Google Cloud has announced the integration of Google Meet and Google Glass that allows remote teams to see through the eyes of workers in the field.

The integration is available now in beta on the Enterprise Edition 2 of Google Glass, but only for customers with a paid Workspace account.

Workspace is Google’s new desktop UI that allows users to access G Suite apps, such as Gmail, Drive and Meet, via one platform, rather than endlessly cycling between each one.

This now includes an integration with Google Glass and Meet to provide more support for those still working on-site. The cloud giant has tested its Meet for Glass app in data centres, given the reliance on on-site maintenance, allowing for repair work to be carried out by a single on-site engineer with the support of others watching virtually.

With the Meet for Glass integration, users can connect with a remote team and diagnose issues, review physical equipment, and potentially train employees without being in the same place. Google suggests this is far easier than simply connecting via a laptop or “bulky” webcam as it lets technicians work hands-free and gives the remote participants an optimal view of any situation.

“Our mission has never been more critical than in today’s remote work environment,” the company said in a blog post. “Many businesses are adapting to new policies and procedures that keep workers safe. As a result, on-site essential workers – those whose roles cannot be carried out remotely – have had to pivot the ways they work and collaborate.”

This is an idea that Microsoft worked on with the very first HoloLens demos in 2015, using the Skype app to video call a walkthrough for fixing a light switch. The Skype for HoloLens app has since been discontinued and the company uses its newer Dynamics 365 Remote Assist program instead.

Nokia has signed a five-year deal with Google which will see the Finnish telecom giant migrate its on-premise IT infrastructure to Google Cloud, 

Although the terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, the migration, which includes data centres, servers, and various software applications, is already underway and is expected to take between 18 months and two years.

The decision is said to be driven by Nokia’s operational shift to a “cloud-first IT strategy”, which aims to “enhance collaboration and innovation” among its staff as well as accelerate the delivery of its services to customers.

According to the company, the deal with Google Cloud will see Nokia lower its energy consumption as well as new hardware costs.

Nokia’s VP of Global IT Infrastructure Ravi Parmasad said that the company is “on a digital transformation path that is about fundamentally changing how we operate and do business”. 

“This is crucial for how our employees collaborate so that we continue to raise the bar on meeting the needs of our customers. We are very pleased that Google Cloud, with its engineering and operational excellence, is joining our transformation work to help us deliver on the many goals we have set.

Given Nokia’s digital ambitions and plans, this is an ideal time for Nokia to be taking this step with Google Cloud to accelerate our efforts; and doing all of this in a secure and scalable way,” he added.

Meanwhile, Google Cloud’s president Rob Enslin said that it’s an honor to work with Nokia to help modernize its infrastructure on Google Cloud”. 

“We look forward to bringing our leading networking, data analytics, AI/ML, and other technologies to empower Nokia to deliver a cloud-first strategy and better serve its customers,” he said. 

“We are excited to help Nokia revamp its IT infrastructure with our backbone network and our approach to data security, using advanced software-defined networking. We look forward to providing the full menu of our capabilities to help Nokia deliver on its cloud-first strategy and reach its performance requirements.”

The announcement comes weeks after it was revealed that Nokia was chosen by BT to replace Huawei as its 5G radio access network (RAN) vendor, making the Finnish telecom its largest infrastructure partner and equipment provider. The partnership will also see Nokia replace Huawei in BT’s 2G and 4G networks.

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.

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.

Dropbox has told its staff that permanent remote working will become the norm, joining a string of the world’s biggest tech companies in abandoning physical office spaces in favour of working virtually.

The existing working from home policy the company has adopted will continue until at least June 2021, in line with policies adopted by the majority of tech companies due to the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The company has, however, also outlined plans to establish at least four Dropbox Studios in sites across the world when it’s safe to do so, starting with San Francisco, Seattle, Austin and Dublin, for employees who prefer to work in-person.

“We believe the data shows the shift to remote work, though abrupt, has been successful overall,” the company said in a blog post. As a company, we’ve continued to serve our customers without interruption and shipped new products and features.  

“But things aren’t perfect. Back-to-back video conferences, constant notifications, and isolation from peers can be overwhelming. In our study with the EIU, workers also say company culture suffers with no in-person interaction, risk of miscommunication is higher, and it’s harder to start new projects with multiple collaborators. There are many things people miss about the office.”

Becoming a virtual-first company means remote working will become the default for all employees and the day-to-day default for individual work.

The remote experience will go one step further with “non-linear workdays” too, meaning core collaboration hours will be set up with overlap between time zones, with employees encouraged to design their own schedules beyond that. 

Dropbox will also invest in a holistic ecosystem of resources, including a dedicated team, to support employees and track progress by measuring impacts on productivity, engagement, and culture so the firm can continue to adapt. 

