Microsoft brought in revenues of $43.1 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2021, a 17% year-on-year increase that was fueled by businesses’ continued demand for cloud services. 

The company reported that Office commercial products and cloud service revenues increased by 11%, with Office 365 commercial revenue up 21% and Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions increasing from 45.3 million to 47.5 million. 

Microsoft has reported impressive growth reported across almost all its services throughout 2020. At the very beginning of the pandemic, the firm reported massive adoption figures for Microsoft Teams which surpassed 44 million daily active users. 

For Q2, cloud computing services took centre stage. Dynamics 365 revenue was up 39%, Intelligent Cloud climbed 23% and Microsoft’s server business recorded growth of 23%. As a result, its Azure cloud platform grew 50% year-over-year, the company said.

«What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry,» said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. 

«Building their own digital capability is the new currency driving every organisation’s resilience and growth. Microsoft is powering this shift with the world’s largest and most comprehensive cloud platform.»

Elsewhere, Microsoft reported a 23% increase in LinkedIn revenue, and Windows Commercial and Surface growth of 10% and 3$, respectively. The biggest increase, however, was its Xbox content and services revenue, which climbed by 40% during the three-month period. 

The results showcase the breadth of services Microsoft offer and how well it has responded to the outbreak of COVID. Compared to other cloud providers, such as IBM, the company has seen increases in almost every segment of its business. 

The growth in Azure, and cloud services, in particular, suggest that remote working is likely to continue, even beyond a full rollout of the coronavirus vaccine. 

Accenture and Salesforce have expanded their partnership to help companies embed sustainability into their business, meet growing end-user demand for data-based insights and accelerate towards United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The new partnership also focuses on providing the C-suite with true visibility into their company’s historical and real-time environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data. Organisations will track, measure, and act on a range of sustainability initiatives, including reporting on carbon usage, supporting customer engagements, creating positive consumer experiences, meeting regulatory requirements, and developing new business models.

“Every CEO is recognising their responsibilities don’t stop at the edge of the corporate campus or Zoom,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO at Salesforce. 

“By integrating sustainability deep into the fabric of our companies, our businesses will become more successful, our communities more equal, our societies more just and our planet healthier. We’re incredibly proud to be working with Accenture to help customers more readily drive sustainability programs that benefit all stakeholders and create business value.”

Salesforce Sustainability Cloud helps businesses measure and manage their carbon footprint by offering a 360-degree view of their corporate environmental impact. It also helps organisations transparently report their investor-grade climate data. As part of their new collaboration, Accenture will leverage Salesforce’s Sustainability Cloud to develop sustainability insights that can scale across organisations and their ecosystems.

“Climate change continues to be one of the most critical challenges facing business and the broader planet,” adds George Oliver, CEO of Johnson Controls. 

“We are pleased to be working with Salesforce and Accenture in accelerating sustainability activities for JCI, for our customers and our communities, especially as momentum for action continues to grow.”

Later this year, Accenture and Salesforce will work together to expand their combined platform and services to track and analyse broader ESG metrics, from water and waste management to diversity and inclusion.

Cisco has launched four new devices in its Catalyst 8000 Edge series. They include a 5G cellular gateway, two Virtual CPE Edge units, and a heavy-duty aggregation router, all designed to support SD-WAN networking.

The company debuted its Catalyst 8000 family last October, and Cisco expanded the range by launching the Cisco Catalyst 8500L, the latest addition to the Catalyst 8500 Edge family. This is a collection of what Cisco calls aggregated service routers designed with large enterprises and cloud service providers in mind. They’re an evolution of the company’s ASR 1000 series of routers. 

Cisco designed the Catalyst 8500L for SD-WAN use cases, where wide area network (WAN) connectivity is configurable via software. They also support the emerging secure access service edge (SASE) model that Gartner defined in mid-2019. That builds on SD-WAN to offer zero-trust networking capabilities for secure access.

The 8500L is an SD-WAN capable router that offers WAN connectivity at speeds of up to 10 Gbps. Rackable in a 1RU form factor, it runs either at core sites or colocation sites and features twelve x86 cores and up to 64 GB of memory, which Cisco says will support secure connectivity for thousands of remote sites. It also includes Cisco Trust Anchor technology, a tamper-proof trusted platform module that guarantees the hardware is authentic to protect against supply chain attacks.

