Cloud News

A new study from AllCloud reveals that organizations are planning to expand their use of cloud infrastructure, and cloud-native technologies such as containers and microservices already have made significant footholds in corporate IT departments. The three most significant findings include that organizations are moving the majority of their workloads aggressively to the cloud; new technologies like containers and microservices are undergoing increasing adoption; and the top factors in choosing a platform remain security, reliability, and cost. 

Network-as-a-Service platform provider PacketFabric announced updates to its hosted cloud connectivity product. It now offers capacity starting at 50Mbps and supports connectivity to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Transit Gateway, a service that enables customers to connect their Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and their on-premises networks to a single gateway.

Cloud news also featured partnership headlines. Konica Minolta and Google Cloud launched a new alliance this month. As Google Cloud’s Premier Partner for the office technology industry, Konica Minolta will deliver its productivity and collaboration solutions. The relationship will also facilitate technical development of advanced productivity tools between the two organizations, all built on the Google Cloud. Microsoft Corp. and Genesys have expanded their partnership to provide enterprises with a new cloud service for contact centers that enables them to deliver superior interactions for customers. Genesys Engage on Microsoft Azure will be available in late 2020. 

Customer Experience News

Returns of products purchased online generate five billion tons of trash and 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually. And while consumer behavior can contribute to this, the majority of online shoppers say it is the retailers’ responsibility to address the environmental damage caused by returns, according to a new online survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Threekit, the product visualization software platform. Threekit has issued best practices as well as a challenge to Amazon and other eRetailers to reduce the number and frequency of product returns.

Security News

Cybersecurity and compliance company Proofpoint, Inc. released its sixth annual global State of the Phish report, which provides an in-depth look at user phishing awareness, vulnerability, and resilience. Among the key findings, nearly 90 percent of global organizations surveyed were targeted with business email compromise (BEC) and spear phishing attacks, reflecting that cybercriminals continue to focus on compromising individual end users. Seventy-eight percent also reported that security awareness training activities resulted in measurable reductions in phishing susceptibility. 

Proofpoint Inc. also released its Cost of Insider Threats 2020 Global Report to identify the costs and trends associated with negligent, compromised, and malicious insiders. Notably, on average, impacted organizations spent $11.45 million annually on overall insider threat remediation and took 77 days to contain each incident.

Email and data security company Mimecast Limited announced the acquisition of Segasec, a provider of digital threat protection. With Segasec technology, Mimecast customers can better defend against attacks that leverage fake websites and domains for credential harvesting of their customers, employees, partners, and 3rd party vendors within their supply chains.

IoT News

Sprint announced that it is expanding its Curiosity™ IoT platform to customers in Australia as a result of its new relationship with Australia’s largest mobile network operator, Telstra. The announcement is the first in a series of efforts by the company to enable international IoT solutions.

Aptilo Networks introduced Aptilo IoT Connectivity Control Service™ (IoT CCS), delivered as a service for mobile operators. It allows mobile operators to offer instant IoT service creation, with a service that lets enterprises define their own granular connectivity and security policies.

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