< PreviousVantage Data Centers has announced the development of additional campuses in two of its existing strategic EMEA markets. With the continued increase in customer demand for premium hyperscale data centre space across Europe, Vantage has broken ground on second campuses in both Frankfurt and Berlin. In addition, the company opened its first campus in Zurich. In the most sought-after data centre market in Europe, Vantage has begun construction of a second Frankfurt campus. This five-acre (two- hectare) campus, located in Raunheim, will provide 40MW of critical IT capacity and total more than 355,000sqft (33,000sqm) once complete. The initial phase of this five-story facility is scheduled for delivery in the autumn of 2022. Vantage is also continuing to develop its flagship Frankfurt campus, located in Offenbach, approximately 30km from Raunheim. Once fully developed, both campuses will offer hyperscalers, cloud providers and large enterprise customers a total of 95MW of IT capacity in the Frankfurt region. Vantage has also begun construction of a second campus in Berlin. Located only 20km from its first Berlin campus and 10km from the Brandenburg International Airport, the two-building campus will sit on 12 acres (five hectares) and provide 32MW of critical IT capacity. Both facilities will consist of two-stories and feature more than 260,000sqft (24,000sqm) combined. The initial phase is scheduled to be operational in the summer of 2022. Development continues at the company’s first Berlin campus as well. Once fully developed, both campuses will offer 64MW of IT capacity. Like all of Vantage’s data centres, these new developments will prioritise reliability, sustainability and environmental responsibility and will follow the company’s standardised building design, which allows for rapid time to market to meet customer demand. The campuses will employ hyper-efficient cooling with outside air economisation using minimal water. This approach, along with other design features, enables Vantage to achieve industry-leading power usage effectiveness (PUE) and a water usage efficiency (WUE) of virtually zero. Both new campuses will offer customers renewable energy options and include electric vehicle charging stations, drought-resistant landscaping and motion-sensor LED lighting. Vantage has committed to reaching net zero Vantage Data Centers develops two more EMEA campuses carbon by 2030 through its comprehensive sustainability program. In addition, Vantage recently opened the first of four data centres on its growing Swiss campus sited in Winterthur just 25km northeast of downtown Zurich. Once fully developed, the seven-acre (three-hectare) campus will offer 40MW of IT capacity to customers. n SAP on cloud research: Is it the promised land? Half of SAP enterprise workloads will be migrated to the cloud over the next two years, according to a study of EMEA enterprises commissioned by Lemongrass, a software-enabled services provider synonymous with SAP on cloud that specialises in the migration, operation and automation of enterprise workloads on hyper-scale public cloud. Better performance, increased stability and substantial cost reduction are cited as the main benefits for doing so. The study, conducted by Norstat polled senior SAP users in EMEA enterprises that are yet to migrate to the cloud, as well as those that have already made the move, to understand whether their dreams of enterprise cloud computing were aligned with reality. Security was reported as a key concern among organisations who had yet to migrate to the cloud, along with difficulties in determining the right cloud provider, integration to the broader non-SAP estate and uncertain decision making around SAP S/4 HANA. Highlighting a diverse set of opinions, the research also found that more than half of enterprises (55%) plan on migrating their SAP workloads to the cloud in the next 12 months, believing it will help them achieve better agility (80%), security (78%) and a reduction in operating costs (73%). Mark Hirst, Managing Director for EMEA and APAC at Lemongrass, commented: “This research shows a clear maturing of the SAP on cloud marketplace. The earliest migrations of SAP workloads to the public cloud were completed less than a decade ago. At that time, it was seen as a novel approach for early adopters and generally regarded as something risky to do with your core SAP applications. "It is now clear that SAP on cloud has become the mainstream platform. It’s also great to see that the business case is both readily built and relatively easily delivered.” Interestingly, almost half (41%) of respondents at organisations that had already migrated their SAP workload to the cloud did not state cost reduction as a benefit they had seen. Concern over legacy applications, a lack of in-house skills and clarity on the right cloud services provider were listed among their top concerns. Hirst added: “While some of the old concerns around SAP on cloud, such as security, still exist, they are now very much seen as one the major benefits as well. It’s also interesting that, although most of those surveyed realised significant cost reduction, a not insignificant proportion of those surveyed had not seen their costs reduced. In our experience, that’s usually down to poor post-migration management and low levels of automation which are key to achieving business outcomes in the cloud.” n www.networkseuropemagazine.com NEWS IN BRIEF 10GTR breaks ground at its first UK campus Global Technical Realty (GTR) broke ground on its first 40.5MW IT load UK data centre campus - GB One. GTR, a $1billion European build-to-suit data centre platform agreed to lease the site at Slough Trading Estate, London’s premier data centre hub, partnering with estate owner, SEGRO, which will be developing the building shell. When complete, the campus will be the largest in the area, comprising three independent data centres capable of operating individually or as one interlinked facility. Each