In the past few days, Office 365 issued exciting updates that will augment the user experience and offer better protection from cyberattacks. Microsoft has introduced new security features for the Home and Personal versions of Office 365, added some new SharePoint and Excel features, and introduced a brand-new Multi-Geo feature.

Office 365 now comes with file protection and email encryption

In a move that will make many users happy, Microsoft announced more advanced protection capabilities for Home and Personal Office 365 suites. Several new features have been included, such as OneDrive Files Restore, which has been extended from the Business package to the personal one.

Additionally, Office 365 can now also detect ransomware more effectively and restore OneDrive to a point before files were compromised, mitigating the risk of cyberattacks. Lastly, Microsoft will also start encrypting all emails sent through its platform, providing better security when sharing information through email.

New features in SharePoint and Excel

New features to SharePoint and Excel were added at the end of last month. Microsoft announced that SharePoint Online users can now include Yammer conversations into a SharePoint page or news site, and they can also check out a preview of the new Admin Centre that will be officially rolled out around May/June.

Microsoft is also planning to include cloud-connected data types in Excel, which will use artificial intelligence to enhance data sources within a spreadsheet.

Introducing Multi-Geo

Office 365 now offers Multi-Geo capabilities, which allows IT admins to transfer Office 365 user data across multiple data centre geographies, as well as allowing them to set up of specific sharing and configuration policies for each geographical region. However, Multi-Geo is currently only being offered to customers that have a minimum of 5,000 users. This new feature is currently only available for Exchange Online and OneDrive.

Asia is by far one of the most exciting and dynamic markets for the gaming industry, so a world-renowned gaming expo such as G2E Asia is definitely one not to be missed. This summit is widely regarded as the marketplace for the Asian gaming and entertainment industry, and BMIT will be present this year alongside other industry key players.

What’s in store at G2E Asia 2018

G2E Asia debuted in June 2007, and it is organised annually by the American Gaming Association (AGA) and Reed Exhibitions. In just a decade, this expo has become the leading industry event in the Asian market, allowing professionals to network, discuss innovations, share ideas, and exchange experiences on this dynamic industry.

As with every year, G2E Asia welcomes over 95% of all Asian casino operators, who convene in Macau to network and conduct business. This offers the perfect access point for European investors and operators who want to tap into the Asian market.

Who should attend G2E Asia?

While this expo is primarily geared towards companies and businesses operating in East Asian countries, the event is open to everyone from all over the world.

Any company that engages in the gaming and entertainment industry is invited to attend, as G2E Asia is the perfect place to showcase new gaming products and cutting-edge services. BMIT will proudly be attending G2E Asia 2018, where we will be showcasing our latest solutions for data hosting, cloud computing, and managed IT services.

Gaming operators are highly encouraged to attend this incredible industry event in Macau, and while you’re there we definitely suggest visiting our stand at the expo. Get in touch with us to set up a free consultation to explore how our services can help your organisation become more efficient and secure.

2018 is gearing up to be a very exciting year for IT business seeking to up their game in the global market.

With new advancements on the horizon, including better cloud solutions, AI software, and integrated IT systems, companies are moving towards IT-centric operations that increase overall efficiency and performance.

IT governance a top priority as report shows 96% of US enterprises use cloud solutions

Cloud computing has practically become the norm for enterprises, with more than 96 percent making use of it in some way or another. However, it looks like more companies are moving away from hybrid cloud solutions to multi-cloud landscapes that are spread across multiple service providers. Private clouds options still dominate the choice for companies when compared to public clouds, but the latter seem to be on the rise.

Read more about the rise of cloud based solutions here.

Are AI and machine learning the next frontier for data centres?

With further advancements in artificial intelligence, the role of humans in business is very close to becoming obsolete - or is it? Data centres are increasingly becoming more self-sufficient and machine learning, a subset of AI, is on the path to change the game completely. Most equipment such as UPSs and cooling units make use of AI in order to manage how the equipment operates as conditions change, but the concept is currently being touted towards more advanced data centres.

