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éléments par Alasdair Gilchrist

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• 

  Millennials create IT challenges for UK businesses

  Publié: mars 21, 2016, 10:36pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  A new report released by Quocirca reveals that UK businesses are struggling to manage growing volumes of information and are failing to meet the demands and expectations of the modern workforce.

  The report looks at information management in today’s office environment, and how the modern workforce -- which is increasingly consisting of young millennials -- is changing the ways of working. The report also reveals that the traditional approaches to information management are struggling to keep up.

  According to Quocirca’s report -- supported by Sharp Business Solutions -- the rapid increase in millennial workers, which is expected to comprise 75 percent of all employees by 2025, has brought about new demands on IT. The report suggests that millennials are comfortable and most productive when communicating and collaborating using technologies and techniques that they are used to.

  However many of these technologies such as IM chat, private cloud storage, are not common, or at least not integrated with other systems in the traditional office environment, where procedures are still heavily reliant on spreadsheets and paper. Similarly, the modern workforce has similar preferences for the way they manage their data which brings with it specific requirements for how they gain and share information seamlessly in the workplace.

  However, the report notes that the adoption of an information management system (IMS) from a single strategic partner might be a possible solution. IMS co-ordinates the components of information capture, collaboration and output, allowing workers to access information and collaborate regardless of location or time.

  Alex Cardnell, Director, Corporate Division, Sharp Business Systems UK, says: "The lines between the physical and digital office are becoming increasingly blurred. This is creating a workplace where employees can communicate and collaborate in new and unprecedented ways -- however, if an organization remains reliant on paper-based processes, they will struggle to move forward".

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Image Credit: Maslowski Marcin / Shutterstock

  
• 

  Security is a major concern for Internet of Things users

  Publié: mars 21, 2016, 10:04am CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  A survey by mobile and Internet security firm BullGuard of over 6,000 UK residents has illustrated just how widespread the Internet of Things (IoT) has already become, while also highlighting serious security concerns among consumers.

  IoT is growing and will become more pervasive in the near future as consumers, whether knowingly or not connect more smart devices to the internet. Many consumer household items are now smart or internet enabled by default. Additionally over a quarter of consumers in the survey are planning to buy IoT devices in the next 12 months alone.

  However, BullGuard’s report reveals that 66 percent of consumers are "very concerned" or "highly concerned" about potential hacking and data theft carried out against their connected devices. The survey also discovered that 34 percent of respondents have already experienced a security incident or privacy problem in the past.

  "Consumers are clearly not equipped to handle the myriad of security risks presented by connected devices", said Paul Lipman, CEO of BullGuard. "With devices such as security cameras, alarm systems and door locks now being connected to the internet, physical security is becoming as much of a consideration for consumers as data security. Keeping these devices secure is absolutely imperative".

  Consumers are clearly looking to antivirus vendors to help them solve this problem; 44 percent of consumers believe antivirus vendors are responsible for securing their connected devices. The antivirus vendor was selected as the primary choice, even ahead of the device manufacturer and the ISP.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Image Credit: Ahmetov_Ruslan / Shutterstock

  
• 

  More than a third of UK universities are under attack every hour

  Publié: mars 18, 2016, 4:35pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  VMware today announced research revealing that over a third (36 percent) of UK universities are under attack by a cyber attack, on not just on a daily basis, but each hour. Furthermore, the attacks are so frequent and widespread that 83 percent of universities believe that cyber attacks are increasing in frequency and sophistication.

  VMware’s research shows that a high percentage of University campuses are being singled out and attacked due to their open architecture.

  • VMware believes that over a third (36 percent) are experiencing a successful cyber attack each hour and 87 percent of total universities report experiencing cyber attacks.
  • Twenty-five percent have had critical research data infiltrated and 43 percent have had student data such as dissertations attacked.
  • The report reveals that more than six in 10 (63 percent) of UK universities claim domestic students pose the biggest threat to data

  VMware’s report also shows that confidence is not high within Universities as a quarter of students admit to having critical intellectual property (IP) data infiltrated. This relates to highly confidential and valuable data including national defense, social, economic and medical research.

  Furthermore, more than two in five (43 percent) of respondents confirmed that they have had student IP infiltrated, including dissertation materials and exam results. Respondents believe that some of the greatest threats posed by cyber attacks to the data held by their organization come internally, with 63 percent claiming domestic students pose a threat to data.

  However, there is also a considerable financial impact, the ramifications of every breach are costly, with 79 percent citing damage to reputation, 77 percent a possible impact on national security and almost three quarters (74 percent) having had to halt a valuable research project.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo credit: arda savasciogullari / Shutterstock

  
• 

  IT pros: Security solutions are slowing down our systems

  Publié: mars 18, 2016, 10:20am CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Despite the inherent insecurities of the cybersecurity industry, a new report from Barkly, an endpoint security company, reveals that the biggest issue IT security teams have to face with current security solutions is that they slow down the system.

  When asked about the options of productivity vs security and the potential downfalls of security solutions, 41 percent of respondents said that they were dissatisfied with their current solution, not because it failed to deliver security, but because it slows down their system.

  If security products are slowing systems and by extension lowering productivity, then IT pros should consider whether or not their colleagues are taking insecure shortcuts to improve efficiency, such as using unauthorized third-party apps or connecting unsanctioned devices to the network.

  In addition to this system lag, as communications pass through firewalls and routers that slow down data transfer, IT professionals are also having to deal with too many updates (36 percent) and systems that are too expensive (33 percent) and provide no protection against zero-day attacks (33 percent).

  However, it seems that the C-level is more worried about insider threats. "This report proves that from the CISO to the entry-level IT pro, organizations must be better aligned when it comes to security. When there’s a disconnect in priorities, level of understanding and measurement, even a seemingly strong security initiative is destined to fail", said Jack Danahy, co-founder and CTO of Barkly.

