​Google has responded to the European Commission’s public consultation regarding the Digital Services Act, submitting a 135-page document which points out the need to clarify the EU’s expectations towards tech companies.

In the submission, Google urged the European Commission to avoid a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, as well as elaborate on the responsibilities to which the tech industry will have to adhere if the legislation is passed.

The Digital Services Act, which was first unveiled in 2019, is expected to provide the EU with a raft of legal powers to influence how social media platforms govern hate speech, extremist material, and political advertising. 

The legislation would directly impact Google’s video-hosting service YouTube, which has been criticised in the past for spreading harmful conspiracy theories, fake news, and hate speech.

In the document submitted to the European Commission, Google agreed that tech companies should act fast in order to immediately remove or disable access to harmful or illegal content. However, the tech giant also raised the concern that hosting platforms may be forced to prioritise speed over cautious decision-making.

In a blog post announcing the submission, Google’s SVP of Global Affairs Kent Walker said that the Digital Services Act “should reflect the wide range of services offered by the tech industry”, as opposed to adopting a common approach for every company.

“No two services are the same and the new act should be rooted in objectives and principles that can be applied, as appropriate, across this broad, diverse ecosystem.  This will ensure that everyone – platforms regulators, people and businesses –  are responsible for the parts they play,” he said.

Walker added that Google is “committed to providing greater transparency for our users and governments so that they better understand the content they are seeing and how to notify us of concerns”. 

“The DSA should support these kinds of constructive transparency measures while ensuring that platforms can continue to protect user privacy, ensure commercially sensitive information is not revealed and prevent bad actors from gaming the system,” he said.

The consultation period for the Digital Services Act is set to conclude on 8 September.

​Dropbox has partnered with Facebook on a digital transfer project which will allow users to import data directly from their social media accounts.

Starting today, the new integration will help users securely transfer photo and video libraries from Facebook, as well as organise the files in any chosen way.

The integration also offers customisable privacy settings, and although the imported files will be set as private by default, users can choose to share the albums with others.

Commenting on the release, Dropbox’s VP of Business Development Jamie Perlman said that the company’s goal was to “provide products and services that make our users’ digital lives easier and less chaotic, so they can really focus on what matters”.

“People no longer accept being locked into one service or product, and want the freedom to use the tools they love. We’ll continue to look for ways to seamlessly integrate with best-in-breed products so that we can serve as the connective platform for all of today’s leading productivity tools and devices,” he added.

The release of the new integration comes weeks after Facebook called for appropriate legislation to be introduced in order to make it easier for users to transfer photos and videos to a competing tech platform.

In comments sent to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Facebook said it planned to improve on its existing data portability tools “in the coming months”. A hearing on the topic is scheduled for 22 September 2020.

Currently, Facebook already allows users in the US and Canada to transfer photos and videos to Google Photos.

Meanwhile, in June, Dropbox unveiled several other features which aim to help users stay organised while they work from home. The updates included a password manager service called ‘Dropbox Passwords‘ and filing system called ‘Dropbox Vault’, as well as an automatic backup service, ‘Computer backup’, which saves Mac and PC folders to Dropbox for secure access on the go.

​The UK’s global tech exports are predicted to grow by 35% in the next five years to £31.45 billion, according to a new report by Tech Nation.

The latest findings revealed that the value of tech exports is to increase by an additional £8.15 billion by 2025, despite potential inhibitors such as the coronavirus pandemic or Brexit.

According to the organisation, the UK digital tech services sector currently exports a much greater value of goods than they import, which last year led to a trade surplus of 55%, aproximately 7% more than the average trade surplus among the top 57 countries globally.

Last year, the UK was found to be the fifth largest digital tech services exporter in the world, at £23.3 billion, after India, the US, China, and Germany.

Commenting upon the estimates, Tech Nation’s chief executive Gerard Grech said that the UK “is a natural home for many scaling tech businesses”.

“The UK is also third in the world for the number of UK tech unicorns, and number one in Europe. These factors give us a strong conviction that UK founders, government and industry leaders should all be gearing up to double tech exports by 2025, in the aftermath of both the pandemic and Brexit.

“By doubling exports, UK tech could contribute an additional £23bn to the economy per year by 2025 and move up the ranks to become a top global exporter of tech,” he added.

The results mark a steady growth over the last four years, which led to the UK digital tech trade surplus to increase from £8.7bn in 2015 to £12.8bn in 2019 – a growth of 68%. This impressive performance has meant that the industry’s trade surplus is now the third largest in the UK, following Financial Services and the Insurance sector, at £43.4 and £16.9 billion, respectively.