Companies to spend $12.3 bn on IT integrated systems in 2018

Companies all around the world are always trying their best to improve performance and efficiency while increasing profit. One of the ways of achieving this is through an integrated IT system, which are rapidly increasing in popularity. Such integrated systems readily replace existing infrastructure, but IT organisations still need to analyse how savings on capital expenditure (capex) can be offset by expected shifts in operating expenditure (opex).

I have been reading a lot about the Multicloud approach recently.

Multicloud, put simply, is the use of multiple cloud computing and storage services in a single heterogeneous architecture

Care should be drawn in noting the difference between Multicloud and Hybrid cloud – the latter being the use of differing cloud deployment methods (e.g. Public/Private)

Multicloud isn’t as simple as its definition on Wikipedia however. Are you looking at different providers for different services, or are you seeking to reduce your reliance on a single provider? Are you deploying your applications or workloads across two providers and load-balancing in an active-active configuration, or are you using a second provider as backup in an active-passive deployment?

Are your chosen providers global heavyweights, with economies of scale offering every service imaginable, or local, regional providers with greater emphasis on integration and personalised service? A mix of both?

The choices may seem legion when looking at Multicloud. Opting to quote Jean-Paul Sartre and resisting the urge to go with Irvine Welsh (“Choose Life…”  think Iggy Pop) was itself a choice, made mostly for format reasons rather than relevance of content, but the implication is the same – the choices that you make, define the outcome of your situation.

When your business relies on its technology, decisions must be made not because something looks nice (à la JPS vs IggyP) but be made based upon being informed, understanding the options, the costs, the potential benefits and conversely the possible pitfalls.

Some of the key considerations you face are:

Finally and above all, opting to engage multiple cloud providers and launch a Multicloud strategy is all about choice.

Choose to be informed, choose a plan, choose a… wait, are you humming Iggy Pop yet?

dum dum dum , duh duh de duh de duh

Visit us at bmit.com.mt, for details on our Cloud Services, Cloud Connectivity, Managed Services and for more information on the BMIT Cloud - for scalability, flexibility, simplicity and security.

Cloud technology is experiencing an ever-increasing rise in popularity among businesses. Many more companies are shifting their IT infrastructure towards an operational expenditure model rather than a capital one. This allows for a more accurate prediction of what aspects of storage services a company will need, and customise accordingly by way of scalable models.

As 2017 has come to a close, some global trends among these businesses adopting cloud technology are starting to surface. Here we’ll be looking at a number of these trends as we anticipate their surge in relevancy in 2018.

With the advent of Software as a Service (SaaS) models paving the way for businesses to get a good feel for cloud technology, other services including both infrastructure and platform (IaaS and PaaS) eventually joined the roster. BMIT was quick to take the lead and implement the latest service technologies including hybrid cloud and multicloud connect.

Hybrid cloud puts together the best of both worlds of private and public cloud technology. This implies that businesses adopting this model will get to enjoy the scalability and cost effectiveness of the public cloud while sidestepping security vulnerability issues thanks to private cloud technology.

Multicloud technology connects businesses with a slew of global leading public clouds, and BMIT stand in as a mediating point through a private connection and a resilient international network. This technology allows businesses to make use of cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud while reducing latency and improving security.

Back in 2016, Cisco carried out a survey forecasting that cloud services would receive a boost in 2018 in terms of worldwide distribution. SaaS looks set to increase by 60 per cent, while PaaS is estimated to increase by five per cent with IaaS also predicted to notably increase as well.

Considering all models’ remarkable performance in 2017, Cisco’s estimation for the next year looks to be on track.

One feature that will surely increase in parallel with the number of businesses implementing cloud technology, is space for data storage. In order to meet the demand, more online data centres will handle this with equipment that can shoulder larger storage capacity. Referring back to the Cisco survey, the total global storage capacity that currently clocks in at 600 million terabytes will be almost doubled in 2018 as it will reach 1.1 billion terabytes. With this demand spike in mind, we at BMIT are consistently upgrading our cloud service’s storage capabilities.