building will accommodate over 5,375sqm of net technical area and 13.5MW IT load. “The data centre sector is experiencing phenomenal growth and is evolving at a rate we’ve never seen before,” said Franek Sodzawiczny, Founder and CEO at Global Technical Realty. “GTR is in the unique position of having an equity capital commitment with KKR's third global infrastructure fund. This gives us the flexibility to not only fund projects rapidly but to also offer continuity of support to our customers across multiple facilities and locations. We are motivated to get our first UK data centre up and operational and are delighted to be partnering with SEGRO to help achieve this.” Focused on providing data centres for hyperscalers in challenging markets primarily across EMEA, GTR was launched by global investment firm KKR and Franek Sodzawiczny, an experienced and successful serial entrepreneur in the data centre sector. The company designs, builds and operates bespoke data centres for large technology clients, meeting growing demand for third-party data centre provision amid ever-increasing growth in data usage and cloud services adoption. The company is led by an established team of data centre experts, delivering projects across the globe. GTR prides itself on blending design and construction specifics with flexible solutions that meet the operational, capacity and contractual needs of its customers. n Extreme Networks transforms Borås Stad into smart city Extreme Networks has established one of the largest cloud-managed network infrastructures in Borås Stad, Sweden, transforming the municipality into a smart city. The new infrastructure delivers faster and more advanced connectivity, extending secure public WiFi for its citizens, local government, schools and services, while automating and simplifying network management for the IT team. The transition to smart cities is designed to provide more sustainable resources to residents while improving quality of life and fueling business innovation. Municipalities in Sweden are required by law to provide critical welfare services such as schools, childcare, social services and elderly care, among others. The departments and institutions that power these services require a robust, secure network infrastructure to share information seamlessly and securely. Borås Stad has also worked to roll out new services such as Wi-Fi connected medical wristbands which allow immediate contact with doctors, real-time heartbeat monitoring and user location information – making reliable, high-speed WiFi critical for proper care. Borås Stad as a smart city is an example of how Extreme Networks is helping to lay the groundwork to integrate 5G and WiFi and deliver cloud-based networking services to gain more visibility and better manage networks across the city. Extreme Networks helps provide a seamless connectivity and authentication experience between 5G and WiFi networks, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity for users. Andrzej Kardas, Chief Technology Officer, Borås Stad said, “Extreme Networks has been a key partner in helping us to build a smart city that meets the current and future demands of our citizens. Leveraging Extreme’s solutions, we’ve created an advanced cloud-managed network that helps us roll out new initiatives through seamless, world-class public WiFi – with minimal overhead, management and maintenance required on our end. We’re proud to have established Borås Stad as a modern and dynamic smart city.” Boris Germashev, Senior Regional Director Northern & Eastern Europe at Extreme Networks, said, “Borås Stad was struggling to provide its growing population with fast and reliable public WiFi, resulting in connectivity issues that absorbed a lot of the IT teams’ time. But with the deployment of ExtremeCloud IQ, Borås Stad has proven that with the right cloud- managed network and solutions, a city can cost-efficiently streamline all networking operations, increase connectivity and enhance services without complicating its fundamental infrastructure.” n www.networkseuropemagazine.com NEWS IN BRIEF 11 Riello UPS introduces new modular Sentryum rack series Riello UPS has launched a new product range specifically designed to ensure power continuity for industrial applications. Based on its popular transformer-free Sentryum series, the Sentryum Rack is suited to sites prone to harsh environmental conditions such as dust and humidity or heavy industrial processes. It is available as either a 20kVA standalone rackmount UPS suitable for plug and play installation in standard 19in server racks or as a modular UPS which can easily be scaled up to a maximum capacity of 160kVA. The advanced design of the Sentryum Rack ensures that all the power connectors (input, output, batteries) are completely separated and isolated from the communications connections. This eliminates the possibility of any disturbance from the grid supply network which can be a common issue in many industrial environments. Available with either a single-phase or three-phase output, the UPS’s advanced technologies deliver unity power (kVA = kW) and operating efficiency up to 96.3% in online mode. It can also handle short circuits (150% for 300msec) and high overloads (150% for 1 minute), ensuring the system can deal with sudden load peaks without having to transfer to bypass. Leo Craig, Managing Director of Riello UPS, commented: “The new Sentryum Rack combines the characteristics of our hugely popular Sentryum series, namely performance, high efficiency and compact footprint, with the simple ‘pay as you grow’ scalability of a modular UPS. “This makes it the perfect solution for use in factories, manufacturing plants and other facilities where there are tough industrial processes or harsh environmental conditions.” The plug and play Sentryum Rack incorporates a sophisticated battery management system, while it is compatible with alternative energy storage solutions such as supercapacitors or lithium-ion batteries. It