WhatsApp has announced that it will delay the rollout of new privacy terms which were supposed to come into effect next month.

The update, which was presented to users on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis, was designed to allow businesses to manage WhatsApp chats using new Facebook integrations. Users, therefore, were asked to share certain aspects of their data with WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook if they still wished to continue using the platform.

However, the plans were met by a backlash sufficient enough to make WhatsApp delay the implementation of the update by over three months, with the rollout pushed back from 8 February to 15 May.

​“We’re now moving back the date on which people will be asked to review and accept the terms,” the company announced on its blog, before adding that “no one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8”. 

“We’re also going to do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security works on WhatsApp. We’ll then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15,” it said.

WhatsApp’s decision to forcefully implement its updated terms and conditions resulted in a number of users fleeing the service, with many choosing to seek privacy solace in the arms of the messaging platform’s competitors.

This caused temporary infrastructure issues for encrypted messaging service Signal, which on Friday saw its servers overwhelmed due to the sudden rush of new users.

“We have been adding new servers and extra capacity at a record pace every single day this week nonstop, but today exceeded even our most optimistic projections. Millions upon millions of new users are sending a message that privacy matters. We appreciate your patience,” the company announced via Twitter.

While the change to WhatsApp’s terms and conditions won’t affect those in the UK or Europe specifically, a pop-up notification still appeared on the app for everyone – bringing fears over the security and privacy of bring your own device (BYOD) policies again to the fore.

Rowan Troy, cyber security consultant at managed IT provider Littlefish, advised organisations to “exercise caution” when allowing the use of consumer communication tools such as WhatsApp.

“The new data-sharing agreement between WhatsApp and Facebook might increase the risk of personal data being shared that contradicts company policy or compliance legislation relevant to the organisation,” he said.

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Google Cloud and Nokia are teaming up to develop cloud-native 5G solutions for communications service providers and enterprise customers.

The new partnership also focuses on modernising network infrastructures and developing network edge as a business services platform for enterprises. Furthermore, the companies will co-innovate solutions to help CSPs deliver 5G connectivity and services at scale.

“Communications service providers have a tremendous opportunity ahead of them to support businesses’ digital transformations at the network edge through both 5G connectivity and cloud-native applications and capabilities,” said George Nazi, VP, telco, media and entertainment industry solutions at Google Cloud. 

“Doing so requires modernized infrastructure, built for a cloud-native 5G core, and we’re proud to partner with Nokia to help the telecommunications industry expand and support these customers.”

As part of their strategic collaboration, Nokia will integrate its voice core, cloud packet core, network exposure function, data management, signalling, and 5G core technologies into Google’s services. Nokia will also include its IMPACT IoT Connected Device Platform, which allows for the remote management of IoT devices, and Converged Charging solution for real-time rating and charging capabilities.

Google Cloud’s Anthos will serve as the platform for deploying applications, enabling CSPs to build services across the network edge, carrier networks, and public or private clouds. What’s more, by delivering cloud-native applications at the edge, businesses can lower network latency and eliminate the need for costly, on-site infrastructure. 

Nokia cloud and network services CTO Ron Haberman adds, “In the past five years, the telecom industry has evolved from physical appliances to virtual network functions and now cloud-native solutions.

“Nokia is excited to work with Google Cloud in service of our customers, both CSPs and enterprise, to provide choice and freedom to run workloads on premise and in the public cloud. Cloud-native network functions and automation will enable new agility and use-cases in the 5G era.”

Citrix Systems is in talks to buy the collaborative work management platform Wrike for a reported $2 billion (approximately £1.5 billion) in what might become the company’s largest acquisition in its history.

The virtualisation company may close a deal with the owners of Wrike, Vista Equity Partners, as soon as this week, according to Bloomberg. This deal potentially adds another tool to Citrix’s arsenal as the firm aims to become a major player in the collaboration space.

Talks are reportedly ongoing with nothing finalised, according to those questioned by the publication, and discussions could yet collapse at any stage.

While Citrix already develops cloud-based products that allow employees to work remotely and keep in touch with their colleagues, integrating collaboration software such as that developed by Wrike would allow the company to go one step further.

Wrike develops workplace collaboration software that incorporates elements such as planning, workflow management and project management. The core platform is also supported by a host of integrations with technologies developed by the likes of Box, Salesforce, Microsoft, Google and Slack.

Of the firm’s more than 20,000 customers are several high-profile customers including Walmart and Nickelodeon in the US. Wrike’s competitors, meanwhile, include Trello and Slack Technologies, which were each recently purchased in major deals by Atlassian and Salesforce respectively.

