IT News Week 3 May 2017

For IT News Week 2 May 2017.

For this week / last week, here are / were the biggest news.
  • PR - May 18, 2017 - Western Digital Expands NAS-Optimized Hard Drive Offerings to 10TB
  • PR - May 17, 2017 - Taipei, Taiwan - COMPUTEX 2017 PQI “Touched by Intelligence” Invigorate All Your Senses
  • PR - May 17, 2017 - Cb Response Defends South Korean Special Prosecutor's Office from Targeted Cyberattacks
  • PR - May 17, 2017 - NEC provides Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur with UNIVERGE SV9500 Communications server
  • PR - May 17, 2017 - Siemens: TIA Portal V14 engineering framework: increased productivity, reduced time to market
  • PR - May 16, 2017 - Silver Peak Tops 400 Unity EdgeConnect Customer Deployments Worldwide
  • PR - May 16, 2017 - Empowering Businesses with Enterprise-Grade Swan Cloud Accounting
  • PR - May 16, 2017 - Government Joins Finance Sector At the Top of the Cyber Attack List
  • PR - May 16, 2017 - U Mobile launches Unlimited Hero P78 with Unlimited High-Speed Data & Unlimited Calls to All Networks
  • PR - May 16, 2017 - Customer Experience Management Key for Successful Digital Transformation
  • PR - May 15, 2017 - Monster® grows global channel reach with new international collaboration with Brightstar Corp
  • PR - May 11, 2017 - 11street Signs MOU with MABOPA and Initiates ‘Pesta Buku Online’


PR - May 18, 2017 - Western Digital Expands NAS-Optimized Hard Drive Offerings to 10TB

Western Digital Corp., a global data storage technology and solutions leader, today announced the expansion of its award-winning WD Red® and WD Red Pro NAS hard drives lineup with the introduction of 10TB capacity models optimized for use in personal, home and small to medium business NAS systems. Western Digital has shipped more than 15 million helium-based high capacity drives into multiple applications, including for NAS systems, to date and is continuing to support customers with higher capacities and outstanding reliability. The WD Red line of NAS hard drives allow customers to scale up or down to meet their changing NAS storage needs.

Features and Specifications:

WD Red / WD Red Pro 10TB
  • HelioSeal: Bringing Western Digital’s fourth generation, exclusive HelioSeal technology in 10TB capacity to the NAS storage market
  • 3D Active Balance Plus, an enhanced balance control technology that improves overall drive performance and reliability
  • Seamless integration with Western Digital’s My Cloud® Pro Series NAS and My Cloud Expert Series NAS systems designed specifically for the creative community to enable seamless transfer of content between devices in any location, whether users are shooting remotely or editing at home
  • NASware® 3.0, an enhanced version of WD’s original NASware technology, designed to improve reliability and system performance, reduce customer downtime and to simplify the integration process
  • Optimized performance class – 5400 RPM class for SOHO environments, 7200 RPM class for up to 16 bay NAS systems



The WD Red and WD Red Pro 10TB drives are finalizing compatibility testing with a number of leading NAS system providers. WD provides a compatibility list of WD Red-qualified products and manufacturers that is available on the WD website at https://www.wdc.com/products/internal-storage/wd-red.html.

Availability

The new WD Red and WD Red Pro 10TB hard drives are available in July at selected retailers and distributors. The WD Red 10TB NAS hard drives feature a three-year limited warranty and a RM2,249 (inclusive of GST) manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) (model #: WD100EFAX). The WD Red Pro 10TB drives feature a five-year limited warranty and a RM2,449 (inclusive of GST) MSRP (model #: WD101KFBX).

PR - May 17, 2017 - Taipei, Taiwan - COMPUTEX 2017 PQI “Touched by Intelligence” Invigorate All Your Senses

Asia’s largest, world’s second largest Business to Business (B2B) computer technology exhibition, COMPUTEX Taipei 2017 will be held during May 30th ~ June 3rd. A global leader in mobile peripherals, PQI of Foxlink Group will be exhibiting at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, booth number J1011a. The theme for PQI’s booth is “Touched by Intelligence”. Through the latest fingerprint biometric technology, we want to turn your digital lifestyle upside down! The word “Touch” embraces PQI’s design methodology that originates from the core, knowing what consumers feel and provide intelligent technologies for everyday life.

