research report expects SD-WAN market growth to accelerate at a 24% CAGR over the next five years and pass $4 billion in 2025. The pandemic delayed some SD-WAN deployments in 2020, and respondents believe things will return closer to normal next year. SD-WAN revenues come 80% from software, and that percentage will rise over the next five years. Acquisitions will continue following a surge in 2020.
“”Spear Phishing: Top Threats and Trends Vol. 5 – Best practices to defend against evolving attacks,”” from Barracuda finds phishing attempts are evolving to better trick recipients. COVID-19 and pandemic news turned out to be a particularly effective lure, no surprise, and business email compromise (BEC) exploits are up to 12% from 7% in 2019. 72% of COVID-19-themed attacks are scamming, compared to 36% of overall attacks. Fake cures and donations are big hooks. While 71% of spear phishing attacks include a malicious URL, only 30% of BEC attacks do. The absence of a URL makes it harder to detect the attack and getting a reply email begins a cycle of trust-building for the phishers to exploit.
Jingle johns, jingle johns, jingle all the way. It helps to have a sense of humor when you’re in the portable toilet business. Service Sanitation, in Indiana, tried to make the world smile just a little bit more, using the tools they have at, ah, hand.
Hello to 32 portable johns with LED animated faces singing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, interspersed with comments from Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Service Sanitation considers it a world record, but the Guinness World Record people say there isn’t a category for “”animated faces in holiday light displays.”” That’s OK. 32 singing toilets seems like a big deal to us, especially in 2020.
Source: Service Sanitation
