Category Archives: Cloud Hosting
Kyndryl Unveils Data and AI Console to Unify and Simplify Data … – iTWire
Data-driven solution expands and increases observability and insights
Enhanced data governance helps identify irregularities and threats
COMPANY NEWS: Kyndryl, the worlds largest IT infrastructure services provider, today announced availability of the Kyndryl Data and AI Console, a new solution that integrates data operations and provides customers a better way to facilitate seamless data flows and reliable data delivery to enable faster, more informed business decisions.
Built with a unified service plane, the Kyndryl Data and AI Console provides organisations a dashboard that offers a unified view into their data lifecycle and data estate, increasing the health of their data pipeline and data observability. With these features, organisations can now monitor and manage their data from the point of creation to the time of consumption and gain support in proactively mitigating data risks and improving data governance by predicting irregularities and data incidents. The console also allows organisations to have data catalogs, automated tagging and the ability to trace data lineage, providing the entire enterprise with access to high quality data, while also improving reliability and trust.
Organisations want to use data insights in their decision making more, and the Kyndryl Data and AI Console helps make that desire a reality, says Nicolas Sekkaki, Applications, Data and AI global practice leader for Kyndryl. The Kyndryl Data and AI Console enables them to run more efficiently by allowing a unified view of their data and its lineage and lifecycle through one solution.
As customers strive to become more data-driven, built with an open architecture, the Kyndryl Data and AI Console can integrate within their existing technology environment, leveraging existing investments, while continuing to support modernization.
For more information about the Kyndryl Data and AI Console, visit http://www.kyndryl.com/us/en/services/data.
About KyndrylKyndryl (NYSE: KD) is the worlds largest IT infrastructure services provider, serving thousands of enterprise customers in more than 60 countries. The Company designs, builds, manages and modernizes the complex, mission-critical information systems that the world depends on every day. For more information, visit http://www.kyndryl.com.
Reducing WAN latency is one of the biggest issues with hybrid cloud performance. Taking advantage of compression and data deduplication can reduce your network latency.
Research firm, Markets and Markets, predicted that the hybrid cloud market size is expected to grow from US$38.27 billion in 2017 to US$97.64 billion by 2023.
Colocation facilities provide many of the benefits of having your servers in the cloud while still maintaining physical control of your systems.
Cloud adjacency provided by colocation facilities can enable you to leverage their low latency high bandwidth connections to the cloud as well as providing a solid connection back to your on-premises corporate network.
Download this white paper to find out what you need to know about enabling the hybrid cloud in your organisation.
DOWNLOAD NOW!
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If you wish to promote a Webinar we recommend at least a 3 to 4 week campaign prior to your event.
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Now we are coming out of Lockdown iTWire will be focussed to assisting with your webinars and campaigns and assistance via part payments and extended terms, a Webinar Business Booster Pack and other supportive programs. We can also create your adverts and written content plus coordinate your video interview.
We look forward to discussing your campaign goals with you. Please click the button below.
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Kyndryl Unveils Data and AI Console to Unify and Simplify Data ... - iTWire
VNET Reports Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 … – PR Newswire
BEIJING, March 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- VNET Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: VNET) ("VNET" or the "Company"), a leading carrier- and cloud-neutral internet data center services provider in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2022.
"We concluded a challenging 2022 with solid fourth quarter results, achieving meaningful development on a broad scale," said Jeff Dong, Chief Executive Officer of VNET. "Amid the macro headwinds, our dual-core strategy encompassing both the wholesale and retail IDC markets continued to prove strongly effective. We continued to grow our wholesale business with two major orders totaling over 100MW, extending the service contract with one of our largest existing customers in the fourth quarter and winning a bid for an IDC project with a new customer recently. On the retail business front, we made decent progress in expanding our customer base and fueling deeper collaboration with existing customers as we have been consistently building out our high-quality service offerings. Heading into 2023, with a gradual but noticeable economic recovery, we remain optimistic about the long-term prospects of the IDC industry."
Tim Chen, Chief Financial Officer of VNET, commented, "We delivered a resilient performance in the fourth quarter of 2022, with year-over-year revenue growth of 7.7% and adjusted EBITDA margin of 22.6%. For the full year of 2022, we achieved our annual cabinet delivery target by adding approximately 8,400 self-built cabinets despite external challenges, which speaks to our outstanding execution. Looking ahead, we will continue to execute on our dual-core growth strategy and remain focused on our core businesses, while continuing to explore more capital resources to strengthen our financial position."
Fourth Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights
Full Year 2022 Financial Highlights
Fourth Quarter 2022 Operational Highlights
[1]The overall utilization rate is calculated by dividing the number of customer-utilized cabinets by the total cabinets under management at the end of the period. Before the first quarter of 2022, the Company used the compound utilization rate, a metric that was calculated based on the weighted average number of customer-utilized cabinets over the reported period.
[2]Retail IDC MRR refers to Monthly Recurring Revenues for the retail IDC business.
Fourth Quarter 2022 Financial Results
NET REVENUES:Net revenues in the fourth quarter of 2022 were RMB1.88 billion (US$272.7 million), representing an increase of 7.7%from RMB1.75 billion in the same period of 2021. The year-over-year increase was mainly due to the increased demand from both wholesale and retail IDC customers, as well as the growth of our cloud and VPN services.
GROSS PROFIT:Gross profit in the fourth quarter of 2022 was RMB328.4 million (US$47.6million), compared with RMB380.0 million in the same period of 2021. Gross margin in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 17.5%, compared to 21.8% in the same period of 2021.
ADJUSTED CASH GROSS PROFIT,which excludes depreciation, amortization, and share-based compensation expenses, was RMB740.1 million (US$107.3million) in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to RMB713.8million in the same period of 2021. Adjusted cash gross margin in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 39.4%, compared to 40.9% in the same period of 2021.
