When it comes to the task of backing up data, many people wonder where to start. Questions arise relating to the data’s value and if it needs to be stored in a place that is easily reached but costly. On the flip side, those doing backups must ask themselves how often the particular data in question needs to be utilized. If it is not something that is needed daily, storage on a tape drive may become a consideration.

At any rate, administrators and clients alike must understand that the location of data storage is incredibly important and directly relates to the efficiency of the whole system. One of the issues that sometimes arises is when non-valuable data takes over space on precious primary storage. Not only is this highly coveted place being occupied in a manner that is not wise, but storing this kind of data there makes the overall backup operations inefficient.

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Microsoft's new Azure-hosted, combined CRM and ERP service, Dynamics 365 will begin its rollout on November 1 and the company will show off some of the features of its new service in a live-streamed event this week.

In July, the company announced its plans for Dynamics 365 and began to inform its reseller partners regarding what the service would offer. At that time it was revealed that Dynamics 365 would be a combination and redesign of the capabilities of Dynamics CRM, Dynamics AX and Project Madeira which is now known to be a new small-business software as a service based on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV platform.

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After the continued difficulties and now recall of its Galaxy Note7 smartphone, Samsung has cut its third quarter profits forecast by $2.3 billion after issuing much higher figures only last week.

The company made the announcement that it would be cutting its profits forecast during a surprise regulatory filing after South Korea's financial markets had closed for the day. This week has been particularly bad for Samsung after it was forced to completely scrap the Galaxy Note7 as the replacement batteries it shipped to consumers were also prone to overheating and exploding.

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Businesses in Europe that have sent at least one of their core business areas to the cloud now have a "huge" competitive advantage over their peers, according to a new report by Frost & Sullivan. The company says businesses that have adopted a cloud-based approach for either accounting, customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) are reaping the benefits of their (r)evolutionary approach. The report is based on a poll of 600 senior IT decision makers from a cross section of industries throughout Europe.

"For businesses in Europe, cost savings are not the main driver for moving to cloud business applications. Our research shows that they increasingly see cloud as a solution to the challenges of industry transformation, competition and as a means to facilitate global expansion", says Alexander Michael, director of Consulting at Frost & Sullivan.

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The GDPR is drawing ever closer, but organizations which will be directly affected by it still don't know how to approach the new regulation, a new study by Dell shows. Ever since it was unveiled that the General Data Protection Regulation will come into effect in May 2018, surveys have been done to see if companies are preparing themselves for it, and if they will be ready to comply with it in time.

Never have these reports shown positive or encouraging results, and the new one by Dell is no different. Still, organizations aren't even close to being prepared. More than 80 percent say they know close to nothing about GDPR. Less than a third are ready for GDPR today. Almost 70 percent of IT and business professionals say they are not, and that they don't know if their companies are ready.

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Huawei had decided to enter into a partnership with the University of California, Berkeley, in order to develop and apply artificial intelligence (AI) to our daily lives.

Noah's Ark Laboratory, the company's research unit that specializes in the development of machine learning, AI and data mining, is responsible for setting up the partnership between it and the university.

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As more and more systems move to the cloud, so we’re becoming increasingly used to accessing all systems on an as-a-service model. Networking is no exception to this and by using software-defined networking businesses can break away from the restrictions imposed by old, inflexible static network architecture.

SDN allows companies to master the complex nature of their networks and have a single point of control. At the same time it opens up the possibility of automating network management to allow it to cope with fluctuations in traffic and demand.

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For a long time, the contact center was nothing more than a place where customer complaints went to die. An agent’s objective was to simply note the issue and try to resolve it as quickly as possible, and metrics were nothing more than call duration and first call resolution. However, technology has changed the role of the contact center, and analytics are evolving the department into a hub of rich customer insights. Every day, agents interact with hundreds, if not thousands, of customers, and they’re hearing what they want, don’t want, or need -- right from customers’ mouths!

By feeding this information into analytics technology, contact centers can integrate into every touch point along the customer journey and fundamentally change the customer experience.

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Considering it only came into existence in 2013, Docker has experienced a monumental rise in both the consumer and business markets. From such humble beginnings, (the earliest version of the technology was developed by founder Solomon Hykes in his mother’s basement), Docker has managed to secure a number of high-profile partners and in 2015 received a valuation in excess of $1 billion. But what exactly is Docker?

According to the company itself, "Docker allows you to package an application with all of its dependencies into a standardized unit for software development". The way in which Docker does this is through a software feature known as a container.

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Almost nine in ten (88 percent) IT professionals say that their organization invested in some form of intelligent solutions, be it smart business apps, whole systems or bots. The information was presented in a new research report from Ipswitch.

The report also says that more than three quarters (78 percent) can’t fully grasp the challenges and threats of deploying such systems themselves. For more than two thirds (78 percent), it is challenging (58 percent say it is a challenge, and 19 percent say it is "extremely hard" to do). However, businesses aren’t giving up, as more than a third (35 percent) see it as crucial to stay ahead of the competition.

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YouTube has announced a new platform which will make creating video ads for the site easier. The number of visits, as well as visit duration, have gone up lately, and the company wants to cash in on the momentum. The new offering is called YouTube Director -- a solution to help businesses create a professionally-looking ad in no time.

There are two ways to do it: the YouTube Director for Business app and the YouTube Director onsite service. The former, free and currently only available in iOS, helps businesses create an ad through a custom template. With a step-by-step walkthrough, the app will "help the business understand not only what to film, but what to say and when".

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In an attempt to block foreign hackers from compromising the devices of British politicians to access sensitive information, Apple Watches have been banned from use during official cabinet meetings.

The UK's prime minister Theresa May has informed elected ministers that just as mobile phones are not allowed, high-end smartwatches will no longer be permitted as they pose a security risk. An inside source informed The Telegraph that "The Russians are trying to hack everything".

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The fact that people are afraid to use more apps because of security reasons is costing the UK economy billions. To be more precise, £2.5 billion this year, £3.2 billion the next.

This is according to a new report by Rackspace, which says that 36 percent of consumers are reluctant to use more apps for security reasons. Privacy is also a huge issue for 33 percent of consumers in general -- rising up to 37 percent among the older population.

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One of the main reasons why hackers and other malicious actors are so hard to locate is not the fact they're really good at hiding their location -- it is because they're exceptional when it comes to faking things. They fake their locations, their working hours, language, infrastructure, toolkits -- even their own groups.

Hackers are going extreme lengths to make sure people looking for them are actually in for a wild goose chase. These conclusions were released by security researchers at Kaspersky Lab who tried to tackle the issue of misleading both victims and security researchers.

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A new study has revealed that many consumers are suffering from "security fatigue" as a result of relentless cybersecurity warnings which have led to many of them failing to protect themselves online.

The study was conducted by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), by conducting in-depth interviews with a wide cross-section of Americans between the ages of 20 and 60 living in rural and urban areas in both low and high-paying jobs.

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