Award-winning Unisys Stealth technology delivers micro-segmentation on the Amazon Web Services Cloud for improved security, simplified management, lower costs and faster results

London, UK – January 19, 2016 – Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) today announced it will provide enterprises with the award-winning Unisys Stealth™ micro-segmentation security solution on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud, available for customers to immediately acquire and deploy from the AWS Marketplace.

The solution will provide advanced security to AWS customers, while providing Unisys clients with the ease of access and scale of the AWS Cloud.

Unisys optimised its Stealth offering to give AWS customers a fast and convenient way to protect vital information and applications against evolving threats.

AWS provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform used by more than a million active customers across 190 countries around the world. With Stealth on AWS, organisations can easily integrate additional protection, comply with regulations, and micro-segment off their virtual machines from neighbours when working on the cloud.

The solution is another step in Unisys’ reinvention as an IT technology and services leader focused on secure digital transformation. It also illustrates Unisys’ asset-light strategy of working with cloud technology providers, which complements Unisys’ own advanced capabilities in infrastructure and service management, analytics, application services and software, as well as security.

“Security and cloud computing are strategic priorities for businesses today,” said Peter Altabef, Unisys’ president and chief executive officer. “Enterprise-proven security that evolves to meet future threats will provide additional assurance to enterprises and governments that are moving core operations to the cloud. Integrating Stealth onto the AWS Cloud advances Unisys’ leadership in security, and reflects our commitment to continually deliver innovation that solves real-world business challenges.”

“Security is top of mind for our customers, and at AWS, it’s our number one priority. Unisys Stealth on AWS provides extra layers of security for enterprises moving their workloads to the AWS Cloud,” said Stephen Schmidt, chief information security officer, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “We are pleased this solution is now available on the AWS Marketplace, offering our customers immediate access to the security protection capabilities of Stealth.”

With Stealth on AWS, users can quickly and easily micro-segment their own portions of the cloud from other users while keeping their own encryption keys. They can unify their internal security protections with those on the cloud, enforce virtual machine-to-machine encryption in the cloud, and reduce attack surfaces.

In addition, Stealth on AWS allows organisations to extend entire workloads securely from data centers to the cloud; manage access via existing identity systems including Active Directory or LDAP; and easily add integrated supply chain partners to micro-segments without giving them broad access – at the packet level without any new hardware, firewall rules, or application changes.

Unisys Stealth software uses identity-based micro-segmentation techniques and encryption to protect data and applications on the AWS Cloud. Stealth protection makes data and applications invisible to hackers and unauthorized users by encrypting traffic between all Stealth-protected endpoints.

Clients can acquire Stealth directly from the AWS Marketplace, where Unisys also offers an AWS Test Drive that allows enterprises to access a private sandbox using Stealth. Using a step-by-step lab manual and video, they can learn more about Stealth and how it works, with no charges incurred as part of the AWS Free Tier.

Alternately, enterprises that want to dynamically extend their on-premise infrastructure to AWS can use Stealth’s “cloudbursting” capability, which automates the shifting of secure workloads directly into AWS.

“Enterprises can now use Stealth as their single platform for securing both their data center and their cloud environments, substantially reducing the complexity and cost of multiple platforms,” said Tom Patterson, vice president and general manager for global security solutions, Unisys. “This comprehensive level of protection removes roadblocks for many organisations looking to leverage the cloud, and will unlock huge cost savings and business agility needed in today’s competitive environment.”

A zero-day vulnerability discovered in Adobe Flash Player / AIR 20 could possibly be used to exploit end of life version 19 – found on 78 percent of all private US PCs.

Maidenhead, U.K. & Copenhagen, Denmark - January 19, 2016 – Secunia Research at Flexera Software, a leading provider of software vulnerability intelligence, has published country reports covering Q4 2015 for 14 countries. The reports provide a status on vulnerable software products on private PCs in those countries, listing the vulnerable applications and ranking them by the extent to which they expose those PCs to hackers.

Key findings in the UK  Country Report include:

•         78  percent of UK users had Adobe Flash Player 19 installed. This version is end-of-life and therefore no longer receives security updates from Adobe. Vulnerabilities in newer versions are used to exploit older versions. It is therefore important to remember to remove end-of-life products from your PC.
•         11.4  percent of the non-Microsoft programmes on private UK  PCs were unpatched in Q4. Only 4.1  percent of Microsoft® programmes were unpatched. UK users have 74 applications installed on average, from 26 different vendors. 31 of the 74 applications – nearly 42 percent - are Microsoft applications.
•         8.0  percent of UK  private users had not patched the Windows® operating system on their PC (covered by the report are Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10).

The zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash disclosed on December 28, 2015, was rated “Extremely Critical” by Secunia Research, because it can be triggered from remote and can execute arbitrary code. The vulnerability can possibly be used to exploit older versions of Adobe Flash Player /AIR, too, including end-of-life version 19, which is found on 78 percent of all private UK PCs, per the UK Country Report document.

“The vulnerability discovered in Adobe Flash Player/ AIR 20 in December makes it even more important than usual to keep Adobe Flash Player up to date and get rid of end-of-life versions,” said Kasper Lindgaard, Director of Secunia Research at Flexera Software. “Adobe Flash is the most popular application within exploit kits, because it is so widely used and can therefore be used to leverage access to different platforms and both private and corporate users. While security-aware organisations know not to allow Adobe Flash Player anywhere near their business critical systems, private PC users tend not to be quite so mindful.”

Non-Microsoft programmes are poorly patched on private PCs
On the average private UK PC, 74 applications are installed from a total of 26 different vendors. One vendor, Microsoft, is on average the producer of 31 of those applications. With automated updates and a well-established security patch process, Microsoft makes it easy for private users to stay patched: All that is required on a private PC is to keep the auto-update feature in the Microsoft Update center switched on – which is the default setting.  This user-friendly approach to security is one explanation for why only 4.1 percent of Microsoft applications on private PCs are unpatched.   

The patch status of the remaining 43 non-Microsoft applications is a different story, though. Nearly three times as many – 11.4 percent - of these applications are unpatched.  This difference is mainly due to the fact that 25 different vendors are behind those 43 applications, and each of those vendors has its own update mechanism. Essentially, this means that users have to familiarise themselves with 25 different update mechanisms and install the updates every time they become available. 
 
To help users stay secure Flexera Software offers the Personal Software Inspector (formerly Secunia PSI 3.0), a free computer security scanner which identifies software applications that are insecure and in need of security updates. It has been downloaded by over 8 million PC users globally to detect vulnerable and outdated programs and plug-ins.

The 14 Country Reports are based on data from scans by the Personal Software Inspector between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015.

Peter Khoury joins Genesis Technical Systems as Chief Executive & General Counsel with a decorated background in international business and law

Coventry, UK – 19 January 2016 – Genesis Technical Systems has appointed Peter Khoury as its new Chief Executive and General Counsel. Peter joins the UK-based company as a seasoned international executive and lawyer, and holds a unique blend of commercial, technical business and legal disciplines.

Crucially, Peter also possesses over 20 years’ international experience in telecommunications, across both operational and business support systems. Excited by new challenges and motivated by success, Peter is a keen problem-solver and innovator.

His broad business acumen is driven by experience in functional roles across the legal, commercial, operations, organisational development, IT, technology, and infrastructure sectors.

Having recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of IPSol Energy, a CleanTech energy company based in the UK, Peter has launched and sold numerous privately-owned start-up ventures, including an ICT consulting business, which Peter sold in a multi-million dollar exit to a US quoted company.

Peter has been called to the Bar in England and Wales and has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Law with Distinction from City Law School, London. This is alongside his double honours degree in Chemical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Sydney, Australia and Imperial College London.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Genesis Technical Systems at a time where innovative technologies such as mBond® and DSL Rings® are becoming ever-prominent in delivering residential and enterprise broadband solutions in global markets. I look forward to steering Genesis into future successes alongside my colleagues, through increased product penetration and deployment,” said Khoury. “Genesis has solved the challenge of delivering affordable superfast broadband to rural and remote areas at a time when carriers are facing increasing pressure to meet new broadband threshold requirements dictated by legislation around the world.”

“Peter joins Genesis at an extremely pivotal time of re-structuring the business for future successes,” said Ian MacKenzie, Chairman of Genesis Technical Systems. “Following the recent appointments of new Engineering and Operations Directors late last year, we feel it is key to reinvest into the operations of how our solutions for home, rural, enterprise and government broadband are designed, implemented and deployed.”