OPERATING EXPENSES: Total operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 were RMB345.7million (US$50.1 million), compared to RMB649.7 million in the same period of 2021. As a percentage of net revenues, total operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 were 18.4%, compared to 37.2% in the same period of 2021.
Sales and marketing expensesin the fourth quarter of 2022 were RMB76.4 million (US$11.1 million), compared to RMB85.5 million in the same period of 2021.
Research and development expensesin the fourth quarter of 2022 were RMB84.1 million (US$12.2 million), compared to RMB63.0million in the same period of 2021.
General and administrative expensesin the fourth quarter of 2022 were RMB156.2 million (US$22.7 million), compared to RMB390.9 million in the same period of 2021.
ADJUSTED OPERATING EXPENSES, which exclude share-based compensation expenses, compensation for postcombination employment in an acquisition, impairment of loan receivable to potential investee and impairment of long-lived assets, were RMB355.4million (US$51.5 million) in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to RMB273.7 million in the same period of 2021. As a percentage of net revenues, adjusted operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 were 18.9%, compared to 15.7% in the same period of 2021.
ADJUSTED EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2022 was RMB424.3 million (US$61.5 million), representing a decrease of 8.3%from RMB463.0million in the same period of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2022 excluded reverse of share-based compensation expenses of RMB7.8 million (US$1.1 million). Adjusted EBITDA margin in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 22.6%, compared to 26.5% in the same period of 2021.
NET LOSS ATTRIBUTABLE TO ORDINARY SHAREHOLDERS:Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders in the fourth quarter of 2022 was RMB64.2 million (US$9.3 million), compared to a net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of RMB27.3 million in the same period of 2021. Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders in the fourth quarter of 2022 included a loss from changes in the fair value of convertible promissory notes of RMB48.5 million (US$7.0 million), compared to a gain of RMB227.8 million in the same period of 2021.
LOSS PER SHARE: Basic and diluted loss per share in the fourth quarter of 2022 were both RMB0.07 (US$0.01) which represented the equivalent of both RMB0.42 (US$0.06) per American depositary share ("ADS"). Each ADS represents six Class A ordinary shares. Diluted loss per share is calculated using adjusted net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders divided by the weighted average number of diluted shares outstanding.
As of December 31, 2022, the aggregate amount of the Company's cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash was RMB2.99billion (US$433.4 million).
Net cash generated from operating activities,in the fourth quarter of 2022, was RMB569.6 million (US$82.6 million), compared to RMB664.0million in the same period of 2021.
Full Year 2022 Financial Results
NET REVENUES:Net revenues in the full year of 2022 increased by 14.1%to RMB7.07 billion (US$1.02 billion) from RMB6.19 billion in the full year of 2021.
GROSS PROFIT:Gross profit in the full year of 2022 was RMB1.36 billion (US$196.9million), representing a decrease of 5.5% from RMB1.44 billion in the full year of 2021. Gross margin in the full year of 2022 was 19.2%, compared to 23.2% in the full year of 2021.
ADJUSTED CASH GROSS PROFIT,which excludes depreciation, amortization, and share-based compensation expenses, was RMB2.85billion (US$412.7million) in the full year of 2022, compared to RMB2.63billion in the full year of 2021. Adjusted cash gross margin in the full year of 2022 was 40.3%, compared to 42.6% in the full year of 2021.
OPERATING EXPENSES: Total operating expenses in the full year of 2022 were RMB1.24billion (US$179.4 million), compared to RMB1.42 billion in the full year of 2021. As a percentage of net revenues, total operating expenses in the full year of 2022 were 17.5%, compared to 22.9% in the full year of 2021.
Sales and marketing expensesin the full year of 2022 were RMB311.9 million (US$45.2 million), compared to RMB255.4 million in the full year of 2021.
Research and development expensesin the full year of 2022 were RMB306.8million (US$44.5 million), compared to RMB188.5million in the full year of 2021.
General and administrative expensesin the full year of 2022 were RMB642.9 million (US$93.2 million), compared to RMB842.4 million in the full year of 2021.
ADJUSTED OPERATING EXPENSES, which exclude share-based compensation expenses, compensation for postcombination employment in an acquisition, impairment of loan receivable to potential investee and impairment of long-lived assets, were RMB1.08 billion (US$156.9 million) in the full year of 2022, compared to RMB965.7 million in the full year of 2021. As a percentage of net revenues, adjusted operating expenses in the full year of 2022 were 15.3%, compared to 15.6% in the full year of 2021.
ADJUSTED EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA in the full year of 2022 was RMB1.87 billion (US$271.5 million), representing an increase of 6.8% from RMB1.75billion in the full year of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA in the full year of 2022 excluded share-based compensation expenses of RMB118.2 million (US$17.1million). Adjusted EBITDA margin in the full year of 2022 was 26.5%, compared to 28.3% in the full year of 2021.
NET PROFIT/LOSS ATTRIBUTABLE TO ORDINARY SHAREHOLDERS:Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders in the full year of 2022 was RMB776.0 million (US$112.5 million), compared to a net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of RMB500.1 million in the full year of 2021. Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders in the full year of 2022 included foreign exchange loss of RMB523.2 million (US$75.9 million), compared to a foreign exchange gain of RMB110.0 million in the full year of 2021.
LOSS PER SHARE: Basic and diluted loss per share in the full year of 2022 were both RMB0.87 (US$0.13) which represented the equivalent of both RMB5.22 (US$0.78) per American depositary share ("ADS"). Each ADS represents six Class A ordinary shares. Diluted loss per share is calculated using adjusted net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders divided by the weighted average number of diluted shares outstanding.
Net cash generated from operating activitiesin the full year of 2022 was RMB2.60 billion (US$377.3 million), compared to RMB1.39billion in the full year of 2021.
Business Outlook
The Company expects net revenues for the full year of 2023 to be in the range of RMB7,600 million to RMB7,900 million, representing a year-over-year growth of 7.6% to 11.8%, and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of RMB2,025 million to RMB2,125 million, representing a year-over-year growth of 8.1% to 13.5%.