The company’s Virtual First Toolkit, comprising guidance about supporting the remote workforce, is also being open-sourced, meaning any learnings picked up along the journey will be shared with the wider industry.

Managers also hope the virtual-first approach will give the firm an opportunity to build an even stronger, more diverse workforce as it hires from increasingly varied backgrounds and perspectives. 

News of Dropbox’s new “virtual first” approach comes just days after Microsoft announced that staff will be given the option to work remotely on a permanent basis. 

​Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A giant of the tech industry with a history stretching back many decades and a footprint in most large organisations – and many smaller ones – finds itself struggling against the tide of digital transformation and the shift to cloud.

Despite its best efforts to reform its business over a number of years, IBM has taken the decision to split its company in two in the hope that, as separate entities, they can pursue more successful growth strategies than they could under one umbrella – but they will maintain close ties.

To be fair to IBM, the split it announced yesterday, which will see its managed infrastructure services unit spun off into a separate entity, is less fundamental than that of HP in 2015, which saw the creation of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and… HP. Nevertheless, it is meaningful.

It’s clear from the announcement that the centenarian company does very much want to capitalise on its strengths in AI and cloud, with Red Hat taking centre stage as an example of its excellence in the latter and talk of being “laser-focused on the $1 trillion hybrid cloud opportunity”.

Reading between the lines, however, it’s also clear that IBM has no intention of letting go of its core infrastructure heritage, either. While the paragraph on its Systems business is coated in a sweet layer of hybrid cloud, if you were to bite down you would find there’s a traditional hardware business still sitting at the core.

And why not? One of IBMs strengths is its enterprise hardware products and, when it comes to things like mainframe, it has very few competitors. While it may not be quite as sexy to talk about as more modern technologies, it’s still fundamental to many large organisations in lucrative areas like financial services.

What it won’t be doing any more, however, is managing that hardware. This new company will be fundamentally IBM’s managed infrastructure services business, packing up its belongings and striking out on its own. It makes sense for this business unit to become independent, too – multi-cloud and hybrid cloud are all about flexibility and choice and, while it’s promised the company will maintain “a strong strategic partnership with IBM”, it will be able to work more freely across all cloud vendors.

The split is expected to be complete by the end of next year, which gives the branding teams and consultants 12 months to come up with an inspiring name for the new venture. Infrastructure Business Management Corporation, perhaps?

No doubt about it, 2020 has been the year of the virtual meeting. As companies have found themselves forced to embrace remote working, regular get-togethers have necessarily moved online and video conferencing providers have seen record growth levels.

This isn’t a temporary thing, though. Whenever the restrictions are finally lifted, few businesses will be going back to the way things were. Many organisations have found that remote working brings real benefits, not least in terms of operating costs, and are looking to make permanent changes to their working practices. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the office commute – working from home has its downsides, such as a sense of isolation. However, many companies are looking at allowing staff to split their working week between home and office.

For such a setup, it makes sense for businesses to have a dedicated video conference room in the office, where on-site staff can have face-to-face meetings with remote workers, suppliers and customers. That might sound expensive, but surging demand is pushing prices down, making video conference room systems very affordable.

Tap dance

Many of the best solutions have a central controller with a colour touchscreen. This connects to the other components in the kit and offers simple controls enabling you to start or join a meeting with a few taps – ideal for users who want to get down to business without wasting time figuring out the user interface. Certain touchscreens can even change their display to match the application interface of the chosen provider.

You can locate your central unit on a desk or mount it on a wall – but you’ll need to think about cabling. Some systems run off a standard Ethernet cable with PoE, while elsewhere you’ll find USB connections and proprietary cables.

It’s also worth considering if you want meeting participants to be able to connect their laptops or smartphones to the central video conferencing unit. This can be useful for screen sharing and presentations, but connection methods again vary: some systems use a special USB cable or a standard HDMI port, while others support Miracast and AirPlay for wire-free screen mirroring.

Sound and vision

You can’t have a productive meeting without clear sound, so it’s important to pick a speaker that suits your meeting space. Video bars with built-in speakers are fine for huddle rooms, but for larger meetings you might need something more powerful. If your monitor has built-in loudspeakers, you can pipe the sound through that; alternatively, you might need to invest in some external speakers. 

Similar considerations apply to microphones, as you’ll naturally want to be sure that everyone in the room can be heard clearly by remote participants. Video bars and desktop controllers tend to come with integrated mic arrays, and we’ve found these work well at distances of up to 4m. Other solutions offer separate microphone pods that can be positioned as required, and may even let you add extra pods for large rooms.

4K or not 4K?

There’s one component you’ll definitely need to source separately and that’s the main display, on which you’ll view your remote colleagues. It’s not necessary to spend a fortune on this component – even a budget-priced screen will be fine in small rooms – but we do recommend investing in a 4K model.