The Cisco Catalyst 8200 is a 1 Gbps branch office router with eight CPU cores and 8 GB of RAM, which Cisco says doubles the performance over the existing ISR 4300 series. That is helped by a hardware performance acceleration feature called Intel QuickAssist.

Complementing the Catalyst 8200 is the Cisco Catalyst 8200 uCPE, a branch office customer premises equipment (CPE) device with a small physical footprint. It features eight CPU cores and supports up to 500 Mbps aggregate IPsec performance. It can also take pluggable interface modules (PIMs), which are hardware extensions giving it cellular connectivity options.

Speaking of cellular communications, the new Cisco Catalyst Cellular Gateway 5G plugs into a router to offer on-premises cellular connectivity in sub-6GHz bands. The device uses Power over Ethernet (PoE) to relay cellular communications back to the router.

Admins can manage the devices using software, including vManage, licensed under Cisco’s DNA model. vManage has three tiers: 

• DNA Essentials offers core SD-WAN, routing, and security features. 
• DNA Advantage gives subscribers the Essentials package, plus support for advanced routing capabilities including MPLS BGP; better security support with Advanced Malware Protection and SSL proxy features; and access to Cisco’s Cloud OnRamp, which helps with connectivity to multiple cloud service providers.
• DNA Premier adds centralized security management for all locations.

Nearly three-quarters of people over the age of 45 say they are willing to invest time in learning digital skills. 

The findings come from a Microsoft report, which reveals that many (44%) of over-45s are keen to pursue a new career, with 23% of workers over 45 years saying they would consider switching to a role in tech. 

In order to do so, 73% of over-45s said they would commit over three hours a week to reskilling. However, 60% of the same generation said they do not know what resources are available for them to improve their digital skills. 

The sudden appetite to learn IT skills in the over-45s is largely due to long-term financial concerns, as the impact of the pandemic has many fearing for both job security and also retirement plans. Around 32% of respondents said they were worried about financial security and 26% expressed concerns about the rising state pension ages – currently 66-years-old for both men and women in the UK. 

Concurrently, the tech industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors and Microsoft believes it needs to avoid misconceptions that recruitment mainly focuses on the young.  

«There has never been a greater need for individuals to invest time in upskilling and developing their digital skills,» said Simon Lambert, Microsoft’s chief learning officer.

«There is a dangerous misconception that the tech industry is just an industry for the young. The truth is that we need people with a diverse range of experiences, backgrounds and ages. And we need them now to fill the growing skills gap which, left unplugged, will significantly impact the UK’s recovery.»
 
Lambert is encouraging people who are considering exploring an «encore» career to look at opportunities available at Microsoft Digital Skills Hub, where they can also seek advice on how to get started.

The top roles for over-45s that were identified in the research were IT support (35%), design (25%), ops manager (18%), data scientist (17%) and developer (16%).

SonicWall has admitted that it’s been the target of a cyber attack which saw hackers take advantage of zero-day vulnerabilities in its secure remote access products.

The network security provider issued a statement confirming the incident after being contacted by SC Media, which received an anonymous tip that SonicWall’s systems had been breached.

The company stated that it had “identified a coordinated attack on its internal systems by highly sophisticated threat actors exploiting probable zero-day vulnerabilities on certain SonicWall secure remote access products”.

The company didn’t specify when exactly the incident took place. CloudPro contacted SonicWall for a timeline of the attack but is yet to receive a response from the company.

Over the weekend, SonicWall issued an additional statement which ruled out that its NetExtender VPN Client product had been compromised, adding that the only products to remain under investigation are from the SMA 100 series which “provide Secure, Mobile and Remote Access” to SMBs. 

However, SonicWall clarified that, despite the investigation, all “SMA 100 series products may be used safely in common deployment use cases”.

The company also said that it “fully understands the challenges previous guidance had in a work-from-home environment, but the communicated steps were measured and purposeful in ensuring the safety and security of [its] global community of customers and partners”.

“As the front line of cyber defense, we have seen a dramatic surge in cyberattacks on governments and businesses, specifically on firms that provide critical infrastructure and security controls to those organizations,” it added.

Despite a decline in the number of security incidents, the last year was deemed as the worst for data breaches on record.

The news of the incident comes months after SonicWall released patches for a critical vulnerability in the SonicOS operating system, which is responsible for running SonicWall virtual private network (VPN) appliances.

Enterprise software is expected to grow by 8.8% in 2021 as businesses seek to expand and improve remote work environments, according to new predictions from Gartner.

