Things change. Back in 2013, The Onion ran a satirical story, “”Washington Redskins Change Their Name To The D.C. Redskins.“” Funny, but probably not. Things remain the same: Your postponed taxes were due this past Wednesday. If you are now in a scrambling panic, sorry we forgot to mention this last week. While we were doing our taxes, we missed some newsbits, so let’s catch up.
Big Three cloud vendor news. Microsoft and Citrix are teaming up to create a new, more flexible work model. Tools will help simplify and speed the transition of on-premises Citrix customers to Microsoft Azure.
Speaking of moving to the cloud, new Microsoft Azure Disk Storage enhancements will help you migrate existing on-premises Windows and Linux-based clusters to Azure. The trick is allowing a single disk to be attached and used from multiple VMs.
Hello to Amazon Interactive Video Services (Amazon IVS) on AWS, now generally available. Easier to set up live, interactive video streams for a web or mobile application in just a few minutes. Underlying tech is the same used by Twitch, so it can scale.
Enhancements in VMware Cloud on AWS give better value while supporting modernization, business continuity, resiliency, and cloud migration. Includes Amazon EC2 i3en instances that deliver nearly 50% lower cost per GB of raw storage.
Other product news. Datto’s SaaS Protection 2.5 release ups the confidence that Microsoft 365 and G Suite data is safe from downtime and stupid users (our term, not theirs). Streamlined client onboarding, flexible retention, and a user-friendly management portal all help make sure data is there when you need it.
Available today, Scale Computing Business Resilience keeps data, applications, and workers online against the ever-present disruptions the modern online organization faces. Built around Scale’s HC3 platform, it works with VDI software and backup providers.
Just announced, the Fortinet Secure SD-WAN for Multi-Cloud improves performance, visibility, cost, and control over multi-cloud deployments. Enables SD-WAN across multiple clouds and regions.
Speaking of SD-WAN, Barracuda has announced Barracuda CloudGen WAN service, the first (we’re told) SD-WAN solution that runs inside Azure Virtual WAN Hubs.
Getting to those clouds will be easier with the newly-launched Zyxel Networks Wi-Fi 6 access points with remote provisioning. Three models cover small and medium-sized businesses with up to six times the throughput of 802.11ac access points in high-density environments.
NETGEAR released the GS716TP and GS716TPP, two new 16-port Gigabit Ethernet PoE+ Smart Managed Pro Switches with 180W and 300W Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) budgets, respectively. Both have 2 SFP Ports and optional cloud management.
Look for the new Xerox AltaLink C8100 and Xerox AltaLink B8100 Series multi-function printers (MFPs) (sample pictured) that access the ConnectKey ecosystem of apps. Faster scanning (up to 270 images per minute with OCR), tablet-like interface, and even ways to convert handwriting into editable text documents and create audio files from text.
Security incidents hurt less when shut down quickly. The newly-announced McAfee Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) Cloud leverages the power of cloud computing to accelerate advanced analytics, data source coverage, and the shortest time to value possible.
Say hello to Frontline Threat Landscape from Digital Defense. The newest addition to the company’s vulnerability management technology incorporates threat intelligence to prioritize critical vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Uses a SaaS model that leverages machine-based learning to determine risk.
HTC VIVE and FreeRangeXR shook virtual hands to announce a new workplace safety training virtual reality solution tagged ElevateXR. Offers three different hazard safety modules and serves as a foundation for employee development programs.
Want the earliest trouble warnings you can get? You bet. Then it’s good that LogicMonitor revved up its LM Intelligence AIOps Early Warning System. Dynamic thresholds based on historical performance with newly refined algorithms save time, cut alert fatigue, and help your proactively prevent downtime.
Attivo Networks and FireEye interfaced ThreatDefend with FireEye Endpoint Security and FireEye Malware Analysis. Quickly detect and shut down attackers inside your network, then discover whether that attacker used stolen credentials, a zero-day exploit, or is an insider.
Breach and attack simulation player XM Cyber now integrates with Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection. When Defender spots something, XM Cyber IDs the potential impact. Once you know the overall risk and the steps to take, you can start remediation.
Non-product vendor news. Tech Data has a new Americas president (pictured). He’s named John O’Shea and he was most recently head of the company’s Global Lifecycle Management business unit.
Centrify (privileged access management) just brought in Flint Brenton as the new CEO.