It might seem an unnecessary extravagance, especially if you’re on a tight budget. After all, very few video conferencing providers support 4K connections – and depending on the size of the panel you choose (and the size of the room), the difference between a 4K screen and a 1080p one may not be all that obvious.

There’s no doubt, though, that UHD meetings are coming. Most kits already include 4K-capable cameras, while internet connections are getting faster and the highly efficient H.265 video standard is slowly establishing itself in the video conferencing market. It’s only a matter of time until 4K connections become commonplace – so when setting up your new video conference room, we’d recommend that you future-proof it with a screen that’s ready for next-generation video connections. 

Cloud connected

Once your hardware is all in place, there’s just one more thing you need – a cloud video conferencing service to handle the actual calls. There’s a huge range of providers to choose from, but if you want to keep things as simple as possible then the Lifesize and Starleaf systems recently reviewed on our sister site IT Pro may appeal, as they come with the vendor’s own cloud services built in. This gives you the big advantage of centralised support: any problems you encounter with the hardware, online services or client apps should be easier to resolve, and you won’t be passed back and forth between different companies all pointing the finger at each other.

If your company already has a preferred provider, the other two products in this guide might suit you better. The Poly Studio X30 supports five different platforms out of the box, while Logitech’s Room Solutions come in a variety of flavours, each one customised for a specific provider. 

It’s also worth checking out any additional integrations that may allow your video conferencing system to talk to other business tools. A useful tool is meeting room management, which works with Microsoft Outlook or Exchange to let users check room availability and arrange bookings.

We may not know exactly what a post-pandemic world will look like, but it’s clear that video conferencing will be an essential ingredient for conducting business and with prices now very affordable for SMBs, there are some great solutions to choose from.

BT has announced an expansion of its range of cloud-based audio and video collaboration managed services with the addition of Zoom Meetings to its portfolio. 

The move follows the signing of a new carrier agreement between the pair, with BT becoming the first global provider to offer a fully-managed Zoom Meetings service to its customers. 

The service will feature a choice of connectivity and integration with BT’s global voice network, the telecommunications firm said, as well as end-to-end experience monitoring and enhanced security. 

The new agreement also allows BT to provide Zoom Rooms, Zoom’s extendable software-based conference room offering.

“We’re keeping it simple for customers, helping them create secure and productive digital workplaces for their people, wherever they are,” commented Andrew Small, director of Global portfolio at BT. 

“Our new managed service allows global enterprises, typically with complex network and IT infrastructure, to consume Zoom Meetings in a simple, consistent and secure way with optimised experiences for their people around the world.”

Video conferencing provider Zoom saw a huge spike in popularity this year, as COVID-19 lockdown measures were implemented around the world. Users flocked to the service to stay in touch with family, friends and work colleagues as face-to-face meetings were cancelled to help contain the spread of the virus. 

Many organisations also started using the platform to hold virtual business meetings and group communications – but this presented a number of security concerns for IT departments who had little to no control over the service.

However, through the new agreement with BT, there are now security options such as encrypted communications and user ID protection, alongside secure and private MPLS connectivity, dedicated network gateways, and user adoption programmes for education. In terms of connectivity, choices include internet, global SIP, PSTN or MPLS.

“We chose BT as a global managed service partner because it’s a trusted and established leader in the world market with in-depth enterprise voice, video, security, cloud and networking expertise,” said Ryan Azus, chief revenue officer at Zoom. 

“Our new agreement will help large enterprises fully experience the benefits Zoom Meetings, Zoom Phone and Zoom Rooms offer. This partnership will also expand Zoom’s global footprint and enterprise sales capabilities.”

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.

Twilio is rumoured to be planning an acquisition of customer relationship management (CRM) startup Segment in a deal worth $3.2 billion (£2.45 billion). 

Twilio, which currently has a market cap of $43.83 billion, has agreed to buy Segment in a deal that could be officially announced as soon as this week, according to Forbes. The acquisition would be Twilio’s largest to date, following its $2 billion takeover of SendGrid in 2018.

Twilio’s technology allows developers to build software that can make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and perform other communication functions using its web service APIs. The company, which counts Twitter, Uber, and Amazon’s Twitch among its customers, has seen its stock price triple since the beginning of the year as companies rushed to modernise their apps and services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Segment, which boasts big-name customers including VMware, Trivago and IBM, provides a set of APIs to pull together customer data from a variety of sources, including CRM tools, customer service applications, and websites. However, the company hasn’t fared so well during the pandemic, with Segment laying off 10% of its 550 staff in May in anticipation of a “tougher IT spending environment”.

However, the company said in September that it now has over 20,000 customers, up from 19,000 at the time of the layoffs.

It’s believed Twilio will use the acquisition to expand beyond its core communications capabilities to create customised ads or emails using data gathered using Segment’s technology.

A Twilio spokesperson told Forbes that it does not comment “on any rumors or speculation”, and Segment also declined to comment on the rumour.