Category Archives: Cloud Storage

What are the main components of a Computer system? – TWCN Tech News

A computer is nothing without the components or parts inside of it. Many users are taking advantage of what these powerful machines have to offer, yet have no idea what components make them tick. Bear in mind that a computer contains several mechanical, electric, and electronic components are known as hardware.

Do you know what these hardware components are? If not, then continue reading and well explain everything you need to know. But first, let us explain what a computer is before moving forward to the good stuff. Now, bear in mind this wont be a long article since the information here is pretty simple, but believe us, a lot of computer users have no idea.

A computer is merely an electronic device that operates under the control of commands stored in its own memory. The instructions here can accept data, and then process that data according to specific rules. Additionally, it can produce results and store these same results for future reference.

Bear in mind that a computer is not only a machine that is powered by Windows 10, but also Linux, macOS, Android, and other operating systems designed only for industrial use. Even modern cars rely heavily on computers to perform.

The 5 the main components of a Computer system are:

Let us take a look at them.

The input allows the user to enter information and commands into a computer. A scanner, keyboard, touchscreen, and mouse are the perfect examples of an input device. Interestingly enough, mics have become quite important for inputting data.

Today, its possible to add texts in Microsoft Word without ever using a keyboard. Just activate Office Dictation, then speak into your mic to input the data. We can say for certain that it works quite well if words are pronounced correctly. It wont replace the keyboard completely, but its a good alternative when your fingers become too sore to type.

When you look at what an Input component is, it should then be very easy to determine what is an Output component. If you have yet to figure it out, well, its a hardware component that transports information to one or more people. A computer monitor, printer, projector, and speakers are examples of Output hardware.

As you might have already known, the projector is very similar to a monitor. The main difference is that it projects data onto a hard surface, while a monitor shows the information on a screen.

Additionally, television can also be used as a monitor if it has the right connection. Today, every television with an HDMI connector can act as a monitor

If youre using a desktop computer, then the System Unit would be the case that contains all the electronic hardware that is used to process data. The primary tool inside of the System Unit is the processor, the brain of your computer. Not only that, but it contains the memory unit, which is also known as the RAM (Random Access Memory). Furthermore, it is also the home of the motherboard, hard drive, cooling unit, and more.

In truth, the system unit is the most important aspect of a consumer-grade computer, at least, for now. Things might change in the future when cloud computing becomes the norm.

OK, so lets talk a little about storage and what it all means. You see, Storage in a computer is all about recording and retrieving items to and from other storage media. For example, users can store data for future use in the ROM (Read Only Memory), or on a hard drive.

The hard drive is home to the operating system and all files saved on the machine. As for the ROM, well, it is designed to keep software that wont be modified. Firmware is one such software that is only located on the ROM and nowhere else.

This is why whenever a computer is wiped clean, the firmware stays the same at all times. And this is a good thing for the system and the user in general.

Older computers have a CD drive built-in for various reasons. Most folks would use this drive-bay to add DVDs to watch movies, listen to music, and more. However, a DVD or CD can also be used to store files for future use in the same way as a hard drive. Not as reliable, but possible.

A computer in todays world is nothing without the ability to communicate with other devices or on the internet. With this ability, then, folks can send and receive data from mobile devices and other computers with ease.

They can even do so over the cloud. An example of this is the use of Windows 10 to send and retrieve Office files from a OneDrive cloud storage account.

The ability to communicate relies on internal hardware components such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi adapters. But also the USB ports for sending data from the computer to a mobile device, and HDMI for communicating with another screen.

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What are the main components of a Computer system? - TWCN Tech News

IT Priorities 2020: AI, cloud to dominate IT spending in India – ComputerWeekly.com

As an IT powerhouse, India continues to be the pace setter for growth in Asia-Pacifics IT industry.

According to the 2020 TechTarget/Computer Weekly IT Priorities survey, organisations in the subcontinent remain buoyant about their digital transformation efforts, with 71% expecting to spend more in key areas such as artificial intelligence (AI).