Forward-thinking businesses adopting cloud technology will be able to take advantage of data centres’ incentive to boost storage. If we look at businesses working with large quantities of data, besides utilising increased storage room, it will become easier for them to perform analytics and gather insight into customer tendencies, popular systems, and optimal financial investment models.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has continued to capture the attention of experts in the field, alongside developments in artificial intelligence. With cloud technology further strengthening its position and technology for real-time data analytics progressing, the Internet of Everything (IoE) becomes more effective. IoE garners its data through machine-to-machine interfaces, data processing, and through interactions between humans and the environment. As IoE’s analytical processes become more complex, cloud storage will allow for this to be carried out more efficiently. In turn, this will translate to an improved interaction between humans and networked devices as well as between humans themselves.

The growth in data and storage technology as well as the increasing complexity by which data is processed begs for improved internet connectivity in terms of speed and resilience.

Both individual customers and businesses have raised the bar for their expectations in this matter. Businesses will act quickly to upgrade their SaaS, PaaS, as well as website platforms to be more responsive. Service providers for IoT and IoE will also ensure that clients receive and send data even faster.

The truth is that growth in these technologies is a double-edged sword. 2017 goes down in the books as the one with most cybersecurity attacks, and one of the main targets remains cloud infrastructure. It is a no-brainer to expect an increase in such malicious activity next year.

Cyber-attacks have become much more sophisticated, requiring entities in the public and private sector to act with stronger awareness and better technology, all in a timely fashion to detect and buffer these attacks. Tools such as security information and event management (SIEM) and improved malware detection systems are bound to become the standard within many businesses.

With such trends in sight, it’s becoming clearer that cloud technology has established itself as an integral part in data management and IT infrastructure, both by businesses of different sizes as well as individual users. Knowledge of these upcoming trends may prove to be the key to success. Informed implementation, then, will allow us to stay at the forefront of these technologies, and therefore business, as they both evolve hand in hand.

The two most well-known types of cloud computing are the public cloud and the private cloud.

A public cloud is one that is entirely operated by a third party. Your data is stowed away in a remote server, and all software and hardware necessary for the operation are handled and owned by the provider.

While the architecture of a private cloud may not be worlds apart from its public counterpart, the main difference is that the server is reserved exclusively for your business. The data centre may be on location at your business or kept by the provider.

Both iterations have their own advantages and limitations – however, providers have recognised there is demand for a combination of these traits. This is where the hybrid cloud comes into play. A hybrid cloud gives you the best of both the public and the private cloud worlds due to interlinking technology that allows transfer of data and applications between both types of servers, maximizing flexibility, scalable elasticity and methods of deployment.

Working with two interconnected servers – one public and one private – provides more than the simple ability to parse data out into different servers. It gives you the scalable elasticity and management efficiency of the public one combined with the speed, customisation, and on top of all, the security of the private one. Then, it’s just a matter of choosing which server is better suited for a particular task.

However, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with a fixed choice. Cloud bursting allows for data to be moved around across servers, especially when a spike in demand requires you to move it to a public one.

At a time when modern business ethics and expectations don’t allow for internet connection failure as a justifiable excuse, unhindered access to data allowing for business continuity is a crucial factor. This doesn’t mean that you’ll have a contingency plan in case of server failures; it simply means the ability to continue doing work even during an unprecedented disaster with no down time. By replicating data from primary servers onto a secondary remote one, such business-crippling issues can be nipped without missing a beat.

Cost is another factor many businesses take into consideration. Owning a private data centre implies capital expenditure for hardware, staffing, power, research, installation, upkeep, and maintenance, and all of this for equipment that will eventually become obsolete and need replacement.

