Time to eliminate print servers and move to the cloud THE I T SERVICES MAGAZ INE & NEWS SI TE FOR I T MANAGERS , I T DIRECTORS & CTOS SECURITY · CLOUD · ICT · SOFTWARE · HARDWARE · PRINT · AV www.managedITmag.co.uk ISSUE 62 HYBRIDWORKING User’s IT expectations, and IT managers experiences PAGE 20 CYBERSECURITY What cybersecurity will look like in 2023 PAGE 11 LCD DISPLAYS Panasonic’s new next generation series 4K sdisplays PAGE 24
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3 www.managedITmag.co.uk Read Managed.IT online... www.managedITmag.co.uk ISSN 2055-3099 (Print) ISSN 2055-3102 (Online) 04 Innovations A selection of the best new products and services 06 Cloud Solutions Why hyperscale cloud solutions aren’t always best 06 Workplace British owners are setting a new working pace 10 Cloud Telephony Spitfire has announced the launch of FireSwitch™ Hosted PBX 2.2e 11 Cybersecurity What cybersecurity will look like in 2023 12 Research Are UK Enterprises overspending on public cloud? 14 Cover Story A new way to look at print 16 Digital Transformation Clinging on to paper – a staggering amount of documents are still paper based 20 Hybrid working The disparity between users’ IT expectations and IT managers’ experiences 21 Data Recovery The most common parameters you need to consider 21 Future Workplace What’s needed to support the hybrid workforce 24 LCD Displays Panasonic’s new next generation series 4K displays 26 What’s New Price plans, cloud clusters, cloud services and new presses 27 Printers Brother UK launches its highest performance professional colour laser range 29 Cooling Technology Customers maximize efficiency to help achieve sustainability goals and accelerate innovation 30 60 seconds with... Adam Bradley, MD at ECKO ISSUE 62 www.managedITmag.co.uk Editor: James Goulding 07803 087228 • [email protected] Publishing Director, Social Media and Web Editor: Neil Trim 01732 759725 • [email protected] Advertising Director: Ethan White 01732 759725 • [email protected] Art Director: Nick Pledge 07767 615983 • [email protected] Advertising Executive: Jeff Root 01732 759725 • [email protected] MANAGED.IT is published by Kingswood Media Ltd., 10 Amherst House, 22 London Road, Sevenoaks TN13 2BT • Tel: 01732 759725 No part of MANAGED.IT can be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher. © 2022 Kingswood Media Ltd. Production Design: Sandtiger Media · www.sandtiger.co.uk The paper used in this magazine is obtained from manufacturers who operate within internationally recognized standards and which is sourced from sustainable, properly managed forestation. CONTENTS MANAGED.IT: GET YOUR FREE COPY To make sure you get every issue FREE, as soon as it is published, just visit www.managedITmag.co.uk, click the ‘FREE Registration’ button and add your details to our mailing list. @manageditmag facebook.com/BinfoMag If you no longer wish to receive Managed.IT magazine please email your details to [email protected] THE I T SERVICES MAGAZ INE & NEWS SI TE FOR I T MANAGERS , I T DIRECTORS & CTOS SECURITY · CLOUD · ICT · SOFTWARE · HARDWARE · PRINT · AV www.trawards.co.uk The Technology Reseller Awards 2023 are now open and you have until 5pm on February 24, 2023 to submit your entries Entries & Voting now open
INNOVATIONS 4 01732 759725 Hardware-encrypted for Data Protection Kingston IronKey™ Vault Privacy 80 External SSD is Kingston’s first innovative OS-independent hardwareencrypted external SSD with touch screen for data protection. VP80ES safeguards against Brute Force attacks and BadUSB with digitallysigned firmware. Brute Force attack protection crypto-erases the drive if the Admin and User passwords are entered incorrectly 15 times in a row by default. The drive is FIPS 197 certified with XTS-AES 256-bit encryption using a Common Criteria EAL5+ (CC EAL5+) certified secure microprocessor, and is TAA compliant. Konftel enhances flagship conferencing speakerphone Konftel has added a wireless link to approved headsets connected via a DECT base station, giving users total freedom of movement within a room. When the presenter talks, the Konftel 800 automatically mutes all of its microphones bar the headset microphone.Once the presenter has stopped talking, speakerphone microphones are unmuted enabling inroom participants to be heard. www.konftel.com HP’s new flagship A3 MFPs – its first since 2017 – meet the continued requirement for print, while also beefing up scanning and workflow capabilities to meet the needs of organisations in the throes of digital transformation and hybrid workers wanting to interact with the cloud even when they are in the office. The MFPs combine a much more powerful processor – a system on a chip – giving a 7 times improvement in the performance of the device with upgraded hardware components, e.g. a bigger touchscreen display (10.1in vs 8in) and a bigger ADF (330 sheets), and a new low-melt toner formulation to boost productivity. What this means from a printing perspective is an increase in print speed to 70ppm (from 60ppm) and significant reductions in the all-important first copy out time (FCOT), from 20.5 seconds to 11.8 seconds, and boot from sleep time, from 150 seconds to 100 seconds. www.hp.com Epson completes its business MFP range Fully committing to the sustainability advantages of Heat-Free inkjet technology Epson launches new range of 40-60ppm business models to close range gap and deliver total suite of sustainable, Heat-Free business inkjet multi-function printers (MFPs) Reaffirming its full commitment to inkjet printing, Epson has launched its newWorkForce Enterprise AM-Series of 40-60ppm products leveraging its Piezo Heat-Free inkjet technology and closing a previous gap in its A3 business product portfolio. The new products bring static line-head technology to the mid-range speed market and for Epson’s channel partners will simplify the sales process, ensuring end users have the best product fit while still addressing the sustainability agenda. Inkjet technology can reduce energy consumption compared to laser, and with a compact footprint and a lightweight design, these products help limit resources used during production and shipping. This reduced size also means they easily integrate into the office and save space. High yield ink cartridges also reduce material usage, shipping, storage and end of use management of consumables. epson.co.uk HP launch new range of flagship A3 MFP’s BT trials state-of-the-art 5G technology in Leeds BT has unveiled Leeds as one of the first