Zadara enhances SQL Server database migration to the cloud, removes complexity, hidden risks and expenses

Zadara Storage announced a new solution that enables enterprises to migrate SQL Server database apps to the cloud – in a phased manner. 

High availability (HA) is imperative to a well-architected SQL Server environment and modernizing business-critical applications. 

While Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition provides a mechanism for doing so, it is costly for organizations that only need its HA features. But according to Zadara, it doesn’t have to be this way. Zadara’s hybrid cloud storage platform is available on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform. 

Zadara’s service offering allows users to meet their high-availability requirements using SQL Standard Edition within the AWS environment – providing them with the ability to maintain HA without the cost of SQL Enterprise Edition. In addition, applications can be migrated to AWS without any code changes.

“Our newest offering is the latest example of Zadara’s ability to deliver real business value,” said Oded Kellner, vice president, product management at Zadara. “We are helping customers navigate the hidden risks and unnecessary expenses that have plagued so many SQL Server migrations to public clouds – with greater reliability, faster performance and increased security capabilities.”

Immuta and Databricks partner to offer cloud-native, automated data governance for Apache Spark and Delta Lake

Immuta announced a partnership with Databricks that empowers data teams to perform analytics on sensitive data in the cloud in a compliant, policy-driven, and automated way. Through a new, native integration, the two companies help customers make data secure, anonymized and compliant for cloud analytics and machine learning.

With Databricks and Immuta, customers can enforce fine-grained access controls and dynamically apply anonymization techniques from directly within Databricks and Delta Lake, the open source storage layer that brings reliability to data lakes. As a result, Databricks users see only what they’re allowed to see, based on who they are, and their approved purpose. This enables organizations to securely access data and build machine learning models.

With Immuta natively integrated within Databricks, the customer now has the power to create automatically-enforced data policies, combining ABAC (or attribute-based access control) and purpose. 

Now, the customer’s analysts enjoy dynamic access to data, with Immuta ensuring proper security and privacy protection – down to the row, column, and cell-level. Immuta’s integrated data governance made possible the migration to Databricks. The customer now benefits from analytics on a modern platform, without sacrificing governance and security.

IDC shows that global tablet shipments return to growth in the third quarter, pushed by new product launches

Research firm IDC has reported that the global tablet market returned to growth in the third quarter of 2019 with 37.6 million units shipped globally for a year-over-year increase of 1.9 percent, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. 

Apple maintained its lead and grew 21.8 percent over last year. The introduction of a new iPad late in the quarter helped the company gain share, growing from 26.3 percent in the third quarter of 2018 to 31.4 percent for this year’s third quarter. 

By including the Smart Connecter on its latest device, all of Apple's iPads except the Mini now offer a detachable keyboard option. This, combined with the iPad OS, makes Apple the largest player in the detachable space and a greater threat to the traditional PC market. 

Amazon.com managed to grab the second spot (usually held by Samsung) during the quarter, growing shipments 25.6 percent year over year. The introduction of the new Fire 7 last quarter combined with the company's annual Prime Day Sale helped drive shipments. 

With the latest refresh of the Fire 10 and the upcoming holiday season, Amazon continues to position itself as one of the most popular tablet brands. 

Samsung slipped into third place, shipping 4.6 million units in the quarter. The Tab A series continues to be incredibly popular accounting for more than half of Samsung's shipments, while the Tab S series has helped raise the company's profile as a premium Android tablet vendor. 

Huawei shipped 3.6 million units in the third quarter of this year for a year-over-year decline of 4.4 percent. The company has faced steady pressure from the United States, and this has led to a bit of retrenchment as the majority of the company's shipments were in China. 

Lenovo rounded out the top 5, growing its share slightly from 6.3 percent in the third quarter of 2018 to 6.7 percent in the current quarter. The company's performance in Asia/Pacific, including Japan, along with Europe, Middle East & Africa, continued to be a driver. 

New SpyCloud offering, Third Party Insight, helps to measure and mitigate supply chain breach risks

SpyCloud launched Tuesday their new Third Party Insight solution to help companies understand risk and remediate exposures to the potential threat of account takeover emanating from supply chain vendors. Businesses can use this tool to evaluate risks presented by vendors, partners or acquisition targets based on several factors that stem from the threat of account takeovers.

Third Party Insight provides SpyCloud customers with a risk ranking (specific to the threat of account takeover) for each third party they work with, plus specific data on executive credentials, potentially infected employees, and the rate of password reuse across exposed data. 

Companies can share this data with partners for free and work with them to remediate exposures, reducing the risk of a breach due to account takeovers in their supply chain.  

Some of the most infamous data breaches occurred after the compromise of a third-party account. Memorably, Target's systems were reportedly compromised in 2013 after an HVAC vendor's credentials were used to access Target's web services for vendors, eventually leading to the propagation of credit card-stealing malware on point of sale systems.

More recently in March 2019, Citrix, which provides virtual private network services to most of the Fortune 1000, fell victim to a breach that emanated from an account takeover attack. Criminals had access to emails, project files, employee information and more over a six-month period before the breach was detected. 

"Your employees are open doors to your network, your data and your intellectual property, but your third-party relationships extend that attack surface even further," explained David Endler, chief product officer and co-founder of SpyCloud. "Our new Third Party Insight solution gives businesses a way to evaluate supply chain risks and work cooperatively with their vendors to mitigate them, in turn strengthening their overall security posture while building goodwill with key partners and suppliers."

"In addition to helping assess how vendors and partners may increase your attack surface, Third Party Insight can also help you understand exposures you may inherit through mergers and acquisitions," said Ted Ross, CEO and co-founder of SpyCloud. "When news of an acquisition leaks to the press, the parties involved become ideal targets for criminals. We can now proactively improve the security posture of these parties ahead of these events."