also features a large touchscreen colour display panel and an intuitive LED status indicator that automatically changes colour depending to the current status of the UPS. nDataQube Global and Primaria spearhead alternative data centre cooling refrigerant options DataQube Global together with Primaria, are championing the adoption of alternative data centre cooling refrigerants in response to European regulations to phase out greenhouse gases. Field trials are currently underway to establish the feasibility of replacing legacy HFCs (fluorinated hydrocarbon coolants) with a next-generation refrigerant that efficiently carries heat and delivers a lower environmental impact. The two main refrigerants currently used in data centre cooling systems are R134a and especially R410a. While both have an ozone depletion potential (ODP) of zero, their global warming potential (GWP) ratings of 1430 and 2088 respectively are a thousand times higher than carbon dioxide. R-32 on the other hand, because of its efficient heat conveying capabilities which can reduce total energy usage by up to 10% and due to its chemical structure, has a GWP rating that is up to 68% lower at just 675. “The environmental impact of the data centre industry is significant, estimated at between 5-9% of global electricity usage and more than 2% of all CO2 emissions.” Says David Keegan, CEO of DataQube. “In light of COP26 targets, the industry as a whole needs to rethink its overall energy usage if it is to become climate neutral by 2030, and our novel system is set to play a major part in green initiatives.” “For data centre service providers it’s important that their operations are state of the art when it comes to energy efficiency and GWP (of the refrigerants used) since it impacts both their balance sheet and their sustainability,” said Henrik Abrink, Managing Director of Primaria. He continued: “With the development and implementation of R-32 in the DataQube cooling units, we have taken a step further to deliver high added value on both counts in a solution that is already proving to be the most energy efficient edge data centre system on the market.” Unlike conventional data centre infrastructure, DataQube, because of its unique person-free layout, reduces power consumption by as much as 56% and CO2 emissions by as much as 56% as the energy transfer is primarily dedicated to powering computers. Exploiting next generation cooling products such as R-32 together with immersive cooling in its core infrastructure offers the potential to reduce these figures further. DataQube’s efficient use of space, combined with optimised IT capacity makes for a smaller physical footprint because less land, raw materials and power are needed from the outset. Moreover, any surplus energy may be reused for district heating, making the system truly sustainable. n NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 12 Prysmian eases the path to FTTx and 5G network deployments with 180mm fibre cables Prysmian Group has extended its Sirocco Extreme range of microduct cables to include its latest 576f cable. Sirocco Extreme cables provide world record diameters and fibre densities for blown microduct cables. The new cable boasts 576 fibres in a diameter of 8.2mm, providing a fibre density of 10.9 fibres per square mm and can be installed into a 10mm duct. Sirocco Extreme microduct cables utilise Prysmian’s BendBright 180µm single-mode (ITU-T G.657.D, G.657.A2) bend insensitive fibre, fully compatible for splicing with any standard fibre, offering a truly future- proof solution that is prepared for evolved systems. “Bend-insensitive fibre optic cables are a crucial part of the world’s shift towards flexible and reliable connectivity,” said Ian Griffiths, Director R&D Telecom Business at Prysmian Group. “With their extreme fibre count and reduced diameter, Sirocco Extreme microduct cables make installations faster and more cost-effective. Designed for installation into microducts, they are ideally suited for blowing in high density access, FTTx and 5G networks.” Available in fibre counts from 192 to 576 and conforming to international standards for optical and mechanical performance, the Sirocco Extreme cables benefit from the use of Prysmian’s PicoTube technology. This makes them up to 15% smaller than Sirocco HD microduct cables, Prysmian’s previously record holding 200µm microduct cables. As a result, it is possible to install more fibres into a congested duct space and smaller ducts can be used for new installations, reducing installation costs and the use of less raw materials. This provides further benefits of a decreased total cost of network deployment and smaller environmental footprint. With these cables, Prysmian Group continues to leverage its worldwide knowledge and capabilities to respond to the ever-growing technological challenges that its customers face. Sirocco Extreme product enhancements highlight the Group’s commitment to responding to the evolving needs of the market and offering a scalable, future-proof solution that is high- density, physically compact and easily deployable. n GTT delivers global SD-WAN for Barry Callebaut GTT Communications has announced that chocolate and cocoa food manufacturer, Barry Callebaut, has implemented GTT’s managed SD-WAN service to connect 131 sites in more than 30 countries across six continents. The GTT SD-WAN solution integrates VMware SD- WAN1 technology with GTT’s global Tier 1 internet backbone providing private and direct cloud connectivity, enhancing the performance of business-critical applications. This implementation of GTT’s SD-WAN solution is Barry Callebaut’s fourth-generation wide area network, which entails a transformation from an MPLS-based network to a full- scale SD-WAN deployment. GTT’s managed SD-WAN solution provides Barry Callebaut with enhanced automation and centralised management capabilities for improved end-to-end control and application performance, featuring a low-touch provisioning network