Vodafone Ireland partnered with Celfocus to create TOBi, a virtual assistant that offers a comprehensive set of features designed to enhance customer interactions and streamline operations. Our primary aim and challenge were to deploy an industry-leading chatbot to revolutionize customer engagement and improve our agent handover experience. This chatbot facilitates seamless account management across web, mobile, and retail platforms. Leveraging advanced AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), we delivered a highly responsive, context-aware, and personalized experience for customers. The integration of cutting-edge AI and LLMs empowers our chatbot to conduct natural, efficient conversations and manage accounts effectively. This initiative seeks to redefine customer interaction, setting a new benchmark for convenience and personalization within the Telco industry.

Adapting a natural language model to a telecom-specific context, which includes young people and early adaptors of innovative technologies as well as older individuals used to speaking with a human agent and placing their trust in them, presents significant challenges. The Tobi Conversational Language Understanding (CLU) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) modules need to accurately identify customer intentions, adapt responses appropriately, retrieve and create customer information within milliseconds, and meet demanding customer expectations that do not tolerate pauses or delays in conversation.

In the telco industry, accurately measuring customer satisfaction and addressing service challenges are pivotal for enhancing customer loyalty and operational efficiency. As a telecom company, Vodafone Ireland also faces some difficulties in this realm, including the difficulty of determining the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which currently captures feedback from only a small percentage of customers. Addressing the main customer complaints, such as calls with unfulfilled agent callback promises (a key churn catalyst), repeated contacts for the same issue, and pinpointing deep detractor issues, is essential. Vodafone’s commitment to innovation and continuous improvement in customer support is underscored by the strategic integration of cutting-edge technology in Tobi. Initiatives like Tobi, which are technologically advanced, not only promote but also strengthen Vodafone’s culture and image as an innovating enterprise.

From an operational and technical perspective, Tobi is using a micro-modular strategy that includes various modules such as frontend, AI Watson, VDF Composer and Microsoft CLU, Java Business logic, VoIP and Gateway and Speech To Text/Text To Speech (STT/TTS), each delivered by specialized teams within the Tobi structure.

The micro-modular strategy involves breaking an application into numerous pieces, allowing a specific squad to focus on each part. The approach enables the full reuse of parts both internally and externally with other markets. In an innovative way, we have instantiated Core AI modules in a multi-tenant AWS centralized account, reusing crucial components and services that serve both Voice and Chat.

We can say that there are already applications isolating intentions using CLU and micro APIs for CRUD operations on the data. The technical challenge was to design an event-driven approach where, in milliseconds, CLU understands customer intentions, Composer guides and defines the next steps for both the bot and customer, and a common API layer manages the data in a secure and authenticated way. This centralized module is then plugged in with extensions for Voice and Chat, as well as adapters for each local instantiation, bridging different technologies and protocols, such as VOIP, SIP and RTP but also REST, JSON and OAuth. It accommodates various development patterns such as MVC and MVVM.

Having each squad work on its own module raises accountability issues, as well as challenges in managing the whole picture, not only from a people’s perspective but also from a technical perspective. Working in an agile mode, each squad has its own priorities, velocity, its own definition of done and ready, and more important, their deliverables. Innovations sprout in the way everything is glued together with an E2E Agile team merging and testing all the modules to create a unique user experience as a whole, essentially forming one Agile team out of agile squads. This approach enhances scalability and module reusability within Vodafone Ireland and extends to other Vodafone markets.

For Business, Tobi plays a crucial role as it represents the first step towards fully automated customer care systems, reducing call centre costs, while still focusing on delivering a truly unique customer experience across all channels.

The evolution of the solution is being tackled through an augmented customer support framework, designed to enhance multi-channel interactions in customer service. Advanced analytics are also being employed to address complex use cases, ensuring a more personalized and efficient service. This approach focuses on dialogue-based multi-channel interactions, ensuring a seamless and integrated experience for customers across various platforms. At the heart of this framework is a unified canonical data model for all interactions, which standardizes data across channels. By leveraging generative insights from this unified data, the solution is not only highly scalable but also capable of providing more robust use cases. This allows for a detailed comparison across channels, enabling a more comprehensive 360º view of all dialogue-based customer support interactions.

Through this innovative framework, we aim to elevate the quality of customer service by offering more personalized and effective support, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Our chatbot has achieved a noteworthy milestone, handling 100% of our 500K consumer chat contacts. Notably, 60% of these chats require no human intervention, underscoring its efficiency in autonomously addressing user queries. Monthly, we facilitate over 50,000 chats, illustrating consistent and robust user engagement. Our user base has exceeded 336,000 users, indicating widespread adoption and platform popularity. Additionally, we proudly announce that our top-up journey received the highest Customer Experience score across the EU market from Gartner, solidifying our commitment to delivering exceptional service. This accomplishment reflects our dedication to providing seamless and efficient customer interactions through cutting-edge technology.

Calls to the Call Centre in voice have seen a 65% reduction in relevant call types since the introduction of Tobi Voice and have seen a reduction of 61% of chats reaching a live agent.

Together, both channels handled an average of 70K interactions per month, with 43% via Voice and 57% via chat. This prevented the same amount of traffic from reaching a human agent or IVR, achieving an outstanding 58% full resolution rate and a 99,9% uptime.

Customers tend to endorse Tobi directly by expressing their recognition of the AI. Conversation analysis has yielded some interesting comments, such as:

-“I really appreciate that you talk now (over previous IVR experience); it is much easier to get what I was after.”

-“Thanks for providing me with this information; you were much more useful than your colleague (human agent).”

The integration of generative AI into Vodafone Ireland's service framework promises transformative impacts on customer service management. It offers the potential for real-time NPS evaluation across all customer interactions, promising a deeper understanding of satisfaction levels. The system is poised to automatically detect and address unfulfilled callback promises, potentially streamlining customer resolutions. Furthermore, it anticipates enabling rapid root cause analysis for repeated contacts and significantly speeding up the identification of deep detractor issues from weeks to minutes. This technology allows the business to identify new automation journeys or optimize existing ones, and also reduce the gap between experienced and new operators, combating turnover.

These advancements suggest a future where customer experience and operational efficiency are greatly enhanced, showcasing the promising capabilities of generative AI in the telecom industry as part of the solution's evolution.

The PandaChat Live project, meticulously designed to tackle significant business and technological challenges faced by companies in today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving environment. A primary concern for businesses is effectively managing the substantial volume of customer interactions across various communication channels, including phone calls, web chat platforms, and email.

The complexity of these interactions often leads to issues such as increased operational costs, inefficiencies in handling customer queries, and slower response times. These challenges can negatively impact customer satisfaction. With PandaChat Live, we aim to not only address these challenges but also enhance the overall customer experience, fostering better communication and satisfaction in an increasingly competitive market.

PandaChat Live is a vital component of this solution, offering businesses a powerful tool to optimize customer support across three main channels: phone, web chat, and email. This tool enhances efficiency by delivering automated responses around the clock, functioning as a 24/7 employee. The automation not only ensures quick and consistent customer support but also allows the chatbot to engage in conversation and generate responses from database and websites, creating the feeling of interacting with a live agent. Additionally, it can trigger actions and assist customers with tasks such as hotel reservations or finding items on a webpage.

Integrating PandaChat Live into a company\'s existing infrastructure is seamless and requires minimal configuration. This facilitates rapid implementation without significant technical adjustments, allowing businesses to quickly adapt and utilize this advanced solution. Additionally, PandaChat Live can connect with internal databases and documents containing essential customer information and reading websites in real, enabling chatbots to provide accurate, relevant and up to date responses tailored to each customer\'s needs.

The platform also supports multilingual capabilities, allowing companies to offer assistance in their customers’ native languages. This feature enhances satisfaction and reduces the likelihood of miscommunication, particularly in a globalised context. Moreover, PandaChat Live can be customised to meet specific business needs, ensuring flexibility and control over data security. Consequently, it transforms from a mere customer support tool into a strategic partner in enhancing business operations.

Throughout the development of PandaChat Live, the team encountered several significant challenges that required innovative solutions. One major hurdle was developing speech recognition and text-to-speech models for local languages, particularly Slovenian. Accurately capturing local dialects and pronunciations necessitated collecting diverse speech samples from native speakers, which facilitated effective model training. Continuous testing and refinement ensured the output was both accurate and natural sounding.

Another challenge involved customising data extraction to accommodate the varied structures of client websites. The unique layouts complicated information retrieval: thus, the team developed flexible data extraction protocols that adapt to different formats, ensuring efficient information retrieval without manual adjustments. Additionally, the organization of large volumes of unstructured data presented a risk of confusion and inaccuracies. To address this, structured data approaches were implemented, categorising information into logical groups to maintain clarity and relevance.

The implementation of PandaChat Live brings significant benefits to the organisation, enhancing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. One of the primary advantages is the improved response times. By automating responses across communication channels, phone, web chat, and email, PandaChat Live significantly reduces customer wait times, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

Additionally, the project drives a notable increase in efficiency within the customer support team. With routine inquiries automated, team members can focus on more complex issues, resulting in cost reductions and a more effective allocation of resources. This shift leads to higher-quality service and overall improved performance. The seamless integration of the tool into existing systems ensures minimal disruption and maintains business continuity.

Furthermore, PandaChat Live’s multilingual capabilities enable the organisation to cater to a diverse customer base, reducing the chances of miscommunication and expanding market reach.

In terms of productivity, automating routine tasks allows the team to manage a greater volume of inquiries without compromising quality. The tool’s scalability ensures the organisation can easily adapt to changing customer needs and business growth.

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, the demand for efficient customer service solutions has never been greater. PandaChat Live emerges as a transformative, AI-driven platform designed to cater to diverse organizational needs through its modularity, customizability, and seamless integration. Its unique value proposition allows businesses to tailor the chatbot interface, tone, and functionality to resonate with their brand identity, fostering a deeper connection with users.

PandaChat Live enables rapid deployment with minimal setup, effortlessly integrating in all different digital platforms. This capability ensures efficient customer support, empowering businesses to respond to inquiries 24/7 while significantly reducing the workload on human teams. With a strong commitment to data privacy, organizations maintain control over customer information, addressing the growing security concerns prevalent in today’s market.

By combining these features, PandaChat Live not only enhances operational efficiency but also elevates customer satisfaction, establishing itself as a leader in customer service automation.

Customers have reported reduced response times and improved service consistency, even during peak periods, thanks to the platform\'s round-the-clock availability. Businesses utilizing PandaChat Live can effectively manage high volumes of inquiries, allowing staff to concentrate on complex tasks and strategic initiatives. Furthermore, the ability to customize chatbot interactions fosters deeper customer engagement and trust.

Prioritizing data privacy and offering local data storage options, PandaChat Live addresses security concerns while ensuring compliance with regulations such as GDPR. Overall, it empowers businesses to streamline operations and enhance the customer experience, leading to higher satisfaction and retention rates.

PandaChat Live distinguishes itself in the competitive chatbot market through several key differentiators. Its modularity and customizability allow businesses to tailor the chatbot interface and functionality to align with their brand identity, including white-labeling options that present the chatbot as an integral part of their operations.
A standout feature of PandaChat Live is its 24/7 automated response capability. Acting as a virtual employee, the chatbot guarantees immediate assistance to customers at any time, providing quick and consistent support while simulating the experience of interacting with a live agent. Customers can engage in conversation and receive responses generated from an extensive database and various websites, enriching their experience.

The chatbots’s multilingual support is another significant advantage, enabling businesses to serve diverse customer bases effectively. By minimizing miscommunication, this feature expands market reach and fosters customer trust, leading to enhanced satisfaction.

Moreover, PandaChat Live’s ability to deliver real-time information sets it apart from traditional systems that rely solely on pre-uploaded data. Users can access current information directly from websites, empowering them to make informed decisions swiftly, thereby improving their overall experience.

PandaChat Live has tangibly improved operational efficiency and customer satisfaction across various sectors. For instance, at Porsche Inter Auto, we developed a chatbot that assists customers in purchasing new and used vehicles. This solution enables quick access to specifications, prices, and availability, streamlining the buying process and significantly increasing customer satisfaction while reducing the need for human support.

At Pošta Slovenije, we implemented a call module that recognizes different Slovenian dialects. This personalized communication allows customers to receive real-time information about package statuses and locations of post offices, leading to increased trust and a growing number of satisfied users.

At Merkur Shop, we created a chatbot that provides general product information, stock availability, and product comparisons. This solution has improved the purchasing process\'s efficiency and boosted customer satisfaction by allowing users to quickly find relevant information.

PandaChat Live’s primary differentiators from competitors include its comprehensive integration of multiple communication channels, the ability to deliver automated responses 24/7, and real-time data access capabilities. While many competitors focus on single channels or offer limited automation, PandaChat Live stands out by providing a versatile and dynamic solution that adapts to changing customer needs and supports business growth.

1) Emotive AI Humanoid team has crafted an exceptional Emotive AI robot that redefines human-machine interaction. This innovative creation embodies a range of capabilities that converge technology with human-like qualities, fostering engaging, intuitive interactions. At its core, the Emotive AI robot is a marvel in social robotics, boasting advanced facial recognition, natural language processing, and expressive capabilities. Its facial features are remarkably sophisticated, equipped with a vast array of expressions and gestures, enabling nuanced communication.
Through its cutting-edge Natural Language Understanding (NLU), the robot comprehends speech, nuances in conversation, and context, facilitating seamless dialogue. This proficiency extends to multiple languages, enhancing its accessibility and usability across diverse demographics.
Moreover, the robot\'s adaptability is striking. Its ability to simulate emotions and adjust responses accordingly ensures a tailored, empathetic interaction, promoting a more human-like engagement. This adaptiveness is a cornerstone of its utility in various fields, including customer service, education, healthcare, and research.
Emotive AI robot also shines in its versatility. Developers can leverage its open-source platform and SDK to create custom applications, expanding its functionalities across industries. This flexibility fuels innovation, allowing for personalized, industry-specific solutions and applications. Additionally, the robot\'s embodiment in a physical form amplifies its impact. Its lifelike appearance and dynamic expressions engender a sense of rapport and engagement, further enhancing its effectiveness in social contexts.

2) It can assist, support, inform, educate, entertain, and empathize with users in different settings and situations, improving user satisfaction, experience, and outcomes. It can also enhance social inclusion, diversity, and empowerment, by providing access and opportunities to people who face barriers and challenges in their daily lives.it can integrate with other devices and platforms, such as smart phones, tablets, and cloud services, expanding its capabilities and reach. It also has a multitude of applications and benefits across various domains and sectors, enhancing user engagement, well-being, and performance. We believe that our Emotive AI Humanoid is a worthy and innovative solution that deserves to be submitted for an award.

3) Differentiators -
• Advanced Facial Recognition - Capable of recognizing and interpreting human facial expressions.
• Expressive Facial Gestures - A wide range of lifelike facial expressions and gestures for natural communication.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) - Sophisticated NLP abilities enabling seamless conversation and understanding of context.
• Emotional Simulation - Ability to simulate emotions, adjusting responses based on emotional cues.
• Multi-Language Support - Proficiency in multiple languages for diverse user interaction.
• Customizable SDK - An open-source platform allowing developers to create personalized applications.
• Adaptive Interaction - Tailoring responses to individual users for a more personalized experience.
• Physical Embodiment - A humanoid appearance that fosters engagement and rapport.
• Interactive Display - Visual interface for enhancing communication and displaying information.
• Modular Design - Easily adaptable and expandable for various use cases and industries.

4) Use Cases -

• Education - Supporting interactive learning experiences, language teaching, and tutoring.
. Customer Service - Assisting customers with inquiries, providing guidance, and enhancing service experience.
• Healthcare - Assisting patients with information, therapy sessions, and emotional support.
• Hospitality - Greeting guests, providing information, and enhancing customer satisfaction in hotels or events.
• Training and Simulations - Conducting simulations for training purposes in fields like aviation, customer service, etc.
• Research and Development - Studying human-robot interaction, emotional intelligence, and user behavior.
• Entertainment - Engaging audiences in interactive performances, exhibits, or theme parks.
• Therapy and Counseling - Offering emotional support and counseling in therapeutic settings.
• Recruitment and Assessment - Conducting interviews or assessments in a controlled and standardized environment.
• Accessibility - Assisting individuals with disabilities by providing information and support tailored to their needs.

PeaSoup is redefining the backup and archive landscape with its cutting-edge storage solution that combines S3-compatible storage with liquid immersion cooling technology. As data volumes grow exponentially and the demand for cost-effective, scalable, and environmentally sustainable storage solutions rises, PeaSoup stands out by delivering a unique blend of performance, energy efficiency, and innovation. Our approach is transforming how businesses handle data backup and archival, providing them with a robust, scalable, and eco-friendly storage solution.

S3-Compatible Storage
PeaSoup’s backup and archive solution is fully S3-compatible, providing seamless integration with existing cloud-based workflows. By adhering to the Amazon S3, our solution offers easy adoption for businesses looking to transition or expand their backup and archive capabilities in the cloud. This compatibility ensures that customers can easily integrate PeaSoup’s storage into their existing environments without the need for costly and time-consuming changes to their applications or workflows.

Liquid Immersion Cooling Technology
At the core of PeaSoup\'s innovation is our pioneering use of liquid immersion cooling technology. Traditional storage systems rely heavily on air-conditioning to manage heat, which can be both energy-intensive and costly. In contrast, our solution submerges spinning hard drives in a specially engineered, non-conductive cooling liquid, effectively dissipating heat without the need for energy-intensive cooling systems. This method not only enhances the reliability and longevity of the storage hardware but also significantly reduces power consumption by up to 90%.

Enhanced Data Integrity and Security
Our S3-compatible storage solution is designed with robust data integrity and security features. The liquid immersion environment provides an additional layer of protection against environmental factors such as dust and debris, which can lead to hardware failures and data loss in traditional storage systems. Furthermore, our solution includes advanced encryption and compliance features, ensuring that data is not only safe from physical damage but also secure from cyber threats.

Scalability and Flexibility
PeaSoup’s storage solution is highly scalable, designed to grow with the needs of our customers. The S3-compatible architecture supports a wide range of use cases, from small-scale backups to large-scale archival requirements. Our modular approach allows businesses to scale their storage capacity seamlessly, without the need for significant infrastructure changes, making it a cost-effective option for growing enterprises.

Tangible Impact on the Backup and Archival Market
PeaSoup’s innovative approach to backup and archive storage has already made a significant impact on the market. By combining S3-compatible storage with liquid immersion cooling technology, we offer a solution that addresses the most pressing needs of today’s businesses.
Cost Efficiency
The reduction in cooling energy requirements translates to lower operational costs, making our solution more cost-effective than traditional storage systems. This cost efficiency is particularly beneficial for businesses with large-scale archival needs, where storage costs can quickly escalate.

Environmental Sustainability
In an era where environmental responsibility is becoming a key business priority, PeaSoup\'s solution offers a significant reduction in carbon footprint. By lowering energy consumption by up to 40%, we help our customers achieve their sustainability goals while maintaining high performance and reliability in their backup and archival operations.

Performance and Reliability
The superior heat management provided by liquid immersion cooling ensures optimal performance and reliability of the storage hardware. This translates to fewer hardware failures, reduced maintenance costs, and improved data availability, which are critical for backup and archival applications where data integrity and accessibility are paramount.


Differentiation from Competitors
PeaSoup differentiates itself from competitors through a unique combination of S3 compatibility and innovative cooling technology. While other storage providers may offer S3-compatible solutions, they often rely on traditional air-cooled systems, which can be less efficient and more costly to maintain. Our liquid immersion cooling technology provides a clear advantage, offering unmatched energy efficiency, reduced operational costs, and enhanced hardware reliability. This innovation not only sets us apart in the backup and archival market but also positions us as leaders in sustainable cloud storage technology.

Summary
PeaSoup’s inventive backup and archive solution represents a significant advancement in the storage industry. By integrating S3-compatible storage with liquid immersion cooling technology, we provide a unique solution that meets the high demands of modern data management while promoting sustainability and cost efficiency. We are honoured to be considered for the Backup/Archive Innovation of the Year award at the SDC Awards, recognising our commitment to pioneering advancements in cloud storage and data protection.

ExaGrid has architected the industry’s only Tiered Backup Storage System. No other product in the industry is built specifically for backup with all of the appropriate backup feature and integrations to meet backup storage requirements such as ingest performance for the shortest backup window, fastest restores to keep users productive, scalability as data grows, security including ransomware recovery and disaster recovery for business continuity all at a cost up front and over that meets backup budgets.

Unlike Standard Primary Storage whether HDD or SSD or Dedicated Deduplication Appliances, ExaGrid’s appliances offer the following features and advantages:

• Front-end disk cache Landing Zone for fast backups (no inline data deduplication to slow backups down).

• Fastest backups for the shortest backup window due to:
- Unique front-end Landing Zone
- An operating system optimized for large backup jobs versus NAS files or database transactions
- Integration with backup applications’ advanced protocols such the Veeam Data Mover, Veritas OST, etc.
- Integration with backup applications for automated job management for front-end load balancing such as Veeam SOBR, Veritas disk pooling, Commvault Spill & Fill, Oracle RMAN channels, HYCU Scale-out, etc.
- Data at rest encryption performed at the drive level, in nano-seconds, versus in software which is much slower
- Job concurrency – multiple jobs in parallel

• Fast restores
- All recent data is stored in the front-end Landing Zone in the backup application’s native format (not
deduplicated) so there is no data rehydration performance hit

• Scalability, as each appliance has processor, memory, networking and storage capacity
- Linear scalability – backup window stays fixed-length as the data grows
- System grows as data grows – easy to plan and easy to grow
- No forklift upgrades as each appliance has all resources
- No planned product obsolescence - as any age and any size appliance can operate together in a scale-out system

• Compressive security including:
- Comprehensive monitoring
- Self-encrypting data drives
- WAN encryption
- Role-based Access Control (RBAC) with Security Officer role
- Ransomware recovery (Retention Time-Lock) with the industry’s only non-network-facing tier (tiered air gap), delayed deletes
- two-factor authentication (2FA), as well as industry-standard immutability
- A long list of required security features not listed here

• Deep integration with backup applications:
- Veeam Integrations: Supports S3 object storage, Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365, Veeam Data Mover, SOBR, Veeam Fast Clone
- Veritas Integrations: Veritas Single Target Disk Pool (disk pooling) Accelerator with Resynthesized full, OST, GRT, Instant Recovery, Opt Dupe, AIR
- Commvault: can further deduplicate Commvault deduplicated and compressed data and support Commvault Spill & Fill
- Oracle RMAN Direct: RMAN Channels
- HYCU: Scale-out
- ExaGrid support over 25 industry leading backup applications and utilities

• Comprehensive Disaster Recovery
- Encrypted/deduplicated WAN replication
- Cross protection
- Multi-site spoke and hub
- A to B, and A to B to C, tertiary copies
- ExaGrid Cloud Tier for DR for Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure

ExaGrid competes with standard disk or standard inline deduplication appliances. Against standard disk ExaGrid is faster for backups, more scalable, more cost effective, and has the best security including a tiered air gap for ransomware recovery. Against deduplication appliances ExaGrid is faster for backups, faster for restores, keeps a fixed-length backup window as data grows, and offers better security and disaster recovery. ExaGrid’s win rate when in an opportunity is 70% demonstrating the strong differentiation of the solution.

ConnectWise has earned a reputation as a leading technology solutions provider dedicated to the growth and success of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and IT solution providers. The ConnectWise Partner Program is designed with a focus on empowering partners with the right tools, resources, and support to streamline their business operations, boost profitability, and deliver exceptional value to their customers.

ConnectWise has had a profound impact on the channel by creating a partner-first ecosystem that addresses the evolving needs of MSPs and IT solution providers. The company’s continuous innovation in areas such as cybersecurity, business automation, and IT management has allowed partners to stay ahead of the digital transformation curve, ensuring long-term success for both partners and their clients.

ConnectWise’s vendor channel program has successfully enabled thousands of partners worldwide to grow their businesses, streamline their operations, and enhance their service delivery. In 2023, ConnectWise continued its tradition of excellence by introducing several key innovations that further empower partners to manage complex IT environments while improving profitability.

Conclusion:By offering cutting-edge technology, an extensive partner support network, and comprehensive enablement programs, ConnectWise has established itself as a cornerstone of the channel community. Its vendor channel program continues to raise the bar for service delivery and business growth, making ConnectWise the ideal candidate for the Best Vendor Channel Program of the Year award.

Pax8 is transforming the way Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and IT solution providers manage, market, and deliver cloud solutions. As a cloud marketplace leader, Pax8 stands out for its commitment to empowering partners through its channel-centric approach.

Impact on the Channel:
Pax8’s vendor channel program has been instrumental in enabling its partners to successfully navigate the digital transformation journey. By providing the tools, technology, and training necessary to adapt to the cloud-first world, Pax8 is reshaping how channel partners deliver cloud solutions, driving increased profitability and operational efficiency.

The continued expansion of Pax8’s partner network and their high satisfaction scores reflect the effectiveness of Pax8’s channel-centric approach. In 2023 alone, Pax8 expanded its partner base globally, added significant new vendor partnerships, and introduced enhanced automation and integration features to improve service delivery.

Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Project of the Year – Voicelink: Futureproofing Emergency Phones ahead of the PSTN Switch-Off.

The ‘business continuity’ problem

In 2027, the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) will be switched off, disrupting many industries and affecting lives and businesses. Traditional landlines and voice services currently supported by PSTN must be switched to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) before the deadline or systems will stop working. One area that will feel the impact more than most is emergency phones found along motorways. Each emergency phone must be fitted with a two-way communicator, for use in an emergency.

