Free one-day virtual event focused on helping organizations maximize performance and visibility for any user, network, app, anywhere

User Conference to feature 30+ technical breakout sessions with Riverbed experts, customers and partners and includes success showcase with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Riverbedtoday announced that it opened registration for the Riverbed Global User Conference 2020, a free one-day virtual event on November 17, 2020 that includes: 30+ technical sessions with Riverbed experts, customers and partners; General Session Keynotes featuring CEO Rich McBee, Chief Development Officer Dante Malagrino, CMO Subbu Iyer, and special guests on IT and business trends and how to prepare for a work-from-anywhere future; and an Expo Hall with the latest innovations in cloud and SaaS app performance, remote workforce productivity, and unified network performance management (NPM), as well as offerings from Riverbed’s partner community.

LinkedIn: Register for the free one-day virtual Riverbed Global User Conference 2020 on November 17 to help organizations maximize performance and visibility for any user, network, app, anywhere: https://rvbd.ly/2GAj877

The event will bring more than 1,000 attendees together with Riverbed leaders, customers, partners and industry experts to discuss how Riverbed’s visibility and performance solutions and tools can help propel organizations forward to succeed in the current business environment and into the future. Partners, customers and industry influencers participating in the event include leaders and experts from Microsoft, Shell, SBA (Small Business Association), Capital One, Environmental Resources Management (ERM), Landform, Gigamon, Versa, Netskope, analyst firm ESG, industry group ONUG and many others. Among the Fire Side sessions planned for the event is an exclusive Q&A with King Abduallah University of Science and Technology who have utilised Riverbed’s solutions to gain end-to-end visibility across its entire network.

“Cloud adoption and digitization had already been growing rapidly for years, but in 2020, the world met an unforeseen pandemic that put IT plans into overdrive, and all operating models have been put to the test,” said Subbu Iyer, CMO, Riverbed.  “In response, forward-thinking organizations are prioritizing investments in digital transformation, accelerating work-from-anywhere models, and strengthening operational resilience. The Riverbed Global User Conference will give attendees the inspiration, essential capabilities, and how-to advice needed to maximize performance and visibility of any network for any application to all users, anywhere.”

What: Riverbed Global User Conference 2020

When: Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Time: Middle East: 11:30am – 8:00pm GST / 10:30am – 7:00pm Arabian Standard Time

Where: Free virtual event

Registration: www.riverbed.com/UserConference

A sampling of the over 30 sessions that will cover use cases, demos, best practices and roadmaps, delivered in a flexible learning environment, include the following:

Suhail Bahwan Automobiles has unveiled the General Tire range in Oman. General Tire, with a reputation for producing some of the world’s best off-road and on-road tires, and a history stretching back over 100 years, has now arrived on Oman’s motoring scene. Renowned for its ‘Anywhere is possible’ slogan, the brand has been introduced to the Sultanate in partnership with Suhail Bahwan Automobiles LLC and offers a totally new range of safe, reliable and high value tires for car owners in Oman.

Founded in 1915, and now owned by premium tire and automotive technology company Continental, General Tire operates worldwide and manufactures a wide range of tires for passenger cars, trucks and industrial applications. With its rich American heritage, the brand is best known for its robust and durable high-performance SUV and 4×4 tires.

Mr. Karel Kucera, Managing Director, Continental Middle East, said: “General Tire has been waiting for the right moment to introduce the brand to Oman, and this partnership with Suhail Bahwan Automobiles represents exactly such an opportunity. We can now offer Omani motorists a range of tires designed to provide them with total confidence as well as an enjoyable and safe driving experience in varied weather conditions.”

Keeping in line with its business growth objective, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles partnered with Continental Group to launch General Tires in Oman. Commenting on the occasion Sheikh Ahmed Bahwan, Chairman, Bahwan International Group (BIG) said: “We are delighted to enter into this partnership with General Tire, a brand by Continental. Continental’s General Tire is world famous for its superior quality, heritage and performance. This range is surely going to complement the ever-increasing portfolio of automotive products and services that BIG is offering to its discerning customers.”

