IT organizations have been working hard for the last 20 years developing and updating their Disaster Recovery Plans.  An effective DR plan included strategy for remote working, oftentimes presumed to be caused by a local geographical constrained issue around an office or area. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has global impact and the most readily felt impact on many IT departments pertains to physical distancing.  This includes resources not able to travel to the office, supply chains being disrupted and business processes being changed.  IT departments and organizations that are further along the digital transformation journey are likely to be less negatively impacted by COVID-19.

With the drastic changes that our society has felt on a global scale since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's no secret that a 'new normal' is materializing in real time. Organizations have had to rapidly adapt to remote working models on a moment's notice. This change has also inadvertently created a haven for hackers to take full advantage of potentially vulnerabe systems and unsuspecting workers with a significant rise in phishing and ransomware attacks with rhetoric related to COVID-19 as the primary hook to lure people in. We published a post a few years on what to look out for in the event of a ransomware attack and the precautions are no different today.  

AI has evolved significantly in the last few years with many organizations already strategically integrating it into their business model. With AI being accessible to businesses of all sizes, how can organizations put it into practice?

In theory, the power of AI and machine learning (ML) can make great things possible, but theory is not enough. To learn and realize the full merit of these technologies, they need to be tried and tested in an actual production environment.

A November 2019 survey by Gartner suggests that more organizations are moving towards an adaptable, change-ready culture, which is a positive sign.

Let’s face it: we live in a digitally-driven world where we are constantly surrounded by increasing cyber security vulnerabilities and hackers waiting in the wings to make their next move.

This past May, Red Hat released version 8 of its flagship platform Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It’s been 5 years since the last major release and there are exciting new features that make version 8 the best Linux to run your business on. I'm going to examine some of these features such as portability, AppStreams, and a web-based management tool to make the transition to Linux much easier.

Traditional wide area network (WAN) design – with its myriad of devices, disparate WAN links and siloed management – is increasingly becoming a thing of the past. The reality is, traditional WAN is too costly and cumbersome to meet the needs of today’s digitally-driven businesses.

Were you one of the 90,000 Canadians whose data was stolen when two Canadian banks were recently hacked? 

Even if you weren’t, you can probably imagine the distress it caused – not just to the victims, but also to those at the banks responsible for safeguarding customer data and enterprise systems. Yes, the banks acted swiftly to launch investigations and enhance online security measures, but what could have been done to prevent the hack from happening in the first place?

Now that we’re a month into the new year, it’s time to take a look at the top technology trends most likely to disrupt business in 2019 and beyond. Some of these trends are a continuation of what we experienced in 2018, while others are exciting new developments. Here are our top five:

As technology continues to evolve and with the integration of AI frameworks, the complexity of managing a businesses’ IT infrastructure has significantly increased. Facing this reality, one of the biggest challenges many businesses face is the proper management of their IT environment to ensure smooth and seamless operations.

IBM has had a long-standing relationship with Linux and has been a big supporter of the operating system for a long time. In 2001, they invested $1 billion in support of the Linux community. IBM is also a large contributor of code updates to the Linux kernel and other open source projects. Because of this support, Linux has been able to run on all IBM systems from an entry level Intel based server all the way up to the zSeries mainframe.