IBM has announced updated capabilities for its Cloud Pak for Security platform, including an «industry-first» built-in data security hub.

Launched almost a year ago, Cloud Pak for Security focuses on delivering security solutions for multi-cloud and hybrid environments.

IBM has announced that the platform will soon receive a new built-in data security hub which aims to provide analysts with additional insight on the location of their sensitive data across hybrid cloud environments.

This «industry-first» tool will also show who has access to it, how it is used, and the best way to protect, and will facilitate data breach responses which, according to a new report by The Ponemon Institute and IBM Security, currently take over six months to identify and contain.

IBM also announced that Cloud Pak for Security will soon feature pre-built integrations for five additional threat intelligence feeds from third-party sources: AlienVault OTX, Cisco Threatgrid, MaxMind Geolocation, SANS Internet StormCenter, and Virustotal. This list is expected to be expanded further as early as 2021.

Additionally, IBM announced the launch of new dedicated security services that will aid organisations in updating their security operations using Cloud Pak for Security. This will include end-to-end threat management, managed security services, as well as strategy, consulting, and integration support.

All three features are expected to become available in the final quarter of 2020.

IBM Security VP Justin Youngblood said that the company «will be the first in the industry to bring together external threat intelligence and threat management alongside data security and identity, helping organizations to modernize their security operations and create the foundation for a zero-trust security strategy”.

«Complexity is the greatest challenge facing our industry, forcing resource-strapped security teams to manually connect the dots between disparate tools and sources of security data,» he said. «Cloud Pak for Security is built on open, cloud-native technologies from the ground up to connect any tool within the security ecosystem.”

The announcement comes days after IBM revealed plans to split its business in half by spinning off its infrastructure services unit into a separate public company.

Microsoft has become the latest company to give its employees the option to work from home on a permanent basis. 

The decision, announced in a blog post, sees Microsoft following in the footsteps of Twitter, which recently confirmed in a company-wide email that employees can work from home «forever». Google and Facebook have also extended their remote working policies as part of the effort to curb the spread of the COVID-19 and to protect the health of employees and their families. 

Microsoft confirmed that its employees are being given the option to work from home indefinitely as long as they obtain managerial approval. Part-time remote working will be available without formal approval, and the guidance is applicable to employees based in the UK.

However, the option might not be available for all roles. Microsoft said that some staff will still be required to work from the office, including employees who require access to office-based hardware.

«Flexibility can mean different things to each of us, and we recognise there is no one-size-fits-all solution given the variety of roles, work requirements and business needs we have at Microsoft,» the company said. 

«To address this, we have provided guidance to employees to make informed decisions around scenarios that could include changes to their work site, work location, and/or work hours once offices are open without any COVID-19 restrictions.»

The announcement is in sharp contrast to a recent statement made by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Last week, he warned that businesses should consider the effects the switch to remote working has on collaboration, learning and our wellbeing. According to the CEO, “learning, reskilling, onboarding is going to become a huge issue”.

“We need to be able to incorporate the learning content into a workflow that is natural,” he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

Another problem Nedella raised is video call fatigue, which he said can start within 30 minutes of the first call of the day. What’s more, with all meetings taking place via video conferencing software, meaning you simply click from one to the other, he warned that people are not switching off between. He also suggested that commutes could serve as meaningful downtime.

However, given the company’s most recent announcement, many of Microsoft’s employees will now be exempt from the daily commute to the office.

​IBM has said it plans to split its business in half by spinning off its infrastructure services unit into a separate public company, bringing to an end a strategy that saw it attempt to shift towards cloud growth while maintaining a foothold in its legacy business.

The aim is to create two separate companies, each with its own strategic focus, in a tax-free deal expected to be completed by the end of 2021.

Announcing plans to create the yet-unnamed company, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said that “now is the right time to create two market-leading companies focused on what they do best”.

“NewCo will have greater agility to design, run and modernize the infrastructure of the world’s most important organizations. Both companies will be on an improved growth trajectory with greater ability to partner and capture new opportunities – creating value for clients and shareholders,” he added.

