Synology 2016 Conference Unveils New Plans for Storage and Networking

On September 16, 2015, Synology’s annual conference, the Synology 2016, took place in Singapore along with 16 other countries, in which the leading NAS vendor unveiled its future plans and a wide range of new technologies and product updates. Highlights include the DiskStation Manager (DSM) 6.0 operating system which brings breakthroughs in both business and home applications, Synology’s first step into the networking world – Synology Router RT1900ac – and the DS716+ NAS server, among other new products, all demonstrating Synology’s dedication to always bringing the best solutions and experience to its users.

“We look forward to meeting our users and sharing with them what’s next for the company and for our technologies in this annual conference. This is also an important opportunity for us to receive face-to-face feedback and know more about our users’ needs, in order to offer even better products and services,” said Mike Chen, Sales Director of Synology.

“We’ve seen the cloud becoming mature as a platform, so this year by utilizing Synology’s strength in software-hardware integration, we brings breakthroughs to a lot of aspects which businesses follow closely, such as cloud applications, virtualization, data protection, and disaster recovery. This will allow them to adopt more effective and comprehensive IT deployment strategies,” Chen explained.

DSM 6.0 – forward-looking NAS OS with fully upgraded architecture 
Through a complete upgrade of hardware and software architecture, DSM 6.0 presents users with a secure, advanced, and future-proof platform. Highlights include:

• Rolled up OS architecture: fully supporting 64-bit architecture, DSM 6.0 breaks through the limit of 4G RAM and greatly improves system performance. The modularization of originally built-in applications also delivers higher system reliability and flexibility when adopting updates.
• Petabyte-level shared folder: the Synology PetaSpace technology allows users to create a shared folder with petabyte capacity on multiple volumes, serving as the ideal solution to manage and archive cold data.
• Accessibility features: striving to provide smooth, intuitive experience to all users, Synology is the first to offer support for NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) screen reader to visually impaired people.
• Enhanced security: Synology adopts the Qualys Vulnerability Management solution, ensuring all potential issues are rectified before a new DSM update is made available to the public. 

DSM 6.0 – multiple breakthroughs in business applications 
Based on the current trends of IT deployment, DSM 6.0 brings businesses the effective solutions they require. Highlights include:

Cloud synchronization, data protection, and disaster recovery 

• Extensive data synchronization with Cloud Station: the Cloud Station suite offers cross-platform, cross-device data syncing tools. Synology’s own developed Intelliversioning algorithm filters and keeps only the most important historical versions of each file. The block-level and cross-version deduplication, exclusive to Synology’s backup feature, can provide the most effective and efficient recovery points. The newly released Cloud Station Backup package, moreover, introduces a lightweight, painless concept of how personal computers can be backed up.
• Snapshot-based replication enables local and remote recovery: the Snapshot and Replication technology that comes with the advanced Btrfs file system reduces the impact of massive reading / writing on hard drives and high bandwidth consumption caused by traditional backup. Snapshots can be taken as frequent as every five minutes. Failover is done through one-click migration, so businesses can easily achieve uninterrupted data protection and immediate disaster recovery.
• All-around disaster recovery solution through a hybrid cloud: being able to sync with public clouds, the Cloud Sync package adds support for several business-grade cloud services. Not only can users now set up multiple syncing tasks within a single account, but also upload the same sets of files to multiple public clouds. This makes sure that no matter what happens, data will always be available.

Exciting virtualization technologies to optimize IT resources

• Lightweight Docker DSM: by running multiple DSM instances as Docker containers on one single NAS, IT administrators can effortlessly create an multi-tenant environment and flexibly allocate computing resources to them. It also greatly increases the overall system reliability, as all Docker DSMs run independently and do not interfere with each other.
• Powerful Virtual DSM: in addition to Docker DSM’s advantages above, Virtual DSM offers live migration capability, allowing businesses to migrate DSM services to another host without any downtime, which will contribute to better reliability and flexibility for deployment and maintenance.