  "Once teams understand each other’s priorities and concerns around security, they can implement the tools they really need, that will best protect their endpoints from ever-increasing, complex threats".

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: nito/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Limiting encryption affects security and competitiveness

  Publié: mars 15, 2016, 5:56pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a nonpartisan research and educational institute and policy think tank, today became the latest to come out and urge the US government not to limit the commercial use of encryption.

  In its new report, entitled Unlocking Encryption: Information Security and the Rule of Law, co-author Alan McQuinn -- an ITIF research assistant -- argued that restricting encryption for use by law abiding citizens and businesses would reduce overall security and be ineffective at keeping encryption out of the hands of terrorists.

  Furthermore, the report reveals that restricting encryption would instead lead to:

  • Decreased security. Encryption, is essential for the broader digital economy and society.
  • Decreased US competitiveness. The US tech sector is already losing global market share and this trend will be exacerbated if the U.S. government imposes restrictions on commercial encryption.

  "The most prominent voices in the encryption debate argue that we can have strong information security without sacrificing national security, or vice versa. But they are wrong. This is all about tradeoffs", said Daniel Castro, ITIF vice president and the report’s lead author. "We can't possibly know how much terrorism we might prevent by weakening encryption, but we can be sure that the economic and social costs of less secure information technology would be enormous. Today's global economy is built on information technology. Rather than knocking holes in it, the government should be doing everything it can to fortify our digital infrastructure".

  The ITIF urges the U.S. government to instead of restricting encryption to rebuild trust and strengthen data security at home; provide law enforcement with new tools to uphold the law, establish clear rules for government hacking and pursue a pro-cybersecurity foreign policy agenda.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo credit: Maksim Kabakou / Shutterstock

  
• 

  Amazon Web Services buys NICE to strengthen cloud offerings, boost customer base

  Publié: février 16, 2016, 8:46pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud computing arm, has bought the Italian software and service company NICE for an undisclosed sum. AWS is after NICE’s 2D and 3D desktop cloud virtualization software that allows 3D developers and game designers access to work remotely from any type of computer.

  This works because the hardware required to render the 3D images is supplied by the cloud not the computer that the developer is using to access their designs.

  Another reason that AWS could be interested in NICE is to gain access to European customers with high performance requirements, such as 3D games developers. After all just last year Amazon launched more C4 instances just for this type of high performance customer.

  At the time Amazon explained that those instances are meant for applications where CPU performance is paramount. These include "high-traffic front-end fleets, MMO gaming, media processing, transcoding, and High-Performance Computing (HPC) applications".

  Constellation Research founder, R Ray Wang believes AWS gets quite a bit out of this deal.
  "The NICE acquisition gives Amazon a good trove of IP, access to good clients and a good presence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). These IP capabilities help with performance and some newer features that can benefit the overall Amazon platform", Wang tells TechCrunch.

  For now at least, NICE will continue to operate as before, retaining its brand name, customers, and current projects.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: rvlsoft/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Women are excellent coders, according to GitHub research

  Publié: février 16, 2016, 5:18pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  A survey back in 2013 found that only 11.2 percent of software developers were female. Working then on the premise that males would be prejudiced against female coders work, a group of students has now studied the acceptance rate of GitHub pull-requests by gender.

  A pull-request is when volunteers submit work to a project and it receives some scrutiny by the project team, they often accept the work or reject it with some advice. What the study team has discovered is that 78 percent of work submitted by women was accepted, which compared favorably to only 74 percent for men.

  "Women’s acceptance rates dominate over men’s for every programming language in the top 10, to various degrees", the researchers find.

  The team then looked at submissions where the coder was clearly identifiable as a female, and to their dismay discovered that in this case females performed worse than their male colleagues did, suggesting a gender bias.

  However, not all female coders related to those results. Jenny Bryan, a professor of statistics and her profile makes clear that she is a woman: "The men I interact with in the R community on GitHub know me and, if my gender has any effect at all, I feel they go out of their way to support my efforts to learn and make more contributions".

  Lorna Jane Mitchell, a software developer whose work is almost entirely based on GitHub, said, "that it was impossible to tell whether a pull request was ignored out of bias, or just because a project owner was busy or knew another developer personally".

  Elizabeth Eastaugh, a director of technology at Expedia comments: "The GitHub analysis is not only indicative of gender bias in web development, but a sign that the lack of all diversity is still a huge problem in the tech world. Looking at the approval rates at the quality of code for women compared to men when the developer’s gender is concealed is quite demoralizing. But it is crucial that these results don’t dissuade minorities from revealing their identities in the future. In fact, it should spur them on to do the opposite".

  "It’s important that people realize that minority groups do exist in the tech industry, and it’s also crucial that these minorities do not feel isolated in their respective fields. The technology industry needs more C-level role models who dispel the notion that great success is the preserve of well-educated white men", adds Eastaugh.

  "The findings should by no means justify the decision to hide your gender, because identifying yourself as female in a primarily male-dominated industry is extremely important. And the issue of inclusion and diversity shouldn’t just end with gender -- it should incorporate race, sexuality and disability as well", concludes Eastaugh.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Rawpixel

  
• 

  Mac tool vulnerability exposes lots of apps to man-in-the-middle attacks

  Publié: février 11, 2016, 8:29pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  A security specialist has discovered a flaw in Sparkle, a third-party framework that Mac apps use to receive updates, which makes a man in the middle attack possible when unencrypted HTTP connections are used.

  If the attacker has the ability to intercept the unencrypted data stream for example on a public Wi-Fi hotspot they could possibly inject malicious code.

  The number of apps affected is unknown, but researchers believe there to be a significant number. Some of the known vulnerable apps are; Camtasia 2 v2.10.4, DuetDisplay v1.5.2.4, uTorrent v1.8.7, and Sketch v3.5.1. as well as Hopper reverse engineering tool and DXO Optics Pro, amongst many others.