Just 6% of more than 200 Indian IT professionals polled in the survey expect their IT budgets to be slashed, underscoring the growing resolve of Indian companies to ramp up on technology investments to gain a competitive advantage.

Besides AI, which over half of respondents plan to spend more on this year, cloud services (38%) and network infrastructure (35%) have been allocated bigger budgets by Indian organisations, signalling their desire to shore up their digital foundation to propel a new wave of growth.

Increasingly, this foundation is likely to reside outside the datacentre in the form of multiple public cloud services (44%), more so than other respondents in the region, even as some organisations continue to favour a hybrid cloud (34%) setup.

Investments in automation tools (55%) to improve operational efficiency in the datacentre is also high on the agenda, along with cyber security (37%), which remains a hot-button issue for organisations that have been doubling up on digital transformation.

The penchant for cloud in India is most evident in storage deployments. According to the study, more than half of Indian organisations plan to deploy cloud-based storage in 2020, along with their growing preference for software-defined technologies.

A healthy proportion of respondents also see hyperconverged infrastructure (39%) as key to their storage strategy, driven by the need to modernise the datacentre and overcome the challenges of traditional legacy infrastructure.

As a software development powerhouse, India is naturally one of the regions keenest adopters of DevOps (48%) and agile project management software (42%), according to the survey.

Indian organisations are also developing more internet of things (IoT) applications (39%) this year, while refactoring legacy applications (33%) for the cloud. These development efforts are pulling in bigger budgets for application programming interface management tools (60%) to support further development and co-creation initiatives.

Meanwhile, Indian organisations are not giving up core enterprise applications even as they ramp up on their own software development efforts. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) investment plans remain widespread (43%), followed by digital experience management (41%) and core HR software (38%).

On the networking front, software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN) remained at the top of the agenda, fuelled by the growing adoption of cloud services in India. Almost half of local firms also prefer to turn to managed service providers to supply SD-WAN services.

When it comes to security, a majority of survey respondents (63%) placed governance, risk and compliance tools as their top priority over end-user security training (56%) and fraud detection tools (46%). Along with more in-house development initiatives, they are also putting more money into container security (47%).

The security agenda extends to the edge of the network where the growing number of employee and IoT devices has greatly expanded an organisations attack surface. In 2020, more than half of Indian firms plan to spend more on virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) even as Microsoft Windows 10 migrations are not prioritised as highly (42%).

According to GlobalData, a market research firm, ICT spending in India is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2% from around $101bn in 2018 to $144bn in 2023.

With core industry verticals in India such as energy, manufacturing and construction aligning their business model with an IT driven approach, the spending is bound to grow in the coming years, said Sunil Kumar Verma, lead ICT analyst at GlobalData.

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IT Priorities 2020: AI, cloud to dominate IT spending in India - ComputerWeekly.com

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 could ship with less storage than the Galaxy Note 10 – TechRadar

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 might actually have less memory than its predecessor, the Galaxy Note 10, if a new mobile industry rumor is to be believed.

This news comes from Sammobile, which states that the new Galaxy Note phones are currently in development, and one decision that's apparently been settled on is that the phone will come with 128GB of memory in its smallest variant.

That's an interesting titbit because both the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10 Plus had 256GB as the lowest options, so it seems the Galaxy Note 20 might actually have a reduced specs (and possibly also reduced price) version compared to its predecessor.

It's worth pointing out that the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite, released many months after its non-Lite counterparts, actually did have 128GB of storage, so the company likely still does have a plan for putting out such phones with less storage.

Perhaps, then, Samsung is considering putting out the Note 20's 'Lite' variant as part of the main launch lineup, but not naming it as such, just as how the Samsung Galaxy S20 was actually the most affordable device in its respective series.

That would explain the lower storage in the Galaxy Note 20, although it's also possible that Samsung realized some people don't need loads of storage in a phone (now that cloud storage exists).

