Steve Law, CTO, Giacom, explains how the role of the channel has evolved in supporting end-users through their transition to the cloud, and what the future holds for MSPs who want toadd more value to their customers cloud adoption.

The unprecedented rate of employees that suddenly needed to collaborate remotely has forced many organisations to turn to cloud-based applications and various communication technologies as a means of survival. This trend is expected to increase over the years according toGartner, which estimates that by 2024, more than 45% of IT spending on system infrastructure, software and business process outsourcing will shift from traditional solutions to the cloud.

Part of this shift means that organisations need to become more agile than ever before. They must adapt and meet demands placed on their infrastructure, while still offering an optimised and seamless user experience. Therefore, IT service providers must be able to offer their customers technology and access to applications that deliver on this promise simply, consistently and cost-effectively.

Communication and collaboration technology will continue to help enable flexibility and productivity across organisations. But, in the future, this will also include greater access to automation and business process management (BPM) technologies, especially for SMBs.

Accelerating to the CloudEven prior to COVID-19, there were many key reasons for businesses to consider a move to the cloud. For instance, flexibility and agility continue to be fundamental drivers for businesses to make this digital transformation, and this has only been accelerated by the pandemic.

Consider this example, traditionally, with on-premise solutions, there are a variety of costs associated with server maintenance, back up and periodic upgrades. However, a shift to the cloud takes away the aggravation or cost of maintaining servers and applications on-premises. With regular updates and cloud support available 24/7, the many benefits of simply moving to the cloud far outweigh the pains of using legacy technologies. As such, if MSPs arent already selling cloud applications, now is the time to reconsider and work with a strong, proven CSP to help develop a cloud proposition and sales strategy.

Diverse Portfolio OfferingsFor MSPs offering cloud alternatives, its not just about meeting a clients immediate cloud needs. Working with the right CSP will enable its partners to add valuable options to its portfolio and identify areas for improvement and further sales. CSPs can also offer MSPs and their clients training and 24/7 support; access to a raft of cloud solutions, including backup and security; and these cloud offerings can significantly help to extend their business model, adding much needed new revenue streams.

Cloud is an ever-changing model too. And, its the role of CSPs to work with the channel to help partners keep up to date with the latest technologies and ensure access to the latest products, training and sales collateral that will enhance their customers businesses.

Automation is KeyFor many organisations, the desire for agility stems from a need for business resilience and to stay competitive. This is especially important in todays economic environment, where organisations focus on balancing a reduction of costs against managing operational complexity across their IT estates. As the uptake in cloud accelerates, organisations, especially SMBs, will start to explore how they can interlink various technologies via APIs to improve business processes and drive greater business value across their organisations. For example, linking accounting CRM and manufacturing systems and more. This automation of processes (e.g. BPM) presents a great opportunity for the channel to deliver more value.

The cloud isnt just about keeping business information stored online MSPs roles will evolve and they will need to demonstrate how they can help customers to automate aspects of their operations. By utilisingMicrosoft Power Apps, for example, they can help build specific business applications for their customers to automate processes and connect systems together.

Further, with analytics tools, such asPower BI, MSPs can bring data from multiple platforms together and express this information across various dashboards for clients to draw insights on. By helping clients form a holistic view of data from connected applications, partners can become more forward-thinking and innovative, enabling them to drive a different kind of value for clients, that allows them to unlock new revenue streams. Long-term, it positions the MSP as more than just a tech supplier.

Added EducationWith the opportunity of being able to offer new services to clients, comes the wider need for the channel to become better trained and educated around automation too. So, if the channel wants to tap into revenue here, it must upskill itself in order to advise its customers how to benefit from integrating various cloud applications in the most effective way.

As part of this, MSPs need to shift their thinking from server maintenance, replacement and upgrades, towards adding business value by integrating cloud applications into their sales model.

Importantly, though, its crucial to acknowledge the need for relevant hardware, connectivity, collaboration and voice will not go away. Selling these tools and applications remains a dominant market; but further down the line, automation and opportunities for BPM technology will grow.

The opportunity for the channel remains in the cloud. But, in the future, MSPs will need to consider how they can derive profit from not just the fundamentals of cloud e.g. voice, data, storage, collaboration, backup and security technology but also through selling automation and BPM-based technologies, to help drive innovation, business efficiency and productivity across organisations.

MSPs can now personalise the customer experience even more than before; differentiating themselves to stand out from the crowd by providing additional value via the cloud. Their role is to make their customers more efficient, and by utilising automation to make digital software even more streamlined, the channel can unlock additional benefits for customers during their cloud journey.

