Author: Eva Glass

Eva Glass first rose to prominence in The INQUIRER. She continues to work behind the scenes to dig out the best stories.

Storage revenues continue to grow

Posted on December 8, 2014 by - News

storageThe generation of vast amounts of data continues to fuel the disk storage systems revenue in the third quarter.

With revenues of $8.8 billion, up 5.1 percent from the same period last year, 25 exabytes shipped in the quarter, said IDC.  Capacity shipments soared by 42 percent during the quarter, compared to Q3 2013.

IDC said sub $100K external array revenues grew by over six percent during the quarter, but shipments ODMs (original design manufacturers) directly to hyperscale datacentres showed positive growth.

EMC remains at the top spot for the quarter, followed by HP, Dell, IBM and Netapp.

ODM direct sales accounted for 24 percent of the market however, outstripping the traditional vendors.  And this trend is continuing, as we’ve reported previously, with ODMs also shipping more and more servers directly and bypassing the brand names,

Smartphones will win the day

Posted on December 8, 2014 by - News

smartphone-shoppingA report predicted that by 2018 over 50 percent of people will use either a smartphone or a tablet for all online activities.

Gartner said people will gradually move away from the PC as people use smartphnes and tablets more more.

Voice, gesture and other ways of communicating with devices online will be the rule of thumb, while 40 percent of enterprises will use wi-fi as the default connection and Ethernet will go away.

Security built into wi-fi appears to be adequate to the task, said Gartner, after the introduction of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) into the equation.

And there’s more good news.  Gartner thinks by 2020 we’ll all be paying less than $100 for smartphone and other devices.  Subsidies or sponsorships will also reduce the cost of devices while by 2018 over half of business to enterprise (B2E) mobile apps will be used by business analysts using codeless tools.

Human error causes most data breaches

Posted on December 5, 2014 by - News

Detail showing fleeing Persians (King Darius centre) from an AncA request to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed that most data breaches are caused by human error.

Egress Software made the FOI request and the ICO revealed that only seven percent of breaches in the first three months of this year were because of technical glitches.

That means the fast majority were down to human error and carelessness by people.  And fines levied because of technical errors amounted to zero, while the ICO levied £5.1 million for companies that made the mistakes.

The data breaches are across many different sectors. The public sector showed healthcare organisations are top of the disgrace league, followed by local government and educational organisations.

The private sector also showed a rise in data breaches with the financial industry, the housing sector, telecoms and recruitment all showing big rises.

Tony Pepper, CEO of encryption company Egress Software, said: “It is concerning that such a high number of data breaches occur as a result of human error and poor processes. Confusion can often put confidential data at risk, with users unsure of when and how to encrypt.”

HP pushes notebook sales

Posted on December 5, 2014 by - News

HPStrong orders from both the enterprise and from the retail market meant growth in notebook sales during the month of November, largely due to HP’s position in the market.

That’s according to data from Digitimes Research which claims the top five multinational vendor and Taiwanese original design manufacturers (ODMs) showed shipments growing by 10 percent in the month, following a decline in shipments in October.

All the vendors are attempting to stem the growth of tablets and smartphones and the research outfit claimed HP ordered four million notebooks from its ODM partners in the month – with Quanta, Compal, and Investec benefiting from the push by the US giant.

The researchers claim that shipments of global tablets will be in stasis for 2014, when all the figures are added up.  And it also predicts sales will decline in 2015.

Digitimes Research estimates that combined shipments of notebooks and tablets will be over 350 million units in 2015 but the major vendors incuding Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, HP, Asustek, Dell and Acer will take steps to secure their positions in the marketplace.

Internet of Things “is already here”

Posted on December 5, 2014 by - News

Internet of ThingsA report commissioned by Verizon suggests that rather than being science fiction, the Internet of Things (IoT) is already here and producing business results.

Verizon commissioned the Harvard Business Review to conduct a report and that suggested the IoT is already here in the shape of connectivity, cloud computing, and miniaturisation of sensors “making it possible” for over 10 billion devices to be networked.

Nevertheless, HBR’s Analytic Services surveyed 269 business leaders and says the number of deployments is still relatively small.

While estimates say that IoT could add 10s of trillions of dollars to GDP in the next 10 years, HBR says defining it goes way beyond wearable devices, smart meters and connected cars.

The survey, conducted last September on early IoT adopters, concludes those using it were doing so to improve customer services, increase revenues from services and products, better using assets in the field, and picking up additional data for analytics.

Applications include asset tracking, security, fleet management, field force management, energy data management and “condition based monitoring”.

There are challenges to adopting IoT that include pivacy and regulatory compliance.  HBR said most legislation and industry regulations predates the use of IoT.  Managing the sheer amount of data will also be a problem, and finding people with skill sets capable of using IoT data.

The report said in healthcare, Varian, a manufacturer of medical devices, says the IoT meant a 50 percent reduction to repair connected devices.  Pirelli is using the IoT to manage data from sensors embedded in its Cyber Tyre range.  And Ford’s Connected Car Dashboards programme collects and analyses data from cars to better understand driving patterns and behicle performance.