Commenting on the announcement, IBM executive chairman Ginni Rometty said that the company’s managed infrastructure services business “has established itself as the industry leader, with unrivaled expertise in complex and mission-critical infrastructure work”.

“As two independent companies, IBM and NewCo will capitalize on their respective strengths,” she said, adding that the NewCo “will accelerate clients’ infrastructure modernization efforts”.

Meanwhile, IBM is to focus entirely on its AI capabilities and the hybrid cloud, which Krishna described as a $1 trillion opportunity.

The company announced that it will accelerate its hybrid cloud growth strategy in order to streamline its clients’ digital transformation processes. 

Rometty said that IBM has been set “for the new era of hybrid cloud” and credited the company’ acceleration of its open hybrid cloud platform to its acquisition of Red Hat, which was snapped up for approximately $34 billion in 2018.

IBM’s open hybrid cloud platform architecture had been based on RedHat containerization software OpenShift.

Last month, Red Hat and IBM co-launched a one-stop-shop marketplace for customers seeking to run OpenShift enterprise applications on their hybrid cloud infrastructures. The marketplace aims to deliver an ecosystem of software from independent vendors so enterprise customers can easily deploy new tools on their hybrid cloud infrastructures. Red Hat Marketplace offers a broad catalogue of more than 50 open-source software, from vendors such as CognitiveScale, MongoDB and StorageOS.

IBM said it expected to hit revenues of $17.6 billion, in line with estimates, in a separate earnings statement issued on Thursday.

Oracle NetSuite has announced a slew of new updates for its SMB customers which aim to enhance decision-making and unlock new growth opportunities.

Announced at the company’s Now On Air virtual event, NetSuite’s latest updates are aimed at helping organisations to streamline and enhance financial, supply chain, and operational management, as well as the employee and customer experience.

Finance and Accounting professionals will benefit from new cash management capabilities which aim to connect customers to financial institutions around the world by importing transactions and account balances directly into NetSuite, providing real-time insights into bank activity. Manual efforts will also be reduced by a new digital management of workflows and automated entry of invoices, electronic payment processes, and scheduled payment runs.

Finance and accounting professionals will also receive automation for transactions and invoicing as well as the budgeting process in order to eliminate manual data collection and reduce budgeting cycle time

Those in supply chain and operations will receive automated fulfillment and supply planning capabilities, as well as the Intelligent Predicted Risk, which aims to provide users with greater insight into the potential risks of delayed shipments. 

Project managers will benefit from automated expense management, which will help them reduce data entry errors by populating expense lines directly from American Express corporate credit cards, as well as enhancements into resource planning, which provides a unified view of project budgeting and assignments.

NetSuite also announced Analytics Warehouse, which aims to assist administrators and developers in decision-making. Meanwhile, SuiteAnalytics will be extended through an integration with Oracle Analytics Cloud and Autonomous Data Warehouse, as well as enhanced with Workbook – NetSuite’s analytics toolkit.

Evan Goldberg, EVP of Oracle NetSuite, said that Warehouse is based on Oracle’s advanced analytics cloud.

«It’s really easy to set up and can do snapshotting by looking at the data as it’s being brought in and show you trends over time,” he explained. «It can also analyse NetSuite data along with data from other systems so it’s easy to pull other data into the Warehouse and then connect it up.»

Administrators and developers will also be able to customise SuiteCloud records as well as manage application performance with a new performance health dashboard. 

HR professionals will be able to create role-based onboarding checklists to engage and increase the productivity of new employees, while the new enhancements to SuitePeople aim to make performance management more efficient. SuitePeople users will also be able to better manage retirement plan deductions by facilitating compliance and automating employee and employer match contributions. 

Lastly, organisations will be able to improve their relations with customers with the help of new e-commerce site management capabilities which aim to improve end-user experiences, monitor performance, and deliver more insightful analytics.

Updates to SuitePeople, NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, SuiteCloud, as well as the e-commerce site management and the expenses management automation will become available in future platform releases later this year, while the remaining enhancements are available to customers as of today.

«It’s been an overwhelming year of change and businesses have been forced to build for a new reality,” said Goldberg. «The latest updates will help our customers gain real-time visibility into their entire business so that they have the agility and control required to successfully build for what’s next.”