Then again, it's equally possible that this information is incorrect, as early leaks tend to be tenuous and the fact the phone is in development means the information could change.

We'd expect the new Samsung Galaxy Note 20 phones to launch in August, and it's best waiting until then before we assume anything for certain about the handsets.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 20 could ship with less storage than the Galaxy Note 10 - TechRadar

Heres how you can watch or stream UFC fights live online without cable – Digital Trends

The growing number of online streaming platforms has made it easier than ever to cut the cord altogether (that is, to ditch your cable or satellite television subscription in favor of online-only services), but due to antiquated broadcasting restrictions, sports has taken awhile to catch up to the crowd. Services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime are ubiquitous nowadays when it comes to movies and TV. Modern 4K TVs even come with Wi-Fi connectivity and streaming capabilities built right in, making things even simpler but only recently have services like ESPN+, Fubo, Sling, and Hulu sought to do the same thing for live-action sports.

Although cord-cutting is a great way to save money and enjoy your favorite shows (particularly on premium channels like HBO), watching sports has been a bit trickier until now. This is especially good news for MMA fans, as UFCs cozy relationship with ESPN makes it easier than ever to stream UFC. The worlds biggest mixed martial arts fighting league has joined with ESPN to bring you all of your favorite UFC content in 2020, both online and on TV.

Fox held the broadcasting rights to UFC through 2018, but for 2019, the contract went to ESPN. This means that this year, all Ultimate Fighting Championship content, including Pay-Per-View events, will air exclusively on the sports network. Upcoming PPV events include UFC 249 on April 18 between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson. If you already have ESPN with a cable subscription, then you can enjoy all the action right on your TV. This is also good news for cord-cutters, however, as ESPN rolled out its own online streaming service called ESPN+ last spring. Heres where you can stay up to date with results, scheduled fights, top fighters and more. The latest events, content, and news about ESPN+ can also be found here.

If you already have a streaming service you like and all you want is ESPN+ (which offers a mountain of sports content all on its own) for streaming UFC fights online, then you can simply sign up for it and youre good to go. Its a great value at just $5 per month or $50 per year. You can also use it with Amazon Fire, iOS, Android, and Chromecast devices, as well as your computers web browser.

On the other hand, if youre only now cutting the cord and are looking for a streaming TV package that comes bundled with ESPN channels particularly the ones where youll be able to watch UFC then youve got a few options. All of these premium streaming services work on Android, iOS, Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku devices, as well as modern computer web browsers unless otherwise noted:

In general, the UFC seasons start in January and finish up in the fall. The schedule is constantly shifting, however, so your best bet is to check the UFC event schedule fairly regularly to see when things are happening. Below is a quick overview of fights in the queue right now:

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Heres how you can watch or stream UFC fights live online without cable - Digital Trends

Western Digital introduces its slimmest 5TB portable hard drive in India – Times of India

Western Digital has introduced its slimmest 5TB portable hard drive -- My Passport -- in India. Priced at Rs 10,999 for 5TB storage, My Passport HDD is available at major e-commerce sites and retailers. The new My Passport drive comes in new colours, including Black, Blue and Red, while the My Passport for Mac drive comes in Midnight Blue. All the new drives come with a three-year limited warranty.The latest generation of the My Passport line is up to 30% smaller than its predecessor and offers much higher capacity. As per the hard drive maker, despite the small size, there is ample space to store, organise and share a large number of photos, videos, music and documents. The My Passport drive comes equipped with WD Backup software to help make sure that photos, videos, music and documents dont get lost.'; var randomNumber = Math.random(); var isIndia = (window.geoinfo && window.geoinfo.CountryCode === 'IN') && (window.location.href.indexOf('outsideindia') === -1 ); console.log(isIndia && randomNumber The new My Passport HDD is 0.75-inch (19.15mm) thick. It is formatted for Windows 10 and features a USB 3.0 connector that is compatible with USB 2.0. The My Passport for Mac drive is formatted for macOS and has a USB-C connector to deliver plug-and-play storage out of the box.To help consumers protect their content, the drive features WD Discovery software for WD Security (password protection and 256-bit AES Hardware Encryption), social media and cloud storage import (like Facebook, Dropbox and Google Drive) and WD Drive Utilities. People today want a storage device that matches their lifestyle: compact, snazzy, yet reliable. From listening to our customers, we keep innovating and introducing attractive products for them. Our award-winning My Passport line is now enhanced with the slimmest 5TB portable hard drive in the WD brand portfolio, said Khalid Wani, Direct Channel Sales, Western Digital India.