cities to trial new cutting-edge 5G technology known as C-RAN, which in the future could be installed as individual street works or fitted in street-furniture, such as lampposts or CCTV, to deliver a 5G signal. C-RAN uses cloud computing technology to support 5G connectivity, meaning it can be fitted into a range of different units. The pilot scheme led by BT Wholesale, part of the company’s Enterprise unit, will enhance coverage and connectivity for those visiting, working or living in Leeds and serve as a proof of concept for future developments. The project has seen the first units installed at key locations in Leeds city centre and will allow BT to track how the infrastructure improves access in the area. The infrastructure is currently being used by the EE and Three networks for the trial. Alex Tempest, Managing Director, BTWholesale, said: “As well as enabling local customers to access faster, more reliable speeds on their mobile devices, introducing improved 5G connectivity can in the long-term be used to provide a platform for the city to access other community and business developments. This could include the creation of virtual classrooms, air quality and pollution monitoring, and improved support for assisted living. www.bt.com WHAT’S NEW
5 www.managedITmag.co.uk INNOVATIONS Get Peddling To mark the launch of its new electric bike brand Peddle, technology distributor Exertis has pledged to donate £10 to Mental Health UK for every bike sold between now and next summer. The range includes four models – the Peddle Go, Peddle Step, Peddle Ride and Peddle Pro – each of which comes with more than £500 of pre-loaded features, plus £150 of accessories. These include an LCD display with Bluetooth and app integration, so riders can track their speed and distance and follow turn-byturn navigation; puncture-resistant and reflective tyres (not on Pro); pannier racks; mudguards; front and rear lights; gel saddle and seat suspension. https://www.peddlelife.co.uk/ Field work The all-new Algiz 10XR ultra-rugged 10-inch Windows tablet from Handheld Group, part of MilDef, brings enhanced performance and IP65 and MIL-STD durability to field work and challenging environments in logistics, mining, public transport, public safety, waste management and GIS. Despite being smaller and lighter than predecessors, the tablet is claimed to have two times better graphics, measurably faster performance and future-proof 5G communications for live video streams and bandwidth-heavy tasks like mapping. The Algiz 10XR is available with NFC and barcode scanner options and multiple accessories, including carry cases, vehicle cradles, pole mounts, extended batteries and a vehicle dock with antenna passthrough for both GPS and Wi-Fi. www.handheldgroup.com More secure authentication New from digital agreements security company OneSpan, the DIGIPASS CX range of cloud-connected identity verification devices offers a more secure alternative to authentication by username and password or multifactor authentication based on email or SMS. It achieves this through a combination of next generation identity and authentication, including high-security fingerprint biometrics, and secure remote updates that enable organisations to react to new threats or changing business needs. Users can log in or authorise transactions and agreements on a desktop, laptop or smartphone and select from multiple authentication protocols including the OneSpan secure DIGIPASS protocol. DIGIPASS CX devices are due to be launched in the second quarter of 2023. www.onespan.com Zoom contact centre Zoom is launching an omnichannel contact centre as a service (CCaaS) solution in the UK and Ireland ahead of a roll-out to other countries in EMEA. Previously only available in the US, Zoom Contact Center, with built-in video capabilities, enables businesses to engage with customers over voice, chat, SMS and video and switch from one channel to another during a call. Features include a waiting room where callers can view videos and documents; advanced skills-based routing; a conversational AI chatbot; integrations with applications such as Salesforce, Zendesk and ServiceNow; and agent monitoring, reporting and analytics. Zoom Contact Center also incorporates a UC platform for easy collaboration between agents, supervisors and other employees including Zoom Team Chat. www.zoom.us Compact air purifier Indoor air quality specialist Rensair has brought out an affordable, WiFiconnected air purifier. Ideal for SMEs, conference rooms, doctor/dental surgeries, classrooms and homes, the Compact uses HEPA filtration and germicidal UVC light to remove more than 99.97% of pathogens and other airborne particulate matter. Five airflow speeds and 360-degree outflow enable clean air to penetrate an entire room no matter where the unit is placed. An accompanying smart app enables users to programme multiple Compact devices to adjust fan settings automatically in line with particle concentrations, switch to the maximum setting between scheduled meetings, or start/stop based on location and time. www.rensair.co.uk OneDrive protection WithSecure (formerly F-Secure Business) has added advanced protection for Microsoft OneDrive for Business to its cloud-based security platformWithSecure Elements. Available for implementation in-house or as a service from an MSP, WithSecure Elements gives organisations the flexibility to pick and choose from a variety of modules, including endpoint protection, endpoint detection and response, vulnerability management and collaboration protection. The latter provides protection for cloud-based collaboration applications, such as Microsoft 365, Salesforce and now Microsoft OneDrive for Business. Files are scanned as they are uploaded to OneDrive or modified, with any suspect files run in an isolated cloud sandboxing environment where malicious content can be safely blocked or removed. www.withsecure.com