The issue of costs extends itself to concept testing, as a hybrid cloud environment allows for prototyping and testing before actual deployment. Scaling resources is also an area for which hybrid cloud services can cut down on costs, while also increasing efficiency and the need to make predictions amidst fluctuating variables. When workloads require customised formatting and scalability of resources, hybrid clouding ratchets these settings up or down depending on the business demands, optimising the workload environment accordingly.

With hybrid cloud technology rising in popularity, both the businesses adopting this technology and the providers are turning more towards an OpEx (operating expense) funding model instead of a CapEx (capital expense) one. By opting for a SaaS (Solution as a Service) vendor such as BMIT, businesses have the option to scale the level of functionality in accordance with company growth rate, without having to invest more time and money in restructuring data management methods.

Speed of connectivity is one more key player, and business continuity mentioned earlier is but one reason. Time taken to connect with subject markets is also reduced, making it easier for your business to release tailor-made products or campaigns into the right channels in double time. Taking things one step back, even prototyping and testing we’ve touched upon earlier get an extra gear. Spinning up the right environment for application or product-testing becomes a reality thanks to hybrid cloud technology. All of this can otherwise be bogged down by unreliable public internet connections that act temperamental without forewarning.

Let’s suppose that despite the attractive features hybrid cloud technology offers, you still lean towards the public cloud option. So, which public cloud is best? How do you handle network security and resilience, and what’s the best way to configure your setup? In addition to offering a locally-hosted public cloud set-up, BMIT also offers an alternative platform designed to cater for specialised needs called multicloud connect.

Multicloud connect serves as a liaison between your business and a cluster of major public clouds, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and many more, connecting you to all of them simultaneously. It does this by running your data through BMIT’s own secure private network. It also takes care of all setup, configuration, and after-services you may require down the road. This implies improved performance, enhanced security, and lower latency thanks to the direct private connection.

We’ve only skimmed the surface of what hybrid cloud as well as multicloud connect technologies are bringing to the field of data storage and management. There is very little doubt that bespoke technologies are rising in popularity amongst businesses, and this along with individual business needs is undoubtedly nudging service providers such as BMIT to optimise and stay on top of things.

And now that you are more aware of what’s out there, it’s worth reiterating our earlier question: which cloud technology is best for you and your business?

This article was also featured on the Sunday Times of Malta

The latest issue (44) of MONEY magazine features an interview with BMIT's CEO, Christian Sammut. The cover story delves deep into how the benefits of the cloud are only one of many ways in which technology is helping the financial services sector.

For the full issue you can visit this page.

Technology has brought markets closer than one sometimes imagines and this provides an opportunity for countries like Malta to build competence and authority in key areas.

- Christian Sammut

You’re just starting out your business or are in the process of expanding it, when you’re hit with an age-old conundrum. How should your resources be prioritized to ensure optimal business growth? You can invest in the profit-generating part of your organization, such as the sales team and infrastructure, or else the supporting pillar that has to ensure the underlying systems are running smoothly and efficiently, such as the IT department. It’s a catch-22 scenario, as you need both the profit-generating and the support to complement each other; one without the other will grind the company to a halt. It’s also possible to invest in both, but that means you’re not fulfilling the full potential of each individual department.

That’s where outsourcing comes in. Outsourcing your IT department allows your business to focus less on the support pillar and more on the profit-generating aspect. While some might be skeptical about trusting such an integral part of their business to an outsider, we’ll go in detail to help you understand why outsourcing is truly the next step forward for your organization.
Cost Reduction – Through outsourcing IT, your business can convert capital expenditure/fixed costs into variable costs. Maintenance costs are also reduced, thus enabling your business to save money on overheads, which can then be further reinvested into the company.

Access to Advanced Technologies – Outsourcing allows your business to immediately gain access to the service provider’s lawww advanced technologies and capabilities. The providers have in-house expertise within their fields, therefore ensuring that the clients’ IT infrastructure is running smoothly at all times. Even in the unlikely event of technical glitches, they are fixed efficiently by on premise staff without your business being put under pressure to solve the issue itself.