Drivers for change include the need to optimise access and distribution of content

19th Jan 2016 London, UK - North Plains has announced the results of its 2015 survey of how organisations are managing their digital marketing assets. Just under half of respondents work in the financial services sector, with the rest spread across other large ‘blue chip’ organisations.

70 per cent cited digital asset management (DAM) as extremely or very important. Exactly 50% are researching DAM, with around a third of those planning to optimize existing DAM systems. 13% are looking to implement or replace DAM systems in the next 6-12 months.

Key highlights of the findings:

60% use more than one method to store digital assets, with 40% having 3 or more methods (and as many as eight)
The biggest pain point is efficiencies around finding and distributing assets to multiple locations (78%)
Reliance on email to distribute assets has gone down from 61% (compared to 70% in 2014) yet 21% still rely solely on email for delivering digital assets.
Growth areas
Management of assets has come into sharper focus among the survey’s respondents, with this issue cited by 72 per cent compared to 62 per cent in 2014. Encouragingly, there is more emphasis on security: while 50% either did not have or did not know about any methods of securing digital assets in 2014, this number has dropped to just 32%.

Just under 25% of respondents also want to improve analytics, while compliance and rights management is important for a further 13%. Other priorities include better approval processes around assets (10%) and re-use or repurposing of assets that have already been created (12%).

Storage issues
The survey revealed that 60% of companies are using more than one method to store digital assets – even if they have a DAM – with over 40% having three or more methods and as many as eight in some cases. Apart from DAM systems, other methods include: local area networks (LANs), shared drives, FTP, CD or DVD and via their external agencies. Around half already use DAM to store digital assets, with fairly even adoption of server versus cloud-based systems.

Research basis
The research was carried out via email phone-based interviews by eMedia across UK-based executives with responsibility for digital asset management, with just under half of those being in the financial services sector. Other respondents typically working for FTSE100 or Times 1000 size of organisation, across manufacturing, utilities, oil and gas, construction and public services.

Chessington South, UK. January 19, 2016. Fujikura Europe today announced that it has expanded its fibre fusion splicer range with the launch of a new product – the 62S.

The latest addition to Fujikura’s splicer family adds to the company’s portfolio to deliver a complete offering of splicers and accessories for the telecom and speciality markets. This includes the popular 12S (FTTH splicer) and the ultra-compact 22S (Advanced FTTH splicer), as well as the market-leading, flagship 70S (core-alignment splicer).

The 62S is a dependable, high specification core-alignment splicer which delivers a shrink time of 15 seconds. It is also very robust, withstanding a 30 inch drop test on five sides.

“Our new 62S is a great addition to our product line up and demonstrates our knowledge and experience of developing new splicing technology,” said Neil Bessant, Fusion Splicer Divisional Manager at Fujikura Europe. “We have been making high quality, unparalleled products since 1978 and pride ourselves on always delivering the speeds and performance detailed on the specification sheet.”

The 62S sits beneath the flagship 70S in Fujikura’s portfolio. Specifically designed for speed, durability and ergonomics, the 70S is the fastest splicer on the market, with a splicing time of just six seconds and an improved shrink time of nine seconds.

The 70S has a rugged construction design to provide the highest reliability by resisting shock, rain and dust, allowing it to withstand a 30 inch drop test on six sides. It also features a fully automatic wind protector and automated tube heater developed to reduce the number of operational steps and provide quicker splicing cycles. The unit includes a high-resolution LCD monitor, powerful Li-ion battery for longer operation time and built-in videos for on-the-go training.

In comparison the 62s offers traditional style with manual wind protector and conventional tube heater but still offers high-speed splicing.

“We have a range of robust, reliable, technologically advanced splicers and accessories, as well as an unparalleled ability to distribute our products globally,” said Bessant. “The 62S is a great addition to our line-up.”

For more information about 62S, training or demo please visit www.fujikura.co.uk or contact us at [email protected]

Leading bank modernises the processing of its credit applications and inheritance documents

London, UK (19 January 2016) — ABBYY, a leading provider of document recognition, data capture, and linguistic technologies, today announced that Banque Populaire de l’Ouest, a member of France’s second largest banking group – Banque Populaire Caisses d’Épargne (BPCE) – has successfully overhauled two strategic document-based processes thanks to ADOC Solutions, an ABBYY Gold Certified Solution Partner.

