ATP A600Si/A600Sc SATA SSDs deliver MCU design for enhanced power management and PLP capabilities

ATP Electronics unveiled Tuesday its next-generation A600Si and A600Sc Serial ATA solid state drives (SATA SSDs) featuring a completely new design of the power loss protection (PLP) array, which utilizes a new power management IC (PMIC) and new firmware-programmable MCU (microcontroller unit). 

Integrated into its latest PLP technology, ATP PowerProtector 4, the new MCU design allows the PLP array to perform intelligently in various temperatures, power glitches and charge states.

ATP SATA SSDs with the new PowerProtector 4 MCU-based design provide enhanced device protection that suppresses power-up inrush current according to customer request and input over-voltage protection to prevent damage to the SSD circuitry. It delivers improved data integrity using input power noise de-glitch to prevent incorrect cache flushing caused by false triggers such as noisy or unstable host input voltage, and under-charge/over-charge protection for hold-up power capacitors.

It also provides fast power on/off control that cuts time required from power-off to re-power on the SSD;  precise control of reset signal generation and power up/down sequences prevents potential issues in the power up/down of the SSD; and industrial operating temperature support ensures reliable operation in extreme environments from ‑40°C to 85°C. 

As components perform and react differently in severely cold or hot scenarios, ATP PowerProtector 4 ensures reliable PLP capacitance in all states of cold start, hot temperature workload, and cross temperature.

With this line of SSDs, users get access to RAID support that ensures redundancy and fault tolerance to prevent data loss in the event of a drive failure; end-to-end data protection prevents unauthorized access to data while it is being transferred from one storage device to another; and customization options, as the new MCU-based design allows PLP capabilities to be tailor-fitted according to unique customer requirements, application-specific needs, or use cases.

"Superior power loss protection is essential in any embedded/industrial application. But not all PLPs are equal," said Marco Mezger, ATP vice president of global marketing. "By implementing this type of MCU design, we are able to showcase our engineering expertise and nearly 30-year experience in the design and manufacture of storage devices for wide temperature environments, particularly for compact form factors in embedded/industrial applications. We continue to blaze the trail, as we were also the first to design and release smaller form factor SSDs such as eUSB and M.2 2242 with an onboard PLP array."

The next-generation ATP SATA SSDs with the new MCU-based design include mSATA, 2.5-inch SSDs and M.2 2242/2280 modules. Available with I-Temp (A600Si) and C-Temp (A600Sc) support, the SSDs come in the following capacities — M.2 2280: 120 to 960 GB; M.2 2242 and mSATA: 120 to 480 GB; 2.5": 120 GB to 1.92 TB.

PTC completes OnShape acquisition; drives market transition to SaaS model

PTC announced that it has completed its acquisition of Onshape, developer of the Onshape Software as a Service (SaaS) product development platform that unites robust computer aided design (CAD) software with data management and collaboration tools. The acquisition positions PTC to capitalize on the inevitable industry transition to SaaS.

Onshape will operate as a SaaS business unit within PTC with Jon Hirschtick, president of Onshape, reporting directly to Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO of PTC. Barclays acted as exclusive financial advisor to PTC on the transaction.

The SaaS model, while nascent in the CAD and product lifecycle management (PLM) markets, is rapidly becoming industry best practice across most other software domains. 

IDC's research shows manufacturers are looking to the cloud to support specific innovation-related processes such as design review, supplier collaboration, quality management, and service execution.

Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Onshape was founded in 2012 by CAD pioneers and tech legends, including Jon Hirschtick, John McEleney, and Dave Corcoran, inventors and former executives of SolidWorks. Onshape has secured more than $150 million in funding from leading venture capital firms and has more than 5,000 subscribers around the world. 

The company’s software offering is delivered in a SaaS model, making it accessible from any connected location or device, eliminating the need for costly hardware and administrative staff to maintain. 

Distributed and mobile teams of designers, engineers and others can benefit from the product’s cloud nature, enabling them to improve collaboration, and reduce the time needed to bring new products to market – while simultaneously staying current with the latest software.