Focus on your Core Business - Every business has a finite amount of resources, and every employee is constrained by time. Outsourcing can help organizations to shift their focus away from peripheral activities and towards work that serves the customer; innovation and business development. This improved focus can also help managers set their priorities better.

Level the playing field – The vast majority of SMEs simply can't afford to match the in-house support services that larger companies maintain. Outsourcing can help smaller firms to get on the same level by providing them access to the same economies of scale, efficiency, and expertise that large companies enjoy.

Reduce risk - Every business investment carries a certain amount of risk. Markets, competition, government regulations, financial conditions, and technologies can all change very quickly and unpredictably. Good quality outsourced IT service providers can manage this risk for you, and are generally more experienced at deciding how to avoid risk in their specialized areas.

With this information in mind, it is easy to see why outsourcing should be your business’ next step forward. It’s a service that scales and grows with your business while allowing it to develop at a faster rate through increased focus on the profit-generating activities. Of course, you need to find a service provider that’s qualified and trustworthy, with years of experience to back them up. We at BMIT, Malta’s largest multi-site data centre provider, offer expert managed services for your business both at your offices as well as our premises.

This article was featured on The Sunday Times of Malta

Reality check: Modern businesses rely on their digital capabilities now more than ever. Downtime has become a terrifying thing to even utter, let alone consider. This is why an effective Business Continuity Plan has become a cornerstone in every business, with IT-centric businesses being no exception. Business Continuity is all about identifying what your key products are and what you can do to ensure that business continues as usual even in the case of disruptions or catastrophes, no matter the size or cause.

In truth, Business Continuity Planning is not such an alien concept even to regular consumers. Ever planned a holiday? Whenever planning a holiday, we think of the worst case scenarios and how we can come out of them unscathed, without ruining our well-earned trip. We setup plans in case something goes wrong with our “core services” and we’re prepared for it. We search for additional taxi services in the area despite having booked a cab already, or we check for alternate routes should we rent a car. It’s never a good idea to go on a vacation unprepared for something to go wrong, and a business should be no different.

Being the largest multi-site data centre provider in Malta, we are experienced in the business of keeping our customers’ systems online at all costs. The ideal IT services provider should strive to deliver a redundant solution in every component within their setup. At BMIT, we take great care in adopting this approach, from upgrading our core infrastructure services all the way to training our technical team to adopt best-practice methods for optimal business continuity management. Improving redundancy should always be the utmost priority when it comes to introducing new products within an IT Services provider’s portfolio.

Studies show that the average total cost of unplanned application downtime per year is €1 billion to €2.5 billion for the Fortune 1000 companies. An hour of infrastructure failure costs an average of €100,000 with the number jumping fivefold to €500,000 to €1m in the case of a critical application failure; certainly not numbers to scoff at.

The digital world undergoes changes every day and it is imperative to constantly keep working to ensure that the systems are up-to-date and relevant to the present realities. The introduction of new ranges of systems and services that protect customers against common business continuity pitfalls always helps to cement the provider’s commitment to ensure the clients’ uptime.

With the world fast approaching an almost completely digitally-dependent era, the dangers of the dark side of the internet become an ever-present reality for the modern digital business. In recent years Distributed Denial of Service attacks, otherwise known as DDoS attacks, have emerged as one of the most disruptive ways in which a business can be brought down to its knees. DDoS attacks are weapons of mass disruption aimed at paralysing internet systems including networks, websites and servers, resulting in lost revenues, compromised site performance and tarnished reputations.

BMIT has had to take these dangers into consideration, especially since even ISPs can be targeted, which would put us at a risk of not being able to provide a connection for our customers. In recent years, we’ve launched a multi-tiered DDoS protection and mitigation system to protect our customers from even the most vicious of DDoS attacks.

