BizTech Brief #9
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Week Commencing 5th September 2015
For many people in the UK, the biggest news of the week was that school summer holidays are over and children are back to school but for the tech industry, there was much bigger news, some of which has even been called the biggest news in tech history.
If you missed any of the past BizTech brief articles, click the link below.
Microsoft launches UK data centres for Office 365 and Azure
Previously, most Office 365 and Azure customers in the UK will have used data centres in Dublin and Amsterdam. Now Microsoft has launched its UK datacentres for Azure and Office 365, with data centres in London, Durham, and Cardiff between them hosting Office 365 services including Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, as well as services in the Azure platform.
The new datacentre locations will enable companies who have specific UK data residency requirements to ensure data remains within the country. This will also be a good option for those who, even if they may not legally be required to keep data in the UK, may have customers who dictate data residency through their supply chain.
This has resulted in the Ministry of Defence is moving its computing from the secure military network it has used for the last decade to data centres owned by Microsoft. Right from the start I've felt that for defence the only appropriate place to have our data was here in the UK," said Mike Stone, the MoD's chief digital and information officer. "Technically our data could be held anywhere in the European economic area, but I wouldn't ever want to be in a position where we had data being held elsewhere and this coming under scrutiny."
To read the full article, click here.
Dell Closes the largest acquisition in IT industry history
Nearly a year after it was announced, the landmark acquisition of EMC by Dell is complete, creating Dell Technologies.
With the acquisition, Dell can address markets from its traditional strengths in consumer PCs, servers and small- and midsize-business data centers to the largest data centers in the world and red-hot segments like enterprise hyper-converged infrastructure. EMC also owns about 80 percent of virtualization powerhouse VMware.
While the Dell and EMC channel programs will be run in parallel at first, new global channel chief John Byrne has committed to creating a single, integrated program by the start of Dell’s next fiscal year, Feb. 1.
This is going to go down as one of the largest and most impactful acquisitions in IT history, not only for the partner community but for the end-user community as well," said Bob Venero, CEO of Holbrook.
To read the full article, click here.
ComputerWorld's summer ends with nomination for prestigious award
After an extremely successful summer for ComputerWorld, winning two industry awards, the season has been capped off by being shortlisted for the prestigious 'CRN Channel Reseller of the year' award.
The awards seek to celebrate the excellence and innovation found within the sector and are considered to be some of the most important accolades within the industry.
Commenting on recent events Barry Coombs remarked “It has so far been a fantastic year for ComputerWorld, and the CRN Awards shortlisting is certainly a highlight.
To read the full article, click here.
NHS hospitals told to swallow stronger anti-ransomware medication
NHS Digital is set to start expanding the range of cybersecurity services available to UK hospitals and clinics.
CareCERT (Care Computer Emergency Response Team) launched in November 2015, offering a national service that helps health and care organisations to improve their cybersecurity defences by providing proactive advice and guidance about the latest threats and security best practices.
Almost half (47 per cent) of NHS trusts have been subject to a ransomware attack in the past year, according to figures from a freedom of information (FOI) request published last month.
A service that initially focused on pushing out alerts about threats will be expanded to include three new services, each of which begins testing this month:
- CareCERT Knowledge - a new e-learning portal to help all health and care organisations train their staff in cybersecurity basics
- CareCERT Assure - a service to help organisations assess their local cybersecurity measures against industry standards.
- CareCERT React - advice on reducing the impact of a data security incident.
To read the full article, click here.
