VMware Tanzu Gains Features, Availability

VMware’s Kubernetes focus continues unabated with the vendor today bolstering its broader Tanzu portfolio targeted at helping enterprises bridge the gap between development and production. The updates include application and infrastructure additions that are designed to ease operations in a Kubernetes environment and also further integrate VMware’s extensive Kubernetes properties. For application development, VMware announced the general availability of its latest Tanzu Application Service (TAS) and moved its newly developed TAS on Kubernetes and Tanzu Build Service (TBS) into beta. For infrastructure, VMware pushed its Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition – which was formally known as its Enterprise PKS platform – into general availability.

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Virtual Desktop Tools, Desktop

Epson Announces New Ultra Compact Desktop Solutions Offering Document Management Perfect for Remote and Hybrid Workers

PR Newswire | September 26, 2023

Epson, the best-selling retail scanner brand in North America,1 today announced three new compact and lightweight document scanning solutions – the WorkForce® ES-C220, ES-C320W, and ES-C380W. Featuring an intuitive design and exceptional flexibility, these modern scanners boast a new footprint that saves 60 percent of desk space,2 ideal for tight spaces. Designed for fast and easy document management, the ES-C320W and ES-C380W offer comprehensive wireless scanning to smartphones, tablets, computers, and the cloud,3 enabling small business owners, hybrid employees and busy professionals to work efficiently and streamline tasks. "With the work environment shifting to a hybrid and remote workforce, compact and lightweight solutions that easily integrate into home offices and tight workspaces are essential for today's workflow needs," said Carrie Fox, director of product marketing, Scanners, Epson America. "Professionals and consumers alike can easily conquer clutter and reclaim office space with the new compact WorkForce scanners, designed for productivity and peace of mind. These unique and flexible solutions offer single step scanning, organizing software and a vertical paper path to help customers accomplish more and streamline active workdays." These high-performance workhorse scanners offer features to keep home offices and business organized. The ultra-compact solutions deliver fast speeds with an innovative, space-saving design and vertical scan path that saves 60 percent of desk space2, making it easy to place virtually anywhere, even when space is limited. With two-sided scanning, and a 20-sheet Auto Document Feeder, the new scanners can efficiently handle stacks of paper in one fast pass at speeds up to 30 ppm/60 ipm.4 Intelligent image adjustments such as automatic cropping and paper skew correction help ensure amazing image quality with each scan. The flexible scan path provides remarkable versatility and the ability to scan most document types, from standard paper to invoices, greeting cards, business cards, and passports.5 Touting robust software, all three scanners include Epson ScanSmart® Software6 allowing users to preview, email and upload scans as well as save valuable time with automatic file name suggestion for streamlined file management and OCR. To enhance workflow efficiency, the WorkForce ES-C380W includes ScanWay® for scanning directly to a USB drive,7 mobile device3 or upload to popular cloud storage services7 Dropbox®, Evernote®, Google Drive™ and OneDrive® using the scanner's bright 2.4" LCD touchscreen, no computer needed. About Epson Epson is a global technology leader whose philosophy of efficient, compact and precise innovation enriches lives and helps create a better world. The company is focused on solving societal issues through innovations in home and office printing, commercial and industrial printing, manufacturing, visual and lifestyle. Epson's goal is to become carbon negative and eliminate use of exhaustible underground resources such as oil and metal by 2050.

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Virtual Server Management

EMA and Auvik Research Reveals Hybrid and Remote Work Has Increased Workloads, Posed Challenges to Remote Network Experiences

