Unbeatable cloud security: A10 Networks delivers first-ever integration with Fastly's next-gen WAF.

The last decade of digital transformation has turned most organizations today into true digital businesses. But the effectiveness and economics of cloud operating models have become top concerns. How to best secure, optimize, and automate hybrid cloud environments in the most effective manner is a significant challenge. To solve this problem, A10 Networks is announcing a combined solution of the Thunder® Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and the new A10 Next-Generation Web Application Firewall (WAF), powered by Fastly, to enable automated, multi-layered security, and resilience.

As organizations seek to establish an efficient and effective cloud operating model, the combined technology enables a highly performant security solution at a strategic application ingress point that reduces false positives and automates security, empowering agility and effectiveness. The end solution ultimately helps deliver better cloud economics and business outcomes.

Improving the Security and Resiliency of Hybrid Cloud

The company is adding the A10 Next-Gen WAF, powered by Fastly, to its solution portfolio as an integrated add-on to its A10 Thunder ADC solution. Together, the A10 Thunder ADC and A10 Next-Gen WAF implementation provides a single solution to enhance web defenses across software and hardware appliances installed in hybrid cloud environments. The solution can be deployed across multiple form factors, including virtual machines and hardware appliances. 

Thunder ADC, in addition to providing advanced availability options, can perform DDoS protection, authentication, and protocol checks at scale. The integrated A10 Next-Gen WAF provides deep web application security services. As the solution sits at the primary application ingress point, a single deployment can efficiently front-end one, hundreds, or thousands of applications without the need for individual server end-point deployments. This enables faster time to market with secure application deployments.

“A10 Networks provides high-performance application delivery and security, and its solution is a natural fit for our next-gen WAF to help provide mutual customers with deep web application security for hybrid cloud environments. This is the first software and hardware application delivery controller implementation for Fastly, which expands our addressable market and provides A10 with the most advanced WAF technology for its customers,” said Emily Friedberg, group vice president, global partnerships at Fastly.

Protect Applications While Keeping Overhead and Disruption Low

The A10 Thunder ADC and A10 Next-Gen WAF combine to provide a series of capabilities that outpace traditional stand-alone or existing web application firewalls. These include:

● Layered Defense – Counters modern web threats, and includes OWASP Top 10 mitigation, DDoS protection, authentication, and TLS/SSL decryption.

● Simplification via Consolidation – Converges under Thunder ADC as a fully integrated single appliance solution that is optimized with advanced load balancing, ADC caching, and the Fastly cloud service; customers have a single point of support with A10.

● Ease of Use – No learning period for IT teams with near-zero false positives; almost 90 percent of Fastly users run in blocking mode, ensuring only bad traffic 

● stopped.

● Lower Costs – Provides superior protection with little or no tuning; uses a combination of thresholding, along with Fastly’s proprietary Network Learning Exchange (NLX) and SmartParse technology, to reduce false positives, for highly effective automated detection and blocking. 

● Reduced Risk – Protects against modern attack vectors like account takeover (ATO), enumeration, and DDoS; integrates with popular DevOps and SIEM tools, making it a great fit for enterprise DevSecOps teams.

“When selecting a partner to deliver superior web application firewall security for our hybrid cloud solutions, Fastly was an obvious choice. It has been a Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ choice for Cloud Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) for the last five years. Our combined solution will help customers ensure security and resiliency while reducing the operational overhead for security teams,” said Mikko Disini, VP of product line management at A10 Networks.

Availability

The A10 Next-Gen WAF, powered by Fastly, is available today. It supports A10 Thunder ADC and A10 Thunder CFW.

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Transcend Presents Exclusive Software Suite for the Ultimate Convenience in Data Security and Performance

Transcend Information Inc., a leading manufacturer of storage and multimedia products, is proud to present Transcend Elite, RecoveRx, and SSD Scope – a comprehensive suite of storage management software that bring user-friendly interfaces, along with advanced data and storage management features exclusively to Transcend's expanding family of storage solutions.

Transcend Elite: Keep important Files Organized, Protected, and Up-to-Date
Developed exclusively for JetFlash, StoreJet and Portable SSD products, Transcend Elite is a powerful data management software compatible with macOS, Windows OS and Android systems that helps users manage data easily and efficiently. Available as desktop and mobile apps, Transcend Elite makes it easy for users to perform instant and scheduled backups, data restore, as well as provide data security with 256-bit AES encryption, PC-lock password protection1, file synchronization2, and cloud backup via Google Drive or Dropbox. Transcend Elite is available as a free download from Transcend's official website and Google Play store.

