Koch Industries Embraces Networking as a Service Delivered Via Alkira

Koch Industries, Inc., an American multinational corporation, has joined a growing list of organizations and enterprises where the IT organization is evolving to become a general manager of IT that is consumed as a service rather than being built on platforms that are maintained by an internal IT team. With this shift, even Koch Industries, which encompasses cloud platforms and network services, is starting to rely on interconnect.

Rather than securing, deploying, and maintaining routers and firewalls to deliver enterprise-class networking services, the company is becoming economically efficient to consume networking services like any other cloud service. Akira, a provider of wide-area network (WAN) service to Koch Industries, has constructed Alkira Cloud Services Exchange (CSX) using $76 million it raised from Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) to aggregate multiple points-of-presence provisioned through a console that Alkira customers access as a cloud service.

The decision made by Koch Industries to employ the Alkira networking service is part of a more extensive series of initiatives. The Alkira approach eliminates the need to acquire networking infrastructure and hire specialists to maintain it. Koch Industries is now primarily focusing on its internal resources on building applications that make a strategic difference in the networking sector. The company aims to elevate the role of an internal IT organization.

 

Northvolt Partners With Fluence to Develop Grid-Scale Battery Storage Technology

 

Northvolt, a battery gigafactory startup, has stated that it will form a partnership with Fluence, an energy storage technology provider, to develop next-generation battery technology for grid-scale storage applications. The co-development of grid storage technology will draw on Fluence's long-standing experience in the sector. It has already been the space for almost a decade as AES Energy Storage. It has since gone on to become one of the leading players in the energy storage system integration and technology space.

This partnership between Northvolt and Fluence will see them developing battery hardware and battery management systems (BMS) optimized for energy storage solutions. Both the companies aim to lower the cost of energy storage using digital intelligence integrated into the full battery lifecycle. As grid-scale energy storage will play a crucial role in transforming energy storage, this partnership will deliver technology with significant societal and environmental benefits.

Both the companies have stated that as part of the agreement, Fluence will also buy batteries produced by Northvolt, which aims to produce 150GWh of cells annually by 2030. This deal will help Fluence avoid potential pitfalls for its rivals in the stationary energy storage system (ESS) industry. Northvolt has also said that it intends to have the most sustainably produced batteries of its manufacturer, which could help its ESS partner meet growing requirements.

 

Bitcoin Price Slumps 14 percent days after reaching an all-time high

The price of Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, tumbled over the weekend and was down as much as 14 percent from record highs posted by the popular cryptocurrency in the past week.  Bitcoin dropped as low as $52,148.98 on Sunday morning after reaching an all-time high above $64,800 on Wednesday, according to CoinDesk. It was the last trading, just over $55,795.

Other cryptocurrencies like ether and dogecoin also took a hit over the weekend. The price of ether, the second-biggest token by market value, dropped as much as 18% and fell below $2,000 on Sunday before more recently trading at over $2,150. Meanwhile, dogecoin, which soared more than 400% at one point last week and hit an all-time high of 45 cents, dropped as low as 24 cents this weekend.

The cryptocurrencies hit record highs this past week. Despite those record prices, some investors have been concerned that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are experiencing a bubble. Many cryptocurrency markets operate 24/7, setting the stage for price swings at unpredictable hours. Historically, retail and day traders have driven the moves.

 

 

Ioxt Alliance Expands Its Compliance Program to Mobile Apps and VPNs to Increase Transparency

The ioXt Alliance, in a recent announcement, has stated that it will expand its ioXt compliance program with a brand new mobile application profile which will have added requirements for virtual private networks (VPN) applications. The ioXt alliance compliance program partners with some global leading compliance and governance companies such as NowSecure, NCC Group, DEKRA, Onward Security, and 7layersto set new security standards for the mobile app and VPN markets.

The company aims to bring transparency and visibility to consumer and enterprise buyers to provide advanced security in the IoT sector. Besides, expanding the ioXt certification program into the mobile application platform protects the data from potential security risks. This initiative, led by mobile security pioneer NowSecure, will enable automatic scans of all applications submitted through the Certification Portal.

The ioXT compliance program will make the internet a safe place to safeguard all important data and VPNs' reputation. The program ensures users can safely avoid risks and can enjoy the digital safety consortium. This program will also provide consumers more control and confidence in choosing solutions for protecting themselves and their organizations online. It sets baseline security requirements for a safer and more secure IoT world.

 

Styra launches new compliance packs to bridge the gap between security and DevOps teams

Styra, Inc., leaders in cloud-native authorization have stated that they will launch new compliance packs for its Declarative Authorization Service (DAS), which will include MITRE ATT&CK® Matrix primarily for Enterprise and CIS Kubernetes Benchmarks, to ease the collaboration between security and DevOps teams. These two turnkey compliance products will consist of best practices from the OPA community.

Styra created OPA, an open-source project, to provide unified authorization across the cloud-native stack that enables DevOps teams to operationalize OPA in production. Besides, Styra DAS provide security, operations, and compliance guardrails to protect the infrastructure they run on. Its policy compliance packs help fasten Kubernetes adoption, reduce time spent configuring policies from scratch, and reduce delays and risk resulting from human error

As organizations embrace the cloud, and embark upon their digital transformation journeys, IT teams must focus on breaking down silos and streamlining procedures to address the new operational and compliance challenges of cloud-native environments. Styra DAS compliance packs reduces the need for IT and DevOps teams to research identify and implement baseline policies. It also offers robust compliance services to organization present across the globe.

 

 

Salesforce to reopen its office headquarters located in San Francisco this May

In a recent announcement, Salesforce, Inc., an American cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management services, has stated that it will reopen its San Francisco-based headquarters this May. However, the employees can still work remotely throughout 2021. Company president and Chief People Officer Brent Hyder have said that the company would decide how and when to reopen each location based on guidance from health officials and medical experts.

The company has also stated that it will open its offices in Palo Alto and Irvine, California, and more in the coming months. Regardless of whether a local office is reopened or not, the company will extend the option to all its employees to continue working from home till December 31, 2021. The company has planned a phased reopening stage; thereby, the offices will gradually reopen from 20 percent to 75 percent capacity, depending on the Covid data rating.

At this stage, the company will allow both vaccinated and non-vaccinated employees to work with them, and they will continue to follow safety protocols and provide testing when required. To date, 17 Salesforce offices are open globally and most of which are in the Asia Pacific.