IT failures crippling businesses

Posted on December 5, 2014 by - News

Wall Street Crash, Wikimedia CommonsThe average cost of IT failures is a staggering £410,000 per incident, according to a KPMG report.

But even more staggering is that over half of the failures were “completely avoidable”, according to KPMG’s latest risk assessment.

And four million bank and credit card accounts were compromised by each IT failure, while an average of 776,000 people were affected by every SNAFU.

The avoidable problems include software coding errors, or failure of changes to IT.  Of these, 7.3 percent were because human beings mess up.  That, said KPMG, means that training is being compromised and that costs additional expense.

The report mentions an unnamed utility company which was threatened with a £10 million fine when technical trouble meant its customers didn’t get their bills for months and then got inaccurate demands.

Joe Dowie, a partner in KPMG’s Technology Risk division said: “Technology is no longer a function within a business which operates largely in isolation.  It is at the heart of everything a company does and when it goes wrong it affects an organisation’s bottom line, its relationship with customers and its wider reputation.”

KPMG came to its conclusions after collating information from over 15,000 news sources.

Driverless cars hit UK roads soon

Posted on December 4, 2014 by - News

googlecarYesterday’s Autumn Statement by chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne included information about driverless car tests in the UK.

According to Innovate UK – an arm of the government, £10 million will be plunged into formal trials that will start in January 2015.

The trials will last between 18 and 36 months and will take place in Greenwich, Milton Keynes and Coventry, and Bristol.

Innovate UK said its aim is to make the UK the global hub for research and development of driverless vehicles and other technologies.

Nick Jones, a technologist at Innovate UK, said: “Cars that drive themselves would represent the most significant transformation in road travel since the introduction of the internal combustion engine. It’s vital that trials are carried out safely, that the public have confidence in the technology and we learn everything we can… so that legal, regulation and protection issues don’t get in the way in the future.”

£10 million doesn’t seem quite enough to make the UK the hub for driverless car technology, given that Google and a number of large car manufacturers are plunging heavy investment into the concept.

North Korea behind Sony hack – reports

Posted on December 4, 2014 by - News

Kim Jong Un, courtesy of North Korea news agencySuspicions that hackers working for the Democratic Republic of North Korea were behind the hack attack on Sony Pictures last week appear to have been verified by US investigators.

Both Bloomberg and Reuters claim to have talked to individuals who are part of the investigation that have outlined their suspicions.

They believe that the malware is ripe with Korean hacking code and bears distinct similarities to hacks on South Korean banks in March last year.

The attack on Sony Pictures computers caused widespread disruption and resulted in the theft of company information, personal data and even some forthcoming movies, which appeared on unternet sites earlier this week.

North Korea is furious about a film called The Interview which describes an attempt by two journos to assassinate the country’s autocrat, Kim Jong Un (pictured, with two military folk).

North Korea claims the release of the film later this month should be regarded as an act of war.

Samsung mobile suits get the axe

Posted on December 4, 2014 by - News

Samsung HQ Silicon Valley - MM picThe head of Samsung’s beleaguered mobile division has hung on to his job – as we reported earlier this week.

But there will be blood on the carpet, according to sources who told Reuters that JK Shin’s three chief underlings will get their marching orders soon.

Samsung is the biggest smartphone manufacturing company in the world and leverages its vertical business, which includes memory modules, LCD screens and other components.

DJ Lee, who heads up Samsung’s mobile marketing worldwide, is one of those to feel the pain, according to the report.

Samsung is facing increased competition from Chinese manufacturers and continues to be under pressure at the high end from Apple with its iPhone products.

Reuters reports that the local press will cull around 25 percent of its executive in the mobile segment.

Financial analysts believe that Samsung will record poor revenues for 2014.

Servers show mixed results

Posted on December 4, 2014 by - News

server-racksYesterday we reported that server revenues in Europe the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) only showed minor growth.

Those were figures from Gartner. But data from its deadly rival IDC indicate that things were less gloomy for server vendors in the third quarter of this year.

IDC said vendor revenues worldwide rose by 4.8 percent, year on year, to represent revenues of $12.7 billion.

This, said IDC, is the second quarter in a row that the server market has shown a year on year increase in revenue terms.

And shipments in the quarter improved 5.7 percent year on year, representing 2.38 million units.  This is largely down to increased spending on hyperscale datacentres.  IDC believes it is seeing signs of companies refreshing their servers, which is good news for 2015 too.

There is a difference depending on the type of server. Volume systems showed 8.8 percent revenue growth, midrange systems showed an 18.4 percent growth year on year. But high end enterprise systems plummeted by –23.2 percent, year on year.

IDC figures show HP is n number one place, followed by IBM, Dell, Cisco and Oracle.  The “ODM Direct” category is interesting because these are largely Taiwanese companies producing unbranded boxes for multinationals – with prices to match. This chart shows the changes.

idc_servers

Like Gartner, IDC saw a recline in non X86 servers – the thirteenth consecutive quarter of revenue decline.  IBM is in pole position here, with a share of 60.8 percent share.  Blade servers accounted for 18 percent of total server revenues in the quarter.