Recommended Products:
  *   Portable SSD - ESD350C
  *   Portable Hard Drive - StoreJet 25M3C
  *   USB Flash Drive - JetFlash 850

1 Locking function supported on ESD220C / ESD230C / ESD240C / ESD400K Portable SSDs
2 Windows OS only

RecoveRx: Restore Accidentally Deleted Files with Ease
Designed to search deep within a storage device for traces of erased files that can be rescued, RecoveRx is a data recovery and storage device management software that allows users to easily recover important documents, photos, music, videos and other files in just a few mouse clicks. RecoveRx offers both basic and advanced file recovery methods for memory cards, digital music players, USB flash drives, external hard drives and internal SSDs, as well as the ability to format and write-protect SD / CompactFlash memory cards and StoreJet devices3. RecoveRx is available as a free download from Transcend's official website.

Recommended Products:
  *   Portable SSD - ESD350C
  *   Portable Hard Drive - StoreJet 25H3
  *   Memory Cards - SDXC/SDHC 700S, CompactFlash 1000
  *   USB Flash Drive - JetFlash 790

3 Windows OS only

SSD Scope: Maintain a Healthy and Efficient SSD
Developed for use with Transcend's SSD products, SSD Scope is an advanced software package that brings together the latest technology in maintaining and optimizing the performance of an SSD. In addition to monitoring the SSD's S.M.A.R.T. health status, SSD Scope provides a number of useful features, which include View Drive Information, Diagnostic Scan, Secure Erase, TRIM Detect & Enable, Firmware Update, Health Indicator, and System Clone. SSD Scope is available as a free download from Transcend's official website.

Recommended Products:
  *   Internal SSDs - PCIe SSD 220S, mSATA SSD 230S
  *   Portable SSD - ESD230C Portable SSD

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Master SSDs the Easy Way with the Plextor Newly-Launched Plextool NVMe Edition

PLEXTOR, a global leading brand of high-performance digital storage devices, has launched the latest generation of the SSD toolbox, the Plextool NVMe Edition, which is designed for Plextor NVMe SSDs. The new toolbox provides users with access to the drive status and boasts such functions as the display of model and capacity information, health and temperature monitoring, delivery of S.M.A.R.T. instructions and secure erasing. With its simple design, small size, user-friendly interface and other features, the Plextool NVMe Edition will be the perfect partner for Plextor SSDs.

Simple Design
Plextool NVMe Edition packages stability and reliability in a simple and elegant blue-and-white design. The toolbox uses images and labels to show detailed information on drive capacity and employs colored indicators of health and temperature for a straightforward representation of drive health.

Small Size
The Plextool NVMe Edition features an easy and intuitive installation process and a small 12.3MB file size, which enables quick download and installation. The toolbox neither burdens the computer system nor occupies much storage in the hard disk and memory. The small-sized toolbox executes efficient monitoring of SSD performance and best serves Plextor's SSDs.

User-Friendly Interface
The Plextool NVMe Edition comes with a simple and user-friendly interface. After the software is executed, users only need to select and confirm a SSD. Then they can obtain information regarding capacity, temperature, health, and more without complicated operations. S.M.A.R.T. and secure erasing are accessible by icon. In this way, users remain informed on the detailed conditions of their SSDs and are able to carry out more comprehensive checks.

Officially Certified Safety
Plextool NVMe Edition is an official toolbox developed by Plextor. It has passed quality and reliability tests and is most compatible with Plextor NVMe SSDs. The toolbox is free and available to all users, freeing them from the unknown risks of three-party software downloads. As a safe, official product directly from Plextor, the toolbox allows users to master the Plextor NVMe SSD with safety and ease.

Support model list
Plextor SSD M8Pe series
Plextor SSD M8Se series
Plextor SSD M9Pe series

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THE HIDDEN ONES, THE FIRST DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT FOR ASSASSIN’S CREED® ORIGINS, WILL RELEASE ON JANUARY 23

Today, Ubisoft announced that The Hidden Ones, the first downloadable content (DLC) for Assassin’s Creed® Origins, will launch on January 23, 2018 on all platforms. Ubisoft also revealed release dates for upcoming Assassin’s Creed® Origins post-launch content, including season pass content and free add-on content available to all players. Players can continue their journey through Ancient Egypt with a wide variety of content including several hours of new storyline expansions and quests, timed events and customization items.

DLC 1 - The Hidden Ones: This story-driven expansion builds upon the growth of the Brotherhood, taking players four years after the events of Assassin’s Creed Origins as they clash with an occupying Roman force in a new region of the world, the Sinai. This expansion will increase the level cap to 45, allowing players to continue to upgrade and customize their character. Players will have access to four new Legendary weapons, a new outfit, two new mounts and multiple new weapons as well as two new levels for all crafted gear. The Hidden Ones DLC is available for all season pass owners or can be purchased separately for €9.99 on January 23, 2018.

Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt: This new educational mode of the game lets everyone, from players to history-enthusiasts and non-gamers, choose between free roaming the beautiful world of Ancient Egypt to learn more about its history and daily life or embarking on guided tours curated by historians and Egyptologists. People can discover and explore a world free of conflict, time pressure or gameplay constraints, where storyline and quests are not active and the world of Ancient Egypt evolves into a combat-free living museum. 