Cloud applications expanded to boost productivity

• All-new active-active webmail solution, MailPlus: the newly designed MailPlus service allows businesses to enjoy the benefits of cross-platform support and comprehensive management features, while keeping absolute control over their data privacy. Furthermore, MailPlus Server provides an active-active high-available framework that can guarantee uninterrupted service and maintain high productivity for enterprise users.
• SpreadSheet makes collaboration easier than ever: SpreadSheet offers comprehensive collaboration, tag, and privilege management features. To solve the commonly found issue of accidentally deleting data, it can even keep unlimited historical versions so users can easily restore a previous version themselves. 
• Rich business applications in Note Station: the Presentation feature has evolved and is able to convert raw data to more readable charts. A new Chrome extension makes offline editing possible, freeing users from the limitations of their devices and the Internet.
• Full content search in File Station: File Station can now index up to 700 common file formats, including the metadata of multimedia files. A quick search will identify the exact document, music, video or photo you need immediately. 

DSM 6.0 – a seamlessly connected multiscreen world for home 
Following the market closely and drawing from its prowess in software development, Synology’s mobile applications and digital streaming features have long been applauded by users worldwide. In DSM 6.0, Synology is the first to support Apple Watch, extending the multiscreen experience even further.

• First to support Apple Watch, heading on to the world of wearable devices: in observing users’ habits, DSM 6.0 becomes the first to support Apple Watch with its DS note and DS audio mobile apps. Users can use simple gestures or voice control to quickly check or create notes, or enjoy their favorite music in all kinds of occasions. 
• Video Station – refreshingly new, strikingly intuitive: the completely redesigned Video Station adopts the popular on-screen button layout, making navigation smoother and more intuitive than ever. New support for offline transcoding and Windows 10 enables users to switch between different devices and platforms, all the same time enjoying uninterrupted watching experience.

Synology Router RT1900ac – unparalleled user experience
With a solid foundation in the NAS industry, Synology takes its first step into the networking world, not only bringing users a stable, high performance, and smart networking center, but also making sure that users will have the same seamless and intuitive Synology experience from network configuration to connecting multiple devices. Highlights include:

• Revolutionary user interface: the beautifully designed Synology Router Manager (SRM) operating system, combined with the DS router mobile app, brings users an unparalleled interface and navigating experience.
• Robust performance: provides up to 1900 Mbps combined transfer speeds and supports beamforming which can maximize Wi-Fi signal for specific devices. 
• Advanced network management: includes application-based traffic control and DNS-based, customizable web filters. 
• Exclusive Synology add-ons: supports several popular Synology packages such as VPN Server, Radius Server, and Download Station. Connect the router with an external storage device and it immediately turns into a personal cloud.

The new DS716+ NAS server 

Making its first appearance, the DS716+ NAS server is perfectly designed for businesses and professional users. Highlights include:

• Featuring Intel’s next-generation processor: the 14nm Intel Braswell quad-core processor reduces power consumption by 40%.
• Real-time video transcoding: able to transcode 4K video on the fly. 
• Excellent scalability: can be expanded to 7 hard drives by connecting DX513 expansion unit, offering massive storage capacity.
• Uncompromising performance: compared with its predecessor, DS716+’ read / write performance increases at least 160% for AES-256 bit encrypted data transfer. 

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ESET's Next-Generation Business Security Products Now Available Worldwide

ESET®, a global pioneer in proactive protection for more than two decades, announces today the global availability of its completely re-engineered and redesigned range of IT security products for business. 

Following months of in-depth worldwide business user research, ESET analyzed the findings, using them to develop its new security products. After intensive design, engineering, development and testing, the all-new business range from ESET is now available worldwide to organizations of all sizes.

"Building world-class security products is not new to us -- we've been doing it for more than twenty years," said Richard Marko, CEO at ESET. "But with the digital revolution having changed the operational landscape so fundamentally, we wanted to go back to basics and really understand what our customers need to grow their businesses today and in the foreseeable future. The key is to balance usability with performance and agility. The results speak for themselves -- I think we have certainly earned our gold star."

ESET's IT security products for business offer maximum proactive protection with low impact on company infrastructure, as well as offering a wealth of new features, such as Botnet Protection, Exploit Blocker, Anti-Phishing and Anti-Theft.

Cybercrime is now a global issue effecting millions of businesses every day. Asia Pacific, which has the highest number of internet users in the world, has recently witnessed a spate of highly sophisticated cyberattacks targeting well-known and respected companies. Threatening the loss of intellectual property, sensitive commercial assets, consumer trust and reputation, cybersecurity has become a boardroom-level issue and is now top of the agenda for companies and regulators across the world.