According to Tech Nation’s Global Opportunities Index, a ranking of the best countries in the world for digital tech trading opportunities, the UK takes the second place behind the US – largely the result of the UK’s impressive online retail and e-commerce sales, which are valued at £688.4 billion.

The report argues that UK tech companies should be looking to the US, Israel, Canada, Germany and The Netherlands as the most attractive post-Brexit export markets, while also considering Brazil and Singapore as the fastest rising global opportunities for UK businesses to trade with.

Digital minister Caroline Dinenage described the UK as “Europe’s tech capital”, adding that “these figures reinforce our industry’s reputation as a truly global player”.

“It’s great to see our digital exports booming which will help create more jobs and opportunities for people up and down the country,” she said. “We are investing heavily in the nation’s digital infrastructure as well as in people’s digital skills which puts British firms in an unparalleled position to seize new, global opportunities on the horizon.”

Global Opportunities Index – Top 10

​Telehouse has announced plans to further expand its campus in London’s Docklands area by adding a new, 31,000 square metre data centre.

The new facility, which will be the Telehouse’s fifth data centre in London Docklands, will stretch across six floors and have a total power capacity of 30MVA. Located approximately 300m away from the existing Telehouse London Docklands data centres, it will be connected to them with the help of a network of existing fibre-optic cables.

The company announced that the new facility will offer the same credentials as the currently-existing Dockland campus buildings, providing a “flexible, scalable infrastructure” for enterprises seeking “a highly secure operating environment” as well as the ability to interconnect with a variety of cloud, network and IT service providers.

The first floor of the new data centre will host around 500 racks and is scheduled to become available to customers in early 2022. The further five floors are to follow later, with no date specified at the time of going to press.

Commenting on the announcement, Telehouse Europe managing director Ken Sakai said that the “latest investment demonstrates our continued support for the UK market”. 

“London is one of the most critical interconnection points in the world and plays a major role in facilitating the flow of data that supports the growing digital economy. The new data centre will ensure we are well-positioned to continue this growth, service our customers’ needs and meet future demand,” he said.

The news of the development coincides with the 30th anniversary of the launch of Telehouse’s first London data centre.

In 2010, the company also completed a data centre which uses excess heat to power a housing development and businesses in the Docklands area. The facility, which cost £80 million to build, exports heat through the cooling system and converts it into energy. Although three storeys taller than the newly-announced data centre, it holds significantly less floor space: 19,000 square metres.

Telehouse Europe’s technical services director at the time, Bob Harris, said that “any attempt to address the lack of space within the data centre industry has to be undertaken with a level of environmental awareness”.

Cloud-based accounting software firm Xero has acquired Waddle, a lending platform which specialises helping small businesses gain access to capital. 

The transaction, valued at AU$ 80 million (around £44 million) is expected to be completed before the end of the year and is subject to satisfaction of closing conditions. According to Xero, the transaction, integration, and operating costs are expected to have minimal impact on the company’s FY21 EBITDA.

Xero CEO Steve Vamos described the Waddle acquisition as “an important step” in the company’s “strategy to help small businesses better manage cash flow and gain access to working capital”. 

He added: “Waddle’s lending platform has the potential to enable a wide range of banks, fintechs and other lenders to better support small business financial needs. We’re excited about the benefits Waddle can bring to many of our customers and banking partners.” 

Founded in Australia in 2014, Waddle’s lending platform service automates the manual processes involved in invoice financing, making it easier for banks and fintechs to lend to small businesses.

Although headquartered in Sydney, Waddle – which has been a Xero ecosystem partner since 2016 – currently also serves customers in the UK. Following the acquisition, it is expected to continue to offer services to customers and partners, including other accounting software providers.

The announcement comes two years after Xero acquired document management and collection software Hubdoc for £53 million. Following the acquisition, it was also announced that Hubdoc’s co-founder and CEO Jamie McDonald joined Xero’s leadership team as executive general manager of product, accounting, and global services. It is unclear whether Waddle co-founders and directors Simon Creighton and Nathan Andrews will hold any new positions within the company.

Xero offers three tiers of SaaS accounting suites targeting businesses of various sizes: Xero Starter for £10 per month, Xero Standard for £22 per month, and Xero Premium for £27.50 per month. Unlike some of its rivals, all three tiers support online VAT submission to HMRC and also offer new subscriber discounts.

​Zoom has announced that it is expanding its Zoom for Home programme by making it compatible with assistant-enabled smart displays from Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

Users will be able to access Zoom for Home using their Amazon Echo Show, Portal from Facebook, as well as Google Nest Hub Max devices.

The move comes as a recent Gartner survey found that nearly half (47%) of company leaders said they intend to allow employees to work remotely full time going forward. The extended compatibility for smart displays aims to further facilitate working from home.