Arcserve appointed Ivan Pittaluga as its new CTO.
Adam Geller joins Exabeam as chief product officer. First up is to align the product and engineering departments.
Datto has dived into quoting and procurement solutions for MSPs by purchasing Australia-based Gluh.
Two newsbits from management vendor SolarWinds. First, Liz Beavers becomes the newest member of the company’s popular Head Geeks team. Second, Head Geek Thomas LaRock was just recognized with his 12th consecutive Microsoft MVP award.
Data center energy management leaders Schneider Electric and Anord Mardix (USA) partnered to develop and deploy critical power solutions for the data center market.
Cloud and collaboration folks Intermedia will take over providing Microsoft 365 to the 70,000+ business users supported by Navisite, a managed cloud service provider.
SYNNEX exec Bob Stegner is joining CompTIA’s IT Hall of Fame, a pantheon of “”individuals who have made outstanding contributions or provided exceptional service to the IT channel, as well as those responsible for outstanding technology innovations or business transformations.””
Alsid, apoQlar, and Balbix are the three finalists in the Ingram Micro’s latest Comet Competition for B2B software startups. Grand prize: a cool $1 million.
A team up will let Pax8 offer Cymulate’s end-to-end SaaS-based breach and attack simulation products for continuous security validation to partners in the SMB market.
Coronavirus or no coronavirus, we still must sign papers, but there’s no reason we have to be in the same room using the same pen at the same time. Hence the news that Sherweb will start offering Letsignit’s tools to manage professional email signatures.
Decommissioned drives should be erased properly. That’s why Blancco has added its Drive Eraser to AWS Marketplace. Securely clean on-premises drives after migrating online and worry not.
IGEL Ready is a new program that opens the edge OS player’s core enterprise software to technology partners wanting to integrate and validate their products. So far, over 90 companies have done so.
Canonical (Ubuntu) launched its enhanced Global System Integrator Programme. Companies can become a full-stack Ubuntu partner and gain resell and integration opportunities in the data center, multi-cloud, edge, and IoT spaces.
This week’s stats ticker:
With responses from 700 business decision makers, the Riverbed Future of Work Global Survey 2020 found leaders say they’re OK with, but not fully ready for, a large scale shift to remote work. 95% are comfortable with remote workers, but from a tech standpoint 69% said they aren’t yet completely prepared for the change. Healthcare had the most not prepared (86%), followed by manufacturing (72%), retail (69%), professional services (66%), and financial services (58%). Tech issues included poor quality of video meetings and frequent disconnects from networks (40%), slow file downloads (38%), and poor response loading apps (36%). Benefits include better work-life balance and savings from office space and related costs (50%), better use of technology (49%), and increases in productivity (43%).
A new study by Lenovo called, “”Technology and the Evolving World of Work,”” looked at how employees are responding to the “”new normal”” of the pandemic. 72% report a shift in their daily work dynamic. Employees feel more connected and productive than before, but there are financial, physical, and emotional downsides. 85% feel more reliant on work PCs than when working in the office. 63% feel they are more productive working from home. 52% believe they will continue to WFH more than they did before COVID-19 forced the issue. But 40% had to at least partially pay for their own tech upgrades, and 70% said they purchased new tech gear to manage the WFH shift. U.S. employees spent an average of $348, $70 more than the global average and the second-highest among the 10 markets surveyed.
AVANT Communications’ UCaaS 6-12 Report looked at how the pandemic affected the UCaaS marketplace. Good news: UCaaS experienced its fastest growth ever in the midst of the pandemic. Customer interest spiked 86%, and video, collaboration, and digital transformation were also hot topics. But vendors had problems maintaining any type of technical differentiators since competitors quickly integrated any new features into their own products. The results of this fevered competition? Years of digital transformation occurred over the space of just a few months.
Social discharging. Businesses struggle to reopen safely, and few groups have more issues than bars. The problem seems to be even worse in England, where pub life reigns.
So, Jonny McFadden, manager of the Star Inn in St. Just, Cornwall, came up with a social distancing tool with more power: an electric fence in front of his bar.
Ropes and chains are common, but an electric fence to keep the bartenders, including McFadden, safe? That’s a new one. He said that polite measures weren’t going to keep his customers at a safe distance. The pub is in a rural area, so customers all know about electric fences.
They don’t know this: McFadden didn’t turn it on. The wires and sign were enough.
Photo: CNN