"Wide adoption of new technologies across Asia Pacific, including the boom of Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD), has added a further layer of complexity to the CIO's task of securing enterprise networks against cybercrime. We at ESET always carefully listen to our customers and our new business products are a result of years of research and development in which many of our customers directly participated. Our job is to make their lives easier and enable them to focus on their core business," said Lukas Raska, Chief Operating Officer APAC at ESET.

At the heart of ESET's IT security products for business is the new ESET Remote Administrator. This platform-independent, remote management console has been rebuilt to enhance usability, improve security and lower the overall cost of implementation and management. It boasts a built-in task management system to minimize downtime, while allowing actions to be performed automatically based on dynamic group membership.

The new user interface for ESET business security products simplifies the tasks of monitoring, configuring and controlling network activity to ensure the organization is forewarned and protected against unwanted and malicious actions.

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Dell Introduces SuperMassive 9800 Next-Generation Firewall

Dell announced the release of the Dell SuperMassive 9800 Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) and complementary management and reporting Global Management System (GMS) 8.0. The most powerful model in Dell’s SuperMassive 9000 Series, SuperMassive 9800 provides the highest-performance deep-packet inspection firewall available, allowing customers to benefit from reduced capital expenditure and reduced rack, power and cooling costs in the future. The new GMS solution offers enhanced value to both customers and partners, by making NGFW management simple and efficient, helping to ease resource consumption, reduce overall risk and adhere to compliance requirements with a new workflow automation feature.

The largest enterprises are no longer the biggest targets for malicious activity, which has forced organizations of all sizes—including government and educational institutions—to prioritize building a continual defense of their networks from a growing list of threats from new technology, new devices and new ways users work. Mid-sized organizations are finding themselves next up on hackers’ hit lists. Too often, their security strategies have employed outdated firewalls, web-filtering proxies, and intrusion prevention systems that lack the necessary context-aware, connected intelligence required to blunt today’s more advanced attacks.

According to Gartner, “Security has been a top priority (and challenge) for most midsize enterprises for the past three years. IT leaders are being forced to secure more new IT solutions with flat IT budgets.”

Staying ahead of the changing threat landscape requires data centers that are agile, scalable, manageable, cost-effective, and, most importantly, secure. To meet today’s massive data and capacity demands, the network security layer must be highly extensible to support the largest of data center bandwidth consumptions, with zero downtime.

Murli Mohan, General Manager, Dell Software Group, said, “As per the recent survey conducted by Dell, while 64% of organizations stated that losing critical data is the biggest concern for them, 32% of them indicated that they took 1-4 hours to identify the source of their last security breach.
Likewise, there are many organizations that still lack a well-formed security infrastructure required to meet their network needs. With the launch of Dell SuperMassive 9800, the enterprise segment is definite to derive tremendous benefits in terms of reduced risks and increased competitive advantage through greater productivity. This unique series of Next-Generation Firewall offers stringent security on a flexible and feature-rich platform. We are certain to help enterprises meet their network security needs with SuperMassive 9800.”

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hybris’ Three-Day Global Partner Summit Attracts Over 800 Global Attendees

hybris, a leading provider of omni-channel commerce software, has announced that this year’s Global Partner Summit, which took place in Munich, Germany, attracted over 800 global delegates, double the attendance of the same event held in 2012. In its 12 year, the Partner Summit provides a forum for over 250 of hybris’ solution partners from around the world to come together to share ideas, network with peers and meet hybris domain experts. In addition, delegates received the latest information on hybris, its strategic direction and products, including the hybris Innovation Lab featuring exciting innovations in omni-channel commerce.

 

During the three-day conference, delegates were also given the opportunity to dive into different presentations covering areas such as e-business, delivery, and technology, and attend workshops that focused on knowledge transfer for the technical staff within partner organisations. Attendees also heard presentations from partners including Adobe, Bazaarvoice, Celum, Compuware.

 

Speaking about the event, Frank Schoutissen, Vice President of Channel, said; “This year’s Partner Conference was an unmitigated success, with twice the number of delegates compared to last year. The event is an important opportunity for us to show our partner ecosystem the impetus that hybris has in the market, the solutions we deliver and how the company is performing. Year on year we hear from our partners what an important event this is for them as they learn first-hand about our new product innovations and best practices for project delivery.”

 

“It also allows hybris to showcase the success of our partners with our awards program and to promote this to other attendees at the event,” concluded Schoutissen.

