IT News Week 3 Mar 2018

For IT News Week 2 Mar 2018.
  • PR - Mar 8, 2018 - Hitachi Vantara Labs Introduces Machine Learning Model Management to Accelerate Model Deployment and Reduce Business Risk
  • PR - Mar 7, 2018 - Commvault partners with HPE and MEDITECH to deliver leading healthcare data solutions
  • PR - Mar 7, 2018 - New Mega Technology Event ConnecTechAsia Addresses Role of Accelerated Digital Change in Asia’s Growing Economy
  • PR - Mar 6, 2018 - HLB Partners with CGC to Offer RM200 million Financing to SMEs
  • PR - Mar 6, 2018 - Shopee Partners honor for Exclusive Launch of honor 9 Lite
  • PR - Mar 2, 2018 - New ESET Smart TV Security to protect smart TV users from rising malware threats
  • PR - Mar 1, 2018 - ServiceNow Appoints Mitch Young to Lead Asia Pacific and Japan Business
  • PR - Mar 1, 2018 - Tableau named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence
  • PR - Mar 1, 2018 - SG - Carbon Black Names Matt Bennett Vice President of Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ)
  • PR - Feb 28, 2018 - WD Launches 256GB SanDisk Ultra Fit™ USB 3.1 Flash Drive
  • PR - Feb 28, 2018 - VLT Acquires Singapore-based Tinkerbox Studios
  • PR - Feb 28, 2018 - SoftBank Robotics Europe Selects Cognizant for Quality Assurance of Artificial Intelligence Systems in Pepper and NAO Humanoid Robots
  • PR - Feb 28, 2018 - Barcelona - iFREE Group and Globetouch Inc. Join Forces in a Strategic Partnership
  • PR - Feb 28, 2018 - Microsoft Malaysia Appoints New Services Lead for Malaysia
  • PR - Feb 28, 2018 - InfoWatch : Comment on "685,000 affected as HardwareZone hit by security breach"

PR - Mar 8, 2018 - Hitachi Vantara Labs Introduces Machine Learning Model Management to Accelerate Model Deployment and Reduce Business Risk

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are optimizing everything from customer interactions to enterprise operations. As these applications evolve, data scientist and IT operation teams will need to move newly-trained predictive models into production faster than ever before - which can jeopardize model accuracy, collaboration and governance.

Hitachi Vantara today announced new ‘machine learning model management’ capabilities that make it easier to update models in response to continual change, in order to improve production processes for data scientists. Hitachi Vantara Labs’ machine learning model management provides improved algorithmic transparency and automation so application teams can focus their efforts on innovating rapidly without risking model deterioration. The new capabilities will help data scientists monitor, test and redeploy models in continual production much faster and more efficiently than they currently do.

Key features of the new capabilities include getting models into production much quicker, using machine learning orchestration steps that evaluate models and improve accuracy using real production data prior to going live. Secondly, the capabilities will maximise model accuracy whilst in production, using evaluation statistics to help identify degraded models. This will make it easier to analyse model performance and uncover errors. The final element of the new capabilities is collaboration and governance of model operations at a larger scale. The new capabilities promote collaboration within operating teams, data scientists, developers and app architects to provide greater transparency. As a result, data and data pipelines can easily be shared across the workforce, standardised and re-used to allow machine learning applications to be built faster.

PR - Mar 7, 2018 - Commvault partners with HPE and MEDITECH to deliver leading healthcare data solutions

Commvault today announced two strategic partnerships with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and MEDITECH Holdings South Africa to deliver Commvault solutions for managing and protecting healthcare data to customers across the globe.

Commvault’s partnership with HPE

Through this reseller agreement, HPE and its global network partners are now able to sell fully integrated and pre-validated versions of Commvault’s portfolio of healthcare solutions on HPE infrastructure. These solutions include Commvault Clinical Archive and the Commvault Data Platform to protect and manage critical MEDITECH, Epic and other EHR data, as well as medical images across the healthcare enterprise, with a fast, simple and comprehensive solution.

These new Commvault healthcare solutions extend the scope of Commvault’s newest relationship with HPE Complete, providing healthcare customers with industry-leading data protection that is tightly integrated and optimized for HPE Storage and other infrastructure products

Commvault’s partnership with MEDITECH

This new partnership now allows electronic health record (EHR) specialists to expand the breadth of their data management, compliance and record management solutions to customers throughout Europe, Africa, Singapore and Australasia. Currently, MEDITECH facilitates over 300 billion data transactions per year of patients’ critical – and highly sensitive – personal data details.