The inheritance and credit departments at Banque Populaire de l’Ouest manage thousands of cases per year and deal with a wide variety of document types. The documents arrive through multiple channels including post and email. To help get a handle on these complex processes Banque Populaire de l’Ouest turned to ADOC Solutions, an ABBYY solution partner and an expert in document management solutions. ADOC Solutions was initially selected as a service provider by the Caisse d’Épargne Bretagne Pays de Loire (CEBPL), member of the BPCE group, for whom they developed a document digitisation solution in 2012.
   
“The success of the project for CEBPL was an important factor for Banque Populaire de l’Ouest in choosing ADOC Solutions for its digitisation project in its inheritance and credit departments. The goal was to facilitate access to information for all employees and eliminate the manual circulation of paper documents,” says Jean-Sébastien Wagner, general director at ADOC Solutions.

To power the solution, they chose a digital mailroom solution for automation needs of customer oriented businesses. It is a feature-rich solution that digitises, intelligently classifies and quickly routes content throughout an organisation.

“ABBYY offers a wide range of products which help banks and other organisations of different sizes to manage considerable volumes of documents, as well as process and understand their content,” indicates Gregory Laborderie, commercial director at ABBYY France. “Thanks to our solutions, we can respond to customer needs in the digital world.”

Prior to implementing the solution the bank received all documents in paper form and distributed and processed them manually. Now all document handling takes place automatically – the incoming documents can be easily digitised and classified. Then, based on the classified information, the documents are allocated to the employee in charge. The solution was easily implemented and customised according to the needs and requirements of the bank. The teams mastered it quickly due to its ease of use, practicality, improvement of customer responsiveness and simplicity in circulating documents.

To learn more, please visit: www.abbyy.com/en/flexicapture-for-mailrooms

Cloud and big data environments demand high assurance data centric security

PLANTATION, Fla., 19 January, 2016 – Thales, leader in critical information systems and cybersecurity, and Vormetric, a provider of data-centric security to the world’s leading companies, announce that the Vormetric Data Security Manager (DSM) is now secured with Thales nShield hardware security modules (HSMs). Customers in highly regulated and security conscious industries such as finance and banking can now benefit from the heightened levels of trust and security provided by Thales HSMs.

Vormetric DSM centralizes control of data-at-rest security enabling organizations to protect their sensitive data and meet new security mandates and compliance requirements. Where high levels of trust and security are demanded Thales HSMs provide FIPS 140-2 certified protection and key management.

To meet the demands of customers with deployments distributed across multiple data centres, Thales HSMs offer Vormetric a superior approach to HSM initialization and ongoing administration. By utilizing the unique Thales Security World architecture customers can increase their security posture without the operational difficulties often associated with alternative solutions.

Ashvin Kamaraju, vice president of product development at Vormetric says:
“Our security conscious customers demand high levels of assurance and Vormetric has long offered these customers the option of an embedded FIPS 140-2 certified module. Thales HSMs are a critical component in meeting this security standard and also offer superior scalability to meet the demands of customers working in cloud and multi data-centre environments”.

Cindy Provin, president, Thales e-Security, Inc. says:
“As ever-greater volumes of data move to the cloud and big data environments the way in which data is stored, accessed and processed demands a data-centric security approach. Properly encrypted data is worthless to cyber-criminals and the deployment of FIPS-validated hardware is a long proven method to ensure encryption keys are safely stored and managed. The integrated delivery of Thales HSMs with Vormetric’s DSM allows customers to take advantage of best-in-class cryptographic hardware protection and key management, adding a further layer of security and reducing their operational risk.”

Thales recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire Vormetric which, when completed, will extend Thales’ data protection and key management solutions to further protect enterprises against cybersecurity threats.

For further information read the case study: www.thales-esecurity.com/knowledge-base/case-studies/vormetric

For industry insight and views on the latest key management trends check out our blog www.thales-esecurity.com/blogs

Brüel & Kjær enhances global customer support and reduces costs by over 50% with Unified Communications from Interoute

Cloud Contact Centre and Skype for Business solution implemented across 3 continents in just 4 months

London, January 19, 2016 – Brüel & Kjær, a global leader in sound and vibration measurement and management, has implemented a new Contact Centre and Skype for Business dedicated cloud solution with global SIP trunking from Interoute, owner operator of a global cloud services platform and one of Europe's largest networks. The new communications platform was up and running within just four months of contract signature. Brüel & Kjær has transformed its customer service delivery across the globe using the new collaborative, flexible and cost effective features.
 