Trend Micro reveals that leaky ElasticSearch database exposed close to 7.5 million Adobe Creative cloud users’ records

A misconfigured cloud-based ElasticSearch database has exposed almost 7.5 million Adobe Creative Cloud user records that include email addresses, member IDs, information on installed Adobe products and subscription statuses, and whether or not they are Adobe employees.

The leaky database, which was reported to and secured by Adobe on October 19, was discovered by security researcher Bob Diachenko in partnership with Comparitech. According to Diachenko, the ElasticSearch database may have been left unsecured for about a week. Information on who was able to access this database is also unknown.

In October 2013, Adobe suffered a data breach that impacted at least 38 million users. 3 million encrypted customer credit cards and login credentials for an unknown number of users were exposed.

Adobe Creative Cloud is a subscription service that gives users access to a suite of Adobe products such as Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, Audition, After Effects, and many more. Adobe replaced its single-purchase, perpetual license model with the cloud subscription model in 2013.

Given that cloud services are offered by service providers that handle the hardware and back-end portions of the cloud, it’s easy to assume that they are also responsible for every aspect of security.

Cloud services allow organizations to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure, but it’s important to note that the different cloud service models come with a set of responsibilities for the user and the cloud service provider. This is what’s called the shared responsibility model of cloud security.

While cloud services offer convenience, it doesn’t necessarily mean that implementing a cloud workload is a “plug and play” affair. A company’s IT staff should take the time to learn all the settings and permissions of its cloud service and take advantage of any integrated security features. While this might take some time and effort on the part of the IT staff, it is necessary for securing the platform.

Businesses that are just starting to use the cloud for their operations might assume that default configurations are good enough to prevent their workloads from being compromised. However, default configurations often offer very basic or even nonexistent security. 

Organizations should thoroughly check their existing credentials and permissions to confirm that access to their workloads is limited to those who should have it. Setting up multi-factor authentication also provide an extra layer of security.

A common mistake organizations make when it comes to their cloud assets is assuming that a properly configured cloud will always remain so. With the number of users accessing the cloud, any change could expose stored assets. For example, an employee may be able to create a new folder that doesn't require security credentials. The organization may not notice misconfigured settings without proper auditing and monitoring.

The large number of users accessing the cloud can make it difficult to manage. Many cloud service providers offer logging tools that can help organizations see what is happening in the cloud. These tools can also alert IT staff of any unauthorized access or attack attempts.

Implementing strict user access minimizes the chance of exposed assets and compromised data. For example, human resource personnel should not have access to accounting data, nor should sales teams have access to IT logs. Businesses should consider network segmentation when configuring their cloud, as this minimizes the risks in case they become targets of attacks.

Businesses looking to maximize their cloud security can also look into solutions that can bolster the integrated security features offered by cloud service providers. The best security solutions are those that can offer a complete package of features that include threat detection, network intrusion prevention, and security management.

The Trend Micro Deep Security for Cloud solution can provide proactive detection and prevention of threats, while Hybrid Cloud Security offers optimal security for hybrid environments that incorporate physical, virtual, and cloud workloads. 

Businesses can also consider Trend Micro Deep Security as a Service, which is a dedicated protection system optimized for AWS, Azure, and VMware. It can help an organization’s IT department by securing servers without the need for any installations. It allows businesses to implement new upgrades without any downtime, and can instantly connect to the cloud and data center resources for proactive security measures.

Deep Analysis releases data on state of the digital process automation market trends

Over the past five years, the digital process automation market was reborn (and renamed) as business process management (BPM) products became lighter, easier, and faster to deploy, according to data released by Deep Analysis, showcasing market trends from 2020 to 2025. Much of this change can be attributed to low-code design/development approaches by the vendor community. 

In parallel, many customers jettisoned large-scale, Lean, and Six Sigma transformation projects and embraced smaller-scoped efforts relying on iterative, agile methodologies for a steady stream of process improvements delivered in weeks rather than months. 

This low-code trend (which actually began with BPM software’s inception) coupled with the debut of robotic process automation (RPA) technology for highly manual, repetitive work has reshaped existing digital process automation market.