Discovery Tour will be available as a free update for all Assassin’s Creed Origins owners and will be available for purchase separately for €19.99 on Uplay and Steam for Windows PC on February 20, 2018.

DLC 2 - The Curse of the Pharaohs: This new expansion offers players a completely new storyline to delve into as they travel to Thebes to investigate an ancient curse that is plaguing the region. The Curse of the Pharaohs focuses on Egyptian mythology, pitting players against famous pharaohs and Egyptian beasts as they investigate the cause of the curse that has brought the dead pharaohs back to life. This new piece of content will increase the level cap to 55 and give players access to new outfits and gear, including rare and legendary weapons, all themed around classic Egyptian mythology. The Curse of the Pharaohs DLC will be available for season pass owners or can be purchased separately for €19.99 on March 6, 2018.

The season pass is included in the Assassin’s Creed Origins Gold Edition and, in addition to the two DLC, includes the Horus Pack and Roman Centurion Pack with their own set of weapons, mounts and outfits, a legendary weapon and 500 Helix credits. The season pass is also available for purchase separately for €39.99.

Additionally, a wide variety of free content, including Trials of the Gods and a new quest, Incoming Threat, a prelude to DLC 1 The Hidden Ones, in which players must head-off an incoming incursion and find where its coming from, will be available for all Assassin’s Creed Origins players.

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New Acer TravelMate P4 Notebooks Offer Robust Security, Power and Practical Features for Professionals On the Go

Acer today announced its new TravelMate P4 series commercial notebooks are available in the United States. This platform provides powerful security and productivity essentials to meet the needs of businesses and institutional customers and has the same aesthetics as the Red Dot and iF design award winning2 Acer TravelMate P6 series. Thanks to Windows 10 Pro and multiple methods of data protection, including an integrated touch fingerprint reader and smart card reader, the durable, travel-friendly laptops let professionals work securely in and out of the office.

“Our newest TravelMate series will suit business travelers and those wanting a practical portable computer for use at the office, home and on the go,” said Steve Su, Acer America business manager, mobility. “They’re powerful, secure and user-friendly with the ability to recline flat, while a backlit keyboard enables professionals to work in low-light environments.”

Up to 0.8 inches thin, the Acer TravelMate P4 notebooks are slim and offer a choice of 14- or 15-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) or HD (1366x768) displays and a touch screen option to meet a range of needs and budgets. The LED-backlit displays leverage ComfyView™ anti-glare technology to help decrease eye fatigue. Select models feature IPS panels for superb wide angle viewing, ideal for collaborating with others.

Enhancing usability, the new notebooks recline 180 degrees to lie fully flat for sharing content off-site with clients, partners and vendors or small meetings with associates at the office. They also feature a LED backlit keyboard for working in low-light situations on airplanes, trains or late nights at home. A chiclet-style keyboard delivers superb tactile feedback for accurate touch-typing, and a wide Precision Touchpad provides comfortable and responsive navigation.

The Acer TravelMate P4 notebooks feature 6th Generation Intel® Core™ processors, up to 8GB DDR4 memory, up to 256GB SSDs3 for excellent performance and battery life up to 8 hours1 to promote productivity while traveling or working off-site. For users who regularly host meetings outside the office, the Acer TravelMate P4 series has fine- tuned speakers and microphones for crisp and lag-free communication and a 720p HDR webcam for clear videoconferencing. In addition to a card reader and HDMI, a super-fast USB Type-C port pairs with an optional Acer USB Type-C Dock (sold separately) to connect up to two 4K displays for easy plug and play docking, while delivering power, speed and a host of connectivity options via a single cable. The systems also support fast dual band 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac wireless for up to three times throughput improvement for 11ac in typical multi-user scenarios4.

Built Tough for the Rigors of Travel
 The Acer TravelMate P4 series was built to safeguard sensitive data and withstand the demands of frequent travel. An integrated touch fingerprint sensor supports Windows Hello for fast and secure sign-in and a smart card reader is included for those working in banking, healthcare, government or other institutions wanting employees to have extra security when logging in. A Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 chip increases platform integrity and provides hardware-based protection for passwords and encryption keys. Preloaded with Acer ProShield Manager, the Acer TravelMate P4 series provides a suite of security and management tools to protect confidential data. In addition, Acer Office Manager allows IT professionals to swiftly deploy security policies, monitor computer assets and schedule maintenance tasks from a user-friendly interface.

Boasting commercial grade reliability, the Acer TravelMate P4 series notebooks are Energy Star® qualified and EPEAT® registered. They’ve undergone rigorous quality and reliability tests including temperature and humidity, acoustics, shock and vibration, mean time between failure, hinge life, spillage, free drop, weight and pressure, and more.

