BetaNews Staff

While the pandemic disrupted business, the great remote migration made believers out of many decision-makers. Despite having to implement sweeping changes very quickly, the long touted benefits of remote working proved real and it’s obvious many aspects will remain in place for good.

Software companies already had employees who were quite familiar with working remote and maintaining productivity. Yet, while these companies were generally in a better position to adapt to the "new normal," their sales teams were impacted just like those in any other industry -- perhaps even worse. After all, they deal with complex technology that traditionally has required a lot of face-to-face time to educate prospects. No-touch software sales is tricky business, particularly when prospects are accustomed to hands-on experiences and trials. That said, software companies need to rethink their strategies and procedures.

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When COVID-19 unexpectedly shut down the country, enterprises were hit hard. Millions of workers went remote almost instantly. In the months since, we’ve learned a lot about our networks and how they respond to various stressors. With Google, Facebook and others announcing that employees won’t return to campus until at least July 2021, and as companies like Twitter and Square debut new policies that allow any employee to work from home permanently, post-pandemic, it is clear that remote work will be a fixture in business for some time to come. As such, issues in endpoint management will need to be addressed in order for networks to run efficiently.

To understand what’s happening with infrastructure today and how COVID-19 is prompting long-term changes, it’s important to first understand the past.

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Microsoft has released the latest version of its Chromium-based web browser. Edge 86 is packed full of not only the usual raft of bug fixes and performance improvements, but also a host of new features.

This version of the browser sees the arrival of Secure DNS (DNS-over-HTTPS) support, as well as numerous improvements to PDF handling. Support for tables of contents aids document navigation, while pen support for highlighting and enhanced scrolling will be welcomed by many. Other improvements and additions include site testing in Internet Explorer mode.

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It used to be that creating PDF files required expensive software, but this is no longer the case. Things have changed so much that even Windows 10 includes the option to turn documents into PDFs and there are numerous other more feature-packed PDF printers out there as well.

One such free tool is Bullzip PDF Printer which is free for not only personal use, but also in commercial operations with up to 10 users. The newly released version 12 of the software now includes support for multiple printer ports, meaning concurrent printing of multiple documents is possible.

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Like many industries, the world of fashion has become intrinsically linked with technology. From the textiles used in garment manufacturing to creating a sustainable supply chain, technological advancements are set to innovate fashion in countless ways. For a long time, the processes used in the fashion sector have remained remarkably unchanged. In the coming years, however, we can expect big things.

As of 2020, fashion generates an estimated $664 billion revenue, making it one of the biggest industries in the world. Because of this, technological innovations within this sector are set to be nothing less than world changing. If implemented correctly, technology in fashion could make an unfathomable change in creating a greener, cleaner world. From big data to Blockchain technology, let’s take a look at the innovations that we can expect to see in the world of fashion over the coming years.

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Many organizations struggle to develop education, training and awareness initiatives that are impactful, engaging and resonate with the audience. Typically, a lack of funding forces organizations to run plain, dull, repetitive awareness campaigns, or they just do enough to meet regulatory requirements. This approach to changing security behavior is fundamentally flawed -- however, there are several cost-effective approaches that organizations can use to change, promote and sustain good security behavior.

Firstly, the idea of 'blanket awareness' is dead -- all content needs to be tailored and contextualized to specific role requirements. For example, a senior executive will not experience the same threats as a marketing manager, so why should they both have to complete the same training course? Each employee should be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to identify and respond appropriately to role-specific threats. Security mentor schemes are particularly helpful in upskilling movers and joiners, and a robust threat intelligence and incident management capability can help inform awareness campaigns of emerging and common threats that each role is likely to experience.

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Technology’s grip on modern-day life has tightened over the last decade, especially in the world of manufacturing. Innovation, efficiency, safety and hygiene have been the order of the day for quite some time, with the latter gaining more spotlight due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With production lines in many industries, such as pharmaceutical, food and beverage to the automotive industry, needing to work around the clock to support the US economy and beyond, innovation -- and the use of technology -- in factories and warehouses must continue well past the point a vaccine is found for the virus. Today, we look at how the evolution of technology has benefited the manufacturing sector so far and what the future looks like in a post-pandemic world.