The forecast reflects the Company's current and preliminary views on the market and its operational conditions, and is subject to change.
Conference Call
The Company's management will host an earnings conference call at 9:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, or 9:00 AM Beijing Time on Wednesday, March 22, 2023.
For participants who wish to join the call, please access the link provided below to complete the online registration process and dial in 5 minutes prior to the scheduled call start time.
Upon registration, each participant will receive a set of dial-in numbers by location, a personal PIN and an email with further detailed instructions, which will be used to join the conference call.
A simultaneous audio webcast and replay of the conference call will be accessible on the Company's investor relations website athttp://ir.vnet.com.
Non-GAAP Disclosure
In evaluating its business, VNET considers and uses the following non-GAAP measures defined as non-GAAP financial measures by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a supplemental measure to review and assess its operating performance: adjusted cash gross profit, adjusted cash gross margin, adjusted operating expenses, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the table captioned "Reconciliations of GAAP and non-GAAP results" set forth at the end of this press release.
The non-GAAP financial measures are provided as additional information to help investors compare business trends among different reporting periods on a consistent basis and to enhance investors' overall understanding of the Company's current financial performance and prospects for the future. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, but should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, U.S. GAAP results. In addition, the Company's calculation of the non-GAAP financial measures may be different from the calculation used by other companies, and therefore comparability may be limited.
Exchange Rate
This announcement contains translations of certain RMB amounts into U.S. dollars ("USD") at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise stated, all translations from RMB to USD were made at the rate of RMB6.8972 to US$1.00, the noon buying rate in effect on December 30, 2022, in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. The Company makes no representation that the RMB or USD amounts referred could be converted into USD or RMB, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all. For analytical presentation, all percentages are calculated using the numbers presented in the financial statements contained in this earnings release.
Statement Regarding Unaudited Condensed Financial Information
The unaudited financial information set forth above is preliminary and subject to potential adjustments. Adjustments to the consolidated financial statements may be identified when audit work has been performed for the Company's year-end audit, which could result in significant differences from this preliminary unaudited condensed financial information.
About VNET
VNET Group, Inc. is a leading carrier- and cloud-neutral Internet data center services provider in China. VNET provides hosting and related services, including IDC services, cloud services, and business VPN services to improve the reliability, security, and speed of its customers' internet infrastructure. Customers may locate their servers and equipment in VNET's data centers and connect to China's internet backbone. VNET operates in more than 30 cities throughout China, servicing a diversified and loyal base of over 6,500 hosting and related enterprise customers that span numerous industries ranging from internet companies to government entities and blue-chip enterprises to small- to mid-sized enterprises.
Safe Harbor Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "target," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, quotations from management in this announcement as well as VNET's strategic and operational plans contain forward-looking statements. VNET may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about VNET's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: VNET's goals and strategies; VNET's expansion plans; the expected growth of the data center services market; expectations regarding demand for, and market acceptance of, VNET's services; VNET's expectations regarding keeping and strengthening its relationships with customers; VNET's plans to invest in research and development to enhance its solution and service offerings; and general economic and business conditions in the regions where VNET provides solutions and services. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in VNET's reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and VNET undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.
Investor Relations Contact:
Xinyuan LiuTel: +86 10 8456 2121Email: [emailprotected]
VNET GROUP, INC.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(Amount in thousands of Renminbi ("RMB") and US dollars ("US$"))
As of
As of
December 31, 2021
December 31, 2022
RMB
RMB
US$
(Audited)
(Unaudited)
(Unaudited)
Assets
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents
1,372,481
2,661,321
385,855
Restricted cash
327,767
327,673
47,508
Accounts and notes receivable, net
1,405,997
1,763,693
255,711
Prepaid expenses and other current assets
2,049,911
2,147,500
311,361
Amounts due from related parties
167,967
152,089
22,051
Total current assets
5,324,123
7,052,276
1,022,486
Non-current assets:
Property and equipment, net
10,092,419
11,964,498
1,734,689
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VNET Reports Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 ... - PR Newswire
Why the employee factor in IT security is vital to protecting your … – iTWire
GUEST OPINION: We live in a time when terms like phishing, ransomware, viruses and worms are part of everyday lexicon and thats not only among IT professionals. Cyber attacks in Australia are accelerating, with the state of the nations cybersecurity coming under greater scrutiny.
Millions of Australians have been impacted by several high-profile incidents Optus and Medibank to name just two which have exposed their customers personal data to hackers.
What we are seeing today is a challenge that has been with us for far too long. In my observations, a fundamental issue here has been the deflection of cybersecurity as being solely an IT function and responsibility. Historically, this may have been accurate; but as more transactions are conducted online, issues surrounding the protection of data and personally identifiable information (PII) are really a wider business problem.
Business development short-cuts lead to long-term cybersecurity headaches
A common dilemma we have encountered is when businesses hastily sign off on the development of new applications or customer service products, overlooking PII vulnerabilities. This pressure to cut corners might seem unlikely to end up as a breach at the time, but when it does, the consequences are severe. The Optus and Medibank breaches are cases in point, where the number of accounts hit were reportedly equivalent to 56% of the population.
When I see leaks that come from testing or development environments with access to production data thats not been scrubbed of PII, it usually means a short-cut has been taken due to timeframe for delivery or budget. Admittedly, some people do ask is it not the responsibility of the Security Operations Centre (SOC) to identify unauthorised access to these environments? Its a valid query which highlights yet more challenges faced by cybersecurity teams.
Firstly, lateral movement and unauthorised access are very difficult to identify in the modern enterprise network. This is because most SOCs are inundated with security alerts at a rate which cant quickly pinpoint which one of these is an actual cyber attack or breach. This is something I hear from Chief ISOs all the time and the problem is only getting worse.