There are emergency phones approximately every 1 mile on the motorways, so you can imagine how many there are that will be impacted. Breaking down on the side of the motorway is already stressful enough, but now what if there was no phone service, your phone's battery is dead, or you don’t know who to call? This is why these emergency phones are in place, but now imagine if the phone doesn’t work and there's no one on the other end of that emergency call. Without the Voicelink upgrade, after the PSTN switch-off, emergency phones will not be able to make these vital calls and people could be left stranded. Not knowing if someone is coming to assist you when you break down can cause you to panic. If you can speak to someone on the emergency line, you can relax a bit more, because you are aware that other people know you are stuck and are coming to help. Without this comfort, you will instantly fear the worst. That you may be stranded. This could cause panic attacks or worse.

Workers on a Critical National Infrastructure site require an emergency phone to ensure immediate communication in case of any incident that threatens the safety, security or functionality of the site and its workers. Given the essential nature of these facilities any disruption can have severe consequences for public safety and national security. Having an emergency phone means that these workers are able to quickly alert authorities to minimise the impact of whatever emergency there is. This rapid communication is vital for mitigating risks, preventing escalation and ensuring the quick resolution of critical incidents and to maintain the safe operation of the infrastructure. These emergency calls are essential to keeping these workers, public safety and national security safe.

The solution

Voicelink is the ideal solution for emergency phones, found across motorways, national grid sites, petrol forecourts, airports, retail, local councils, hospitals and business premises. It can also upgrade emergency phone lines that are present in many high-risk environments such as motorways, national grid sites, and petrol forecourts.

This solution will maintain business continuity and ensure public safety is not compromised. Voicelink converts PSTN calls to 4G VoLTE (Voice over Long-Term Evolution), ensuring analogue systems are future-proofed and can continue to make voice calls. The solution creates a bridge between the old and new technology and allows existing devices to continue working after the PSTN Switch-Off.

With VoLTE, users can call and have fast data transfer at the same time, which leads to cost savings and increased efficiency. Moreover, sound quality is often an issue in many high-risk sites. VoLTE enables high-definition voice quality which is essential to providing reassurance for whoever is making an emergency call.

Voicelink also offers a lower upfront investment compared to alternative solutions. As with a mobile phone contract, the cost is spread out over the lifetime of the solution, making it easier for businesses to invest in futureproofing systems. Many of the alternatives require a full replacement of the existing communication device which is likely to be built into the system – costing money and time.

Voicelink simply plugs into the existing system, mimicking the PSTN connection. It’s so easy to install that engineers need no extra training. It can be installed in just 15 minutes! We provide a simple online guide, and our customer support team are on hand if any challenges arise. Most installations take place as part of the standard maintenance checks completed by engineers every 6-12 months.

Voicelink is provided with a CSL roaming SIM as standard, meaning there is additional resilience included with 2G and 3G backup in case of loss of 4G.

In the event of power loss, Voicelink has a battery backup. This includes 8 hours of standby or 2 hours of talking time. Providing extra safety and comfort in knowing that even without power there is still someone to help.

Innovation

Due to the urgency of this project, with all systems needing to be upgraded by January 2027, we utilised all our experience and expertise in product innovation to deliver this solution to market. In total, the solution took 3 months from design, manufacturing, testing and delivery. With 30 years of experience in critical connectivity across the fire, security and telecare markets, we were perfectly placed to deliver this solution to this adjacent vertical.

Customer feedback

Steve Riley, Division Director of Comelit-PAC: Trust is paramount in the digital landscape. We've chosen CSL as our connectivity partner because they embody the highest standards of reliability and security. This partnership marks a significant step forward for us, and we're beyond excited to bring our customers the benefits of this collaboration. Stay tuned for more updates as we embark on this incredible journey with CSL by our side!

Matt Gilmartin, Managing Director, Concept Smoke Screen: “We chose CSL as our connectivity partner to ensure the secure end-to-end transmission of data. We are deploying our systems into high-risk sites and, as with any security application, we must use the best available connectivity, adding the highest levels of security to each connection and giving our customers peace of mind that the overall solution is fit for purpose”.

Conclusion

Voicelink ensures that there is always someone at the end of that emergency call button, a clear voice assuring you that someone will be there to help soon. Often there is the issue of sound quality in emergency phones, VoLTE enables high-definition voice quality which is essential to providing reassurance for whoever is stuck. You don’t need a muffled, quiet voice at the end of that call not providing that comfort of ‘someone is coming’. So, when you have no service and are stuck, with Voicelink, there is still someone to help, and assistance will be with you. As frustrating as getting stuck may be, at least you have the comfort of knowing help is on its way.

The same goes for Critical National Infrastructure sites, the emergency phones at these sites will need the same updates to ensure they can continue to work. If there are any emergencies at these sites, they need to be able to use the phone to report these immediately to minimise the impact of the emergency. It could be the difference between life and death.

With Voicelink when this situation arises, there is still help on the emergency call points.

Voicelink makes sure that it puts the end customer’s mind at ease knowing that there is a solution to an impending problem. Systems will remain uninterrupted, ensuring business continuity and that public safety will not be compromised.

For more information, please visit: https://www.csl-group.com/uk/voicelink/

In ways that other tech can't, WAN Acceleration technologies accelerate data transfers that eliminate data management challenges are known as ‘WAN acceleration.’ Bridgeworks patented artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies accelerate organisations existing technologies and dramatically accelerate their Wide Area Networks (WANs). AI underpins the patented technology to provide process intelligence, mitigating latency and mitigate packet loss. Our solutions, such as PORTrockIT, dramatically improve data throughput up to 98% of bandwidth – regardless of distance.

Accelerating BlackPearl, Securing Data

Spectra Logic: “In our tests, PORTrockIT accelerated BlackPearl’s replication performance significantly – in one case, completing the job more than 5 times faster.” BlackPearl is a Spectra Logic platform that aims to make it easy for organisations to preserve data simply, affordably, and safely. It provides a RESTful interface that allows users to store files as objects and uses an onboard cache to accelerate the movement of data on and off long-term storage media, such as disk arrays and tape libraries.

One of the key use cases for BlackPearl is to enable geographically dispersed archiving, where data is preserved at multiple sites to reduce the risk of data loss in the event of a disaster. BlackPearl makes this easy to achieve by simply connecting two BlackPearl devices across a wide area network (WAN) connection.

However, whenever data is transferred across a WAN, it is subject to the effects of latency and packet loss, which can have a dramatic impact on data throughput. Using BlackPearl together with PORTrockIT can transform the performance of data replication across the WAN by counteracting the impact of both latency and packet loss. In every scenario we evaluated, PORTrockIT was able to increase transfer rates significantly. In one case, it reduced the total transfer time from 247 minutes to just 47 minutes, completing the job more than five times faster.

A complete complement

BlackPearl can help businesses to create and maintain geographically dispersed archives, while PORTrockIT adds value by mitigating the risk of losing valuable data and making it easier to demonstrate compliance with data retention regulations.
To demonstrate the results that PORTrockIT can deliver for BlackPearl customers, Bridgeworks conducted a set of performance tests at a testing facility in the UK. The test infrastructures mimicked a real-world BlackPearl architecture, using an “Injector” server to inject or extract files from BlackPearl, and a WANulator to simulate different levels of latency across a wide area network. Performance figures were taken from the BlackPearl console and recorded.

The tests assessed WAN data transfer performance at various simulated levels of latency. The WANulator also simulated a nominal packet loss rate of 0.1%, representing a typical service-level agreement from most WAN providers.

Test 1 and Test 2

Test 1 and Test 2 were run first with PORTrockIT set to bypass mode, to simulate an unaccelerated network architecture. The tests were then rerun with PORTrockIT in active mode, to simulate an accelerated network architecture. The figures from the two test runs were then compared to assess the difference in performance between the unaccelerated and accelerated architectures.

Test 3 - a slightly different setup

Test 3 used a slightly different setup, with a pair of Bridgeworks WANrockIT appliances in place of the PORTrockIT appliances. This is because WANrockIT is specifically designed to enable the transfer of SAN block-level protocols across a WAN, which is necessary for testing the specific use case of transferring data between a local BlackPearl and a remote tape library that are linked by a fibre channel connection.

Across all three tests, the most important metrics to consider are:
• Average transfer rate, measured in megabytes per second. This allows us to assess the speed at which files can be transferred across the WAN.
• Total time to completion, measured in minutes. This allows us to judge how long the entire file transfer job takes.

Test 1 assessed the performance of transferring a 1 TB payload of files from the local BlackPearl cache to the remote BlackPearl cache and back again at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 ms of latency with 0.1% packet loss.

Test 2 extended Test 1 by adding a tape library connected to the BlackPearl appliance at the remote end of the WAN. This simulated a scenario where BlackPearl is used as a distributed archive for long-term data retention.

In Test 3, one BlackPearl appliance was placed on the local side of the WANulator and connected via a fibre channel connection to a remote tape library, using WANrockIT as the accelerator. This would evaluate the speed of reading directly from tape across the WAN.

Accelerated Results

Without PORTrockIT - For the unaccelerated network architecture, the results of Test 1 and Test 2 show a negative correlation between latency and performance. As latency increases, average transfer rates (ATR) decline and we see a longer total time to completion (TTC). For example, in Test 1, the TTC was 119 minutes when there was 20 ms of latency but rose to 246 minutes at 100 ms of latency – more than twice as long.

The results of Test 2 were similar: the TTC was 78 minutes at 20 ms of latency, but 157 minutes at 100 ms of latency – again, more than double the time to complete the transfer. In a real-world scenario, this variability in TTC would be a major concern, as any unexpected increase in latency could cause transfers to time-out or overrun their scheduled window – putting valuable business data at risk.

With PORTrockIT - When we look at the architecture accelerated by PORTrockIT, the results are very different. At all levels of latency, the ATR improves dramatically when PORTrockIT is activated. For example, in Test 1, the worst-case ATR of the accelerated architecture (365 MB/s at 100 ms of latency) is still more than 2.5 times as fast as the best-case ATR of the unaccelerated architecture (145 MB/s at 20 ms of latency). We can also see that PORTrockIT keeps TTC stable, regardless of latency.

In Test 1, the shortest TTC was 39 minutes at 20 ms of latency, and the longest was 46 minutes at 100 ms of latency. In Test 2, the fastest TTC was 36 minutes and the slowest 43 minutes. In both cases, that’s a difference of just 7 minutes between the slowest and fastest transfers – which suggests that real-world users can expect their transfers to complete on time, even if latency increases.

Test 3 demonstrates that Bridgeworks WANrockIT, a WAN acceleration product for SAN protocols, Spectra Logic customers cannot only geographically separate their BlackPearl instances, but also use a third geographical site for air-gapped tape storage facilities without suffering the performance penalties associated with latency and packet loss.

Accelerating IT security

The project with the major IT security firm is also a game-changer. Between November and December 2021, a storage subject matter expert within this company came to Bridgeworks with details about a file transfer problem on a 2Gbps WAN circuit between Colorado, USA, and Bangalore in India.

Problem:
With data equating to 700TB storage estate, backups are only as good as the ability to restore the data. In order to allow an acceptable transfer time of this data requires a robust solution. There were 2 NetApp units involved in the data migration: one in Bangalore and another in Denver. The transfer was performed using the inbuilt NetApp Snap Mirror feature. It involved migrating data in a follow the sun requirement, and critical data and security was paramount. The allocated WAN bandwidth for transfer was a 1Gb/s controlled by a SD-WAN. But the raw WAN bandwidth was 2 Gb/s. Before PORTrockIT, throughput was typically equating to 2MB/s using Incumbent technology WAN-Optimisation with only 2% unitisation of WAN, and the time to transfer the data was 8.4 days.

After installing and configuring the Bridgeworks PORTrockIT virtual instances, the transfer speed increased to 80MB/s – a 40-fold increase and the time taken was reduced to under 6 hours. In this case the benchmark figure we were given was that the customer was only able to move data at around 2 Mega Bytes per second.”

Results

A spokesperson from the IT security company remarks: “The rate of throughput was incredible. PORTrockIT from Bridgeworks is a game changer. I am a storage engineer with limited networking knowledge. I was able to configure and deploy PORTrockIT in less than 2 hours”. The IT security firm believes that with ‘unthrottled’ conditions and utilising their full 2 Gig WAN, they would be able to transfer data at 200 MBs per second. PORTrockIT is working over a SD-WAN, and they required no other changes to the LAN or WAN configurations.

Speaking about the project, Kevin St. Cyr, Tributary Systems inc. of Dallas, Texas says: “We have always impressed with the capabilities of PORTrockIT product, but what they have achieved with the IT security company’s installation takes it to another level. It is a showcase for the capabilities of PORTrockIT. The beauty is, it’s easy to install and it shows the performance that can be achieved over a WAN that was once thought impossible.”

WAN Acceleration: Accelerating cloud metro cluster deployment

WAN Acceleration technologies accelerate data transfers that eliminate data management challenges are known as ‘WAN acceleration’. Bridgeworks patented artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies accelerate organisations existing technologies and dramatically accelerate their Wide Area Networks (WANs). AI underpins the patented technology to provide process intelligence, mitigating latency and mitigate packet loss. Our solutions, such as PORTrockIT, dramatically improve data throughput up to 98% of bandwidth – regardless of distance.

Hybrid cloud, object storage and metro clusters

Steven Umbehocker (SU), CEO and CTO of OSNEXUS Corporation explains why this is important to organisations that are accelerating their adoption of hybrid cloud strategies: “This can be in the form of object storage for backup, disaster recovery sites, and all this puts a greater importance on efficient use of the WAN. This is important across all sectors. However, it is especially important in sectors such as healthcare to protect data like PACS images.”
Before implementing Bridgeworks PORTrockIT OSNexus was facing performance challenges in deploying metro clusters and disaster recovery (DR) sites over WANs – suffering with particularly high latency over large distances. There was a 200-700% boost in performance by implementing PORTrockIT which is a game changer. The highest performance improvement was 7 times higher than without any WAN acceleration.”

Critical: Recovery Time objectives

Recovery time objectives (RTOs) are critical to IT organisations, so it is imperative to have adequate WAN bandwidth and throughput to keep the remote replication to DR sites within the required RTO. OSNexus is also seeing increase demand for metro clusters where the storage is distributed across multiple sites to achieve zero downtime in the event of a site outage.

Umbehocker therefore adds: “That’s only possible when the latency is low enough to provide sufficient and adequate performance for the workloads. PORTrockIT solves these latency issues so that metro clusters and DR sites can be deployed across a much larger geographic area. If you have an earthquake in one zone, that larger metro cluster offers benefits. You can avoid downtime, enabling organisations to link their disparate sites together. There is much latency between New York and Tokyo, and so you need something like PORTrockIT to mitigate latency.”

With high latency and packet loss, he explains that data transfers are delayed and may need to be resent which reduces performance – the transfer rate. WANs are typically spanning portions of the public internet and/or shared dark fibre infrastructure that IT organisations don’t have much control over, and simply upping bandwidth doesn’t address the latency issues. What is required is a different approach to boosting WAN performance that is designed to specifically address the inherent latency issues and packet loss.

Before approaching Bridgeworks, OSNexus experimented with various network tuning options, including adjusting the frame sizes and queueing techniques, but these adjustments do not come anywhere close to the range of benefits offered by PORTrockIT. The three biggest benefits were the reliability of the link, the visibility of the performance, and increased performance with PORTrockIT.

Joshua Blake (JB), Regional Support Lead – EMEA at OSNexus Corporation therefore says: “It definitely increased performance, but I couldn’t tell you if there was more smoothness. It was easy to set up once you understand it. There were some things I needed to read up on, but it was otherwise easy to set up.”

The company has a disaster recovery site between Seattle and Las Vegas, and so it found it helpful to include PORTrockIT into their automated test systems. To that extent, PORTrockIT is now certified for use with QuantaStor, and this enables OSNexus customers to leverage it for disaster recovery sites and metro cluster use cases.

Performance improvements

The QuantaStor VM endpoints shown in Figure 1 use the PORTrockIT virtual appliances as gateways for replicating data from a ZFS file system. For the data payload, OSNEXUS used a randomly generated 5,124 MB test file. The ZFS data was sent and received via SSH on TCP port 22.
By using WANulator to simulate the scenarios presented in Table 1, the OSNEXUS team was able to test transfer speeds both with and without PORTrockIT data acceleration and make direct comparisons between the two data transfer strategies. The test was conducted five times for each different latency, and the average transfer time in seconds can be seen below. Packet loss equated to 0.1%, and latency ranged from 0 milliseconds to 160 milliseconds.

At 0ms the unaccelerated the unaccelerated transfer time equated to 107.0 seconds. When accelerated this amounted to 105.6 seconds, with an improvement factor of -0.01. At 20ms the unaccelerated transfer time was 333.6 seconds, while the accelerated time was 117.6 seconds – leading to an improvement factor of 2.83. At 40ms the unaccelerated transfer rate was 1,724.6 seconds, and the accelerated transfer time was 245.0 – an improvement factor of 7.03. At 80ms the unaccelerated transfer time sat at 2,945.4 seconds, while accelerated it stood at 454.6 seconds – an improvement factor of 6.47. Lastly, at 160ms the unaccelerated transfer time was 3,789.0 seconds. Yet when accelerated it stood at 871.6 – an improvement factor of 4.34.

Blake therefore comments: “Aside from the performance benefits, being able to identify as a complementary product – architecting it with storage – adds another string to our bow effectively. We have mentioned PORTrockIT as a goal. We go in to speak about it, and then they see the benefits themselves – it’s like planting a seed.”

OSNexus has clients that are implementing hybrid cloud strategies who want or need the benefits that, according to Umbehocker, need to the benefits that PORTrockIT solves. This is because PORTrockIT allow data to be moved over WANs quickly and efficiently is a core challenge in implementing hybrid cloud strategies.

He concludes: “We have already started adding more features like automatic tiering from file to object storage and these new features around replication and tiering of data are putting an increased importance efficient use of customers available WAN bandwidth. PORTrockIT enables organisations to get increased value and performance out of their monthly WAN bandwidth investment, with an increase in throughput up to a 700%.”

National Institutes of Health

The NIH was originally a PORTrockIT 400 customer. However, it found an additional need to add two of Bridgeworks’ new high end PORTrockIT 800’s last year. They are moving four protocols over the WAN at ‘breakneck speed’.

A spokesperson from BKJ Works - New York comments: “This is a non-engineering group, but they have had no problem in installing the devices (each in under 1 hour!). Don't be surprised if they come up with future needs on an even grander scale in the future. I cannot thank Bridgeworks enough for their continued support, fast turn around and meeting all and any of our requests with a willingness to say, ‘Yes we can’. This relationship will only deepen going forward.”

WAN Data Acceleration powers the National Institutes of Health’s global data transfer requirements at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. It is also the world’s largest biomedical research agency. One Bridgeworks' healthcare customer, US-based CVS Caremark, connected two virtual tape libraries over 2,860 miles at full WAN bandwidth. This achieved a performance gain of 95 times the unaccelerated performance.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has gone from never being able to achieve fast datacentre replication over a distance between sites of 2,000 miles, to be able to attain it. The difference between doing it between two machines in the same datacentre and in two machines across two datacentres was 6 MB/s on NetApp Snap Mirror replication. So, they now lose only this amount of time.

The NIH wasn’t able to address this issue for a couple of years. NetApp and Aspera couldn’t achieve this. Bridgeworks was brought in to conduct a quick POC that took a couple of days to set it up, and then that was it. The savings come from not having anything previously to protect their data. Bridgeworks has also helped NIH to resolve network infrastructure issues. Although successful, the results aren’t yet in the public domain. Yet it is a substantial multi-million U.S. dollar contract.

Accelerating IT security

The project with the major IT security firm is also a game-changer. Between November and December 2021, a storage subject matter expert within this company came to Bridgeworks with details about a file transfer problem on a 2Gbps WAN circuit between Colorado, USA, and Bangalore in India.

Problem:
With data equating to 700TB storage estate, backups are only as good as the ability to restore the data. In order to allow an acceptable transfer time of this data requires a robust solution. There were 2 NetApp units involved in the data migration: one in Bangalore and another in Denver. The transfer was performed using the inbuilt NetApp Snap Mirror feature. It involved migrating data in a follow the sun requirement, and critical data and security was paramount. The allocated WAN bandwidth for transfer was a 1Gb/s controlled by a SD-WAN. But the raw WAN bandwidth was 2 Gb/s. Before PORTrockIT, throughput was typically equating to 2MB/s using Incumbent technology WAN-Optimisation with only 2% unitisation of WAN, and the time to transfer the data was 8.4 days.

Phil Hill, Customer Solution Architect at Bridgeworks explains: “Our PORTrockIT solution for this company mitigated the effects of Latency and Packet loss. He says the latency between Denver and Bangalore at 350ms is a lot of latency! The biggest single factor causing latency is distance - even though the speed of light is around 186,282 miles per second – this figure is actually around one third lower when going through fibre optic cables.

Although the units can be hardware, sometimes virtual images or cloud machine images are more useful. As time was of the essence and the customer had real looming deadlines, the IT security firm opted for a Virtual Machine (VM) running in VMWare ESX. This made the turnaround for the evaluation-solution really quick. The following table shows the technical specification of the virtual products which would server the customer best.

After installing and configuring the PORTrockIT virtual instances the transfer speed increased to 80MB/s – a 40-fold increase and the time taken was reduced to under 6 hours. In this case the benchmark figure we were given was that the customer was only able to move data at around 2 Mega Bytes per second.”

Results

A spokesperson from the IT security company remarks: “The rate of throughput was incredible. PORTrockIT from Bridgeworks is a game changer. I am a storage engineer with limited networking knowledge. I was able to configure and deploy PORTrockIT in less than 2 hours”. The IT security firm believes that with ‘unthrottled’ conditions and utilising their full 2 Gig WAN, they would be able to transfer data at 200 MBs per second. PORTrockIT is working over a SD-WAN, and they required no other changes to the LAN or WAN configurations.

Speaking about the project, Kevin St. Cyr, Tributary Systems inc. of Dallas, Texas says: “We have always impressed with the capabilities of PORTrockIT product, but what they have achieved with the IT security company’s installation takes it to another level. It is a showcase for the capabilities of PORTrockIT. The beauty is, it’s easy to install and it shows the performance that can be achieved over a WAN that was once thought impossible.”

WAN Accelerating F1

A Formula 1 (F1) team undertook an evaluation, a proof of concept (POC), which showed the ability of PORTrockIT to make their WAN data transfers 60 times faster than before. The trial was so successful that the team ended it early. Bridgeworks’ brief was to help them speed up data the transfer of data from the Cotswolds in the UK to New England, in the USA.

A new Partnership with Prodec Networks was formed in the process, and a spokesperson from Prodec comments: “Regarding the F1 team, from wind tunnel analysis to engineering documents, Formula 1 teams accumulate significant volumes of data. The cars’ sensors (over a hundred of them) tell their own story about the race for the duration of the race and for referral later.”

“Needless to say, up to date revisions of the cars’ specific designs need to be easily accessible. How the teams deal with the pressures of reacting quickly to the vast amount of information is often the difference between winning and losing each race. With race data exceeding 150Gb per race weekend, it’s easy to see how our F1 team needed a fast data-transfer solution.”

Bridgeworks continues to keep its customers on track by enabling them to mitigate latency and packet loss. Even organisations that are implementing SD-WANs can benefit from a WAN Acceleration, which is data agnostic, and which permits the transmission of encrypted data at speed over large distances. This is something that tools such as WAN Optimisation will never be able to achieve.

Since its establishment 25 years ago, the University of Lincoln has rapidly grown and evolved into one of the leading academic institutions, listed in the world’s top 130 in the Times Higher Education’s (THE) Young University Rankings 2022. Each university has an important IT infrastructure that is heavily relied upon to support academic and administrative operations in their central data centre and distributed edge computing spaces. With Lincoln University adding a new building to their roster in the city-centre every year, it enriches the city’s economic, social and cultural life, each housing a critically important IT infrastructure, essential to university through its connectivity and digital progression.

As the university has grown to be heavily IT dependent and their students becoming more tech literate, each campus building is distributed with edge environments providing internet connectivity for students and staff, it is important that systems have a longer life cycle in order to minimise their carbon emissions and continue its processes.

But many of the standard applications used by students and the university itself have moved towards a Software as a Service (SaaS) or cloud-based delivery model. Darren Coy, Senior Infrastructure Analysts and Team Leader for the Compute and Storage team at Lincoln University said: “In times past we could arrange to shut down IT systems on, say, a Thursday morning to carry out essential maintenance and upgrades, and of course our weekends were completely free,” he said. “But today many of our buildings are open all day and every day. So, we have to make sure that everything is up and running all the time.”

Like many universities, Lincoln works with third-party companies on research projects and academic initiatives, as well as providing incubation services for innovations to possibly appeal to the wider market. From this, the IT infrastructure supported has to be robust and resilient, therefore power reliability is an important challenge for the university. Due to intermittent disruptions that can occur to the main power supply, and that there is no secondary power generation because of its city centre location, these can present a threat to continuous uptime.
The university depends on Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) systems to build resilience into its network, which provide battery backup in the event of a disruption to mains power so essential functions can still operate normally. To address these challenges in maintaining the IT power across their expanding campus, Lincoln partnered with Schneider Electric and RMD UK for their Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) project over a decade ago after Schneider Electric’s partner won a tender for the replacement of aging AP Smart-UPS SRT units on site. These system implementations aimed to bring modernisation of the university’s power infrastructure for efficiency. These systems are spread out across the university buildings to provide necessary essential power backup to IT assets and protect from future potential challenges that could impact the teaching, researching and administrative operations of the university. Darren Coy added: “In many respects, Schneider Electric is a victim of its own success – the UPS were so reliable and worked so well we hadn’t really realised that many of them were well past their use-by date!”

For maximum efficiency in addition to the 110 APC Smart-UPS SRT systems, the university also implemented Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure IT Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software. This presents monitoring and control over infrastructure elements, including power infrastructure, and cooling. Integrating both of these systems has allowed the university to have more insight and better visibility into its IT environment, helping to speed up response times for any possible incidences.

