Enterprise

New research from Google Cloud shows that sustainability is a key focus for executives, yet it's one of the lowest areas for investment.

The study of almost 1,500 executives around the world shows 80 percent of executives give their organization an above average rating for their environmental sustainability effort. Meanwhile 86 percent believe their efforts are making a difference in advancing sustainability.

When the Log4Shell vulnerability first appeared at the end of last year it sent a shockwave through the cybersecurity community.

But just because it's no longer in the headlines doesn't mean it's gone away. There's still a lot that enterprises can learn from the vulnerability and the response to it. We spoke to Maninder Singh, corporate vice president and global head of cybersecurity and GRC services at HCL Technologies, to find out more.

A new study reveals that 79 percent of cybersecurity professionals think that their organization prioritized maintaining business operations over ensuring robust cybersecurity in the last 12 months.

The CyberArk 2022 Identity Security Threat Landscape Report also points up how the rise of human and machine identities -- often running into the hundreds of thousands per organization -- has driven a build-up of identity-related cybersecurity 'debt', exposing organizations to greater risk.

Over the last two years, the rise of remote working and increased digitalization across private and public sectors has increased demand across the MSP ecosystem, giving many businesses the opportunity to grow.

However, these opportunities can also bring significant challenges. For instance, it’s crucial to balance the needs of existing clients with the time and resources required to successfully onboard new ones. Some organizations find they are so focused on meeting and exceeding the expectations of their current customers, that it can limit their ability to expand -- with an inevitable knock-on effect on growth. And when teams are already at capacity, the idea of adding to their workload can seem like an impossibility.

IT departments added a stack of tasks to their docket when remote and hybrid working became the norm. While initial purchases of video conferencing and business communication subscriptions were temporary fixes, they were not the only long-term solutions necessary to provide the seamless digital experience employees needed to carry out their roles.

The pandemic has strengthened the need to improve the digital experience business case for organizations that wish to increase employee engagement, satisfaction and retention. Employees, so used to having immediate responses from their home-use apps, have come to expect the same instant feedback from workplace technology but in many cases are not getting it.

Later this year, Microsoft will launch a new service called Windows Autopatch which will help users update their software.

The free service will help enterprise customers obtain Windows 10 and Windows 11 quality and feature updates, drivers, firmware, and Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise updates. Microsoft is due to launch Windows Autopatch in July, and the company had provided information about how it will work.

Data volumes have skyrocketed in recent years, and Statista estimates that 59 sextillion bytes were generated in 2020 -- more than twice the amount generated in 2017. 

What are we doing with the vast quantities of knowledge available to us? In most cases, as businesses, absolutely nothing. Only .5 percent of knowledge collected by organizations is used or analyzed, and less than half (.25 percent) plays any part in business decision-making.

If the pandemic was a stone, then the wave of digital transformation in its wake is a reverberating echo. 2020 and 2021 saw traditionally slow adopters of new technologies, from the largest financial institutions to local libraries, exploring new ways of providing digital-first experiences in a socially-distanced world. Artificial intelligence was of course decades in the making, but COVID pushed its proliferation to a point that has fully blossomed in the past two years.

Whether you’re a newcomer to the world of AI or its long-term champion, uncertainties both familiar and new continue to impact this ever-shifting landscape. There are, however, a few assurances to count on as AI’s trajectory progresses throughout the year.

Hybrid work is here to stay, and as companies deploy virtual desktops to enable work from anywhere, IT teams are increasingly challenged with securing their network and sensitive data.

We spoke with Tim Minahan, executive vice president of business strategy at Citrix, about how work has changed and how the technologies and policies used to support it need to change with it.

According to a new report, 60 percent of IT decision makers say cloud capabilities have been pivotal to helping their organization grow.

The study by Foundry finds this number increases to 64 percent for enterprises and 58 percent for SMBs. The research also shows that on average, organizations will allocate 32 percent of their total IT budget to cloud computing with the total average spend being $78 million over the next 12 months, up from $73 million in 2020.

New research from Atlas VPN shows 76 percent of companies globally have suffered service downtime in the past year.

Reasons include system crashes, human errors, and cyberattacks as the primary causes of downtime. In addition, many IT managers are concerned about increasing numbers of politically-driven cyberattacks.

Over half (56 percent) of IT security leaders say that their non-technical staff are only 'somewhat' or 'not at all' prepared, for a cyberattack.

A new survey by Egress of 600 IT security leaders also shows that 77 percent of respondents have seen an increase in security compromises since going remote twp years ago, and there's a continued significant risk to organizations.

With virtually no fanfare, Microsoft has quietly launched the latest version of its datacenter management suite. Microsoft System Center 2022 is now generally available to cater for a range of IT environments, such as Windows Server, Azure Stack HCI and VMWare deployments.

The suite, which debuted back on 2008, includes System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), System Center Orchestrator (SCORCH), Service Manager (SM) and Data Protection Manager (DPM). But while Microsoft may be pushing System Center 2022 out of the door, it's fair to say that it is not yet complete.

It's now over three months since the Log4Shell vulnerability, affecting the Log4j logging framework, first appeared.

But new research from Randori shows that it's still giving headaches to enterprises and identifies the top 10 attackable targets.

With the COVID-19 pandemic and drive for digital transformation the shift to a new distributed workforce model continues at pace.

But this can also leave businesses vulnerable as attack vectors have become more sophisticated -- resulting in a continued shortage of security experts.