Brüel & Kjær is the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of sound and vibration measurement equipment, systems and solutions. The company operates through an international network of partners and sales offices, with its local teams supported by a global group of engineering specialists. This business model requires an integrated communications solution that not only facilitated collaborative working through international voice, video and screen sharing, but which also supported its customer call centre service.

Jonas Toft Olesen, Global IT Manager at Brüel & Kjær, commented: “As a global organisation, the way we work with our customers is changing and it’s important that we get closer to provide the best service. Interoute is now a strategic partner for us because it was the only provider we found who could merge our telephony, Contact Centre and Skype for Business solutions on a global scale – and they reduced our costs by more than half in the process. Interoute has a huge network and global presence and was able to port our numbers everywhere that we needed them.”

Mark Lewis, VP Communications and Connectivity at Interoute, said: “With innovative global customers such as Airbus and Ferrari, fast and high quality communications is a vital foundation for Brüel & Kjær’s success. Interoute’s global infrastructure provides flexibility and scale for Brüel & Kjær’s, allowing the company to transform its customer support and bring new solutions and services to market quickly.”

Interoute Hosted Skype for Business integrated with Contact Centre and telephony
-          Brings Brüel & Kjær’s customers, customer service representatives and in-house experts closer together, regardless of geographical location and time-zones.
-          Integrates useful collaboration features such as Presence with Contact Centre, making it easy to know who is available, share screens and chat, enabling more interactive and productive calls.
-          Includes Interoute One voice DDIs which provide local calls globally, with simplified billing and cost visibility across the organisation.

Brüel & Kjær’s solution uses Interoute Virtual Data Centre cloud zones in Hong Kong, New York and Amsterdam, ideally located to host Skype for Business and Contact Centre close to users, lowering latency, and improving call quality.

Datacloud Awards 2016 Celebrates the Best and Most Innovative in a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry

Award categories to showcase innovation, bring recognition to new sectors and highlight community benefits

London/Monaco 18 January 2016 – In what promises to be a bumper year for data center and cloud innovation, the Datacloud Awards is taking place in Monaco on the evening of 7th June 2016.

As the bellwether for the industry, Datacloud Awards are globally relevant, and seek to recognize genuine innovation and the continuing evolution of the sector and the transformations underway.

In a new refreshed format, with an enlarged panel of Judges, the Data Centre Leadership and Cloud Leadership Awards, will be selected from nominations made by companies in any of the other categories.

Two new awards for community impact will recognize the positive contribution that both data centre and cloud make for social benefit. All categories are open to enterprise owned or third party facilities.

Acknowledging game changing technologies is also a first at the 2016 Awards and technical breakthrough recognition will be made in both industry categories.

The Judges have announced new award categories for 2016 which are:
-          Data Centre Leadership Award (Award will be given by the Judges Panel)
-          Excellence in Data Centre Service Award
-          Data Centres Community Impact Award
-          Data Centre Technical Breakthrough Award
-          Data Centre Above and Beyond Award
-          Cloud Leadership Award (Award will be given by the Judges Panel)
-          Excellence in Cloud Service Award
-          Cloud Community Impact Award
-          Cloud Technical Breakthrough Award
-          Cloud Above and Beyond Award
-          Upcoming Cloud Service Provider Award

The Judges have also launched four additional new categories.

The awards will bring new recognition for data centre location. Many agencies across Europe compete not only with each other, but also internationally and the award will offer a first in denoting industry distinction.

The Most Innovative Energy Solution Award will showcase the use of a disruptive energy innovation; Excellence in Connectivity Award for high levels of service reliability and availability provided by cable, dark fibre and Internet Exchange providers. The Most Innovative Deployment of IoT Award is designed to showcase innovative projects that use today’s data-driven technologies to shape the services and cities of tomorrow. The official new award categories are:

-          Innovative Data Centre Location Award
-          Most Innovative Energy Solution Award
-          Excellence in Connectivity for Data Centres Award
-          Most Innovative Deployment of IoT Award

The ceremony will also include the annual BroadGroup Award to an individual or company for achievement of the exceptional, and the European Commission will make awards for the European Code of Conduct.