For this project to succeed, the RMD UK and Schneider Electric partnership was crucial in working with Lincoln University and ensuring upgraded existing UPS systems were maintained according to their condition to optimize performance and its long-term use. RMD UK ensured and supported new construction projects to ensure that every newly constructed building is equipped with the latest UPS technologies.

The RMD relationship has made for a more systematic and regular approach to maintenance. “RMD knows us and our requirements and how we work,” said Darran Coy. “Now, instead of waiting until something dies before replacing it, we have an ongoing system of regular maintenance and of replacing batteries and UPS units in accordance with their condition rather than their age.”

In addition to the Smart-UPS SRT system, Schneider Electric installed monitoring software using Data Center Expert, a part of Schneider’s EcoStruxure Centralised data centre infrastructure management solution. With this, Darren Coy is now able to centrally manage and monitor all elements of the data centre infrastructure to ensure maximum operational efficiency. The system is designed to collect, organize and distribute critical device information to show a complete view of the equipment, whilst also providing instant fault notifications for quick assessment and resolution of critical infrastructure events. Having this software implemented into the IT infrastructure allows for full visibility of the equipment that are spread across their growing campus edge buildings and respond quickly to future events.

Looking towards the university’s net zero goals, supported by NetBotz devices, has contributed to the success of this BC/DR project. In this, tracking temperature, humidity, and airflow in the server rooms constantly, it reduces cooling energy costs and UPS metrics for greater air conditioning efficiency and enhancing cooling processes, all of which leads to a better alignment with the Lincoln University’s sustainability goals. In these software modernisations, it also included improvements to the power availability and serviceability of the infrastructure, as well as allowing the university to save energy through its increased temperature setpoints – the first step to move towards becoming a net zero carbon for IT services.

The partnership between Schneider Electric, RMD UK, and University of Lincoln will play an important role in the future of its IT sustainability strategy and overall performance. Leveraging the latest energy-efficient technologies into the already existing system, with the addition of data analytics and forward-thinking maintenance, the university is well positioned to support upcoming research and academics plans for the future.

For these reasons, the work between Schneider Electric and RMD UK with Lincoln University stands out for effective modernized IT infrastructure, deserving the BC/DR award recognition in the industry.

What was the driving force behind the project - what business or technology challenge needed to be addressed?
West Midlands Trains (WMT) is owned by Transport UK. Operating London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway franchises, it runs over 1,300 services to and from some of the UK’s busiest and most well-known stations, including Liverpool Lime Street, London Euston and Birmingham New Street.

A small IT team with wide-ranging responsibilities
With less than a dozen staff, West Midlands Trains has a relatively small IT team but an extensive remit. It is responsible for all IT assets and infrastructure at 160 stations. This includes ticket machines, customer information screens, CCTV, help points, and IoT sensors. To give an idea of scale, the smallest stations have 20-30 IT assets, while the largest can have up to 800.

The IT team is also in charge of each site's data centre and network connectivity, plus its centralised storage, backup and disaster recovery capabilities. In addition, it maintains the back-office systems and applications that ensure trains and drivers are where they need to be at the right time—keeping services running smoothly for customers.

A wake-up call to improve backup, DR and redundancy
Before engaging Node4, West Midlands Trains had three data centres. One provided centralised internet connectivity and disaster recovery, one housed the production servers that supported all the IT assets, and one contained all the network interconnectivity infrastructure to 3rd parties.
The Birmingham data centre was located within WMT’s HQ building. It was a purpose-built space with cooling and fire suppression but no backup power. The building suffered a major electrical fault a few years ago, and the data centre lost power for around five hours.

Relying on an external generator, the operator’s IT team recovered quickly and with no significant impact on train services. However, the incident fast-tracked a decision to move the servers and storage infrastructure to a managed data centre with the latest security, backup, disaster recovery and redundancy capabilities.

How did the solution address the challenges, and were there any particularly innovative aspects that made it stand out?
A local managed services provider within easy access of the M6
West Midlands Trains migrated all one hundred of its servers to Node4’s main data centre. It also houses the perimeter firewall, provides the base for WMT’s centralised internet connectivity, and is the origin point for all site-to-site VPNs. The fact that Node4 was a Midlands-based company was important as the operator wanted a data centre within an hour’s drive from Birmingham. This would give Steve Roberts and his team fast emergency access to the site and the ability to replace any network or storage components with minimal impact on train services.

Boosting data storage availability and redundancy
To ensure availability and redundancy, WMT’s servers are backed up to one of Node4’s secondary data centres with auto-failover in place. They’re connected by two independent internet links delivered by different telco providers.
These low-latency, resilient links enabled West Midlands Trains to reduce its recovery time objective by at least 50%. This has a direct and positive impact on the speed at which station IT and storage infrastructure can be brought back online in the event of a failure—helping to maintain a consistent service and meet operational targets. Additional redundancy infrastructure includes N_1 generator backup, N N power and UPS system, and N N cooling systems.

“To put some metrics behind this, we’ve gone from 99.97% reliability to 99.99%. Had we not moved over to Node4, it’s possible our availability would have dropped to around 95% due to planned and unplanned power outages.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains

“Our legacy data centres had just one link from one telco carrier—and even getting access to that had been challenging. By contrast, Node4’s data centre delivers access to multiple carriers, improving our resiliency and business continuity capabilities. In addition, our old data centres required manual networking changes to implement failover procedures and processes. West Midlands Trains, with the support of Node4, completely automated this process, which boosted the resiliency of our data storage and network infrastructure.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains

A data centre that runs on 100% renewable energy
Additionally, Node4’s data centres run on 100% renewable energy, which is good for WMT from an ESG and sustainability point of view. “We’re always trying to reduce our carbon footprint. As I’m sure you’ll appreciate, that’s not easy when operating a fleet of diesel & electric trains. So, this is definitely a bonus and helps with our carbon offset work.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains

A proactive, can-do approach
West Midlands Trains also has access to Node4’s highly skilled support teams. They assist with storage kit installation, as well as patching, connectivity, and monitoring tasks.
“Node4 is integral to our organisation. Their data centre supports our commercial operations—enabling customers to buy tickets from vending machines or counters—as well as our customer information and safety infrastructure. Importantly, it also houses the rail operation and train management systems that ensure drivers, crews, and services are in the right place at the right time.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains

Accommodating data and storage infrastructure that didn’t suit a cloud environment
“After assessing our IT, network and storage infrastructure, it became clear we could only move around half of it to a cloud environment—far less than we had planned. Node4’s team understood this issue from the outset, which prevented costly cloud adoption mistakes that could have jeopardised application uptime. Instead, they created a hybrid cloud environment utilising their data centre infrastructure to seamlessly connect cloud and non-cloud storage and network infrastructure components.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains

What major challenges were faced during the project, and how were they overcome?
A tiny window to relocate to Node4’s data centre
Time was of the essence for this storage transformation project: The last West Midlands Trains service enters the depot at approximately 1 am, and the first departs at around 4 am. Every second had to count.
11:00 pm: Non-critical servers shut down.
Midnight: UK Rail Control approved critical server shutdown. All servers were wrapped and transported to Node4’s data centre.
1:00 am: The last service enters depo.
2:00 am: All servers unloaded and racked. Power cables connected.
4:00 am: Business critical servers are back online, and the first train departs the depo.
pressure we were under that night, but Node4’s team were professional, calm and exacting in their approach at each stage. As a result, everything went according to plan.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains
What tangible benefits has the organisation seen as a result of the project's implementation?
Storage transformation costs kept under control

“Node4’s team took on an important project management role right from the start. Too often, you hear of spiralling storage transformation costs due to poor planning and execution. This was not the case with Node4. They worked behind the scenes to keep the two internet providers on track, ensuring links between the primary and secondary data centres were installed as scheduled so that the project stayed on track and on budget.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains

Excellent onsite support, customer service and positive attitude
West Midlands Trains has also experienced an incredible contrast in onsite support and general customer service compared to the previous storage and data centre provider.
“Node4’s data centre ‘hands and eyes’ service is helpful and obliging. If a drive fails in a server, I can log a ticket, ask Node4 to check it, send a part if necessary, and Node4 will fit it. This is part of Node4’s wider can-do attitude that we all recognised during our initial site visit. Instead of putting up barriers, causing delays and becoming a bottleneck, Node4 finds solutions, solves problems, and generally makes my life much easier. It’s an absolute pleasure to work together.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains

Angus is dedicated to the success of Brigantia. As Sales Director, one of his greatest achievements to date is leading and growing the sales team from just nineteen people in 2019 to forty-two at the start of 2023.

Angus is focussed on the future and the continued growth of the business, working hard to grow Brigantia to a £25million turnover and expanding the team to 100 employees.

The reason Angus had been so successful in growing his team is down to how much he enjoys his role. Working with people and seeing them develop as a team over months and years is something he takes pride in.

Angus’s colleagues would describe him as fair and willing to give people time, as well as a very driven and focused individual, which is understandable when looking at the success of the team.

Ray is a seasoned professional with 9 years of experience working closely with Managed Service Providers (MSPs). He is passionate about collaborating with European MSPs, leveraging their expertise to drive success and foster strong partnerships within the industry. Ray's knowledge and insights have made them a sought-after speaker at the prestigious MSP events.

Outside of work, Ray embraces personal challenges and recently accomplished a significant milestone by completing his first marathon in Rome. Additionally, Ray has shown incredible commitment to learning by maintaining an impressive 465 day streak on Duolingo, actively studying the Dutch language. With their extensive experience, passion for MSPs, and dedication to personal growth, Ray continues to make a positive impact in the industry.

Pax8 is transforming the way Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and IT solution providers manage, market, and deliver cloud solutions. As a cloud marketplace leader, Pax8 stands out for its commitment to empowering partners through its channel-centric approach.

Impact on the Channel:
Pax8’s vendor channel program has been instrumental in enabling its partners to successfully navigate the digital transformation journey. By providing the tools, technology, and training necessary to adapt to the cloud-first world, Pax8 is reshaping how channel partners deliver cloud solutions, driving increased profitability and operational efficiency.

The continued expansion of Pax8’s partner network and their high satisfaction scores reflect the effectiveness of Pax8’s channel-centric approach. In 2023 alone, Pax8 expanded its partner base globally, added significant new vendor partnerships, and introduced enhanced automation and integration features to improve service delivery

We Are Kaseya

Providing you with best-in-breed technologies that allow you to efficiently manage, secure and backup IT under a single pane of glass.

Technology is the backbone of all modern business. Small to mid-size businesses deserve powerful security and IT management tools that are efficient, cost-effective, and secure. Enter Kaseya. We exist to help multi-function IT professionals get the most out of their IT tool stack.

Our Mission
Helping You Simplify IT

Since 2000, our open platform and customer-centric approach delivers the technology SMBs and managed service providers (MSPs) need to reach new heights of success. Kaseya’s IT Complete product suite is the most comprehensive, integrated IT management platform comprised of industry-leading solutions from our family of companies — Datto, Unitrends, RapidFire Tools, Spanning Cloud Apps, IT Glue, ID Agent, Graphus and RocketCyber.

More than 40,000 organizations around the world use one — or all — of Kaseya’s industry-leading IT solutions, and that number is growing every day. Join our community.

Heimdal has announced its entry into the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) market with a disruptive SaaS platform. The company offers the widest XDR suite in the industry, featuring 10-in-1 award-winning solutions, all in one unified, easy-to-use console.

XDR represents a paradigm shift in cybersecurity, offering comprehensive visibility and integrated security capabilities across multiple data sources, endpoints, networks, and cloud environments.
Heimdal’s XDR solution combines advanced threat detection, automated incident response, and threat hunting into a unified platform. This empowers organizations to proactively defend against sophisticated attacks.
We are thrilled to make a significant impact in the XDR market with our ground-breaking offering: the industry’s largest XDR suite ” expressed Morten Kjaersgaard, CEO of Heimdal.

“By seamlessly integrating our product suites, advanced machine learning algorithms, and invaluable human intelligence, we empower our customers with next-gen threat visibility, proactive threat hunting, and automated incident response capabilities, setting a new standard for cybersecurity excellence.”

Empowering IT Teams
The XDR solution from Heimdal uses the Extended Threat Protection (XTP) detection engine. Supported by AI/ML predictive models, this technology will quickly identify threats and take appropriate action.

By utilizing MITRE ATT&CK methodologies, Heimdal gives security and IT teams enhanced forensics information, ransomware data processing, bilateral telemetry, and a comprehensive picture of the attack chain. This way, it enables them to successfully defend against even the most complex attacks.

As cyber threats continue to evolve in complexity and scale, businesses need a robust XDR solution that can adapt and respond to emerging threats effectively.

Heimdal’s entry into the XDR market marks a significant milestone in the company’s mission to empower organizations with the tools they need to defend against the ever-changing threat landscape.

Nord Security has continued its trajectory of innovation, introducing advanced solutions aimed at enhancing data protection for organizations of all sizes. Over the past year, Nord Security has made significant strides with its Nordlayer

Nordlayer released one of the biggest product updates this year, a cloud-based Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) solution

Over recent years, Nordlayer has evolved significantly in the market, moving from a simple business VPN to an advanced network access security solution.

Considering customers' needs and adoption, Nordlayer is taking its service to the next level. Launching hot-in-the-market features like firewall as a service (FWaaS) and device posture security (DPS) will help the product deliver precise network security for unique business use cases and requirements.

“Nordlayer's new features represent a significant leap forward for both our organization and our valued clients. We are diligently progressing towards a streamlined approach to cybersecurity management, ensuring tailored solutions for every business, perfectly aligned with their unique requirements,” says Donatas Tamelis, managing director at Nordlayer.

The people behind Nordlayer’s product tirelessly work to help businesses have stress-free solutions that meet their network security needs and cover more use cases. The latest features, like Cloud Firewall, enhance network security and granular access controls. With a few clicks, Nordlayer’s cloud firewall seamlessly integrates into network infrastructure, protecting every connection point from the cloud. Also, from now on, the DPS feature will not only monitor the devices connecting to the network based on set rules but will also allow non-compliant device account blocking. This way, admins will get a clearer view of compliant devices, ensuring only safe access to company resources.

based on the most relevant use cases to provide the best experience and robust network security using Nordlayer, the company now offers three subscription plans – Lite, Core, and Premium.

While the Core and Premium plans offer valuable internet access security and network access control solutions, the Premium plan stands out as the ultimate choice for organizations seeking top-tier protection and performance. The Lite plan is an excellent option for those requiring basic internet access security and global accessibility, making it suitable for marketing and QA teams. The Core plan, on the other hand, provides advanced internet access security and ad network access control options, offering essential features for device visibility and access control.

The Premium plan takes network security to the next level with its exclusive features. It not only provides enhanced network access control but also offers more refined segmentation and network connectors. With this plan, organizations can establish secure connections between remote devices, connect to on-site networks remotely, and restrict access for non-compliant devices. Moreover, the Premium plan includes advanced elements like Cloud Firewall (FWaaS), Device Posture Security, and Browser Extension, offering a comprehensive and trusted solution for the most demanding security requirements. For organizations prioritizing security and performance, the Premium plan is the premier choice among the three.

These plans come with professional, 24/7 available, tech-savvy customer support to always be by your side.
Nordlayer provides flexible and easy-to-implement cybersecurity tools for businesses of any size or work model developed by the standard of NordVPN.

Our vision
To invent a new way to do IT.

For years, IT pros have been underserved with technologies that don’t meet their evolving needs. We are here to change that. Atera’s is the world’s first AI-powered IT management platform that force multiplies IT teams’ brainpower & enables relentless operational excellence for customers, across their entire organizations.

Our platform is powered by an end-to-end, first-to-market, deep integration with Microsoft Azure-OpenAI which enables 10X efficiency when solving IT issues at scale, for both enterprise IT teams and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and the organization itself.

This means that IT teams and professionals can go from problem to solution 10 times faster, operating within one platform that connects helpdesk and ticketing with remote monitoring and management capabilities, boosted by AI.

SuperOps is transforming MSP businesses worldwide by automating and streamlining their service delivery and asset and network monitoring and management with its AI-powered unified PSA-RMM platform, with built in Network Monitoring, IT Documentation and Project Management.

Founded in 2020, SuperOps is headquartered in Chennai, India, and is rapidly gaining traction in the global IT services market for its intuitive and AI-driven platform that simplifies IT management and operations.

Our Mission
We believe MSPs deserve best-in-class software and support that they can depend on. Our promise to MSPs is that we will always keep them at the heart of every decision we make. We are proud to be the success partners of MSPs.

Q.1 How long has this organization been involved in the IT services and solutions market in EMEA?

A.1 Our organization began actively serving the EMEA market in November of last year with the introduction of our Retail Workplace as a Service (RWaaS) solution. In less than a year, we’ve successfully targeted and partnered with major retailers across Europe, including leading retail brands of super marts and fast fashion brands. This solution has been instrumental in transforming the retail environment by providing essential support to frontline workers while empowering shoppers to navigate stores independently, significantly enhancing the overall customer experience.

Q.2 Are there any key projects delivered in the last year that demonstrate this candidate’s suitability for the
award?

A.2 In the past year, our Retail Workplace as a Service (RWaaS) solution has proven its value through several key projects that demonstrate our suitability for the SDC award. The solution integrates advanced retail device management, SaaS offerings, and comprehensive IT infrastructure support. By automating routine maintenance and providing real-time support, RWaaS has enabled frontline workers to focus more on customer engagement rather than technical issues. Additionally, the solution enhances the shopper experience by offering self-service tools and intuitive in-store navigation, fostering greater independence and satisfaction among customers. These features collectively contribute to a more efficient, responsive, and customer-centric retail environment.

Q.3 What endorsements does that nominee have from their customer and/or their technology partners?

A.3 Our Retail Workplace as a Service (RWaaS) solution has received strong endorsements from both customers and partners. Clients have praised the solution for its seamless integration, ease of use, and significant impact on in-store operations leading to improved productivity & customer satisfaction. For example, customers have highlighted how the advanced device management and support have dramatically reduced downtime and improved their operational efficiency. Partners have commended the solution's innovative approach and its ability to enhance the retail experience, underscoring its value in the market. These endorsements reflect the effectiveness and customer satisfaction associated with RWaaS.

Q.4 Please highlight any particular aspect of customer services delivered as part of the program(s).

A.4 Our Retail Workplace as a Service (RWaaS) program excels in customer service with key features including 24/7 support, proactive maintenance, and real-time assistance. Dedicated account managers ensure personalized support, while comprehensive training empowers staff to utilize systems effectively. Additionally, our solution offers customizable options to meet diverse client needs. These services collectively enhance operational efficiency and improve the retail experience for both workers and shoppers.

Vanta, the leading trust management platform, have launched Vanta AI, a new suite of tools leveraging the latest in AI and LLMs to accelerate compliance, efficiently assess vendor risk and automate security questionnaire workflows. Featuring AI-powered vendor security reviews, generative questionnaire responses and intelligent control mapping, Vanta AI significantly reduces the manual, repetitive tasks hampering security teams, freeing them up to focus on their most strategic work.

According to Vanta’s State of Trust annual report of 2,500 security and IT professionals, AI is seen as one of the most powerful conduits to accelerate security workflows and redefine trust. Global security leaders believe that the greatest potential for AI will be seen in:
• Improving the accuracy of security questionnaire responses (44%)
• Eliminating manual work (42%)
• Streamlining vendor risk reviews and onboarding (37%)
• Reducing the need for large teams (34%)

“The transformative potential of AI and LLMs to reduce repetitive tasks is undeniable, yet security and compliance teams are still grappling with an outdated, time-consuming status quo,” said Jeremy Epling, Chief Product Officer, Vanta. “Vanta AI automates resource-draining manual work to give security and compliance teams more time to proactively manage risk and demonstrate trust as they scale. With Vanta AI, teams can analyze vendor security documentation in an instant, answer entire security questionnaires in mere minutes, and maintain controls effortlessly. By automating the work that security teams had no choice but to perform manually, with more capabilities being added in the coming months, we’re excited to be on the forefront of pioneering the future of intelligent trust management.”

Review vendor security instantly
Regular vendor security reviews are required to maintain compliance and practice good security hygiene. But critical information on vendor security practices are usually buried within dense documents like SOC 2 reports, making reviews extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive without a single source of truth for information. While security questionnaires can ease the burden of parsing entire documents, it requires constant vendor coordination for on-time completion. By super-charging Vanta’s Vendor Risk Management product with AI, analysing and extracting relevant information from SOC 2 reports, DPAs, and other vendor documentation can take just seconds – allowing security teams to assess vendor security practices faster than ever before.

Customized security answers in minutes
Demonstrating good security practices to customers and stakeholders requires answering long and detailed questionnaires, which are highly duplicative, prone to human error and quickly out-of-date. Vanta’s AI-enhanced Questionnaire Automation solution enables customers to instantly extract insights from a variety of sources including their existing library, previous questionnaire responses, and policies and documents uploaded to Vanta. With the ability to seamlessly edit, complete and approve responses in a few clicks, security questionnaires can be completed in record time.

Maintain controls effortlessly
While Vanta has made it significantly easier for teams to add a new framework by reusing existing tests and policies, previously customers needed to manually identify and map them to the controls required by the new framework. Vanta AI is accelerating the end-to-end process by automatically suggesting the best tests and policies for each control. Coming soon, auto-generating control summaries make it easier than ever to maintain controls when adding new frameworks – increasing efficiencies while reducing human error.

Softcat has been recognized for its active commitment to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives

Sustainability and Environmental Responsibility:
Carbon Neutrality: Softcat has made strides toward reducing its environmental impact, including its commitment to becoming a net-zero carbon company. The company has focused on reducing carbon emissions across its operations, including in its supply chain.
Waste Reduction and Recycling: The company implements programs to reduce waste and improve recycling efforts. It also encourages responsible e-waste disposal and sustainability in its business practices.
Renewable Energy: Softcat has increased its use of renewable energy sources to minimize its carbon footprint and promote cleaner energy consumption.

Social Responsibility:
Diversity and Inclusion: Softcat actively promotes diversity, equality, and inclusion within the workplace, ensuring that its workforce is inclusive and representative of different backgrounds, gender identities, and perspectives. We’re committed to creating an environment where everyone can come together and be themselves. Our culture is our pride, so throughout the year we run programs and events that put the emphasis on our people, enabling hobbies, beliefs and creative thinking.
Community Engagement: Softcat supports various community and charitable initiatives, including partnerships with local organisations and charitable donations. Giving back to the community is an innate part of who we are as a company. To support these efforts we have dedicated teams of people who come together to support fundraising and volunteering initiatives.
Employee Well-being: Softcat prioritizes the mental and physical well-being of its employees.

Governance and Ethical Practices:
Strong Governance framework: Softcat has established strong governance policies and business ethics, ensuring transparency and accountability in its operations. It has set clear sustainability goals and integrates ethical considerations into decision-making processes.
Supply Chain Responsibility: Softcat works with its suppliers to ensure ethical sourcing and responsible supply chain management. This includes promoting ethical labour practices and ensuring that its partners meet environmental and social standards.

Softcat’s Track Record:

Softcat has been recognised for its efforts in promoting a positive environmental and social impact. Its ongoing commitment to ESG and CSR makes it a strong contender for awards that celebrate corporate responsibility initiatives, especially within the IT and tech sector.

https://www.softcat.com/8917/1319/8275/Sustainability_Report_-_FY23.pdf

Introduction and Background
Giacom has been a key player in the IT services and solutions market for over a decade. In 2023, Giacom launched The Big Goal (TBG) in collaboration with Comms Dealer and The Street Soccer Foundation (SSF). The initiative aims to tackle youth homelessness through football, uniting the ICT Channel in a groundbreaking ESG/CSR effort. TBG's aim is to assist over 1,600 young people to participate in SSF Academies, empowering vulnerable individuals with the skills and opportunities necessary to transition into education or employment.

The foundation of TBG aligns with Giacom’s wider commitment to sustainability, governance, and social responsibility. It directly supports the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically those aimed at eradicating poverty, reducing inequality, and providing access to quality education.

Purpose and Method
The core purpose of TBG is to mobilise the Channel community to make a meaningful impact on youth homelessness. This is achieved by encouraging participating companies to sponsor young people to attend SSF Academies. These academies, run in partnership with professional football clubs, equip participants with critical life skills, employability training, and pathways to education or employment.

The initiative also directly fosters Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) by offering young people from marginalised backgrounds opportunities to thrive in environments they might otherwise not access. Furthermore, companies involved in TBG provide additional mentorship, apprenticeships, and work experience opportunities, creating direct links between participants and potential careers in technology.

Support and Execution
As the headline sponsor, Giacom’s contributions to TBG go far beyond financial support. Giacom has provided ongoing strategic and operational assistance to ensure the success of the initiative. This includes:

• Project Management:
Giacom led the project management efforts, coordinating weekly calls with all stakeholders to ensure smooth execution of the programme.

• Event Planning and Organisation:
Giacom played a critical role in planning and organising the launch event at St. George's Park, as well as the regional football tournaments, ensuring high participation and engagement.

• Building Channel Relationships:
Giacom has been instrumental in helping SSF build lasting relationships across the Channel, expanding the initiative's reach and impact.

• Brand Development:
Giacom’s creative team designed TBG’s distinctive logo and branding, helping to establish a recognisable and cohesive identity for the initiative.

Demonstrating Success
Since its launch at St. George’s Park in October 2023, TBG has exceeded expectations, delivering significant impact for SSF, Giacom, and the broader Channel. Key highlights of the initiative include:

• Successful Launch:
At the TBG launch event, attended by over 34 Channel businesses, TBG received immediate and overwhelming support. Giacom played a crucial role in organising and promoting the event, resulting in high engagement and participation.

• Direct Impact:
As of early 2024, TBG has funded 44 SSF Academies across the UK, benefiting 420 young people facing homelessness. Giacom sponsored five of these academies directly, helping to improve the lives of 50 young people in communities local to its offices.

• Unprecedented Collaboration:
TBG is the first initiative to unite the Channel in tackling a collective goal. The 44 companies that joined the TBG football tournament fostered an industry-wide spirit of collaboration and social responsibility, strengthening ties across the Channel.