6 01732 759725 CLOUD Kelvin Wetherill Why hyperscale cloud solutions aren’t always the best solution, despite what they might tell you. By Terry Storrar, Managing Director, Leaseweb UK Hyperscale or hyper headache? major headaches when it comes to migrating from one platform to another. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t something hyperscalers tend to shout about, so many businesses don’t realise just how high the costs of switching can be, not to mention the significant time and resources that are also involved. Issues like this are why the majority (57%) of respondents in Leaseweb’s recent study said they found it challenging to migrate workloads out of a public cloud environment, while 49% had encountered difficulties in understanding their overall cloud usage costs. The end result is that over half (55%) of UK IT professionals currently trust public cloud services less than they did two years ago. Fortunately, the impact can be fairly minimal when only basic services are being used, but the more involved businesses become with a provider, the harder (and more costly) it is to untangle themselves should they need to. A great example of this is AWS’s S3 object storage offering. Initially it’s a very convenient service to store new data at a low cost. However, as a business starts to generate higher and higher data volumes, AWS’s pricing model means it quickly becomes extremely expensive to move away. Scaling costs can quickly spiral As a business grows in popularity, the scaling of underlying resources and increased usage can quickly result in unforeseen invoices due to the intrinsic pay-per-use models used by hyperscaler platforms. For many customers, this means they may need to hire dedicated consultants to manage their hyperscale infrastructure usage and prevent costs from spiralling. Pay-per-use models aren’t a silver bullet Many hyperscalers also offer payper-use models that, again, can The ability to deploy almost anything to a hyperscale public cloud environment has perpetuated the image of them as a go-to solution for all IT professionals in recent years. However, could this glowing reputation be slowly changing? Only recently, Ofcom announced an investigation into the largest public cloud providers in the UK, citing the issue of fair competition in the market. Furthermore, recent research from Leaseweb found a range of concerns that IT pros have about public cloud providers – most notably a deterioration in trust levels over the last two years regarding cost visibility and ease of migration. This article will take a closer look at some of the main pros and cons of hyperscale public cloud environments. Hyperscalers present an attractive prospect to start-ups Hyperscale public cloud providers like Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are incredibly popular for a number of reasons. Firstly, they provide ready access to all the tools and infrastructure that businesses need to get their cloud operations off the ground immediately. They are also easily accessible, and the seemingly infinite number of service options and resources they offer make them highly attractive to developers and start-up executives alike. In short, they make starting and growing a business so simple (at least on paper) that it’s hard to look past them. However, once you scratch below the surface a little, a number of issues begin to appear. For instance, while all hyperscalers offer similar services, each one is built using proprietary technology and processes. As a result, it can be very difficult for developers to easily switch between them if desired. While this isn’t quite as severe as “vendor lock-in”, it can result in high switching costs and seem very enticing at first glance, but are not quite as simple as they first appear. While no one likes to pay for something they’re not using, many businesses also tend to under estimate just how often they need to run certain applications. In some cases, applications might even be required 24/7 or can’t be scaled down when the load isn’t high enough. A ‘cheap’ pay-per-use model can become very expensive . Businesses don’t need to go all-in on hyperscalers to benefit from what’s on offer Going all-in on proprietary hyperscaler solutions may not be the best option for many businesses, but that doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from what hyperscalers have to offer. Often, the ideal approach is to opt for infrastructure-as-a-service, which utilises open source software solutions to run services on hyperscaler platforms. This way, they can maintain a better grip on both their flexibility and independence while still capitalising on the powerful technology that hyperscalers have to offer. Running software on standard infrastructure services at a ‘fixed’ fee (known as pay-per-reservation) with a hosting provider typically also helps ensure predictable invoices at the end of the month. Despite the economic turbulence of the last few years, Gartner predicts enterprise IT spending is still set to grow by more than 5% in 2023, meaning investment in the sector is extremely healthy. However, growing caution surrounding proprietary cloud technology means more and more businesses are looking for cloud solutions that give them the benefits that hyperscalers have to offer whilst still maintaining as much control as possible over their applications and costs. Doing so ensures greater business stability at a time when uncertainty is the last thing any business needs. For more info please visit: https://www.leaseweb.com Terry Storrar
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8 01732 759725 WORKPLACE By Joe Walsh, Director of B2B at Samsung UK A new breed of British business owners are setting a new working pace There’s no doubt that UK business owners are the hardworking backbone of the economy. Based on our research, we found that they are also leading the charge on transforming our preconceived ideas of how we should work. For modern entrepreneurs, work is all about bringing individual satisfaction and reward. A lot of those who work remotely admitted they’ve done non-work activities during what we’d consider as a traditional “working day.” Amongst those, three-quarters (74%) have taken time out to exercise and almost half (47%) have tried a new skill, such as learning a language. Some other unusual work-time activities include learning to knit, bathing a pet iguana, attending a football match and 46% admit to getting their hair done during their office hours. Some of the business owners (22%) even said they’ve now gotten into the habit of taking daily naps to help them perform better. The message is clear – work smarter, not harder. As the stereotype of how a For years, there have been several stereotypes pedalled by the media, and high-profile business personalities, that you need to be ‘burning the midnight oil’ to get ahead in business. Foregoing the pleasures of everyday life with friends and family to pursue business success at any cost. With the shift to fluid working across many businesses in recent years however, we questioned whether