Should the acquisition go through at the reported $2 billion figure, it’ll become the largest in the company’s history. The firm previously acquired the micro-app developer Sapho in November 2018 for $200 million (roughly £150 million). Prior to that, in February 2018, Citrix bought the web traffic management firm Cedexis for an undisclosed fee.

Citrix has been on a mission to define the “future of work” for several years, and integrating a collaboration platform into the firm’s core Workspace service would naturally fit into this strategy. The popularity of this kind of software has certainly surged during 2020, however, due to COVID-19 and its effect on encouraging remote working.

CloudPro approached Citrix for a comment on the reports, but the company didn’t respond at the time of publication.

Zoom has announced a plan to raise $1.75 billion (roughly £1.28 billion) for an underwritten public offering, which it expects to close on Friday. 

The price of the secondary share sale puts the company’s stock value up 10 times above where it debuted in 2019.

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In connection with the offering, Zoom has granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 735,294 shares of its Class A common stock at the public offering price. It is now assuming a share price of £337.71 based on Monday’s closing value. US bank J.P. Morgan will act as the sole book-running manager for the offering.

It is thought that the secondary sale will provide the company with more capital to make acquisition deals more attractive to potential targets. The firm has said it may use a portion of its net proceeds for «acquisitions and strategic investments». 

The video conferencing platform is seen as the breakout service of 2020, with mass adoption and 355% growth fueled by the greater need to work remotely. Alongside its IPO announcement, Zoom has also revealed that it sold one million Zoom Phone seats just before the product’s second anniversary. 

Zoom Phone is a core service in the company’s unified communications platform, along with Zoom Meetings, Zoom Chat, Zoom Rooms, and Zoom Video Webinars. It comes with features such as centralised management, contact centre integration, and global call routing.

Within the two-years that it has been generally available, it’s now used in dozens of countries and territories around the world.

«We are excited to see this level of uptake in such a short timeframe,» said Graeme Geddes, head of Zoom Phone. «Our customers have come to rely on Zoom to deliver amazing video and audio for them at scale, and they’re seeing tremendous value in consolidating and modernising their telephony services with us as well. This milestone really speaks to the level of trust we have built with our customers.»

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Google has announced the addition of new troubleshooting tools to its video conferencing solution, Meet.

According to Google, the new tools will make it easier for end-users to understand how their desktop and network environments affect Meet’s video quality. Available by default during a call, users can access the tools by selecting “Troubleshooting and Help” in the three-dot menu.  

Under the “Troubleshooting” section, users can browse real-time charts depicting network stability and CPU load. The network stability graph shows any connection delay in milliseconds, and the system load chart lets users track Google Meet’s CPU usage over the last five minutes. Together, the graphs provide greater visibility into how Google Meet, their computer, and their network are performing. 

The menu also provides users with general suggestions to improve call performance and gives real-time feedback on the impact any action the user takes has on the network and processing load. Plus, it offers tips for performing various tasks, such as presenting content and recording meetings. 

“Meet shares processing power and network connections with all other applications and browser tabs running on a computer. When the system is overusing its processing power or suffering from a bad network connection, Meet will try to adjust and maintain performance while consuming fewer resources. Some of those adjustments are less visible, but if resource shortages are severe or persistent, users may notice blurry video, stuttering audio, or other issues,” explained Google. 

Lastly, Meet’s troubleshooting window highlights time segments, enabling users to know when a local environment likely affected the call quality the most. 

Google Meet’s “Troubleshooting” rollout has started for Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus. It’s also available for G Suite Basic, Business, Education, Enterprise for Education, and nonprofit customers. Keep in mind, this is a staged rollout that could take 15 days to reach all users. 

File hosting service Dropbox has decided to cull its global workforce by 315 people, or roughly a tenth, to embark on new strategies for growth and invest in products designed for the era of hybrid working.

The “painful, but necessary” decision to shed 11% of its workforce follows a transitional year in which the firm adopted a ‘virtual first’ policy with permanent remote working at its heart.

Dropbox COO Olivia Nottebohm will also be leaving the company on 5 February after little more than a year in post, although It’s unclear whether the former Google Cloud VP has been let go as part of the wider cuts or has stepped down on her own accord.

“Over the past year, we’ve talked a lot about the importance of running a tight ship and getting the company ready for the next stage of growth,” said Dropbox CEO Drew Houston.