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Seeking an agile journey to the cloud: Is the future automated? PCR - PCR-online.biz

When it comes to choosing a server, security should be a top priority. As servers are usually utilized within enterprise environments, its important to keep the data of your business and clients secure. In this article, well discover which is the best server for security.

A server is used to respond to requests made in a network. The device that has made the request is referred to as the client, and servers are rarely turned off, as they are constantly dealing with these client requests.

Servers can come in the form of either hardware or software if a business is using a physical server, they will store it in the office space, while software-based servers are located in the cloud. Cloud servers will still take a physical form, but these are in data centers and are managed by a third party.

Servers have become a crucial element of modern business environments. Whether you set up your business server on premises or are connected to the cloud, utilizing a server can enable you to store your data, back up your network in case of emergency, and engage in collaborative working. Ultimately, servers can help businesses become more secure, efficient, and productive saving time and money over the long run.

Servers run on operating systems, just like desktops. Two of the most common are Windows and Linux, but others include macOS, Unix, and Fedora.

In general, Windows server operating systems offer the most range. They tend to be more expensive than their competitors but provide greater integration with Microsoft products, which are often used in work environments.

Most companies find it easier to install and run their network on Windows, as opposed to other operating systems, such as Linux. Linux is open-source meaning, it has been developed and is supported by a community. Windows, however, offers its users a greater level of formal support. So, while Linux is cheaper, its users can spend more money resolving issues.

Windows operating systems also enable remote desktop access, while Linux servers are command-line based.

There are plenty of factors to consider when choosing your Windows server. For example: How much support will you require? Are you or members of your team tech-savvy, or will you need help with using your server and fixing any potential issues?

Here are three top considerations:

Windows security is vital for anyone, but is especially crucial when running a business. In an enterprise, you will have a lot more sensitive data on the web to protect than commercial users and will be a greater target for cybercriminals. So, when youre selecting your solution, you want to keep security in mind. After all, 63% of cyberattacks target small and mid-sized businesses, and this number only continues to rise.

The best Windows Server for security will be the latest version. Microsoft prioritizes updates to server security procedures, such as patch management and anti-malware. If you havent updated Windows Server 2008 to the latest version, this is worth considering.

What is your budget? And what is the scale of your network? The larger your operations, the more expensive your server solution will be. You could opt for a cheaper operating system, but may find you face additional costs further down the line. Microsoft Server is available in three editions: Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter. Essentials is ideal for small businesses, covering a network of up to 25 users and 50 devices, while Standard is designed for physical or minimally virtualized environments. Datacenter is perfect for highly virtualized data centers and cloud environments.

Finally, do you want a physical server or would you prefer to connect to the cloud? There are pros and cons to both, including the above concerns server security, cost, and adoption. Using the cloud, you rely on the third party to keep your data secure while benefiting from collaborative working and instant backup. With a physical server, you have a dedicated piece of equipment for the role, which will not be shared by any other businesses. With less outside interruption, applications can run smoother and faster.

Learn more about choosing the best server for your small business.

Windows Server is ideal for business. Microsoft regularly updates its operating system to ensure it is equipped with the latest Windows security measures.

Despite the built-in security features of Windows servers, there are still measures you can use to keep your systems as safe as possible.

The first three steps you should take to secure your Windows server are:

With features specific to Windows servers, including Sharepoint Server Protection and Exchange Server Protection, Avast Business offers a comprehensive server antivirus solution to help protect your business against threats.

Comprising threat intelligence and cloud-based technology, the software includes powerful tools such as malware scanners and data encryption to protect your server and connected endpoints. Check out our website to discover our server antivirus solutions.

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What Is the Best Windows Server for Business Security? | Avast - Security Boulevard

on March 2, 2021 at 9:00 am

IBMs Watson AI will host and curate music debates for the Recording Academy ahead of the upcoming Grammy Awards. The Grammy Debates with Watson will leverage the AIs analytical ability to decipher the best arguments and suggest which side has a stronger case in debates ranging from the relative importance of certain artists to the value of music education for children.

Grammy Debates with Watson asks people to share their opinion on topics like whether Prince is the most groundbreaking artist of all time, if Billie Eilish the biggest style icon in music, or whether virtual concerts are better experiences than live shows. Fans can type in short arguments on one side or the other of each debate. Watson will collect both those submitted arguments, and posts on Twitter and other social media networks, applying natural language processing to break down the input. Using its Key Point Analysis feature, Watson will spot and sort all of the arguments, determining which are related even if the language differs. You can submit your opinions on the Grammy Debates page. Watson will pick out the most popular arguments and craft narratives to explain the best reasoning behind the pro and con sides of each argument.