 

Annual Partner Awards Winners include:  

• Global/Overall Partner of the year: Portaltech Reply Group
• Service delivery partner of the year: Sceneric LBi
• Partner of the year North America: Acquity Group
• ISV partner of the year: Adobe Systems
• Newcomer of the year: Gorilla Group
• Sales Partner of the year: Smilehouse Oy
• Partner of the year EMEA: Softlution
• Most Innovative partner of the year: Sonata Software
• Partner of the year APAC: Contiigo

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Skype Launches New Online Platform for Small Businesses

Skype today launched to the public Skype in the workspace (SITW), a new online platform for small businesses to instantly connect with potential customers, partners and suppliers across the globe.

The free-to-use tool makes use of the huge network already offered by Skype, allowing millions of small businesses to promote their products and services to new networks and connections. Users can improve existing connections and establish new ones by instantly sending messages and talking to or meeting face-to-face with peers and business prospects over Skype.

The SITW community is already active because today's launch comes at the end of a six-month beta trial, which enabled 500 businesses, offering more than 140 different services, to sign up, try out and test the platform.

"With more than 280 million connected users each month, Skype offers a huge range of contacts for the small-business community," said Ural Cebeci, head of SMB Marketing at Skype. "We aim to connect millions of small businesses with Skype in the workspace and believe that, by taking advantage of this shared network, businesses can develop the range of tools they need to grow, regardless of location or industry. From the designer in San Francisco looking to source textile suppliers in Thailand to the London consultant connecting with clients in Milan, the possibilities are endless."

SITW will provide a central hub for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses to connect with experts, coaches and consultants who can help them develop their businesses. Users join the community using their existing Skype accounts, then through a series of promotional tools can create public "offers" or "opportunities" inviting community members to live sessions on Skype to demonstrate services or products to a wider audience. Users can also book appointments with potential customers or suppliers and keep track of them with a meeting notification service. When an opportunity is over, users can instantly give testimonials on the product or service offered.

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Guest comment: You don’t need a mobile strategy

Stefan Schmidt, Director of Product Strategy at hybris explaines why Mobile might be in the forefront of your mind but just catering for it could easily steer you into a dead end. What you actually need is a commerce-anywhere strategy, which will allow you to enable commerce on any internet device without spending lots of time and money every time a new internet-enabled device emerges.

It’s a common misconception that tablets and mobiles, not to mention other internet-enabled devices, eg TV’s, are a disrupting force. The disruption has already happened:
1.       The internet is virtually available everywhere – we are always on! We call it the cloud today.
2.       Bandwidth and infrastructure are good enough to deliver a good experience everywhere we go
3.       Computers have become mobile and can be virtually built into any device.

The secret is to stop worrying about online, offline, mobile, tablet, etc. and understand that your business is operating in a virtual world spanning all these outlets. Terms such as multichannel, omni-channel, agile commerce, cross channel and so on don’t matter. What matters is you, the service and the products you offer to your customers.

The other day someone ask me what is the end game of multichannel commerce? Well, I think the end game must be when technology doesn’t matter anymore, when selling goods and services is simple again, regardless of where the transaction is happening. I think of it like driving a car in the early days - you had to know an awful lot to actually drive it. You spent ages looking into the engine and wondering why it wasn’t working or what the funny noise was. That’s the state that commerce is in today. You can see the bare engine working but it’s not always the prettiest of sights. In a few years the engine will be hidden underneath an attractive cover. It’s the driving that matters to most of us, not the engine itself.

Your goal today is to build that engine, so the fiddly mechanics are hidden and you can focus on what matters to your business.

It is also about managing fear of the unknown. New devices and gadgets become less intimidating  once it is clear they just provide a window, a different view into your world. They are just another way of accessing the very same information you are already providing on your website, and yes, they might expose  holes in your data or integration issues that need improving, but they do not change your core business. Once you have mastered the process of fulfilling a telephone order, you’ve also mastered how to fulfill the same order placed over a mobile, tablet, Internet enabled TV set, onboard car computer, Google Glass, washing machine, or any other device you can think of.

Why squabble about investing into mobile or tablet when your commerce-anywhere strategy allows you to apply it across any channel?  Many retailers have already added new customer touch points to their mix, first in person, then stores, then by phone, then print catalogue. Internet browsers, mobiles and tablets are just extensions of this list. What has changed dramatically is the speed at which it happens. And that has exposed some flaws in the way companies have scaled their business in the sense of a physical presence in front of the customer. It is inefficient to copy processes, data, stock, and personnel repeatedly just because a new device has shown up.