Through the direct distribution of Commvault’s Data Platform within its managed service solution across Europe and Asia, MEDITECH will expand the direct patient care value of accessible, and securely sharable datasets that are created across modern healthcare IT departments.

PR - Mar 7, 2018 - New Mega Technology Event ConnecTechAsia Addresses Role of Accelerated Digital Change in Asia’s Growing Economy

ConnecTechAsia, combining the strengths of industry stalwarts CommunicAsia, BroadcastAsia, and newly launched NXTAsia, is the region’s latest Mega Technology event, and will stage its inaugural edition from 26-28 June 2018, in Singapore.

With legacy events CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia having served the telecommunications and broadcast media sectors respectively for nearly 40 years, the new NXTAsia builds upon this to bring new technologies that are shaping Asia’s increasingly innovation-driven economy. With the advent of the Industry 4.0, ConnecTechAsia will present a holistic ecosystem of infrastructure, technology, and services that businesses and governments in Asia need to thrive in this new era.

Key speakers include:
  • Professor Howard Michel, CTO, UBTech
  • Jassem Nasser, Chief Strategy Officer, Thuraya Telecommunications Company
  • Ajey Gore, Group Chief Technology Officer, Go-Jek
  • Geert Warlop, Chief Operating Officer, TrueMoney International
  • Rene Werner, Chief Customer Service & Customer Experience Officer, Celcom Axiata Berhad
  • Leah Camilla R. Besa-Jimenez, Chief Data Privacy Officer, PLDT
  • Ian Yip, Chief Technology Officer - Asia Pacific, McAfee
  • Arvind Mathur, Chief Information Technology Officer, Prudential Assurance
  • Bill Chang, Chief Executive Officer - Group Enterprise , Singtel
  • Parminder Singh, Chief Commercial and Digital Officer, Mediacorp
  • Sanjay Aurora, Managing Director - Asia Pacific, Darktrace

PR - Mar 6, 2018 - HLB (Hong Leong Bank) Partners with CGC to Offer RM200 million Financing to SMEs

Hong Leong Bank Berhad (“HLB” or “the Bank”) today signed a strategic partnership agreement with Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad (CGC), to participate in their Portfolio Guarantee (PG) scheme to offer financing of up to RM200 million to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

HL’s Connect First is an advanced digital banking channel that is catered for companies who can easily conduct their own banking and business management services including account management, payables, receivables, liquidity management, trade, treasury management, e-investment and e-procurement.

(L - R:) Terrence Teoh, Head of Group SME Banking, HLB; Domenic Fuda, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, HLB; Datuk Mohd Zamree Ishak, President and Chief Executive Officer, CGC; together with Leong Weng Choong, Chief Business Officer, CGC

HL’s Connect First also provides an embedded HR solutions software that is known as ‘Kakitangan.com’, so that SMEs can efficiently manage their payroll accounts, Employee Provident Fund, Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia and Social Security Organisation submissions.

CGC’s President and Chief Executive Officer Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak added that the scheme would also be made available through CGC’s imSME, Malaysia’s first online SME financing/loan referral platform, which matches eligible SMEs to suitable financing products that are offered by the participating banks. The imSME was launched by the Minister of Finance II, Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani recently.

“With this collaboration, SMEs will now have more options to consider to access financing for their business,” said Zamree.

PR - Mar 6, 2018 - Shopee Partners honor for Exclusive Launch of honor 9 Lite

honor Malaysia has signed an official partnership with Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan to unveil the new honor 9 Lite which will be available exclusively on the Shopee platform. The partnership will allow around 9 million Shopee users in Malaysia to purchase honor’s first quad-camera smartphone at RM 699 (RRP RM749) on Shopee’s platform for a limited time on 9 March 2018. honor is the latest brand to be featured on Shopee Mall, a dedicated shopping portal that features more than 400 leading brands and official distributors, offering Shopee users a premium shopping experience.

PR - Mar 2, 2018 - New ESET Smart TV Security to protect smart TV users from rising malware threats

The ESET Smart TV Security application protects consumers with a variety of security features, including:
  • Antivirus protection safeguards against increasing levels of Android malware.
  • Anti-ransomware technology combats screen-locks. If ransomware is activated, users are advised to switch their smart TV off/on while the virus database is updated and scanning is initiated. When ESET Smart TV Security detects ransomware on the device, the user is advised to uninstall the malware. Once uninstall is confirmed, the ransomware will be cleared.
  • Multi-device scanning for malware on devices and USBs that connect to the smart TV.
  • Anti-phishing to protect users from attempts to steal sensitive, personal information. This feature will be available only in the premium version of ESET Smart TV Security. ESET’s Smart TV Security is available to download via Google Play, and can only be downloaded from a user’s TV device. Once installed, users will be protected by ESET across their entire Android ecosystem – both smartphone and TV.
PR - Mar 1, 2018 - ServiceNow Appoints Mitch Young to Lead Asia Pacific and Japan Business

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) today announced the appointment of Mitch Young to the role of Vice President and General Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ).