platform for increased flexibility. Additionally, the managed SD-WAN solution lowers Barry Callebaut’s network total cost of ownership, while increasing its global bandwidth by over 77%, ensuring a future-proof network. GTT managed the design, configuration and delivery of the solution across Barry Callebaut’s global footprint, completing the deployment ahead of schedule. “We have chosen GTT for its solid track record of delivering reliable global network solutions and its flexibility,” commented Steven Vandamme, Chief Information Officer at Barry Callebaut. “GTT has provided great support in the design and building of a simplified, agile and efficient network to enable our ‘cloud first’ strategy, which will help improve many facets of our global operation from supply chain management to employee productivity. nEmtelle acquires Dubai-based Afripipes Emtelle Group has announced that it has entered a definitive agreement that will see Emtelle acquire Afripipes Middle East Operations. The transaction will bring together two complementary businesses to increase access to their solutions portfolio and provide broader access to their global manufacturing capacity, delivering a synergistic product in the FTTX industry. The expansion is part of Emtelle's ongoing investment to sustain its presence in the FTTX industry. It will see Emtelle's manufacturing capability expanded by 15 manufacturing lines and, in total, exceed 75 globally, increasing its manufacturing capacity to improve the security of supply to customers worldwide. Tony Rodgers, CEO, Emtelle Group, said, "The purchase of Afripipes, based in the UAE, further increases Emtelle's presence in the FTTX solutions market. The additional capacity married with Emtelle's long-standing excellence in product innovation and customer service strengthens our position in the global arena, improves efficiencies, and better positions us to continue to deliver on excellence worldwide. The team and I at Emtelle look forward to welcoming Sanjay Nischal, the current Director at Afripipes, to the Group Senior Management Team." The integration of Afripipes within the Emtelle Group will see substantially increased scale, providing an enlarged platform for synergies in innovation to continue to deliver first-class product offerings to the global FTTX market. Improved efficiencies will allow the Emtelle group to focus on what it does best, providing quality and excellent customer service. Afripipes currently manufacture high- quality HDPE Duct, Sub-duct and Microduct for the FTTX market. The two leading brands share common values and vision with outstanding talent and a strong focus on people. Upon completion, the Emtelle group will have over 600 employees and an additional 9,000sqm of manufacturing space globally from five manufacturing sites, providing a solid platform for future growth within the FTTX Industry. Afripipes will continue to operate as a standalone business and brand while the integration process takes place. This will allow communication with our most prized assets - our customers - and their needs and requirements will be at the forefront of this process. Sanjay Nischal, Director at Afripipes, said of the acquisition, "AfriPipes Middle East Team is very excited about the new product and market opportunities presented by this acquisition. We plan to leverage this strength and provide even more value to our customers. It is an ideal platform to extend Emtelle's reach to customers worldwide, and we look forward to learning from one another to continue to deliver exceptional products to the FTTX industry." n Pulsant acquires Manchester data centre in edge computing strategy Pulsant has completed the acquisition of a Manchester data centre and associated clients from M247 Limited. Located in one of the fastest growing tech hubs in the UK and Europe, the acquisition supports Pulsant’s strategy of geographic expansion, enabling the company to extend its edge platform to the city and the North-West. Situated within a secure compound in central Manchester, the 6,500sqft data centre provides capacity of around 1MW power with further investment planned to expand and upgrade the facility. The location complements Pulsant’s existing network of strategically located data centres, offering good transport links and connectivity, including a LINX Manchester point of presence (PoP) on site. The move is part of Pulsant’s ambitious growth strategy and its first acquisition since receiving investment from Antin Infrastructure Partners in July 2021. The deal includes the data centre and transfer of 40 clients and all site staff from M247 which will become a major client of Pulsant and continue to use the data centre to serve their own business. As well as delivering services to existing clients from the new data centre, Pulsant will seek to bring its full range of colocation and hybrid cloud services to new businesses within the area. Rob Coupland, Chief Executive Officer at Pulsant, says: “I am very excited to be bring the Pulsant edge computing platform to the Manchester market and wider North-West region. The acquisition of such a well-established and high-quality facility is an important step in our strategy to bring the benefits of edge computing to every business across the UK.” The platform brings together Pulsant’s core data centre, network and cloud services to enable data to be processed close to edge devices and bridge the gap between centralised platforms and micro-edge for UK businesses. Darryl Edwards, Chief Executive Officer at M247, says: “We are delighted to be working with Pulsant. Their extensive experience in operating regional data centres makes them uniquely placed to take over the data centre. We are looking forward to developing our relationship through the new strategic supply partnership with Pulsant to maintain a full set of connectivity and cloud based services to our customers.” Pulsant already operates an established network of 10 regional edge data centres across the