• Social ROI:
According to SSF, every pound invested in TBG generated £17 in social value, highlighting the long-term, tangible benefits to communities. This ROI has underscored the societal value TBG brings, not just in addressing homelessness but in fostering broader community resilience.

Community Engagement
A key factor in TBG’s success has been its focus on engaging both Giacom’s employees and the broader Channel community. Giacom’s staff were encouraged to use their paid volunteering days to support SSF initiatives, further embedding the company’s ESG goals into its corporate culture. The regional football tournaments organised as part of TBG have provided a platform for companies to foster teamwork and community spirit while supporting a worthy cause.

Endorsements from Partners
Feedback from participants and partners has been overwhelmingly positive. Companies that participated in TBG not only supported a critical social issue but also experienced heightened employee engagement, improved morale, and strengthened bonds with their local communities. SSF has publicly praised Giacom’s commitment, noting that TBG has had a transformative impact on young people’s lives.

Future Plans and Sustainability
Looking ahead, Giacom and its partners remain committed to growing TBG and ensuring its continued success. Two Giacom-sponsored academies have already completed, and plans are in place for two more in the autumn of 2024. The long-term goal is to expand the initiative across even more communities, bringing the Channel together to foster sustainable, lasting social impact.

Conclusion
Giacom, through The Big Goal, has demonstrated a deep commitment to using its platform to make a positive impact on society. By addressing the root causes of youth homelessness and creating pathways to a brighter future, Giacom has delivered demonstrable success in the realms of sustainability, governance, and social responsibility. The results, both for SSF and the communities served, speak for themselves.

With over 420 young people already benefiting and a significant social ROI, Giacom’s TBG initiative deserves recognition as the Channel ESG/CSR Initiative of the Year for its innovative approach, tangible outcomes, and industry-wide engagement.

OpenText Cybersecurity provides smart, simplified security that enables trusted, cyber resilient environments for our channel partners, distributors, resellers and Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

We help partners reduce risk, preserve trust and minimize disruption. From prevention, detection and response to recovery and compliance, we help partners build cyber resilience via a holistic security portfolio of smarter and simple solutions delivered through our unified end-to-end platform.

This modern portfolio of complementary security solutions offers channel partners 360-degree visibility across endpoints and network traffic to proactively identify, triage and investigate anomalous and malicious behavior. The business has many different offerings that help partners to find information, no matter where it is buried, to effectively conduct investigations, manage risk and respond to incidents. Organizations rely on these products to proactively prevent and detect threats across ever-expanding attack surfaces.

OpenText Cybersecurity protects over 95 million end-users and has 45 million endpoint detection and response agents installed, securing over 23,000 MSPs.

Kaseya’s Security Suite, an integral component of the company’s Kaseya 365 platform, is redefining endpoint management and cybersecurity for managed service providers (MSPs) and their small-to-medium business clients (SMBs). Launched in April 2024, Kaseya 365 consolidates all critical endpoint components into one single, easy-to-manage subscription. This enables businesses to better manage, secure, backup and automate their environment – empowering them to detect and address even the most sophisticated cyber threats.

Available in two tiers, Kaseya 365 Express includes three core components: endpoint management, security and backup. Kaseya 365 Pro adds next-generation managed detection and response (MDR) capabilities, providing 24/7 monitoring and threat protection for each endpoint.

The two Kaseya 365 subscription options allow businesses to flexibly select the level of security and management services that best fit their requirements, while giving them access to enterprise-grade cybersecurity solutions.

Kaseya’s Security Suite has been designed to empower busy IT professionals and MSPs with comprehensive and powerful, yet easy-to-use cybersecurity capabilities. Unlike traditional enterprise security solutions that require advanced technical expertise, Kaseya’s offerings are built to make expert-led cybersecurity accessible.

The Kaseya 365 platform is built on four core pillars:
• The Manage pillar provides MSPs with control over all endpoints through a single unified interface, alleviating the stress of managing a growing array of complex technologies. This is delivered through the endpoint management platforms, Datto RMM and/or VSA.
• The Secure pillar ensures that MSPs can deliver enterprise-grade security to their SMB clients without the burden of additional expenses, making it easy for them to safeguard their clients’ endpoints. This includes anti-virus, ransomware detection, advanced software management, endpoint detection and response and managed detection and response.
• The Backup pillar protects clients’ critical data from loss or theft. This is delivered through Datto Endpoint Backup.
• The Automate pillar streamlines IT workflows and enhances service delivery without increasing overhead costs.

Benefits of Kaseya 365
By consolidating these capabilities – security, management, backup and automation – into a single platform, Kaseya 365 streamlines IT operations, reduces vendor fatigue for MSPs and lowers overall cybersecurity spend by up to 30% compared to other solutions. This approach, combined with Kaseya’s commitment to innovation, makes Kaseya 365 the ideal foundation for MSP growth and success in the evolving digital landscape.

Kaseya 365’s key distinguishing feature is its ability to make cybersecurity accessible and affordable for SMBs. This is achieved through a series of specific security tools, including:
• Datto EDR provides effective endpoint detection and response capabilities in an affordable, easy-to-use package – allowing organisations to quickly identify and respond to advanced threats that bypass traditional defences.

• Datto AV’s next-generation antivirus engine goes beyond signature-based detection, leveraging AI, machine learning and the latest threat intelligence to identify zero-day and polymorphic malware – without compromising system performance.

• RocketCyber is a managed SOC platform that delivers 24/7 threat monitoring, advanced security analysis and expert-led incident response across endpoints, networks and cloud environments.
All these tools have been specifically engineered for simplicity and usability, without compromising on advanced threat detection capabilities.

• Shawn Edie, Director of Information Technology at Michigan’s family resort Crystal Mountain, explains: “RocketCyber has been a game-changer for me. I know that if there’s a threat, I’ll immediately get a phone call.”

• This sentiment is echoed by Matthew Burke, Vice President of IT at Pioneer Bank: “It’s comforting to know there’s always someone watching. When we’re caught up doing a dozen other things and miss something, they’re there to catch it.”

Kaseya has had a tangible impact on the market. Since April 2024, it has already been deployed on over five million endpoints and has drawn extremely positive feedback from clients.

• Zach Browning, Director of MSP Managed Technology Solutions, explains: “RocketCyber’s SOC analysts are extremely knowledgeable and quick on their feet, with answers to any questions readily available. I haven’t had a call where they didn’t have an answer prepared. They also follow up with emails immediately after we get a message in our portal, which has been great.”

• Similarly, Mitchell Kinard, Information Technology Manager of Novum Energy, highlights the peace of mind that Kaseya’s security solutions have provided: “Datto EDR and RocketCyber have been instrumental in securing our global operations. The real-time threat detection and the proactive approach of the SOC have provided us with the peace of mind to focus on expanding our business without compromising on security.”

Infinidat has supercharged the channel in EMEA in 2024, with the industry’s strongest commitment to channel partners. The company has leveraged all of the channel program initiatives, enhancements and extensions that it made in 2023 to drive significant new revenue opportunities for channel partners in 2024. Infinidat continues to invest heavily in providing support for partners globally. New additions include a significantly enhanced EMEA and APJ channel program and a new sales enablement and training program − the Infuziast Certified Partner Program − along with regional program enhancements, such as channel partner advisory boards.

From an organizational perspective, Infinidat has solidified, enhanced, and empowered a cohesive team of channel-dedicated sales, channel-dedicated SE and support personnel, and channel-dedicated marketing that are global (across Americas, EMEA and APJ). Infinidat achieved significant growth based on a directive, led by Steve Sullivan (CRO), and executed in collaboration with his Channel Leadership team, James JT Lewis (EMEA APJ) and Mitch Diodato (Americas) to co-sell with channel partners as often as possible. Infinidat increased our channel partner community and launched our new Infuziast certification program with over 75 and growing ‘Infuziasts’ in the field.

Infinidat enhanced its EMEA and APJ channel program with new tiering levels for partners; an enhanced deal registration process; new backend rebates; a redesigned criteria for MDF; a not-for-resell program; redesigned the enablement program on the InfiniVersity partner portal; and increased joint marketing efforts.
Infinidat continues, from a company perspective, to win awards that are channel centric.

The following outlines the major enhancements and extensions that Infinidat has done over the past year, putting Infinidat in the position to be recognized as Channel Storage Company of the Year: Enhancements to the EMEA and APJ channel partner program - Infinidat enhanced its EMEA and APJ channel program with new tiering levels for partners, an enhanced deal registration process, new backend rebates, a redesigned criteria for MDF a not-for-resell program, redesigned the enablement program on the InfiniVersity partner portal, and increased joint marketing efforts. Infuziast Certified Partner Program - Infinidat had a very successful rollout of its major new sales enablement and training program, starting in EMEA and APJ in the second half of 2023. Channel partners, ranging from sales consultants to technical personnel, can now earn certification through this new program, which also includes a rewards component. Partner Advisory Boards - Infinidat has established partner advisory boards for the channel in the Americas, EMEA, and APJ. Partner Tech Clubs - Infinidat has set up partner tech clubs for engineers, solution architects and solution advisors in EMEA and APJ. Infinidat’s channel momentum has steadily grown over the past year, fortified by the following accolades and advancements: Gartner named Infinidat a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Primary Storage The Infinidat Partner Program earned a 5-Star Rating from CRN in the spring 2024 Infinidat’s channel leader was named a CRN Channel Chief for 2024 GigaOm recognized Infinidat as the industry leader in ransomware protection for block storage and file storage Infinidat was included on the prestigious CRN 100 list InfiniSafe technology was recognized in the 2024 CRN Tech Innovators Award competition Infinidat’s revamped partner portal has garnered rave reviews.

Partners are abuzz about Infinidat’s latest launch in May 2024 of the InfiniSafe Automated Cyber Protection (ACP) solution and the InfiniBox® G4 family of next-generation storage arrays for all-flash and hybrid configurations

“The slew of new solutions that Infinidat has launched is quite impressive. The enterprise storage solutions provider is dramatically expanding their offering with a next-generation storage solution as well as laying out a multi-phase plan to take their InfiniVerse platform to greater heights. The new InfiniSafe Automated Cyber Protection solution is on-point for today’s cyber threat landscape, and Infinidat’s expansion of support for hybrid, multi-cloud environments, with their addition of Microsoft Azure support is exactly what is needed. We are excited to educate and enable Partners across the UK&I, to better support their customers enterprise storage and cyber resiliency challenges, ” Liam Mugford, Head of Partner Development at CMS Distribution.

“The new InfiniSafe Automated Cyber Protection solution is very different then the way most organizations protect data today with more traditional backup and recovery methods. It’s immensely useful to be able to have a security team define a trigger to automatically connect to an Infinidat storage environment and instantly create immutable snapshots. This is vital for cyber resilience, and without it, companies are at a very high risk. Infinidat is making it so easy to integrate this automated cyber protection capability into Security Operations Centers and existing security applications - it’s a no-brainer to bring Infinidat into your enterprise data infrastructure,” said Matteo Cuius, Head of Sales at sysmind.

NetApp is the intelligent data infrastructure company, combining unified data storage, integrated data services and CloudOps solutions to create silo-free infrastructure, harnessing observability and AI to enable the industry’s best data management. Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, NetApp has been at the forefront of storage technology for over three decades. Its hybrid cloud data solutions enable businesses of all sizes to manage, store, and protect data seamlessly across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.

NetApp’s vision is centered on helping enterprises modernize their IT infrastructure and embrace digital transformation through data-centric architectures. By offering a comprehensive portfolio of storage and data management solutions, NetApp allows businesses to optimize storage efficiency, enhance data security, and drive innovation, ultimately creating a more agile and scalable IT ecosystem.

NetApp’s channel-first approach empowers partners, resellers, and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to deliver advanced storage and data management solutions to their customers.

Infinidat’s InfiniSafe® solution provides comprehensive cyber resilience capabilities, and the company continued in 2024 to expand and reinforce the power of InfiniSafe to safeguard enterprises against cyberattacks. InfiniSafe represents critical areas of cyber security that are fundamental to cyber resilience.

Infinidat covers both primary and secondary storage, providing multiple pillars of protection: immutable snapshots, logical air-gapping, a fenced forensic environment, cyber detection, automated cyber protection, and near-instantaneous cyber recovery. These features are an inherent part of InfuzeOS™, Infinidat’s core operating system that is the driving force at the heart of all our storage devices − the InfiniBox® and InfiniBox™ SSA primary storage solutions, as well as the InfiniGuard® secondary storage platforms.

Infinidat has gone well beyond what most other storage companies provide with guarantees on the immutability of our snapshots and their recovery times: 1 minute or less recovery time on the InfiniBox and the InfiniBox SSA and 20 minutes or less recovery time on the InfiniGuard. In fact, Infinidat’s guarantees on the InfiniBox and the InfiniBox SSA were the first cyber storage resilience guarantee on primary storage in the industry.

One of the critical components of the InfiniSafe architecture is the fenced forensic environment, which provides the ability to spin up immutable copies of primary or backup data in an isolated environment without affecting production operations. When we designed the fenced forensic environment concept, the idea was to provide the infrastructure that allows customers to validate the immutable, protected copies of data, which then enables the use of cyber forensic tools to detect possible ransomware and cyberattacks. It also provides an indication to the infiltration point in time, providing a clear understanding of the point in time, which is safe to recover to, in case of such an attack − referred to as the “last known good copy.”

As InfiniSafe gained traction and with cybercrime soaring to new levels, coupled with a constant evolution of ransomware tools becoming more sophisticated with every passing day, Infinidat came to understand that detecting and alerting of zero-day attacks, where no known signature of the ransomware tool exists in the field, is of the highest value to our customers. With that understanding in mind, it became clear that the next phase evolution of InfiniSafe would have to be driven by machine learning algorithms that can analyze previously unknown data patterns and make educated decisions based on entropy detection and multiple other data points, all resulting in targeted and timely alerts regarding suspected ransom infiltration into the customer data assets.

InfiniSafe Cyber Detection is an add-on cyber storage software package, which as a best practice, is designed to run inside the fenced forensic environment on dedicated hardware. It uses sophisticated machine learning algorithms to scan data over time, generating a baseline score for the data patterns on the system and then detecting changes on those patterns in a specific point in time. Security and storage teams are alerted to a potential infiltration of a dormant ransomware attack, which is slowly corrupting the data overtime, waiting for the D-day to proverbially “drop the bomb.”

InfiniSafe Cyber Detection is a very sophisticated piece of software that uses over 200 analytics that represent changes in value of the file content and metadata from one observation to the next. These are then fed to machine learning algorithms in order to make probabilistic decisions regarding data integrity.

Dave Vellante, Chief Analyst, Wikibon noted why our new cyber detection product is significant: “Customer data shows that cybersecurity is the #1 priority for IT decision makers… The company has a history of combining technical differentiation with business value and the new InfiniSafe Cyber Detection system and InfuzeOS Cloud Edition appear to continue this pattern. Customers increasingly demand simplicity and cost savings that can directly impact the bottom line and Infinidat\'s latest announcement aim to do just that.”

Phil Godwin, COO and President, Clear Technologies, an Infinidat partner, sees Infinidat’s expansion with InfiniSafe Cyber Detection as a strong benefit to his enterprise customers:
“Infinidat continues to expand its cyber storage resilience solutions by adding cyber detection capabilities for primary storage. Not only does Infinidat give us the solutions we need to click all our customers\' critical selection boxes, but the company is also solidifying its leadership in enterprise storage. Infinidat drives the right solutions for our enterprise customers\' needs.”

The machine learning engine itself is trained using data sets representing many different pre- and post-attack environments, with all known ransomware variants and tuned to detect even slight anomalies in the data pattern, which was measured to be 99.5% accurate.

The indexer used to scan through the data is very robust, and, also, efficient, supporting the scanning and indexing of petabytes of data. Being the standard in enterprise storage, this makes it perfect for the petabyte-scale, enterprise-grade line of thinking, which is always at the heart of every Infinidat product. Additionally, the indexing processes are aware of the internal data structure of dozens of applications and datasets, enabling the solution to support a variety of enterprise-grade, mission-critical applications as well as secondary storage use cases.

Furthermore, the robust indexing engine makes it easy to drill down inside of storage resources provisioned on the storage systems and enables InfiniSafe Cyber Detection to provide comprehensive reports in case of a suspected ransomware attack that can point to infection, even at the single file level. One critical component of InfiniSafe Cyber Detection is the automation that is required to orchestrate the routine, day-by-day scanning of multiple storage resources in a petabyte-scale environment.

As we understand that such operations cannot be performed manually as it would generate an unacceptable management overhead, we made sure that our new cyber detection capabilities would take care of the entire process: starting by the creation of point in time copies of the customer data, protected and immutable by InfiniSafe, followed by securely mounting them in the fenced forensic environment, orchestrating the scanning process and all the way through generating timely alerts in case of a suspected ransomware attack. The scanning process can be performed on the production system, as InfiniBox and InfiniBox SSA storage platforms are highly efficient in creating and managing tens of thousands of penalty-free snapshot copies of data.

InfiniSafe Cyber Detection was first made available in the second half of 2023 with the initial release supporting both primary applications and backup uses cases running on InfiniBox and InfiniBox SSA II storage systems. It focuses on block volumes and file systems containing user data and mission-critical Oracle databases.

Infinidat is excited with the new Cyber Detection addition to the InfiniSafe family of solutions, and it will play a substantial role in our cyber resilience strategy for the upcoming years. This new technology is yet another testimony to Infinidat’s commitment to securely manage enterprise-scale customer data, without compromise and with constant improvement and new functionalities that deliver the next level of cyber resilience.

In May 2024, Infinidat introduced a new automated cyber resiliency and recovery solution that revolutionizes how enterprises can minimize the impact of ransomware and malware attacks. Infinidat’s InfiniSafe Automated Cyber Protection (ACP) is a first-of-its kind cybersecurity integration that is designed to reduce the threat window of cyberattacks, such as ransomware.

In an era where data security is paramount, Data Dynamics leads the charge with a groundbreaking six-tier approach that redefines cloud security. Our innovative framework empowers enterprises to become Data Custodians of the future, transforming unstructured data into structured, valuable assets. By integrating advanced analytics, robust security measures, and intelligent data management, we drive secure, data-driven cloud adoption that enhances compliance, optimizes operations, and safeguards critical information. This pioneering approach positions Data Dynamics at the forefront of cloud security innovation, setting new benchmarks for the industry.
1. Data Analytics:
metadata Analytics:
Harness the power of metadata discovery, classification, tagging, and cataloging to enable effective data lifecycle management. By assessing data relevance, implementing retention and disposal policies, and reducing data sprawl, enterprises can consolidate data lakes and optimize storage, driving smarter, more efficient data management.
Context Analytics:
Utilize machine learning to analyze the context of unstructured data by considering content, structure, and relationships. This deeper insight into data context enhances decision-making and improves user experiences, making enterprises more agile and responsive to business needs.
2. Data Security & Remediation:
Content Analytics:
Leveraging a robust Data Science Engine powered by AI/ML and NLP, we deliver precise discovery and classification of data based on sensitivity, consumer information, business value, and more. This ensures data is handled according to its significance and risk profile.
Risk Exposure Insights:
Our system generates actionable insights using multi-level logical expressions, identifying risk exposure through descriptive and diagnostic analytics. These insights empower organizations to take proactive steps in mitigating risks.
Risk Remediation:
Enhance data security by quarantining high-risk sensitive data in secure storage, such as file shares or object storage buckets, effectively minimizing exposure and potential breaches.
Access Control and File Re-permissioning:
Implement policy-based, robust file permissions management to preserve, re-permission, and reassign security through SID Mapping, ensuring the right access levels are maintained across the enterprise.
Open Share Reporting:
Enhance data security by identifying sensitive data within open shares and rectifying permissions accordingly, closing gaps that could lead to potential data breaches.

3. Data Compliance & Governance:
Data Mapping:
Perform comprehensive scans to identify personal data files, creating an inventory of processed, collected, stored, and shared data, which is crucial for compliance with data protection regulations.
Classification:
Utilize industry-standard compliance and governance templates to classify data in line with regulatory guidelines, ensuring adherence to global standards and minimizing compliance risks.
Immutable Audit Log:
Leverage blockchain technology to create immutable audit logs for data access activities. This ensures the generation of reliable governance reports that are essential for regulatory compliance and audit transparency.
Data Tagging:
Establish protocols for file and folder tagging, ensuring that personal data is protected and handled in accordance with the highest security standards.

4. Data Archival:
File Preservation:
Safeguard original content by converting archived files into object format, ensuring data integrity and long-term preservation without compromising on accessibility or security.
Efficient Data Retrieval:
Retrieve archived data easily through intuitive software or RESTful APIs, ensuring quick and reliable access to information when needed.
Search and Discovery:
Simplify audit and legal discovery processes with user-friendly search and file-saving features, significantly improving efficiency and compliance with regulatory requirements.
S3-Compliant Access:
Ensure compatibility and ease of use by allowing access to object files via S3-compliant browsers or custom applications, enabling seamless integration with existing systems.
5. Workload Placement:
Data Identification, Classification, and Location Mapping:
Achieve accurate data identification, classification, and mapping of physical and virtual data locations. This capability is vital for managing transaction files, their locations, and ultimate destinations within the cloud.
Custom metadata Tags and Archive Policies:
Identify files suitable for cost-effective object storage migration and streamline data movement with flexible archive policies, optimizing storage costs and improving data governance.
Intelligent Tiering and Placement:
Dynamically allocate resources and data storage based on usage patterns and requirements, optimizing performance and ensuring that critical workloads are always prioritized.

6. Data-Driven Migration:
Policy-based Data Migration:
Implement policy-driven automated data movement, including migration, replication, transformation, and synchronization across various platforms (on-premises and cloud). Support for Azure, OneDrive, GCP, AWS, and more ensures comprehensive coverage.
Integrated Risk Controls:
Seamlessly integrate risk controls across file and object platforms to safeguard sensitive data and ensure regulatory compliance during the migration process.
Intelligent Tiering and Placement:
Allocate resources dynamically based on usage patterns and requirements, optimizing storage and ensuring that critical workloads receive the necessary resources for peak performance.
Secure Data Sharing:
Enable secure data sharing in data lakes and pipelines with appropriate access controls, maintaining data confidentiality and privacy compliance across the organization.
Scalability and Performance:
Manage a high volume of policies and data files, supporting data science, cloud, and governance teams with secure and reliable data management practices.
Dedicated Migration Factory:
Leverage a dedicated engineering team to design, build, deploy, report, and audit data migrations, ensuring a seamless and efficient migration process.
Post Migration Testing, Optimization, and Data Retention:
Conduct post-migration analysis, audit log examination, define retention and deletion criteria, and establish data lifecycle policies, ensuring data remains compliant, secure, and optimized for future needs.
With this six-tier approach, Data Dynamics redefines cloud security by enabling enterprises to harness the full potential of their data while ensuring robust security, compliance, and governance. This innovation not only empowers organizations to become future-ready Data Custodians but also sets a new standard for secure and efficient cloud adoption.
Key Differentiators:
Structuring unstructured data across various sources through classification tagging based on ownership, access, metadata, and content., enabling smart storage optimization. It provides a comprehensive strategy, safeguarding sensitive information and fostering compliance in the ever-changing regulatory environment.
Powered by a strategic blend of automation, AI, ML, and blockchain, our software is a versatile solution for modern data challenges.
Functions as a central hub, with the UDM Software seamlessly integrateing Data Security, Governance, Analytics and Mobility within the guardrails of IT infrastructure.
Built for today's hybrid, multi-cloud environments, handling massive data volumes.
Petabyte scalability catering to all environment sizes.
Automates policy-based data migration, data analysis (pre and post-migration), data enrichment, and access control, minimizing risks and streamlining workflows compared to manual approaches.
Offers superior data security through features like automated remediation of sensitive data and stubless, direct native access, exceeding baseline security measures in competitor solutions.
In today's data-driven world, businesses are grappling with an unprecedented explosion of information. This data deluge creates both immense opportunities and complex challenges. At Data Dynamics, with over 12 years of experience, we understand this landscape intimately. Our innovative data management solutions are designed to address three critical industry pain points, helping businesses unlock the power of data while mitigating risks and ensuring compliance.
Data Security: The cost of data breaches is staggering. According to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023, the global average cost of a data breach reached a record high of $4.45 million in 2023. By leveraging our unified data management software, a Fortune 50 bank successfully secured 21,000 sensitive files from a vast 3 million record data repository. This proactive approach not only strengthened their risk management but also safeguarded their reputation, potentially avoiding millions in breach costs.
Data Governance and Compliance: Data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA are constantly evolving, making compliance a complex and ever-changing challenge for businesses. Non-compliance can result in hefty fines and reputational damage. We empowered a Big 4 Accounting firm to navigate these complexities by scanning and securing 700 terabytes of data, safeguarding them from potential sanctions. This proactive approach ensured their compliance with data privacy regulations, giving them peace of mind and avoiding potential regulatory headaches.
Cost Optimization: Gartner predicts that by 2025, only 1% of the world's data will be analyzed and generate business value. This means a staggering 99% of data remains untapped, representing a hidden cost and a missed opportunity. Our comprehensive data management software leveraged AI/ML-powered data Analytics to help a Fortune 200 European sportswear giant achieve a remarkable 56% improvement in infrastructure utilization and a 43% reduction in storage costs. This not only saved them significant resources but also mitigated potential security vulnerabilities lurking in their dark data.
Sustainable Cloud Storage: The environmental impact of traditional data centers is immense. According to the International Energy Agency, data centers and data transmission networks accounted for nearly 1% of global electricity use in 2023. By leveraging Data Dynamics' unified data management software, a Fortune 20 energy company successfully consolidated 600 TBs of data into a sustainable cloud environment, reducing their operational emissions by 35%. This strategic move not only advanced their net-zero ambition but also showcased their leadership in environmental stewardship, all while optimizing costs and maintaining data accessibility.
Secure Data Migration to the Cloud: Gartner predicts that by 2025, nearly 80% of enterprise data migrations will fail due to complexities in source infrastructure. In a challenging scenario, our unified data management (UDM) software enabled a leading provider of digital payment solutions to successfully migrate millions of files from an untrusted storage source to Azure cloud within a partially acquired company environment. UDM’s AI-driven migration capabilities ensured a seamless transition across heterogeneous domains, preserving critical Access Control Lists (ACLs) through inline Security Identifier (SID) translation. This swift and secure migration not only protected sensitive data but also ensured business continuity by flawlessly transitioning user and group permissions to the new domain, safeguarding operations and positioning the client for future growth in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Data Dynamics is every enterprise’s trusted partner in the age of data deluge. We offer a comprehensive suite of data management solutions that help businesses unlock the power of their data, optimize costs, and ensure compliance.