Based in Singapore, Young will be responsible for leading ServiceNow’s business across APJ. Young takes over for Jimmy Fitzgerald, who spent the last five years establishing ServiceNow as a cloud leader across Asia. Fitzgerald has been promoted to VP of Global Services and relocated to Europe.

Mitch Young, VP and GM for APJ

In his new role, Young will continue to build ServiceNow’s customer base, product leadership and partner ecosystem across the region. With over two decades of industry experience under his belt, Young has held various leadership roles over the course of his career, with extensive experience in sales management, problem solving, transformational leadership and talent development.

Prior to joining ServiceNow, Young served as the General Manager for ASEAN for IBM.

PR - Mar 1, 2018 - Tableau named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence

Tableau is once again positioned as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant based on ability to execute and completeness of vision.

Tableau’s mission is to help people see and understand data. This shapes the company’s relentless customer focus, rapid innovation, and commitment to operational excellence—making Tableau the most reviewed and highest rated analytics platform on Gartner Peer Insights.

With the shift from traditional to modern BI, enterprise organizations are increasingly looking for self-service analytics and IT is looking for a sustainable, yet long-term approach to governance. More than ever, companies need to adopt a collaborative approach that includes data analytics in all aspects of the overall program. This trend is supported by what Gartner is seeing in the industry.

PR - Mar 1, 2018 - SG - Carbon Black Names Matt Bennett Vice President of Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ)

Carbon Black, a leader in next-generation endpoint security, today announced the appointment of Matt Bennett as vice president and managing director for Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ). Bennett replaces Kane Lightowler, who has been promoted to senior vice president of Americas field sales, a new role based in Palo Alto, California.

Under Lightowler’s leadership in the region, Carbon Black experienced international expansion and signed more than 100 partners. In 2017, the company was named “Asia-Pacific Emerging Cyber Security Vendor of the Year” by Frost & Sullivan and a joint winner in NetworkWorld Asia’s (NWA) Endpoint & Mobile Data Protection category at the Information Management Awards 2017.

Bennett, who will be based in Hong Kong, has more than 20 years of experience working with customers around the globe to overcome security challenges. Most recently, he served as vice president of APJ for MobileIron. Prior to MobileIron, Bennett was vice president of APJ at Zscaler, Inc. and managing director of Japan for Blue Coat Systems.

PR - Feb 28, 2018 - WD Launches 256GB SanDisk Ultra Fit™ USB 3.1 Flash Drive

The new 256GB SanDisk Ultra Fit™ USB 3.1 Flash Drive is a low-profile USB drive for people who want to add more photos, videos, games and audio files to their notebooks, tablets, TVs, gaming consoles and car audio systems. With 256GB, people have the flexibility to keep more content at their fingertips – approximately, 14,000 photos, 10 hours of full HD video and 16,000 songs, with 64GB still available for files.**

Below are more features of the SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive:
  • World’s smallest 256GB USB 3.1 flash drive
  • High-speed USB 3.1 performance enables write speeds up to 15X faster than standard USB 2.0 drives – A full-length movie can be transferred to the drive in less than 30 seconds
  • Warranty: 5-year limited warranty

The 256GB SanDisk Ultra Fit™ USB 3.1 Flash Drive is now available at key IT retail outlets & online stores including 11street, Shopee, Lazada.

Pricing (MSRP) starts at RM 39.00 for 16GB, RM 49.00 for 32GB, RM 99.00 for 64GB, RM 179.00 for 128GB and RM 399.00 for 256GB. Customers will also receive a free SanDisk travel pack when they purchase the SanDisk Ultra Fit (64GB and above only) at any of the above-listed online stores, from now onwards, while stock lasts.

PR - Feb 28, 2018 - VLT Acquires Singapore-based Tinkerbox Studios

VLT set out as a small, independent home grown Malaysian company in 2013 and has rapidly grown to become a leading award winning firm.

VLT’s work impacts some of the world’s biggest brands; BMW, Citibank, Sony, Kimberly-Clark, LG and Tesco amongst many while also on Malaysian brands such as Astro, Webe, Sime Darby, Munchy’s, Jobstreet and more.