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Western Digital introduces its slimmest 5TB portable hard drive in India - Times of India

How the cloud can level the playing field for SMEs competing with industry giants – The Business Times

Mon, Mar 02, 2020 - 5:50 AM

The digital economy is set to add as much as US$10billion to Singapore's GDP by 20211, increasing the country's gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.6 per cent. This represents a huge opportunity for businesses and explains the surge in digital transformation initiatives.

But even as businesses in Singapore pivot towards the creation of new digital products and services, the relentless pressure of intensifying global competition and shortened business cycles mean they need to innovate more and react faster. Without the resources of much larger players, SMEs have to think of ways to operate more efficiently to free up resources for innovation.

Closing the gap

Unsurprisingly, SMEs are turning to the cloud to address this need. Not only does the cloud make it easier for businesses to collaborate and share data to get things done quicker, but it also allows them to narrow the gap with much larger competitors. From cloud storage services such as Microsoft OneDrive to cloud accounting systems like Xero, a broad range of advanced capabilities can be accessed at a monthly subscription fee.

Crucially, SMEs don't have to set aside large sums of capital expenditure to acquire and deploy IT hardware, and then spend weeks or months configuring or developing the requisite software services. Instead, businesses can sign up for the cloud services that they like from a web browser, and have it up and running within minutes or hours. In most cases, they can also sign up for a risk-free trial to evaluate the suitability of a cloud service.

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It is hence easy to see why 74 per cent of Chief Technology Officers say the cloud has the most measurable impact on their business, according to a survey done in 2017 by advisory firm BDO2. And based on the rapid growth of the cloud, organisations around the world agree with the results of this survey. According to analyst firm IDC, spending on the public cloud by businesses is estimated to have reached US$210 billion in 20193. This is projected to grow by 22.5per cent over the next five years, with total investment hitting US$370 billion in 2022.

Success through the cloudAccess a broad range of advanced capabilities in the cloud for a simple subscription fee. PHOTO: XERO

The cloud offers many other advantages, allowing businesses to leverage a host of capabilities that are easy to implement without the associated outlay. Here are some capabilities that SMEs can expect when they turn to the cloud:

Focus on innovation

The forces of disruption are gathering pace. By leveraging the cloud, SMEs can even the playing field with far larger competitors, as well as leverage cutting-edge capabilities to fully maximise their organisation's potential.

With a cloud-based accounting system such as Xero, SMEs can easily automate manual bookkeeping tasks such as document collection and data entry. Packed with capabilities to help SMEs save time, even tasks that are traditionally tedious such as bank reconciliation and management of financial documents are now a breeze.

In addition, the popular Hubdoc document collection and management tool is now integrated with Xero and provided free of charge to users. And armed with support for PEPPOL, SMEs can also issue e-invoices on the PEPPOL network for a seamless and efficient invoicing process, allowing them to focus on innovation and disrupting their industries.

Click here to try Xero free for 30 days.

1 - https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/digital-transformation-to-contribute-us10b-to-singapores-gdp-by-2021-study2 - https://www.bdo.com/getattachment/022227f4-aa2e-4a8b-9739-b0ad6b855415/attachment.aspx?2017-Technology-Outlook-Report_2-17.pdf3 - https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS44891519

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How the cloud can level the playing field for SMEs competing with industry giants - The Business Times

Zoho reinvents its cloud storage with WorkDrive – GeekWire

Work as we know it has evolved. The modern workplace is more flexible, dynamic, and team-centric. Employees collaborate across multiple locations, and every team member has an individual sense of responsibility.