PQI’s five product lines offer innovation and rich digital mobile entertainment that include PQI Fingerprint, PQI iStorge, PQI Power, PQI Mobility and PQI Storage. The winner of COMPUTEX d&i Award (hosted by iF Germany and Taiwan External Trade and Development Council), My Lockey – Fingerprint ID Encryption will be at the show. With over hundreds of participants from 8 different countries, PQI My Lockey showed innovation and industry leading technology to win judges’ hearts and votes. Live demos at the show allow users to experience first-hand that privacy and data safety is just a fingertip away.

In addition, with the becoming popularity of Type-C™ connector, PQI has the complete line of solutions for you! From storage, cables, mobility and hub expansion device, PQI has the solution you need! From daily mobile devices to mobile gaming, Nintendo Switch will have its’ own peripheral products on display. For mobile device’s power needs, PQI has a variety of mobile power banks to ensure your device is always fully-charged and ready to go! At the booth, PQI has set up a free USB charging station for people to charge their devices. So when you’re device is about to run out of juice, come visit PQI for a quick charge!

PR - May 17, 2017 - Cb Response Defends South Korean Special Prosecutor's Office from Targeted Cyberattacks

Carbon Black today announced the company’s market-leading endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution, Cb Response, was leveraged during the prosecution and impeachment of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

Through a partnership with Korean security partner, Naru Security Inc., Cb Response was deployed across all of the special prosecutor’s office’s endpoints and integrated with the network solution ConnecTome to collect data and visualize it end-to-end. From December through February, Cb Response identified and confirmed numerous malicious activities on the office’s endpoints, stopping the potential destruction of critical trial evidence.

Park, the first woman to be elected as president of South Korea, was impeached in December and officially stripped of power in March. She was recently indicted on bribery, extortion, abuse of power and other high-profile corruption charges. Former human rights attorney and student activist, Moon Jae-in, was elected as Park’s replacement on May 9.

PR - May 17, 2017 - NEC provides Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur with UNIVERGE SV9500 Communications server

NEC Corporation of Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. today announced that Mandarin Oriental, one of the world’s leading 5-star hotels, has selected NEC’s UNIVERGE SV9500 communications server to upgrade its telephony system in one of its premier locations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

NEC has been providing Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur with advanced customer service solutions for more than 10 years. As the hotel modernizes its facilities, the management has decided to update the hotel’s communication infrastructure with the SV9500, one of the latest offerings from NEC’s Smart Hospitality Solutions.

The SV9500 PABX system is equipped with full IP extensions, the UA5200 Hospitality Operator Console, reservation solutions and a digital enhanced cordless telephone which is integrated with the HoTSOS* (Hotel Service Optimization System) messaging system. The new system will enhance guest services while improving the guest experience with the wireless communication telephony system.

With the new NEC system in place, guests can expect faster response time to their needs. For example, housekeeping staff now have the freedom and flexibility to answer guest’s requests through mobile telephony.

PR - May 17, 2017 - Siemens: TIA Portal V14 engineering framework: increased productivity, reduced time to market

Siemens, a global technology powerhouse, has launched the new version of TIA (Totally Integrated Automation) Portal, an engineering platform for automation companies to perform automation and drive tasks quickly through efficient configuration. This version 14 of the engineering framework comprises a wide range of new functionalities for digital enterprises and the requirements of Industrie 4.0. These include innovative simulation tools, which shortens time-to-market, additional diagnostic and energy management functions for increased productivity and cloud-based engineering that enables greater flexibility.

The TIA Portal interacts with other systems and exchanges data through open interfaces. The Teamcenter gateway has a new interface for product data management in Teamcenter, the Siemens data collaboration platform for design, planning and engineering. The user can easily create model-based programs with a new interface to Matlab/Simulink.

PR - May 16, 2017 - Silver Peak Tops 400 Unity EdgeConnect Customer Deployments Worldwide

Silver Peak, the global leader in broadband and hybrid WAN solutions, today celebrated the 400th customer deployment of its award-winning Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN solution, less than two years from its first customer shipment.

The company commenced shipping EdgeConnect in August 2015 and secured its initial 100 customers by May 2016. Customer deployments doubled to 200 by October 2016 and have again doubled to more than 400 today. Approximately 75 percent of EdgeConnect customers are net new to Silver Peak while the remaining 25 percent represent installed-base customer migrations from traditional WAN optimization to SD-WAN and SD-WAN with integrated WAN optimization, Unity Boost.

EdgeConnect customers represent diverse segments of the market from small to midsized businesses to global enterprises and cloud service providers. Customer deployments span a range of industries that include: banking and financial services, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, retail and manufacturing and transportation and distribution. A cross-section of new EdgeConnect SD-WAN solution customers include: Fruit of the Loom, Monroe Bank and Trust, Nuffield Health, Paladin Security and Urban Health Plan, Inc.