  However, not all apps that use Sparkle are susceptible, only ones that use HTTP instead of HTTPS and use a vulnerable version of Sparkle are at risk. Sparkle has issued an update, however the security specialist, Radek, who originally discovered the flaws warns in an email, that it is not a trivial process to apply it.

  This process requires [a developer] to:

  • Download the newest version of Sparkle Updater
  • Check if new version of Sparkle is compatible with the app
  • Create some test cases, verify update and so on
  • Address this vulnerability and publish new version of the app

  Now, this is the moment when people can check for an update and replace this particular app version on their Macs with the newest one.

  It all depends on the complexity of an application, its size and maintainers. That’s the reason why some developers don’t want to update or can’t update Sparkle in their applications (quickly enough).

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo credit: wk1003mike / Shutterstock

  
• 

  Microsoft Azure IoT hub is now available -- here's what you need to know

  Publié: février 5, 2016, 9:32pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Microsoft has released the latest component of its cloud IoT suite, the Azure IoT hub, which was first announced back in September.

  Azure IoT Hub is designed to make it easy to connect IoT devices to the cloud as well as allowing bidirectional communication, with device to cloud telemetry and cloud to device commands.

  These bidirectional messages are then secured and authenticated, thereby ensuring privacy and confidentiality. Additionally, Azure IoT Hub provides access to libraries for all the most popular languages and platforms, which provide the tools to reliably and securely make the connection to the solution back-end.

  If you are unable to use the libraries then Azure IoT Hub also exposes a range of public protocols and extensibility such as AMQP 1.0 and HTTP 1.1, as well as MQTT via the Azure gateway protocol. Azure IoT Hub can also scale to millions of connected devices and simultaneously millions of events per second making it suitable for even the largest field deployments.

  However what differentiates Azure IoT Hub from the many other services and platforms is its processing power, with the ability to process millions of events per second on your hot path by using an event processor engine. It can also store them on your cold path for analysis. IoT Hub retains the event data for up to seven days to guarantee reliable processing and to absorb peaks in the load.

  Microsoft’s policy is to charge for Azure IoT hub on a per-message basis, in both directions, for example whether from a device to cloud, or from the cloud to a device. However, Microsoft does offers a free trial that lets users try out the service with up to 500 devices and sending up to 8,000 messages per day.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Image Credit: Ahmetov_Ruslan / Shutterstock

  
• 

  Lenovo fixes SHAREit security flaw

  Publié: janvier 28, 2016, 9:04pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Lenovo has issued updates to address a hard-coded password flaw and other security issues with its file sharing utility SHAREit.

  Lenovo has addressed a serious flaw in its PC and Android versions of SHAREit, which enabled anyone on a LAN or wireless hotspot to potentially view and copy files from another computer or device running the SHAREit application. Though that was always the intention of the application -- to make file sharing painless -- it was probably not intended to be so open to anyone.

  The flaw was down to a hard-coded password that authenticated users and allowed them to connect to any other computer on a LAN or wireless connection running SHAREit and view and even download files. The password that was embedded in the code "12345678", was discovered by security firm Core Security, which informed Lenovo back in October 2015. In addition to being hard-coded the password was also persistent, in that it could not be changed by the user.

  However, Lenovo’s security lapses were not confined to such a poor practice as hard-coding a persistent password that the user was unable to change, they also managed on the Android versions to have no password at all, which allowed any Android device to connect on a Wi-FI connection at will.

  Furthermore, Core Security also discovered other security flaws, such as files were transferred using HTTP without any encryption making them vulnerable to eavesdropping or man in the middle attacks.

  Lenovo has made several changes to SHAREit. The vulnerable SHAREit versions are the Android 3.0.18_ww and Windows 2.5.1.1 packages. Lenovo has since updated versions for Windows is 3.2.0 and 3.5.38_ww for Android. Windows users should see a prompt to update the next time the application is opened.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: jijomathaidesigners/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Alibaba launches big data cloud platform in China

  Publié: janvier 25, 2016, 8:32pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  The Alibaba Group is launching a "big data" cloud platform which it plans will make data asset technology widely available throughout China.

  Alibaba Cloud Computing (AliCloud), said on Thursday that the cloud "Big Data Platform" would offer an initial 20 products or solutions and services, which would cover all aspects of the so-called data development chain. This includes data services and visualization products that assist with data processing and analysis, but also provide a compute engine with capabilities for machine learning.

  In technology, Big Data refers to extremely large or complex data sets of structured and unstructured information that is produced as a by-product of a companies operations, and can include data as diverse, as text messages, video clips, photographs, web site comments as well as tradition SQL structured data from databases. Big data can be stored in No-SQL (not-only SQL) style data repositories in private or public clouds and be analyzed with high-performance computers to spot patterns, trend and associations.

  "The Big Data Platform fulfills our vision of sharing our vast data troves that will create immense value to our users", AliCloud president Simon Hu said at the launch in Shanghai.

  "What we want to do at Alibaba is turn the data-processing capacity and data-security capabilities that we’ve accumulated over the last decade into a product, so that data becomes a resource and a service that we can provide our clients".

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: Christopher Penler/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Docker buys Unikernel Systems

  Publié: janvier 25, 2016, 12:08pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Docker, the Californian technology company behind the open source virtual container platform, has announced the acquisition of Unikernel Systems, a Cambridge-based startup.

  Unikernel Systems has a rather unique product that Docker plans to integrate into its own tools and services as it views a future beyond just containers. The integration of Unikernels into Docker would allow developers to build even more efficient microservice architectures.

  What makes Unikernels interesting is that it brings fine tuned specialization to virtualization by not just duplicating and isolating full OS kernels, but by minimizing the functionality to a bare minimum to run a specific application. What this means is that when compiling the OS kernel it would only add libraries required by the specific application it would be running.