Keeping pace with the changing workplace means the tools we use need to evolve too. This is why Zoho introduces WorkDriveto fit right into a team-driven work environment.

WorkDrive has been designed from the bottom up to serve the needs of the team as a cohesive work unit. Team-wide collaboration, sharing, and distribution of contentfrom draft to final copyis built into the product explicitly. A range of collaboration toolssuch as drafting, notifications, commenting, and activity trackingenable joint work.

That joint work happens best when the system gets out of the way and lets people do their jobs. To minimize bottlenecks and empower employees, WorkDrive prioritizes self-management. By setting up policies governing permissions and access control at the outset, a team can define the parameters for ongoing collaborative work, requiring no additional supervision and avoiding continuous intervention and management by system admins.

With the structure of the team in place, WorkDrive then equips employees with the tools they need to get their work done. More than just a file storage platform, WorkDrive comes with a full-featured cloud Office Suite that includes a spreadsheet app (Zoho Sheet), a document editor (Zoho Writer), and presentation software (Zoho Show). With these sophisticated tools, WorkDrive teams can create complex and attractive business documentslike financial plans, contracts, and marketing presentationsby working together from start to finish.

WorkDrive offers a desktop app that lets you sync files to multiple computers, edit them offline, and perform complete or partial syncs back to the cloud. This, along with native mobile iOS and Android apps, enables work and engagement from any device or locationon the ground or in the air.

Past approaches to cloud storage and sharing were built around an individual user. WorkDrive, however, went about reinventing this category. Rather than tacking collaboration features onto a product designed for personal use, WorkDrive has been built from the ground up to provide all organizations with a true content collaboration platform in every sense.

Not only is WorkDrive integrated with Zohos extensive suite of business applications, but it also works well with Microsoft Office Suite, Gmail, and other external apps through Zapier. This makes WorkDrive an ideal solution for any industry or work process.

WorkDrive is set up for modern teams. Whether that team consists of all the employees of a small business or a subset of specialists at a much larger enterprise, WorkDrive ensures that the right information is available to the right people, at the right time.

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Zoho reinvents its cloud storage with WorkDrive - GeekWire

Cloud-enabled threats are on the rise, sensitive data is moving between cloud apps – Help Net Security

44% of malicious threats are cloud enabled, meaning that cybercriminals see the cloud as an effective method for subverting detection, according to Netskope.

We are seeing increasingly complex threat techniques being used across cloud applications, spanning from cloud phishing and malware delivery, to cloud command and control and ultimately cloud data exfiltration, said Ray Canzanese, Threat Research Director at Netskope.

Our research shows the sophistication and scale of the cloud enabled kill chain increasing, requiring security defenses that understand thousands of cloud apps to keep pace with attackers and block cloud threats. For these reasons, any enterprise using the cloud needs to modernize and extend their security architectures.

89% of enterprise users are in the cloud, actively using at least one cloud app every day. Cloud storage, collaboration, and webmail apps are among the most popular in use.

Enterprises also use a variety of apps in those categories 142 on average indicating that while enterprises may officially sanction a handful of apps, users tend to gravitate toward a much wider set in their day-to-day activities. Overall, the average enterprise uses over 2,400 distinct cloud services and apps.

44% of threats are cloud-based. Attackers are moving to the cloud to blend in, increase success rates and evade detections.

Attackers launch attacks through cloud services and apps using familiar techniques including scams, phishing, malware delivery, command and control, formjacking, chatbots, and data exfiltration. Of these, the two most popular cloud threat techniques are phishing and malware delivery. The top threat techniques in the cloud are phishing and malware delivery.