With the latest software release announced on March 28th, EdgeConnect is now the industry’s first fully integrated SD-WAN solution to combine SD-WAN, WAN Optimization, routing and a stateful firewall. These advancements simplify and consolidate branch office infrastructure, shift the WAN edge toward being application-driven and enable secure, direct internet connectivity to SaaS and trusted web-based applications from the branch office.

PR - May 16, 2017 - Empowering Businesses with Enterprise-Grade Swan Cloud Accounting

Rofarez Solutions Sdn Bhd announced today that its newly launched Swan Cloud Accounting, an enterprise-grade business software solution, has been well received and applauded for empowering business owners in managing business finances.

“We are pleased that our Swan Cloud Accounting is making waves in the market with its accounting-made-easy features and the enterprise-grade power from Microsoft Azure Platform-as- a-Service (PaaS) and and Infrastructure-as- a-Service (IaaS) for unlimited high volume transactions,” said Rofarez Solutions Sdn Bhd Founder and Chief Executive Officer Reza Ismail.

Developed to be easy to use even for those not-too- familiar with accounting and the complexity of being GST compliant, Swan Cloud Accounting has full features that include cash and accrual accounting, sales/purchase invoices, payables/receivables management and aging, financial reports, basic stock movement and even automated Malaysian GST reports and 03 Forms.

Swan Cloud Accounting was developed on Rofarez Solutions’ proprietary platform, DappleWorks, which gives it the strategic edge of scalability to customise for high volume transactions without being inhibited by having to pay for rights of proprietary source codes.

“Our proprietary software and business engines run on Azure, which enables our clients to enjoy the benefits of enterprise-grade infrastructure at a fraction of the cost.”

PR - May 16, 2017 - Government Joins Finance Sector At the Top of the Cyber Attack List

According to the Executive’s Guide to the NTT Security 2017 Global Threat Intelligence Report, compiled from data collected by NTT Security and other NTT operating companies including Dimension Data from the networks of 10,000 clients across five continents, 3.5 trillion security logs, 6.2 billion attempted attacks, and global honeypots[1] and sandboxes[2] located in over 100 different countries, showed that:

1. Globally

Cyberattacks on the government sector doubled in 2016, hiking to 14% from 7% of all cybersecurity attacks in 2015. Attacks on the finance sector also rose dramatically from just 3% in 2015 to 14% of all attacks in 2016. The manufacturing sector came in at third place at 13%, while the retail sector, which topped the list of all cybersecurity attacks on all sectors in 2015 moved down into fourth place (11%).

2. Asia Pasific 

The most commonly targeted business sectors for attacks in Asia were finance (46%), manufacturing (32%), education (9%). The most common types of attack targeting Asia were suspicious (60%), malware (12%), service-specific attacks (11%), and website application attacks (5%).

Other highlights in the report are:
  • The Internet of Things (IoT) and operating technology (OT) devices must be considered as both a potential source and target of attack. Of the IoT attacks detected in 2016, some 66% were attempting to discover specific devices such as a particular model of video camera, 3% were seeking a web server or other type of server, while 2% were attempting to attack a database.
  • The top cybersecurity threats facing digital businesses are phishing, social engineering, and ransomware; business email compromise; IoT and distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks; and attacks targeting end-users.

PR - May 16, 2017 - U Mobile launches Unlimited Hero P78 with Unlimited High-Speed Data & Unlimited Calls to All Networks

U Mobile has launched a brand new postpaid plan called Unlimited Hero P78 at its ‘Unlimited Ideas’ creative showcase today. The new plan is another initiative from the telco to enable its customers to truly enjoy their passions via their smartphone any day, without ever having to monitor their data usage as it comes with unlimited high-speed data. On top of that, Unlimited Hero P78 customers will also never need to cut short conversations with their loved ones or friends as calls to all networks are unlimited, via Call-Onz™. All these benefits are available to customers at just RM78 a month.

Jasmine Lee and Eunice Martin showcasing the new  Unlimited Hero P78

To mark the launch of the new product and service, U Mobile hosted an ‘Unlimited Ideas’ creative showcase where they invited Eunice Martin, the winner of the top food influencer award at Influence Asia 2017, to exhibit her work and share her passion for food styling and photography with the audience. As part of the exhibition, Eunice Martin also created an exclusive food art display inspired by the new Unlimited Hero P78.