Add to this, the other massive challenge of an undersized cybersecurity workforce, Our own research among Australian security leaders has revealed that over 96% of employees in ANZ organisations are facing increased pressure to keep their organisation safe; additionally 52% of Australians and 48% in New Zealand say they are in constant fire-fighting mode, leading to greater anxiety. The immense remote worker mobilisation during COVID lockdowns also led to the acceleration of cloud-based services, wideningattack surface, as threat actors became increasingly familiar with environments such as AWS Azure and Google Cloud.
Nonetheless, the deeper PII challenge still remains the prioritisation of revenue vs cybersecurity. IT teams and developers are remarkably skilled at deploying infrastructure and developing codes faster than ever. But this is also leading to security blindspots burdening overstretched IT security teams and resources. Its important to know what is malicious by analysing detection patterns unique to your environment, to surface relevant events, reducing blindspots and noise.
Caring about protecting PII
Security breaches will continue to make headlines as hackers find new ways of exploiting critical assets inside an organisation. Its widely understood that data is the new gold for malicious actors and PII that is not publicly available, is the ultimate jackpot. When left unsecured, sensitive PII information such as tax information records, employee payroll, or insurance details can be exploited in a number of ways including ransomware and phishing attempts for criminal financial gain. Organisations need to think like a hacker to go beyond signatures and anomalies to understand attacker behavior and zero in on attacker TTPs across the cyber kill chain.
Ultimately, for security decision makers today, its about focusing on whats urgent, by having a view of threats by severity and impact, which enabes analysts to focus on responding to the most critical threats to reduce business risk.
So what can businesses do to protect their PII? Here are my top tips:
Chris Fisher is Director of Security Engineering for Vectra.ai in the Asia Pacific and Japan Markets.
Reducing WAN latency is one of the biggest issues with hybrid cloud performance. Taking advantage of compression and data deduplication can reduce your network latency.
Research firm, Markets and Markets, predicted that the hybrid cloud market size is expected to grow from US$38.27 billion in 2017 to US$97.64 billion by 2023.
Colocation facilities provide many of the benefits of having your servers in the cloud while still maintaining physical control of your systems.
Cloud adjacency provided by colocation facilities can enable you to leverage their low latency high bandwidth connections to the cloud as well as providing a solid connection back to your on-premises corporate network.
Download this white paper to find out what you need to know about enabling the hybrid cloud in your organisation.
DOWNLOAD NOW!
Marketing budgets are now focused on Webinars combined with Lead Generation.
If you wish to promote a Webinar we recommend at least a 3 to 4 week campaign prior to your event.
The iTWire campaign will include extensive adverts on our News Site itwire.com and prominent Newsletter promotion https://itwire.com/itwire-update.html and Promotional News & Editorial. Plus a video interview of the key speaker on iTWire TV https://www.youtube.com/c/iTWireTV/videos which will be used in Promotional Posts on the iTWire Home Page.
Now we are coming out of Lockdown iTWire will be focussed to assisting with your webinars and campaigns and assistance via part payments and extended terms, a Webinar Business Booster Pack and other supportive programs. We can also create your adverts and written content plus coordinate your video interview.
We look forward to discussing your campaign goals with you. Please click the button below.
MORE INFO HERE!
Read more:
Why the employee factor in IT security is vital to protecting your ... - iTWire
Latest version of the Appian platform delivers complete process … – iTWire
COMPANY NEWS: Appian today announced immediate availability of the latest version of the Appian Platform for process automation. The new release features enhancements in total experience, data fabric, automation, and process mining, all underpinned by Appians industrial-strength low-code design.
Organisations must go beyond applications that provide automation at the task level and begin implementing process orchestrations that unify humans, systems, and digital workers, said Appian chief technology officer and founder Michael Beckley. Appian delivers the end-to-end process control organisations need to design new digital solutions, automate complex processes, and optimise business operations to drive continuous improvement.
Enhancements to Appian Portals extends total experience benefits across business-to-business and business-to-consumer use cases. In under four weeks, Appian customer AARP built a robust, secure, and engaging Appian Portals experience to support the Fraud Watch Volunteer program providing support to fraud victims among AARPs 40 million members.
We needed a way to accept and process applications from volunteers, and we spent more than 18 months looking for a technology that would enable that while meeting our very strict security requirements, said AARP director of workflow automation Fisnik Shpuza. Appian Portals gave us everything we needed. Its secure, its beautiful and looks like an AARP web page, and it connects all the incoming data directly into our process.
The new release makes it easier than ever to build beautiful and intuitive web and mobile Portals that engage external users in a seamless total experience with internal employees. New features include:
1. Start Process from Portals: Start any process automation directly from a Portals interface. Appian customers can initiate end-to-end process automations directly in a Portal enabling orchestration of AI services, assigning human tasks or executing robotic process automations.
2. Query Appians data fabric from Portals: Streamlined ability to query and display record data from Appians data fabric in Portals, without the need for complex integration calls.
3. Portals Header Bar and Pages: Engage Portals users with great experiences. Add a header bar for multi-page navigation to connect with your users in more ways, all with no code. Portals Change Management: Changing and iterating Portals is even easier. With the addition of new proactive actions and recommendations, Appian proactively updates portals and notifies developers when objects change.
The Appian data fabric unifies data across systems without moving the data, dramatically reducing the time and effort needed to build powerful applications. The latest Appian release includes enhancements that make working with the data fabric easier than ever, including:
1. Centralised Record Security: Secure all aspects of your records in one place. Quickly specify who can see which records and record views and what actions they can take.
2. No-Code Security Rules: Specify security rules for Record Views by answering two simple questions: Who can see the data, and when can they see it?
3. Simplification: Appians data fabric features drag-and-drop record type configurations, auto-generation of user record type relationships, database updates with codeless data modeling, the ability to combine data across record types, and more.
In todays economy, IT leaders must continue to deliver value to the business with fewer resources, while driving greater operational efficiency. Business leaders face increasing regulatory compliance burdens, driving a need for end-to-end process control, and they are also experiencing pressure to digitally innovate to remain competitive. The latest version of the Appian Platform helps IT leaders achieve digital agility, while enabling business leaders to easily design, automate, and optimize business operations to drive efficiency and deliver new digital innovations.
