Why price doesn't equal cost in the cloud
Saving money in IT has always been an important consideration, but due to COVID-19 many corporate strategies and budgets have been pushed off course. For example, relative to pre-COVID levels, the likelihood of undertaking cost reduction initiatives has increased globally by 74 percent, 66 percent of companies are now expected to pursue cost reduction strategies over the next 12 months and it is predicted we will see a 38 percent increase in these cost reduction strategies in the next 12 months, compared to pre-COVID times.
Due to the need for greater flexibility caused by COVID-19 and the need to secure these cost reductions, many organizations are now looking to the cloud. Cloud spending rose by 37 percent to £20 billion during the first quarter of 2020 and, according to Gartner, we saw a 19 percent growth in cloud spending in 2020 even when IT spending overall was down by 8 percent. It goes without saying that there are many benefits to moving to the cloud, one of them being cost reductions, with others including agility, flexibility, scale, working from home capabilities and the transfer of budget allocations from CapEx to OpEx.
If I knew then what I know now -- Zero Day Vulnerabilities and why we should confine the unknown
When Donald Rumsfeld gave a briefing about the Iraq WMD program in 2002 (Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction were a major justification for the second invasion) he said "There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know."
At the time, many mocked this word-salad as the Secretary of State for Defense delivering an over-complicated and evasive way of admitting that they had no evidence of WMDs in Iraq -- not yet at least. Even so, there is some undeniable logic in accepting that there can be unknown unknowns, and not just in the field of counter intelligence but in cyber security too.
Microsoft's decision to hide KB identifiers from some Windows update support documents is unhelpful madness
For years, Microsoft has used KB identifiers (or knowledge base identifiers that take the form KBXXXXXXX) to refer to updates for Windows. As well as being a handy means of identifying a particular update, it also provides an easy way to cross reference the same updates across various pieces of documentation.
But last month Microsoft announced that it is changing the system. The company is not getting rid of KB identifiers, but it is changing the way they are used in release notes and support documentation. In many instances, the KB identifier will be hidden in the source code of web pages -- something even Microsoft concedes is "not ideal".
Why has Google become 'gambling loyal'?
Just a few years ago, Google opened up Google Play to real-money gambling apps in a limited number of countries, including the UK, Ireland, France, and Brazil. Before then, any app of that kind was totally prohibited for hosting in the official Android app store.
Starting from March 1, the new phase of real-money gambling app legalization in Google Play commences. Google now allows gambling and betting apps to be published in its Google Play Store. Generally, the policy change will have a positive impact on the gambling markets in an additional 15 countries, including English-speaking USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as local markets in Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Romania, and Spain.
Best Windows 10 apps this week
Four-hundred-twenty-nine in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store in the past seven days.
The legacy version of Microsoft Edge reached end of support this week. The browser won't receive updates any more as development is focused on the Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge.
Why SASE is vital for the cybersecurity industry [Q&A]
One of the frameworks that has received greater attention since the acceleration of digital transformation is Secure Access Services Edge (SASE).
But what does its adoption mean for the security industry and how can enterprises best take advantage of SASE? We spoke to Mary Blackowiak, senior product marketing manager at AT&T Cybersecurity, to discover more.
Microsoft confirms printing problems and blue screens after latest Windows 10 updates
Microsoft has continued its trend of releasing problematic updates for Windows 10. Just a few days ago, the KB4601319 update was found to break File History backups in Windows 10, and this month's Patch Tuesday cumulative updates have also been causing issues.
As we have reported, there have been numerous complaints from people who have installed the KB5000802 and KB5000808 updates for Windows 10. Now Microsoft has confirmed that there are indeed problems with printing after installing these updates, specifically BSoDs and a APC_INDEX_MISMATCH error.
This is what Windows 10 'Sun Valley' should look like
If you’ve been following Windows 10’s development you’ll likely know that Microsoft’s newest operating system is set to get a makeover later this year.
We’ve already started seeing some elements of the tweaked UI, but the finished release -- currently codenamed Sun Valley -- will take things further, with improvements to the design of the Start menu, File Explorer and Action Center, bringing with it rounded corners and new colors.
System76 launches AMD Ryzen-powered 'Thelio Mira' Ubuntu Linux desktop
System76 started its life as a Linux computer seller only. Essentially, the company would sell re-branded laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed. To provide a class-leading experience, however, System76 also provided top-notch customer service, helping Linux beginners get started with a little hand-holding when needed. This focus on service continues today, and it is largely responsible for the company's success and longevity.
Seeking to better control its own destiny, the company branched out from only being a computer-seller and transformed into a maker too. Its handcrafted Thelio desktops are powerful works of art, comprised of wood, metal, and good ol' fashioned American elbow grease. Yes, these Thelio machines are made in the USA -- Colorado, specifically.
Breaking down the silos between IT and business [Q&A]
Until the cloud and the idea of big data came along it wasn't unusual for different parts of a firm to have their own information separate from the rest of the business.
But digital transformation initiatives recognize that all information is important to the organization and that silos are increasingly a bad thing.
Cryptomining impacts 69 percent of organizations
In a new report into DNS security, Cisco Umbrella, which processes 620 billion DNS requests daily, finds that from January to December 2020 cryptomining generated the most DNS traffic out of any individual threat category with 69 percent of organizations discovering cryptomining connections.
In addition nearly 90 percent of organizations had at least one user attempt to connect to a phishing site, peaking drastically in the second half of the year.
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Over two-thirds of enterprises fail to exploit valuable data
Despite the fact that data is a key resource for business decision making, a new study reveals that many businesses are leaving it untapped.
The research by Dimensional Research for data integration company Fivetran shows that 44 percent of respondents say that key data is not yet usable for decision making and 68 percent say additional business insights could be extracted from existing data if they only had more time.
Microsoft is pretty much giving up on 3D in Windows 10
With the release of Windows 10 Creators Update over 3 years ago, Microsoft was betting that 3D was the future. We're not talking Windows with a 3D interface or anything like that, but the company seemingly noted the increasing popularity of 3D printers and decided to jump on the bandwagon.
This saw the arrival of Paint3D in Windows 10 as well as a 3D viewer tool, but now Microsoft appears to have changed its mind about the third dimension. We recently wrote about the disappearance of the 3D Objects folder, and now Windows 10 users will no longer see other 3D-related components after a clean installation.
Half a dozen little 2021 predictions about life after COVID-19
Six hundred and seventy-five thousand Americans died of the Spanish Flu in 1918, back when the total population of the United States was 103 million. In the current pandemic, American deaths are already above 540,000 (remember when a projection of 160,000 deaths seemed crazy?) but our population is now 331 million. While COVID-19 will undoubtedly kill more Americans than did the Spanish flu, the percentage of the population dying will be much lower than the 0.65 percent death rate in 1918. But the numbers are close enough that one might guess the long-term impact of this pandemic could be very similar to that one.
I don’t think it will be. I think this pandemic will have greater long-term effects than that of 1918 and the reason comes down mainly to technology.
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