Enterprise tech happenings: August 2023

Enterprise tech happenings: August 2023

Digital Realty announces a new cooling tower initiative

Digital Realty announced a new cooling tower initiative at its SIN10 data centre that aims to pioneer new levels of water conservation and efficiency in its data centres in Singapore. This initiative is the first of its kind to be implemented in Singapore’s data centre industry. Employing a process known as DCI electrolysis, Digital Realty eliminated the use of chemicals to treat blow-down water discharge – water that is drained from cooling equipment to remove mineral build-up – from the cooling towers in its chiller systems.

This allowed Digital Realty to triple the number of times the same pool of water can be used at its SIN10 cooling towers before it is discharged as wastewater, resulting in 1.24 million litres of water saved monthly. Since the implementation of DCI electrolysis in February, Digital Realty has reduced monthly blow-down water discharge at SIN10 by 90%. Water usage efficiency (WUE) at SIN10 has improved by 15%, besting the Singapore Public Utilities Board’s industry benchmark of 2.6 Cu.m/MWh for data centres by 30%.

QNAP’s new six-bay NAS comes with AI-powered video and image recognition applications

QNAP’s new TS-AI642-8G six-bay NAS is powered by a 64-bit ARM Cortex-A76/-A55 SoC octa-core processor with up to 6 TOPS NPU (Neural network Processing Unit), 8GB of RAM, and an ARM Mali-G610 MC4 graphic processor.

This helps accelerate AI image recognition, surveillance video analysis, and smart surveillance applications. Users can achieve a 200% performance boost in AI image recognition in QuMagie photo management, significant performance boosts in capturing text in images with AI OCR in Qsirch full-text search engine, and increase cameras for real-time analytics in QVR Face Insight facial recognition and the QVR Human people counting solution. The TS-AI642 is a professional Surveillance NAS, allowing you to install QVR Elite to deploy 2 free channels or up to 64 channels through purchasing additional licences. With its dual-port HDMI, users can play and switch between multi-channel videos on two monitors.

The TS-AI642-8G is available in Singapore at S$1,500 from Convergent Systems and comes with a three-year limited warranty.

Local businesses not using AI as an excuse to replace staff

A study released by SS&C Blue Prism shows that despite negative headlines about generative AI taking over people’s jobs, businesses in Singapore are turning to automation to support their workforce and better serve their customers, rather than cutting jobs, with 77% of local businesses are likely to make changes to their business model to contest the challenging economic climate today, only 18% said they will look to reduce the size of their workforce. More than two in five (44%) decision-makers say the primary use of automation is to remove repetitive tasks so that workers can focus on more valuable work.

Singapore leads the way in online privacy and cybersecurity awareness

According to new research by NordVPN, Singaporeans are first in the world in terms of cybersecurity and Internet privacy knowledge. However, results show that the world’s online privacy and cybersecurity awareness is declining every year.

Research showed that Singaporeans are good at creating strong passwords (98%) and know-how devices get infected with malware (94%). They also know what kind of sensitive data they should avoid sharing on social media (93%), or how to deal with suspicious streaming service offers (91%). However, only 8% of Singaporeans are knowledgeable about online tools that protect digital privacy, and only one out of 10 know what data ISPs collect as part of the metadata.

The annual National Privacy Test (NPT) is a global survey aimed to evaluate people’s cybersecurity, and online privacy awareness, and educate the general public about cyber threats and the importance of data and information security in the digital age. It gathered 26,174 responses from 175 countries this year.

Zyxel unleashes a trio of cloud-ready networking products for SMBs

Zyxel Networks has unveiled a trio of cloud-based networking solutions that are designed to be cost-effective, dependable high-speed Wi-Fi solutions for small businesses: the SCR 50AXE Tri-band Wi-Fi 6E Secure Cloud-managed Router, NWA90AX 802.11ax Dual-Radio PoE Access Point, and GS1915 GbE Smart Managed Switch.

The SCR 50AXE Cloud-managed Router combines security, Wi-Fi 6E technology, and cloud management in one affordable device. It comes with best-in-class security out of the box, with no extra subscription or licensing costs. It is also cloud-native, allowing even non-IT staff to seamlessly manage connectivity and security via the Nebula app.

The NWA90AX Access Point ensures SMBs of any size can enjoy the game-changing benefits of WiFi 6, including faster speeds in crowded areas, wider ranges, and greater IoT capacity. The user-friendly design means it can be installed, configured, and managed easily by any employee.

The GS1915 Smart Managed Switch continues the theme of simplicity without compromise. Its effortless deployment and easy-to-use interface make it ideal for SMBs looking to maximise efficiency without the need for dedicated IT teams.

The  SCR 50AXE, NWA90AX, GS1915 are priced at S$399, S$249, and S$379 respectively from Insiro Pte Ltd.