this was still the case, so carried out some bespoke research among British business owners to see whether they reinforced or busted this win at all costs perception. The results were both surprising and gratifying. Firstly, the idea that business owners are chained to the desk day in, day out, for continuous periods is no longer the case. On average, entrepreneurs are clocking on at 8.21am and off at 3.06pm for their core working hours. This indicates they are working on their own schedule to fit around other aspects of their life. One in five of those polled (20%) said they only work when they want to, while just 14% stick to a traditional 9-5. This shows the rewards of efficient working practices without being confined to traditional fixed hours. business owner must work and act is being rewritten, they need the right tools to make this switch. As we are more connected, entrepreneurs that have the right technology in their hands not only challenge the status quo but are more agile and able to blend the demands of work and life in a more fluid way. Our research found that over half (51%) have upgraded their work phone so that they can work whenever from wherever they are. As many of the respondents expressed, technology has given them the flexibility to run their business as effectively from a beach in Bali or after picking up their kids from school. With the right tools, all business owners can juggle what they need to do and what they want to do. Fluid working will continue to soar in popularity and how you get work done doesn’t matter as long as you deliver. Thanks to increased technological advances, we can communicate with people from across the world in a matter of seconds.
BUSINESS BRIEFING view of some of the security threats they face and defend against them more efficiently. Get in touch with the Ekco team via our website www.ek.co or email [email protected] environment.” These client testing gaps have led to a more robust approach known as Ethical Hacking as a Service, which addresses many of the disadvantages of ad hoc pen testing. “Ethical Hacking as a Service is considerably more strategic. It mimics real hackers’ techniques, gives a wider attack surface and is a far more effective use of a company’s testing budget. With Ethical Hacking as a Service, we are pushing the boundaries and evolving with the threat environment, rather than falling behind it.” Timmons recently led a webinar that explored the benefits of Ethical Hacking as a Service. During the session, he and some of his Ekco team members focused on how Ethical Hacking as a Service can help companies gain a more holistic But with today’s evolving threat landscape, having a test just to tick a compliance box or validate the security posture of a system is not a robust enough method to gauge how well a company is protected against cyber attacks. “Just doing a pen test is simply not enough these days. When you consider that 48% of companies reported a cyber attack in the past 12 months1, it’s evident that our approach to assessing vulnerabilities in a company’s network needs to be far more strategic,” says Declan Timmons, Director of Cybersecurity Consultancy at Ekco. “The cost and considerable administration overhead required for a traditional pen test, which has too narrow a focus and leaves room for blind spots, just doesn’t make sense in the current cybersecurity Traditional pen testing is dead. What’s next? Penetration testing, or pen testing, has long been considered an important aspect of cybersecurity, where a company’s security provider identifies vulnerabilities that are then manually probed. What Zurich Insurance Plc has to say about Ekco: “Ekco efficiently delivers all our annual cybersecurity testing requirements to the highest standards. They are our cybersecurity trusted partner of choice for all our ethical hacking needs.” 9 www.managedITmag.co.uk 1. Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report
10 01732 759725 CLOUD TELEPHONY A cloud telephony solution with big system features at a small business price FireSwitch™ by Spitfire Network Services whether used for training purposes or assisting with resolving customer service enquiries, this provides a real cost and time saving benefit. n Customer Portal – all recorded calls, along with a whole host of other useful information such as billing and support job updates is easily accessible online. n Assured Call Quality – when used with Spitfire’s voice-approved data circuits we offer a complete end-to-end service, assuring voice quality is not compromised with SLAs on key performance factors such as latency, jitter and packet loss. n Scalability & Flexibility – add extensions quickly and easily to support business growth, with numerous features included to facilitate remote, home & hybrid working setups. n Support – Spitfire’s support is carried out in-house by trained and qualified engineers and technicians. Spitfire is currently offering FireSwitch™ with no connection or set up charges and at just £10 per telephone extension per month! Dom Norton, Sales Director, Spitfire Network Services Ltd, said: “FireSwitch™ builds on the success Spitfire Network Services Ltd, a provider of telecoms and IP engineering solutions to UK businesses, has announced the launch of FireSwitch™ Hosted PBX 2.2, the latest cloud telephony solution for small and medium-sized businesses that offers big system features such as integrated softphone and full system call recording with their premium call quality, support and service wrap. Hosted PBX 2.2, will be branded as FireSwitch™ and is Spitfire’s latest iteration of their cloud telephony solution, following on from the highly successful Hosted PBX 2.1, which provided core business telephony features, a userfriendly web portal with low per user monthly rental. With FireSwitch™, Spitfire is providing several new features whilst maintaining solution quality and value: n Softphones – mobile and desktop softphone applications included as standard, which allows users to make and take phone calls from any device with an Internet connection, wherever they may be located. Users can simply scan a QR code using a smartphone and then work from anywhere! n Full System Call Recording – of our Hosted PBX 2.1 solution, with the addition of call recording and softphone. FireSwitch™ has been developed by our in-house engineering team to provide a cost-effective and highly scalable cloud telephony solution for small and medium sized businesses. The key to any product we develop at Spitfire is listening to our customers – what they want and need to support their businesses. With FireSwitch™, we have done exactly that and we’re confident that this is the best value cloud business telephone system available today.” “What matters for businesses is flexibility and ease of use. Spitfire’s FireSwitch™ provides that and more. With businesses currently operating in so many ways, this is hugely significant,” added Norton. For more details about FireSwitch™, visit the Spitfire Network Services website https://www.spitfire.co.uk/voice/ fireswitch-hosted-pbx-2-2/. Spitfire FireSwitch™ Issue 62 2023