  The result of isolation and specialization of the OS kernel is a very slick, fast, finely tuned OS with a tiny security footprint, which is ideally suited to very high performance and high security applications, for example financial trading floor applications and with an eye to the future Internet of Things.

  Docker founder and CTO, Solomon Hykes, admits that though this might be a rather obscure acquisition, Docker is actually acquiring a team with very deep technical knowledge, which will allow Docker to be more aggressive in addressing problems deeper in the stack.

  However, it also fits with Docker’s desire to move away from just containers and push forward microservices as an ecosystem, and unikernels then make perfect sense.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: bleakstar/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Oracle reveals Google's revenue from Android

  Publié: janvier 25, 2016, 10:04am CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  There’s been a new twist in the litigation between Oracle and Google over copyright infringement, after Oracle claimed Google breached copyright by inappropriate use of Java in Android.

  A lawyer representing Oracle has now made the astonishing revelation, in court, that Google revenue from Android, since 2008, is $31 billion. This staggering figure relates to $22 in profit derived from Google’s two Android revenue streams, advertising on mobile Android platforms and the revenue it receives from sales on Google’s Android app store.

  "Look at the extraordinary magnitude of commerciality here", Oracle attorney Annette Hurst told a federal magistrate judge. However, Google is furious as she revealed Android revenue and profit, which should have never been publicly disclosed. Indeed Google claims that Oracle's attorney improperly disclosed "extremely sensitive information" from documents that were marked "Attorney’s Eyes Only".

  As a result, Google has urged the San Francisco federal judge to redact and seal portions of the public transcript of last week’s hearing, "Google does not publicly allocate revenues or profits to Android separate and apart from Google’s general business", the company said in the filing.

  "That non-public financial data is highly sensitive, and public disclosure could have significant negative effects on Google’s business".

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

  
• 

  Qualcomm will manufacture server chips in China

  Publié: janvier 19, 2016, 8:42pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Qualcomm has entered an agreement with the Chinese province of Guizhou to enter into a joint venture to develop chips for server systems.

  This is the latest bold step by Qualcomm, which is keen to expand from relying on manufacturing chips for the smartphone and communications market. Though this could be seen as a risky strategy as Intel dominates the server chip domain with over 90 percent of the market, and with addition worries regarding both the Chinese economy and the global drop in technology demand, Qualcomm is pressing ahead with a $280 million dollar commitment for a 45 percent stake.

  For China, the joint venture (55 percent) is in line with recent government policy to try and turn the province of Guizhou (with its 35 million residents) into a technology and cloud hub. The country's policy to strive to become less reliant on US technology, both in server semiconductors and also back-office systems has seen China launch several antitrust investigations against both Qualcomm and Microsoft in recent months.

  Qualcomm agreed both during and after the investigation to commit $150 million to Chinese startups and also announced a further collaboration with a Chinese semiconductor company to make Qualcomm semiconductors. However, Qualcomm’s move into the server chip market is risky as it is licensing ARM Holdings technology despite failing to ship a product since first announcing its intention to enter the market in 2014. However, there is little doubt that there is an appetite for more competition in the server chip marketplace.

  "Data center customers would prefer more than one participant in the supply chain", said Anand Chandrasekher, a Qualcomm senior vice president, in reference to Intel. "Having multiple players will speed up innovation".

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: EDHAR/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Cyber attacks on industrial Internet of Things are on the rise

  Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 12:34pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  The United States government has revealed that it has detected a rise in cyber criminal attacks on industrial control systems.

  The concern is that with leading manufactures and grid power producers’ early adoption of the industrial internet of things -- and Industry 4.0 which are commercial and industry versions of the Internet of Things -- sufficient safeguards have not been put in place to protect them from the internet.

  Previously, these industrial companies had systems that were securely locked down and not connected or accessible to the outside world. The Industrial internet of Things (IIoT) has changed all that though, with companies embracing the internet to leverage remote control and management on a global basis.

  There is also the new commercial and business model of utilizing big data collection and analytics, which requires cloud storage and internet access. However, opening up industrial and commercial systems to the Internet has also opened doors to potential attacks.

  Not only is the potential scale of attacks far larger from an internet scale perspective, most industrial IT firms do not have the battle hardened skills of dealing with web scale attacks as they are accustomed to dealing with a fortress approach to IT security.

  "We see more and more that are gaining access to that control system layer", said Marty Edwards, who runs the Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, or ICS-CERT. "I am very dismayed at the accessibility of some of these networks... they are just hanging right off the tubes".

  Dave Palmer, director of Technology at Darktrace also commented: "This marks a dangerous and long predicted shift in the targets of hackers where industrial control systems and basic infrastructure is at risk in addition to the banking and credit card attacks we are used to hearing about".

  "If attacks move beyond intellectual property theft and intelligence collection to disrupting or destroying critical infrastructure then, more than ever, organizations within this sector really need to ensure that they have the right strategies and immune systems in place to detect emerging threats and respond to them before a crisis occurs", adds Palmer.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Image credit: Gustavo Frazao / Shutterstock

  
• 

  Microsoft announces new flagship event for business leaders

  Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 9:49am CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Microsoft has introduced a new flagship event for business leaders, called Microsoft Envision, which will take place in New Orleans between April 4 and April 6, and registration is open now.

  Microsoft Envision is designed to replace Microsoft Convergence as the premier event for business leaders such as CxOs and their senior department and functional leaders.

  Microsoft Envision is, according to Microsoft, for those who drive the future and position their organizations and business IT strategy for success in the new mobile and cloud centric world.

  Envision therefore is targeted at business leaders and so attendees of Microsoft Envision should expect to gain insights and uncover solutions. More importantly attendees are likely to build connections and exchange ideas at the strategic visionary level.

