Technology Reseller v11

01732 759725 BULLETIN : TRENDS 06 In its new report, D efining Four Edge Archetypes and their Technology Requirements , Vertiv, formerly Emerson Network Power, identifies four edge computing archetypes. They are: n Data Intensive – where volume, cost or bandwidth issues make the transfer of data over the network directly to the cloud or from the cloud to point-of-use impractical. Examples include smart cities, smart factories, smart homes/buildings, high-performance computing, virtual reality and high-definition content distribution where content providers such as Amazon and Netflix actively partner with colocation providers to expand delivery networks to bring data-intensive streaming video closer to users to reduce costs and latency. n Human-Latency Sensitive – where services are optimised for human consumption and speed is a priority, with any delay in data delivery negatively impacting the user experience and potentially reducing a retailer’s sales and profitability. Examples include smart retail, augmented reality, website optimisation and natural language processing. n Machine-to-Machine Latency Sensitive – in which speed is, once again, the defining characteristic but, because machines are able to process data much faster than humans, the consequences for slow delivery are higher than in the Human- Latency Archetype. For example, delays in commodities and stock trading, where prices fluctuate in fractions of a second, could turn gains into losses. Other examples include the smart grid, smart security, real-time analytics, low-latency content distribution and defence force simulation. n Life Critical – where speed and reliability are vital for human health and safety. Examples include smart transportation, digital health, connected/ autonomous cars, autonomous robots and drones. VertivCo.com/Edge Edge computing archetypes – and their needs Talking Security with Norton Over the past year, the astronomical rise in cryptocurrency values has triggered a cryptojacking gold rush. With cyber criminals attempting to cash in on a volatile market, detections of coinminers on endpoint computers increased by 8,500% in 2017. With a low barrier of entry – coinminers only require a couple lines of code to operate – cyber criminals are harnessing stolen processing power and cloud CPU usage from consumers and enterprises to mine cryptocurrency. Coinminers can slow devices, overheat batteries and, in some cases, render devices unusable. For enterprise organisations, coinminers can put corporate networks at risk of shutdown and inflate cloud CPU usage, adding cost. IoT devices continue to be ripe targets for exploitation. Symantec found a 600% increase in overall IoT attacks in 2017, which means that cyber criminals could exploit the connected nature of these devices to mine en masse. Nor are Macs immune, with Symantec detecting an 80% increase in coin mining attacks against Mac OS. By leveraging browser-based attacks, criminals do not need to download malware to a victim’s Mac or PC to carry out cyber attacks. To avoid having to fight for resources on your phone, computer or IoT device as attackers use them for profit, it is vital to expand your defenses or pay the price of someone else using your device. Kevin Haley, director of Symantec Security Response, warns of the risks presented by the explosion in cryptojacking https://uk.norton.com/ 60 minutes Less than half of organisations in the US, UK and Asia-Pacific region are confident of their ability to detect a major cybersecurity incident within one hour, according to the latest LogRhythm Cybersecurity: Perceptions & Practices report. Just under one-third of the 751 IT decision-makers surveyed admit that even if they detected a major incident, they would need more than an hour to contain it. www.logrhythm.com 2018 Cybersecurity: Perceptions & Practices ABenchmarkSurvey ofSecurityProfessionals in theU.S.,U.K., andAsia-PacificRegions Half of UK businesses say their IT storage lacks critical performance Nearly half (47%) of SMEs are concerned their IT storage lacks critical performance, with 39% saying it lacks capacity as well. The survey by Ultima reveals that over half of data held within a business is dark data. Nearly one third is redundant, obsolete or trivial (ROT) and provides no value to a business (e.g. multiple copies of a file held within a file server in different places, data that has no discernible owner or Christmas party pictures from five years ago). To cope with the lack of storage capacity and performance, 53% of businesses are considering moving applications to the cloud this year. Nearly a third (30%) are thinking of purchasing new IT storage. Matt Beale, Storage Solutions Specialist at Ultima, says that instead of just adding more cloud storage, businesses need to think about managing their data better. He said: “It’s commonly stated that backups need to be kept for five or seven years. Why? Often the response is: ‘Finance says that we need to keep seven years of records’. That’s fine, but if you look into your finance system I can almost guarantee that you have at least seven years of records in your production system. So why are you keeping seven years old backups? All they are doing is costing you money.” www.ultima.com