The integration will enable users to join meetings with a simple voice command such as “Alexa, join my Zoom meeting” in the case of Amazon Echo Show, or “Hey Google, join my next meeting” with Nest Hub Max.

Oded Gal, chief product officer at Zoom, said that the company is “excited to bring Zoom to these popular devices”.

“It’s more apparent than ever that people are looking for easy-to-use displays for their video communications needs, both professionally and personally,” he added.

In May, Facebook announced the launch of Workplace Rooms, which aimed to compete with Zoom in the thriving video-conferencing market. At the time, Workplace VP Julien Codorniou emphasised that the feature, also accessible through Portal, would not be prone to hijacking scenarios such as ‘Zoom-bombing’.

Brian Oliver, Director of Alexa Communication, said that it’s “more important than ever to offer features like these to help people stay connected with their friends, family, and co-workers,” while Lilian Rincon, senior director of Product Management at Google Assistant said that the company wants “people to be able to use the video calling service of their choice to keep in touch with friends and family”.

Zoom on Facebook’s Portal is the only compatibility to have a set release date at the moment. It is to become widely available in September and will be compatible with Portal Mini, Portal and Portal+, as well as Portal TV in the future.

Zoom for Amazon Echo Show and Google Nest Hub Max are to be rolled out by the end of the year.

Nutanix has announced the general availability of Nutanix Clusters on Amazon Web Services (AWS) with the aim to expand the use of its hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) software to the public cloud.

According to the company, rolling out its infrastructure to AWS will accelerate digital initiatives and optimise spending, which are some of the most significant priorities for businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Nutanix will offer a single stack capable of integrating compute and storage, as well as provide unified operations and license portability across private and public clouds.

The company  outlined the key features of its Nutanix Clusters, such as apps and data mobility, optimisation of cloud investments, and a built-in networking integration with AWS.

The software will  allow users to create, manage, and orchestrate their infrastructure and applications across private and public clouds using a single interface, and customers will also have the choice to either reuse existing on-premises hardware or AWS credits when building out a hybrid environment.

They will also be able to choose between bringing the on-premises licenses or selecting a pay-as-you-go or Cloud Commit models.

Doug Yeum, head of Worldwide Channels and Alliances at AWS, said that this will provide users with “the flexibility to get the most out of both their AWS and Nutanix environments”.

“Customers now have an opportunity to take advantage of Nutanix Clusters on AWS to deploy adjacent to their cloud-native applications in AWS and fast track their digital transformation,” he added.

Nutanix CCO Tarkan Maner said that the rollout will enable “complete flexibility by allowing businesses to write code once and use it anywhere, taking advantage of scale, location, integration, and pricing of multiple options – this is the true vision of hybrid cloud”.

“As the industry evolved, our focus has expanded beyond the data centre to help our customers manage the complexity of multiple clouds, whether private or public. Nutanix Clusters on AWS is the realisation of this vision,” he said.

The launch comes a week after a number of announcements from AWS. Earlier this month, the cloud giant announced a partnership with financial tech firm Global Payments as well as named digital engineering services provider Infostretch as a new advanced consulting partner in its Partner Network. 

​TikTok has announced plans to open its first European data centre in Ireland, an investment worth around €420 million (£380 million).

The news comes following the US government’s crackdown on the video-sharing social media platform. President Donald Trump had previously threatened to ban the app on the basis of Chinese-linked security threats and on Monday he demanded that the US Treasury receive a cut of the proceeds from the forced sale of TikTok. However, according to regulatory lawyers, this may be open to challenges.

TikTok’s decision to open a data centre in Ireland, the first in Europe, could signify a desire to shift its operations away from the US as well as secure its position in the European market.

The million-euro investment is expected to create hundreds of jobs, as well as facilitate faster loading time and safe storage of European users’ data, according to Roland Cloutier, TikTok’s global chief information security officer.

“This data centre signals our long-term commitment to Ireland and we expect the data centre to open and be operational by early 2022,” Cloutier wrote in a blog post.

Late last month, TikTok Ireland became the data controller for users in the EEA and Switzerland.

“Ireland already plays a key role in our rapidly expanding European operations,” said Cloutier. “Since establishing our EMEA Trust and Safety Hub in Dublin at the start of this year, we have rapidly expanded our team and appointed senior leaders who are continuously enhancing the strategies, policies and processes designed to keep people on TikTok safe.”

Commenting on the announcement, Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland, the agency responsible for the attraction and retention of inward foreign direct investment into the country, said:

“TikTok’s decision to establish its first European data centre in Ireland, representing a substantial investment here by the company, is very welcome and, following on from the establishment of its EMEA Trust & Safety Hub in Dublin earlier in the year, positions Ireland as an important location in the company’s global operations.”