The Acer TravelMate P4 series comes with a one year traveler’s warranty5 valid in more than 30 countries, including Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Oceania where Acer has authorized repair facilities.

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Meitu launches its first ever A.I. painting robot - Andy, the ArtBot

Chinese Selfie App Meitu expands its expertise to Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and created its first ever A.I. painting robot - Andy, the ArtBot. Meitu is a mobile Internet company with a mission to make the world a more beautiful place, and a vision to build an ecosystem around beauty and make everyone a user of Meitu products. Meitu has created a series of software and hardware products — including Meitu, BeautyCam, Meipai (a video and live streaming community app) and Meitu smartphones — which have been transforming the way users create and share beauty, precipitating the selfie phenomenon in China. 

What makes Andy so unique?
Unlike other photo-editing functions that add effects to original photos, Andy breaks up and reconstructs photos, then turns them into paintings within 5 seconds. Its segmentation technique is so humanized that it recognizes humans in photos and is able take them out from the backgrounds behind them, and turn into a brand new painting.

Undoubtedly, Andy marks the beginning of A.I. in the art industry. As Andy continues to learn, more painting styles created through A.I. will be developed. Andy may not be comparable to any of the great painters like Picasso, Van Gogh, etc., but it will certainly lead a different art trend for the future.

How Andy works?

Meitu is dedicated to the pursuit of beauty around the world. For almost 10 years, Meitu has been an innovator of apps that generate 6 billion photos per month globally.

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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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McAfee Announces Next Generation Firewall

McAfee, part of Intel Security, announced the latest release of McAfee Next Generation Firewall, which now seamlessly integrates with several key McAfee solutions and technologies, offering businesses and government agencies an ever-expanding ecosystem of threat defenses. Important new integrations with the McAfee Security Connected framework provide McAfee Next Generation Firewall customers with layered protection against the latest threats and evasions, along with improved workflows and operational efficiency.

“Earlier this year, McAfee outlined our game-changing approach to strengthening network security through a powerful combination of integrated technologies,” said Pat Calhoun, general manager of network security at McAfee, part of Intel Security. “This release represents another significant milestone in bringing that strategy to fruition and further empowers our customers with the tools they need to outmaneuver attackers with even greater ease and precision.”

A recent Vanson Bourne study commissioned by McAfee revealed that companies with multiple, siloed security solutions often present security postures that are easily compromised, putting them at greater risk for a data breach. According to the study in UK, France, Germany and the US, 43% of IT decision makers at large companies (more than 1,000 employees) believe that point security solutions that don’t share information can lead to threats going unnoticed. Nearly half (46%) stated that siloed security also causes their IT departments to spend too much time manually discovering and remediating threats.

Utilizing actionable endpoint information from McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator, McAfee Next Generation Firewall customers will now see operational efficiency benefits with valuable insights into endpoint security postures and simplified administrative workflows when investigating incidents. Integration with McAfee Enterprise Security Manager improves security posture, reduces event response times, and enables continuous monitoring and alerting of compliance status. McAfee Advanced Threat Defense integration provides real time protection against rapidly mutating malware and zero-day attacks. And lastly, reputation intelligence from McAfee Global Threat Intelligence enables McAfee Next Generation Firewall to provide superior protection against globally active advanced threats and malware.

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hybris Announces Major Additions and Enhancements to its hybris Extend ISV Partner Program

hybris, the world’s fastest-growing commerce platform provider ranked “leader” by both principle analyst firms, announced a significant expansion of its hybris Extend program for independent software vendors.

hybris Extend is an online integration marketplace giving customers access to best-of-breed applications, extensions and network services developed by hybris partners, all of which are optimized to work with the hybris OmniCommerce platform. While hundreds of third-party products have been integrated and deployed in hybris customer implementations, only those vendors having a close working relationship with hybris and promising pre-built integrations with hybris software qualify for hybris Extend – assuring customers higher quality, smoother, more efficient deployments and better business relationships.

“The hybris OmniCommerce Suite is comprehensive, but our solutions often are the hub of an even larger ecosystem of technologies and solutions,” said Ariel Lüdi, CEO of hybris. “The best way for us to serve our customers is to make their technical and business integrations across that ecosystem as seamless and easy as possible. That is the goal of hybris Extend”.

hybris Extend now includes over 30 independent software vendors committed to hybris, in eleven categories:

• Analytics & Business Intelligence
• Campaign Management & Marketing
• Community & Social
• Customer Experience Management & Optimization
• Customer Relationship Management & Customer Service
• Fulfillment
• In-Store
• Marketplace Integration & Comparison Shopping
• Payments, Fraud Management, Billing & Tax
• Rich Media & Content Enhancement
• Technology

Seven vendors have earned an elite level of partnership: hybris Extend Strategic Partners. This designation identifies partners not only committed to strong pre-built integrations with the hybris platform, but also those who are the leaders in their field, with strong global customer bases. These leaders also share joint marketing and in-field implementation coordination with hybris. hybris Extend Strategic Partners include, to date:

• Adobe (Analytics & Business Intelligence, Customer Experience Management & Optimization)
• Avalara (Tax)
• Bazaarvoice (Community & Social)
• Compuware (Technology)
• CyberSource (Payments, Fraud Management)
• LivePerson (Customer Relationship Management & Customer Service)
• Responsys (Campaign Management & Marketing).

hybris’ standards-based open architecture is designed to encourage deep and broad integrations with external products. To further increase the utility and lower the total cost of ownership of such extensions, hybris has developed OmniCommerce Connect, a state-of-the-art RESTful Application Program Interface between hybris commerce functionality and third-party software.