Oracle-owned NetSuite has announced the general availability of four new features for its cloud-based SuiteSuccess business management solutions. 

First launched in 2017, SuiteSuccess is designed to help financial and wholesale distributers share best practices, insight, and deployment guidance across specific verticals.

The four enhancements, announced he NetSuite Now On Air virtual event, include the addition of SuiteAnalytics Workbooks to its financial and accounting best practices solution Financial First and a Manufacturing Mobile feature for Manufacturing Standard. 

SuiteAnalytics Workbooks aims to help businesses improve their operations using data insights, while Manufacturing Mobile enables manufacturers to remotely manage shop floor tasks.

NetSuite also announced that it now offers one Learning Cloud Support (LCS) pass with each SuiteSuccess edition bought by new as well as renewing customers. Moreover, all SuiteSuccess vertical editions will now include the new 2020 product features as well as adjustments to industry best practices, which were based on user and field experience.

All four are now available to customers.

Commenting on the enhancements, SuiteSuccess EMEA lead Richard Cutler said: «We’ve all had to manage a lot of change this year and that makes it more important than ever for us to share the wisdom we have gained from helping over 22,000+ customers take advantage of the cloud”.

UK companies using SuiteSuccess include wealth management and insurance broker SPF Private Clients (SPF), specialist food supplier Unisnacks, and commission-free investing app Freetrade Limited.

When asked about its strategies for the UK market, NetSuite EMEA VP Nicky Tozer told Cloud Pro that it «remains critical to NetSuite’s success both in EMEA and globally». 

“NetSuite has helped many UK businesses grow, adapt to change, and build for the future,” she said. 

Tozer described SuiteSuccess as «a great example» which saw the solutions provider develop «best-practice functionality for UK businesses across industries, from wholesale distribution and manufacturing to services and software». 

«We’re continually investing in our platform and partner ecosystem to bring the benefits of cloud ERP to UK organisations looking to improve operations and increase efficiencies,» she added.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen businesses increase their focus on DevOps initiatives, according to a survey commissioned by enterprise software delivery firm CloudBees. 

More than half (52%) of respondents said their firms placed higher priorities on increasing their DevOps initiatives as a result of the pandemic. The most popular initiative is daily standup meetings, which are now practised by 56% of the 347 technology professionals surveyed by the Accelerated Strategies Group (ASG).

Others include using cross-functional teams, practised by 46%, and automating tasks, which was selected by 42% of respondents.

Pandemic restrictions, such as the closure of offices, have also seen 52% of businesses prioritise contracting with public cloud service providers, while almost two-thirds (63%) of respondents said that digital transformation objectives had been placed at a higher priority than before.

The CloudBees report also further proved that employees are confident in their ability to remain productive from home. However, despite 60% of respondents saying that software developer productivity has improved during the pandemic, the speed of software delivery varies. A third (33.8%) of respondents saw speed increases, 27% saw decreases, and 39% didn’t perceive any change in speed.

According to Mitchell Ashley, CEO and managing analyst at ASG, software teams «have seen demonstrable benefit from working remotely». However, he added that «time will tell which changes are permanent and/or beneficial» in the future.

The findings were unveiled on the first day of CloudBees’ DevOps World event, which also saw the company announce the general availability of the first two modules of its Software Delivery Management (SDM) solution.

The first module aims to solve higher-order feature management problems and provide product development teams with control over the features that get issued in software releases. Meanwhile, the second one focuses on engineering productivity and will provide leaders with insight into the prioritising abilities of their team members.

CloudBees also unveiled new DevSecOps solutions for CloudBees CI and CloudBees CD. The new security features aim to address the lack of integration when trying to meet audit and compliance requests.

They include enhanced granularity in Role-Based Access Control, audit-ready pipelines, a newly-developed hardened version of its CloudBees CI, feature flag integration, as well as proven integrations to security automation applications, such as Anchore, Alcide.io, CyberArk, Checkmarx, Contrast Security, FOSSA, RunSafe Security, Shiftleft.io, Snyk, Sonatype, Synopsys, WhiteSource Software, and Zimperium.