11 www.managedITmag.co.uk CYBERSECURITY an increase in state-sponsored cyberattacks. China may increase cyberattacks on Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other countries opposing the regime. Meanwhile, Russia is predicted to sponsor attacks on countries supporting Ukraine. y Next era of encryption. In the face of quantum computing power even the most sophisticated encryption algorithms can be broken in a couple of minutes. This shows that in the future new and more powerful encryption tools will be needed. u Cybersecurity will become blockchain-based. Blockchain has proven extremely useful for secure and decentralized information exchange. Up until now, blockchainbased tools have been too expensive to implement because of the novelty of the technology. However, many experts predict that in 2023 blockchain technology will be used in cybersecurity more and more often. can celebrate the era of intrusive tracking coming to an end. e 2023 will be a big year for privacy laws. In January 2023, India will discuss its Personal Data Protection Bill — the Indian version of the GDPR. Similarly, the US may be discussing its own American Data Privacy and Protection Act, which will help establish a framework for data protection at the federal level. r Authoritarian states will further isolate their citizens from the WWW. Countries like Iran, Russia, and China are consolidating their power to increase surveillance by government actors. So even though many countries are fighting for democracy, the actions of those states will keep their citizens in the dark. t The cyberwar is only starting. With China’s leader securing his third term and Russia’s war in Ukraine, many experts predict In 2022, governments fought wars online, businesses were affected by multiple ransomware gangs, and regular users’ data was constantly on hackers’ radar. Marijus Briedis, CTO (chief technical officer) of NordVPN, says, “Next year will not be any easier when it comes to keeping users’ data safe and private. Authoritarian countries and hackers are working hard to compromise those factors. However, I see the light at the end of the tunnel because people are starting to value their data, pushing businesses and governments to take action.” Every year, digital privacy experts at NordVPN assess cybersecurity trends — these are the top seven that made the New Year’s security prediction list. q 5G will create more cybersecurity challenges. New technology always comes with a risk that hackers will find ways to exploit it. Even though 5G will provide users with a faster internet connection, it will also require significant attention to be paid to the new infrastructure, opening more access points for hackers to compromise. And with the global shortage of cybersecurity experts, it will be increasingly difficult to prevent that. w Bye-bye, third-party cookies. Google promised to eliminate third-party cookies in Chrome browsers by 2024. This is great news for anyone who values their privacy. Third-party cookies are trackers that collect individual user data across countless websites, which end up in advertisers’ hands to create personalized and intrusive ads. At the moment, Google is thinking of new ways to track its flow (such as through FLoC). So even though we cannot say that user tracking is gone, we 7 Cybersecurity predictions for 2023 A digital privacy expert forecasts what cybersecurity will look like in 2023 NordVPN is the world’s most advanced VPN service provider, used by millions of internet users worldwide. NordVPN provides double VPN encryption and Onion Over VPN and guarantees privacy with zero tracking. One of the key features of the product is Threat Protection, which blocks malicious websites, malware, trackers, and ads. NordVPN is very user friendly, offers one of the best prices on the market, and has over 5,000 servers in 60 countries worldwide. For more information: nordvpn.com
12 01732 759725 RESEARCH Veritas Technologies research reveals that UK businesses are going over their allocated cloud budgets by an average of 33% with unplanned data backup and recovery as the leading cause New research shows 83% of UK Enterprises are significantly overspending on public cloud 80% of respondents told Veritas that their organizations had experienced a ransomware attack on their cloud environments. The misunderstanding around the cloud responsibility model means that many companies have not factored in the requirement for third-party data protection and are leaving their critical data vulnerable to these ransomware attacks – and other data-loss incidents. Nearly a quarter (24%) of organizations, the research shows, have lost data as a result of relying solely on the backup tools built into solutions by their CSPs. And, 68% of respondents agreed that current offerings from CSPs fall short of their organization’s security needs. As a result, it is, perhaps, unsurprising that the research showed that unforeseen data protection needs were the most common source of unexpected Research commissioned by Veritas Technologies, a leader in multi-cloud data management, has revealed that the vast majority of enterprises are failing to stay within their cloud budgets. In fact, 83% of respondents reported that their organization has incurred higher costs than originally anticipated when using a public cloud service provider (CSP), and are overspending by an average of 33%. The Veritas Securing Your Enterprise in a Multi-Cloud Environment Research (link) which surveyed 1,500 technology and IT decision-makers across 12 countries, showed that enterprises clearly see value in the public cloud, as 100% of respondents agreed that using CSPs and their tools provided benefits to the organization, such as flexibility, scalability and mobility. However, many organizations are planning their cloud budgets without fully understanding what they are ultimately going to