UK, delivering secure, scalable and resilient cloud, colocation and networking services. Manchester joins Pulsant’s expanding network of interconnected regional edge data centres which includes sites in Milton Keynes, Croydon, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Reading. n NEWS IN BRIEF 13 Schneider Electric acquires renewable energy platform Zeigo Schneider Electric has acquired start-up climate-tech platform Zeigo enhancing the company’s digital capabilities in energy, sustainability and environmental commodity consulting. Zeigo will complement Schneider Electric’s portfolio of clean energy services and solutions and advance the company’s digital energy transformation ambitions. “Zeigo is delighted to join forces with Schneider Electric to continue to accelerate the digital clean energy revolution,” said Zeigo founder and CEO Juan Pablo Cerda. “Together, we will bring innovative energy solutions to even more companies, to drive impact as they embark on their decarbonisation journey.” Renewable energy procurement is time-consuming and complicated, requiring significant expert evaluation of projects and risks alongside the satisfaction of stakeholders up to and including corporate boards. By combining Zeigo’s AI capabilities with its existing best-in-class advisory services, Schneider Electric will deploy enhanced collaborative intelligence in the energy and environmental commodity procurement process, an ideal complement to existing Schneider Electric solutions for aggregation and digital platforms EcoStruxure Resource Advisor and NEO Network. "As the world’s largest advisor to corporations on renewable energy procurement, we know that speed and complexity are two of the barriers that keep some corporations out of the PPA market,” said Steve Wilhite, SVP for Schneider Electric’s Sustainable Business Division. “By adding the Zeigo technology and team to our existing portfolio of services and solutions, we will be able to provide even greater value to our clients worldwide. My congratulations to Zeigo on this significant milestone.” nThe Covid-19 pandemic has heavily impacted our lives over the past two years, on both a personal and professional level. However, the professional repercussions have encouraged industry to take a good look at its current condition, expedite technological advancements and positively reposition itself going forward. In this article some of our regular contributors take a look at what’s next for the data centre and networks sector, predict new industry trends and forecast how to take the pandemic learnings forward. Laura Vallis Editor Networks Europe Magazine and friends 2022 and beyond - predictions across the data centre trends of tomorrow www.networkseuropemagazine.com 14yond - s from the industry Jon Healy, Operations Director at Keysource offers his thoughts on data centre trends: Our State of the Industry report shows that the data centre sector will continue to be at the heart of the global post-pandemic recovery in 2022. For many respondents, the ability to bounce back or accelerate growth lies in their technology and continued digital transformation. The good news is that this is creating increased budgets which, combined with a market that is bursting with service options, suggests a positive outlook. We predict the following trends: 1. Mergers and acquisitions With the backdrop of global digitalisation, demand in transformation critical assets will continue to be very attractive for investors and I believe that the market will continue to see mergers and acquisitions. 2. Sustainability The data centre sector will maintain its progress in understanding the role it must play in reducing carbon emissions. There is still enormous opportunity to improve the efficiency of existing live facilities, predominantly in scope 1 and 2 such as optimising power. However I think we will see an increasing focus on Scope 3 emissions, the indirect emissions resulting upstream and downstream from the value chain activities, i.e. business purchases and how end of life products are treated. This has a much wider impact which, when controlled, can drive bigger strides in improvement. data centre trends of tomorrow www.networkseuropemagazine.com 153. Embodied carbon I think the issue of embodied carbon and its impact will also be a focus. This is different from ‘operational carbon’ which is from heating, cooling and power during use and where to date, the real work has been done. ‘Embodied carbon’ is generated from the construction product supply chain such as energy consumption, chemical reactions, transport and installation/ construction. Moving forward this will be vital for organisations wishing to stay within their carbon budget. 4. Renewable energy In 2022, I believe there will be greater emphasis on alternative power sources such as wind and solar as well as the use of battery storage. In June 2021 we saw the UK’s first grid-scale battery storage system directly connected to the electricity transmission network activated, and Harvard researchers have designed a long-lasting, stable, solid-state lithium battery. This may be a real game-changer with a key feature being quicker charging times, potentially overcoming a key limitation of battery storage for data centres. 