Businesses spend nearly $3 billion a year on mobile connectivity

Business mobile devices

The cost related to mobile connectivity through roaming, pay-on-demand Wi-Fi and free Wi-Fi is costing businesses in Europe and North America at least $2.91 billion every year. This is according to iPass, provider of global mobile connectivity.

The cost is high because, as the report puts it, mobile professionals have an "insatiable need for connectivity". When traveling and working on the go, they spend on average 6GB every month. The report has an interesting conclusion -- free Wi-Fi is not always as free as you’d think. These connections, being available to everyone, can often be slow, unresponsive and crowded. Business users are then stuck on these slow connections, which are hurting their productivity, which then reflects on the bottom line.

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Server sales are up, but revenue is down

rack room servers IT

New research has revealed that despite increased server sales, revenue has continued to decline for the companies responsible for manufacturing and shipping servers worldwide.

The analyst firm IDC brought this information to light in its new Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker report, which covered server market share and revenue from April to June 2016.

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Information Security Forum helps businesses guard their 'crown jewels'

castle_portcullis

Traditional approaches to deploying security controls don't always provide appropriate or sufficient protection for mission-critical information assets.

Aiming to support enterprises in guarding this information, the Information Security Forum (ISF) is launching 'Protecting the Crown Jewels', a series of reports based on the ISF Protection Process, to help organizations formulate a structured, methodical process to deliver comprehensive, balanced protection.

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US businesses overspend by $2.6 billion a year on BYOD

Mobile cash

Enterprises in the US are overspending by an average of almost $287 per employee each year, due to compliance concerns, confusion in the executive suite over BYOD policy ownership, and lack of visibility into employee mobile usage.

This adds up to a total overspend of $2.6 billion across the country. These are among the findings of a new survey by mobile platform provider Syntonic and Information Solutions Group on BYOD use in the enterprise.

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DDoS attacks rarely strike businesses just once

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A company is rarely attacked by a DDoS (distributed denial of service) just once. If it happens once, it will probably happen again, which is why constant preventive measures are required, if a company wants to keep their online services operational.

These are the results of a new report by Kaspersky Lab. Entitled Corporate IT Security Risks 2016, it says that one in six companies were victims of DDoS attacks in the past 12 months. The majority of those attacks were aimed against construction, IT and telecommunications companies.

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New launch offers data loss prevention for American SMBs

data loss

The potential for data loss is there for all businesses, but smaller organizations often don’t have the resources to guard against it as effectively as larger ones.

Safetica, an established European data loss prevention company, is launching in North America and aiming its software at small and medium businesses. It's easy to use, helps businesses of all sizes comply with regulations, and Safetica provides support before and after deployment at no charge.

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Duo launches single sign on for easy, secure cloud access

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Businesses are increasingly recognizing that passwords are no longer an adequate way of protecting systems. But users still need a means of access that is easy to use, secure and doesn't get in the way.

Cloud-based access provider Duo Security is today announcing that it's combined its flagship two-factor authentication and device insight with single sign-on (SSO) capabilities to create a trusted access platform.

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Salesforce launches Einstein AI platform

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Salesforce has announced the launch of its new Einstein artificial intelligence (AI) platform that has already been implemented into a number of the company's existing cloud services including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Analytics Cloud, App Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Community Cloud and IoT Cloud.

The company has also announced that it has formed a new unit called Salesforce Research that will be exploring deep learning, natural language processing and computer vision. The new unit's aim is to improve Salesforce products and it will be led by the company's chief scientist Richard Socher, who is responsible for co-founding the A.I. startup MetaMind which Salesforce acquired earlier this year.

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Secure messaging environment delivers safe online collaboration

Riot screen shot

With workforces being increasingly mobile and decentralized, they need effective tools to aid collaboration. Whilst email is commonly used it lacks the rich feature set and security features of dedicated applications.

A newcomer to the collaboration market, real time messaging company Riot is today publicly launching its secure messaging environment that aims to bring all your online collaboration into one workspace.

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Kentik launches network performance monitoring for the cloud era

multiple clouds

Migrating systems to the cloud leads to a shift in network traffic patterns that can present a performance challenge for businesses.

Network analytics company Kentik is launching its new Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) aimed at meeting the needs of modern, digital businesses.

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Altify brings augmented intelligence to B2B sales

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The internet means that buyers are armed with more information than ever before which can make life more challenging for salespeople.

Sales transformation company Altify is looking to give sales teams the edge with the launch of its latest enterprise B2B sales platform with augmented intelligence capabilities that prompt sales professionals of the next best action to progress a sale.

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How to plan for and recover from IT emergencies

emergency

Bugs in the software, mistakes in configuration files, even the infamous "fat finger" -- all are responsible for service outages at cloud-based services, data centers, enterprise networks, and any other IT installation, large or small.

There are just too many things that can go wrong. Even if an organization takes care of everything humanly possible, there are still the monkeys. That's a lesson the folks at KenGen, Kenya's electric company, have learned the hard way.

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One in 50 employees could be a malicious insider

hacker

If your company counts 50 people, at least one of them might be a malicious insider, according to new studies. Imperva has released a report which says that 36 percent of surveyed companies suffered a security incident involving malicious insiders in the past year. One in every 50 employees is considered to be a malicious insider.

Another interesting finding is that not all malicious insiders are disgruntled former employees looking to inflict some damage as they close the door on their way out. There are people who are using their position to transform confidential data into a second stream of income. The ramifications of such behavior can be dire -- in one example, a company has had to shut down operations for three weeks, after an attack, and another had its banking system hacked.

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Cost of a cyber-attack will soon reach $1 million for large businesses

Cyber attack

We are coming closer to the point where a cyber-attack will cost every large business more than $1 million. According to a new Kaspersky Lab report, a single cyber-security incident now costs a large business, on average, $861,000.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) pay ten times less, on average -- $86,500. The new report also stresses, once again, how costs go up the longer the threat remains unseen. For an SME, it will have to pay 44 percent more to recover from a week-old attack, compared to the one spotted on the first day. Among large companies, the percentage sits at 27.

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Millennials prefer to deal with companies by text

SMS texting

Of all the communication channels available for dealing with businesses, 60 percent of millennials prefer two-way text engagement, because it’s convenient, fast, and easy to use. This is one of the findings of a new survey by mobile engagement specialist OpenMarket of 500 US millennials (18 to 34-year-olds) on their use of SMS communications.

While 72 percent of millennials say they text 10 or more times a day, and 31 percent more than 50 times a day, the leading factor in millennials' preferences for texting is its ability for two-way communication with businesses.

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