TOP STORIES #81

Did you Know?

The First One was published in TOP STORIES #80 - It's a very interesting story!

The Next one Will be Published in TOP STORIES #82 Next week

Hardware

Intel beats Apple's battery life

Battery life is a big deal, and it looks like Intel's new Lunar Lake CoPilot+ capable CPUs are going to give Apple a good go. Intel has completely redesigned its CPUs, including dropping Hyperthreading and prioritising efficient cores.

Time will tell if Intel can match Apple in terms of performance and battery life in the real world but it does look like the gap with Apple is starting to narrow. You can read more here and even more detail from Techradar here.

Planning your notebook refresh is getting really complicated, and thus it is so important that you Contact your First Technology account manager to engage our Hardware specialists to help make the correct decision based on what is available in South Africa.

Microsoft

O365E1 Plus available 1 October

Microsoft has announced that this special flavour of O365E1 is available. It adds additional security and management features and is, of course, available with and without Teams. Pricing and SKU details will be available for Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia on October 1, 2024 and only for customers willing to purchase between 100 and 2400 licenses. The official Microsoft announcement is here. The Microsoft FAQ is here. You can read more in the partner centre here (scroll to the bottom).

Please check in with your First Technology licensing account manager to see if this special SKU interests you. However, note that it is only effective from 1 October.

Dynamics Licensing Guide updated

The guide has been updated on page 31 that confirms the Sales CoPilot is a rebrand of Viva Sales (see last entry on the table), and the Trials and Support information section on page 58 has been cleaned up. You can download the Licensing guide here.

Please ask your First Technology account manager to connect you with our Dynamics specialists to help with any aspects of Dynamics Licensing - it can get quite murky, and a refresh can be useful, especially when it comes to Microsoft’s tendency to rename products.

Python Add-on for Excel

Microsoft has announced the Python Add-on for Excel, enabling users to access Python analytics directly from Excel. Python in Excel brings the power of Python analytics into Excel. You type Python directly into a cell, the Python calculations run in the Microsoft cloud, and your results are returned to the worksheet. Microsoft’s introduction to Python in Excel is here, and the product terms are here.

Note that this is an ADD-ON!

Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our specialists to discuss how you can take advantage of this new capability for your business.

WSUS is now EOL

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is now deprecated but current functionality will be maintained.

Going forward, businesses should adopt cloud-based solutions for client and server updates, such as Windows Autopatch, Microsoft Intune, and Azure Update Manager – you can read more about this announcement here.

Please talk to your First Technology account manager to connect you with our security and hardware deployment specialists about your plans to migrate to new services that will replace the vulnerable WSUS.

Microsoft also goes Nuclear

This news is all over the internet. Microsoft has signed a deal to get over 800MW of power for it’s datacenters. We will see all the big players such as Amazon, Google etc… all joining the rush to secure environmentally friendly power to feed increasingly hungry datacenters. It is incidentally interesting that a company backed by Bill Gates has started construction of a new type of “affordable” Nuclear Power station.

Security

New Ransomware group effective in record time

This group has only been operating since February, and the NSA is already issuing warnings. Attacks are increasingly sophisticated and executed faster than ever. See this article from KnowBe4.

It is critical to always be alert for attacks and to do your best to ensure that your users are trained to spot the latest phishing attacks.

Please talk to your First Technology account manager to connect you with our specialists to show you what options you have for training your users to be more adept at spotting dodgy emails!

Cloud & AI

Public cloud breaking your Piggy Bank? Private Cloud cheaper?

After the initial excitement for cloud services, many organisations are reassessing their value, with over a third finding that cloud transitions have caused them to cough up financial blood.

A report from Civo, a UK-based cloud company, reveals that over a third of organisations feel their cloud transition did not meet financial expectations.

Rising electricity and tech support costs from public cloud providers are driving higher bills. Of course, The Register has it's own opinion on this.

The hybrid cloud model combines on-premise, private, and public cloud solutions and is increasingly seen as the optimal approach which we advocate.

FirstNet, First Technology Group’s Datacentre & infrastructure division offers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), providing fully managed private cloud solutions that reduce capital expenditure.

This enables businesses to focus on growth with services hosted in the right place—not always the public cloud!

OpenAI is not better than CoPilot; You just using it wrong

According to research from Microsoft, the disparity is due to a lack of prompt engineering practices.

Microsoft has launched the CoPilot Academy, which is broadly available to Businesses with CoPilot licenses. The academy's goal is to help businesses learn best practices for interacting with CoPilot. You can read more about this announcement here.

The Microsoft announcement and how you get access to CoPilot Academy is here.

What is paramount is making sure your environment is secured and ready for CoPilot to be let loose so you can start experimenting with it. An interesting article about the importance of experimenting is here.

Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our security specialists to help ensure your environment is ready.

What's up at FTG

BUI builds Security Solution to enable client to grow internationally

BUI, First Technology Group award-winning security division, played a crucial role in helping Omniscient expand globally by providing expert support in cloud architecture and data security.

By leveraging Microsoft's Azure platform, BUI enabled Omnisient to scale rapidly while ensuring compliance with international data privacy regulations.

The partnership not only helped Omnisient streamline operations but also set them up for future growth and success on a global scale. This collaboration showcases BUI’s dedication to empowering businesses with leading technology solutions.

CoPilot Security Demo

BUI, FTG's security division, is now able to present CoPilot for Security information-sharing sessions, workshops and demos. Please contact your First Tech Group account manager to make arrangements to attend, or you can request a session here.

What does a World Class SoC look like and how does it work?

You are invited to book a tour of one of our SoC (Security Operations Center) nodes (and there are still parts we can't show you). You can book for the tour here.

BUI blog - 3rd Video Available

FTG's Azure and security division, BUI, has launched a blog focused on Security—what's new, what changed, and what you need to do to maintain a good security posture. This one, however, is about a game that Dirk learnt about while attending Black Hat in Vegas.

All BUI videos have been moved to one YouTube channel, which you can find here.

The Security Blog Video #003 is now available to view here.

This video introduces you to KC7 - a Cyberdetective game!:

Movies

Private School Holidays: 21 September to 8 October 2024

Public School Holidays: 21 September to 30 September 2024

Heritage Day: 24 September 2024

Now Playing: Never Let Go

Now Playing: Greedy People

Now Playing: Wild Robot

Now Playing: Bad Genius

27 September: Bagman

27 September: Transformers One

27 September: Lee

27 September: Panda Bear in Africa

27 September: Devra Part 1

27 September: Hellboy: Crooked Man