5. Security Although the landscape is broad, the data centre continues to be a “soft underbelly” which puts national services and business operations at risk. Given the financial and reputational damage a data breach or outage can bring, this may be the biggest challenge facing the sector. I believe we will see an increasing awareness of the importance of securing the data centre management network to the same level, or more, as the corporate networks – often overlooked with responsibility falling between the IT, Security and Engineering teams. Throughout the industry, Industrial Control Systems (ICS) have long been targeted with cybercrime but now more malicious and sophisticated strains of Malware and Ransomware are specifically targeting these Operational Technology (OT) environments. Ashok Sanker, VP of Product and Solutions Marketing, ReliaQuest on Security Metrics It’s clear that 2022 will be a defining moment in how organisations reset the fundamentals of their security programs. This must begin with standardising security metrics. More organisations will also look to develop a comprehensive risk- reduction program. More than half (58%) of security leaders currently say that the lack of a well-defined security and risk management program is what makes their organisation most vulnerable to attacks. Surprisingly, only 31% consider developing this type of program as a top security priority. We will see security leaders realise the value of these programs and shift to making these a top priority. The lack of enterprise-wide visibility across security tools, combined with the prevalence of tool sprawl, will lead to a greater need for and adoption of Managed Detection & Response (MDR) solutions in 2022. Ongoing struggles will drive demand for MDR solutions that can drive efficiencies across investments, while also reducing risk with faster detection, investigation and response. Organisations need to bridge existing gaps and gain visibility to better protect against malicious actors. Jeremy Rowley, Avesta Hojjati, Mike Nelson, Jason Sabin, Dean Coclin, Stephen Davidson, Tim Hollebeek and Brian Trzupek at DigiCert offer their predictions on security in the data centre: Prediction: Supply chain, ransomware and cyberterrorism attacks will continue to escalate Some threats that are likely to thrive include: • Supply chain complexity and vulnerabilities grow. Securing software isn’t easy in fast-paced DevOps-driven organisations. That’s because most workflows are about pushing deliverables fast, rather than security by design. As development processes and supply chains for devices become more complex, the attack surface will grow. Best practises like code signing can help companies bake security into each stage of the development process confirming the integrity of code before it moves further along in the development cycle and out to production environments and customers. Setting up a software bill of materials (SWBOM) can also provide visibility into code sourcing, tracking all the components that make up a software app. • Cyberterrorism will embolden bad actors. New opportunities for cyber terrorists are emerging all the time, limited only by attackers’ imaginations. Public and private organisations vulnerable to spectacular cyberattacks will need to redouble their focus on a zero-trust approach to security. • Ransomware will continue to escalate and expand its reach. Like cyberterrorist events, ransomware attacks often attract heavy press coverage, which can further encourage bad actors to seek publicity. We predict attacks will escalate as the use of cryptocurrency expands, making ransom payments harder to trace outside the banking system. Prediction: Trust and identity step up in business processes Research shows that the global digital transformation market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24% from 2021 to 2028. We predict that the use of digital signatures will increase. • Digital signatures. More workflows will be associated with digital signatures in industries such as financial services, real estate, healthcare and education, in addition to organisations with hybrid work, to onboard or support remote employees. Europe is updating its eIDAS Regulation to enable high-quality remote validation of signers’ identity by Qualified Trust Service Providers. New proposals will dramatically expand the use of government-issued eID to facilitate cross-border interactions. • Identity and trust power the IoT and more. As the adoption of 5G technology accelerates, we’ll see an increasing convergence in IoT and 5G applications — which could invite more attacks. PKI remains a robust, proven method to assure trust in IoT environments. We will see an increasing awareness of the importance of securing the data centre management network to the same level as the corporate networks. data centre trends of tomorrow www.networkseuropemagazine.com 16Prediction: Post-covid threats will persist and evolve Last year’s predictions included a variety of security threats that were directly tied to the Covid-19 pandemic. As the pandemic recedes, we predict that those threats will continue to remain. Digital ID schemes such as drivers’ licences and healthcare records are becoming more widely used — and also remain possible points that can be hacked. Prediction: Post-quantum computing (PQC) will challenge the security status quo PQC can strengthen cryptography, decreasing the possibility of security breaches. But many companies lack a clear understanding of the crypto they deploy, so will want to take proactive steps to locate all the exposed servers and devices and rapidly update them when a fresh vulnerability comes to light. Prediction: Automation will power cybersecurity improvements 2022 will bring an emphasis on technologies that allow organisations to do more with less, and automation will play a significant role in terms of security innovation in the New Year. AI and ML technologies will continue to play an essential role in powering this automation. Prediction: Cloud sovereignty will create new security demands In an increasingly multi-cloud world, traditional perimeter-based security approaches have become obsolete. Cybersecurity challenges are likely to become even more demanding as cloud services become more granular. Cloud sovereignty controls are focused on protecting sensitive, private data, and ensuring that data stays under owners’ control. Prediction: VMC trust and identity will change the face of email marketing Organisations will increasingly adopt Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs) to build their brand equity and strengthen trust. As part of a cooperative initiative with the Brand Indicator Message Identification (BIMI) initiative, VMCs certify the authenticity to display a logo to email recipients right in their inbox, before a message is opened. They are enforced by Domain-Based Message Authentication Reporting (DMARC) security. By using VMCs secured by DMARC, marketers not only reinforce their branding and improve open rates by up to 10%, but they also show customers that they care about their privacy and IT security, and are taking proactive steps to help minimise risk. Prediction: Organisations prioritising strategy/culture of security Organisations will work harder to strengthen a culture of cybersecurity. We’re hearing more about employee education using phishing tests, mandatory online training and cyber simulation exercises taking place at the board level, to help C-level participants test their communication strategies and decision-making in the event of a major cybersecurity crisis. Mitigating tomorrow’s threats will require a commitment from leadership and good communication across every organisation. data centre trends of tomorrow www.networkseuropemagazine.com 17Head Geeks of SolarWinds offer their predictions for the IT industry going into 2022 and beyond Revisiting cloud investments and best practises in 2022 The pandemic pressured organisations to modernise and accelerate digital transformation efforts, resulting in increased investments in cloud computing. However, every organisation has unique needs and business objectives with many learning that the cloud isn’t the be-all and end-all to an organisation’s success. We will see organisations evaluate the implications of their cloud investments and revisit best practises. We expect to see businesses putting in place teams to manage cloud costs, perhaps in the form of an individual from the IT/cloud/DevOps team, or in some cases, a dedicated team formed to focus on it. SolarWinds Geek: Leon Adato The rise of AI/ML services The explosion in data available to a company has made the use of AI and ML a critical competitive advantage, but the talent and resources required to build solutions in-house are still prohibitive. Ultimately, a machine is faster than a human, which means shifting to AI/ML services also allows for cost savings. Purchasing or subscribing to an AI service and integrating it doesn’t come cheap, but it’s still far more efficient than a team of 20 data analysts. In 2022, we’ll start to see AI and ML featured more prominently in organisations’ IT environments through the adoption of off-the-shelf AI/ML services. As businesses look to strengthen their security postures in response to the evolving threat landscape for example, they may look for security tools leveraging AI/ ML to perform tasks. Meanwhile, offerings from cloud service providers will similarly see widespread growth by reducing the barrier to adoption and implementation for tech pros. We may also see companies become proficient at building AI algorithms and start to monetise them through licensing, data streaming ingress, or even by renting those algorithms out to other businesses. SolarWinds Geek: Sascha Giese More organisations will implement chief data officers (CDO), resulting in a bigger emphasis on data and analytics (D&A) governance initiatives throughout the industry CDOs will be charged with implementing one or more data governance programs in the coming year. We’ll also see organisations without an official CDO moving to implement specific subsets of the data governance portfolio. The CDO position, with its emphasis on protecting and promoting the value of corporate data, will see rapid growth in companies of medium size. This will further emphasise D&A governance for small and medium businesses, which will be triggered by two widespread issues. First, WFH and hybrid working arrangements have acted as big motivators for companies to build stronger data governance programs as small and medium-sized corporations continue to allow access to their on-premises data from new and unsecured locations. Second, global data privacy legislation applies to organisations of all sizes doing business in those legal jurisdictions. These new laws have potent punishments for violators, prompting many firms to make data governance a new priority. SolarWinds Geek: Kevin Kline Tools, technology and processes will be re-evaluated by tech pros to accommodate the changing nature of hybrid work Tech pros will be tasked with maintaining and supporting hybrid workplaces by implementing new tools and technologies. They’ll also need to continuously re- evaluate existing tools and processes. When introducing changes, tech pros should consider the holistic impact on those responsible for implementing these updates and the end-users. Focus on the value these changes will bring to the organisation. SolarWinds Geek: Liz Beavers Tech pros will start to fine-tune their skill sets and focus more on non-technical skills to enhance their career Our SolarWinds 2021 IT Pro Day Survey found respondents increasingly recognising a balance between non-technical skills learned in daily life and technical skills/professional certifications as key to career advancement and new opportunities. These newfound non- technical skills will play a large role in enabling tech pros to achieve broader responsibilities, such as project management, and become part of the decision-making process, which 34% of respondents say is their biggest opportunity at work in the next year. SolarWinds Geek: Chrystal Taylor Securing the enterprise in 2022 by normalising risk aversion Cybercrime has reached a new peak with the onslaught of ransomware attacks and data breaches in the last several months. We expect to see more tech professionals and organisations look to cloud service providers, MSPs and managed security service providers (MSSPs), and other third- party security tools to supplement their own IT policies and keep pace with new, more effective security measures. Tech pros and the IT community will better secure the enterprise by normalising