CTERA has grown alongside its clients, hearing from them what they need in a solution and fundamentally understands the value of data privacy, security, compliance, and access controls. CTERA integrates endpoint, office and cloud file services with uncompromising IT security, cloud choice and cloud automation. CTERA’s state-of-the-art AI ransomware protection mechanism identifies and halts ransomware attacks in real time. Should a ransomware attack occur, CTERA provides organizations with the ability to instantly recover the ‘locked’ data from immutable snapshots.

The CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform delivers fast edge-to-cloud synchronization (over 30TB/day per site) secure geo-segmentation, embedded antivirus, and built-in data discovery and migration from legacy file storage offering the most feature-rich, fast, and secure platform in the industry. It is an entirely private solution - deployed 100% within a firewall on any on-premises, cloud, or multi-cloud infrastructure. No third party has access to data, metadata, encryption keys, or authentication - ever.

Features include:

Ransom Protect –uses an AI-driven ransomware defense mechanism that identifies and halts ransomware attacks in real-time. Ransom Protect employs advanced machine learning algorithms to swiftly identify and block suspicious file activities. Ransom Protect was recently enhanced with honeypot capabilities and utilizes the strategic deployment of decoy files within an organization’s file system enabling CTERA to identify and stop unauthorized access or attempts at data theft, effectively neutralizing threats before significant damage can occur.

With an incident management dashboard, administrators can monitor attacks in real time. CTERA’s ransomware protection stores extensive incident evidence and logs, aiding in post-attack forensics. Ransom Protect is integrated into CTERA Edge Filer, and is activated with a single click for streamlined deployment.

Vault – providing Write Once, Read Many (WORM) provides the flexibility and granularity to create WORM Cloud Folders with customized retention modes for specific periods of time to fit any organization’s regulatory or compliance requirements.

Fusion - allows cloud applications to connect directly with enterprise file repositories, alleviating the need for expensive and time-consuming data copy to separate S3 buckets. Enterprises can run in-cloud machine learning training, video footage analysis, and data classification directly on their file shares, benefitting from CTERA’s ability to store globally in their cloud of choice, and present locally using the high-performance CTERA Edge Filers.

CTERA enables not only enterprises to harness the benefits of cloud-based file management without the security compromises associated with traditional cloud offerings but provides military grade encryption enabling defense forces worldwide to enjoy the benefits of CTERA. CTERA is certified on the U.S. Department of Defense Information Network Approved Product List (DoDIN APL) and is the only global file system vendor on this prestigious list.

Additionally, CTERA Enterprise File Services is on the US Department of Defense Information Network (DoDIN) Approved Products List (APL). CTERA is the only global file system solution that is on the DoDIN APL and meets the highest levels of security standards required by the DOD. And CTERA’s encryption adheres to the highest level of the US Military data security standard FIPS 140-2.

Cloud Storage and Liquid Immersion Cooling Fusion

Revolutionising Cloud Storage with Liquid Immersion Cooling

Overview
We are excited to present PeaSoup, the UK-based cloud provider, as a nominee for the Cloud Storage Innovation of the Year at the SDC Awards with its ground-breaking cloud storage solution, setting new energy efficiency, reliability, and environmental sustainability standards. Our innovative approach integrates traditional spinning hard drives with state-of-the-art liquid immersion cooling technology, offering a unique blend of performance, cost-effectiveness, and eco-friendliness.

Innovation and Technology
Since 2014, PeaSoup has been at the forefront of cloud computing innovation. Initially, they utilised hyperconverged infrastructure, now a de facto standard, and later incorporated liquid immersion cooling to boost performance, reliability, scalability, and sustainability. Our latest advancement involves submerging spinning hard drives in liquid coolant to maintain optimal temperatures and ensure consistent performance, eliminating the temperature fluctuations associated with traditional cooling methods. This method improves heat dissipation and extends the longevity of the hardware, reducing the need for energy-intensive air conditioning systems.

Key Features and Benefits:

-> Improved Cooling and Energy Efficiency

Direct heat transfer
Liquid immersion provides direct heat transfer from the hard drives to the liquid, bypassing the need for air cooling systems. This leads to more efficient cooling and lower energy consumption.

Reduced cooling infrastructure
The elimination of traditional air-cooling systems (read HVAC systems) simplifies data centre infrastructure and reduces maintenance costs.

Lower operating temperatures
Liquid immersion allows for lower operating temperatures for the hard drives, which improves their performance and lifespan.

-> Enhanced Reliability and Data Integrity

Reduced vibrations
Liquid immersion isolates the hard drives from external vibrations, which reduces the risk of data corruption and improves overall reliability.

Improved dust and particle protection
The liquid coolant creates a protective barrier against dust and other contaminants, preventing their entry into the hard drive enclosures and minimising the risk of failures.

Lower failure rates
From years of experience with liquid cooling and our internal submerged hard drive testing settings/units, we have observed significantly lower hard drive failure rates compared to air-cooled systems, resulting in improved data integrity and availability.

Increased Density
Liquid immersion allows for a denser setup of hard drives within data centres, as there is no need for airflow channels between devices. This increases the storage capacity of a given space.

-> Environmental Benefits

Reduced carbon footprint
The energy efficiency gains from liquid immersion lead to a reduced carbon footprint. Liquid immersion contributes to more sustainable data centre/cloud operations by minimising energy consumption and reducing the need for cooling infrastructure. Our use of environmentally friendly cooling liquids further demonstrates our commitment to minimising ecological impact.


-> Implementation and Results
PeaSoup\'s liquid immersion-cooled cloud storage has been successfully deployed in our data centres, showcasing impressive results. Early reports indicate a reduction in energy consumption of up to 30%. This lower power usage leads to reduced operational costs and a smaller carbon footprint, supporting global sustainability goals.
Additionally, higher reliability compared to air-conditioning settings has been reported, allowing our clients to benefit from increased uptime and reduced hardware failure rates, ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction and therefore trust.

PeaSoup\'s lower operational and maintenance costs give our customers a competitive edge. Our cloud infrastructure, including cloud storage, allows for effortless scalability, ensuring that resource expansion doesn\'t compromise performance or hardware lifespan. By combining this approach with the cost-efficient resource utilisation from liquid immersion cooling, substantial cost savings can be achieved. PeaSoup\'s affordability, significantly cheaper than industry giants such as MS Azure, AWS, or even Wasabi, has certainly contributed to its growing reputation as an industry disruptor.

Summary
PeaSoup\'s innovative cloud storage solution is a major advancement in cloud technology. By combining the reliability of traditional hard drives with the efficiency of liquid immersion cooling, we have developed a product that not only meets the high demands of modern data storage but also prioritises environmental sustainability. Additionally, as a VMware Zero Carbon Committed provider, PeaSoup has already made a tangible commitment to the environment. With a goal of reaching 100% renewable energy or carbon neutrality by 2030, PeaSoup is leading the industry by taking real steps to reduce its carbon footprint. PeaSoup is proud to be considered for the Cloud Storage Innovation of the Year award, as it recognises our dedication to technological progress and sustainability.

Remarkable Commerce, a leading eCommerce platform, has revealed how global cloud hosting provider Hyve Managed Hosting has equipped it with a powerful, custom private cloud solution to help manage spikes in customer traffic and deliver a seamless, uninterrupted experience during the Black Friday sales frenzy.

Remarkable Commerce creates bespoke, high-performance eCommerce platforms for retail customers, including Ben Sherman, Moss Bros and M&Co. Being able to scale its cloud-based architecture for customers while they encounter heavy, unpredictable traffic on Black Friday and quickly rectifying issues before they lead to downtime are crucial to the business’ success.

Before partnering with Hyve, Remarkable had to add new dedicated servers to cope with the spike in traffic on Black Friday each year. This had huge cost and resource implications and made scalability a weeks’ long challenge. If downtime occurred, the company had to wait for long periods to speak to engineers. The negative impact on Remarkable’s customers was significant, with some of them losing up to 10,000 orders a day due to cloud downtime, hefty delays, and potential customers stuck in long, virtual queues.

To effectively manage the surge in customer traffic during peak retail periods like Black Friday, Remarkable Commerce switched to a bespoke Hyve private cloud solution. Hyve virtualised Remarkable’s infrastructure, allowing it to dynamically scale its cloud resources up and down before, during, and after periods of heavy traffic. New virtual servers are dynamically added to support big increases in visitors and then removed again once the volume of website visitors begins to decrease in the days and weeks after Black Friday.

The hosting company also collaborates with Remarkable directly to regularly perform stress tests in the run up to Black Friday for accurate resource planning. Hyve is actively engaged around-the-clock in monitoring the servers, even after resource levels have been increased. In setting alert thresholds for the servers, if Remarkable Commerce's website encounters an unprecedented surge in traffic, Hyve can proactively allocate additional resources, while the cloud setup gives Remarkable full visibility of performance, helping them to accurately plan ahead.

Bradlie Houldsworth, sales and strategy director at Remarkable Commerce, said: “Our high-performance commerce platforms enable mid-sized retailers to compete on a level playing field with larger rivals – but only if our cloud solution can handle similar amounts of traffic during their busiest and most lucrative periods. Hyve’s cloud technology gives us the confidence to scale our resources to meet demand and, most importantly, it gives our clients peace of mind that they can focus on driving an unlimited amount of marketing traffic to their online storefronts without spending time worrying about it crippling under pressure.”

Jake Madders, co-founder and director of Hyve Managed Hosting, added: “We specialise in creating bespoke cloud solutions that work for our clients, whatever they need. We know how important it is that Remarkable and its own customers experience zero downtime during one of the busiest days of the year in eCommerce. We’ll always be on hand to work with them closely and make sure their cloud solution scales as they do.”

iQuila’s Strategic Partnership with Microsoft Azure: Revolutionizing Cloud Connectivity
Since joining the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub in 2021, iQuila has consistently benefited from a close collaboration with the Microsoft Azure team. The partnership with Microsoft has been instrumental in iQuila\'s rapid growth and development, especially in the field of cloud networking. This collaboration has been driven by a shared vision to simplify and enhance cloud environments for businesses across the globe. By leveraging Microsoft\'s Azure platform, iQuila has built a robust and resilient cloud infrastructure that is not only scalable but also efficient and cost-effective.
iQuila\'s cloud infrastructure is hosted exclusively on Microsoft Azure, a strategic decision that underscores the depth of its partnership with Microsoft. The choice of Azure as the backbone for iQuila’s operations is not arbitrary; it is rooted in Azure\'s global reach, reliability, and cutting-edge technology. iQuila operates across 22 locations worldwide, with each location featuring a minimum of three data centres for resilience and redundancy. This ensures that even in the face of unforeseen outages or disruptions, iQuila\'s services remain operational and secure.
One of the critical factors contributing to this reliability is the use of multiple high-speed pipes linking the data centres. This robust interconnectivity allows for seamless data transfer and communication between various locations, ensuring that users experience minimal latency and maximum throughput, regardless of their geographical location. As a result, iQuila can provide its clients with a cloud environment that is not only resilient but also highly performant, meeting the demands of modern businesses.
In 2023, iQuila achieved a significant milestone in its partnership with Microsoft Azure by developing a revolutionary multi-switching capability. This innovation allows cloud users to connect multiple iQuila virtual switches, enabling them to cascade their connections across Microsoft\'s low-latency, high-throughput backbone. The implications of this advancement are profound, as it transforms the way global networks are structured and operated.
By leveraging Microsoft’s high-performance infrastructure, iQuila has been able to offer its customers a global layer 2 virtual Ethernet network. This network operates without the need for traditional physical infrastructure, such as MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) circuits, which have historically been the go-to solution for extending layer 2 connectivity over vast distances. MPLS circuits, while effective, come with significant drawbacks, including high costs and lack of interoperability.
Traditionally, businesses seeking to extend their layer 2 networks over large geographic areas had to rely on MPLS circuits. These circuits are expensive because their costs are directly related to the physical distance they cover. Additionally, MPLS lacks flexibility and interoperability, often presenting challenges when connecting networks across different infrastructure providers. This can result in complex and cumbersome network configurations that are both costly and difficult to manage.
iQuila’s innovative solution, developed in collaboration with Microsoft Azure, eliminates the need for MPLS circuits altogether. By creating a virtual Ethernet network, iQuila allows businesses to extend their layer 2 connectivity across the globe without the need for costly physical infrastructure. This virtual network operates entirely within the cloud, utilizing Microsoft’s low-latency backbone to deliver seamless connectivity that is both efficient and cost-effective.
The impact of iQuila\'s partnership with Microsoft Azure goes beyond just technical innovation; it represents a fundamental shift in how businesses approach cloud networking. By offering a virtual alternative to traditional MPLS circuits, iQuila is democratizing access to advanced networking capabilities, allowing businesses of all sizes to take advantage of global connectivity without the prohibitive costs associated with physical infrastructure.
As iQuila continues to expand its presence across more locations, the company\'s reliance on Microsoft\'s Azure platform will only grow stronger. The synergy between iQuila\'s innovative solutions and Microsoft\'s cutting-edge cloud infrastructure has the potential to redefine the future of cloud networking. Together, they are paving the way for a more connected, efficient, and cost-effective global network ecosystem that empowers businesses to scale and thrive in the digital age.
In conclusion, iQuila\'s strategic collaboration with Microsoft Azure is a testament to the power of partnership in driving technological advancements. By leveraging Azure\'s global infrastructure and iQuila’s innovative approach to cloud networking, the two companies are enabling businesses to achieve unprecedented levels of connectivity, performance, and resilience. The future of cloud networking is here, and it is being shaped by the pioneering work of iQuila and Microsoft.

1.
Unlike antivirus, EDRs, and other detection-based tools that aim to stop malware by identifying bad actors, ThreatLocker Allowlisting starts by assuming everything is untrustworthy until it’s explicitly allowed by your team. This proactive model ensures that only approved applications, executables, and scripts are allowed to run on any given endpoint.

One of the key distinguishing features is the ease of deployment and management. While other whitelisting tools sometimes seem difficult to manage for IT admins, ThreatLocker’s platform simplifies the process through automatic learning modes, user-friendly policy controls, streamlined approval processes, and detailed auditing. Additionally, ThreatLocker’s Zero Trust principles provide an additional layer of validation across systems without bogging down day-to-day operations and filling security gaps.

ThreatLocker Allowlisting gives organizations precise control over what’s happening on their devices, dramatically reducing the attack surface. It also integrates seamlessly with other security solutions, creating a multi-layered defense against threats like ransomware, zero-day vulnerabilities, and insider misuse.

2.
Allowlisting’s impact has been felt immediately by businesses, particularly those dealing with strict data privacy laws or regulations. Many of our clients have seen a drastic reduction in malware incidents, which means fewer disruptions and a lot more time focused on growing their businesses instead of putting out fires.

Additionally, organizations no longer need to constantly update signatures or respond to new malware variants. Instead, they can lock down the environment with Allowlisting and focus on strategic IT initiatives. This shift from a reactive to a proactive security stance has saved companies substantial amounts of time and resources.

3.
The major differentiator is ThreatLocker’s ease of use and flexibility. While competitors often offer rigid or complex allowlisting solutions, ThreatLocker automates much of the approval process through learning mode, allowing it to adapt without causing major disruptions to business operations. Many competing products require manual updates and intense management, but ThreatLocker gives administrators the freedom to set policies that balance security with usability.

Additionally, ThreatLocker Allowlisting’s integration with the other Zero Trust security tools, like Storage Control and Ringfencing™, makes it much more robust than standalone solutions. This interconnected approach strengthens overall security, whereas other solutions might focus solely on applications, data, or adversary detection. The real-time visibility and control over what’s running also help admin teams identify any anomalies faster.

4.
Recently, ThreatLocker flew a team out to Champaign, Illinois for a full breakdown of how our services help them protect their city’s data and critical infrastructure. It was during this interview that Brian Perkinson, Network Engineer for the City of Champaign, Illinois shared, ThreatLocker Allowlisting really changed our approach. The learning mode allowed us to figure out our allowlist. ThreatLocker built it without us having to do much of anything. Once we had that allowlist, we were able to further benefit and know the inventory of our software. On top of this, Mark Toalson, IT Director for the City of Champaign, Illinois shared, If we ever were to have a breach – If bad actors got in and tried to execute something – I take comfort in knowing ThreatLocker will stop that.

City of Champaign, Illinois on Allowlisting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osIMq4lJXYw&list=PLErDVxBnz0lzSTd21XU9vOOYPT67Dp2-J&index=1

City of Champaign, Illinois on the full ThreatLocker Endpoint Protection Platform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDGLd-NhQHc&list=PLErDVxBnz0lzSTd21XU9vOOYPT67Dp2-J&index=3

ExaGrid works with its customers worldwide to include all aspects of security. We drive the majority of our security offerings through talking to our customers and resellers. Traditionally, backup applications have strong security but backup storage typically has little to none. ExaGrid is unique in its approach to backup storage security.

ExaGrid Tiered Backup Storage has the only non-network-facing tier (creating a tiered air gap) with delayed deletes and immutable data objects for ransomware recovery. Most recently, ExaGrid expanded its comprehensive security features to include dual roles to change policies from both IT and security, alert on large deletes for early attack detection warning and alert on deduplication change which could a precursor of data being encrypted at the primary storage side.

The MediaGone 500 by Verity Systems is a precision-engineered shredder that safely eliminates a variety of media at the push of a button, including SSDs, flash drives, cell phones, CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray discs, credit cards, and hard drive platters.
The MediaGone 500 ensures complete media destruction for users across various industries by shredding materials to less than 4mm in width. The MediaGone 500 can be operated in an office environment and started by following the instructions displayed on its main LCD screen.
Its clear polycarbonate dome cover, reinforced with glass, allows users to safely observe the live destruction process of SSDs, flash drives, discs, or phones.

The MediaGone 500, the most effective and user-friendly shredder created by Verity Systems, features the latest LED lighting technology. Its straightforward touch screen allows users to access all capabilities, including selecting fine or coarse cuts for specific shredded particle sizes.
Available as a tabletop model or mounted on a cabinet with casters for mobility, the tabletop version includes a 1-gallon drawer that is easily removable when full. The cabinet-mounted version features infrared sensing technology that alerts the user via the display screen.

Built with hardened carbon steel cutters and a high-torque slip-free drive, the unit delivers maximum power while operating on a standard electrical outlet (110-125VAC/60Hz). Thermal sensors protect the drive train from malfunction or damage. Multiple safety interlocks and an emergency stop button ensure operator safety at all times.
Media Handing:

Solid-State Drives (SSD)* including M.2/NVMes, Flash drives, USB Sticks, Smartphones, Cell Phones, Mobile phones, CD, DVD, Blu- Ray, Credit Cards, Hard Drive platters.

Destroy Time: Less than 1 minute

Throughput: Up to 100 SDDs / 500 Flash Drives / 45 mobile phones per hour
The MediaGone 500 comes with a standard 12-month manufacturer's warranty. Extended warranties are also available. Our product build quality ensures that whether you opt for an extended warranty or not, our factory-based technical support team can assist you with any unit-related issues. We are available with free phone support and can be contacted via email. This product support is available for the entire lifetime of ownership.

Kyvos is a GenAI-powered semantic layer that supercharges data and AI initiatives for global enterprises. The platform enables conversational interactions with data and delivers end-to-end, hyper-speed analytics at any scale while reducing the time and cost to extract insights.  

As a critical building block of a modern data and AI stack, the cloud-native semantic layer simplifies enterprise-wide data analytics, strengthens data governance and standardizes data interpretation. With its innovative AI-powered smart aggregation technology, Kyvos supercharges analytics to deliver unmatched performance at scale on modern data and cloud platforms.  

Kyvos provides the following key value propositions:

Kyvos Copilot :
Kyvos Copilot is an exceptional innovation to enable Gen AI-driven analytics that can significantly reduce the time and effort needed for augmented decision intelligence.

Gen AI-Powered Semantic layer:
Kyvos’ semantic layer stands apart in the market as it offers simplified analytics, intuitive data modeling, democratized data access, three-tiered security architecture and interactive analytics.   

AI-Powered Smart Aggregation:
Kyvos’ AI-powered Smart Aggregation is unique due to its capability to eliminate the limitations of traditional OLAP and deliver hyper-speed analytics on billions of rows.

Creating Tangible Results and Competitive Advantage for Global Enterprises:
Today, organizations worldwide choose Kyvos to overcome critical BI and analytics challenges associated with ever-growing data volumes and complex environments. Our commitment to enabling faster cloud BI adoption and ensuring a superior ROI through multiple deployment modes and attractive pricing models reaffirms our dedication to optimizing costs and driving higher performance across the board.

Kyvos redefines how businesses derive value from 1000x more data for 100x faster insights and 3x lesser analytics costs than any other platform in the marketplace.   

There is a data security problem hiding within SharePoint.

SharePoint has many options to give file permissions. But bad actors, like hackers or rogue employees, can actually expose all company secrets in SharePoint, without that company having a clue.

Folders within SharePoint conceal many items. SharePoint does not have hierarchical views. When you open a folder, there may be many more folders and files inside. You have to go through every folder and file, to locate what you need, and each one of these has its several screens and tabs that you need to access to comprehend permissions.

There is a lack of visibility within SharePoint: You can’t tell if users have permissions they shouldn’t. This allows attackers to:
* Conceal access by hiding it within complex and obscure folder arrangements
* Conceal access by placing it inside groups within groups.
* Conceal “full access” rights by disguising them with false permission levels.
* Conceal entire document libraries to duplicate and exfiltrate confidential files.

Even when you have identified a cyber attack, SharePoint makes it almost impossible to remove access rights.

Keep in mind that AI today is making it easier to fall for phishing emails. It can generate believable texts in any language with real employee data in no time. Plus, human error is still the main factor for cyberattacks being successful.

SharePoint has very poor visibility, but it is even more difficult to remove the permissions that pose a risk to your business.

The default M365 settings are not secure; they generate anonymous sharing links for sharing Teams files.
The M365 sign-in block can be very slow in removing access rights from disgruntled employees.
Within short amounts of time, permissions can run into hundreds of thousands. A company with about 400 employees can have 2 million files in SharePoint, and likely over 100,000 distinct access rights.

Identifying which users have access to what in SharePoint is exhausting. Literally no one within your organization is able to monitor this jungle of access rights; following that it is ever increasing and opening the doors widely for cyber criminals. Managers can’t see which users are in what group, leading to potentially wrong assumptions of data security.

This is why we developed 365 Permission Manager, launched last year. It is an admin-centred solution to manage permissions, enforce compliance policies, and monitor violations within M365. Launched in 2023, it brings ease and order to the tracking of employee access to M365 sites, files and folders, ensuring that critical permission situations do not occur.

365 Permission Manager offers a convenient and user-friendly interface for CISOs and M365 admins to minimize risk by properly governing assets and adhering to compliance standards by means of auditing.

It gives CISOs a more comprehensive view of permissions and whether items are shared with others, helping them to better protect sensitive information.

Thanks to 365 Permission Manager, CISOs get a more comprehensive view of permissions and whether items are shared with others, helping them to better protect sensitive information. It allows M365 admins to define compliance policies for sharing sites, files, and folders in Microsoft 365 and then easily monitor the states of policy compliance, and to audit policy violations – which helps organizations maintain compliance with internal and external regulations and policies.

This solution addresses the real and yet often overlooked problem that comes with the use of SharePoint. It can serve as a lifesaver to CISOs and IT Directors in any organization that uses M365.
Background:

It fits into our overall story as we have become increasingly aware that Managed Service Providers, VARs and customers are seeking a holistic solution that meets all their email security needs in one centralized package.

We had started out in this is direction by combining our state-of-the-art email security service 365 Total Protection, that protects against spam, viruses, phishing, ransomware, and advanced threats with high-performance backup and recovery for Microsoft 365 data in mailboxes, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint. This service also provides automated email continuity and legally compliant email archiving. To this we added Security Awareness Service, which trains employees using realistic spear phishing simulations and AI-powered e-training, heightening awareness of cyber security risks and threats and helping create a human firewall to complement our next-gen email security service. But we saw that more building blocks were needed.

Last year introduced this innovative new service to the overall offering, alongside AI Recipient Validation is an AI-based, self-learning service that continuously analyzes a user’s email communication patterns in the background to prevent email misdirection.

Our services are managed via one central, multitenant Control Panel and are also available as stand-alone offerings. This provides convenience and flexibility, coupled with ease of use and 24/7 technical support as part of the package.

The MediaGone 500 by Verity Systems is a precision-engineered shredder that safely eliminates a variety of media at the push of a button, including SSDs, flash drives, cell phones, CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray discs, credit cards, and hard drive platters.

The MediaGone 500 ensures complete media destruction for users across various industries by shredding materials to less than 4mm in width. The MediaGone 500 can be operated in an office environment and started by following the instructions displayed on its main LCD screen.

Its clear polycarbonate dome cover, reinforced with glass, allows users to safely observe the live destruction process of SSDs, flash drives, discs, or phones.