Email does your brain in

Posted on December 4, 2014 by - News

stressyResearchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have come to the less than startling conclusion that continually checking your email is a stressful business.

It’s been known for ages that getting snotty emails from your boss, your ex or the taxman can give you a real headache. But, to be fair to the scientists at UBC, they have put it to the test.

The university assembled 124 adults ranging from students to financial analysts, medics and others and told them they had to limit checking their email to three times a day for a week.

Others were told to check their email as often as they wanted to.

The situation was then reversed with both sets of people while they also answered daily surveys including info about stress – presumably not by email.

Kostadin Kushlev, a PhD candidate at UBC’s Department of Psychology said people felt less stressed when they didn’t check their email as often as they did.

But, and there is a but: “Most participants in our study found it quite difficult to check their email only a few times a day.  People find it difficult to resist the temptation of checking email, and yet resisting this temptation reduces their stress.”

Kushlev suggests organisations might reduce stress levels in their staff by getting them to check emails less often rather than constantly replying to messages.

Financial analysts are probably stressed if they don’t check their emails every few minutes, we’d hazard to guess.

UK to tax Amazon, Google

Posted on December 3, 2014 by - News

gosborneUK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne unveiled his autumn statement today and said he would tax multinationals who avoid paying tax.

He told the House of Commons that the government will raise £5 billion over the next five years by taxing profits from banks and companies like Google and Amazon who make money in the UK and then shift it abroad.

He said that some large multinationals including companies in technology “use elaborate structures to avoid paying tax”.

He will introduce a 25 percent tax on such profits. The diverted profits tax might be difficult to collect however.

Earlier this year, Google chairman Eric Schmidt said that if governments griped about companies like his not paying enough tax, they should introduce legislation to change the picture.

However, the situation is complicated by the fact that firms like Google and Starbucks will simply find other ways to avoid paying tax and such changes really require international cooperation.

One financial analyst told TechEye that even if 20 countries agreed to such changes, the companies might simply find country 21.

Server revenues grow as shipments fall

Posted on December 3, 2014 by - News

server-racksShipments of servers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) fell by four percent in the third quarter of 2014 but revenues rose by 1.2 percent year on year to amount to $2.9 million.

Gartner said that growth seen in the second quarter of this year was “a short lived phenomenon and marginal revenue growth…highlights the fragility of demand”.

But despite this, revenues grew for the third consecutive quarter following 10 previous quarters where revenues declined.

HP managed to grow its revenue lead in the regions with 6.4 percent growth, although shipments declined by 8.2 percent.  The growth was largely accounted for by demand for rack optimised and blade system.

Dell managed to displace IBM as second in place in terms of both revenues and shipments.  It managed to grow nine percent in revenues and 3.4 percent in shipments.  IBM, of course, is ridding itself of its X86 business to Lenovo, while its RISC shipments were hit by a fall in demand for Unix systems.  Its lucrative mainframe business is in stasis as Big Blue readies new launches.

Gartner thinks one of the problems is that IT departments in enterprises are struggling because there are datacentre modernisation initiatives which means they are taking their eyes off the ball in the traditional server marketplace.

If RISC, the Intel Itanium and Unix revenues are counted as one, they fell in the quarter by 13.2 percent.

Iran owns the internet – report

Posted on December 3, 2014 by - News

cleaverA US security company claims that Iran has virtual control over a large number of vital defence and infrastructure sites on the web.

Cylance said in a report that its “Operation Cleaver” investigation reveals that an Iranian team called Tarh Andishan has built an infrastructure to spy, steal and destroy control systems and networks.

It said that Iranian hackers have directly attacked government agencies and infrastructure companies in Canada, China, the US, the UK, France, Germany, India, Israel, Kuwait, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey and the UAE.

It claims the HQ of the operation in Tehran also has other members in countries including the UK, the Netherlands and Canada.

The report claims that Iran has reacted to malware campaigns directed upon it since 2009, targeted at its nuclear programme and its oil and gas operations.

Iran is also claimed to have attacked banks, Israeli national systems, US Navy computers and other systems.

Infrastructure under theft includes US military targets, oil, gas and chemical companies, airports, healthcare, aerospace and defence companies.

You can find the full report here.

Sony still reeling from cyber hit

Posted on December 3, 2014 by - News

North Korea flagCyber attackers who hit Sony with a new breed of virus have caused the corporation so much grief that it is still attempting to recover from the damage.

Reuters has seen an internal Sony memo that said the entertainment unit has admitted a large amount of confidential data was stolen by the attackers, ranging from business info to personal data.

Proof of the success of the attack has emerged with unreleased Sony films emerging on the internet including a forthcoming musical called Annie, scheduled for release on the 19th of December.

And employees have been given new PCs to work with because the virus wiped all the data from their old ones and made them inoperative.

Reuters said it believes the attack only affected machines using Microsoft’s Windows software – Apple machines were impervious to the attack.

North Korea is still believed to be one of the main suspects in the attack – last June the government of the autocracy complained to the UN that a thinly veiled satire on its youthful leader was an outrage.