NC Nov-Dec 2023

INDUSTRY NEWS
"The skills shortage and insufficient investment in networks are two
factors that have combined to encourage cybercriminals to breach
businesses," said Gary Marks, President at Opengear. "Smart Out
of Band solutions enable organisations to manage their networks
at all times from local and remote sites, even during an outage.
Network engineers can make smarter, real-time decisions to
achieve consistent network resilience and unparalleled visibility, with
security and encryption features ensuring that management policies
remain continually enforced."
Vertiv collaborates with Intel on Gaudii3 liquide cooling
Vertiv is collaborating with Intel to provide a liquid cooling
solution that will support the revolutionary new Intel Gaudi3
AI accelerator, scheduled to launch in 2024. The Intel Gaudi3 AI
accelerator will enable both liquid-cooled and air-cooled servers,
supported by Vertiv pumped two-phase (P2P) cooling
infrastructure. The liquid-cooled solution has been tested up to
160kW accelerator power using facility water from 17°C up to
45°C (62.6°F to 113°F). The air-cooled solution has been tested
up to 40kW of heat load that can be deployed in warm ambient
air data centre up to 35°C (95°F). This medium pressure direct
P2P refrigerant-based cooling solution will help customers
implement heat reuse, warm water cooling, free air cooling and
reductions in power usage effectiveness (PUE), water usage
effectiveness (WUE) and total cost of ownership (TCO).
Zyxel call on schools to reconsider network their options
Zyxel Networks is urging the UK's schools and colleges that are
looking to upgrade their network infrastructure before their
end of the year and over the holiday period to broaden their
horizons and consider all the options and possibilities before they
make their crucial purchasing decisions. Budget pressure on
schools is growing. In September, the National Foundation for
Educational Research (NFER) warned that schools are having to
make substantial cuts due to extra financial pressures. Despite the
overall budget for schools increasing by £3.5 billion for 2023-
24, almost half (49 percent) of primaries, and 41 percent of
secondaries expect to see a deficit for 2022-23.
A recent study of UK trusts found that almost one fifth (19
percent) of chief executives lack confidence about their
financial sustainability in the future - a huge increase on last
year, when only 4 percent said they were not confident about
long-term finances. Fewer than half of respondents to the
National School Trust Survey, organised by the Confederation
of School Trusts (CST), said they felt very or quite confident in
their financial sustainability.
Rachel Rothwell, Senior Regional Director, UK and Ireland at
Zyxel Networks, said that as a result of all this pressure, schools
looking to upgrade their infrastructure need to give even more
consideration to IT investment decisions. "Schools and trusts were
already under massive pressure to make cutbacks and this year's
RAAC debacle has added to that. At the same time, they are
expected to provide the latest technology and ensure the online
safety of pupils. They are having to think long and hard about
how they can reduce costs without having an impact on teaching
and they now have very little room for manoeuvre.
"One area in which they can still make real savings without
compromising is in their choice of networking technologies. While
the official advice might be to purchase products from some of the
more expensive brand names, solutions from Zyxel and other
manufacturers can do just as good a job for much less investment."
Call for input for ScotlandIS state of the nation report
ScotlandIS, the membership and cluster management
organisation for Scotland's digital technologies industry, has
just launched its 16th annual industry survey with a call for
respondents from across the country. The survey provides an
annual health check for the industry, setting a benchmark for the
comparison of sector successes and challenges from year to year.
It also provides ScotlandIS members and non-members the
opportunity to highlight future issues they foresee affecting the
industry. Key findings from the 2023 survey included:
83% of companies surveyed expected to increase their
headcounts between 2023-24
The proportion of businesses recording turnover higher than £1
million increased from 22% in 2022 to 37% in 2023
Scotland's tech companies reported seeing the greatest
opportunities for their business in cyber security (46%), followed
by data analytics (45%), and artificial intelligence (43%).
Having first launched in 2008, the report was originally designed
to fill a gap as there were limited figures available relating to the
overall health, growth and development of the Scottish tech
industry. Since then, both the report and the sector have grown
significantly, with the 2023 version putting the value of the Scottish
digital sector's economic contribution at £6 billion.
Responses to the 2024 Technology Industry Survey are now
being sought from the Scottish tech sector before 25 January at
the link below. The feedback from the survey will then be used to
produce the annual benchmarking report for the Scottish tech
sector, which is due to be published in March 2024.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ScottishTechSurvey2023
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