Speaking at the start of the event, CloudBees CEO and co-founder Sacha Labourey said: «When we originally came up with the theme for this year’s DevOps World – that was back in January – we decided on Transforming the Future of Software Delivery. And it felt right.

«We understood what transformation meant to us at the time, but we had no clue how transformative this world would truly get.»

​Accenture has announced the launch of Accenture Cloud First, a $3 billion (£2.3bn) investment which will aim to help clients accelerate their digital transformation projects and become “cloud-first” businesses.

The new multi-service group will comprise 70,000 cloud professionals, combining Accenture’s cloud expertise and industry insights with its data and Applied Intelligence capabilities.

The goal is to provide its customers with cloud-focused upskilling over the next three years, the company said on Thursday.

The venture will be led by Karthik Narain, who is set to join Accenture’s Global Management Committee on 1 October. Narain previously led Technology services for the company’s Communications, Media, and High Tech industry segments. He joined Accenture in 2015 after a decade as VP at HCL Technologies.

The launch follows a steady rise in demand for cloud-based services during the pandemic and a steep decline in the use of physical offices and customer-facing stores.

“COVID-19 has created a new inflection point that requires every company to dramatically accelerate the move to the cloud as a foundation for digital transformation to build the resilience, new experiences and products, trust, speed and structural cost reduction that the ongoing health, economic and societal crisis demands — and that a better future for all requires,» said Accenture CEO Julie Sweet.

“Accenture Cloud First and our substantial investment demonstrate our commitment to delivering greater value to our clients when they need it most. Digital transformation requires cloud at scale, and post-COVID leadership requires that every business become a ‘cloud-first’ business,” she added.

The company said that the $3 billion investment will be used to create industry roadmaps and data models, and build AI-based architectures that customers can build on.

The hope is that, by 2023, the project will be providing customers with cloud tools, assets, and automation software to help drive innovation, as well as cutting-edge research into the latest cloud technologies, such as edge computing.

Paul Daugherty, Accenture Technology group chief executive, described the cloud as “the most disruptive and value-creating technology of our time” and a “foundation for the digital transformation”.

“With most businesses currently at only about 20% in the cloud, moving to 80% or more rapidly and cost effectively is a massive change that requires a bold new model,» said Daugherty. «Accenture Cloud First, along with our $3 billion investment and our market-leading Software as a Service capabilities in Intelligent Platform Services, ensures that we provide our clients with value, speed and innovation in every part of their cloud journey.»

The announcement comes just days after Accenture launched the latest version of its myWizard Intelligent Automation Platform, which allows organisations to create, implement and measure enterprise-wide automation strategies and reimagine their information technology systems for efficiency and performance.

​Google has issued a ban on any software that allows an individual to track the whereabouts of other users without their consent, apps often referred to as ‘stalkerware‘.

As a part of new changes to its Developer Program Policy, Google said that Android apps intending to monitor other users’ behaviour will be obliged to present the tracked user with a persistent notification and unique icon that clearly identifies the app.

They will also be banned from advertising themselves as a «spying or secret surveillance solution” and will be unable to “hide or cloak tracking behaviour or attempt to mislead users about such functionality”.

However, the ban, which comes into effect on 1 October, does not apply to apps used by parents to track the whereabouts of their children. Any software that allows companies to track employee devices, such as enterprise management apps, will also be excluded from the ban.

According to David Emms, principal security researcher at Kaspersky, apps which help monitor adults without their permission or knowledge “masquerade as parental control software and call themselves legal that way”.

“The whole category is tricky because we can’t label it as malware and report it as we would a backdoor trojan or similar, because in some jurisdictions it’s legal so it straddles a grey area,” Emms told IT Pro last month.

According to Kaspersky research, the period between January and August 2019 saw over 518,223 cases globally where the company’s protection technologies either registered the presence of stalkerware on user devices or detected an attempt to install it – a 373% increase in the same period in 2018.

Apart from the formal ban of stalkerware apps, Google also announced that it would be making changes to its policy in order to tackle the issues of misrepresentation and gambling.

Effective from 21 October, developer accounts will not be allowed to mislead users by impersonating any person or organisation, as well as misrepresenting or concealing their ownership or primary purpose of the app.