About AppianAppian is a software company that automates business processes. The Appian Platform includes everything you need to design, automate, and optimize even the most complex processes, from start to finish. The world's most innovative organisations trust Appian to improve their workflows, unify data, and optimize operationsresulting in better growth and superior customer experiences.
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Latest version of the Appian platform delivers complete process ... - iTWire
‘Conficting views’ by business leaders on Cybersecurity function … – iTWire
While Australian organisations plan to increase cybersecurity budgets in 2023, business leaders hold conflicting views on the function, according to new research by one global cybecurity company.
Trend Micro says the research revealed that most - or 89% - of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) respondents say they plan to increase security investment in 2023 - but it also revealed critical gaps in business decision-makers (BDMs) understanding of the relationship between cybersecurity and other parts of the organisation.
Mick McCluney, Technical Director, ANZ at Trend Micro: If organisations want to make the most of their security investments, business leaders must reframe their view of cybersecurity to think more broadly about how it can positively impact the enterprise. This research shows its clearly a critical component of winning new business and talent. At a time when every dollar/penny counts, its concerning to see stereotyped views of security persist at the very top.
Trend Micro notes that on the one hand, more than half (52%) claim cybersecurity is a necessary cost but not a revenue contributor, while a similar share (43%) argue that its value is limited to attack/threat prevention. Nearly a fifth (38%) even see security as a barrier rather than a business enabler.
However, on the other hand, 71% worry that a lack of cybersecurity credentials could impact their ability to win new business with almost a fifth (15%) admitting it already has. This comes as more than two-thirds (69%) of BDMs admit theyre being asked about security posture in negotiations with prospects and suppliers. And 74% say these requests for information are increasing in frequency, notes Trfend Micro.
Trend Micro says this apparent contradiction in attitudes is laid bare by another finding - despite prospects and suppliers clearly prioritising security in negotiations, only 43% of BDMs perceive there to be a strong or very strong connection between cyber and client acquisition/satisfaction.
Talent acquisition is another area where there are clear gaps in BDMs understanding of the interconnectivity between cybersecurity and the rest of the business, Trend Miros reveals, adding that Nearly three-quarters (69%) of respondents claim that the ability to work from anywhere has become vital in the battle for talent. Yet only around one-third understand the strong connection between cybersecurity and employee retention (30%) and talent attraction (37%).
Trend Micro says thats despite respondents recognising the impact of cyber on the employee experience:
Trend Micro notes that its Risk to Resilience World Tour 2023 will be coming to five cities across Australia, including Canberra (May 9), Melbourne (May 10), Brisbane (May 11), Perth (May 23) and Sydney (June 7) -bringing together leading cybersecurity industry voices in the region, including partners and customers - with the events focusing on building pathways to a more resilient cyber infrastructure across local and global networks. To learn more and to register to attend, click here.
Reducing WAN latency is one of the biggest issues with hybrid cloud performance. Taking advantage of compression and data deduplication can reduce your network latency.
Research firm, Markets and Markets, predicted that the hybrid cloud market size is expected to grow from US$38.27 billion in 2017 to US$97.64 billion by 2023.
Colocation facilities provide many of the benefits of having your servers in the cloud while still maintaining physical control of your systems.
Cloud adjacency provided by colocation facilities can enable you to leverage their low latency high bandwidth connections to the cloud as well as providing a solid connection back to your on-premises corporate network.
Download this white paper to find out what you need to know about enabling the hybrid cloud in your organisation.
DOWNLOAD NOW!
Marketing budgets are now focused on Webinars combined with Lead Generation.
If you wish to promote a Webinar we recommend at least a 3 to 4 week campaign prior to your event.
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'Conficting views' by business leaders on Cybersecurity function ... - iTWire
Australian government and businesses caught in crosshairs as … – iTWire
GUEST RESEARCH: According to Radware's new threat advisory, the fashion runway at the Melbourne Fashion Festival is stirring up some of the latest backlash from hacktivist groups.
Muslim hacktivist groups started teaming up against Australian institutions and businesses after Australian fashion house Not A Man's Dream sent garments displaying the Arabic text for 'Allah' printed on them down the catwalk during the festival. In retaliation, hacktivist crews including Team Insane pk, Eagle Cyber, and Mysterious Team launched a denial-of-service and website defacement campaign, targeting well over 70 Australian sites.
This includes the public websites of governments, ports, banks and private businesses.
For example, Mysterious Team claimed they took the websites of the Australian Police and the Citizen Emergency Health Service offline. At the same time, Team Insane went after IMB Bank and Bank of Sydney and continued the attack on Not A Man's Dream.
Muslim hacktivists are well connected and have a large circle of influence. The Australian attacks, which are running under the operation tags #OpsAustralia and #Opsjentik, were motivated by religion, a very common hacktivist motivation.
Radware director of threat intelligence Pascal Geenens provides some additional insights:
"Denial-of-service has always been an important tactic for hacktivist groups, and this will not change any time soon. Any organisation, independent of size and vertical, can become a target of hacktivists as the fallout in Australia has demonstrated. A fashion label made an offensive statement while governments, ports, banks and several smaller businesses paid the bill.
"There is no reason for panic, but organisations need to be prepared. It is widely known in the security community that disrupting or impacting an organisation or infrastructure requires more perseverance than skills or sophistication."
The full full advisory, which includes a list of the targeted Australian websites, is available here.
Reducing WAN latency is one of the biggest issues with hybrid cloud performance. Taking advantage of compression and data deduplication can reduce your network latency.
Research firm, Markets and Markets, predicted that the hybrid cloud market size is expected to grow from US$38.27 billion in 2017 to US$97.64 billion by 2023.
Colocation facilities provide many of the benefits of having your servers in the cloud while still maintaining physical control of your systems.