“We have numerous clients around the globe that leverage Bazaarvoice within their hybris ecommerce environment. Being a part of the Extend program ensures that our joint customers get the best experience possible from our solutions: one that delivers on the vision of social-enabled commerce,” said Jim Petty, Vice President, Technology Partnerships at Bazaarvoice.

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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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Adobe Unveils Next Generation Acrobat XI software

Adobe® Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today unveiled Adobe Acrobat® XI software, a powerful new solution that rises to today’s complex document challenges. The industry standard for PDF software will now feature complete PDF editing and export to Microsoft PowerPoint; along with new capabilities and functionality designed for tablets and mobile devices, such as touch-friendly capabilities on tablets and smartphones allowing users to add comments, fill in, save and sign forms. Acrobat XI also supports IT departments with more seamless Microsoft Office and SharePoint integration, easy deployment, applications virtualization and robust application security to help provide a low cost of ownership and sound return on investment.

Products included in this release are: Acrobat XI Pro, Acrobat XI Standard and Adobe Reader® XI.

The mounting productivity inefficiencies and cost of document-based challenges are highlighted in a recent global IDC white paper. A typical company with 1,000 employees has a productivity cost of US$15.9 million annually according to the white paper. Addressing these inefficiencies would be tantamount to hiring an additional 213 people.

“The compounding complexity of work has never been more pressing. As the number of mobile devices and the use of cloud services surge, information workers must be empowered to work more effectively with documents anywhere on any device," said Melissa Webster, program vice president at IDC. "They need a solution that enables them to collaborate with others inside and outside the firewall while at the same time meeting IT and organizational requirements for streamlined management, application security, and secure delivery of information – all with a high ROI.”

The importance of working collaboratively with documents is evident in the amount of time workers spend on it. According to the white paper, information workers spend approximately 15 hours of their workweek reviewing and approving documents. In a telephone poll of about 900 information workers in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, conducted by Adobe’s external agency to understand the type of document related activities most dominant in the workplace, about 60% of them responded that they work with documents to facilitate reviews by multiple parties.

“More and more information is being generated, shared and consumed in documents than ever before,” said Kevin M. Lynch, SVP and GM of Acrobat and Document Services at Adobe. “Working with online forms, collaborative PDF reviews and signatures are the everyday norm for business professionals who were once simply content creators. IT departments need to support these changes while maintaining and maximizing the use of existing infrastructures and systems, as well as provide support and services that enable their organizations to take advantage of new business opportunities, improve results, justify return on investment, and lower the total cost of ownership.”

Vicky Skipp, Regional Director, Adobe South East Asia said “Adobe Acrobat XI is a powerful new solution that rises to meet the demands of a Malaysian market that is challenged by complex documentation and an increasingly integrated environment by offering an easier way to efficiently manage, collaborate, and boost productivity. Acrobat has been a trusted desktop solution for leading organizations across Malaysia for many years and this latest version upgrade will continue to improve the business functionalities within various industries.”

Vivien Borillo, Manager of Creative Services, Baker & Mckenzie said “The new Acrobat XI will make our jobs easier. With this software, we can easily edit/revise documents even without the original file, and without disrupting the original formatting.”

With Adobe Acrobat XI, new and improved features and functionality for business professionals now include:
Edit PDF files, modify paragraphs, images, and objects by simply clicking and dragging using the new, intuitive Edit Text and Images tool. Arrange and visually merge select contents and multiple documents into one organized PDF file, while retaining source file integrity.

Enhanced mobile capabilities. Work with PDF files across tablets and smartphones in touch-friendly Adobe Reader to annotate and add comments, as well as fill in, sign and save forms.

Save PDF documents as PowerPoint, Word or Excel files or reuse parts of or entire PDF files as Microsoft Office documents and Web pages without retyping. Reflow paragraph text without disturbing format.

Improved protection of all PDF files created from Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, and Excel to help prevent copying, editing, or printing without permission.
The new and improved IT features and functionality now enable IT professionals to:

Standardize on an easy to use, full-featured, consistent, trusted PDF Reader for iPads and Android tablets. Additionally, deliver Acrobat XI and Reader XI as a centrally managed, touch-friendly, virtual application with new support for Microsoft App-V via Citrix XenApp.