General Tire – A Brand by Continental

General Tire is headquartered in Fort Mill, South Carolina, USA and has a long history of evolution spanning over 100 years since its foundation in 1915. From early on, the company has produced tires for all types of motor vehicles.

Based on the brand’s American Heritage, General Tire has proven its ability to compete in the ever-changing tire industry with manufacturing and technological advancements for more than 100 years. With manufacturing bases spread across Europe (Germany, France, Portugal, Romania, Czech Republic) and USA, General Tire continues the long tradition of being the customer’s choice when it comes to Quality, Value and Performance. The brand is driven by its core values – Performance, Reliability and American Heritage.

Today, General Tire has a large and interesting choice of patterns and sizes. Its range includes tough, durable and ultra-high-performance tires for Passenger Cars, Light Vans, SUVs and Off-road 4×4 to meet customers’ needs.

Continental Group acquired General Tire in 1987. Today, General Tire delivers car, truck, and industrial tires to customers all around the world. It also equips 4×4 vehicles with special tires. Continental develops pioneering technologies and services for the sustainable and connected mobility of people and their goods. Founded in 1871, the technology company offers safe, efficient, intelligent and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. In 2019, Continental generated sales of €44.5 billion and currently employs about 240,000 people in 59 countries and markets.

General Tire Range in Oman

Suhail Bahwan Automobiles has introduced two patterns of General tires which are made in Europe and USA – ALTIMAX and GRABBER

ALTIMAX comes in four patterns ALTIMAX ONE, ALTIMAX ONE S, ALTIMAX COMFORT and ALTIMAX SPORT that primarily caters for the Passenger and Luxury car segment. General Altimax‘s new Passenger Summer line provides reliable performance for everyday driving with outstanding grip in dry and wet conditions and significantly improved tread life.

GRABBER offers four patterns GRABBER GT, GRABBER HTS-60, GRABBER AT-3 and GRABBER X-3, which offer asymmetric state-of-the-art pattern design for fast and powerful SUVs/4×4 vehicles. General Grabber keeps the very good performance of the Grabber HP/UHP and offers improved performance in safety, handling and comfort. Grabber tires are the tough highway terrain all-season tires that provide the perfect synergy of comfort, durability and performance for light trucks, SUVs and crossovers.

Both the ALTIMAX and GRABBER patterns come with RTM (Replacement Tire Monitor) technology that provides the user with a warning when the tire is worn and has to be replaced. Also, VAI (Visual Alignment Indicator) technology allows the user to check wheel misalignment to avoid irregular wear of the tires.

For more information on General Tire please visit https://generaltire.com/

By: Jacob Chacko Regional Business Head – Middle East, Saudi & South Africa (MESA) at HPE Aruba

The hospitality industry has been a keen adopter of technology, from Wi-Fi as central to guest satisfaction to embracing in-room assistants, consumer trends have rapidly driven and changed the industry. However, there’s a key technological shift still to come – edge networking.

The edge is more than just a technical concept, it is the culmination and coming together of many of the most talked about technologies of the past few years and crucial to improving guest experience.

We define the Edge as the new experiences being enabled by edge technologies for customers, employees, students, patients, and any users of network services. Edge technologies allow the processing of data by devices at the edge of networks, which is where users and devices are. It is where things connect to the network, whether they are wired or wireless. The edge is where actions take place. Over time, these actions at the edge will become smarter.

The opportunity at the Edge is driven by many things, including smart applications powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, data analysis, next-generation Wi-Fi, 5G communications, and “edge-to-cloud computing.”

The new edge network combines AI, ML, and automation to continuously learn, predict, and adapt to changes, needs, and threats in real time. The new edge network utilizes technologies and software to make sense of the resulting insights, enabling businesses to act and respond, optimizing the experience for the customer or user wherever they are. Pushing intelligence out to the edge will drive change in the design of our products, services, processes, and organizations, and transform how decisions get made – giving greater autonomy to the devices at the edge.

According to Gartner, edge computing will be a necessary requirement for all digital businesses by 2022. With potentially trillions of dollars being invested in the hope of generating huge economic returns, the argument for paying attention to the Edge opportunity is clear and the window for learning and action is narrowing.