  Microsoft has revealed that the event In New Orleans will include:

  • Keynotes and interactive sessions with a broad slate of visionaries, experts and innovators
  • Functional and industry-specific content to provide relevant insights and solutions
  • Opportunities to build valuable connections that last beyond the event

  Thankfully, for those of us with a less lofty position and a more practical than visionary perspective, Microsoft Ignite will continue and address the concerns and provide hands-on labs, demos and access to product experts.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  
• 

  Windows 10 adoption is strong among home users, lags behind in the enterprise

  Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 4:41pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Windows 10 seems to be building a core user base very nicely, just as Microsoft said when it revealed last week that it now runs on 200 million devices.

  However, a study in the US suggests that most of those devices are in homes, not offices.
  The study is based on US government data expressed as each Windows version’s percentage share of the total of Windows traffic reaching federal web sites.

  What the study revealed was that Monday to Friday traffic was dominated by Windows 7 machines, circa 70 percent of all traffic visiting US federal sites, with the remaining 30 percent consisting of Windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows 10. However what is of interest is at weekends the proportions changed with Windows 7 traffic dropping considerably whilst windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows 10 rose sharply. This trend was most noticeable during the festive holidays when most businesses were closed.

  Microsoft won’t be too upset by these revelations, as it knows that businesses are expected to take longer to migrate to a new operating system than consumers, what with all the complications that accompany a large-scale move. After all it took years to persuade businesses to upgrade from the flagship product Windows XP -- indeed most had to be forced to by Microsoft stopping support for its beloved product.

  Microsoft is, however, doing its best to move things along by adopting tactics such as stopping pre-loaded versions of Windows 7 and discontinuing support for Internet Explorer.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo credit: tanuha2001 / Shutterstock

  
• 

  DevOps adoption is limited among UK businesses

  Publié: janvier 13, 2016, 3:04pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  According to a new study sponsored by CA Technologies and conducted in partnership with Freeform Dynamics, more than two-thirds of UK organizations claim they have broadly implemented DevOps or have done so in selected areas of the business.

  However, only 11 percent of UK organizations have implemented DevOps across at least six different business areas.

  The study highlights the essential attributes for DevOps success, grouped in three main areas: a business-led approach, skilled and collaborative IT resources and the adoption of key controls. UK organizations are currently falling short in all these areas.

  The survey reveals that with regards these three essential attributes, 84 percent of UK organizations agree it is important to have IT and business alignment in relation to current or potential DevOps related activities, but only 36 percent have this in place. Furthermore, some 87 percent agree it is important to have the relevant IT skills in place, but only 24 percent currently do so.

  Also in terms of having the right controls in place, 85 percent agree it is important to deal with the security and compliance challenges surrounding the DevOps methodology, but only 20 percent have already achieved this.

  However, there is no question about the demand for the DevOps methodology among UK organizations. More than two-thirds (67 percent) have broadly implemented DevOps.

  "This study reveals that UK organizations are missing out on the opportunities heralded by the application economy, because they are failing to adopt a fluid and experimental approach to product and service development", says Ritu Mahandru, VP Solution Sales, CA Technologies. "Digital interaction with customers, partners and suppliers increasingly takes place through applications, apps and online services".

  "To innovate new customer experiences, be more agile and grow revenues, UK organizations require a much more rapid and continuous delivery of value to create competitive advantage, while simultaneously allowing IT to become more responsive and efficient".

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Image Credit: Stock Rocket / Shutterstock

  
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  Dell expands Latitude lineup with new laptops and hybrid devices

  Publié: janvier 8, 2016, 8:46pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Dell has announced an expanded lineup of Latitude laptops, 2-in-1 devices and monitors at CES 2016 in Las Vegas. The new Latitude products are: Latitude 13 7000, Latitude 12 7000 and Latitude 11 5000.

  The Latitude 3000, 5000 and 7000 Series have been completely refreshed with thin and light designs, excellent efficiency and powerful processing options.

  The Dell Latitude 13 7000 Series Ultrabook

  Dell claims this is the world’s smallest 13-inch business-class Ultrabook. With a robust build, the Latitude 13 can endure the rigour of business-use. The Ultrabook comes with an InfinityEdge display, which has an ultra-thin bezel around the screen maximising the viewing area for for presentations, documents and videos. In addition, the Latitude 13 contains the industry-standard USB Type-C allowing one cable for docking, power, video, audio and data.

  It also includes Thunderbolt 3 for 8x faster data transfer than USB 3.0, allowing end users to power two 4k displays simultaneously. The laptop offers extended battery life and advanced security features – including a smartcard reader, fingerprint reader, RFID reader, and security and encryption software.

  Dell Latitude 12 7000 Series 2-in-1

  According to Dell, this is one of the lightest 12.5-inch 2-in-1s available and provides the best of both worlds for those who want the full functionality of a laptop, that is easily converted into a tablet. With a slim 8mm screen, hardened glass and a magnesium unibody build, the 7000 is the only business 2-in-1 with a 4K UltraSharp UHD touch display.

  The Dell Latitude 11 5000 Series 2-in-1 is a thin, lightweight 10.8-inch business-class 2-in-1 Designed with beautiful, premium materials including lightweight magnesium and hardened glass. With a weight of just 1.56 pounds, the 2-in-1 is a simple, portable device that provides a seamless transition between tablet and laptop modes with strong pen accuracy for capturing hand-written inputs via the optional stylus.

  

  In addition, Dell also announced 3 new monitors, its first Dell UltraSharp 30 OLED monitor with 4K HD resolution, the Dell UltraSharp InfinityEdge monitors, and the Dell UltraSharp 24 Wireless monitor.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  
• 

  Hybrid IT systems hinder innovation

  Publié: janvier 7, 2016, 5:56pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Research from Sungard Availability Services, a provider of information availability through managed IT, cloud and recovery services, has revealed a dark side to hybrid IT systems.

  Sungard’s findings based on a study which questioned 150 senior IT decision makers in UK organizations with more than 500 employees with an average IT spend of around £36m per year, found that over half of UK organizations believe that the complexity of their IT environment is hindering their ability to innovate.