Cloud adjacency provided by colocation facilities can enable you to leverage their low latency high bandwidth connections to the cloud as well as providing a solid connection back to your on-premises corporate network.
Download this white paper to find out what you need to know about enabling the hybrid cloud in your organisation.
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Leverage economics, sustainability of cloud in the digital era – IT-Online
Kathy Gibson reports The move to cloud is recognised as necessary for most organisations, but the journey to cloud is complex and can be challenging.
IDC held its Cloud and Datacentre Roadshow in Johannesburg today (15 March 2023) to examine some of the challenges and how companies can navigate them.
How well will your organisation be able to weather the next big crisis?
There are many business disruptors at work today, including power issues, the global pandemic, international wars and extreme weather. These are all pushing businesses to the wall, with many having closed their doors or in dire straits.
Thabiso Hlatshwayo, senior solution consulting manager at OpenText Africa, challenges CIOs to imagine a world without the Internet. Many of the applications that we rely on need the Internet to function, he points out, and we would be in a bad position without them. Indeed, the world today has pivoted to being always-on, always-connected and when this isnt available, businesses can crash.
The fastest pivot is still to come, Hlatshwayo says.
As we enter the era of quantum computing, we will see more innovations to come. But this could bring about what Hlatshwayo calls a nano-crisis, where the human-machine team will run the future-ready organisation.
Humans will not be able to solve the next crisis on their own: we will rely on the power of the human-machine team.
To survive the coming challenges, he recommends that companies start to work on building their human-machine teams. They need to be always-on, accessible to all and with flat structures, he adds.
Future-ready organisations will make information-powered decisions that are totally visible. This value-driven organisation will harness the existing structures and build on services available from other entities.
Its not that simple to just pick up applications and move them into the cloud which is why organisations that decide on a cloud-first strategy often find themselves in a state of cloud chaos.
Ian Jansen van Rensburg, SE director and chief technology officer of VMware SA, points out that simply deciding on a cloud-first strategy doesnt make it happen as companies could find themselves losing control of their apps and cloud infrastructure.
We say you need to be cloud-smart rather than cloud-first, he says. This involves putting a virtualisation layer between your premises and the cloud.
This will help organisations to pick the right cloud for the right app, with consistent management with security and control, and the cost-efficient use of private and public clouds.
So a new approach is required, with an abstraction layer to simplify and unify their datacentre environment.
This layer also needs to include an app platform, cloud management, cloud and edge infrastructure, security and networking, and an anywhere workspace.
VMware enables this by running the same cloud and edge infrastructure within the cloud data centres and the end users datacentre.
A number of hyperscaler clouds have entered the South African market, along with smaller and more specialised clouds. The question for many is whether there is room in the market for more cloud providers.
The main issue is to match business and IT requirements, says Jaap Scholten, head of group hybrid IT strategy at Datacentrix and chief operating officer at eNetworks.
Enterprises battle with the issues of exchange rates, data egress costs, and compliance questions around their data location and accessibility. And many cloud projects end up running over budget due to unanticipated complexity.
The golden thread here is data, he adds. Forget cloud-first put data first.
The three pillars that support a data strategy are where it lives, how it is transported, and how it is secured.
Where these overlap are the ACX (hosting and transport), zero trust (transport and security) and SOC (security and hosting).
These pillars are surrounded by services like desk-to-cloud, implementation, managed services and consulting services.
One cloud does not fit all, Scholten says. Organisations need to consider multi-cloud adoption, a fully-operational infrastructure, and a single point of management,
Datacentrix can build a cloud blueprint for companies that can be implemented on any cloud infrastructure.
The future of utilities is all about sustainability, building resilient operations, enabling resilience, and adapting to the evolving utility customer.
This is the word from Faith Burn, CIO of Eskom Holdings, who says a transition to digital business is key to meeting some of the challenges facing the utility. And cloud is vital for digitalisation, she adds.
Eskoms approach to the cloud starts with obtaining approval in line with critical infrastructure governance. This was led by an impactful first business case to prove the concept, which Eskom did with its Office 365 migration.
After this, the organisation needs to define a cloud strategy, then define the cloud roadmap. This is a significant job, Burn says, with the amount of applications within the organisation. There is the requirement to classify applications and then to determine what to do with these.
This is followed by vendor assessments per classification, then implementation and ongoing monitoring.
When you start with a cloud journey, it has to be business-driven, coupled with a pragmatic adoption and migration plan, Burn says.
Any project has to have clear objectives defined, having assessed classification and candidate groupings. Given the sovereignty requirements, a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud approach is important.
Its a journey, not an event, Burn concludes.
Applications can now live just about anywhere: on-premise, in the cloud, on the edge.
But this fosters a degree of complexity that plays out in security risks, operational complexity, misconfiguration, and the loss of visibility, according to Ajay Govind, systems engineer at Fortinet.
Many companies are now bringing their applications back into the edge to improve the user experience, which adds more challenges. CIOs also have to contend with misconfiguration of cloud security, insecure APIs, exfiltration of data, and unauthorised access to applications.
Overall, the move to digital transformation is increasing the number of applications and tools in the environment, making it more difficult to secure systems.
There can be no doubt that organisations are using hybrid cloud and multi-cloud, bringing with it challenges in the datacentre, the cloud, and on the edge.
Fortinet advocates a fabric solution for a secure application journey, offering a consistent, secured and optimised experience to build, deploy and run cloud applications across all cloud and hybrid environments.
Cloud is changing the way we live and work, with the edge a vital but often-overlooked part of this new reality.
Bevan Lock, senior sales engineer at Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions, believes the edge is becoming more important as organisations seek to bring their applications closer to the customer. The intelligent edge is quickly complementing the intelligent cloud as Internet of Things and ubiquitous communication increasingly provide the data that organisations need.
Part of being cloud smart is extending to the edge, bringing the compute to where the data is regardless of what kind of data, and where it is.