But just as importantly, VLT champions and invests in startups, incubating entrepreneurs to SEA and beyond. Some of the work that VLT has done in the startup circuit includes; Supahands, ShopU, Ombre, Goget and TangoFlare amongst others.

Having established its name in the digital scene, VLT has made a major shift from a digital agency to one that focuses on developing and innovating digital products for businesses across various industries from startups to corporations. Therefore, the acquisition of the established design and development studio, Tinkerbox, is a timely synergy in line with its plans.

Founders of Tinkerbox (L-R) Jaryl Sim,Clarence Chew and Kelvin Tham

Founded in 2007 by Jaryl Sim, Kelvin Tham and Clarence Chew, Tinkerbox has supported over 100 projects and startups over the last 10 years. Tinkerbox has inspired and influenced a number of technology ventures in the region including Luxe Nomad, Kaligo, Nail Deck and supported businesses such as IDEO, DBS, LTA, Grab, Ricoh, YCH amongst many others.

Just last year, Tinkerbox was unveiled as the top ten best technology companies to work for in Singapore, alongside corporate giants such as IBM and Accenture at the Tech3 Forum 2017. Tinkerbox Studios has also been named the top 25 most promising Agile providers by APAC CIO Outlook in 2017.

PR - Feb 28, 2018 - SoftBank Robotics Europe Selects Cognizant for Quality Assurance of Artificial Intelligence Systems in Pepper and NAO Humanoid Robots

Cognizant has been selected by SoftBank Robotics Europe, a leader in humanoid robotics, to provide Quality Engineering and Assurance (QE&A) services for the artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the popular Pepper and NAO robots, to make them even more intuitive, agile and personalized. These robots are used, for example, to welcome, inform and entertain customers, and help children to learn in unique and fun ways.

Cognizant’s expertise will optimize performance in the robots and ensure high quality machine-human interactions in various applications such as speech recognition, movement perception and obstacle and collision avoidance. This will enable SoftBank Robotics Europe to scale production to meet rising global demand in sectors such as retail, healthcare, tourism and education.

PR - Feb 28, 2018 - Barcelona - iFREE Group and Globetouch Inc. Join Forces in a Strategic Partnership

iFREE Group and Globetouch Inc. today announced a strategic partnership to jointly further the development of 5G-enabled eSIM technologies to expand the capacity for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, services and operators and will provide its multi-IMSI multi-supplier e-sim solutions and Globetouch will provide its virtual global connectivity and IoT platform to iFREE Group’s potential 350 million merchant clients.

The partnership, established today at MWC Barcelona, will enable iFREE Group to offer its connectivity platform, AI and IoT capabilities beyond its traditional travel and consumer market to global automakers and a broader M2M consumer product market. Recognising that smartphones have revolutionised the way people communicate, they are now no longer the only devices designed for and demanding connectivity. There are a multitude of consumer products from air-conditioners and refrigerators to commercial and industrial applications that demand product management and deployment, cybersecurity and real-time analytics.

PR - Feb 28, 2018 - Microsoft Malaysia Appoints New Services Lead for Malaysia

Microsoft Malaysia has appointed Andrew Lau (picture) as its Services Lead for the subsidiary, with an aim to help customers and partners to get the most out of their technology investments

Andrew, a member of the Malaysia leadership team, is dedicated to drive Microsoft Malaysia’s overall Services strategy, to support Microsoft’s business imperatives and Malaysia's maturing digital marketplace.



A veteran of the industry, Andrew has over 20 years of working experience in the Telco and IT industry across Asia Pacific and Japan region.

In those 20 years, Andrew has held leadership positions in HP and Agilent Technologies, with his most recent position as General Manager for Cloud Platforms, Oracle Malaysia.

PR - Feb 28, 2018 - Infowatch : Comment on "685,000 affected as HardwareZone hit by security breach"

Recently, there was a report on 685,000 registered users of HardwareZone hit by security breach. Sergey Khayruk, InfoWatch Group’s Analyst commented:

“The data breach at online portal HardwareZone (HWZ) proves that every detail matters when it comes to cybersecurity. It seems the portal was using an outdated user authentication system, making it easier for criminals to hijack an admin account. Moreover, the leak was detected by accident almost six months after the attack. User data security should be a priority for not only large customer-centered companies, such as banks and telecom operators, but also any other enterprises that process personal data. A similar large-scale leak took place in Singapore in 2014, when K Box Entertainment Group failed to protect personal data of its 317,000 clients and was therefore fined $50,000 for violating the local Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).”

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