  This is a worrying statistic given that hybrid systems are intended to accelerate agility rather than stifle innovation. Sungard revealed that as increasing numbers of businesses turn to the hybrid IT strategy, IT complexity is accelerating with nearly half (47 percent) of the UK IT decision makers rating their current IT environment as either very or extremely complex.

  To quantify this complexity, respondents are indicating that hybrid IT is adding significant cost to the running of IT estates, with nearly a third of UK organizations (31 percent) having seen an increase in operating costs thanks to hybrid IT, adding an average of £251,868 every year. Ironically, over half (53 percent) of IT decision makers claimed that the complexity of their Hybrid IT estate is hindering innovation in their organization.

  As Badreddine Laroussi, Group CIO, TDA Capital, commented: "The whole point of moving to a hybrid IT approach is to increase business agility. Technology is changing all the times, with new applications and services appearing on a weekly basis -- organizations need an approach that can take advantage of this, allowing the right solutions to be brought into the IT estate whenever they become available"

  "Of course, this requires careful planning: which applications would suit a cloud environment and which would be better elsewhere? Do you have the skill sets needed to make a success of this approach?".

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Image Credit: docstockmedia / Shutterstock

  
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  Intel Curie arrives this quarter, costs under $10

  Publié: janvier 7, 2016, 10:25am CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced new details today at CES 2016 in Las Vegas regarding the button-sized wearable hardware module, Curie. The Intel Curie module features 32-bit Intel Quark SE SoC, (system on a Chip) and runs for extended periods on a coin-sized battery.

  Intel unveiled the Curie SoC module a year ago, and demonstrated it through a partnership with BMX to develop the first smart BMX bike. Curie was able to measure through sensors on the seat and handlebars of the bike the speed and movement metrics. However, now the button sized SoC module is being used on athletic sports clothing to bring the same analytical capabilities to all athletes. "We believe it will change how athletes are judged, how they train", Krzanich said.

  However, it isn’t just athletes that Intel are targeting the Curie to, as they have also entered a collaboration partnership with Lady Gaga in a bid to advance its role in the next generation of computing. Krzanich said, "this project will showcase technology through creativity at the highest level" that will be shown off during the Grammy Awards in February 2016. "You will all literally be blown away".

  Intel were more specific regards another sporting collaboration effort with ESPN, which will start with the X Games in Aspen in 2016. Intel plans that the low power Intel Curie module will be integrated into the Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle and Men’s Snowboard Big Air competitions, where it will help to provide real-time data on athlete performance on in-air rotations, jump height, jump distance, speed, and force on landing.

  The Intel Curie module features Bluetooth Low Energy and a 6-axis combo sensor that includes accelerometers and gyroscopes. Furthermore, The Intel Curie module comes with a complete software platform that includes Intel IQ Software kits to make it easier to create applications even faster.

  Intel says that Curie, the button sized module, will begin shipping this quarter and will cost less than $10.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: Rose Carson/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Nvidia unveils Drive PX2 solution for autonomous vehicles

  Publié: janvier 6, 2016, 9:03pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  At CES 2016, NVIDIA has announced the release of its Drive PX2 which is the company’s latest offering in the autonomous vehicle hardware market. NVIDIA hopes that the Drive PX2 will provide the ability to train, optimize and develop the neural networks which will be the foundation of self-driving cars in the future.

  Several earlier NVIDIA components combine to form the Drive PX2 such as DIGITS and DriveWorks. However, Drive PX 2 hardware is also the successor to the Tegra-powered Drive PX released last year with the new Drive PX 2 representing  a major computational power jump with 12 CPU cores and two discrete "Pascal"-based GPUs.

  A GPU represents a form of accelerated computing as it uses a graphics processing unit (GPU) together with a CPU to accelerate scientific, analytics, engineering, consumer, and enterprise applications.

  NVIDIA has not revealed the full specifications yet, but it has made certain details available. For example, the Drive PX2 consists of two Tegra SoCs (System on a Chip) along with two liquid cooled GPUs.

  The liquid cooling consists of a large metal block with traditional copper tubing delivering liquid via an external radiator. This is required to dissipate the excess heat delivered from a total of 12 CPU cores, including eight ARM Cortex A57 cores and four "Denver" cores.

  The Drive PX2 will draw a maximum of 250 watts and will offer up to 8 TFLOPS of computational horsepower and 24 trillion "deep learning operations per second". This makes the Drive PX 2 -- according to NVIDIA -- 10 times faster than it’s predecessor at running these specialized instructions and has nearly 4 times the computational horsepower when it comes to TLOPS.

  Similar to the original Drive PX, the driving AI platform can accept and process the inputs of up to 12 video cameras. It can also handle LiDAR, RADAR, and ultrasonic sensors.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo credit: 360b / Shutterstock

  
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  LattePanda is a Windows 10 mini PC that costs just $79

  Publié: décembre 30, 2015, 11:12am CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  We have all seen hobbyists and IoT developers working on computers on a board such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino that run Linux, but now there is a full computer on a board that runs Windows 10.

  This mighty processor board that costs from $79 (£53) boasts the power to do anything that a PC can. This means it can create Office documents, run HD videos and behave exactly like a home PC.

  The brand name LattePanda comes pre-installed with a full edition of Windows 10, including powerful tools such as Visual Studio, NodeJS and Java. However it is the hardware where LattePanda excels as it features a quad-core 1.8Ghz processor, 2/4G RAM, 32/64 GB eMMC, WIFI, Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 3.0, plus onboard Arduino processor.

  LattePanda is the most powerful computer for its size, compared to other OS-on-a-board products, making it ideal for robotics/IoT projects. You can easily design or upgrade projects by connecting several high resolution cameras or Kinect to give your robot its own eyes. What’s more you can use it as a laptop replacement or as a low cost regular Windows computer.