Edge Technology – Transforming Hospitality

In the hospitality sector, using facial recognition or other biometrics to check in and open bedroom doors is just the start of the next-generation hotel experience at the edge. Interaction between the guest’s intelligent assistant and the hotel can ensure that the mini-bar is stocked only with what is in their approved diet, and digital restaurant menus will automatically update using the same information – for example removing from view any high sugar content dishes. Buffet stations will automatically display a red light over anything that is off limits. In the bedroom, the digital wallpaper can reconfigure to your preferences – whether showing videos of your family or taking you on an underwater journey.

Using activity data about their current stay, historic information about the guest, social media, and any information provided by travel partners, each hotel employee will be able to interact with guests fully informed about their needs and current experience.

David Wortley, Digital Technology Strategist, CEO and Founder of 360in360 Immersive Experiences, highlights the potential for personalization here: “In the hotel sector, for example, an edge experience is when a client walks into a hotel, the building recognizes them and is able to tap into a previous relationship that the person has had with the hotel chain or their travel preferences.”

Futurist Bronwyn Williams highlights how personalization could be taken to the next level as people start enhancing their brains and bodies with embedded devices, arguing that “cyborg lifestyles is a trend that’s coming. It’s 10-20 years in the future but it’s definitely gaining traction … three thousand people have already had chips implanted in their hands for simple things.”

Zrinko Badanjak, CIO, Amadria Park, Croatia talks about different market segments having different needs, differentiating the likely automation of the commodity hotel sector versus the premium sector. “We’re looking at technology that allows us to offer a premium service, where we can incorporate the human element with the premium technology.” In part, the technology solution will allow each guest to receive differentiated service information based on the purpose of their stay in a hotel or resort. “The more information [a business guest has] then they can make the choice quickly between meetings, where as a leisure guest, you don’t want to over bombard them with so much information.”

The creation of “elevated guest experiences” is the objective for the Edge according to Tomeu Fiol, Global Hotel Technologies Director and IT director EMEA – Meliá Hotels International. The combination of human supported by the edge is key. “Ultimately, we will see the creation of enhanced personal/human experiences and interactions with hotel staff who will work as Experience Agents.”

Edge technologies opens up new possibilities for both providers and travellers. For example, capturing the multi-sensory experience of travellers (sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touch) and enabling others to purchase an AR/VR version of that experience. Tomeu Fiol also speculates that the Edge could enable “The creation of additional, new, value added experiences which could be the focus of revenue generation in the future, challenging the traditional hotel/resort business model of room occupancy being the underpinning revenue generator.” Such offerings might include the opportunity to take part in immersive AR/VR experiences within a hotel.

Small-but-mighty, the S2085f quickly transforms information on paper into meaningful productivity

The KODAK S2085f Scanner features an integrated A4 flatbed scanner for exception document handling that is ideal for any document-heavy process that needs to digitize business-critical data trapped on paper at the edge of a process. It features built-in image processing that can enhance OCR accuracy at the same time reducing file sizes that helps you capture the best image quality without putting strains on your PCs. Simple to learn bundled free software empowers you to send your data to where it is needed from the push of a button.  A compact yet rugged design offers reliable paper handling and a straight-through paper path option can minimize document damage that improves the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of your processes and gives you a scanner that improves your bottom line.

Key features

• Colour user interface with one touch destinations using Smart Touch 
• Up to 85 ppm and 20,000 pages per day
• Output stacking with controlled exit stacking and exit deflectors
• Straight through paper path available
• USB 3.2 Gen 1×1 compatible and Wired Network Available
• Integrated flatbed 7 300-sheet feeder/elevator

Cohesity today announced that it has formed a strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to address the growing customer need for data management that is flexible, available, scalable, and reliable. Together, both companies are bringing to market a modern Data Management as a Service (DMaaS) offering unlike any other on the market today.

The DMaaS solution is designed to provide enterprise and mid-size customers with a radically simple way to back up, secure, govern, and analyze their data, all managed directly by Cohesity and hosted on AWS.

As data continues to grow exponentially, many organizations are looking to manage data in ways that allow their IT teams to focus on policy versus infrastructure, provide consumption-based pricing, accelerate the move to the cloud, make it easy to derive value from data, remove data infrastructure silos, and support multiple use cases — including data backup and archiving, disaster recovery, file and object services, copy data management, and analytics.