Global IT spending fell by 3.2% in 2020 as a result of the COVID pandemic, but the research firm expects spending this year to rise by 6.2% to a total of $3.9 trillion (£2.85 trillion) before surpassing the $4 trillion (£2.93 trillion) mark in 2022.

Enterprise software is expected to witness the strongest rebound followed by the devices segment, which is expected to see growth of 8% in 2021. Garner expects spending on data centre systems to increase by 6.2% during the 12-month period, while IT and communications services are predicted to grow by 6% and 4% respectively. 

Commenting on the predictions, Gartner distinguished research VP John-David Lovelock said that CIOs “have a balancing act to perform in 2021 — saving cash and expanding IT”.

“With the economy returning to a level of certainty, companies are investing in IT in a manner consistent with their expectations for growth, not their current revenue levels. Digital business, led by projects with a short Time to Value, will get more money and board-level attention going into 2021,” he added.

Gartner also projects that, through 2024, businesses will be forced to accelerate their digital transformation plans by at least five years in order to survive in a post-COVID world, where remote work and digital touchpoints will be the norm.

“Digital business represents the dominant technology trend in late 2020 and early 2021 with areas such as cloud computing, core business applications, security and customer experience at the forefront,” said Lovelock. 

“Optimisation initiatives, such as hyperautomation, will continue and the focus of these projects will remain on returning cash and eliminating work from processes, not just tasks.”

Moreover, non-COVID-19 geopolitical factors are expected to inhibit recovery for some regions, such as Brexit for the UK and the difficult China-US relations.

SAP has announced plans to integrate Microsoft Teams into its suite of services to help customers migrate to the cloud.

The two tech firms share an existing strategic partnership which now includes a formalised plan to accelerate the adoption of SAP S/4HANA on Azure.

The extension of the partnership will focus on simplifying cloud journeys for SAP customers. The increase in adoption of video conferencing services last year saw Microsoft Teams surpass 75 million active users, and as a result, Microsoft and SAP have announced plans to build new integrations between Teams and SAP services, such as S/4HANA.

The integrations are planned for the middle of 2021 and the hope is that it boosts innovation, increases productivity and supports business growth.

«New ways of working, collaborating and interacting completely transform how we operate,» said Christian Klein, CEO of SAP. «By integrating Microsoft Teams across our solution portfolio, we will bring collaboration to the next level, jointly determining the future of work and enabling the frictionless enterprise.

«Our trusted partnership with Microsoft is focused on continuously advancing customer success. That’s why we are also expanding interoperability with Azure.»

The Azure expansion builds upon a partnership forged in 2016. The two firms want to introduce new capabilities around cloud automation for both HANA and Azure in order to simplify cloud migration and digital transformation – both of which are now priorities for businesses in all sectors around the world.

It will feature SAP, Microsoft and system integrator partners providing digital enterprise roadmaps for customers, which includes immediate and actionable reference architectures and technical guidance to aid their journey to the cloud.

There will also be increased investments in platform and infrastructure, such as further development of automated migrations, improved operations, monitoring and security.

«The case for digital transformation has never been more urgent,» said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. «By bringing together the power of Azure and Teams with SAP’s solutions, we will help more organisations harness the power of the cloud so they can more quickly adapt and innovate going forward.»

IBM has reported its sharpest revenue decline for five years with a 6% drop in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna remained bullish that IBM’s recent strategical changes would come good by the end of the year, but the company’s latest financial report was much lower than expected.

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IBM’s cloud business brought in $7.5 billion during Q4, a 10% increase from the previous quarter. Revenue from Red Hat also increased by 19%, and the firm revealed that its debt was reduced by $3.9 billion. However, this wasn’t enough to raise overall revenues, which dropped 6% with $20.4 billion brought in between October and December. 

«We made progress in 2020 growing our hybrid cloud platform as the foundation for our clients’ digital transformations while dealing with the broader uncertainty of the macro environment,» said Krishna. «The actions we are taking to focus on hybrid cloud and AI will take hold, giving us the confidence we can achieve revenue growth in 2021.»

IBM’s yearly figures were just as concerning, with revenue coming in at $73.6 billion, a 5% drop from 2019. Again, Red Hat and Cloud revenues were positive but not enough to change the overall financial outlook. 

The tech giant is a little bit of an anomaly in that its one of the few cloud providers to report such big losses during the pandemic. The likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google have posted increased revenues due to the greater need for cloud computing services, and newer challengers like Alibaba have also gained market share thanks to the so-called ‘new normal’. 