PR - May 16, 2017 - Customer Experience Management Key for Successful Digital Transformation

Teradata, the leading data and analytics company, announced several enhancements to the Teradata Customer Journey solution to help Malaysian companies move towards digital transformation. The solution will provide companies with easier access to analytics, dynamic visualizations, machine learning and predictive simulations.

“We want businesses to grow by delivering more sales, reducing churn and improving customer satisfaction. In this release of Teradata’s Customer Journey solution, we are putting more analytics into the hands of marketing so they can build a deeper understanding of the customer experiences and then proactively optimize related journeys,” said Saqib Sabah, Country Manager of Teradata Malaysia.

(L-R): Saqib Sabah, Country Manager of Teradata Malaysia (left) and Stephen Brobst , CTO of Teradata, explaining the importance of cultural change in an organization for digital transformation to take place

Teradata’s Customer Journey solution helps companies understand and optimize each customer’s experience over time, across all channels and touch points, in real time. Providing marketers with this holistic view, the right analytical insights and built-in automation enables them to execute thousands of concurrent, individualized, multi-channel campaigns without having to add manpower to the tasks.

The solution, which combines Teradata’s expertise in data integration, advanced analytics and multi-channel interaction management, boosts marketers’ ability to treat every customer as an individual, increasing response rates, reducing churn and ensuring greater customer satisfaction.  

PR - May 15, 2017 - Monster® grows global channel reach with new international collaboration with Brightstar Corp

Leading high performance headphones and Bluetooth speakers maker Monster® has announced a new global distribution partnership with Brightstar Corp., the world’s leading mobile services company across 55 countries on six continents. Exciting new products include the Monster’s latest Super speaker – the SuperStar Monster Blaster, Monster’s iSport line of Bluetooth in-ear headphones, and Monster’s value-priced line of Clarity HD wired and Bluetooth headphones. As part of the collaboration, Monster will design and engineer a new line of digital and Bluetooth headphones designed especially for Brightstar and its channels/customers.

As part of the collaboration, Monster will design and engineer a new line of digital and Bluetooth headphones designed especially for Brightstar and its channels/customers.

In 1979, Head Monster Noel Lee invented the modern-day speaker wire in his garage on a quest for mind-blowing sound. Monster's first passion was audio, and you can feel that love in every high-performance speakers Monster makes. Whether it’s portable or whole-house wireless audio, Pure Monster Sound® delivers the experience you want.



SuperStar BackFloat Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker is rugged compact Bluetooth waterproof and floating speaker. There’s a party in your pool, and SuperStar BackFloat is throwing it. It's also a speakerphone. – RRP RM899

PR - May 11, 2017 - 11street Signs MOU with MABOPA and Initiates ‘Pesta Buku Online’

11street, one of Malaysia’s largest e-malls, boosted its book inventories through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Malaysian Publishers Association (MABOPA) at the Kuala Lumpur Lifestyle Exhibition last week.

The MoU aimed to bring in more publishers aboard its e-commerce wagon through 11street’s first-ever online book fair, ‘Pesta Buku Online’, and was signed by President of MABOPA, Ishak Hamzah and 11street’s General Manager of Merchandising, Lyle Yoo, witnessed by Abdul Wahab Ibrahim, Director, Permanent Secretariat of National Book Council, Malaysia.

(L-R) : Ishak Hamzah, President of MABOPA (left) handing over the signed Memorandum of Understanding to Lyle Yoo, General manager of Merchandising, 11street (right), witnessed by Abdul Wahab Ibrahim, Director, Permanent Secretariat of National Book Council, Malaysia.

The ‘Pesta Buku Online’ campaign came at the back of 11street’s recent finding that Malaysians have taken an increasing interest in purchasing books and media online. “Our recent campaign gave us a very surprising insight about Malaysian consumers, whereby product categories such as health and beauty; fashion; and electronics have always been the three most purchased by consumers. But now, consumers have also started looking into buying more books and media online,” said Lyle Yoo, 11street’s General Manager of Merchandising.

The campaign included exclusive online promotion to benefit some 1.3 million students in public and private universities in Malaysia, as they are eligible to enjoy discounts with their KAD Siswa 1Malaysia (KADS1M) for low prices, fantastic choices for books and media products on the 11street platform.

Ishak Hamzah, President of MABOPA said: “The book industry is no stranger to the technological change. In fact, the industry has evolved over the years to cater to the ever-shifting atmosphere, and now it has come to the booming era of social media marketing for books.

In conjunction with this new partnership, from now until 19 May, MPH Bookstores rewards book lovers with discounts up to 70% on local and international titles, including new arrivals and bestsellers; along with “Buy 1 Free 1” promotions and value buy deals from as low as RM8.

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