Print.IT Reseller - issue 73

01732 759725 14 BULLETIN Increase in data breaches IT company DSA Connect, predicts a huge increase in data breaches by British organisations as a result of the fallout from the coronavirus crisis. It warns this could add millions of pounds to the losses incurred by employers, but the true cost could take some time to unfold, because many data breaches can take 100 days or more to be discovered. The company says the increase in data breaches will be fuelled by a dramatic rise in phishing websites – up 350% between January to March 2020, and depleted workforces and employees having to work from home where they are more susceptible to cyber-attacks. Chairman Harry Benham, said: “In the wake of coronavirus and with more people working from home, fraudsters have stepped up their targeting of companies and their employees, and this dramatically increases the chances of data breaches.” www.dsa-connect.co.uk Survey finds younger generation struggling to be productive 89% of Generation Z and 91% of Millennial workers report difficulty working from home as a result of COVID-19, according to a global survey of professionals conducted by Engine Insights and commissioned by Smartsheet. Key findings include: 64% of Generation Z and 61% of Millennials in the UK feel the amount of time spent on video calls makes it hard to get their work done. 79% of the UK workforce feels less connected to their teams; young workers especially so with 85% of Generation Z and 81% of Millennials reporting this issue. Young workers feel less informed about what is going on within their company since they started working from home the most; with 79% of Generation Z and 69% of Millennials reporting this, versus 66% of Generation X and 67% of Boomers. “This research shows that the key to helping remote workers cope with the current circumstance, and thriving in the longer-term, goes far beyond simply connecting people and teams through video-based technology,” said Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader. “To be effective, people need to stay deeply connected to their work and the work of their teams. They also need context, structure, tracking, and visibility into their work. Providing those things is more important now than ever.” www.smartsheet.com Demand grows for UK’s hybrid tech sectors Job roles within tech increased by 40% in the first third of the year thanks to a surge in-demand within the ‘hybrid-tech sector’ – namely fintech, edtech, healthtech and agritech – according to global recruiter Robert Walters. Senior Manager – Technology Tom Chambers, said: “In the last few years, tech start-ups and scale-ups have received a notable amount of funding, and in the last few weeks alone we have seen government (as well as VCs) allocate more funding towards high demand industries. “Thanks to a strong talent pool and foundation in investment, the UK is in a very strong position globally to be able to continue on its trajectory. The current climate will be a hotbed for tech-savvy, entrepreneurial minds to launch or grow their business. These individuals may have no training at all in medicine, farming, or education, but bring expertise in data science and analytics, computing and behavioural economics.” www.robertwalters.com ISG forecasts increased spending The annual value of outsourcing deals in the EMEA region rose almost 4% in the first quarter of 2020, but would have grown at a higher rate had the impact of COVID-19 not hit the market in March. That’s according to the latest state-of-the-industry report from global technology research and advisory firm Information Services Group (ISG). The EMEA ISG Index , which measures commercial outsourcing contracts with annual contract value (ACV) of € 5 million (£4 million) or more, shows combined market ACV (including both as-a-service and managed services) in EMEA increased by 3.8% year on year, to € 4.5 billion (£3.9 billion). EMEA was on track to deliver 7-9% growth, but demand was curtailed by the pandemic, which first hit the region in early March. “Cloud is gaining more relevance every quarter as customers move from on-premises, capex- driven deals to an on-demand operating model,” said President Steve Hall. “This will only increase as COVID-19 highlights the importance of cloud- based infrastructure.” Hall expects that managed services should rebound by the second half of the year, “Overall, 2020 managed services ACV likely will be off 7%. In the as-a-service space, we see ACV being up 5% sequentially in the second quarter and up 12% for the full year,” he said. www.isg-one.com Mobile voice important communication channel As countries around the world impose strict travel restrictions and work from home arrangements, huge increases in home broadband usage are driven by conferencing tools, streaming media and gaming. But traditional mobile services are also exploding. GlobalData has identified that while the number of mobile calls remains roughly constant, mobile call length has risen substantially. Mobile voice and messaging are more convenient than PC-based communication, and the cellular network provides an alternate connectivity pool when the IP network is strained. Even though mobile networks are in the midst of a technical transition to enable 5G calling, they have been able to fix voice capacity bottlenecks quickly. www.globaldata.com