“AWS is delighted to establish a strategic collaboration with Cohesity as we share common goals — helping customers lower costs, become more agile, innovate faster, and do more with data,” said Doug Yeum, Head of Worldwide Channels and Alliances, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Working with Cohesity, we are charting a new course in how data is managed in an as a service model, leveraging disruptive, modern data management capabilities from Cohesity, and industry-leading cloud services from AWS.”

As part of the strategic collaboration, Cohesity and the AWS Partner Network (APN) are investing in resources to design the DMaaS solution on AWS and to engage in joint go-to-market activities. Additionally, Amazon has made an equity investment in Cohesity.

“This collaboration between Cohesity and AWS shows a continued commitment to bringing data management solutions to enterprise and mid-size customers that provide unmatched simplicity, flexibility, and reduced total cost of ownership,” said Mohit Aron, CEO and Founder, Cohesity. “Cohesity and AWS are also focused on helping customers derive value from data. Through AWS, customers can access a wealth of AWS services, including Amazon Macie, to help customers meet compliance needs, and Amazon Redshift for analytics. We are thrilled to collaborate with AWS and look forward to ushering in a new era in data management for customers globally.”

“The DMaaS solution from Cohesity and AWS is a significant improvement over what’s available on the market today,” said Michael Graff, Senior Manager, IT Architecture, Dolby Laboratories. “I’ve been using Cohesity and AWS for years and both have brought amazing value to our organization. Now, I’m even more excited about a comprehensive DMaaS solution that can provide even greater simplicity, choice, and flexibility from best-of-breed cloud and data management providers.”

Cohesity Helios: The Foundation for Data Management as a Service

The foundation for this new DMaaS solution is Cohesity Helios, a proven SaaS-based data platform that currently serves more than 1,500 customers. Today, Helios empowers customers to see, manage, and act on their data globally across environments which they manage. Moving forward, customers will also have the option to use Helios to do the same for data that resides in a Cohesity-managed environment. Through this offering, customers will be able to benefit from:

●       A unique, comprehensive set of data management services: Within the DMaaS solution,customers will be able to subscribe to discrete data management offerings addressing a widerange of use cases — all from one provider. Accessing each of these capabilities through Cohesity — versus selecting one provider for backup, another for disaster recovery, and yet others for file and object services, copy data management, data security and governance — reduces infrastructure silos and addresses mass data fragmentation.

●       Advanced security and ransomware detection: Helios currently analyzes over 400,000 events daily and uses machine learning (ML) to detect anomalies that could signal a ransomware attack in progress. DMaaS customers can use these capabilities to detect, respond, and rapidly recover from such an attack.

●       Data management made simple: Customers will have the ability to easily and seamlessly manage their existing on-premises and cloud environments, as well as the policies for their data in the new Cohesity-managed environment all through Cohesity Helios. 

●       A shift to predictability and simplicity: Consumption-based pricing provides cost predictability and eliminates over-provisioning. The DMaaS solution also removes equipment procurement headaches and reduces operating expenses and administrative overhead.

●       Sophisticated cloud-based services that derive additional value from data: Once on AWS, customers can also easily take advantage of cloud-based services provided by AWS. Customers can use these services to help ensure compliance, enhance security, and extract additional insights and business intelligence through ML and analytics.

Providing Greater Choice for Today’s Modern Businesses

The DMaaS solution builds on Cohesity’s existing data management offerings that, according to a recent Forrester Consulting study entitled “The Total Economic Impact™ Of Cohesity,” enabled customers to realize a 66 percent reduction of backup and data management costs, save thousands of hours on planned downtime work, and realize a three-year return on investment of 150 percent.*

With DMaaS, Cohesity is now providing customers with an even broader set of options to choose from when managing their data. Customers can manage data infrastructure themselves — in the data center, at the edge, or in the cloud. They can also utilize this DMaaS solution where associated infrastructure is managed for them, or they can use a hybrid combination of both.

“Most customers prefer choice in how their data is managed,” said Graff from Dolby. “With some vendors you are forced to choose either-or, but with Cohesity, you have the flexibility to manage data your way.”