IBM and Krishna will rightly point to the company’s recent structural changes and acquisitions that are clearly long-term strategies. The acquisition of Red Hat is already providing revenues increases and the firm is an active buyer of hybrid cloud businesses – to date, Krishna’s tenure has seen nine acquisitions, which is roughly one for each month he has been in charge. 

Ultimately, the big play is the decision to split its operation into two business units. Krishna will focus on cloud computing and a new company will deal with its infrastructure business. The spin-off is set to be completed by the end of the year but IBM might have to weather more financial turbulence in the meantime. 

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Google Chrome users will now be able to check which passwords should be updated with stronger combinations using a new tool for Chrome 88.

The feature makes it easier to identify and fix weak passwords by scanning the combinations stored in Chrome’s password manager and highlighting the ones which could be easily breached.

Once they are identified, Chrome will allow users to edit the passwords and even facilitate the process by generating a stronger combination.

Commenting on the new feature, Chrome product manager Ali Sarraf said that Google is “excited to announce new updates” that will provide users with “even greater control over your passwords”.

“We’ve all had moments where we’ve rushed to set up a new login, choosing a simple “name-of-your-pet” password to get set up quickly. However, weak passwords expose you to security risks and should be avoided. In Chrome 88, you can now complete a simple check to identify any weak passwords and take action easily,” he added.

According to Sarraf, the new tool will be rolled out over the coming weeks as users upgrade to the Chrome 88 browser version. Once the browser is updated, users can access the tool by going to Settings > Passwords > Check passwords > Check Now to perform a safety check of their passwords. They can then click the «Review» button to replace the saved password with a stronger combination.

Sarraf also added that Google will continue to introduce additional password features “throughout 2021”.

The new tool is an addition to Chrome’s “Check passwords” feature, which allows users to check whether any of their saved passwords had been compromised.

The feature was rolled out after a similar tool, Firefox Monitor, became available on Mozilla’s own browser in September 2018. The system works by scanning users’ email address against a database of information confirmed to have been leaked in security breaches. If it has been marked as potentially stolen by hackers, Mozilla will then notify the user, who can change their username and passwords as a precaution.

In May 2019, the company also released Firefox Lockwise, which uses 256-bit encryption to allow users to access their saved passwords in Firefox from anywhere.

Malwarebytes has said that the same state-backed cyber gang that attacked SolarWinds in December was able to access internal emails by using an exploit in Microsoft 365.

The hackers gained limited access to internal Malwarebytes emails, according to CEO Marcin Kleczynski, by abusing applications with privileged access to Microsoft 365 and Azure environments.

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The security firm first became aware of the threat after the Microsoft Security Response Centre (MSRC) discovered unusual activity in a third-party application sat inside the Microsoft 365 suite. Microsoft had been examining its Office 365 and Azure systems for signs of compromise at the time, while details of the SolarWinds attack were also beginning to emerge.

The attackers demonstrated similar techniques and procedures to those used in the SolarWinds compromise. In this case, however, they abused a dormant email protection product within the firm’s Office 365 tenant. This granted the attackers access to a limited subset of internal emails.

The attackers, however, failed to access or compromise Malwarebytes’ source code, and the company has declared that its products were safe to use at all times.

“While Malwarebytes does not use SolarWinds, we, like many other companies were recently targeted by the same threat actor,” Kleczynski said.

“After an extensive investigation, we determined the attacker only gained access to a limited subset of internal company emails. We found no evidence of unauthorized access or compromise in any of our internal on-premises and production environments.”

The specific exploit mechanism is based on an Azure Active Directory flaw uncovered in 2019, which Fox-IT researcher Dirk-jan Mollema demonstrated could be exploited to escalate privileges by assigning credentials to applications.

An early January report published by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also revealed how attackers may have obtained access to Microsoft 365 apps by password spraying, in addition to exploiting administrative credentials.

In the Malwarebytes attack, the hackers added a self-signed certificate with credentials to the service principal account. From there, they were able to authenticate using the key and make API calls to request emails through MSGraph.

The SolarWinds breach was certainly one of the most significant security incidents of last year and carries wide-reaching implications for the industry. Since the turn of the year, it’s been revealed that the attackers accessed Microsoft source code in the breach, and had even first breached SolarWinds’ systems as far back as September 2019.

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