Over 50% of data policy violations come from cloud storage, collaboration, and webmail apps, and the types of data being detected are primarily DLP rules and policies related to privacy, healthcare, and finance.

This shows that users are moving sensitive data across multiple dimensions among a wide variety of cloud services and apps, including personal instances and unmanaged apps in violation of organizational policies.

20% of users move data laterally between cloud apps, such as copying a document from OneDrive to Google Drive or sharing it via Slack. More importantly, the data crosses many boundaries: moving between cloud app suites, between managed and unmanaged apps, between app categories, and between app risk levels.

Moreover, 37% of the data that users move across cloud apps is sensitive. In total, lateral data movement has been tracked among 2,481 different cloud services and apps, indicating the scale and the variety of cloud use across which sensitive information is being dispersed.

One-third of enterprise users work remotely on any given day, across more than eight locations on average, accessing both public and private apps in the cloud. This trend has contributed to the inversion of the traditional network, with users, data, and apps now on the outside.

It also shows increasing demand on legacy VPNs and questions the availability of defenses to protect remote workers.

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Cloud-enabled threats are on the rise, sensitive data is moving between cloud apps - Help Net Security

A lifetime of learning from Whizlabs is just $60 right now – Android Central

If you have any hopes of climbing the corporate ladder, you need to continuously beef up your skillset. And even if you're happy where you are professionally, acquiring new skills can land you a bigger paycheck, a promotion, or even lead you to your dream job. Luckily, you don't have to go back to school to strengthen your resume. You can pick up new skills with a subscription toWhizlabs, a leading online training provider that offers courses on just about anything.

A pioneer in the online learning business, Whizlabs is the go-to teacher of hotshot companies, including Accenture, Bloomberg, Capgemini, Cisco, Deloitte, and Infosys. They provide courses in various disciplines such as Cloud Computing, Java, Big Data, Project Management, Agile, Linux, CCNA, and Digital Marketing, all of which could be useful in a slew of industries, not to mention would look good in your CV. In some courses, you can even get certifications that you can use to validate and demonstrate your newly-minted skills.

All courses in Whizlab's massive repertoire are taught by subject-matter experts and certified professionals. Lessons are also regularly updated, and you can access them at your own pace, and at your own time. No wonder 3 million professionals have sought the help of Whizlabs to boost their career and grow in their respective fields.

Usually retailing for $4,499, lifetime membership to Whizlabs is nowon sale for $59. That's a savings of a whopping 98 percent.

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A lifetime of learning from Whizlabs is just $60 right now - Android Central

OneDrive for Android gains a dedicated dark theme in latest beta update – 9to5Google

Microsofts OneDrive for Android has now gained a dedicated dark theme in the latest beta update.

Theres no denying the popularity of OneDrive on Android, as the online cloud storage app has amassed over 1 billion downloads over on the Google Play Store. Considering that OneDrive has quite a few competitors including Google Drive, that is seriously impressive. But its worth noting that OneDrive is the default online storage locker preinstalled on Windows 10 devices, so it isnt too much of a shock to see such a high download figure.

Microsofts own feedback forums for OneDrive had hinted at the update coming, with admin confirming late last year that an early 2020 release was initially expected. With that in mind, its great that those using Microsofts online cloud storage service are getting a dedicated dark theme on their Android phones for parity with those on iOS, who received a dedicated darkened theme late last year.

Spotted originally by beta testers over on Twitter (h/t MundoInsider), OneDrive v6.0 for Android now includes toggles to set the dark theme by default and includes the ability to respect your device system theme. This means that it will play nicely with your device running Android 10.

The update should be rolling out for beta testers right now, just keep an eye out for version 6.0, as this is the update that adds support for this new darkened appearance option. If you would like to join the Microsoft OneDrive for Android beta program, you can enroll right here.

If you are an ardent OneDrive user, let us know why you chose the platform over competing cloud storage services down in the comments section below.

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OneDrive for Android gains a dedicated dark theme in latest beta update - 9to5Google