“The industry has truly come of age,” commented Gerd Simon, chairman of the Judges Panel, “and the Datacloud Awards, as the premier pan-European and MEA event, will uniquely reflect its importance and the shift to embrace new technologies and services through IoT. Innovation will be the guideline in judging this year’s nominations.”

Companies can benefit by attending the Awards dinner and ceremony, sponsoring one of the Awards, or with the recognition of being shortlisted, start making contact with a global network of potential customers and partners to jump start the success of their innovations.
Four companies shortlisted for each Award will be invited to provide a short video that will be shown during the Awards ceremony, broadcast on the Internet, and supported by global PR, social media exposure, and press releases. The winner will receive a branded Award at the ceremony and other shortlisted companies will each be given a special prize as a runner-up and exposure on social media.

Hosted by an international personality, this year’s Awards ceremony - and dinner – will be the most exciting night of the year celebrating the best and most innovative in the multi-billion global industry that data centre and cloud have now become.

Access to the dinner and ceremony is open to Gold ticket holders attending Datacloud Congress.

HUBER+SUHNER unveil innovative new range of high speed radio frequency test components and VNA test leads at DesignCon 2016

At DesignCon 2016 in Santa Clara, California, leading manufacturer of Global connectivity solutions, HUBER + SUHNER, will unveil innovative new additions to their radio frequency test assemblies and multicoax connector catalogues.

The new VNA (vector network analyser) test lead series Sucotest 500V join the existing portfolio of assemblies including SUCOFLEX 100, Sucotest 18/18A and Sucotest 26/40, globally recognised as offering superior test measurement capabilities and elite quality of radio frequency Transmission.

The new Sucotest 500V series exceeds current industry standards for vector network analyzers (VNAs). Qualities include rugged design and temperature and movement stability, the accuracy of measurements guaranteed is second to none, alongside constant electrical performance and consistent quality.

Improved system reliability, longer service life and reduced equipment downtime are just some of the qualities that the durability of HUBER+SUHNER assemblies can bring to radio frequency testing environments. Market-leading stability for precise and repeatable measurements is assured with Sucotest 500V’s VNA test leads.

Key benefits brought to test and measurement environments are ruggedized cable construction and Network Measurement Division (NMD) style connectors that withstand repetitive mating, flexure, crushing, twisting and bending whilst simultaneously reducing equipment downtime due to the increased frequency of intervals between calibrations.

Additionally, the 80 GHz coaxial to printed circuit board (PCB) all-in-one solution will be presented at DesignCon. The unique solution features superb electrical performance alongside an easy to handle snap connection mechanism to the PCB.

The solution permits high-end measurement setups for both high speed digital and radio frequency testing. The PCB side of the solution is comprised of field-tested standard micro miniature print connector (MMPX) snap connectors coupled with a MMPX male to PC 1.0 female adaptor. The link between the adaptor and test equipment is made possible with a HUBER+SUHNER Astrolab 1mm male-to-male cable assembly.

The all-in-one solution offers broadband characteristics from DC to 80 GHz, easy handling and high-speed digital testing for test and measurement, customer experience management and users. 

HUBER+SUHNER will be exhibiting its new test measurement solutions for radio frequency at booth 848, DesignCon 2016, Santa Clara Convention Centre, California, 20-21 January.

To arrange briefings or interviews with HUBER+SUHNER at DesignCon 2016, please contact [email protected].

AlpNames now has more than 1 million domain names under management and becomes the second largest new gTLD registrar on the planet.

Monday 18th January 2016, Gibraltar: According to ntldstats.com, AlpNames (a leading domain name registrar with a special focus on new style domain extensions) has just overtaken GoDaddy in terms of the number of new gTLD domain names under management.

“GoDaddy is by far the world’s largest and most well-known domain registrar,” said Damon Barnard, Chief Operations Officer at AlpNames. “As a relative newcomer in the domain name industry, we are over the moon that our strategy of focusing on new domain endings has enabled us to overhaul GoDaddy so rapidly in what is now becoming a highly lucrative market sector.”

With over 1 million new gTLD domain names under management, AlpNames has leapfrogged GoDaddy to become the world’s second largest new gTLD registrar. Since its inception in 2013, AlpNames has specialised in providing new-style domain endings to a global market. In 2015, due to customer demand, it opened ‘AlpNames Premium’ an online webstore which markets highly sought after domain names.

