Software Contract Solutions

The hidden costs of ransomware

The catalogue of high-profile ransomware attack examples is growing larger and becoming more alarming every day, affecting everything from gas pipelines to transport and technology firms. And as the range of targets for ransomware attacks grows, the average value of ransom payments being demanded by cyber criminals is also skyrocketing. In fact, the average ransom payment was … Read more

Windows 11 Insider Previews: What’s in the latest build?

Get the latest info on new preview builds of Windows 11 as they roll out to Windows Insiders. Now updated for Insider Preview Build 22000.65, released on July 8, 2021. In late June, Microsoft announced the upcoming release of Windows 11 and is now releasing early preview builds to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. Not everyone, … Read more

Avast identifies cryptocurrency scam rises in regions of high adoption

Research from Avast Threat Labs has revealed a growth in crypto-based scams in regions where cryptocurrency is growing in popularity, in the first half of 2021. Avast’s threat labs researchers have intercepted and protected users against a rise in phishing sites focused on cryptocurrency scams since the start of the year, with the majority posing … Read more

Gartner forecasts worldwide IT spending to grow 8.6% in 2021

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.2 trillion in 2021, an increase of 8.6% from 2020, according to the latest forecast from Gartner. As many companies still suffer revenue declines, IT spending is accelerating ahead of revenue expectations worldwide according to Gartner, with boards and CEOs being more willing to invest in technology that has … Read more

What is UEM? Unified endpoint management explained

UEM has emerged as the next step in the development of enterprise mobility software, offering better management of a wider range of devices. By extending EMM capabilities to laptops and desktops, UEM tools helped enterprises make the quick move to remote work. Unified endpoint management (UEM) describes a set of technologies used to secure and … Read more

Windows 365 — Microsoft’s cloud-based OS explained

Microsoft’s new take on desktop-as-a-service is more than just a cloud-based version of Windows. It also allows the company to offer up ersatz hardware — virtual machines running on a vast cloud of Azure servers. Microsoft last week introduced Windows 365, a new service that lets the company cut partners out of the money-making loop by … Read more

SD-WAN buyers guide: Key questions to ask vendors (and yourself)

SD-WAN purchasing starts with deciding DIY vs. managed service, but includes asking about details like microsegmentation, path control, service chaining, and how it’s going to fit with SASE. Prior to the pandemic, SD-WAN was primarily a niche technology pitched to enterprises as a way to cut costs and improve WAN flexibility by allowing traffic to … Read more

The threat of single vendor security is too high to ignore

Jaws dropped last year when the SolarWinds attack was revealed. The extent of the sophisticated intrusion was breathtaking: the hackers leveraged SolarWinds’ commercial software to infiltrate major firms and top government agencies, exposing sensitive data. Cyber criminals were able to jump from a single compromised laptop to the company’s Active Directory to the Azure Active Directory and … Read more

The uber-importance of software documentation

It doesn’t matter how great your software is if nobody understands how or why they should use it. Which is more important, software or the documentation that makes that software more usable and useful? Framed that way, it would be reasonable to assume both creators should make roughly the same, given similar seniority/geography/etc. Reasonable, but … Read more

Microsoft .NET adoption gets boost from open source

Microsoft credits open source and cross-platform support for the increased adoption of its software development platform. At one time, commercial software giant Microsoft was known as a company that was unfriendly to the open source software movement. Former CEO Steve Ballmer even referred to the popular open source Linux platform as a “cancer.” But now, Microsoft is crediting open … Read more