With the new investment, TikTok might be hoping to receive better treatment from regulators in the EU than those in the US.

In late June, the platform signed the EU’s Code of Practice on disinformation, agreeing to a set of voluntary steps aimed at combating the spread of false information and ‘fake news’. However, it is unclear whether this will be enough to appease the EU and ward off the sort of restrictions imposed on fellow Chinese tech companies.

Zoom will suspend direct sales of its video conferencing products in mainland China, opting to only offer its technology through third-party partners. 

The change to Zoom’s sales policy, which is scheduled to come into force on 23 August, comes after US lawmakers raised questions about the company’s ties to the Chinese government, following its decision to suspend the accounts of several Chinese activists in June. 

The company announced the decision on its Chinese website and issued the following statement: “Our go-to-market model in Mainland China has included direct sales, online subscription, and sales through partners. We are now shifting to a partner-only model with Zoom technology embedded in partner offerings, which will provide better local support to users in Mainland China.”

Zoom’s services will now be embedded in offerings from its Chinese partners such as Bizconf Communications, Suirui Zhumu Video Conference, and Systec Umeet. Despite the change, users in mainland China will reportedly still be able to join regular Zoom meetings as participants.

The decision is likely to be linked to Zoom’s efforts to avoid facing the same scrutiny as video-sharing social networking service TikTok, owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance. The US government has been exploring the option of banning the service and this could extend to other tech services in any way affiliated with China.

In May, Zoom decided to limit new registrations in China to enterprise users who sign up for the teleconferencing service through an authorised sales representative.

Zoom’s founder and CEO Eric Yuan moved to the US from China in 1997, becoming a US citizen in 2007. Zoom is headquartered and founded in San Jose, California, but a significant portion of its development team is based in China. 

Nevertheless, the company has recently shifted its focus from China to India. Last week, it announced that it is recruiting DevOps engineers and IT, Security, and Business Operations personnel for a new technology centre in Bangalore.

​HPE has announced that it is helping the University of Edinburgh build what will be Europe’s first regional data innovation centre.

The company is to provide high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools powered by HPE Apollo Systems and HPE Superdome Flex Servers, as well as software supported by HPE Ezmeral Container Platform. The deal is expected to be worth over $125 million (£95 million) over the next 10 years.

The Edinburgh International Data Facility (EIDF) will assist 1,000 public, private and non-profit organisations in developing products and services using R&D and other data-driven programmes, as well as elevate Edinburgh to the title of the Data Capital of Europe, the company claims.

The EIDF is expected to play a crucial role in the region’s Data Driven Innovation (DDI) programme, pioneered by the University of Edinburgh to overcome societal and industrial challenges as well as deliver benefits from the data economy, all while improving the digital and data skills of over 100,000 people from across the region.

Mark Parsons, director of EPCC at the University of Edinburgh, said that the institution is “pleased to be working with HPE” on what he believes is “the only facility of its kind in Europe focused specifically on data-driven regional growth”.

“With the Edinburgh International Data Facility, we are combining computing and data resources to create a facility that will allow organizations to use data to innovate throughout their organizations. HPE is uniquely positioned to provide the spectrum of infrastructure and services, as well as the flexibility that this project demands,” he added.

In order to manage AI workloads and applications crucial to scientific research and engineering, EIDF will be deploying the HPE Ezmeral Container Platform, which provides native Kubernetes support and enables self-service ML applications with flexible use of accelerators, such as GPUs.

The platform runs on HPE Apollo Systems, which are purpose-built to support HPC, deep learning and other data-intensive workloads. What is more, the platform will also support HPE Superdome Flex Servers to support applications requiring large in-memory processing, as well as include pre-integrated persistent data storage in the form of the HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric file system.

HPE is also set to provide the Cray Shasta ClusterStor E1000 storage system, which is purpose-built to support EIDF’s ongoing data growth and converged HPC and analytics workloads using intelligent data management.

EIDF is expected to gain 20 petabytes of storage capacity with the new system which will also be used for vital COVID-19 research at the University of Edinburgh.

Lee Rand, director of HPC and AI at HPE EMEA, said that the company is “proud to embark on this long-term initiative with the University of Edinburgh, following a highly competitive tender process”.

“We were chosen due to the flexibility and reliability offered through our end-to-end solutions portfolio, and because we were one of the very few organizations able to seamlessly combine all of the Edinburgh International Data Facility’s requirements into a single framework. In the data-centric era deriving insights and value from across multiple datasets will be a key to success for business and government alike. We look forward to boosting the UK’s capacity for data-driven innovation through this initiative.”

The EIDF is expected to be fully operational later this year.