We cant afford the time and latency of moving that data around, or the cost of doing so, Lock says. We are seeing analytics and IoT quickly driving the edge, putting the applications at the point where we need them.
Lenovo delivers the solutions to enable that, Lock says.
Edge is no longer a trend that we can expect to see: already 52% of South African CIOs have made their first production deployments at the cloud edge, and a further 24% plant to do so in the next 12 months. At the same time, there has been an 800% increase in edge applications.
Challenges on the edge include environmental issues, management, applications, infrastructure, connectivity, security, and logistics.
Edge deployments are less predictable than traditional data centres, Lock adds. They can have exponential scale, be geographically distributed, and are typically quite complex. The edge will typically require a divide and conquer approach to filed support, with variable SLAs, and we are still figuring out he lifecycle management.
The edge computing value chain adds more complexity because large quantities of raw data are in many locations. Lenovo, Lock says, deploys a remote automated setup that is relatively simple to set up and deploy.
Technology and innovation is constant, with cloud now the de facto platform for future innovations.
Covid released budgets for cloud deployments which allowed CIOs to grow their cloud infrastructure, says Devi Moodley, CIO of the soon-to-be-launched Momentum Money. But the depressed economic environment is seeing those budgets being cut back.
The companies that have been able to complete their cloud migrations are able to demonstrate the benefits and they have a team of talented people on board.
Today, however, there is less money available for the cloud journey and CIOs have to rethink where they can go from here. In these circumstances, Moodley advises CIOs to embrace their inner chief financial officer (CFO).
Develop an in-depth understanding of your business objectives and strategic priorities for the next five years, she says. At the same time, move your positioning in the organisation to a more strategic role. This means you need to understand where the business is going and what will deliver the most benefit.
Look at the probability of success, and consider the risk appetite, she adds. Then you can determine what the roadmap should be realigned to.
Once on the journey, Moodley says CIOs should continuously evaluate during and after the implementation if the expected benefits are being realised and have the strength to step away if the answer is no.
The good thing is that this is not a capital investment, so the CFO wont bite your head off.
The architecture of any cloud project should be simplified, and the CIO should ensure they understand how it will behave in the cloud before they deploy it. Architect for value generation, Moodley says.
She adds that software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) may seem more expensive, but their total cost of ownership and ease of use saves in the long-run. At the same time, CIOs can use more cost-effective services, and should use built-in security and maintenance features wherever possible.
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SAIC faces challenges to $1.3B Treasury cloud win – Washington Technology
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Running WordPress on Azure for secure, fast and global content delivery – TechRepublic
Learn about Microsoft's WordPress on Azure App Service, as well as an interesting alternative from WP Engine.
Twenty years old this year, WordPress remains one of the most popular content management tools.
Running a WordPress instance requires a web server and a database, an ideal combination for moving to a virtual infrastructure running in the cloud, either using platform services or bringing your own infrastructure. Bringing your own WordPress installation to Azure still requires managing and patching the underlying OS and the CMS application, as youre treating Azure as just another host for virtual machines. Yes, its an approach that simplifies lifting and shifting existing services from on-premises or from traditional hosting providers, but youre not really getting the benefits that come with using a hyperscale cloud platform.
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If you take a look at the Azure Marketplace, youll see many options for running WordPress, from basic installs to complete managed environments, including customized versions. There are many choices, and it can be difficult to pick an option especially when many offer similar features at similar prices.
WordPress is, at heart, a Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) application, and you should remember that the only supported PHP on Azure is the one running on Azure App Service for Linux. If youre running your own or a third-party WordPress on Azure, you should ensure that its either running on Azure App Service or that your WordPress vendor is providing PHP support for you.
One option is Microsofts own offering,WordPress on Azure App Service. This is a managed WordPress, running on the familiar Azure App Service and using Microsofts MySQL flexible server service for your content and data. Microsoft has tuned its WordPress installation for Azure, building on App Services Linux hosting option. Its also an open-source project with the tools needed to configure and create an instance hosted on GitHub. The projects GitHub repository contains links to documentation showing the default settings and providing details on what you can change.
As the service is managed, Microsoft handles security patching for you, ensuring that your Content Management System (CMS) is up to date and reducing the risks associated with running WordPress. Theres no need to schedule maintenance, as Microsoft will spin up a new instance, connect it to your content storage and database and then switch away from the old instance.
Microsoft built its WordPress solution to take advantage of Azure best practices. The WordPress application runs in a separate virtual network from the database and backup storage, using a local Redis cache to speed up content delivery. The whole service sits behind an Azure Front Door security appliance, with static content served from Azure Blob storage. Usefully, Front Door is configured to work with the Azure Content Delivery Network, so that static content is cached near the edge of the network, with endpoints in many more places than there are Azure regions.
Billing is based on standard Azure App Service rates, and Microsoft provides guidelines on the hosting plans required for expected usage, from a single standard instance handling 120 requests per second to six production instances delivering 21,000 requests per second. Youll also need to factor in the costs of storage, as Azures Managed MySQL bills separately for compute and storage. As well as running in the Azure public cloud, theres support for its U.S. government cloud, allowing public bodies to use Azure to host their web content.
Microsoft provides guidelines on how to migrate content from existing sites to a managed Azure instance, using a common migration plugin. The free version of the All-in-One WP Migration tool works well for smaller sites, with up to 256MB of content. If you have more, use the premium version. As theres an upload limit for WordPress on Azure App Service, youll need to add a configuration setting to App Service that lifts the limit from 50MB to 256MB. Alternatively, you can use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to manually upload content from your original site to Azure, importing the SQL data using the PHP control panel. Large sites may need to use several SQL exports.
An interesting alternative comes from managed WordPress provider WP Engine with its recently announced Azure offering. Currently used to run Microsofts own Stories news site, WP Engines platform has allowed Microsoft to build out its own content platform, one that became increasingly important during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The two companies collaborated on a way to make the platform more scalable, integrating it with Azures own managed Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) platform.