Resist the temptation to spin into overdrive and anxiously come up with a quick solution for enabling a transaction/interaction with the new gadget.  Once you have embraced the Internet as a virtual room that extends everywhere and into everything, your processes should accommodate this type of change. In fact, recent studies (i.e. by Forrester & shop.org) show that users almost exclusively encounter problems with the user interface, such as clicking on what they want, entering information, etc, and not the data or the processes themselves. Nothing a good, skilled graphic / UX designer couldn’t solve in a few days.

Here is my advice on the questions you should ask when devising your commerce-anywhere strategy:
1.       Do our business processes work in a virtual world where access to our data & processes is possible from virtually everywhere?
2.       Do our processes work across channel boundaries?
3.       Do we have a system that can deliver data to all these end points from a centralised hub?
4.       Can we fail fast and move on? It’s mobile today, are we agile enough to deal with whatever tomorrow brings?
5.       Do we have a system that gives non-developers, ie. graphic designers the ability to create an interface to a new device.
6.       Do we have an incentive policy that encourages employees from different channels to work together and not against each other.

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hybris Multichannel Accelerator 4.7 Helps Businesses Deliver Multichannel and Mobile Commerce from Day One

hybris, a leading provider of multichannel commerce and communication software, just announced the availability of hybris Multichannel Accelerator 4.7. As businesses move from a single channel, like print catalogs, to multiple channels – including online, mobile, print and call centers – complexity increases. To help address this issue, hybris Multichannel Accelerator 4.7, an out of the box solution, provides the tools that enable organizations to meet the demands of today’s discerning shoppers by deploying the market’s first fully integrated, truly multichannel commerce solution from the start. It does this by supporting complete out-of-the-box B2C desktop and mobile and B2B desktop implementations and includes more features and options as standard than any other solution currently available. Multichannel projects can now start with fully working storefronts, enabling businesses to go live in just three to four months as they only need to rebrand and perform the essential integrations with their order fulfillment system and payment service provider.

Ariel Lüdi, CEO of hybris, explained; “Your customers want to shop seamlessly across all your channels. We’ve made it easier for you to be everywhere your customers want you to be – especially on their mobile devices. And we enable you to deliver a consistent brand experience across all those channels – anytime, anywhere they connect with you.”

He continued, “Organizations often delay multichannel commerce implementations due to time and resource concerns, with mobile getting pushed to “later.” These projects require a broad range of relevant knowledge and expertise, a large team, business requirements and technology planning, and the definition and re-engineering of processes. As a result, the time-to-value is viewed to be too long. hybris Multichannel Accelerator 4.7 rapidly speeds the time of multichannel deployments and enables organizations to easily build a future-proof multichannel commerce solution, including vital mobile functionality from the very start.”

Businesses need real-time information about which marketing channels are generating revenue, which products are selling, which keywords are generating high ROI, where the most profitable customers are coming from, and where visitors are spending time on the site. For that reason, hybris has integrated the Jirafe Customer Intelligence dashboard into the hybris reports cockpit to deliver real-time, actionable Web and e-commerce analytics to support day-to-day business activities and grow revenues.

In addition, hybris has also added integrations with Google Analytics and Google Commerce Search to further support organizations’ changing business needs and provide the flexibility retailers need.

hybris 4.7Accelerator is immediately available and further details can be found at: http://www.hybris.com/multichannel-accelerator

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Marissa Mayer Left Google to Become Yahoo's New CEO

Yahoo has just announced that it has appointed Marissa Mayer as the company's new President and CEO. Ms. Mayer is of course one of the top executives as Google who was responsible for much of the look and feel of Google's products. Famously, she's the first female Google hired and was also the company's 20th employee. Prior to her appointment at Yahoo, she oversaw Google's search business and was more recently involved with the company's maps and local efforts.

With the appointment of Mayer, Yahoo would now have a head with suitably substantial credentials. Furthermore, her appointment could also see Yahoo attract talent that was previously inaccessible - Google's for instance.

Where would Yahoo go now? Well, if Mayer has her way, she is said to be interested in focusing on the company's strong presence in email, finance and sports. She also wants to further capitalize on the Yahoo's mobile businesses and video services.

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