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According to FLEXERA 2020 State of Tech Spend Report, the top three IT investments that organizations of all sizes are considering in the current scenario are digital transformation, cybersecurity, and cloud migration. Another report from Research and Markets says the global cloud computing market is expected to grow from USD 371.4 billion in 2020 to USD 832.1 billion by 2025. There are multiple reasons why organizations are considering and prioritizing cloud adoption. While cost optimization is one of the key reasons, it’s not the ONLY reason.

Businesses know that they’ll have to accelerate their digital strategy to ensure growth in the coming years. Moving to the cloud will provide them the much-needed elasticity, agility, flexibility, and security to achieve and sustain that growth. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought to the forefront the need for a robust remote workforce -- and that’s another reason cloud readiness has gained additional importance.

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For organizations across the globe, the journey to effectively manage, and extract value from, sensitive data in the cloud isn’t a new one. IT and security professionals have long struggled with challenges to the easy adoption of cloud technologies, and the question of how to ensure that data, including personal identifiable information (PII) or sensitive data, stays safe and compliant with regulatory requirements, without sacrificing data utility, remains a top challenge.

In 2020, the ongoing global pandemic increases this obstacle as remote work drives businesses to move more activity to the cloud quickly. A cloud usage survey released in May found organizations had already surpassed their 2020 cloud spend budget by 23 percent -- highlighting the question of how well data is being protected during this shift to home offices.

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Historically, one of the most popular tools used to connect remotely to a corporate work environment has been a virtual private network -- VPN for short. A VPN enables corporate users to send and receive data across public networks such as the internet through a secure encrypted tunnel, providing something akin to a direct, private connection to the corporate network.

However, VPN technology was introduced at a time when business IT environments reside on business premises, and did not include distributed elements that are now commonplace, such as cloud computing, mobile devices, and flexible remote work policies. Even as VPNs have adapted to stay relevant to some of the changes in how people now work, they have struggled to keep up with the modern threat landscape.

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SaaS, especially B2B SaaS, has 5 generations (so far) that don’t only show the growth of technology but also the changes in the market. I call them generations because they are not only built one on top of the other, but also co-exist simultaneously, each continuing to bring value as new generations come after them.

With each consecutive generation, SaaS has moved from full "hands free" automation towards greater customization and flexibility for the customer. Why has the value proposition changed? And what does it say about the market for SaaS today?

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The tech industry holds the trump card when it comes to innovation surrounding recycling -- considering they are, in fact, the innovators. As the world becomes more environmentally conscious and the EU sets targets to make all plastic packaging recyclable waby 2030, businesses across the globe are looking for innovative ways to reduce their own waste through the production process and have a more circular economic approach.

As the tech industry strives to become a role model for recycling, we discuss the approaches some tech companies have taken and the benefits of taking recycling seriously.  

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Keeping drives up to date is an important part of system maintenance and optimization, and a recent update to Windows 10 removed a useful driver updating option. The newly released Driver Booster 8 is here to help, making it easy to keep all of your drivers up to date, even when you do not have an internet connection available.

The driver database has been massively expanded, and IObit says that the software now provides access to more than 4.5 million drivers and game components. The updated version of the software also gives two possible routes for updating drivers depending on whether you like to live life on the cutting edge or not.

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The updated Audials One 2021 not only enables you to watch movies and shows from a range of streaming video providers and listen to streaming music services, but also to record content from these streams so you can keep audio and video forever for offline viewing and listening. With this latest update, speed is the order of the day, but there have also been a number of important new features added.

On the audio front, Audials One 2021 lets you listen to a wide range of online radio stations, as well as streaming music from the likes of Spotify, Deezer and Tidal. Importantly, it is also possible to record individual tracks, entire shows, or anything that is played through your soundcard.

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The financial services sector is experiencing significant commercial disruption coupled with rapid innovation as established institutions strive to become more agile and meet evolving customer demand. As a result, financial services organizations are undergoing rapid digital transformation to meet changing customer needs and preferences, and to compete with a new generation of digital-native competitors. Hybrid cloud environments play a key role in this strategy, allowing greater speed, flexibility, and visibility over application delivery than on-premises data centers while also reducing costs.

But the move to hybrid cloud introduces new challenges as well. So, as financial services organizations plot their strategy for transformation, firms must make critical technical decisions about the clouds and form factors best suited to host their hybrid environment. They also need to consider how they will secure web applications against evolving threats such as ransomware, data theft, and DDoS attacks through measures such as DDoS protection and using a Zero Trust model. At the same time, they must also maintain regulatory compliance, governance, and auditability across complex, fast-evolving infrastructures.

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