The first offer that will be made available to organizations as part of this DMaaS solution is Cohesity DataProtect delivered as a service. This Backup as a Service (BaaS) offering is currently in early access preview with general availability planned by the end of the year. Customers interested in getting early access can join the interest list here. Other DMaaS offers addressing additional data management needs will follow in the coming quarters.

For more information

• Join the wait list for early access to our Backup as a Service offering
• Watch the webcast “Modern Data Management for the Cloud Era” for more details from Cohesity and AWS on the DMaaS Solution
• Read the Forrester Consulting study entitled “The Total Economic Impact™ Of Cohesity”

*Source: Data points delivered in the commissioned study, The Total Economic Impact™ Of Cohesity, conducted by Forrester Consulting, August, 2020.

The ability of organizations to realize business value from data increasingly depends on their capacity to collect, process, store and analyze it at the Edge, new research from Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, suggests.

As networks become increasingly congested with huge volumes of data generated from user and IoT devices, IT leaders are recognizing that analyzing real-time data nearer to the Edge yields greater efficiencies and insights, which results in improved business outcomes. According to the UAE results of a global study of 2,400 IT decision-makers (ITDMs), 61% of UAE enterprises are already actively using Edge technologies to deliver new outcomes, with another 14% planning to do so in the next year. There is also a growing recognition (86%) of the urgency around the need to implement integrated systems to handle data at the Edge.  

“This research suggests that the vast majority of IT leaders are already embracing the Edge or are preparing to,” said Jacob Chacko, Regional Business Head – Middle East, Saudi & South Africa (MESA) at HPE Aruba. “Developing an Edge strategy against the backdrop of existing cloud implementations is becoming a necessity as the number of connected devices increases and it becomes impractical to transfer vast volumes of data to a cloud or data center environment, especially as organizations undergo digital transformation to advance their business objectives and address customer needs.”

The survey findings form part of a report entitled, “At the Edge of Change: Navigating the New Data Era,” that assesses the implications of the shift in data processing from cloud to Edge, how ITDMs are responding to this trend, the opportunities the Edge presents for a number of major industries and the critical role networking plays in this transformation. Key findings reveal:

Organizations are Drowning in Data, Yet See the Edge as a Solution

The benefits of Edge technologies are becoming increasingly important as ITDMs grapple with the growing amounts of data generated within their networks and look towards the cost and latency advantages of storing and processing it at the Edge.

• 47% of ITDMs in UAE said that “there is too much data for our systems to handle” and 43% stated that “we cannot process the data quickly enough to take action.”
• Over a third also highlighted problems with complying with data regulation (37%) and an inability to integrate so many different data formats (33%). Other challenges included lack of budget to analyze the data/build and deploy analytical models (28%) and poor quality of data (26%)
• Over half (52%) of ITDMs in UAE recognize “improved collaboration and workflow activities between IT and other business units” as a result of optimizing machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on their networks.

Boosting Efficiency and Creating New Experiences Ranked at the Top

ITDMs cite a variety of benefits from capturing and analyzing data at the Edge, from operational efficiencies to the opportunity to create new products, services and revenue streams.  

• 58% of ITDMs in UAE highlighted “improving operational efficiency and costs” as one of the biggest benefits of capturing and acting upon data from user devices and 50% cited “increase in security”.
• In parallel, 46% of respondents in the country believe the data increases workforce productivity, 44% cited the opportunity to create “new differentiated products, services, revenue streams and business models” and 43% said it optimized maintenance costs and scheduling.
• Across EMEA, ITDMs are focused on utilizing the Edge to improve safety, visibility and the customer experience. By sector, the most popular Edge use cases were tracking and monitoring individual items through the supply chain in retail (51%), the use of facial recognition in the hotels/hospitality industry (49%) and improving healthcare providers’ experience with always on tools and applications (49%).

Concerns Over Cost, Skills and Security Abound

While ITDMs show a growing interest in processing and analyzing data at the Edge, they are also concerned about various barriers to adoption.