The MediaGone 500, the most effective and user-friendly shredder created by Verity Systems, features the latest LED lighting technology. Its straightforward touch screen allows users to access all capabilities, including selecting fine or coarse cuts for specific shredded particle sizes.
Available as a tabletop model or mounted on a cabinet with casters for mobility, the tabletop version includes a 1-gallon drawer that is easily removable when full. The cabinet-mounted version features infrared sensing technology that alerts the user via the display screen.

Built with hardened carbon steel cutters and a high-torque slip-free drive, the unit delivers maximum power while operating on a standard electrical outlet (110-125VAC/60Hz). Thermal sensors protect the drive train from malfunction or damage. Multiple safety interlocks and an emergency stop button ensure operator safety at all times.
Media Handing:

Solid-State Drives (SSD)* including M.2/NVMes, Flash drives, USB Sticks, Smartphones, Cell Phones, Mobile phones, CD, DVD, Blu- Ray, Credit Cards, Hard Drive platters.

Destroy Time: Less than 1 minute

Throughput: Up to 100 SDDs / 500 Flash Drives / 45 mobile phones per hour

The MediaGone 500 comes with a standard 12-month manufacturer's warranty. Extended warranties are also available. Our product build quality ensures that whether you opt for an extended warranty or not, our factory-based technical support team can assist you with any unit-related issues. We are available with free phone support and can be contacted via email. This product support is available for the entire lifetime of ownership.

For a Fortune 50 financial institution with a global presence, efficient risk management and stringent data compliance were imperative to safeguarding their vast operations. With data centers scattered across various countries and millions of files to scan, identifying sensitive information became a monumental task fraught with challenges. Recognizing the urgency and the potential risks, the institution turned to Data Dynamics, seeking their unparalleled expertise in streamlining sensitive data protection, governance, and compliance processes, ensuring not only regulatory adherence but also bolstering the overall security framework of the organization.

Business Need
Global Data Center Consolidation and Sensitive Information Identification

Data Center Consolidation: The need to consolidate data centers across multiple locations globally, optimizing operations and resources.
Sensitive Information Identification: The challenge of identifying sensitive information among the vast number of files scattered across the globe, safeguarding it against potential breaches.
Risk mitigation: Sensitive data protection and remediation for enhanced data compliance and governance

Challenges Faced
Unraveling the Complexity of Unstructured Data and Data Privacy Protection

Massive Unstructured Data: Dealing with a vast volume of unstructured data spread across geographical regions, including the US, UK, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
Data Governance and Privacy Protection: Inability to identify sensitive data and implement appropriate governance and privacy measures in compliance with regulations.
Classification and Audits: Difficulty in classifying data to meet regulatory requirements and conducting audits for effective risk management.
Transition Risks: Concerns about the risk involved in moving data to a new S3 platform.

Solution Offered
Intelligent Data Identification and Remediation for Enhanced Security & Compliance

Data Dynamics offered their innovative unified data management software with the following capabilities:

Intelligent Data Identification: Preliminary assessment and structuring of unstructured data, applying classification tags based on ownership, access, metadata, and content.
Data Analysis for Insights: Utilizing content analytics and a Data Science Engine for a Single Pane view of sensitive data, while employing industry-standard compliance and governance templates for risk classification.
Remediation and Data Protection: Implementing quarantine, secure storage, and an immutable audit trail supported by blockchain technology for identified sensitive data.
Role-based Access Control: Ensuring role-based access with intelligent file access control and file-re-permissioning to enhance data security.
Data Lifecycle Management - Data consolidation to drive continuous data protection, governance, and compliance


Business Impact
Strengthening Compliance and Centralized Data Management

Sensitive Data Detection: Twenty one thousand files containing passwords, security certificates, and API tokens were successfully identified from the 3M files scanned, mitigating potential risks.
Regulatory Compliance and Audit Reporting: Enhanced adherence to regulatory compliance requirements and streamlined audit reporting procedures.
Centralized Data Management: The implementation of a unified data management software, comprising of Data Mobility, Data Analytics, Data Security, and Data Compliance, enabled data consolidation and centralized management of sensitive data across multiple regions.

Juventus Football Club and Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, have signed a sponsorship agreement through which Fortinet becomes the new Official Cybersecurity Partner for the next two seasons, through 2026. Juventus has also chosen Fortinet’s industry-leading Security Fabric platform to reduce complexity and streamline the identification and resolution of network and security issues across the club’s facilities.

Home to Juventus football and its fans, Allianz Stadium has been a leader in sustainability and serves as one of the premier entertainment hubs and tourist attractions in Turin. Juventus will implement Fortinet solutions within the Continassa Area, including Juventus Headquarters, Allianz Stadium Data Center, J|hotel, J|medical, and First Team Training Center – JTC Continassa.

Fortinet’s Platform Approach Wins Over Juventus
Fortinet’s Security Fabric platform and unique ability to converge networking and security helps organizations like Juventus reduce complexity by consolidating siloed security tools, increase visibility, improve performance, and decrease the mean time to respond to incidents.

Fortinet’s industry-leading Secure Networking portfolio was critical to Juventus’ decision to select Fortinet as its Official Cybersecurity Partner. A core requirement for the project included the completion of an entire LAN Edge infrastructure swap prior to the season’s start, which included replacing more than 50 switches and 160 access points (APs) across 10 locations.

As part of the agreement, Juventus will implement a central FortiGate next-generation firewall (NGFW) cluster to control their switches and access points. By adding FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, Juventus now has a single pane of glass to help consolidate visibility and control for the full environment.

“This collaboration with Fortinet is a key milestone for Juventus as we aim to set new standards in technological advancement. We believe that together, we will be able to build a resilient network that will empower us to continue focusing on excelling on and off the pitch.” - Francesco Calvo, Managing Director Revenue & Institutional Relations at Juventus

“Integrating Fortinet’s next-generation firewalls and network security solutions into our infrastructure is a game changer for Juventus. These technologies offer us unparalleled control and visibility over our network, allowing us to secure our operations while optimizing performance across all our facilities.” - Mirko Rinaldini, Head of Information and Communication Technologies at Juventus

“As the Official Cybersecurity Partner of Juventus, we are thrilled to be a central contributor towards their goal of protecting one of the most technologically advanced venues in the world with the Fortinet Security Fabric. We look forward to collaborating with the team and finding new and unique ways Fortinet can help grow the fan and visitor experience across all of their facilities. - John Maddison, Chief Marketing Officer at Fortinet

NinjaOne automates the hardest parts of IT, empowering more than 17,000 IT teams with visibility, security, and control over all endpoints. The NinjaOne platform is proven to increase productivity, while reducing risk and IT costs. NinjaOne is consistently ranked #1 for its world-class support and is the top-rated software on G2 in seven categories including endpoint management, remote monitoring and management, and patch management.

NinjaOne has a healthy obsession with customer success, as evidenced by a 98 percent Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score. To provide the best possible customer service, the company invests 2-4 times what a typical B2B SaaS company invests in support. This investment enables NinjaOne to offer free and unlimited training, onboarding, and personalized support for every customer, and the company has, on average, under a 30-minute support response time. Additionally, NinjaOne product managers work with customers to drive and develop the product roadmap that solves current and future challenges, which they externally publish in detail.

“Since the very beginning, we have held the notion of providing exceptional engagements for our customers as absolutely critical to our success. This simple concept has allowed us to take a more holistic and consultative approach in enablement, rather than the traditional transactional experience seen in many other organizations,” said Michael Shelton, SVP of Strategy at NinjaOne.

NinjaOne increases productivity, reduces risk, and lowers costs for customers with automated endpoint management, and the company has been named the top-rated software on G2’s Summer 2024 report in eight categories, including endpoint management, RMM, MDM, and patch management.

Green Mountain designs, builds and operates highly secure, innovative, and sustainable colocation data centers in Norway and the UK. The data centers operate on low cost 100% renewable power and the use of free cooling creates high power efficiency. Green Mountain also builds Norway’s largest data center campus at Hamar and have partnered with German power company KMW to establish a new data center in the Frankfurt region.

Above all, the most important goal of our business is satisfied customers. We have delivered data center services with 100% uptime since day one. Furthermore, we are very transparent about the quality of our services to our customers. In other words, trust is fundamental to our business. Security is at the highest level, and the company holds several ISO certifications.

The University of Sussex welcomes over 18,000 full-time students from over 100 countries Worldwide and, as such, depends on high-capacity, high-speed networking to keep its people connected. When it came to student satisfaction with the university’s digital infrastructure, one key area suffered from recurring criticism: its WiFi. The existing solution had been comparatively under-invested and couldn’t support the learning requirements of the modern-day student.

The University didn’t only recognise a need for faster WiFi – but an opportunity for digital transformation. Intergence came highly recommended and successfully tendered for their role in a transformative new Network Replacement Programme (NRP).

Intergence are engaged in project, programme, change management and technology consultancy for the provision of the NRP which is a flagship initiative delivering a modern, secure, high-speed wired and wireless campus data network, essential for achieving strategic objectives. It has required complex coordination of a combination of technical works, civil engineering, people management and communication. It is bigger than anything the University has done independently over the past two decades.

The programme began with comprehensive options appraisals and an Outline Business Case, harmonising diverse departmental needs to ensure solutions were both functional and cost-effective.

The Final Business Case tackled strategic, commercial, financial, and management challenges, incorporating survey feedback and detailed requirements aimed at significantly enhancing user experience. This led to council approval and the release of necessary funds.

During procurement, we navigated stringent EU Directives and UK legislation, selecting suppliers who offered the best value and were aligned with university needs through innovative negotiations and competitive pricing strategies.

In the delivery phase, quick wins maintained stakeholder engagement, while rigorous value engineering balanced cost-efficiency with innovative solutions. Intergence’s programme management expertise ensured smooth transitions and effective resolution of unforeseen issues.

Since July 2021, the team have successfully navigated the programme from Outline Business Case through to delivery of the proposed solution, which includes:

• Approximately 300km of new fibre and associated ducting around campus
• Upgrade of over 200 IT equipment rooms
• Provision of new internal and external Wi-Fi access points
• Installation of over 3000 new devices and supporting software
• Implementation of a new service operating model

In parallel, Intergence are providing ongoing IT support to free-up internal network resources and to ensure that existing campus technologies are not left to languish.

The planning and implementation of the NRP is more than just a technical upgrade. Across the campus, students, staff, and research facilities alike will experience the following planned benefits:

• Enhanced security by contributing to cyber risk probability reduction.
• Improved productivity and satisfaction because of a superior network and Wi-Fi experience
• Reduced CO2 emissions through more energy efficient IT equipment and increased remote working.
• Increased business continuity by improving network availability and performance
• Faster and more secure data transfers from improved connectivity, speed and resilience

“Intergence weren’t content to simply provide an iterative upgrade. They’ve implemented a transformative approach to our network that has benefitted everybody across the campus – faculty included. Their solutions are part of a broader technical drive for the University and, on the basis of these results, allude to an exciting digital future for the University of Sussex” - University of Sussex

Intergence’s dedication to outcomes and focus on teamwork, communication and collaboration have been instrumental in delivering this complex, cross-functional NRP. These efforts have positioned the University of Sussex as a leader in digital innovation, exceeding expectations and systematically addressing challenges to lay a solid foundation for successful completion. The strategic approach of the NRP meets both immediate and long-term goals, significantly advancing the university’s digital infrastructure and supporting its community.

Q1. What was the driving force behind the project – what business and technology challenge needed to be addressed?
Ans – Below were key challenges and customer priorities.
• Establishing regional service desk with English as operating language for providing support to UK & Ireland and rest of Europe
o Scope of service operations to cover client’s permanent employees, contractors, vendors, and Remote users/ mobile users
o Channels of communication to be Web, Phone, Chat, and E-mail
o Service deck to operate 8x5 local business hours London and UK and stand by support for off business hours

• A three-tiered service desk to facilitate best end-user satisfaction and better resolution
o Service Desk operation
o GAM (Global Account Management)
o Remote Desktop Operations

• Tools investment
o ITSM and Chat tools
o Self-service Password re-set tools
o All other infrastructure tools like access to Active Directory, SCCM, Office 365 etc. to enable support
o For reporting – MyXnalytics and ITSM reporting functions
o Telecom infrastructure – IP phones, DID procurements, Headsets, Laptops, Network, IVR, ACD

• Communication methodology
o Communication to business on any changes in the service desk operations
o Communication to business on any changes in the service desk communication channels

• Knowledge transfer
o Transition of knowledge from India desk to UK desk
o Sign off on the updated run book as per new scope

Q2. How did the solution address the challenges and were there any particularly innovative aspects that made it stand out?
Ans - WorkBlaze is HCLTECH’s digital end user experience monitoring tool equipped with AIOps, real-time workplace analytics to spot trends and correlate, remediate issue before they are widespread, and gather contextual user feedback to enhance employee experience and productivity. It provides a unique User Experience index (UEI) across devices, applications, and network to bring proactiveness in the ecosystem and reduce the IT-user gap.

Device information display – During lockdown end user reach outs to remote support teams increased 3 to 5-fold. Majority of these queries were around mandatory software like VPN or admin installations etc. The remote users however struggled to share mandate information like IP address or device names with remote support teams. This activity was taking up to 10 minutes. WorkBlaze solved the problem by displaying mandate information on desktops so users could share the information within seconds.

Performance and device experience – Unnecessary applications at the Start Up menu were leading to extended device logon duration and thus were resulting in poor experience. WorkBlaze auto heal action automatically selected and disabled those applications which should not be enabled at Start Up menu.

Service desk empowerment – WorkBlaze integration to ServiceNow led to tremendous improvement in service desk performance due to WorkBlaze remote heal features. For any impacted configuration item information from WorkBlaze was pulled including all device health information which was then displayed to support agents. The information also included recommended resolutions/fixes. All this helped in isolating issues/ stage containment of issues i.e. resolving issues at L1 stage which would have otherwise gone to L2/L3 stages. The end results were fewer service desk tickets creation, faster resolution, and lower cost of solving issues.

End User feedbacks – Elaborate and comprehensive campaigns were designed in WorkBlaze to capture end-user feedbacks. Execution of these feedback gathering campaigns helped uncover some key operational issues.
• Battery health issue: Battery health issues were spotted using WorkBlaze feedback campaigns. The increasing trends alarmed WorkBlaze monitoring about underlying issues. This was also in correlation with our proactive batter monitoring remote actions. WorkBlaze team further investigated devices under warranty, and these were later picked with vendor for replacement.
• Printer issue: End user feedback trends also alarmed monitoring team about printer issues which were not visible among Incidents. The team proactively picked this trend for investigation and underlying global printer issue was identified.

Compliance posture - Local Admin identities were created on End users\' devices which earlier were not even targeted by GPO due to conflicting policies, WorkBlaze remote action automatically disable all local identities from customer devices, this remote action has resulted in improvement on your Security Compliance trend.

Tailored innovative initiatives
Live Chat - HCLTECH’s end-to-end AI enabled cognitive virtual assistance solution- Lucy. A unified one stop shop for all end-user queries (IT, Travel, HR, procurement, finance, & all others) providing a single source of truth. It is made available on web and both desktop and mobile versions of MSTeams for customer employees. It mimics human interactions, learns, and adapts to user needs through smart conversations by leveraging enterprise-grade Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML). As it understands users’ profiles, personas, job roles etc., it provides tailored & dynamic responses, thus becoming a single point of contacts for end users.
An important note here is that any standard self-service bot (A ‘Tell Bot’) is trained on Frequently Asked Questions and provides Standard Operating Procedure. The onus remains on users to understand and follow the steps to complete a task. On the other hand, our solution’s integration with various applications and its natural language processing abilities provides it sense and act abilities (A ‘Do Bot’).
Take an example when Lucy encounters users’ queries like why their computer is slow. Lucy is integrated with HCLTECH’s end user experience monitoring solution WorkBlaze. It interacts with WorkBlaze, analyses user computer performance data and checks user experience score, diagnoses the problem and basis user persona & job role, provides recommended actions. Once user confirms, Lucy performs these actions to resolve issues. Lucy has been trained for over 5 years on 500 IT and non-IT use cases, so it works as an out of the box solution which can be implemented very quickly.
Additionally, in some specific cases where Lucy is unable to assist the end user, it offers the option to the user to instantly transfer the chat to a Service Desk agent or create a ticket in Service Now.

IAutomate – It helps automate end user IT Operations like User on-boarding, off-boarding account modifications, mailing list creation and updates etc. In customer
environment, Service Requests, Scheduled Tasks, adhoc Bulk modification or creation requests and Incidents are handled via IAutomate.
The tool automatically executes the Runbook based on the Service Request received and resolves ticket post notifying end user. In case of failure ticket is transferred to Service Desk queue for further checks. The system is ‘continuously learning’ and customizable as per requirements.

VVIP Red Button/ Dedicated Executive Support – There was a need for a dedicated support for top customer executives, the need got intensified during the pandemic driven remote work as employees moved away from office.
The app is deployed on Microsoft Teams connecting VVIPs to dedicated Support immediately with a single click along with option of scheduling a call back at desired time. This app is also integrated with ServiceNow to create ticket for dedicated VVIP Support Group.
A highly skilled workforce capable of handling all types of end user issues is tasked to handle VVIPs in UK, through emergency support app in Power Apps Virtual Agent.

Q3. What major challenges were faced during the project and how were they overcome?
Ans - Embracing the post COVID challenge of new ways of working:
With the advent of 2020 businesses hurriedly went into a complete remote work model in a matter of weeks. The pandemic drastically changed the ways of working for the post covid world. HCLTECH helped the customer solidify their digital workplace strategy and brought out many initiatives to support business continuity of the customer while safeguarding the workforce.
Proactive monitoring and auto ticketing - Case in point was on site support teams, who were needed to be physically present to support end-user issues and requests. WorkBlaze facilitated ‘Auto Tickets’ creation for on-site support groups based on device alerts from WorkBlaze. This program was rolled out for 100 VVIP user devices as this user group needed personalized support. Threshold of each device alert was defined, and auto tickets were routed to location based SFO.
These personalized services helped bridge the gap during locked down and onsite teams were also utilized efficiently.

Q4. What tangible benefits has the organization seen as a result of the project’s implementation?
Ans - Contractual SLAs for HCLTECH services are constantly reported as green and trending positive and the governance is observed to be effective by the client
IAutomate reduced turnaround time from 8 hours to less than 10 minutes.
75% of GAM Tasks automated, while EUC Incident closure for Alert tickets is approx. 70% Inc. Closure – 70%
Proactive remote heal led to continuous improvement in DEX score taking it above par with industry standards.
Unique attributes of the engagement
1. Going above and beyond client needs/asks to create industry beating results even during pandemic
2. Solving together – End user feedback through WorkBlaze surveys to unearth issues
3. Taking charge of customer success – VVIP red button enablement
4. Obsessive customer centricity – Live assistance, Experience driven KPIs, XLAs

Leading in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Schneider Electric’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) POW (Potential of Women) comes out on top. Established in March 2021, the POW ERG has quickly become a cornerstone of the UK&I operations, dedicated to empowering women and drive forward meaningful and lasting change in a safe and supportive workspace. This group was founded with a clear mission: to support, encourage, and engage women in reaching their full potential, both personally and professionally.

POW ERG emerged as Schneider Electric's pioneering Employee Resource Group in the UK&I since its establishment, with its main aim being simple yet crucial: empowering employees, championing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and creating opportunities for connection and community. This group was created to collectively address the unique challenges faced by women in the workplace, offering a platform for employees to drive meaningful organisational change. Importantly, the group established a safe environment for employees to discuss the sensitive topics such as menopause, miscarriage, the gender pay gap, anxiety, breast cancer, body image, and more - issues that significantly impact women's career progression but are rarely openly discussed.

What sets POW ERG apart is its employee-led initiative, ensuring topics for discussion are submitted directly by its attendees that are impactful for the community. Since its inception, the group has seen exponential growth in its network, fostering a thriving community of over 800 individuals who meet monthly. This growth has led to over ten spin-off circles being created, each concentrating on a specific topic of interest, such as Women's Health, Women Returners, Women in Sales, and Women in Engineering. These thought-provoking circles, taking place between the main sessions, allow for a much deeper exploration into topics and look to drive actionable changes across the organisation, benefitting areas where women might otherwise feel alone in discussing.

The impact of POW ERG extends beyond these circles. The group has been instrumental in leading a broader cultural shift, a heightened sense of belonging, and a significant transformation in the organisation’s DEI approach, contributing to a more inclusive and supportive workplace.

The success of POW ERG would not have been possible without the unwavering support of its female zone president, who has been a loyal advocate since its establishment. The ERG's steering committee reflects diverse perspectives, featuring representatives from all areas of the business and individuals at various career stages. This male and female sponsor inclusivity from ExCo ensures a wide range of perspectives is heard, allowing for women-specific discussions, and offering male colleagues the important opportunity to learn the challenges women face in a male-dominated industry. Initially some male employees felt excluded from these discussions, but through the ERG’s enlightening sessions, many of these same employees began to understand more and became strong advocates for the group's purpose. They now actively invite their colleagues, contributing to the network's expansion and fostering a culture of inclusivity.

POW ERG’s impact has inspired numerous new initiatives driven by its employees to enhance inclusivity. For example, the group prompted a comprehensive review of the PPE offerings, resulting in a diverse range of female PPE in inclusive sizing, effectively dispelling the notion of unisex PPE. The ERG's menopause session catalysed the creation of a dedicated Schneider UK menopause policy, complete with training. This initiative has had a global ripple effect, with its US business hosting their own courageous conversation on menopause, inspired by the UK&A’s session’s traction and positive actions.

Moreover, the group successfully hosted its inaugural UK&I female networking conference, bringing together all their female employees for in-person connections and the strengthening of their internal network, fostering a greater sense of community. They also organised their first internal international collaboration event, 'Championing Women: Empowering Career Growth through Mentoring, Coaching, and Sponsorship,' alongside Schneider’s NAM Women's Network WISE. This drew the group’s largest audience yet, with 700 attendees, including approximately 400 UK&I employees.

Looking ahead, POW ERG is poised to continue its journey for organisational transformation. Anticipating the formation of multiple new circles and support networks throughout the year, it aids in extending support and encouraging a sense of belonging to different corners of the organisation. Currently, the group is exploring avenues to expand its focus beyond gender, creating an ERG that is centred around inclusivity to exceed the traditional one-dimensional Employee Resource Group landscape.

The ERG aims to be intentionally inclusive, multicultural, and multi-generational, recognising that people have complex and intersecting needs that go beyond a single identity group. This approach ensures continuation for the path to achieve meaningful culture changes, community-building, and employee belonging, while maintaining a safe space for its employees to be heard. ERG is also committed to expanding the smaller talking circles to create new spaces for other underrepresented groups within its organisation. POW ERG has always championed expanding the conversation beyond the organisation.

Q1. What are your company’s key distinguishing features and/or USP with regard to your products and/or services?
Ans - At HCLTech, we have developed a comprehensive framework for creating a sustainable digital workplace that balances the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. Our ACE framework consists of three steps: Assess, Consult, and Evolve. We help our customers assess their current workplace sustainability status, consult them on building a roadmap that aligns with their organizational goals and industry best practices, and evolve their workplace by implementing the initiatives and engaging their employees.
Our framework covers three key aspects of the digital workplace: devices, workspaces, and employees. We offer carbon-neutral remanufactured devices with enterprise-grade performance, real-time monitoring of energy consumption and e-waste management, and persona-aligned device profiling and provisioning. Our solutions enable our customers to create a low-carbon, low-energy, and high-performance workplace that fosters creativity and collaboration.
By adopting a sustainable digital workplace approach, our customers can reap multiple benefits, such as:
• Enhanced brand reputation and customer loyalty
• Improved employee engagement and retention
• Increased operational efficiency and profitability
• Reduced environmental impact and compliance risks
We believe that sustainability and growth are not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually reinforcing. By leveraging green IT and other cutting-edge technologies, we can help our customers monitor, analyze, and optimize their workplace carbon emissions, energy usage, and resource dependency. We can also help them harness the power of data, AI, and machine learning to identify anomalies, opportunities, and best practices for improving their corporate sustainability efforts.
We are proud to showcase our sustainable digital workplace framework as an example of how technology can enable organizations to achieve long-term success and viability, while making a positive difference for the planet and society.


Q2. What tangible impact had your company had on the market and your customers?
Ans – Some of the challenges faced by IT organizations across industry in end user computing are below:
• No monitoring of End User Devices from performance and UX perspective
• IT support for end users is usually reactive than proactive
• Customer Satisfaction Index [CSAT] often fails to capture the true representation of end-user perception of IT
• Difficulty in identifying adoption of specific services within a specific community
• Inability to accurately measure utilization of technology & Inability to directly measure the user experience on the Cloud on a real-time basis

• Our green IT solution breaks the vicious cycle in which the IT teams are trapped by providing the real-time analytics on carbon consumption, contextual employee feedback and automated remediation that the organization needs to progress from reactive measures to proactive improvement. Case in Point is a British multinational packaging company that reduced power consumption for End User Devices (Overall reduction of 49,405 kWh in Energy consumption and 12,953 in kgCO2 in first 3 calendar year months of 2024 & Average monthly percentage reduction of 12% kWh and 10% kgCO2).

Q3. Please supply any supportive quotes and/or case study materials to support your entry.
Ans - A British multinational packaging company that reduced power consumption for End User Devices (Overall reduction of 49,405 kWh in Energy consumption and 12,953 in kgCO2 in first 3 calendar year months of 2024 & Average monthly percentage reduction of 12% kWh and 10% kgCO2).

NinjaOne automates the hardest parts of IT, empowering more than 17,000 IT teams with visibility, security, and control over all endpoints. The NinjaOne platform is proven to increase productivity, while reducing risk and IT costs. NinjaOne is consistently ranked #1 for its world-class support and is the top-rated software on G2 in seven categories including endpoint management, remote monitoring and management, and patch management.