  LattePanda is also designed with an Arduino compatible processor, which means it even can help you to control and sense the physical world, which suits any potential IoT projects. After all it’s a powerful and portable (tiny) Windows 10 computer, you can embed it anywhere to collect and analyze data in real time.

  With onboard WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and Ethernet connectivity, data transmission is already built in, so it can be deployed anywhere. The LattePanda will be ready for batch production and shipment to customers in February 2016.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  
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  Microsoft acquires analytics startup Metanautix

  Publié: décembre 22, 2015, 9:05am CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Microsoft has announced that it has acquired Metanautix, a startup company that was developing its Quest data compute engine which aims to help large enterprises filter through their vast amounts of in-house data.

  Metanautix, which was co-founded in 2012 by Theo Vassilakis and Toli Lerios, was launched in September 2014 after raising $7 million of funding after Quest had been two years in development.

  "Metanautix started out with the vision to integrate the data supply chain by building the Quest data compute engine that enables scalable SQL access to any data", said Vassilakis. "Three years in, we can take this work to the next level by joining forces with Microsoft. We look forward to being part of Microsoft’s important efforts with Azure and SQL Server to give enterprise customers a unified view of all of their data across cloud and on-premises systems".

  Microsoft announced the acquisition by describing Metanautix as an innovative company helping to solve one of the biggest challenges in the world of data analytics: How can a company bring all of its data together for analytics to gain powerful insights, discover new opportunities and drive growth through intelligent automation?

  The problem with data analytics is that companies store vast quantities of data but they spread it across many databases and stores, meaning they can only run analytics on a fraction of the data. What Quest sets out to do is to allow large companies to connect all those data sources and silos, so that analytics can be performed on the whole of the data regardless of type, size or location.

  Microsoft described Quest as: "a solution that can integrate data across traditional data warehouses like SQL Server, Oracle and Teradata; open source NoSQL databases such as MongoDB and Cassandra; as well as business systems like Salesforce.com and wide array of other cloud and on-premises data stores".

  "Key to Metanautix’ approach is making a wide variety of data query-able by SQL, the most widely used data query language -- at speed and high scale".

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo credit: 360b / Shutterstock.com

  
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  Enterprise mobility will be the main IT focus in 2016

  Publié: décembre 18, 2015, 10:20pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  According to a new report from Harris Poll announced this week, enterprise mobility will top IT investments in 2016. The survey reveals that more than 90 percent of IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) see enterprise mobility as the critical function for customer engagement, competitiveness and operational productivity in 2016.

  Additionally, nearly three in four (73 percent) respondents indicate that they intend to mobilize their whole organization.

  The online survey, which fielded 306 ITDMs to understand the technology outlook for 2016, defined enterprise mobility as business applications and data that are seamlessly accessible anywhere regardless of location on desktops or mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and wearables. The survey revealed that 87 percent of ITDM respondents’ reported enterprise mobility as critical to their company’s profitability.

  Matt Calkins, president and CEO of Appian said, "Companies are shifting their focus from mobile applications to full enterprise mobility. IT professionals understand that a strategic focus on mobile apps will fail to deliver the full digital transformation that must occur within the enterprise".

  The key industries most likely to adopt enterprise mobility in 2016 were found to be telecommunications (40 percent), financial services (36 percent), manufacturing (34 percent), energy and utilities (32 percent), healthcare / pharmaceutical (32 percent), transportation (32 percent) and retail (31 percent).

  In addition to the overall findings, an overwhelming majority (92 percent) of respondents agree that new approaches are required to mobilizing an entire enterprise, with approximately 85 percent agreeing that custom software applications are key drivers.

  Moreover, the top drivers for custom applications are: efficiency (56 percent), security (53 percent) and speed (48 percent); about four in ten respondents also reported operational productivity and customer engagement (37 percent) as their top drivers.

  However, there were also concerns with nearly all ITDMs (95 percent) citing obstacles and technical challenges for achieving full enterprise mobility in 2016. Of those, 64 percent cited agility, speed and security as the major concerns.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Image Credit: Syda Productions / Shutterstock

  
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  IT pros want more storage to keep up with the times

  Publié: décembre 18, 2015, 6:17pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  A survey commissioned by X-IO Technologies reveals that almost half of IT professionals (48 percent) do not believe their current storage array would work with the next generation of storage media

  Furthermore, more than a half (57 percent) of IT professionals expect that their budgets are going to shrink or at the very least stay the same in 2016. This may indicate that any further changes to their storage requirements, especially in the wake of the IOT hype and big data explosion might not find a budget.

  The survey, carried out by X-IO Technologies in October 2015, asked 300 IT professional respondents about their current and future storage requirements.

  "The survey reveals the confusion that businesses are experiencing over the ever-changing storage market", said Gavin McLaughlin VP at X-IO Technologies, "What is clear, is that companies do not have the budget to keep changing their storage arrays in an attempt to second guess the market. We’ve deliberately engineered all of our products to give companies flexibility in both media choice and implementation (SAN or SDS) methodologies. It’s also important to us to let our customers change their minds later down the line".

  This lack of priority to company storage budgets leaves businesses with severe storage challenges -- especially now with Big Data and the IoT having such prime importance -- such as consistent write I.O performance, moving data to the cloud and choosing between SAN and software-defined.

  Other key findings include that 43 percent of IT users need improved storage performance in 2016, 39 percent want to increase storage capacity in 2016 and 48 percent of respondents agreed that the storage they invested in 5 years ago, was barely fit for purpose now.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock

  
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  Microsoft Office 365 now offers a project management app

  Publié: décembre 16, 2015, 11:08am CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Microsoft has announced the release of a preview and testing version of its new lightweight project management application -- Planner.