need to pay for. For example, nearly all (98%) respondents believed that the CSP would be responsible for protecting some of their assets in the cloud. This is rarely the case as most CSPs make it very clear that, while they are on the line to ensure the resiliency *of* the cloud, their customers shoulder the responsibility for the data and applications *in* the cloud. This is an important distinction since the research highlighted that data in the cloud is a highly attractive target for cybercriminals. cloud costs, with 42% citing backup and recovery as the leading area of overspend. Ian Wood, UK Head of Technology at Veritas said: “Our research reveals the true benefits that organisations are getting from the cloud – but it also highlights the need for a better understanding of what purchasers are actually responsible for and the paramount importance of including comprehensive cloud data protection and management in their budgets. Without it organisations are taking a huge risk and are likely to experience vast overspend when subjected to the extensive damage to brand and operations caused by a cyber attack. We’re urging our customers to take control of all data whether on premises or in the cloud from the very beginning by factoring it in to their budgets as a priority.” www.veritas.com/en/uk About the research In 2022, Veritas Technology commissioned independent market research specialist Vanson Bourne to survey technology and IT decision makers, upon which this research is based. Vanson Bourne interviewed 1,500 technology and IT decision makers across the Americas, EMEA and APAC in August and September 2022. Only respondents from organizations with at least 1,000 employees were interviewed.
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14 COVER STORY 01732 759725 n Lessen the IT burden. Gartner estimates that print-related helpdesk tickets account for 40% of an IT team’s workload, with PrinterLogic, customers typically see a 95% reduction in printrelated helpdesk calls. n Eliminate print servers. One of the biggest issues cited by customers is the cost of running print servers, an issue even more pertinent now in light of the energy crisis. In addition to licensing fees, the labour cost of managing print servers can be extremely expensive too, because they must be maintained at every location. PrinterLogic enables organisations to remove the burden of managing, maintaining and licensing onpremise print servers, and enjoy all of the benefits of a serverless printing infrastructure. n Minimise risk. An organisation’s attack surface gets larger with every print server added to the network. Constantly having to manually patch, update and secure multiple servers to protect from and mitigate vulnerabilities like the Windows Print Nightmare, adds even more to the IT workload. By moving to serverless printing, organisations can reduce risk and be protected from any future issues that are discovered. In addition, PrinterLogic is the only print management software to achieve AWS Digital Workplace Competency status. n SaaS printing solution. The PrinterLogic cloud-native platform is a true software-as-a-service (SaaS) printing solution – that doesn’t require VPN connections. problem among senior managers and the C-Suite. 32% of this contingent said that print-related issues were resolved in less than five minutes; compared to 62% of end-users who stipulated that it takes IT more than an hour to find a fix. Moreover, almost half (49%) of end-user respondents stated that they raised a helpdesk support request for print more than once a month. Managing the unmanaged It’s fair to say that while MPS has long been the de facto to effectively manage on-premise print infrastructures, in today’s remote and hybrid working model, it doesn’t always make sense for every printing device – but what’s the best alternative? Enter the cloud – what PrinterLogic’s cloud-native serverless print management solution does is enable seamless driver deployment for large volumes of printing devices that exist outside of the MPS contract. For example, PrinterLogic manages 11,500 print queues across 2,500 retail stores worldwide for a large retail customer whose 80-strong head office printer fleet falls under a managed print service. The future of print management With its cloud-native print management product PrinterLogic – which won the Cloud print Management Solution of the Year award at the 2022 PrintIT Awards (see opposite), Vasion has been helping customers to transform how they manage print. Vasion, a leader in serverless printing infrastructure, surveyed 520 public sector organisations in the UK to find out more about how print is managed across various departments and multiple locations. Just under half (45%) of respondents said that their entire print infrastructure was provided under a managed print services (MPS) agreement. However, the majority of organisations owned a varying number of print devices that fell outside of the MPS contract – in fact 39% of those polled said that up to 75% of the printers in their organisation were standalone unmanaged devices. Self-managed printing environments are full of pain points for IT teams and end-users alike. On-premise print servers are energy- and cost-intensive to run and maintain. Providing endusers with access to printers often involves complicated scripting and GPOs; it’s well documented that high numbers of print-related IT support tickets place added pressure onto over-stretched IT resources; and in many cases, print failure is not a quick or simple fix, resulting in disgruntled end-users. One of the most surprising findings of the Vasion research was that print was not perceived to be a New year, new way to look at print 74% of printing devices sold in the UK&I are not managed under a contract*, if your organisation is struggling to manage the unmanaged, and looking for a way to improve productivity and reduce costs, now’s a great time to take print to the cloud *IDC