a sense of risk aversion, moving from simply accepting the current exposure to a mindset where any level of risk exposure is unacceptable. This means evaluating and implementing the principles of a secure enterprise, and understanding security compromises will happen as cyber hackers deploy more sophisticated attacks. I also think that Database Administrators (DBAs) will start to disappear. The rise of automation over recent years has been a disaster for traditional DBAs. More systems and processes are automated with code, and as a result, the need for DBAs is changing. No longer should DBAs see themselves as purely operational or focused on maintenance of the data estate. Instead, their role will focus on how to turn data into actionable insights capable of keeping business moving forward. SolarWinds Geek: Thomas LaRock data centre trends of tomorrow latency www.networkseuropemagazine.com 18Jason Pfeiffer, Chief Strategy Officer, ReliaQuest talks about the threat landscape I expect to see an increase in cyber threats that will impact critical infrastructure. Society and economies will continue to see a more direct impact on their day to day lives due to poor cyber hygiene. Supply chain attacks will also become more prolific in 2022, as threat actors continue to target organisations with access to larger target populations. Good cyber hygiene, cyber resilience and a zero-trust mindset are all crucial for organisations to help ensure they don’t become the next cyberattack victim, or at the very least, mitigate damage when a data breach occurs. Joe Partlow, CTO, ReliaQuest discusses zero-trust In 2022, we will see zero-trust adoption speed up, however confusion will remain unless we treat it as a mindset shift and a concept versus a product solution. About half of security leaders say they are prioritising zero-trust principles as part of their security strategy, but too many leaders still don’t understand it to its full extent. Zero-trust can’t be thought of as a single-packaged solution; it’s essentially rethinking enterprise security and cutting across silos. It’s an evolution of the security paradigm that requires continuous monitoring. The industry must educate organisations on the ins and outs of zero-trust, as destructive attacks are not slowing down. Brian Atkinson, Vice President and General Manager EMEA, Five9 1. Replacing legacy infrastructure with digital tech 2022 must see the complete uprooting of the ‘press 1’ tree of frustration that is IVR. With accelerated investment across channels such as webchat, SMS and WhatsApp, investment in voice and call experiences is sorely lacking. Reliance on mazes of IVR routing often fails to provide the solutions needed. We are already seeing forward-thinking organisations enhancing the voice experience through next-level IVA (intelligent virtual agents) technologies that shift away from poor, legacy IVR technology and into a natural language, conversational experience underpinned by AI (Artificial Intelligence). It’s time to embrace seamless customer experiences powered by modern technologies and consign frustrating IVR experiences, bogged down in obsolete technology, to the bin. 2. Empowering human agents with intelligent automation AI has been slow to realise its potential while organisations have been asking what it can actually deliver in the CX arena, and how. We are beginning to see how AI capabilities can holistically impact the entire customer journey and are now at a point where we can entrust a ’digital workforce’ of intelligent virtual agents, underpinned by AI to deliver experiences for us. With practical AI beginning to crystallise, we’ll see customer service increasingly powered not only by humans who have rich data and insight at hand but by digital agents that can also respond to many requests intelligently. We will see more organisations seeking to harness AI to enable a digital workforce of intelligent automation while empowering ‘real-life’ customer experience agents to deliver that ever-vital human touch. 3. Shifting from siloed customer data to boundaryless data access In the next 12 months, organisations that want to exercise innovation must focus on ending data silos and embracing boundaryless and secure access to data across their systems. Opportunities for automation, AI, ML and even some of the most basic insights are being lost due to the continued siloing of data. This can even go beyond stamping out internal silos, to embracing a decentralised data link approach, leveraging technologies like blockchain, and using cloud-based AI services by vendors. 4. Enabling empathy-driven customer experiences With supply chain issues lingering there must be a continued focus on empathy as part of the customer experience, with clear and regular communication, flexibility and understanding. Sticking to rigid returns policies at a time like this won’t serve anyone. Levelling up, this can mean offering customers personalised options when disruption does hit, for example, would a customer be happy to accept a different model if it meant it came sooner? Technology can help identify opportunities and deliver feedback on how that flexibility was received, helping to power the next experience for the next customer. 5. Cloud ubiquity to underpin personalised CX Without widespread cloud adoption, none of the previous innovations will be realised. 2022 will see the advancement towards cloud ubiquity enabling smarter, more powerfully personalised customer experiences. The benefits of cloud adoption are myriad: flexibility, reliability, agility. Both smaller organisations and large enterprises are moving to cloud models to take advantage of the latest technologies powering application development, such as We will see more organisations harnessing AI to enable a digital workforce of intelligent automation while empowering ‘real-life’ customer experience agents to deliver that ever-vital human touch. data centre trends of tomorrow www.networkseuropemagazine.com 19Next >