• 42% of ITDMs in UAE pointed business acceptance of autonomous decision making by Edge devices as the top concern. Notably, the overwhelming majority (96%) think they are missing at least some skills needed to help their organization unlock the value of data.
• AI and Machine Learning skills (46%), risk management/information security skills (42%) and analytical skills (40%) ranked highest in terms of areas of expertise that companies are lacking.
• Overall, there were mixed feelings about the security implications of the Edge. While 66% of ITDMs in UAE said that connecting IoT or user devices at the Edge had made or would make their businesses more vulnerable, 68% identified improvement of operational efficiency and costs as one of the biggest benefits of capturing data from user devices.

Bridging Edge to Cloud

As businesses continue to increase their dependence upon data, it is critical that it is analyzed and processed at the source of collection reliably and securely. Traditional network architectures and operational processes built to support the cloud and mobility era need to adapt to these new requirements.

As organizations move ahead to build an Edge infrastructure, there are a few key concepts to keep in mind for a successful implementation:

• Unify – The Edge incorporates all network domains including wired, wireless and SD-WAN; and all locations including Campus, Branch, Data Center and Remote Worker environments. Network operations teams should only consider solutions that can manage all domains and locations from a cloud-native, single pane of glass that can centralize and correlate all cross-domain events and operations.
• Automate – Network uptime and performance are critical at the Edge. Network operations teams should only consider solutions that provide reliable, highly accurate and specific AI-powered insights, and automation that can resolve issues more quickly, before they impact the business or users.
• Protect – The proliferation of IoT devices generating the data that fuels new business outcomes also presents new security challenges. Network operations teams should consider solutions that use AI to detect, classify and continuously monitor these devices and work seamlessly with access control solutions to automatically place devices in centralized policies that ensure they remain secure and only communicate with predetermined resources.

“Harnessing insights at the Edge is an opportunity for enterprises to revolutionize their approach to data and unlock its value as a business asset,” concludes Chacko. “Organizations that can process, store and analyze data at the Edge will be able to use that data first to optimize their existing business model, and over time, will develop innovative products, services and experiences that will not only augment, but transform their offerings for customers and employees.”

To find more about Aruba’s flexible IT solutions go to: https://www.arubanetworks.com/solutions/technology-solutions/

Veeam and Kasten’s Modern Data Management Platform Will Speed the Production Deployment of Container-based Applications

Veeam® Software, the leader in Backup solutions that deliver Cloud Data Management™, today announced it has acquired Kasten, the market leader for Kubernetes Backup and Disaster Recovery, in a cash and stock transaction valued at $150M. According to 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, nearly three-quarters of organizations are currently using or planning to use Kubernetes within the next two years.[i] Veeam believes this shift creates a massive opportunity for the future of data protection and the acquisition reinforces its commitment to support customers’ business transformation to future-ready architectures. With this new acquisition, Veeam will integrate Kasten into its market-leading Cloud Data Management platform for modern data protection and radically simplify data management for enterprises.

As applications using microservice-based architectures have quickly gained traction in the enterprise, this shift has established a new segment of application development methodology known as DevOps. Containers are a critical component of this DevOps-led infrastructure and application modernization, and Kubernetes has emerged as the dominant container orchestration platform – creating a significant opportunity for a single data protection platform that includes virtual, physical, cloud and Kubernetes environments. Veeam recognizes the strategic importance of this environment, the increasing importance of providing modern data management that is deeply integrated into Kubernetes, and the growth of DevOps to improve quality, increase scalability, and accelerate application delivery while reducing daily management. With the Kasten K10 Data Management Platform, Veeam will now be able to offer enterprise operations teams an easy-to-use, scalable, and secure system for Kubernetes Backup and application mobility with unparalleled operational simplicity.

“Veeam was built on offering the best data protection for virtual and modern data infrastructures, and we have continued to expand our offerings to include industry-leading protection for physical and cloud environments,” said Danny Allan, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Product Strategy at Veeam. “With the acquisition of our partner Kasten, we are taking a very important next step to accommodate our customers’ shift to container adoption in order to protect Kubernetes-native workloads on-premises and across multi-cloud environments. This significant milestone strengthens Veeam’s commitment to continue to deliver the industry’s leading Cloud Data Management platform that will support data protection for container-based applications built in Kubernetes environments.”