Integrate Adobe Acrobat XI more seamlessly with Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint, enabling users to do more with PDF in an Office or SharePoint environment.

Streamline deployment and maintenance with free Adobe tools to aid configuration and installation, as well as enhanced support for Microsoft SCCM/SCUP and Apple Remote Desktop.

Help mitigate risk and protect systems and data with industry-leading security technology, in addition to the Adobe PDF Whitelist Framework, allowing selective enablement of JavaScript for both Windows and Mac OS. Easily deliver multi-step PDF file preparation and security measures using the Action Wizard to help ensure organizational consistency.

Pricing and Availability
Acrobat XI and its associated products are scheduled to ship within 30 days. They will be available through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe.com South East Asia store at shop.adobe.com/sea. Adobe Store price for Acrobat XI Standard is expected to be RM 1,022. Adobe Store price for Acrobat XI Pro is expected to be RM 1,533. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available. A free 30-day trial of Acrobat Pro will be available upon product shipment. Reader XI free download will be available at get.adobe.com/reader upon product shipment.

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hybris to Exhibit Seamless Multichannel Solution for B2C, B2B at eCommerce Expo

hybris, a leading international provider of multichannel commerce software, will exhibit at the 2012 eCommerce Expo on October 16 and 17 at ShanghaiMart in Shanghai, China, together with partners Adobe, arvato systems and Computop. hybris Multichannel Suite has been released with full support of Simplified Chinese, providing organizations that wish to open business in China a seamless solution across all business channels, including online, mobile and social. This unified platform provided by hybris manages all aspects of business, from brand engagement to shopping experiences to financial transactions. By providing streamlined content authoring, management, content delivery, and optimization capabilities, businesses will be able to achieve a rapid time to market by quickly adapting web and mobile merchandising to the demands of the global marketplace.

Online sales are exploding in China, and western companies are racing to develop successful e-commerce strategies to capitalize on this fertile market. China’s Ministry of Commerce reported that web-based B2C sales in 2011 reached US$124.22 billion, a 53.7% increase from the previous year. Furthermore, mobile commerce is on the rise in China, with Near-Field Communication (NFC) and the QC Code having already made its way into Chinese ecommerce. The Shopping Wall, which has already appeared in South Korea, is likely to open in China as more consumers use the latest smartphones to make purchases. Forrester Research estimates that the total value of the ecommerce retail market in China will grow to US$356 billion in 2016.

hybris, named as a leading B2C commerce suite vendor in Forrester Research’s latest Wave report on B2C Commerce, provides the tools that enable organizations to meet current demand 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.

hybris has already received praise from its customers in China. Benefit Cosmetics is an international cosmetics brand who first employed hybris’ products when they decided to enter China’s ecommerce market. “The hybris system is highly flexible,” says Valerie Hoecke, VP Digital Experience & Commerce, Benefit Cosmetics, “enabling our China operation to be a proof-of-concept for future operations in China and other Asian markets with non-Latin languages, while aligning it with our global business model. I’m very satisfied with our choice.”

The hybris solution is built for any industry that wishes to take advantage of China’s growing ecommerce. Organizations can conduct business with each other with ease and assurance that hybris’ professional expertise works for them. Furthermore, retailers can attract more consumers by offering all different points of access to make a sale.

Burghardt Groeber, VP of hybris Asia Pacific, explains, “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.” He goes on to explain that hybris provides the software to speed up the time of multichannel deployments and enables organizations to build a lasting multichannel solution.

 

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hybris Named a B2C Commerce Suite Leader by Global Independent Research Firm

hybris, a global leader in multichannel commerce solutions, today announced that it has been named a leading B2C commerce suite vendor in Forrester Research, Inc.’s latest Wave report on B2C Commerce entitled: “The Forrester Wave™: B2C Commerce Suites, Q3 2012," dated September 24, 2012.

According to the report; “…hybris has continued to mature as a solution over the past two years — and gained market share quickly as a result… The key differentiators of hybris remain strong product content management tools, catalog management, enterprise integration, and globalization/internationalization capabilities. Its eCommerce features have also matured notably, and there is a well-defined ability to extend the product and customize it to develop differentiated eCommerce sites across a variety of verticals.”

“Our focus on the B2C commerce market is the cornerstone of our success and heritage in the retail and industry markets,” said Ariel Lüdi, CEO of hybris. “With our continued success we are leading the vendor pack in the evolution towards true omnichannel commerce. As a result, we are very pleased to see that our technology focus in B2C is gaining us recognition as a leader in this growing and dynamic sector of commerce.”

According to the Forrester B2C Commerce Suite Wave report, “Today’s multichannel businesses are increasingly multisite and multibrand businesses. This trend enables more specific and targeted marketing opportunities for customers; they can also benefit from search engine optimization (SEO) by enabling the use of more specific terms and metadata to target related search terms. Innovative merchandising and marketing in areas like flash sales, social commerce, and mobile commerce are also driving forces behind the need to support a diverse set of sites and customer touchpoints from a common infrastructure.”