NinjaOne has a healthy obsession with customer success, as evidenced by a 98 percent Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score. To provide the best possible customer service, the company invests 2-4 times what a typical B2B SaaS company invests in support. This investment enables NinjaOne to offer free and unlimited training, onboarding, and personalized support for every customer, and the company has, on average, under a 30-minute support response time. Additionally, NinjaOne product managers work with customers to drive and develop the product roadmap that solves current and future challenges, which they externally publish in detail.

“Since the very beginning, we have held the notion of providing exceptional engagements for our customers as absolutely critical to our success. This simple concept has allowed us to take a more holistic and consultative approach in enablement, rather than the traditional transactional experience seen in many other organizations,” said Michael Shelton, SVP of Strategy at NinjaOne.

NinjaOne increases productivity, reduces risk, and lowers costs for customers with automated endpoint management, and the company has been named the top-rated soft

Hyve Managed Hosting is a global cloud hosting provider that specialises in delivering tailored, high-performance managed hosting solutions for businesses.

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Brighton, Hyve offers a wide range of services, including dedicated servers, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and colocation services. Hyve's core focus is on providing a fully managed service, combining enterprise-grade hosting solutions with exceptional customer support.
What sets Hyve apart is its emphasis on creating bespoke, secure cloud environments that meet the specific needs of its clients. Their services cater to businesses across various industries, including eCommerce, finance, and government, and their expertise in cloud architecture helps businesses manage high traffic, particularly during peak periods such as Black Friday.

Hyve’s private cloud solution has been a standout offering, providing companies like Remarkable Commerce with the ability to dynamically scale resources in response to fluctuating customer demands, ensuring uninterrupted service during critical times. This cloud service is known for its reliability, agility, and enhanced security.

IT Glue stands out in the market due to its unparalleled ability to centralize and streamline IT documentation. Its unique features include:
• Automated Documentation: IT Glue automatically captures and updates key information from various IT systems, ensuring that documentation is always current and accurate. It provides a centralized, single-pane-of-glass view of all critical information, eliminating the
• Secure Password Management: Integrated with powerful password management capabilities, IT Glue ensures that credentials are stored securely and accessed only by authorized personnel.
• Flexible API: IT Glue’s flexible API allows seamless integration with a wide array of third-party applications, enhancing its versatility and usability across different IT environments.
• IT Glue Copilot: This AI-powered feature automatically suggests asset relationships and intelligently summarizes critical information, saving AI technicians loads of time so they can focus on what matters most.

Tangible Impact on the Market and Customers:
IT Glue has transformed the way IT professionals manage documentation, providing significant benefits such as:
• Increased Efficiency: By automating documentation tasks, IT Glue allows IT teams to save time and reduce manual effort, leading to increased productivity.
• Enhanced Accuracy: Real-time updates and synchronization with IT systems ensure that documentation is always accurate, minimizing errors and improving reliability.
• Improved Collaboration: IT Glue fosters better collaboration among IT team members by providing a centralized platform where all documentation is easily accessible and shareable.

Major Differentiators:
Compared to its competitors, IT Glue offers:
• Comprehensive Integration: IT Glue’s extensive integration capabilities with a wide range of IT tools and platforms make it a versatile solution that fits seamlessly into existing workflows.
• User-Friendly Interface: The intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface ensures that IT professionals can quickly adopt and utilize the platform with minimal training.
• Robust Security Features: IT Glue prioritizes data security with features like encrypted password storage and granular access controls, ensuring that sensitive information is well-protected.

Supportive Quotes and Case Study Materials:
“After implementing IT Glue, we can actually leverage one system to have a more streamlined way of doing documentation.”
- Martin Phillip Maleshyn, CEO / Partner oof CURAit, Hovedstaden
“At PulseOne, we’re always striving to deliver an amazing, excellent end-user experience… if your techs and engineers aren’t able to get to documentation fast [or] if they’re not able to get to documentation at all because it wasn’t documented, ultimately the end-user experience is terrible… that’s what’s always driving us at PulseOne… how do we keep making the end-user experience as best as possible [and] as fast as possible.”
- Chad Wiggins, PulseOne Co-Founder and Partner
“IT Glue has been the cornerstone of our business for years now.”
- Dave Clipp, President and CEO, Atom Creek
“IT Glue is like the IT bible for me; I can’t do anything without it.”
- Scott Cloy, CISO at Savadge Networking Solutions

1) Distinguishing Features -
a) Provisioning ‘Experience-as-a-service’ to support end-to-end device life cycle management.
b) Extending mobility with 5G for enterprise users in the hybrid work model, going beyond Wi-Fi.
c) Enabling faster and more dependable connectivity, proving advantageous for various sectors, including financial services, technology, life sciences, healthcare, telecom, media, and entertainment.
d) Assuaging data security worries for users working remotely.
e) Bringing experience equity to all worker personas – desk, remote, on-the-go or frontline.

2) Tangible Impact -
FlexSpace 5G supports the entire workplace experience value chain and enables a smooth transition to a digital workplace for all categories of employees, whether at the desk, remote, on-the-go or on the frontline.
Equipping organizations with the necessary tools for productivity, FlexSpace 5G provides a reliable and secure network infrastructure that is designed to support hybrid workforces. It enables access to critical applications and data from any location while ensuring enterprise-grade security to safeguard confidential information.

1) Differentiators -
a) Provisioning ‘Experience-as-a-service’ to support end-to-end device life cycle management.
b) Extending mobility with 5G for enterprise users in the hybrid work model, going beyond Wi-Fi.
c) Enabling faster and more dependable connectivity, proving advantageous for various sectors, including financial services, technology, life sciences, healthcare, telecom, media, and entertainment.
d) Assuaging data security worries for users working remotely.
e) Bringing experience equity to all worker personas – desk, remote, on-the-go or frontline.

End to end device management
• Plan & design – Right devices based on dynamic nano personas
• Deploy & integrate – Customized configuration and deployment
• Manage & support – Custom 24*7 support (automated, proactive, predictive)
• Optimize & refresh – Accelerate refresh gets users productive fast

4) Supportive quotes and/or case study materials -

• Consulting (Financial advisor) - Meeting a client over lunch with connected laptop means you are always present online knowing your information is secure in transit without having to connect to the client\'s home network or public Wi-Fi.
• Construction (Onsite contractor) – Whether at a residential home or commercial building or renovation, being able to grab documents, schematics and specifications from the cloud and check on the status or real-time plan changes could be critical for someone working in the construction industry
• Healthcare Personnel - Professionals working within the healthcare industry are no longer bound to a fixed workstation that requires a lengthy boot-up time. Connected laptops enable the secure transfer of large scale medical files, such as medical records and images, for expedited review
• Oil and mining (Workforce engineers) – Operating on oil rigs and in mining exploration can benefit from rugged versions of connected laptops that offer next -level performance, no matter the environment.
• Education (Students/professionals) - Connected laptops offer consistent and reliable access to content, allowing for meaningful and rewarding collaboration among education professionals.
• Creator (Content creators) - Graphic designers, video editors and animators doing complex data modelling and analysis could benefit from a connected laptop capable of running applications visually anywhere

Our client a prominent global provider specializing in managed fixed wireless access solutions, faced a significant challenge in delivering full layer 2 services to its global carrier and telecommunications clients. The company\'s mission was to provide a solution that replicated the same quality and reliability as a physical Ethernet connection. However, the solution also needed to be highly scalable, enabling telecom firms to deploy it across thousands of enterprise customers scattered around the globe. This requirement presented a unique challenge, as the technology needed to seamlessly integrate with the existing infrastructure while ensuring scalability and reliability across multiple continents.
To address this challenge, our client evaluated several protocols and technologies, such as Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) and link layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP). These protocols are widely used in networking for various purposes, including network virtualization and device discovery. VXLAN, for instance, is a popular protocol for overlaying virtual networks on top of physical infrastructure, offering the flexibility to extend layer 2 networks across wide areas. However, despite the potential benefits of these technologies, our client encountered limitations that prevented them from fully meeting their objectives. These limitations included issues with latency, complexity in deployment, data fragmentation, inefficient throughput r a lack of support for the scale and reliability required by Our client\'s global telecom clients. As a result, the company found itself unable to deliver the desired solution without compromising on key performance metrics or customer experience.
In search of a better solution, our client turned to iQuila, a company specializing in innovative networking solutions. By collaborating with iQuila, our client was able to deploy virtual iQuila Enterprise servers at strategic points of presence (PoP) around the world. These PoPs served as critical hubs for delivering the network services to customers across different regions. In addition to the iQuila servers, Our client deployed Cradlepoint routers at every customer end location. Cradlepoint is known for its advanced wireless edge solutions, particularly for LTE and 5G networks. By utilizing Cradlepoint routers, our client could ensure robust and reliable connectivity for each customer.
To further enhance the solution, iQuila\'s Bridge software was installed on each Cradlepoint device. This software acted as a crucial link between the customer\'s location and the iQuila server infrastructure at the nearest PoP. By creating this link, our client could deliver a seamless layer 2 connection, which was traditionally only possible with physical infrastructure. This breakthrough allowed global telecom companies to provide their enterprise customers with the same level of service they would expect from a physical Ethernet connection, but without the limitations of geographic boundaries or the need for extensive physical infrastructure.
The impact of this solution was significant. Our client not only succeeded in delivering a new and innovative service to some of the largest firms in the world, but the company also realized substantial operational benefits. By streamlining their technology stacks at their PoPs, our client was able to achieve cost savings through reduced hardware requirements and lower energy consumption. This combination of cutting-edge technology and strategic deployment enabled Our client to remain at the forefront of the industry, delivering unparalleled service to its global telecom clients and their enterprise customers.

The AgileEdge model was created from a recognition that the traditional, established data centre model is outdated and no longer adequately supports the expanding need for greater agility and connectivity at the edge. The fast-moving, complex IT demands being generated across advanced computing applications and business transformations are rendering long-established data centre strategies obsolete or unmanageable.

On-premises data centres are proving to be too inefficient and costly for a large number of users, and cumbersome software inhibits rapid innovation and reliable performance as the pace of data consumption ramps up. To remedy this challenge and pave a more efficient, powerful path for data and compute, AgileEdge transforms the conventional data centre design model and offers a new, standardised design and construction methodology.

Built on AtlasEdge’s already strong footprint of edge colocation deployments — the largest in Europe, AgileEdge amplifies AtlasEdge’s ability to support customers as they seek to establish true edge colocation and connectivity that combines low-latency access to enterprises and consumers, as well as direct access to the largest ISP and NSP providers.

By prioritizing smart supply chain management and cutting-edge design philosophies, AgileEdge delivers rapid site development that truly moves at the pace of digital transformation, making it the new leading edge of digital infrastructure. AgileEdge was built to deliver consistent quality across a range of deployment sizes alongside sustainability, tailoring data centres for the next generation of Big Data without sacrificing on long-term, industry-wide ecological goals.

By adapting to a new era of demand and refusing to compromise on any of the contemporary organization’s top priorities, AgileEdge is poised to be Europe’s leading edge platform.

As the only data centre platform designed and optimised using powerful machine learning tools to seamlessly support the next generation of machine learning applications, AgileEdge represents a stark departure from slow, complex, costly and capital-intensive data center design models. In this way, AgileEdge is a superior solution for a modern, fast-moving market that needs to expand its digital infrastructure quickly and powerfully.

What Makes AgileEdge Different:
Unique in its data centre design and construction approach, AgileEdge prioritises flexibility and rapid deployment at scale — without sacrificing the precision needed for empowering advanced IT. It delivers consistency through standard ‘packages’ tailored to a range of needs, offering greater accessibility to edge computing opportunities while streamlining the process of realizing that potential and rapidly assembling solutions that support specific project requirements.
AgileEdge sets itself apart by delivering innovative solutions rooted in these four strategic pillars:

Packaging: Each AgileEdge data centre is designed from a small number of pre-packaged elements, based on customer requirements and project scope, as well as AtlasEdge’s supply chain alignment. This ensures all the components that are needed are sourced and delivered together to be rapidly assembled on site.

Procurement: AgileEdge’s collaborative and cross market insights underpins this package-based approach, supporting the creation of locally designed data centres.

Production: AgileEdge projects are aligned through its centralised multi-purchase production and logistics tracking platform. This captures availability of various AgileEdge packages from the ecosystem of AtlasEdge vendors.

Planning: AgileEdge’s overarching approach ensures rapid test-fits for new sites, reducing time to market for customers.

AgileEdge leverages powerful machine learning tools to optimize design and support next-generation machine learning platforms within data centres, employing real-time performance testing and reporting, energy-efficient cooling methods, and energy storage solutions to contribute positively to sustainability efforts within the data centre industry.

AgileEdge is integrated with a robust supply chain management system, which ensures efficient procurement, stocking and visibility into data centre packages — a significant advantage in a market constrained by long lead times. Delivering collaborative insights to customers alongside its unique package-based approach, production can be accelerated and more optimally aligned with local market demands as needed.

These advantages are taken further thanks to AgileEdge’s focus on standardisation.

Built for applications that require real-time, instant communication and agility, AgileEdge’s model mirrors those requirements and delivers a data centre model that is built to suit these demands.

With a uniform operational, people and support model, AgileEdge’s model is capable of significantly streamlining operating costs while providing customers with enhanced reliability and value. These data centres can be constructed with consistent quality compared to traditional sites across all sizes of deployment, and with interchangeable packages, new technologies and infrastructure upgrades can be easily adopted for greater efficiency and more impactful customer outcomes.

Finally, in the pursuit of making advanced applications more sustainable, AgileEdge positions customers to be positive energy contributors.

Agile edge enables energy storage with large-scale batteries that can be integrated as needed, improving interoperability with the electrical grid. The use of fan walls and liquid cooling also result in 10x less electricity required for cooling when compared to a traditional data centre, and AgileEdge’s cutting-edge design allows for 100% reuse of our waste heat. These facilities participate in demand response, contributing excess generated energy back into networks, while surplus production from renewables can be stored locally within the data centre to enhance renewable economic schemes.

From efficiency that supports sustainability to advantages that shorten time to innovation for aggressively growing customers, AgileEdge\'s standardized model reduces operating costs, offers consistent quality across deployments, and allows for easy adoption of new technology upgrades.

AgileEdge was created to empower organizations pursuing a range of advanced data centre and connectivity use cases to more effectively harness a new model of edge building for a new era of compute and networking demands, offering an ideal method for expanding digital infrastructure resources at scale while remaining agile, sustainable and ahead of the curve.

1) Solution\'s Key Distinguishing Features -
It is an AI platform for creating and delivering end-to-end digital assistance for a wide range of industry cases.
• It uses generative AI, natural language processing and machine learning to automate and generate conversations to invoke the actions at the end of these conversations for our customers.
• It offers the variety of use-cases in different domains like HR, IT, Procurement, Supply chain across various industries like Energy, FMCG, Medical, banking, Manufacturing and many more.
• AEX also offers few OTB use-cases with the total count of 1650 in seven different languages and in several different domains in the traditional NLP environment and if we consider the Generative AI environment AEX offers seamless language translation in 22 languages without any human effort.
• AEX has 5 key features which includes:
• Conversational AI is a user-friendly low code UI which supports user query understanding and response, multilingual capability, auto-generation of use-cases.
• Generative AI that helps in generating smart auto response by understanding the conversational flow with context awareness.
• End-user healing that helps in auto-remediation via unassisted automation and Agent assist, which provides service desk agent via live agent chat management. These are 2 modules of AEX which ensures that user can get end-to-end assistance.
• AEX understands that security is major concern for any individual and it provides the data encryption at both Rest as well as in-transit.

2) Tangible Impact of the Solution -
a) Enhanced user experience
b) Time efficient information retrieval
c) 24 x 7 availability
d) Transformation from search-based experience to a conversation-driven experience
e) Improved response efficiency with zero wait time.
f) Enhanced user experience with more than 60% repeat users.
g) MIA impact on SD volume is at a significant ~26%
h) Effort saving of 4k man hours achieved as a result of FCR provided by AEX
i) First Call Resolution of 88%
j) CSAT of 98%

3) Major Differentiators of your Products/Solution -
a) It uses generative AI, natural language processing and machine learning to automate and generate conversations to invoke the actions at the end of these conversations for our customers.
b) AEX has 5 key features which includes:
• Conversational AI is a user-friendly low code UI which supports user query understanding and response, multilingual capability, auto-generation of use-cases.
• Generative AI that helps in generating smart auto response by understanding the conversational flow with context awareness.
• End-user healing that helps in auto-remediation via unassisted automation and Agent assist, which provides service desk agent via live agent chat management. These are 2 modules of AEX which ensures that user can get end-to-end assistance.
• AEX understands that security is major concern for any individual and it provides the data encryption at both Rest as well as in-transit.

4) Supportive Materials - Use Cases

Customer 1: Finnish Industrial machinery organization focused on providing technology and services
Revenue : USD 3.2 Billion (2018)
Employees : 13,000

Challenge -
. Complex infrastructure and application landscape with multiple data repositories.
. Long and manual information retrieval life cycle with lengthy data reconciliation.
. Lack of information indexing within multiple repositories leading to inflated timelines.
. Sluggish User experience with impact on user productivity leading to decrease in business efficiency.

Solution -
. AEX was implemented as a Single Point of Contact available on Customer portal and web for users, eliminating the need of manually routing between and within the repositories.
. It ingested and analyzed 83,000 documents spread across 2 different repositories for multiple business domains including HR, Finance, IT and Legal to understand, index and fetch the relevant information.
. In a scenario where AEX could not find a relevant answer in any of the repositories, it fetched that information from external sources (internet) and presented it to the user.
. AEX can also transfer the conversation to a human expert when required or otherwise open a service desk ticket on users behalf.
. As a next step Lucy will mature into taking actions on users behalf driven by RPA integration.

Benefits -
. Enhanced user experience
. Time efficient information retrieval
. 24 x 7 availability
. Transformation from search-based experience to a conversation-driven experience

Customer 2: American multinational confectionery food, and, beverage holding company
Revenue : USD 25.9 Billion (2018)
Employees : 42,000

Challenge -
. To address next generation needs of customers through technology and automation.
. Inconsistent customer experience across communicated channels with long closure cycles.
. High turnover rates and Operating costs due to live chats, email, and phone support which needed self-service automation.
. High volume of tickets for redundant issues and the need to left shift those.

Solution -
. AEX was implemented as a part of clients Digital Strategy and User First portfolio of tools aimed at transforming user experience in AMEA, LA, NA and UK region.
. AEX trained on 140 Use Cases covering IT and Procurement issues.
. AEX also provides a Multilingual platform to support users from all countries in their native languages.

Benefits -
a) Improved response efficiency with zero wait time.
b) Enhanced user experience with more than 60% repeat users.
c) MIA impact on SD volume is at a significant ~26%
d) Effort saving of 4k man hours achieved as a result of FCR provided by AEX
e) First Call Resolution of 88%
f) CSAT of 98%

What is your product\'s / solution\'s key distinguishing features and/or USP?
Digital transformation has created the need to minimize demand times, offer different technologies under one roof, and minimize the human and hardware dependency of processes. While digitalization was achieved at the infrastructure layer with the Cloud project, it set an example within Türk Telekom in terms of infrastructure teams taking part in product and service development. The work, which was initiated to minimize human effort and adopt the IaC (infrastructure as code) approach, served as a catalyst in taking a number of initiatives. By transferring L1 tasks to automation channels via digital services, the L1 workload density problem was resolved.
What tangible impact has your product/solution had on the market and your customers?
Our project had a direct impact on achieving the targeted SRE model with digitalization and fulfilling the cultural transformation goals. The desire and curiosity for open source products has increased among employees who have adopted the SRE model, and in this context, a 120% increase in the open source managed service catalog has been achieved. It is aimed to reduce meetings by transferring the processes followed by employees to automation flows and digital services.
What are the major differentiators between your product/solution and those of your primary competitors?
Our project, which was initiated as a central automation initiative within Türk Telekom, was supported by the SRE approach we initiated to support cultural transformation and turned into a digital service. The service catalog solution developed in our product, which makes the lives of Türk Telekom employees easier in many areas and offers a hybrid cloud experience, directly encouraged the use of open source and enabled us to achieve success of up to 90%. The risks that became evident around experience and continuity have been eliminated with the standards created and the solutions implemented, and a significant contribution has been made in this field. The automation and centrally managed services initiative, which started with 21 employees, has turned into an open source ecosystem supported by 130 employees. These employees became role models for 3000 people and shared their knowledge and experience at the Cloud Team meetings. An open source culture has been developed through joint work within the institution. This contribution has allowed us to quickly commission open source projects and sometimes contribute to these projects. The project we started was not limited to IaaS and PaaS automation, but continued with the addition of open source products to the service catalog and turned into a large ecosystem with FaaS and Machine Learning based Anomaly detection stages.
During the development of our project, we gained skills in versioning, writing code, working in protocols such as rest API, and developing a common protocol that allows different layers to communicate.
Since all processes are realized with automation flows, employee dependency has been reduced by up to 80%.



Please supply any supportive quotes and/or case study materials to demonstrate the value of this product/solution to your customers/partners.
The work, which was initiated to minimize human effort and adopt the IaC (infrastructure as code) approach, served as a catalyst in taking a number of initiatives. While 90% of L1 tasks were transferred to automation channels via digital services, action was taken in the first phase of the project for 25% of L2 tasks.
By transferring the processes followed by employees to automation flows and digital services, meetings were reduced by 15% and an end-to-end visible demand tracking system was created.
A 15% saving was achieved in infrastructure costs through resource shared use. Total effort decreased by 20%.
Thanks to idle resource conversion, a 20% saving was achieved in existing resource usage. By writing the central cloud environment management interface internally, a 30% gain was achieved from the budget allocated for this task.
It is aimed to increase this rate to around 40% in server installations with Windows and Linux OS systems, and to 60% with open source service catalog products (MaaS, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS etc.).
With our click-on-buy-self-install strategy, the requested service is quickly ordered with a few clicks and the installation process begins with the same agility. Business units that are independent of each other and serve at different layers can be quickly organized and installed with minimum effort thanks to automated processes.
KPI values we determined within the scope of the project;
• To present resource and solution requests to IT customers in a multi-tenant structure through digital tools with a service catalog solution and to increase the service catalog rate to over 90%.
• Reducing component-based demand response times from hours to minutes.
• Reducing demand-based approval flows by 90% and transferring them to digital channels and services.
• To ensure that all components are monitored and reported according to certain standards. Preventing Shadow IT situations.
• Converting the central automation and reporting product specific to Türk Telekom into a service. To offer it to external customers as a hybrid cloud product.

Kaseya’s Security Suite, an integral component of the company’s Kaseya 365 platform, is redefining endpoint management and cybersecurity for managed service providers (MSPs) and their small-to-medium business clients (SMBs). Launched in April 2024, Kaseya 365 consolidates all critical endpoint components into one single, easy-to-manage subscription. This enables businesses to better manage, secure, backup and automate their environment – empowering them to detect and address even the most sophisticated cyber threats.

Available in two tiers, Kaseya 365 Express includes three core components: endpoint management, security and backup. Kaseya 365 Pro adds next-generation managed detection and response (MDR) capabilities, providing 24/7 monitoring and threat protection for each endpoint.

The two Kaseya 365 subscription options allow businesses to flexibly select the level of security and management services that best fit their requirements, while giving them access to enterprise-grade cybersecurity solutions.

Kaseya’s Security Suite has been designed to empower busy IT professionals and MSPs with comprehensive and powerful, yet easy-to-use cybersecurity capabilities. Unlike traditional enterprise security solutions that require advanced technical expertise, Kaseya’s offerings are built to make expert-led cybersecurity accessible.

The Kaseya 365 platform is built on four core pillars:

• The Manage pillar provides MSPs with control over all endpoints through a single unified interface, alleviating the stress of managing a growing array of complex technologies. This is delivered through the endpoint management platforms, Datto RMM and/or VSA.

• The Secure pillar ensures that MSPs can deliver enterprise-grade security to their SMB clients without the burden of additional expenses, making it easy for them to safeguard their clients’ endpoints. This includes anti-virus, ransomware detection, advanced software management, endpoint detection and response and managed detection and response.

• The Backup pillar protects clients’ critical data from loss or theft. This is delivered through Datto Endpoint Backup.

• The Automate pillar streamlines IT workflows and enhances service delivery without increasing overhead costs.

Benefits of Kaseya 365

By consolidating these capabilities – security, management, backup and automation – into a single platform, Kaseya 365 streamlines IT operations, reduces vendor fatigue for MSPs and lowers overall cybersecurity spend by up to 30% compared to other solutions. This approach, combined with Kaseya’s commitment to innovation, makes Kaseya 365 the ideal foundation for MSP growth and success in the evolving digital landscape.

Kaseya 365’s key distinguishing feature is its ability to make cybersecurity accessible and affordable for SMBs. This is achieved through a series of specific security tools, including:

• Datto EDR provides effective endpoint detection and response capabilities in an affordable, easy-to-use package – allowing organisations to quickly identify and respond to advanced threats that bypass traditional defences.

• Datto AV’s next-generation antivirus engine goes beyond signature-based detection, leveraging AI, machine learning and the latest threat intelligence to identify zero-day and polymorphic malware – without compromising system performance.

• RocketCyber is a managed SOC platform that delivers 24/7 threat monitoring, advanced security analysis and expert-led incident response across endpoints, networks and cloud environments.

All these tools have been specifically engineered for simplicity and usability, without compromising on advanced threat detection capabilities.

• Shawn Edie, Director of Information Technology at Michigan’s family resort Crystal Mountain, explains: “RocketCyber has been a game-changer for me. I know that if there’s a threat, I’ll immediately get a phone call.”

• This sentiment is echoed by Matthew Burke, Vice President of IT at Pioneer Bank: “It’s comforting to know there’s always someone watching. When we’re caught up doing a dozen other things and miss something, they’re there to catch it.”

Kaseya has had a tangible impact on the market. Since April 2024, it has already been deployed on over five million endpoints and has drawn extremely positive feedback from clients.