While the Kasten K10 platform will continue to be available independently, it will also be integrated into Veeam Backup & Replication™ to offer a comprehensive data management solution. With Kasten’s protection of container workloads and Veeam support for virtual machines, physical servers, SaaS applications and cloud workloads, this best of breed technology will provide all organizations a single platform for modern data protection.

“The enterprise landscape is shifting as applications rapidly transition from monoliths to containers and microservices,” said Niraj Tolia, Chief Executive Officer at Kasten. “With Kubernetes at the core of this infrastructural shift, Kasten’s innovation in Kubernetes-native data management combined with Veeam’s expertise in Backup, both on-premises and in multi-cloud environments, will significantly advance the state of modern data management. Veeam’s success has been a beacon of inspiration for the Kasten team and we are very excited to join forces with a company where there is so much philosophical alignment.”

Kasten will operate as a separate Kubernetes Business Unit (BU) within Veeam. Kasten’s founders, Niraj Tolia and Vaibhav Kamra, will lead the business unit – Tolia as its President and General Manager, and Kamra as Chief Technology Officer, Kubernetes BU. All teams including sales, marketing, R&D, and customer service will stay intact to continue growing the business with increased investment in people and resources.

Veeam’s commitment to the Kubernetes community will also continue through the contribution to Open Source and other community projects that Kasten has supported, including the Kubernetes Storage Special Interest Group and the Data Protection Working Group in Kubernetes, which aim to improve storage operations and promote data protection support for the Kubernetes user base. Additionally, Veeam will continue to support Kanister, Kasten’s open source project that extends support for and execution of data management tasks in Kubernetes, and the development of kopia, a fast and secure open-source tool to manage Backups.

For more information, visit https://www.veeam.com.

“Containers in microservice architectures are foundational to many emerging cloud-native applications. Protecting and recovering containerized environments has very different requirements from virtual infrastructure alone. The Veeam-Kasten combination could allow enterprises to protect and recover Kubernetes-based cloud-native container applications along with virtual and physical workloads from a single cloud data management framework. With both vendors being part of the Insight Partner’s portfolio, and Veeam already partnering with Kasten to enable application centric container data protection capabilities, this acquisition seems like a natural next step. Having Kasten now be a part of Veeam positions the combination very well to meet the majority of data protection and recovery needs for multi-cloud environments.” – Phil Goodwin, research director, IDC

“We are excited to see Veeam and Kasten coming together to deliver the leading Kubernetes-native Backup solution. Given our use of Veeam to protect our critical business data and infrastructure and the increasing footprint of Kubernetes in our environment, this combined solution will provide us with the flexibility to protect our applications and data, no matter what environment they are deployed in, and the ease-of-use to help scale our teams. Knowing that we have the right Backup and disaster recovery infrastructure in place for both virtualized and cloud-native environments will allow our teams to move faster and with confidence.” – Markus Kretzer, Head of IT, Buhl Data Service

[i] 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence – Voice of the Enterprise: DevOps Workloads and Key Projects 2020

Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, today introduced its new free Information Security Awareness and Training service for organizations looking to educate employees about the increasing risks of cyber attacks. The Information Security Awareness and Training service – the latest initiative as part of the Network Security Expert (NSE) Training Institute – is for any organization looking to implement or replace their information security awareness program and was designed to align to NIST guidelines for NIST 800-50  and NIST 800-16. Additionally, NSE Certifications – which are comprised of 8 levels – have qualified for (ISC)² credit for individuals looking to maintain their CISSP credentials. This credit furthers the value NSE Certifications provide current and future security professionals.  

Rob Rashotte, VP of Global Training and Technical Field Enablement at Fortinet

“Organizations need to ensure their employees know how to identify and protect against all types of cybersecurity threats. From 2018 to 2020 the number of insider threats increased 47% according to a Ponemon Institute Report, making these threats a top concern. At the same time, IT professionals are constantly on the quest for continued learning opportunities to refresh their security skillsets. To address both these needs, Fortinet is rolling out a free Information Security Awareness and Training service for organizations, as well as additional continued learning incentives for IT and security professionals. These latest efforts build on Fortinet’s ongoing commitment to closing the cybersecurity skills gap and our Corporate Social Responsibility work.”