  The application -- originally codenamed Highlander -- was released for initial evaluation to those customers who have one of the following Microsoft licenses:

  • Office 365 Enterprise E1,
  • Office 365 Enterprise E3,
  • Office 365 Enterprise E4,
  • Office 365 Enterprise E5,
  • Office 365 Education
  • Office 365 Education E3,
  • Office 365 Education E4,
  • Office 365 Business Essentials
  • Office 365 Business Premium

  Administrators who have any one of these packages can set up Planner and Microsoft hopes the initial preview release will be available to all first release customers worldwide in the next few weeks.

  Microsoft Planner, is a lightweight version of Microsoft’s Project, and integrates with Office 365 groups. Each new plan created within Planner automatically will create a new 365 group. Similarly, each existing 365 group will be assigned its own associated plan.

  This is just the latest addition to Microsoft’s first release program, which allows customers to designate some of their users to get an early release version of Microsoft products for evaluation and testing purposes. Previous offerings in the early release program, were Sharepoint Online and OneDrive for Business which were later added to the Office 365 package.

  A similar program is also in place for those customers who have Office 365 ProPlus and Office 365 Business subscriptions. Microsoft will now offer these customers an early release program of the early builds of the Office Client.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  
• 

  How fast is Google's quantum computer compared to a PC?

  Publié: décembre 11, 2015, 2:58pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Even Google’s artificial intelligence research labs can sometimes find that they just don’t have enough computing power available to them. This is despite Google owning powerful computers that just about any country in the world.

  As a result of finding some problems in the AI field too difficult to solve using conventional computers, Google has turned its interest to quantum computers. These systems can solve problems that traditional PC computers just cannot handle. This is because quantum systems tap into the mystic world of quantum mechanics.

  To satisfy its ambitions, Google acquired the Canadian company D-Wave Systems as part of its ambitious plans to accelerate their machine learning programs, which will facilitate everything from faster search to health focused businesses. Google’s interest was fueled by its desire to get hold of the D-Waves x-2, the first quantum computer that has a 1,000 qu-bits quantum processor, which Google claims is 100 million times faster than a conventional one core PC.

  Google’s Hartmut Neven, head of the Quantum AI Lab, explains: "We found that for problem instances involving nearly 1,000 binary variables, quantum annealing significantly outperforms its classical counterpart, simulated annealing. It is more than 10 to the power of 8 times faster than simulated annealing running on a single core".

  Some serious caveats around the D-Wave’s computer as it can perform only a limited set of quantum calculations, and just a few people know how to shape problems suitably for its purpose. As a result, Google has running only limited test operations on the D-Wave system, rather than the code used in the company’s day-to-day operations.

  Despite being confident that its quantum computer can blitz a single-core PC -- others have been skeptical about the D-Wave x-2’s capabilities -- the technology is unlikely to move into production anytime soon, as Neven explained.

  "While these results are intriguing and very encouraging, there is more work ahead to turn quantum-enhanced optimization into a practical technology".

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo credit: kentoh / Shutterstock

  
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  Google adds data loss prevention tool to Gmail

  Publié: décembre 11, 2015, 9:51am CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Google is striving to improve the security protection for its business product Google for Work by introducing data loss prevention for its popular services such as Gmail.

  DLP is an enterprise technology that aims to reduce the data leakage of confidential and valuable data from the business. The common ways that data leakage occurs is through emails and storing files to employee’s personal cloud storage services.

  By providing DLP on its Gmail services for business, Google hope to mitigate the risks of data leakage through its popular email service. The way DLP works is that a gateway device sits and monitors traffic leaving the business via the internet firewall/gateway.

  By inspecting the content of outgoing emails, the text and attachments, against preconfigured rules and file categorization, DLP can intercept and block emails that contain confidential or valuable data from leaving the business. An example, of this type of valuable data could be for example an email that contains text detailing a customer’s personal details such as their credit card numbers.

  DLP is very efficient but does require an initial administrator’s time to go through and categorise all the files and set them priorities. DLP can check against information at rest (in a database), in action (being used by an application) or in motion (traveling across the wire).

  Furthermore, administrators can use specific keywords or expressions to create their own powerful filters, and then determine the action taken. For example, an email may be blocked, returned to the sender to edit, or placed in quarantine for further examination. However, in each case the sender will be automatically informed of the situation.

  Google says, "Starting today, if you’re a Google Apps Unlimited customer, Data Loss Prevention for Gmail will add another layer of protection to prevent sensitive information from being revealed to those who shouldn’t have it".

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

  Photo Credit: Bloomua/Shutterstock

  
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  Samsung's first 128 GB DDR4 RAM modules for servers go into production

  Publié: novembre 27, 2015, 7:32pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

  

  Samsung has announced that it is starting mass production of the industry’s first "through silicon via" (TSV) 128GB DDR4 memory modules for high-end enterprise and data centre servers.

  This news follows on from its successful introduction of the 64GB 3D TSV DDR4 DRAM last year, which was an industry first.

  Samsung’s latest TSV DRAM module are the highest capacity and most efficient of any DRAM modules presently available on the market. Samsung also claims that it will produce superior performance, power efficiency and excellent reliability.

  In case you were wondering what a 128 GB TSV DDR4 memory module is, it is a ultra high capacity memory board made up of 36, 4GB DRAM packages. However, instead of using wire bonding, the TSV packages use chip dies that are only a few micrometers thick, which are pierced with microscopic holes that are connected to electrodes passed through the holes. It is these vertical connections to the electrodes, which accounts for the major increase in signal transmission.

  It is this innovative technological design, which enables the memory module to provide a high memory, yet low-power solution for next-generation and data centre servers. The memory modules can reach peak speeds of up to 2,400Mbps,that’s nearly twice the performance of current technology and with 50 per cent power efficiency.

  Samsung also intends to introduce TSV DRAM modules that bring data transfer speeds of up to 2,667Mbps and 3,200Mbps to meet enterprise server needs in the near future.

  Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.