The launch of Grammy Debates with Watson gives Grammy viewers an entirely new way to engage with fellow music lovers and be a part of the conversation. Its great to continue innovating our digital and fan experiences with IBM and to explore how AI and cloud technology can be applied to make our awards show more interactive for viewers, Recording Academy chief marketing and innovation officer Lisa Farris said in a statement. Were excited to bring IBMs expertise to the Grammy Awards, and the work we do to support music creators and celebrate Musics Biggest Night.

IBM created Key Point Analysis as a technique to extract opinions and arguments from conversations, documents, and other sources. The collection of views and supporting arguments are then combined into a cohesive analysis. Its the same tool Watson used for analyzing the Bloomberg Television show Thats Debatable last year. IBM has worked with the Recording Academy for a few years. In 2019, Watson ran Grammy Insights, which used the AI to analyze the pre-show red carpet in real-time. This year, IBM has will host the Grammys and surrounding show content on its cloud servers for the first time. The Grammys are March 14 at 8 p.m.

Our work with the Recording Academy is another example of how were applying IBMs cutting-edge technology to revolutionize the entertainment industry and bring clients innovative and compelling experiences for their key audiences, IBM vice president of sports and entertainment partnerships Noah Syken said. These are the same core technologies hybrid cloud and AI that were using to drive digital transformation for clients around the world.

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Eric Hal Schwartz is a Staff Writer and Podcast Producer for Voicebot.AI. Eric has been a professional writer and editor for more than a dozen years, specializing in the stories of how science and technology intersect with business and society. Eric is based in New York City.

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IBM Watson Will Moderate and Analyze Grammy Debates - Voicebot.ai

RISC-V, the emerging open source instruction setarchitecture for processors that haveso far been used mostly asaccelerators, is suddenly on a roll and appears about ready to become competitive in the CPU arena.

The most activity has been in the hacker space. Ayear ago about the only way to play around with a RISC-V processor was to spend $1,000 for a development board from the RISC-V-based startup SiFive. These days, SparkFun, BeagleBoard, Pine64, Rios, and others have either already released or are about to release single-board computers powered by RISC-V silicon, and at prices as low as $15. There's even a BBC Doctor Who-based RISC-Vmini computer, meantfor kids to learn coding and sold for under $100.

Related: SiFive Pushes Open Source RISC-V Chip Architecture Closer to Prime Time

"That rollout is going to continue with lots of vendors," Mark Himelstein, CTO at RISV-V International, told DCK. "Some of them are small, like SparkFun, clearly an embedded kind of thing -- like the tiniest Raspberry Pi. Then the BeagleBoard stuff starts showing up as something you can run Linux on. You're gonna see people doing things through a whole range of deployments, first for development and then actually deploying these things."

RISC-V is already in the data center, and not only as accelerators, but pulling duty as CPUs. For example, some HPC networks use RISC-V to process data in transit. It also appears to be on the way to another role, powering servers, where its low power consumption could make it especially useful for edge deployments.

Related: New RISC-V CTO On Open Source Chip Architectures Global Data Center Momentum

"There have been [RISC-V-based] cloud servers already," Himelstein said. "Alibaba does that already -- them and some other people."

Soon he expects to see the architecture powering everything from smartphones to HPC systems.

"I know people are working on that stuff, because they've talked at a bunch of our conferences," he said, "and they've come to our meetings asking about pieces that they care about that fit into those kinds of workloads."

According to Himelstein, the reason more RISC-V servers aren't already emerginghas less to do with the architecture's readiness than with the time it takes hardware manufacturers to develop products and bring them to market. It can take a year or so to bring an embedded product to market, he said. It's more likefive years for a server.

"It's the product runway that dictates that," he said. "People have been working on things for a while, so, as those time periods come to an end you're going to start seeing a lot of products out there with a lot of RISC-V in them.

"I think success begets success," he added. "When people see somebody else doing something, and doing something novel and unique, or something that advantages them, then they try to do it too."

Much of the work being done right now to help put RISC-V on equal footing with Intel, AMD, and Armrevolves around developing extensions, which are part of the chip's modular design. Extensions can be seen as plug-ins chip designers can use to add functions to a chipthat can be called on by software when needed. While some extensions offer functions unique to RISC-V, others include functions found in other types of chips.