That tooling is now available for the rest of us, with WP Engines tools ported to run inside containers and running across multiple Azure regions, scaling with local demand. This improves security by ensuring isolation between WordPress and any other code. AKS will automatically add new worker nodes as required, with Azures networking services providing web application firewalls and global routing to those new containers.
Its an option that shows the benefits of taking a cloud-native approach to more than your own code. Containerized WordPress can be managed with Azure Arc and will run on local AKS via Azure Stack HCI and other edge technologies. That means you arent limited to working on Azure; you can take advantage of using it to manage WordPress anywhere you have an Arc-managed Azure environment.
Managing WordPress takes time and resources, with many unmanaged installs resulting in increased security risks for their hosts. Moving it to isolated cloud instances reduces the risks to your networks, especially if youre using WordPress for public-facing services. Mixing cloud isolation with a Platform as a Service (PaaS) approach should result in a faster and safer way to deliver content especially when you add a global content delivery platform.
Read next: The Complete Microsoft Azure Certification Prep Bundle (TechRepublic Academy)
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Running WordPress on Azure for secure, fast and global content delivery - TechRepublic
How a TikTok ban in the U.S. might work – CNBC
The TikTok logo is displayed outside TikTok social media app company offices in Culver City, California, on March 16, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
TikTok is at risk of being banned in the U.S. if Chinese parent ByteDance won't sell its stake. Millions of Americans who use the popular video app are left wondering what that means for them.
Some fans of the service may turn to virtual private networks (VPNs) to try and connect to TikTok should a ban take place, a workaround that can make it seem like their internet connection is coming from a different country. But that loophole may not be so easy to exploit.
It's not an issue yet, as there are still some ways a TikTok ban could be avoided or accessed legally in the U.S. Here are the key things under consideration.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) is the interagency body evaluating national security concerns around the app to determine how to minimize risk if it continues to operate domestically. The group can recommend to President Joe Biden that ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of Musical.ly, a TikTok precursor, be unwound, forcing a sale of those assets.
TikTok has recommended a mitigation plan as an alternative to a forced sale. But that's a longshot solution as CFIUS already threatened a ban if ByteDance won't sell its stake.
A forced sale would be a complex step, requiring a years-old transaction to be unwound. The Trump administration pursued that route once before to no avail. The Chinese government would likely oppose it again, but it would need to be careful in its protests because the heart of its argument to the U.S. is that TikTok operates independently.
"That would be part of the calculus and how aggressively China would want to respond," said Lindsay Gorman, a senior fellow for emerging technologies at the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy. Gormany previously served as a senior advisor at the Biden White House.
Should the U.S. ban TikTok, the mechanics on what happens from there get murky. Oracle is the cloud hosting service for all of TikTok usage in the U.S. Internet service providers like Comcast (NBC Universal's parent company) and Verizon direct traffic to end users. And the app stores controlled by Apple and Google are the primary places for consumers to download the TikTok app.
Shannon Reaves, a partner in Stroock's CFIUS compliance group, said any requirement on a third party would not come from CFIUS, which is tasked with evaluating foreign investments alone.
"There won't be action from CFIUS as a result of this review that will be taken against third parties that are not a part of this transaction," Reaves said. "So your Apples and your Googles and so forth, that that will not happen."
The government may have to turn to legislation or executive orders to get app distributors, ISPs and cloud services to block access to TikTok.
While there will likely always be cracks that can be exploited by a subset of computer literate users, the typical consumer would find it difficult to access a government banned service, said Douglas Schmidt, an engineering professor at Vanderbilt.
"There will almost always be ways around this," Schmidt said. "It would just be a lot more difficult for the average person to do it without getting an advanced degree in computer security or something."
In other words, a VPN won't be enough, in part because going that route would still likely require app store credentials, which will indicate a user's location. Gerald Kasulis, a vice president at NordVPN, said there's also technology available to detect when a user is trying to access an app with a VPN.
Concerns around TikTok's security risk come down to two main issues. The first is who can access U.S. consumer information and the second is who has the ability to determine what information reaches U.S. users. Under Chinese law, companies can be required to hand over internal information to the government for supposed national security purposes.
TikTok has sought to reassure the U.S. government that U.S. user data is stored outside of China. The company has developed an elaborate plan known as Project Texas that includes the vetting of its code in the U.S. and a separate board of directors for a domestic subsidiary, with members reviewed by the U.S. government.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who's set to testify before a U.S. House panel next week, told The Wall Street Journal that Project Texas would do just as much as divestment to resolve any security concerns.
But the mood in Washington isn't moving in TikTok's favor, and legislators have lost whatever trust they once may have had in China and its motives. That issue resurfaced earlier this year, when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was spotted flying across a large swath of the U.S. Biden ordered the military to shoot down the balloon last month.
When it comes to consumer technology, users have no idea what information is making its way to the Chinese government. And the U.S. government has a lot of work to do to provide clarity on what would happen if the app was to be banned.
"Even for someone who studies this stuff, it's not easy to detach and detangle all these apps," said Gorman. "As a society, we have not made the decision that the app stores, the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, should be restricting apps based on the amount of information they collect. It can't be put on any individual and it really does need to be addressed by governments."
While many users may think their casual social media use would be of little interest to a foreign government, Schmidt said that data can have a surprising amount of value to bad actors.
"Having information about your habits and your interests and your interactions and where you go and what you do could be used for things like either phishing attacks to get access to more information, or for things like blackmail, if you're doing things that you might not want other people to know about," Schmidt said.
It's unfamiliar territory for U.S. companies, in contrast to China, which blocks access to all sorts of content, including most major U.S. internet services.
"Trying to police data access is very, very difficult, especially when there's suspicion that the folks who are doing this have a reason to do it," Schmidt said. "And they're heavily incentivized to collect this information and use it for all kinds of purposes."
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How a TikTok ban in the U.S. might work - CNBC