A copy of the report can be downloaded here: http://www.hybris.com/forrester-wave-Q3-2012

About hybris
hybris helps businesses on every continent sell more goods, services and digital content through every touchpoint, channel and device. hybris delivers "OmniCommerce™": state-of-the-art master data management and unified commerce processes that give a business a single view of its customers, products and orders, and its customers a single view of the business. hybris' omni-channel software is built on a single platform, based on open standards, that is agile to support limitless innovation, efficient to drive the best TCO, and scalable and extensible to be the last commerce platform companies will ever need. Both principal industry analyst firms rank hybris as a “leader” and list its commerce platform among the top two or three in the market. The same software is available on-premise, on-demand and managed hosted, giving merchants of all sizes maximum flexibility. Over 400 companies have chosen hybris, including global B2B brands W.W. Grainger, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Thomson-Reuters, and Thermo Fisher Scientific as well as consumer brands P&G, Toys”R”Us, Levi’s, Gymboree, Starbucks, and Bridgestone Tires. hybris has operations in 15 countries around the globe. hybris is the future of commerce™. For more information, visit http://www.hybris.com

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Norton Delivers Protection for Windows® 8, Social Networking and Scams

Norton by Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) today released the latest versions of its award-winning core security products, Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus, which are compatible with Windows 8 and engineered to be safer, optimized for speed and performance, and simpler to use.

According to third-party testing, when paired with Norton, Windows 8 is 50 percent faster[1] and 20 percent safer than with Windows Defender[2]. In addition, testing showed that Norton was able to correctly detect and block all the threats that Windows Defender failed to recognize.[3]

“According to this year’s Norton Cybercrime Report[4], one in 10 social network users said they’d fallen victim to a scam or fake link on social network platforms. Today, consumers are living nearly every aspect of their lives online and often putting personal information at risk,” said Janice Chaffin, Group President, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec. “With our latest releases, Norton responds to this and other consumer vulnerabilities with stronger social media and scam protection to ensure consumers are safe in the multi-device, Wi-Fi-enabled world.”

The latest Norton products are engineered to be safer, optimized for speed and performance, and simpler to use. In third-party testing, the new products ranked first in both protection[5] and performance[6] among a field of competitors. New features and improvements include:

Safer
In addition to industry-leading core security technologies, the new Norton releases feature protection enhancements including:

-Social Networking Protection – New defenses protect consumers from attacks and scams on social networks, such as likejacking, malicious messages, posts and notices on social networks

-Scam Insight – Anti-scam capabilities warn users of potentially risky sites that are new or do not have an established reputation within the Norton user community, enabling users to keep personal information such as bank account or login data secure

-Enhanced Network Defenses – To keep consumers safe from constantly evolving web-based attacks, the latest releases feature stronger networking defenses including a new Intelligent Firewall and broader uses of Insight information, which now tracks IP address reputation in addition to file, URL and domain reputation

Faster
With consumers becoming more on-the-go with devices such as tablets and ultrabooks, faster startup, shutdown and improved battery power are increasingly important. The latest Norton products feature:

-Faster Startup & Shutdown – Completely re-engineered to minimize startup and shutdown time

-Maximized Battery Power – Reduced power consumption, resulting in extended battery life and faster response from system sleep and hibernate states

-More Efficient Support for Digital Media Files – Designed to ensure digital media files – such as photos, music and videos – are safe from attack, without impacting performance

Simpler

In addition to being safer and faster, Norton products are also simpler to use, offering enhancements including:

-Touch Screen-Friendly – User interface is engineered for faster performance and optimized for touch screens

-Version-Less – With all product updates now downloaded in the background and installed automatically, consumers can rest assured they are safe from the latest threats without manually checking for updates

-Reboot-Less – Product updates no longer require reboot, so consumers can receive the most up-to-date protection without being interrupted

Pricing & Availability
The latest versions of Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus are now available for purchase in Kuala Lumpur through various retailers and the Norton online store at http://malaysia.norton.com/ The RRP for Norton Internet Security is RM 169 and provides one year protection for up to three PCs. Norton AntiVirus is RM 69 and provides protection for one PC.

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Transcend compact JetFlash 360 USB flash drive

Transcend Information is pleased to introduce the newest member of its JetFlash Capless family - the compact JetFlash 360 USB flash drive. Adapted to suit the worker rather than the workplace, the eye-catching ergonomic shape of the JetFlash 360 best fits the natural grip of the user to offer effortless, one-handed operation and complete control when sharing files on-the-go.