For RISC-V, this modular design is partly a way of escaping the technical debt that's baked into the design of other architectures. Since these functions can be pulled or redesigned as needed, they'll never be a burden that RISC-V chip makers will have to carry long term as part of their legacy.

Because some extensions are extremely complex and have the potential to negatively affect performance if not designed with care, they must go through a rigorous approval process. Until recently, this has included even simple and straightforward extensions that can easily be integrated into a chip's design without performance concerns.

For the latter, RISC-V International has developed a Fast Track program, unveiled lastweek, for streamlining approval of these small extensions. As the name suggests, Fast Track greatly reduces the time needed to have an extension approved.

"Fast Track maintains the necessary checks and balances to ensure extensions are properly designed and adhere to RISC-Vs architectural approach, while paving the way for RISC-V International to rapidly expand its set of standardized extensions," Greg Favor, co-founder and CTO of Ventana Micro Systems, explained in a statement.

Alongside Fast Track's announcement, the first extension to take advantage of the process, ZiHintPause, was introduced. It's an extension that software developers can activate to reduce a chip's power consumption under certain circumstances, an especially useful feature for IoT or edge devices where power concerns are an issue.

Himelstein said that the same dynamics that drives developers to open source software is attracting hardware companies to adopt open source RISC-V.

"You're seeing more products being put out there and it's in everything from IoT to HPC," hesaid. "That's because RISC-V gives you freedom. It gives you freedom to choose the things you want; it gives you freedom from the constraints of some of the other architectures; it gives you freedom financially, at some level, on the stock to build the chip and do all those things.

"There's a lot of freedom it gives you, and people really like that. They learn to like that through Linux in the software world, and now they're going, 'Wow, I can do this in the hardware world. Oh my God, this is phenomenal.'"

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RISC-V Is On a Roll. Is It Ready to Take a Seat Alongside Intel, AMD, and Arm? - Data Center Knowledge

The energy industry is no stranger to digital transformation with examples ranging from the adoption of digital twin technology by oil and gas company Shell Global to the outfitting of power generation sites with internet of things (IoT)-enabled devices. After all, the growing drive for sustainability that is increasingly common in so much of industry is often considered even more vital in the energy sector itself. As such, increasing asset performance and finding ways to squeeze new efficiencies out of production are of the utmost priority.

Following from these trends, Shell recently partnered with energy technology company Baker Hughes, cloud-services provider Microsoft, and software company C3 AI, which provides enterprise-scale artificial intelligence (AI) applications to accelerate its IoT projects. The partnership, which has been christened the Open AI Energy Initiative (OAI) aims to build an open eco-system of AI-based offerings that can improve operational efficiency for both energy and process industry operators. Theres much ground to be covered by this partnership, with Shell estimating that currently 92% of all shutdowns and process upsets are unplanned and 40% of those unplanned shutdowns are caused by legacy software failures.

Functions and applications planned for the OAI include AI and physics-based models, monitoring, diagnostics, and prescriptive actions, all of which will be powered by C3 AIs BHC3 AI Suite via Microsofts Azure cloud platform.

By pooling large quantities of data from many disparate sites in centralized cloud servers, the companies hope to more rapidly train machine learning models than would otherwise be possible while also providing end-users with greater system interoperability and ease of deployment.

Taking energy forward requires new approaches to technology that leverage collaboration, open data standards, and cutting-edge AI capabilities, said Uwem Ukpong, executive vice president of regions, alliances, and enterprise sales at Baker Hughes. Working alongside our alliance partners at C3 AI, and together with industry leaders at Shell and Microsoft, the OAI will help address the persistent industry challenge of non-productive downtime.

While additional applications will continue to be developed and made available over time, the first set of OIA modules will be provided by Shell and Baker Hughes, and will focus on improving uptime and performance of energy assets and processes. More specifically, Shell will offer predictive maintenance modules for control valves, rotating equipment, and subsea electrical submersible pumps. Likewise, Baker Hughes will provide OIA interoperability for existing technologies, including its iCenter advanced digital services software, its Bently Nevada System 1 condition monitoring software, and its Valve Life Cycle Management software.

The Open AI Energy Initiative is an early but clear reflection of the direction the market is heading, said Kevin Prouty, IDC group vice president of energy and manufacturing insights. With this already-established alliance of leading organizations, including C3 AI, Shell, Baker Hughes, and Microsoft, the OAI is poised to single-handedly establish the ecosystem of enterprise AI for the energy industry.

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Open AI Energy Initiative Partnership Formed - Automation World