By: Scott St. John - Pipeline

Simply put, technology news had real momentum this month. While innovation is always a theme in our industry news column, the flavor of innovation this month appeared to be new and fresh. From research that captures present perspectives on how the pandemic revved up innovation, to real-time VR teamwork to the increasing use of facial recognition, the industry seems poised to take a leap into a new chapter in our “next normal.” We also heard from the FCC on efforts to counteract robocalls, from operators on new 5G deployments, and from industry movers and shakers on new partnerships, alliances, and acquisition.

The top telecom industry news stories from the month are summarized below. To view all the news as it breaks, check out Pipeline’s News Center or subscribe to receive our telecom industry news summary.

Unified Communications News 

Several notable announcements were made this month related to UC, UCaaS and other transformative technologies that help telecoms and enterprises better run their businesses. Windstream announced new enhancements to its industry-leading OfficeSuite UC Contact Center Services to help businesses with intelligent outbound calling and their customer interactions. Oracle shared news on advancements in helping global utilities manage the full spectrum of their operations, from engaging customers to managing environmental impact. Eclipse Technology Solutions announced a new partnership with RingCentral to deliver UCaaS to Canadian customers to enable remote work from anywhere.

Cyber Security News

New research on cyber threats dominated cyber security news this month. HP released findings from its new study, Nation States, Cyberconflict and the Web of Profit, which noted that nation state cyberattacks became more frequent, varied and open between 2017 and 2020, moving us closer to a point of 'advanced cyberconflict' than at any time since the inception of the Internet.

Positive Technologies revealed an increase in the number of attacks aimed at the trade industry and medical institutions around the world. The Verizon Business Mobile Security Index MSI 2021 reveals that many businesses may have left themselves vulnerable and open to cybercriminals in the rush to ensure their workforce could operate remotely. In fact, nearly half of respondents noted that a fast shift to remote work adversely affected their cybersecurity. In another report, SAP and Onapsis jointly released a cyber threat intelligence report providing actionable information on how malicious threat actors are targeting and potentially exploiting unprotected mission-critical SAP applications.

Amid these headlines, the European Union is set to boost the security of the Internet and other critical network and information systems by establishing a Cybersecurity Competence Centre to pool investment in cybersecurity research, technology and industrial development.

Cloud News

Cloud news featured new solutions to advance performance and digital transformation. Cisco announced new server solutions supported by 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors to bring new performance and security capabilities to customers’ hybrid cloud infrastructure to help them solve the challenges of major technology shifts like 5G, Wi-Fi6, IoT, AI and more.

AWS and Nokia have released a new cloud charging solution on Amazon Web Services to accelerate the migration of business-critical, high frequency charging applications to the public cloud.