“This will require relentless focus on initiatives that align tightly with our strategic priorities, and having the discipline to pull back from those that don’t. Unfortunately, this means that we’re reducing the size of some of our teams.”

The news may surprise some given that figures from November 2020 revealed Dropbox had performed better than expected, with its Q3 income of $487.4 million (£357 million) representing a 14% year-on-year growth.

Houston explained that these 315 job cuts “will lead to a more efficient and nimble Dropbox” and help the company focus on its priorities for 2021. These include evolving the core platform, investing in new products for hybrid working, and “driving operational excellence”, although the definition of this hasn’t been clarified.

He added the company strived to maintain jobs throughout 2020, but that this move was now needed in order to achieve its goals over the coming years.

«This was an extremely difficult decision, but a necessary step as we align teams to our business priorities, which requires reallocating resources and eliminating some roles across the company,» a Dropbox spokesperson told IT Pro. 

«We’ll continue to invest in critical roles to support product expansion and growth initiatives. For affected employees, we’re committed to supporting them through the transition, including severance packages and job placement support.»

There is no official reasoning for Nottebohm’s departure, and has she is yet to issue a statement, although Houston praised her “pivotal role” in setting the company up for success in 2021. Incidentally, the role that Nottebohm filled in January 2020 had previously been vacant for more than a year.

According to social media posts by current Dropbox employees, a significant number of cuts have been made in the product design division, although this hasn’t been officially confirmed. It’s also unclear how the job losses have been distributed geographically.

Departing employees will be entitled to severance pay and bonuses depending on their location and eligibility, as well as six months of healthcare if US-based. Workers can also choose to keep all company devices currently in their possession.

Intel has announced that CEO Bob Swan will step down from the company on 15 February, with VMware boss Pat Gelsinge set to return to the company as chief executive officer. 

Swan was named CEO in January 2019, having served as the interim CEO for seven months.

His time at the helm hasn’t been easy, with Intel suffering production delays and a loss of market share to rival AMD. Swan also oversaw the end of Intel’s 15-year partnership with Apple, which recently announced plans to use its own proprietary chips in MacBooks.

Critics of Swan have repeatedly pointed out that he lacked the technical expertise for the top job, having previously worked as the company’s CFO. This won’t be the case with Gelsinger, who served as Intel’s chief technology officer before moving to VMware. 

«I am thrilled to rejoin and lead Intel forward at this important time for the company, our industry and our nation,» said Gelsinger. «Having begun my career at Intel and learned at the feet of Grove, Noyce and Moore, it’s my privilege and honour to return in this leadership capacity.

«I believe Intel has significant potential to continue to reshape the future of technology and look forward to working with the incredibly talented global Intel team to accelerate innovation and create value for our customers and shareholders.» 

The CEO change is separate from the company’s financial results, it said, with fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expected to exceed prior guidance. «Strong progress» is said to have been made on its 7nm process node, which will surely be the first order of business for Gelsinger when he takes charge. 

Alan Priestly, Gartner’s VP of research, told IT Pro that Gelsinger will be «very familiar with the challenges facing Intel’s major customers (hardware and software) and their end-customers which will bring some new perspective to Intel’s senior management team – some of whom have not had OEM or end-customer experience.»

«While we have no detail on what drove the change of CEO, over the past couple of years Bob Swan has been working to broaden Intel’s market engagements, expanding its target TAM to a $300M – beyond just PCs and server,» Priestly continued.

«This has included new services related business such as mobility-as-a-service (Moovit acquisition, Mobileye partnerships etc). Swan also initiated the divestment of the company’s 5G discrete modem and NAND flash businesses both of which had been struggling to be profitable.»

The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) has announced the release of its new Shared Responsibility Matrix program to help cloud vendors better communicate their security and privacy assurances.

Developed in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, HITRUST’s Shared Responsibility Matrices clearly define security and privacy responsibilities between cloud service providers and their customers, streamlining processes for risk management programs.

Furthermore, the HITRUST Shared Responsibility Matrix for AWS and the HITRUST Shared Responsibility for Microsoft Azure align perfectly with each cloud service provider’s unique solution offering.

“Leading cloud service providers have long supported shared responsibility models, whereby the provider assumes some security responsibility for hosting applications and systems, while the organization deploying its solutions in the cloud assumes partial or shared responsibility for others,” said HITRUST. 

“The challenge, however, is that many shared responsibility models are loosely defined and vary based on the solution. For businesses deploying solutions in the cloud, this ambiguity creates an added layer of complexity related to achieving broader risk management objectives.”