An indispensable tool in the office, classroom or at home, the JetFlash 360 measures just 45mm x 18.3mm x 7.5mm and weighs a mere 4.3g. The easy-to-grip, contoured design requires minimal effort when unplugging from a USB port, allowing users to transfer, store, and share their files quickly and easily. A bright addition to any set of keys, wallet or purse, the colorful JetFlash 360 is designed with a convenient attachment hook to help prevent accidental loss.

Transcend`s expanding Capless series includes the simple yet exquisite JetFlash 560 and the eye-catching, colorful JetFlash 530/500 retractable USB drives. They feature a handy push-out USB connector to not only keep dust and debris out of the drive, but also ensure there is no cap to misplace or lose.

For added value, users can download and install the exclusive Transcend Elite data management tools for enhanced file organization and protection. With the aid of this software, users can easily synchronize all their Internet browser bookmarks to the portable device, temporarily lock a computer to prevent unauthorized access, and much more. Additionally, Transcend JetFlash drives offer a free download of RecoveRx Tool. With just a few mouse clicks, users can easily recover their precious documents, videos, spreadsheets, music, and virtually any other type of digital file.

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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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Kaspersky Lab Inks Partnership with Tech Titan

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, announced its partnership with Tech Titan Limited, a leading network security provider, in introducing the world’s first portable USB Anti-Virus solution powered by Kaspersky Lab – the Tech Titan T-Drive Pro.

The Tech Titan T-Drive Pro comes with a powerful disinfection engine that protects and guards against malware in the device, real-time virus detection that incorporates Antibody (USB virus vaccine) and virtual private disk within the password protected drive, file synchronization and on demand scanning. Tech Titan T-Drive Pro is compatible with existing anti-virus software on laptops and desktops.

Tech Titan T-Drive Pro is being launched in Malaysia first before being rolled out across the Asia Pacific region in the coming months before its global availability in early 2013.

According to Mr. Jimmy Fong, Channel Sales Director, SEA, Kaspersky Lab, unsecured USB flash drives pose considerable risks to organizations and to individuals as the drives are among the most common ‘carriers’ of malware.

“Most organizations and individuals rely heavily on USB or flash drives to move files quickly between different devices and locations as well as for the sheer portability of the medium. While it would be more secure not to use conventional flash drives, users are not changing their behavior, which makes it imperative for manufacturers to develop a more secure flash drive with a security solution, which Tech Titan in collaboration with Kaspersky Lab has done,” Mr. Fong said.

USB drives have been used as a malware attack mechanism in the past and will continue to be used knowingly or unknowingly to spread malware. Some experts have concluded that based on the spread of the Stuxnet malware that it initially infected a few computers and was spread via flash drive thereafter.

“Tech Titan T-Drive Pro combines the convenience of a flash drive with the ultimate, real-time protection for a highly secure detection, storage and transfer of files that takes up less time and is more convenient. What we are doing is nipping the problem in the bud before it can turn into a full-scale infection by providing an early intervention,” Mr. Fong added.

Tech Titan T-Drive Pro is currently available in a 6-in-1 package. The package includes an 8GB USB, USB-KAV 1 Year license, Kaspersky Internet Security 3PCs 1 Year license, free 6-month license of Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac, Kaspersky Mobile Security and Kaspersky Tablet Security that can be installed in the respective devices.

According to Kaspersky Lab’s research, the company discovers over 125,000 new threats daily and blocked 161 million network attacks in 2011.

Tech Titan Limited’s Channel Sales Director, Mr. Eric Chow said that the company had sought out a partnership with Kaspersky Lab due to the Russian security vendor’s track record for being the first to discover and detect threats such as Stuxnet, Flame, Call & Find and the recent ‘Madi’ active cyber-espionage campaign, ahead of other antivirus vendors.

"With more organizations offering options to work from home and a growing mobile workforce as well as the storage of music and movies for entertainment on portable flash drives, a more secure device is required that will stop malware in its tracks before it can corrupt, compromise or steal important data. Tech Titan T-Drive Pro is the answer for both enterprise and individual consumers who value their digital assets. The powerful disinfection engine powered by Kaspersky Lab makes the Tech Titan T-Drive Pro suitable to be used across Windows operating systems and across devices for maximum convenience and protection,” Mr Chow said.

“According to Global Industry Analysts, Inc, the worldwide shipments of USB flash drives are forecasted to hit 568million units by 20151 and many of them are only equipped with encryption for data protection, not malware. We are introducing the first in the world USB flash drive powered by Kaspersky Lab that provides ultimate protection in the drive and the transfer of these files to other devices as well,” Mr. Chow said.

Tech Titan expects interest in the Tech Titan T-Drive Pro from corporations and individuals to be high as there is a need for more secure flash drive options and Tech Titan T-Drive Pro offers the category-defining product, first to the market.

The Tech Titan T-Drive Pro will be available at major local retail outlets from August 2, 2012 onwards, retailing at RM179 for 8GB. For enquiries please contact +603-7802 2200 or visit www.tech-titan.com for more information.

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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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