Business Wire | September 28, 2023

New research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) and Auvik, an award-winning provider of cloud-based network management software, revealed that the ongoing shift to hybrid and remote work environments has resulted in key changes to the roles and priorities of network administrators in order to address new connectivity challenges and prioritize and preserve a secure, productive end-user experience. The report examined the remote and hybrid work paradigm through the lens of network operations teams – 73% of which reported an increase in workloads, either slightly or significantly, following the shift from traditional to hybrid work environments. Results from the report demonstrated that the top challenges associated with the remote work experience are poor home Wi-Fi setups, distance from applications, and poor ISP quality. To combat these obstacles, 72% of surveyed organizations have deployed network hardware to the homes of remote workers, including network security devices (62.7%) and Wi-Fi access points (54.1%). Additionally, 90% of organizations with hybrid workers shared that they had to upgrade Wi-Fi networks to address increased office mobility requirements. “These results reinforce that although people are beginning to return to the office, hybrid work is here to stay and is resulting in significant changes for network administrators,” said Alex Hoff, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer for Auvik. “Although IT teams no longer own all the assets utilized daily by employees, they are still responsible for these operations. And despite not being able to directly exert control over employees’ home networks, they can have visibility over these environments with network monitoring tools. Implementing network visibility software helps IT professionals overcome these new obstacles by providing the ability to maintain visibility and control amid changing work circumstances. The data provided in this report reinforces Auvik’s place in the market and demonstrates that our recent acquisitions, integrations, and expanded product offerings that were designed to help IT teams adapt to these new norms are well-suited for the challenges that are being identified within the industry.” Additional findings from the report include Nearly 49% of network operations teams started working with a new tool vendor to help them manage the network experience of remote workers. 76% of organizations need to unify how they manage network access policies across on-premises networks and remote users. Remote desktop access tools (deployed by 81% of companies) remain the go-to solution for troubleshooting remote users’ problems, but endpoint monitoring tools are increasingly popular (79%). Although 87% have allocated funds in their budget to update network operation tools for remote and hybrid user support, only 32% of organizations shared that they have been successful in doing so. The top issues employees most often report when they are working from home are VPN access issues, followed by performance issues with SaaS applications. “96% of IT organizations said they are supporting hybrid workers, and 30% of all employees who work remotely are hybrid workers,” said Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, EMA. “With employees working both at home and in the office, it is important to have the assets and software necessary to support them in both locations. This means enterprises must invest in more secure remote access solutions that offer integrated network security automation, centralized management, and network optimization or network enhancement, as well as network observability tools that are able to monitor performance across disparate locations.” Methodology Auvik commissioned an independent research firm to survey 354 IT professionals directly involved in supporting the networking requirements of employees who work from home. About Auvik Auvik’s mission is to simplify how IT teams work and live by providing cloud-based IT monitoring and management with simplicity and speed. It lets IT professionals visualize IT infrastructure, SaaS applications, and shadow IT in minutes. As a result teams can identify and resolve issues in seconds, saving valuable time. Auvik is one of the fastest-growing North American technology companies, and is winner of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and Deloitte Fast 500. Visit www.auvik.com for more details. Auvik is a registered trademark of Auvik Networks Inc. About EMA Founded in 1996, EMA is a leading industry analyst firm that specializes in providing deep insight across the full spectrum of IT and data management technologies. EMA analysts leverage a unique combination of practical experience, insight into industry best practices, and in-depth knowledge of current and planned vendor solutions to help their clients achieve their goals.

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Backup and Disaster Recovery

Minimize the Cost and Downtime of Disaster With Scale Computing's Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Planning Service

PR Newswire | October 25, 2023

Scale Computing, a market leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions, today announced its Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BCDR) Planning Service, designed to help organizations establish a comprehensive, regulated plan for responding to unforeseen downtime. The service provides Scale Computing customers and partners with the tools, guidance, and resources to create a playbook for data backup and recovery, enabling businesses to endure a disaster scenario with minimal loss. Scale Computing also recently announced that it is a finalist for the Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Project of the Year in the 2023 SDC Awards for its work with Austrian managed service provider GiGaNet and its long-time partner the Zillertaler Gletscherbahn group. Voting for the SDC Awards is open at sdcawards.com/vote until November 10th, 2023. Data breaches are one of the biggest and most costly contributors to downtime for businesses. In 2023, the average cost of a data breach globally reached an all-time high of $4.45 million, a 15.3% increase from 2020. Simultaneously, the average length of business disruption following a ransomware attack in the United States reached 24 days last year, up 60% from just two years prior — a significant increase when downtime costs exceed $300,000 per hour for over 90% of mid-sized and large enterprises. For more than half of those businesses, the hourly outage costs range from $1 million to over $5 million. Recovery from an outage adds additional expense from which many enterprises are unable to bounce back. "Disaster can strike at any time, and every organization needs a consistently regulated playbook for how the business will respond — from action plans to recovery plans for bringing online the mission-critical servers businesses depend on," said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder, Scale Computing. "Knowing what systems need to be protected, planning for the ability to recover them, and having a full action plan for recovery should be at the forefront of every IT department's agenda, at the beginning of any infrastructure addition. With Scale Computing Platform, the plan for disaster recovery starts before equipment is even put into production, so IT leaders have a plan in place from day one that they can enact to ensure their business stays up and running, with minimal loss, should disaster strike. Our Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Planning Service enables businesses to proactively classify systems based on their importance and implement a robust action plan, ensuring that our customers' and partners' critical systems are protected, validated, tested, and ready for recovery at any time." Whether a minor data loss or a business-wide shutdown, having a well-defined business continuity strategy is crucial to minimize financial impact, ensure continuous employee productivity, meet compliance and regulatory requirements, decrease liability obligations, reduce downtime, and minimize the risk of negative exposure. Scale Computing's BCDR Planning Service includes planning, deployment, documentation creation, and disaster recovery testing, covering every aspect to keep businesses prepared and resilient. The service is offered to Scale Computing Platform customers, which brings simplicity, high availability, and scalability together to replace existing infrastructure for running virtual machines with an easy-to-manage, fully integrated platform that allows organizations to run applications regardless of hardware requirements. About Scale Computing Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, Scale Computing Platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime, even when local IT resources and staff are scarce. Edge Computing is the fastest-growing area of IT infrastructure, and industry analysts have named Scale Computing an outperformer and leader in the space, including being named the #1 edge computing vendor by CRN. Scale Computing's products are sold by thousands of value-added resellers, integrators, and service providers worldwide.

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