From our experience in the industry, we learnt that best-practice is for our private network’s bandwidth needs to be sourced from multiple providers and delivered across multiple redundant links in order to eliminate the risks of our customers going offline through an outage. This setup ensures that our clients are hosted on a reliable and certified ISO27001 network which does not rely on a singular connection.

We at BMIT offer our clients various features which help ensure continuity for their business. As we’ve mentioned previously, we now have a multi-tiered DDoS protection and mitigation system protecting our redundant 40gbps private international network. This network consists of multiple geographically-separated links, each of which can take over traffic load should there be any faults in the other links.

Moreover, we have multiple data centres and international points of presence which form a key part of business continuity plans for our customers. Geo-redundancy is a critical aspect of business continuity for international customers, and our presence across countries addresses this. For example, some clients mirror their servers from one data centre to another. In addition, we also offer several backup options as well as managed services options to help our clients achieve a robust business continuity plan.

As part of our portfolio, our customers can also tap into several tools to manage their systems, including advanced firewall solutions as well as virtual load-balancing services. Ultimately, each of our redundant service offerings is a step forward in our customers’ pursuit to ensuring their business stays up in the face of disasters like outages.

Customers’ feedback is absolutely vital and should always be taken into consideration. Service providers’ good business continuity practices are consistently one of the top priorities for clients and are usually the main reason why providers with great core infrastructures for business continuity retain their customers.

This article was featured on the Sunday Times of Malta

As featured on iNTERGAMINGi issue 2/2017

At BMIT, we strive to provide our customers with a premium service and the best possible connectivity.  As Malta’s largest multi-site data centre provider, with data centre presence in Italy and Germany, BMIT provides its customers with the faswww and most secure connection out of Malta to mainland Europe. With an entirely new 40Gbps network dedicated solely to BMIT clients, and protected by a multi-tiered DDoS protection and mitigation platform, peace of mind for our customers is our top-most priority. We also work in conjunction with leading Tier 1 providers to provide best-of-breed services for our esteemed clientele.

Over the years BMIT has also established itself as Malta’s largest and most experienced IT solutions provider of services to industries who have a high dependency on being always online, such as iGaming. These investments further enhance BMIT’s leadership in the local market in this critical business segment. In fact, the majority of iGaming operators in Malta trust BMIT to keep their services up and running 24/7.

With optimal real-time performance being a critical requirement for online gaming operators, BMIT’s investment in a new private network effectively eliminated all hops up to Italy and Germany. This upgrade means that our performance is now comparable to mainland Europe service providers, while our international presence enables our clients to choose between hosting in Malta or data centres out of Malta, such as Italy and Germany. Following the deployment of this network, we have received excellent feedback from clients regarding available capacity, latency and overall performance.

While top-notch performance is crucial in a network, protecting it is equally as important for online businesses. The internet is under heavier attacks than ever. Not only are DDoS attacks on the rise, but they are also increasing in size. According to major industry players, in the first half of 2016, there was a 73% increase in peak attack size over 2015. In past years, attackers would see that a site or network was protected and just find another target instead of wasting their time on a secured setup. Nowadays, they keep their attacks up, hoping that the defences might drop. Gaming operators are not immune to this, and although there is no specific pattern of attack, we do notice increased activity around international sporting events.

BMIT provides a multi-tiered DDoS protection and mitigation service. Key elements of the solution are an upstream scrubbing centre and inline traffic analysers and scrubbers. Whereas the upstream scrubbing centre mitigates the high volume attacks, the inline scrubbers help with the monitoring and fine-detailed scrubbing and gathering of real-time information.

Upgrades to our network infrastructure were our biggest priority last year, however, to ensure that our portfolio fully addresses our ever changing customer needs, over the recent years, we have undergone a full transformation of our service offering. As a result, we have shifted ourselves from a traditional colocation and hosting provider to a fully-fledged IT solutions provider. BMIT’s services do include not only co-location and hosting but also a full suite of cloud-enabled services as well as the ability to offer our customers managed services and solutions.