Advancing Cyber Awareness and Skills Through the NSE Training Institute

Today, Fortinet is expanding its NSE Training Institute’s free training offerings with the introduction of the Information Security Awareness and Training service. More about this new service and other recent initiatives to address the industry’s skills gap below:

• Free Information Security Awareness and Training service for organizations: With social engineering attacks continuing to plague organizations, CISOs realize the importance of prioritizing employee training as part of their cybersecurity strategies to help address insider threats. A recent study found that 68% of organizations feel moderately to extremely vulnerable to insider attacks. In addition to designing a security architecture that protects against these insider attackers, CISOs and executives also need to increase their employees’ cyber awareness to ensure employees can identify threats and not fall victim to attackers. To help organizations address this, Fortinet offers a free Information Security Awareness and Training service that has been developed by some of the best cybersecurity training experts in the world. The training component of the service consists of five self-paced mandatory modules that are focused on key attack vectors and best practices. Each of the modules end with a quiz to test mastery of content. A library of awareness resources including posters, email templates, checklists and others, helps to ensure that cybersecurity best practices are always top of mind. The administrator dashboard allows the organization to keep track of employee completion progress, ensuring compliance with company policies. This turnkey service ensures employees are equipped with the knowledge necessary to avoid phishing, baiting, tech support scams and other social engineering attacks that commonly jeopardize organizations’ security posture.

• NSE training courses qualify for (ISC)² credits for continued learning: Courses in Fortinet’s eight-level certification program, as well as additional training courses, will now count toward credits for individuals looking to maintain their Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) or other accreditations with (ISC)². This collaboration will further propel security professionals seeking continued learning opportunities to keep their skills relevant and up-to-date in the face of a rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape. Fortinet has an agreement with (ISC)² to offer CPE credits for NSE training courses, Fast Tracks which are available to customers and partners, webinars and other online or in-person educational sessions for the next three years. (ISC)² will consider submissions based on one hour of Fortinet’s training and education initiatives equaling 1 CPE credit, with a maximum of 8 per day.

• Closing the skills gap with NSE Certifications: The NSE Training Institute’s flagship NSE Certification Program recently reached a significant milestone, issuing more than half a million certifications worldwide. With its eight levels of certifications, the NSE Certification Program bridges the cybersecurity skills gap, from cybersecurity fundamental education courses (NSE 1-3), technical product training (NSE 4-6), advanced solution-based training (NSE 7) and the elite cybersecurity expert recognition (NSE 8). NSE level 8 is the highest certification designation with 381 individuals having earned NSE 8 to date, demonstrating mastery in extremely complex network security concepts by leveraging multiple solutions from Fortinet’s Security Fabric portfolio.

Fortinet’s Free NSE Training Creates Additional Cybersecurity Career Pathways

In the wake of the health pandemic, Fortinet made all its self-paced advanced NSE security courses available for free enabling anyone to learn new skills or augment existing skills – from IT professionals to students to veterans and job seekers. As organizations rapidly transitioned to a remote workforce, which requires specialized skills to properly secure remote access and new environments being spun up, Fortinet saw a significant uptick in demand for its NSE training and certifications.

By extending access to its NSE training with free courses, Fortinet sought to create more career pathways for those wanting to further advance their security knowledge or start a career in cybersecurity. These free training courses also prepare learners toward a path to receive Fortinet’s award-winning NSE Certifications to further help them stand out to employers and spur career growth. A recent Fortinet skills gap survey found that 82% of organizations prefer to hire candidates with certifications and 94% of respondents believe their certifications have better prepared them for their current security role.

“Having achieved Fortinet’s NSE level 8 certification has provided me comprehensive and expert knowledge of network security design, configuration, and troubleshooting for complex networks. As a result, when I’m talking about certain architectures or implementing certain specific features, customers and prospects have increased confidence in my capabilities and knowledge that has been assessed by Fortinet, further demonstrating my competency. Ultimately, Fortinet’s training and certification program is successfully helping develop more security professionals as the demand for security has outpaced the number of people entering the market.”

– Matthew Watkinson, chief security architect at Secure Sense