Google will also restrict online gambling to the UK, Ireland, France, and Brazil.

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Nokia has announced a slew of new features for its Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) private wireless networking platform, including simplified integration with Microsoft Azure IoT modules.

Nokia’s new approach to software installation, described as  ‘click and deploy’, means that Microsoft Azure IoT Edge Modules such as Modbus can now be deployed on the Nokia DAC edge server.

The announcement comes almost a year after Nokia and Microsoft made their first joint solutions public. In November 2019, the two companies announced a strategic collaboration aiming to accelerate transformation and innovation with the help of cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT).

BT was the first global telecommunications service provider to provide its enterprise customers with a managed service integrating Microsoft Azure cloud and Nokia SD-WAN solutions.

According to Stephan Litjens, general manager of Nokia Digital Automation: «Microsoft Azure IoT services enable customers to address interconnected scenarios across multiple industries that include manufacturing, logistics, utilities, smart cities and transportation».

The Finnish tech giant also announced that it would be extending platform capabilities complementing private wireless connectivity as well as providing new, integrated voice and video in order to facilitate campus-wide communications.

«With the new functionality and added value features introduced today, we further ease and accelerate customers’ transformation path towards Industry 4.0», said Litjens.

Nokia’s DAC team comms and DAC VoIP will now offer voice and video solutions to provide customers with secure communication, regardless of how many people they are speaking to. The new on-premise applications are delivered over the platform’s scalable edge cloud and are expected to be especially useful for larger, asset-intensive locations such as ports, mines, and factories.

Nokia DAC Applications head Tuuli Ahava said that the new features will «address the questions facing organizations as they begin to implement Industry 4.0 use cases”.

«Data security, backward and forward compatibility, legacy system integration, ecosystem access, and ease-of-use are just some of the concerns that the DAC platform resolves in one optimized solution,» she added.

The announcement follows the launch of Nokia’s 5G SA private wireless network, which is used by Lufthansa Technik, Toyota Production Engineering, and Sandvik.

Xero has urged the UK government to step and encourage SMBs to use digital tools to their fullest potential in a bid to help the economy recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a new report from the cloud-based accounting software provider, smaller businesses have been more dramatically impacted by the current financial crisis than larger enterprises, with job losses estimated to be almost twice as big. 

By analysing 300,000 customers’ anonymised and aggregated data, Xero found that resilience and recovery of SMBs is significantly influenced by their digital skills.

SMBs that used business management apps before the financial crisis had 12% smaller revenue declines as well as 12% less job losses. Moreover, businesses with at least five apps connected to their account suffered from losses a third smaller than other SMBs during the crisis, and had 40% fewer job losses.

The findings from the report have resulted in Xero calling on the UK government to encourage small businesses to use digital tools to their fullest advantage. The company’s policy recommendations include a digital tools tax relief, improved regional internet access, as well as an offset of technology expenses against tax in order to aid small businesses in digitising and building resilience for future economic challenges.

Managing director of Xero, Gary Turner, described the economic recovery as “at a crossroads now as furlough and eating out schemes come to an end”. 

“As unpredictable as this year has been, one certainty is that digitally-enabled businesses are likely to recover faster than those who aren’t,” he said.

“We’re calling on the Government to support business recovery with funding for tech adoption and the introduction of a tax offset for expenses against technology implementation. Driving digitisation will help countless small businesses to get back on their feet.”

The message to the government comes as Xero announces changes to its Starter Plan, aiming to facilitate cash flow management and growth for SMBs during the pandemic.

Xero users can now send up to 20 invoices a month and make as many bank reconciliations as they need. The company has also announced the launch of a new Xero Projects’ profitability dashboard, aiming to simplify the overview and management of projects and their profitability by showing total profit margin, all work invoiced, and costs. 

Xero’s chief product officer Anna Curzon said that the company wants “to help these new businesses that are starting off now to be set up for a digital environment right from the start by lowering the barriers of entry”.

“We also know that with COVID-19, being paid on time and controlling cash flow has become more important than ever,” she added. “We want to do all we can to ensure businesses stay strong by providing deeper cash flow insights and creating seamless experiences to help them get paid faster.”