“With registration rates going through the roof and with the increasing demand for valuable premium names driving up intrinsic value of all new-style domain names, AlpNames is continuing to execute on its original strategy” continued Barnard. “Simply by providing the web-addresses that people want at competitive prices, AlpNames has already cornered nearly 10% of the global market and we continue pursuing our goal to become the number one new gTLD registrar. Our registration rates are increasing and the revenue contribution that we are seeing from premium names is significant.”

In 2012 ICANN, the body that regulates internet domain names, liberalized the domain name industry to facilitate competition, innovation and consumer choice, allowing the introduction of web addresses that can end in almost any series of letters such as .win, .party or .club. Since the launch of this programme in 2013, over 11.5 million new-style domain names have been registered in over 880 brand new domain extensions.

“Passing the magic million is a phenomenal milestone for Alpnames,” concluded Barnard. “The cherry on the top of the cake for us is that we have overtaken a most well-respected industry giant in doing so.”

Purple to take the lead in visualising data about any physical space

January 18, 2016: Purple WiFi, the cloud-based marketing and analytics WiFi software company, today becomes Purple, the intelligent spaces software company, to better reflect the organisation’s wider scope of focus.

Since 2012, Purple has been changing the WiFi landscape starting with easy to access social WiFi for the customer and a range of WiFi marketing and analytics tools for venues to enable better understanding of, and communications with, their customers.

Purple has worked with flagship customers, such as Molson Coors, Legoland, Jaguar, United Wireless Arena, City of York and TUI to evolve its offering beyond WiFi analytics alone to encompass a wider range of data elements within a venue, as more objects become connected to the internet.

As a result, Purple is in a fantastic position to take the lead in visualising data about any physical space, pulling in all sorts of data points, including sensors, security cameras and even overlaying weather data onto purchase pattern data. When this is combined with the information already available through WiFi data, Purple plans to be able to help brands to predict behaviour.

Purple refers to this process as ‘Intelligent Spaces’ and can help brands to learn more about their location, customer base and help them to take action.

The evolved Purple offering includes a selection of products and features suitable for both small business and for enterprise.

Small businesses can continue to take advantage of Purple’s free guest WiFi product and purchase a cloud software license, which allows open access to marketing and analytics tools.

Enterprise customers have the option of four product lines: WiFi, Location, and two new offerings; Fusion and Provision.

•         Purple WiFi is the well-established guest WiFi, analytics and marketing product.
•         Purple Location is a location based services* product that works to actually pinpoint devices, enable heatmapping, provide zone flow information and enable journey management.
•         Purple Fusion is the latest offering, enabling connection to any type of data source, which can then be analysed and actioned. A variety of different data sources will be utilised to harvest information about any physical space.
•         Purple Provision is a commercial product more suitable for businesses, enabling a completely secure guest and staff WiFi environment. This uses automatic certificate provisioning instead of WPA or other encrypted WiFi SSID’s, which are intrinsically insecure for a BYOD environment.

Camden Market is already taking advantage of Purple’s services. This includes providing free WiFi throughout the market, and along the main shopping street stretching through to the customer’s access point at Camden tube station. This means that if a user downloads Camden’s market application, a free coffee can be redeemed in the market straight away from one of five different traders, bringing the customer into the retail centre.

In addition, Camden Market is working to introduce Wayfinding as the market is a maze of interesting shops and food stalls and intends to visualise more data sources such as beacon data and security camera data moving forward.

Charles Butler, CEO at Market Tech, comments: “Smart locations, such as Camden Market, are investing in technology to bring a richer and more useful experience to customers, while allowing individual businesses to attract customers and push offers to mobile devices. Purple has enabled us to make that objective a reality via an easy to administer system, which delivers measureable returns.”

Sir Terry Leahy, Purple Board Director, comments: "I cannot think of a better business opportunity than Purple; being able to have ‘Intelligent Spaces’ that actually learn and react to customers will help retailers to enhance the planning and efficiency of physical retail spaces. It also improves the vital link between online and offline customer data, helping them to build loyalty and trust, and heralding an exciting new era for the high street.

"Being a first mover in this market, I am not surprised that Purple are experiencing such growth and interest from all over the world."

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO at Purple, comments: “The world moves fast, and at Purple we are not afraid to change our brand and product to move with it. WiFi marketing and data is still and always will be the core of our business, but we've decided we need to offer more than WiFi analytics alone to truly understand what is going on in a venue.