HITRUST’s new shared responsibility model for cloud security is a part of HITRUST’s Shared Responsibility and Inheritance Program, which was introduced in 2018 to address the many misunderstandings, risks, and complexities organizations face when engaging with their cloud service providers.

“HITRUST launched this Program with the goal of providing greater clarity regarding the ownership and operation of security controls between organizations and their cloud service providers,” said Becky Swain, director of standards and shared responsibility program lead, HITRUST.

Swain continued, “The introduction of the Shared Responsibility Matrix is another HITRUST resource that underscores our ongoing commitment to simplifying and enhancing offerings to address our customers’ most pressing risk management challenges.”

Lastly, HITRUST announced its information risk management platform MyCSF can now inherit controls from AWS and Microsoft Azure. According to the company, the ability to automatically inherit controls helps save time, money, and resources as organizations pursue their risk management and compliance objectives.

Poor email processes are killing productivity, with a quarter of UK-based employees spending nearly one working day each week managing their inboxes.

That’s according to research by Mail Manager, which surveyed 500 business leaders and decision-makers in the UK. It found that one in four respondents spent at least one hour a day going through their inbox, which amounts to almost one full working day spent on managing emails.

This is despite email being the most-often used form of communication. 90% of respondents indicated that they use email to communicate with their clients, while Skype and WhatsApp, by comparison, were used by 55% of those surveyed. Just 15% of those surveyed said that Slack was their go-to communication platform. 

Jacob Wardrop, commercial director at Mail Manager, described email as the “letter of today”. 

“While tools like Slack and WhatsApp are great for informal correspondence and chat, email remains the core correspondence method for formal communication. Before the digital era, companies would send formal correspondence as letters, which would be physically stored. Now, email is the tool for formal correspondence, but the need for filing and securely storing this communication remains, even though it’s digital,” he said.

The additional time spent on sorting emails has a negative impact on employees emotions and work. More than half (55%) of respondents said that they were frustrated by not being able to find specific documents in their inbox, which left them feeling as if they were wasting time (63%), being less productive (48%), and losing track of project information (52%).

In some cases, poor email management led to missed customer and client opportunities, an experience shared by 45% of those surveyed.

The findings come after last year Slack added a feature to send messages beyond the walls of a company and connect organisations into shared channels. 

Aside from productivity gains, Slack’s CISO Larkin Ryder also pointed out safety benefits of switching to the messaging tool.

«Email is an open front door to security threats to an organisation – $12 billion in losses are caused by business email scams, and 90% of data breaches are from phishing. If you want a more secure collaboration solution for your organisation, the first thing you can do is take your employees out of email and into Slack,” he said.

IBM has announced plans to acquire 7Summits, a consultancy firm that specialises in projects based on software as a service (SaaS) applications from Salesforce.

IBM said the deal, the financial terms of which have not yet been disclosed, «is part of a broader IBM investment strategy in services and ecosystem partnerships to enable our clients’ digital transformations through hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI).»

Milwaukee-based 7Summits was founded in 2009 and designs and develops digital experiences with Salesforce solutions in order to help business improve customer relationship management (CRM), sales, and cost reduction.

The company, which has 66 employees across Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Austin and San Francisco, will join IBM’s Global Business Services’ Salesforce division, which IBM says is facing “rising client demand”. This is no doubt as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen organisations accelerate digital transformation projects in order to facilitate mass remote working.

«7Summits is part of a broader IBM investment strategy in services and ecosystem partnerships to enable our clients’ digital transformations through hybrid cloud and AI,» said Mark Foster, Senior Vice President, IBM Services.

«Salesforce plays a critical role in transforming customer, employee and partner lifecycle processes into intelligent workflows that deliver accelerated business outcomes.»

IBM added that, following the deal, its Global Business Services arm will significantly expand hiring, training and certifications to support key growth areas for Salesforce, including Tableau, Mulesoft, and Vlocity, while continuing to build out new Salesforce specific offerings that leverage IBM complementary capabilities and deep industry expertise.

Tyler Prince, executive vice president of Worldwide Alliances and Channels at Salesforce, commented: «Our partner ecosystem is a driving force of our growth, and the addition of 7Summits to IBM’s fast-growing Salesforce business will provide even more value for our customers’ digital transformations.

«The combination of both companies’ Salesforce consulting and design capabilities will help businesses in any industry keep pace with rapidly changing customer expectations, helping them thrive in an increasingly digital world.»