Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.
Microsoft announces extended security updates for Windows 10
Microsoft has announced that, when Windows 10’s official support ends on Oct. 14, 2025, both businesses, and, for the first time, individuals, will be able to subscribe to receive extended security updates (ESUs) for the operating system. The subscriptions may be renewed annually for three years.
“The ESU program enables PCs to continue to receive Critical and Important security updates (as defined by the Microsoft Security Response Center) through an annual subscription service after support ends. More details, including pricing, will be provided at a later date,” Microsoft said in its lifecycle FAQ.
“The ESU program provides individual consumers and organizations of all sizes with the option to extend the use of Windows 10 PCs past the end of support date in a more secure manner.”
Kainos expands its existing Toronto office, plans hiring blitz
U.K.-headquartered Kainos, a digital technology company that specializes in Workday services and products, this week expanded its existing office in Toronto, and announced plans for continued commitment to the area.
The company said it selected Toronto as a “central hub for its Americas operations due to its strategic location, competitive business environment, and strong talent pipeline. The organization has enjoyed continual growth in the area since first establishing an office in 2018.
“More recently Kainos has been helping to develop the next generation of local tech talent through their Tech Camps and early career opportunities, offering young people a way to explore the possibilities of working for a global tech company.”
Padraig Callaghan, the firm’s executive vice president, said, “we know that having a great place to work, collaborate and build connections in the team is important to our people. The new office also gives us more space to grow and serve more local businesses. Over the next three years we hope to expand our team from 100 to over 300 people.”
OneSpan initiates new global partner program
OneSpan this week announced the launch of a new global partner program that it said enables partners “to expand their security and e-signature portfolio with market-leading solutions, financial incentives, training, and certification, along with technical, sales, and marketing support.”
According to the firm, the initiative aligns with Forrester’s new 2024 predictions report, which states that half of B2B firms will boost partner ecosystem technology and process investment.
The program foundation includes:
- Comprehensive enablement support: Partners can develop expertise and become certified, providing sales and technical proficiencies for all OneSpan offerings.
- Flexible engagement models: Partners can choose from various models to meet their business needs, including distributors, resellers, system integrators, and more.
- Expanded portfolio opportunity: Partners can reach more customers and grow revenue with OneSpan’s identity proofing, authentication, and secure e- signature solutions.
- New incentives and marketing support: With higher levels of engagement and performance, partners will qualify for greater financial incentives, rewards, and discounts.
Francisco Partners completes acquisition of Blancco
Francisco Partners, a global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses, this week announced the completion of the all-cash acquisition of Blancco Technology Group for £175 million (about C$300 million). As a result of the completion of the transaction, Blancco has ceased trading and is no longer listed on the London stock market.
With over 2,500 customers served across 70 countries, Blancco specializes in secure data erasure and mobile lifecycle offerings. The company’s products allow organizations to protect end-of-life data against unauthorized access, safely redeploy data storage assets, and comply with increased data protection and privacy requirements.
“Since its founding 26 years ago, Blancco has created and delivered innovative solutions, with a focus on building a world class data eraser and diagnostic software platform,” said Matt Jones, chief executive officer (CEO) of Blancco. “We are pleased to partner with Francisco Partners, who are committed to continuing to build upon the company’s strong foundation and achieve its full potential.”
OVHcloud Canada launches OVHcloud for SAP solutions
OVHcloud has announced the launch of OVHcloud for SAP solutions in Canada, which follows its July 2023 “SAP Certified in Cloud and Infrastructure Operations” certification in this country. SAP’s certification program for partners that manage customer environments helps customers identify service providers to meet their requirements in terms of quality, scope, and geography, while certified partners can increase market visibility and drive new revenue.
The OVHcloud for SAP solutions offering is based on dedicated servers from OVHcloud High Grade range. By using instances that follow the TDI (Tailored Datacenter Integration) approach, they meet the highest reliability and performance requirements to power SAP HANA databases, a release stated.
They also offer a range of additional features for accelerating the deployment of the most critical SAP environments, including SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) OS image for SAP applications in Bring Your Own License (BYOL) mode, access to the VMware ESXi hypervisor template, and the OVHcloud Backint Agent for SAP HANA databases.
Sluggish high-end firewall sales in Q3 weigh down network security market
According to market information firm Dell’Oro Group, the US$4 billion market for high-end firewalls suffered its third consecutive quarter of year-on-year (Y/Y) declines, which brought down the entire network security market to single-digit Y/Y revenue growth after eleven straight quarters of double-digit growth.
However there was strong double-digit growth in the US$5 billion midrange firewall market and the US$1 billion virtual firewall market.
“Across many technology markets we track, whether security, networking, or servers, we saw a substantial jump in investment by services providers in the year or two following the worst of the pandemic in 2020, which led to massive technology vendor backlogs,” said Mauricio Sanchez, Sr. research director, enterprise networking and security at Dell’Oro Group.
“All that gear has finally been delivered in the past year, and service providers are now suffering indigestion to deploy. Fortunately, enterprise spending remained robust in midrange firewalls which helped weather the storm.”
Panther unveils Security Data Lake Search and Splunk Integration
Cybersecurity firm Panther Labs has announced the launch of its new Security Data Lake Search and Splunk Integration capabilities. According to the company, the offerings will combine the economic efficiency of modern security data lakes with the familiarity of traditional SIEM interfaces enabling security teams to more easily identify and respond to threats, and harden their security posture for decentralized, high-scale cloud workflows.
Panther’s Security Data Lake Search allows security teams to harness the full potential of mission-critical cloud logs in their detection and investigation workflows, with “deployment options that reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and maximize return on investment (ROI),” the company said. These enhancements offer what it described as “unparalleled search performance” across vast data lakes, without relying on SQL, enabling fast, efficient investigations.
Panther’s Splunk Integration combines Panther’s cloud-native detection capabilities with Splunk’s analytics platform, giving organizations enhanced visibility of critical cloud workflows. By using Panther’s real-time detections on streaming cloud logs and configuring Splunk as an alert destination, security teams are “empowered to implement rapid, cloud-scale detection and response workflows.”