“If you can collect the data about any physical space, including WiFi data, we can visualise it. We are calling this 'intelligent spaces' and it will change the way venues understand and communicate with their customers.”

* All of Purple’s location services to date have used WiFi as the source of X,Y coordinates. Moving forward, X,Y data sources will change. For example, some Purple customer deployments are now using GPS as a location source. Purple is also exploring BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) as an indoor positioning application, and in the future more sources such as intelligent lighting will be added as the market matures.

New brand measurement and optimisation agency, TransgressiveX (TX) continues its market shake-up by this week introducing The Brand eXchange Power Survey. After three years of testing, development and working with key clients, TX is launching it to the open market. It is a radical and progressive proprietary measurement and optimisation tool, delivering forensic brand guidance and eclipsing conventional research methods.

The eXchange System was developed by the renowned Consumer Psychologist Nadim Sadek, ex-Worldwide Commercial & Strategy Director of Research International. Now CEO of TransgressiveX, he has assembled a ‘best DNA’ team for a ‘clean-sheet re-design’ in quantitative brand optimisation. The result is a standard-setting, insight-based marketing guidance system, born of an interaction between global CEO, CMO, Heads of Insight and Research leaders. “We developed The eXchange System, in which The Brand eXchange Power Survey is the key service, in response to some current truths: brand authority has fundamentally declined in recent years, alongside profound cultural changes that have seen traditional pillars of society fall, and people are overwhelmed by a surfeit of often-redundant data. Brands now need to earn their relationships, every day, in many ways. The traditional quant survey, predicated on ‘the conversion funnel’ just is not fit for purpose any longer. That’s especially true when you consider that not only have consumer and cultural standards in relationships fundamentally changed, but that neuroscience teaches us what really affects interactions, and technology enables us to capture a complex system with elegant simplicity. We are now able to access true drivers of brand-consumer relationships, measure them in ways proven to be far more heartfelt, and to analyse them so that brand management can actually use insight to guide and optimise marketing investments. It’s madness to persist in applying tired old paradigms, when it’s completely feasible to be lighter-footed, quicker-witted, and a whole lot more cost-effective. The Brand eXchange Power Survey is born of this age to serve brands today.”

The TX team developed its own intellectual property and proprietary technology to capture this sea-change in the marketing landscape. It captures a brand’s fundamental powers of Seduction & Persuasion, via System 1 heartfelt responses, all across the consumer journey. Its analysis forensically optimises Propositional ‘Pull’ and Activation ‘Push’ for value growth and competitive advantage, with which its guidance is highly correlated. Future direction is given through evaluation of the impact of intended marketing initiatives on Brand Equity, through Pull & Push. Uniquely, The bXp Survey provides the most granular diagnosis ever seen, as well as the most predictive prognosis available.

TX client service is anchored by The bXp Survey. It offers a single-number score of a brand’s effective competitive power, then breaks this down to show competitive strength, weakness and opportunity, against a whole competitive set, across the entire consumer journey. Its forensic nature removes the ‘white noise’ of most insight, simplifying guidance with huge levels of confidence. Brands know what to do, where to do it, and why, with rapidity and clarity. The bXp Survey forensically guides development of Brand Equity, Proposition and Packaging Development, Product Innovation, and Communications.

Neota Logic and Transform Data International launch partnership to bring artificial intelligence solutions to European Law Firms and their Clients

LONDON – Monday 18th January 2016 - Neota Logic, global provider of intelligent software for legal and compliance, today announced a new partnership with Transform Data International, a Netherlands-based specialist advisor in innovative and proven software products to the legal industry.

The partnership will combine Transform Data’s proven track record in implementing document, matter and case management solutions with Neota Logic’s award winning AI platform. Together this will deliver innovative legal and compliance solutions to General Counsel and their legal advisors.

The partnership will accelerate Neota Logic’s expansion into Europe providing local expertise in the product including design and implementation capability in multiple languages.

Richard Seabrook, European Managing Director, Neota Logic, commented “Transform Data are an innovative and exciting company led by individuals with a proven record in the legal sector. We are excited to launch this partnership in 2016 as part of our continued expansion into Europe”.

Rob Kubben, Managing Partner, Transform Data, said, “We look forward to working with Neota Logic given their excellent reputation in the legal sector in the US. And we feel their solutions are highly applicable for organisations in the European region.”