COVER STORY 15 www.managedITmag.co.uk and install nearby printers. Based on the deployment profiles from IT, only authorised printers will be displayed to users when they look at the map, even if other printers are in the vicinity. n Desktop client. Installed on end-users’ desktops, the desktop client acts as the communication liaison between the workstation or virtual client and the admin console. It automatically installs select printers on the user’s device and captures usage data that includes user, IP address and operating system. n Reduce print costs. Over and above the cost savings around infrastructure, with PrinterLogic’s serverless solution, it’s also possible to further improve the bottom line with features such as the ability to set print quotas to make budgeting easier or applying rules such as forced duplex or black-and-white-only printing across the business to cut down on additional expenses. www.vasion.com Integrations with leading identity providers (IdPs) keeps things secure and enables printing from remote or new locations. n Protect data. Features such as secure release printing keeps information secure by ensuring that documents are not printed until the person is there to pick them up. Plus, direct-IP printing means print jobs never leave the customer’s network. n Central management. PrinterLogic provides IT staff with an interface for defining all printers including label and POS devices across all locations. It supports native print drivers for all printer makes and models which delivers full functionality of the devices’ feature set, profile settings and deployment options. Settings are configured in profiles and instantly passed down to the endpoint when they are installed. n Self-service portal. A webbased tool with floorplan maps enables end-users to easily identify 2022 PrintIT Award winner PrinterLogic scooped the Cloud Print Management Solution of the Year award at the 2022 PrintIT Awards managed and run by sister Publication PrintIT Reseller magazine. The judges said Vasion provided an impressive entry backed with evidence and strong testimonials. One of the more mature platforms on the market, and the only print management software to achieve AWS Digital Workplace Competency status, judges commended the PrinterLogic platform for its speed of deployment, flexible pricing, advanced reporting and BI integration. “We’re thrilled to win the PrintIT Award for Cloud Print Management Solution of the Year, 2022, said Simon Hill, Managing Director – EMEA & APAC. “At Vasion we are passionate about reducing IT infrastructure and are on a quest to eliminate all print servers. Over the past ten years we have developed our serverless print management product, PrinterLogic, which is now a true cloud SaaS market leader. We have had significant success in the US, and we are now experiencing this same growth in Europe.” Case in point PrinterLogic lessens IT workloads by empowering end-users to install their own printers and can reduce overall print management by a staggering 93% Don’t just take our word for it, here’s what some of our customers said. “The number of support tickets dropped by 60% year-on-year after UWHealth deployed PrinterLogic, and they saw a 20% drop in average problemresolution time.” “We have almost zero printrelated helpdesk tickets. We went from about 2,500 printerrelated tickets in a year down to three or four.” Chris Nilsson, Director of Technology Integration at CISD “In the end, PrinterLogic eliminated the risk of print servers being a single point of failure and also helped reduce overall management costs for Wipfli.” Michael Voegtline, Senior Engineering Analyst at Wipfli LLP If you want to empower endusers with mobile printing, secure release printing, and many advanced features, we’d love to show you how. You can book a demo by visiting https://printerlogic.com/ schedule-a-demo/ Simon Hill receiving the award
16 01732 759725 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION its use internally still have to deal with paper coming from external sources. To effectively capture incoming information, organisations should look to digitise at the first touchpoint, and put in place policies to ensure physical documents are suitably and securely managed,” adds Hiroaki Kashiwagi, President & CEO at PFU EMEA. To download the full report visit www.pfuemea.com/en-gb/ quocirca (29%) and employee preference (25%) appear key among the reasons why paper maintains such a presence within organisational processes, along with the most prevalent response, legal compliance reasons (39%). The findings of the report also come at a time where COVID, the ‘Great Resignation’ and increasing costs have shifted the focus of digital transformation. In the Fujitsu Image Scanners Organisational Intelligence Research Report 2020, conducted by PFU, top drivers were shown to be efficiency and profitability; in 2022, reasons are more heavily weighted towards business agility and having a scalable IT infrastructure that allows for contingencies (53%). “It’s clear that organisations still rely on paper for many daily operations; something that could be seen as problematic from a security point of view, and perhaps indicative of an education gap among organisations and employees when it comes to the storage and management of paper,” comments Louella Fernandes, Director at Quocirca. “For many organisations, paper is still an important part of their workflow processes. Even those who have minimised PFU (EMEA) Limited has unveiled findings from the Scanning As An Enabler for Digital Transformation report, in which Quocirca, the print industry’s leading source of market insight, explored IT employees’ views towards scanners and paper use in the workplace. The report finds that paper remains engrained across many business processes, including those related to customer and employee records; 52% of companies haven’t yet fully digitised payslips, while 69% of organisations still store customer records in paper form. The research also found that while some paper copies of important documents, such as customer records, contracts and identification documents, are securely destroyed (10%), 41% of paper documents are left lying around the office, presenting a potential security risk. And with almost a quarter (22%) of respondents saying that they choose paper over digital for security reasons, it would appear there is a wide disconnect between the perceived risks associated with digital and physical formats. The survey also suggests that the paper ecosystem within organisations remains reliant on a number of factors; customer need Clinging on to paper An independent report from Quocirca, commissioned by PFU (EMEA) Limited, shows that despite remote and hybrid working pushing businesses toward digital transformation, a staggering amount of documents are still paper-based Scanning as an enabler for digital transformation September 2022 © Quocirca 2022 1 Scanning as an enabler for digital transformation Findings from research into the usage of scanning