• Zach Browning, Director of MSP Managed Technology Solutions, explains: “RocketCyber’s SOC analysts are extremely knowledgeable and quick on their feet, with answers to any questions readily available. I haven’t had a call where they didn’t have an answer prepared. They also follow up with emails immediately after we get a message in our portal, which has been great.”

• Similarly, Mitchell Kinard, Information Technology Manager of Novum Energy, highlights the peace of mind that Kaseya’s security solutions have provided: “Datto EDR and RocketCyber have been instrumental in securing our global operations. The real-time threat detection and the proactive approach of the SOC have provided us with the peace of mind to focus on expanding our business without compromising on security.”

Leveraging proprietary AI algorithms as well as knowledge and know-how from the best CISO’s in the world, Cynomi’s platform streamlines the vCISO’s work while automating manual time-consuming tasks including risk assessment, compliance readiness, cyber posture, remediation plan creation and report generation. Cynomi users report 40-60% reduction in risk assessment time, 80% reduction in report generation time, and 60% increase in revenues from existing clients. They also mention significant improvement in new employee onboarding time, which is cut by up to 80%.

Cynomi saves time and sets standards for processes and deliverables by simplifying key vCISO task and work processes deliverable by simplifying key vCISO tasks and overcome the cybersecurity skill gap. Cynomi helps service providers scale their business, allowing them to improve their clients’ cybersecurity and compliance posture, offer new services, upsell and increase revenues while reducing operational costs.

The product was launched in 2022 and experienced accelerated adoption by hundreds of MSPs and MSSPs worldwide since then.

Cynomi’s product is built on the belief that every company, regardless of size, both needs and deserves a robust cybersecurity and compliance management. While some platforms focus on compliance and some on security, Cynomi uniquely integrates the two - Its security-first approach means that any company supported by the platform will have a robust security program. In addition, it is also able to map that security program to a growing list of over 20 compliance frameworks. Cynomi users note that the combination of cybersecurity and compliance, and the way the platform structures their cybersecurity management processes is a key benefit and differentiator compared to other solutions.

Innovation is not just about technology, it is about molding technology to create commercial and societal benefits. In Cynomi’s case it was taking deep cybersecurity and AI expertise on the one hand, and understanding how SMBs and SMEs want to buy and consume cybersecurity services on the other. By doing so, the product creates value across the full value-chain that it serves – from the service provider to the SME.

Cynomi’s main users – service providers - do not find scalability issues or increased costs at deployment with Cynomi. Instead, they simply find that Cynomi helps them build an effective, tailor-made cybersecurity strategy for each of their customers in a fraction of the time it would take to do so manually, and without having to pile on more resources. With Cynomi, MSSPs, MSPs and consultancies can easily scale up services while reducing operational costs and overcoming professional knowledge gaps. Leveraging Cynomi’s platform, they can offer new services to rapidly grow the sales pipeline, accelerate deals, increase upsells and drive revenue.

Knowing that this solution was needed for the MSP and MSSPs sectors, Cynomi was created and founded with the purpose of allowing MSPs and MSSPs provide high quality virtual CISO (vCISO) services without increasing their headcount. Cynomi’s AI-driven vCISO platform empowers MSSPs, MSPs and consultancies to offer structured cybersecurity services to SMEs at scale and provide them with proactive cyber resilience without increasing headcount. Cynomi helps service providers address the demand for vCISO and strategic cybersecurity and compliance services supporting a growing number of frameworks and regulations including NIST-CSF, ISO-27001, CIS, CCMC, SOC2, GDPR, DORA, and NIS2.

ExaGrid’s unique Tiered Backup Storage is the only storage solution built just for backup to improve backup performance, restore performance, scalability as data grows, security, ransomware recovery, disaster recovery, and the economics of backup, with low costs up front and over time. All other solutions are generic storage solutions or inline scale-up deduplication appliances. Over the past year, ExaGrid’s growth has accelerated and ExaGrid has expanded its sales and customer support teams worldwide while remaining Cash, EBITDA, and P&L positive.

ExaGrid supports over 4,300 organizations worldwide, in over 80 countries. ExaGrid’s customer support model is unique as all of its support engineers are ExaGrid employees, located in each region (United States, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific) that speak the local languages. ExaGrid’s industry-leading level 2 senior support engineers are assigned to individual customers, ensuring they always work with the same engineer. Customers never have to repeat themselves to various support staff, and issues get resolved quickly. As a result of providing of a product that is differentiated and just works, as well as providing industry-leading support, ExaGrid has a 95% customer retention rating, an extremely high NPS score of 81, and 99 % of its customers are on yearly maintenance and support—statistics that are unheard of in the industry.

ExaGrid has 300 published customer success stories, each an in-depth 2-page story that includes the company and customer name, and gives insight into their experience using ExaGrid Tiered Backup Storage in their unique environment and working with the ExaGrid team. ExaGrid also has 170 Gartner Peer Insight reviews.

ExaGrid is the largest independent backup storage vendor in the world with the most
- Published and named customer success stories on its website – over 300
- 170 Gartner insight reviews
- The most customers of any independent backup storage companies
- The most industry awards in backup storage over the last 3 to 4 years
- Growing at over 20% per year
- Free flow cash positive, P&L positive and EBITDA positive for 14 consecutive quarters
- 100% independent company which has not raised any capital in 12 years
- Over 35 sales office around the world
- Appliances certified in 134 countries
- Customer support teams in 12 countries with support in over 10 local languages

StorPool Storage offers a myriad of benefits for organizations, including cost savings, optimized infrastructure costs, simplified management, and straightforward scaling. With StorPool’s latest release, the company introduces major improvements to its award-winning data protection, efficiency, availability, and compatibility expertise.
StorPool Storage is designed for workloads that demand extreme reliability and low latency. It enables deploying high-performance, linearly scalable primary storage systems on commodity hardware to serve large-scale clouds\' data storage and data management needs. With StorPool, businesses streamline their IT operations by connecting a single storage system to all their cloud platforms while benefiting from its utterly hands-off approach to storage infrastructure. The StorPool team designs, deploys, tunes, monitors, and maintains each storage system so that end-users experience fast and reliable services while its customers’ tech teams dedicate their time to the projects that aim to grow their business.
The StorPool block storage software platform was developed to help service providers, enterprises and other public/private cloud builders build efficient clouds and eliminate the need for expensive and inefficient stand-alone storage arrays. The latest version introduces new capabilities and features including fast and efficient Erasure Coding, cloud management integration improvements and enhanced data efficiency – some of which have never been previously available from any block storage vendor.
StorPool is a software-defined storage solution that runs on standard x86 servers, converting them into high-performance and highly available virtual storage systems. StorPool’s distributed storage software is installed on a cluster of servers, which aggregates the performance and capacity of all the servers’ local drives into a single shared pool of storage that can then export block volumes over the StorPool Block Protocol, NVMe/TCP, or iSCSI, as well as NFS file shares. The storage system scales linearly in capacity and performance, meaning that making a cluster 10 times bigger would increase the performance of the cluster by 10 times. When deployed with Linux KVM-based workloads, StorPool services can run beside compute workloads on the same set of servers in a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) manner. StorPool is a direct replacement for traditional SAN storage boxes, all-flash arrays, and other storage software. It provides highly reliable, scalable, high-performance data storage, built out of standard x86 servers. The data is “sliced”, and copies are distributed between a chosen number of servers or racks. This provides high levels of reliability, speed, and fast recovery times.StorPool is the superior alternative to mid- and high-end SANs and All-Flash Arrays (AFA) and other Storage Software solutions. Especially when it comes to mid- and large-scale deployments (hundreds of terabytes or petabytes of storage). With its comprehensive set of data management functionalities, StorPool’s software-defined storage solution goes above and beyond what is possible with other SDS products.StorPool Storage, by supporting both HCI and a traditional storage model, gives customers choices in selecting their overall infrastructure architecture.

In January 2024, ExaGrid released the EX189 appliance, The largest ExaGrid system configuration, comprised of 32 by EX189 appliances in a single scale-out system, can take in up to a 6PB full backup with 12PB raw capacity, making it the largest single system in the industry that includes data deduplication. In addition to the increased storage capacity, the EX189 is four times more rack space efficient than the previous 4U versions of ExaGrid appliances.

One of the key highlights of the updated product line, including the EX189, is is that all ExaGrid appliances are available in 2U models, offering rack space efficiency which allows organizations to save on rack storage and cooling costs while accommodating large data backups and future data growth.

Each ExaGrid appliance has processor, memory, networking, and storage so that the backup window stays fixed-length as data grows, eliminating expensive and disruptive forklift upgrades. Up to 32 appliances can be mixed and matched in a single scale-out system. Any age or size appliance can be used in a single system eliminating planned product obsolescence.

In addition, ExaGrid provides a 5-year price protection on all of its appliances. Whatever the customer pays for the appliance up front stays the same for 5 years. This allows customers to know what the long-term price will be for scalability, data growth, and long-term planning.

On May 22, 2024, Infinidat launched the InfiniBox® G4 family of next-generation storage arrays for all-flash and hybrid configurations. The new InfiniBox G4 solution is a breakthrough with its leap ahead in performance, delivering an improvement of up to 2.5x.

The InfiniBox SSA G4 all-flash solution provides a scale-up architecture with 60%, 80% and 100% populated models, while the InfiniBox G4 hybrid system continues as a fully-populated offering. The InfiniBox G4, the hybrid offering, offers a new capacity point with the F4420, which provides up to 8.5PB of effective storage. The new all-flash storage solutions also now include the small footprint InfiniBox SSA G4 F1400T model, requiring only 14RU that starts at 155 terabytes (TB) usable capacity (387TB effective capacity) at a very affordable price, while delivering all the InfiniBox SSA capabilities and InfuzeOS features. The SSA G4 F1400T family can be installed in a customer’s existing data center racks or those at a colocation facility.

The InfiniBox G4 series introduces a new set of foundational elements, powered by InfuzeOS, which is Infinidat’s software defined storage operating system. The G4 pushes the boundaries of enterprise-class storage solutions by leveraging the next generation of powerful and energy efficient CPU technology. InfiniBox SSA G4 and InfiniBox G4 controllers are now built on the AMD EPYC server architecture, utilizing a single socket 64 core CPU along with PCIe 5 bus infrastructure. PCI Express 5.0 supports faster devices with massive bandwidth and blistering I/O speeds. Latency continues to be the unmatched leader in performance with latency as low as 35 microseconds. The new solutions are backed by the company’s SLA-driven, enterprise-proven guarantees: performance, 100% availability, cyber resilience, and the enhanced data services built into InfuzeOS.

InfiniBox G4 delivers price, performance, capacity, features, and the desired outcomes for enterprises. Infinidat’s software-defined operating system, InfuzeOS™, drives a 3-way active controller architecture and Neural Cache resulting in exceptional workload performance, 100% availability, and cyber resilience. With 31% more cores per controller node, power can be reduced by 20% per core, on average. InfiniBox is ideal for diverse workload consolidation, lowering both OPEX and carbon footprints.

While Infinidat’s InfiniBox solutions are known for delivering large rack scale solutions, Infinidat has expanded its solutions with its new F1400T InfiniBox SSA G4 family with 14RU form factor that fits into a customer\'s industry standard racks. The F1400T family scales up to 3PB of effective storage capacity. A smaller footprint doesn’t mean less capability; it is an enterprise InfiniBox SSA through and through − same low latency performance, availability, and cyber resilience with all the same guarantees.

In support of the new InfiniBox series, Infinidat is also introducing a new lifecycle management controller upgrade program − InfiniVerse Mobius. Over the lifecycle of an array, the customer will have the option to upgrade the controllers to level up the storage system and seamlessly extend its life in their data infrastructure.

One of the many industry analysts who have been very positive about our G4 launch is Rob Strechay, Managing Director & Principal Analyst at theCUBE Research. After evaluating the new InfiniBox G4, Strechay stated, “With a large installed base of InfiniBox of sophisticated enterprise users, the new InfiniBox G4 should delight. Infinidat has shown us the performance numbers, and they are blazing fast. The flexibility of the different options and features built into InfuzeOS benefits customers, and I’m delighted to see the introduction of the controller upgrade program – InfiniVerse Mobius. Infinidat’s InfiniBox G4 should be a powerful contender in the all-flash storage segment of the industry, and it’s perfect for storage consolidation or an enterprise refresh.”

Walter Rival, CTO at Eastern Computer Exchange, an Infinidat partner said, “Infinidat is blazing a new path with their next-generation InfiniBox G4 system, their InfiniVerse platform, and their InfiniSafe Software for cyber storage resilience and recovery. The company is solving performance issues for enterprises, equipping customers with smart hybrid multi-cloud solutions, creating new cloud-like experiences with increased control for IT managers, and protecting data that is vulnerable to cyberattacks. Introducing these next level solutions to our global customer base strengthens the elevated data center architecture we strive to deliver.”

StorMagic SvHCI™ combines a hypervisor and virtual networking with the provider’s proven virtual storage technology used by thousands of customers around the world. This full-stack HCI (hyperconverged infrastructure) solution is purpose-built for edge and small to medium-sized business (SMB) environments and includes StorMagic’s in-house 24x7x365 customer support. StorMagic SvHCI saves customers up to 62% over VMware.

The StorPool block storage software platform was developed to help service providers, enterprises and other public/private cloud builders build efficient clouds and eliminate the need for expensive and inefficient stand-alone storage arrays. The latest version introduces new capabilities and features including fast and efficient Erasure Coding, cloud management integration improvements and enhanced data efficiency – some of which have never been previously available from any block storage vendor.
StorPool is a software-defined storage solution that runs on standard x86 servers, converting them into high-performance and highly available virtual storage systems. StorPool’s distributed storage software is installed on a cluster of servers, which aggregates the performance and capacity of all the servers’ local drives into a single shared pool of storage that can then export block volumes over the StorPool Block Protocol, NVMe/TCP, or iSCSI, as well as NFS file shares. The storage system scales linearly in capacity and performance, meaning that making a cluster 10 times bigger would increase the performance of the cluster by 10 times. When deployed with Linux KVM-based workloads, StorPool services can run beside compute workloads on the same set of servers in a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) manner.
StorPool is a direct replacement for traditional SAN storage boxes, all-flash arrays, and other storage software. It provides highly reliable, scalable, high-performance data storage, built out of standard x86 servers. The data is “sliced”, and copies are distributed between a chosen number of servers or racks. This provides high levels of reliability, speed, and fast recovery times.
StorPool is the superior alternative to mid- and high-end SANs and All-Flash Arrays (AFA) and other Storage Software solutions. Especially when it comes to mid- and large-scale deployments (hundreds of terabytes or petabytes of storage). With its comprehensive set of data management functionalities, StorPool’s software-defined storage solution goes above and beyond what is possible with other SDS products.
Further, StorPool enables the implementation of converged/integrated infrastructure solutions, known as hyper-convergence. Users can run compute (virtual machines, applications, databases, etc.), on the same servers as the StorPool storage services. This is because StorPool is highly efficient, taking just 5-10% of the resources of each server and leaving the majority of resources available for running apps. This convergence of storage and compute loads allows customers to increase levels of utilization, thus significantly reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and therefore boosting Return on Investment (ROI).
With its newest version, StorPool introduces major improvements to its award-winning data protection, efficiency, availability, and compatibility expertise. Chief among the highlights of v21’s improvements is the unique implementation of Erasure Coding that extracts greater usable capacity from a set of five or more servers while protecting against drive or node failure or corruption with virtually no impact on read/write performance.
When deployed on at least five all-NVMe storage servers, StorPool’s state-of-the-art implementation of Erasure Coding provides four key capabilities:
1. Cross-Node Data Protection – information is protected across servers with two parity objects so that any two servers can fail and data remains safe and accessible.
2. Per-Volume Policy Management – volumes can be protected with triple replication or Erasure Coding, with per-volume live conversion between data protection schemes.
3. Delayed Batch-Encoding – incoming data is initially written with three copies and later encoded in bulk to greatly reduce data processing overhead and eliminate impact on latency for user I/O operations.
4. Always-On Operations – up to two storage nodes can be rebooted or brought down for maintenance while the entire storage system remains running with all data remaining available.

StorPool Storage, by supporting both HCI and a traditional storage model, gives customers choices in selecting their overall infrastructure architecture. Tangible impacts on the market and customers include:
● Lowest Upfront Cost: StorPool Storage significantly reduces upfront hardware costs, saving organizations up to 30% on startup hardware expenses.
● Optimized Infrastructure Costs: With fewer systems to manage and simpler network topologies, organizations benefit from reduced infrastructure costs and streamlined management, leading to enhanced operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
● Simplified Management: StorPool Storage simplifies storage management by offering a unified platform with fewer systems to manage and simpler logical, physical, and network topologies. StorPool is tightly integrated with leading cloud management platforms such as CloudStack, OpenNebula, OpenStack, and Proxmox, with support for both HCI and disaggregated deployments.
● Simplified Hardware Inventory: StorPool Storage’s standardized approach to hardware provisioning ensures consistency and reliability across the infrastructure, further enhancing operational efficiency and management simplicity.
● More Straightforward Scaling: StorPool Storage facilitates straightforward scaling of compute and storage resources, allowing organizations to seamlessly increase capacity and performance by adding new servers to the cluster.
● Ability to Scale Up: With the right storage platform, organizations can easily scale up storage capacity, with capacities in the petabytes. By adding storage drives to existing HCI servers, organizations can meet evolving storage demands and ensure optimal performance and resource utilization across the infrastructure.

What was the driving force behind the project - what business or technology challenge needed to be addressed?

West Midlands Trains (WMT) is owned by Transport UK. Operating London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway franchises, it runs over 1,300 services to and from some of the UK’s busiest and most well-known stations, including Liverpool Lime Street, London Euston and Birmingham New Street.


A small IT team with wide-ranging responsibilities

With less than a dozen staff, West Midlands Trains has a relatively small IT team but an extensive remit. It is responsible for all IT assets and infrastructure at 160 stations. This includes ticket machines, customer information screens, CCTV, help points, and IoT sensors. To give an idea of scale, the smallest stations have 20-30 IT assets, while the largest can have up to 800.

The IT team is also in charge of each site's data centre and network connectivity, plus its centralised storage, backup and disaster recovery capabilities. In addition, it maintains the back office systems and applications that ensure trains and drivers are where they need to be at the right time—keeping services running smoothly for customers.


A wake-up call to improve backup, DR and redundancy

Before engaging Node4, West Midlands Trains had three data centres. One provided centralised internet connectivity and disaster recovery, one housed the production servers that supported all the IT assets, and one contained all the network interconnectivity infrastructure to 3rd parties.  

The Birmingham data centre was located within WMT’s HQ building. It was a purpose-built space with cooling and fire suppression but no backup power. The building suffered a major electrical fault a few years ago, and the data centre lost power for around five hours.

Relying on an external generator, the operator’s IT team recovered quickly and with no significant impact on train services. However, the incident fast-tracked a decision to move the servers and storage infrastructure to a managed data centre with the latest security, backup, disaster recovery and redundancy capabilities.



How did the solution address the challenges, and were there any particularly innovative aspects that made it stand out?

A local managed services provider within easy access of the M6

West Midlands Trains migrated all one hundred of its servers to Node4’s main data centre. It also houses the perimeter firewall, provides the base for WMT’s centralised internet connectivity, and is the origin point for all site-to-site VPNs. The fact that Node4 was a Midlands-based company was important as the operator wanted a data centre within an hour’s drive from Birmingham. This would give Steve Roberts and his team fast emergency access to the site and the ability to replace any network or storage components with minimal impact on train services.


Boosting data storage availability and redundancy

To ensure availability and redundancy, WMT’s servers are backed up to one of Node4’s secondary data centres with auto-failover in place. They’re connected by two independent internet links delivered by different telco providers.

These low-latency, resilient links enabled West Midlands Trains to reduce its recovery time objective by at least 50%. This has a direct and positive impact on the speed at which station IT and storage infrastructure can be brought back online in the event of a failure—helping to maintain a consistent service and meet operational targets. Additional redundancy infrastructure includes N_1 generator backup, N N power and UPS system, and N N cooling systems.

“To put some metrics behind this, we’ve gone from 99.97% reliability to 99.99%. Had we not moved over to Node4, it’s possible our availability would have dropped to around 95% due to planned and unplanned power outages.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains

“Our legacy data centres had just one link from one telco carrier—and even getting access to that had been challenging. By contrast, Node4’s data centre delivers access to multiple carriers, improving our resiliency and business continuity capabilities. In addition, our old data centres required manual networking changes to implement failover procedures and processes. West Midlands Trains, with the support of Node4, completely automated this process, which boosted the resiliency of our data storage and network infrastructure.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains


A data centre that runs on 100% renewable energy

Additionally, Node4’s data centres run on 100% renewable energy, which is good for WMT from an ESG and sustainability point of view. “We’re always trying to reduce our carbon footprint. As I’m sure you’ll appreciate, that’s not easy when operating a fleet of diesel & electric trains. So, this is definitely a bonus and helps with our carbon offset work.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains


A proactive, can-do approach

West Midlands Trains also has access to Node4’s highly skilled support teams. They assist with storage kit installation, as well as patching, connectivity, and monitoring tasks.

“Node4 is integral to our organisation. Their data centre supports our commercial operations—enabling customers to buy tickets from vending machines or counters—as well as our customer information and safety infrastructure. Importantly, it also houses the rail operation and train management systems that ensure drivers, crews, and services are in the right place at the right time.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains


Accommodating data and storage infrastructure that didn’t suit a cloud environment

“After assessing our IT, network and storage infrastructure, it became clear we could only move around half of it to a cloud environment—far less than we had planned. Node4’s team understood this issue from the outset, which prevented costly cloud adoption mistakes that could have jeopardised application uptime. Instead, they created a hybrid cloud environment utilising their data centre infrastructure to seamlessly connect cloud and non-cloud storage and network infrastructure components.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains



What major challenges were faced during the project, and how were they overcome?

A tiny window to relocate to Node4’s data centre

Time was of the essence for this storage transformation project: The last West Midlands Trains service enters the depot at approximately 1 am, and the first departs at around 4 am. Every second had to count.  

11:00 pm: Non-critical servers shut down.

Midnight: UK Rail Control approved critical server shutdown. All servers were wrapped and transported to Node4’s data centre.

1:00 am: The last service enters depo.

2:00 am: All servers unloaded and racked. Power cables connected.

4:00 am: Business critical servers are back online, and the first train departs the depo.

6:00 am: Non-critical servers back online.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget the pressure we were under that night, but Node4’s team were professional, calm and exacting in their approach at each stage. As a result, everything went according to plan.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains



What tangible benefits has the organisation seen as a result of the project's implementation?

Storage transformation costs kept under control

“Node4’s team took on an important project management role right from the start. Too often, you hear of spiralling storage transformation costs due to poor planning and execution. This was not the case with Node4. They worked behind the scenes to keep the two internet providers on track, ensuring links between the primary and secondary data centres were installed as scheduled so that the project stayed on track and on budget.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains



Excellent onsite support, customer service and positive attitude

West Midlands Trains has also experienced an incredible contrast in onsite support and general customer service compared to the previous storage and data centre provider.

“Node4’s data centre ‘hands and eyes’ service is helpful and obliging. If a drive fails in a server, I can log a ticket, ask Node4 to check it, send a part if necessary, and Node4 will fit it. This is part of Node4’s wider can-do attitude that we all recognised during our initial site visit. Instead of putting up barriers, causing delays and becoming a bottleneck, Node4 finds solutions, solves problems, and generally makes my life much easier. It’s an absolute pleasure to work together.” - Steve Roberts, Head of IT, West Midlands Trains

Dash Pictures, the UK based film and television production company, has turned to Kingston Technology to help it solve delays during production and post-production. Upgrading from HDDs to Kingston SSDs has not only transformed the speed with which the company can upload film footage, but also expanded capacity, allowing production teams to collaborate more efficiently.

Problems came to light during shooting for a recent travel show with Oliver and James Phelps, the actors best known for playing the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter franchise movies. On season one of their show ‘Fantastic Friends’, Dash found that they were struggling to back-up the footage overnight on traditional hard drives after a long day of filming.

“We had spent a long time developing the workflow for ‘Fantastic Friends’ so we could execute it to a very high standard and make it cost efficient,” said Daniel Sharp, Director at Dash Pictures. “But it’s not great to start a new day of shooting knowing that everything we did the previous day is not yet safely backed up and it was compounded further down the line causing limitations in our production pipeline.”

Dash Pictures turned to Kingston Technology, which specified XS2000 external solid-state drives (SSDs) with a 10 Gb connection capable of supporting multiple activities and enabling lightning-fast transfer speeds. These portable drives, equipped with a detachable, ruggedised sleeve for drop protection and the ability to withstand water and dust, are exceptionally well-suited for on-location film and TV productions. They enabled Dash to efficiently duplicate camera media onto multiple drives simultaneously, significantly improving the time required for this task.

Having improved the management of their data during filming, Dash then evaluated how they could speed up the process of uploading on-location footage on the drives into the post-production studio. Kingston Technology worked with Dash to provide data centre-grade SSDs that would connect directly into the company’s centralized QNAP Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device.

Matt King, Head of Post Production at Dash Pictures said: “We plugged 12 Kingston SSDs into our RAID-array QNAP Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device and almost instantly saw a change in how quickly our data could be uploaded and how it could be accessed without delays, drop-outs and with the ability to bring in grades. It meant that film editors, graphic designers and visual effects teams could all work from the same server simultaneously without any degradation, vastly improving efficiency.”

Kingston assisted in setting up the system to meet Dash Pictures’ current requirements but ensured that the system was future-proofed so they could easily expand it with new Kingston SSDs in the future to add capacity as and when it was needed.

“Our processes, both during filming and in post-production, are now much slicker,” said Daniel Sharp. “Using HDDs, we might have been able to work on two shows at the same time, but now we have multiple shows overlapping. We are growing more quickly and if we need to expand our data capacity, we can just add another SSD into our system, plug it in, and off we go.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj0CjuXFmIU