September 2022 Scanning as an enabler for digital transformation September 2022 The enduring eed for paper As to why organisations see paper as a continuing need, 39% state legal reasons, 29% customer need, and 25% employee preference (Figure 3). The UK (45%) and Germany (44%) are more likely to state legal reasons, as is the public sector and government (46%). Legal reasons for keeping paper are becoming less compelling: many governments prefer or mandate digitised records of certain documents or digital feeds of particular types of information for auditability and ease of discovery. Quocirca recommends that organisations digitise whatever they can and store the resulting records in a controlled manner, where metadata can provide an evidential trail of edits, deletions, and so on, should the need arise. While employees can be weaned off the use of paper, doing so with customers may be more difficult. However, customer-facing organisations are now offering electronic invoices and r ceipts, and customers are becoming accustomed to this. If the customer is another organisation, it will be facing the same issues as the original organisation: it will want to minimise the use of paper wherever possible and likely be open to straight-through electronic document processing. This will not happen quickly, as a large proportion of documents will continue to arrive at an organisation’s doors as paper for the foreseeable future. Any move to a less-paper environment will require the right type and quality of scanners. The right scanner for the job will be able to embed less-paper behaviours across the organisation – and thus feed through to customers and suppliers and create smoother straig t-through processes. Figure 3. Reasons to maintain paper and main digital and paper documents 48% of organisations only use digital payroll/payslips, with 41% of photographs stored digitally – which is hardly surprising in today’s world of digital photography. Meanwhile, 31% of organisations store business cards solely in paper format. More worryingly for security and audit purposes, 22% only store contracts in paper format, with 17% storing identification documents as paper only. There appears to be a widely held perception that legal reasons are a barrier to removing paper. However, t re t e top re sons or t e on n ed presen e o p per sed pro esses in o r or nis on e rit p o ee re eren e sto er re eren e e e sons t t pe o do ents re pro essed t o r or nis on ayroll ayslips hotographs ustomer records o p ete di it usiness cards ontracts den ca on documents o p ete p per How information capture is enabling digital transformation success Fujitsu Image Scanners Organisational Intelligence Research Report 2020 Louella Fernandes
17 www.managedITmag.co.uk BUSINESS BRIEFING AD ?
18 01732 759725 BUSINESS BRIEFING Kyocera Document Solutions UK shows its commitment to net zero status as it launches carbon neutral printing – Carbon Neutral Printers & MFPs (CNP) and Carbon Neutral MPS (CN-MPS) – to both channel partners and end-customers. The two carbon neutral printing solutions for the UK&I market will offset the carbon footprint of customers’ devices and consumables, including transport, for the full lifetime* of products. Carbon Neutral Printers & MFPs CNP will carbon offset every device plus consumables used over the lifetime of the product via a simple bolt-on to the device purchase. This covers all elements of production, packaging, transportation and consumables. This offer is designed for customers buying through a Kyocera reseller. Carbon Neutral MPS CN-MPS extends CNP to include engineer mileage for customers A greener future taking a Kyocera service and is targeted at Kyocera channel partners. To close the loop, both solutions include Kyocera’s eco-conscious Toner Take Back and Device Recycling services. A certificate of authenticity is available for all customers to demonstrate their investment and commitment to climate action. Kyocera is the first (UK) vendor to include every printing product in its range in a carbon neutral offer – from the smallest home printer to the company’s cut-sheet inkjet production printer and every printer and multifunctional printer (MFP) in between. Martin Fairman, Group Sales & Marketing Director at Kyocera, said: “A huge amount of work has gone into making this possible. We see it as the strongest indicator yet of Kyocera’s commitment to sustainability and our carbonneutral company status. “As an organisation we strive to evolve. Our company motto ‘Respect the divine and love people’ moves us to develop and promote our environmental policies, performance, and culture. It was the driving force behind our Carbon Reduction Plan1 published earlier this year. “Now we wish to share this with our channel partners and all our customers; that’s why we have developed two green printing offers – Carbon Neutral Devices and Carbon Neutral Managed Print Services.” Kyocera devices are carbon offset via three of MyClimate’s Gold Standard-certified international projects in Madagascar, Nepal and Kenya. The projects contribute to regional sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN). Kyocera Group UK also offsets the impact of its staff and buildings through MyClimate, meaning carbon offset is available to cover the whole product life-cycle for every product in its range. Fairman added: “Setting standards in the industry is something we are incredibly proud of, and we cannot wait to see what these new green offers will achieve. “Making it easy for our customers and channel partners to tackle climate change, as we do, is important. It’s one of the many steps we can offer to help our customers, especially small businesses and endusers, contribute to climate action. “We believe that we are stronger together and well positioned to push towards a greener future. We look forward to seeing what the coming months hold as the initiative grows.” kyoceradocumentsolutions.co.uk 1www.kyoceradocumentsolutions.co.uk/ en/about-us/our-brand/environmentalpolicy.html Kyocera Group UK pushes towards a greener future by offering its whole printer and MFP portfolio as carbon neutral for transactional and managed print service customers *Lifetime of the device is based on the rated machine life of 60 months. Full details of what’s offset and our T&Cs are available online: https://www.kyocera document solutions. co.uk/cntandc 08/22. Carbon Reduction Plan KYOCERA Group UK Martin Fairman Discover more...
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