APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE, IT SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
Equinix | September 21, 2022
Continuing its efforts to advance the sustainability of digital infrastructure and reach its climate neutral targets, aligned to science-based targets, by 2030, Equinix, Inc. today announced a partnership with the Centre for Energy Research & Technology (CERT) under the National University of Singapore's (NUS) College of Design and Engineering to explore technologies that enable the use of hydrogen as a green fuel source for mission-critical data center infrastructure.
Together, Equinix and CERT will launch the world's first research project to compare the efficiency of proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells and fuel-flexible linear generator technologies. PEM fuel cells are a leading contender for hydrogen energy, while fuel-flexible linear generators enable operators to easily switch between various clean fuel options including hydrogen, biogas and various renewable liquid fuels. Adoption of these technologies may allow data centers to reduce carbon emissions while meeting the rising demand for data, colocation and interconnection services.
The research collaboration between Equinix and CERT will involve a holistic assessment of the suitability of these technologies for tropical data centers, considering local climatic conditions, site constraints, power demand, supply chain, fuel storage capabilities as well as local regulatory policies.
This research initiative comes under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed earlier this year between the two partners. Under the MOU, CERT will conduct a comprehensive analysis of technologies identified in collaboration with Equinix, to determine the operational viability of the technologies at scale. Based on the results of the research, Equinix expects to develop proof-of-concept projects within its global network of data centers for real-world testing and to support incorporation into future data center designs. By driving innovation in Singapore, the Equinix and CERT partnership aims to accelerate disruptive technologies that can reduce the carbon footprint of global data centers, particularly in tropical locations.
This partnership forms part of Equinix's Future First strategy that underscores the company's commitment to greening the digital economy. Green hydrogen has been identified as a viable source of sustainable energy for data centers. However, hydrogen generation on an industrial scale remains several years away from being commercially viable, making it imperative to assess and adopt alternatives even as global research and development continues.
"Data centers serve as the conduit powering the digital economy, and greening their operations can drive the rise of sustainable business throughout the broader economic landscape. Working with like-minded partners like the Centre for Energy Research & Technology at NUS empowers us with the combined experience and expertise to advance the growth of digital economies in line with environmental obligations, benefiting the data center industry, global economies, and the planet."
Yee May Leong, Managing Director, South Asia, Equinix
Associate Professor Lee Poh Seng, Director, Centre for Energy Research and Technology, NUS College of Design and Engineering
"Sustainability is a key pillar of the global economy. To complement the efforts made by the public sector, timely progress also requires collaboration with stakeholders in the private sector and academia. We are keen to work with industry partners like Equinix, which is known for its sustainability efforts and provides us access to a global network of data centers that can serve as a testbed for a more accurate assessment of operational viability. Through this partnership, we look forward to playing a driving role for green data center innovations that can be applied in Singapore and globally."
Reaffirming Equinix's commitment to creating a more sustainable future for the environment, the company has been recognized with a host of sustainability awards across the Asia-Pacific region. In 2022, Equinix was named Asia's Green Company of the Year at the Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability Awards, the Singapore Data Centre Services Company of the Year by Frost & Sullivan, and received the Green Innovation Award under the MNC Category at the 2022 Singapore Environmental Achievement Awards.
Highlights / Key Facts:
Under this partnership, Equinix and NUS CERT will be conducting a comprehensive analysis to compare two clean on-site power generation technologies for data centers of the future. These technologies include:
PEM fuel cells are becoming increasingly popular due to their ability to generate power with hydrogen and oxygen. Some designs can also run the process in reverse to produce pure hydrogen for future use with just water and electricity.
Fuel-flexible linear generators offer the ability to switch between fuels like hydrogen, biogas and various renewable liquid fuels, enabling the installation of infrastructure that can be easily adapted to evolving market developments, empowering organizations with enhanced agility.
Equinix was the first in the data center industry to commit to becoming climate neutral, aligned to approved science-based targets, for emissions reduction across global operations and supply chain by 2030. In addition, Equinix continues to evaluate for on-site solar opportunities, onsite generation from fuel cells, and any other distributed low-carbon technology that fits with its overall strategy.
Equinix's renewable energy coverage has been over 90% since 2018. In 2021, the company achieved 95% renewable energy coverage. Year-over-year, Equinix has increased our procurement of renewables by 16% on a GWh-basis.
Earlier this year, Equinix announced the opening of its first Co-Innovation Facility (CIF), located in its DC15 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center at the Equinix Ashburn Campus in the Washington, D.C. area. The CIF is a component of its Data Center of the Future Initiative and is a new capability that enables innovative partners to work with Equinix on trialing and developing methodologies that may be used to help define the future of digital infrastructure and services.
About Equinix
Equinix is the world's digital infrastructure company. Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.
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APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE, IT SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
ConsenSys | September 17, 2022
Infura, the world's leading Web3 API provider from ConsenSys with more than 430,000 developers globally, today announced its plan to launch a Decentralized Infrastructure Network to complement the existing offering.
The decentralized protocol will be a community of highly engaged infrastructure providers participating in an open source ecosystem that can together overcome the limitations of the existing marketplace. The decentralized protocol will exemplify the promise of Web3, ensuring that millions of future users across the world can seamlessly access the information and services they need without outages and downtime due to a single point of failure. It is planned to be launched in the first half of 2023.
The demand for decentralized alternatives to the world's current centralized systems and services continues to grow quickly. Data hacks and outages in the status quo hurt users. Decentralizing access to blockchain APIs is a vital step to improve network uptime and importantly, give people sovereignty of their personal data.
“Decentralization has always been the overarching goal of ConsenSys. Now that we are seeing natural product market fit, our product teams are decentralizing what we do and how we do it. A Decentralized Infrastructure Network via Infura is the natural continuation of that goal,” said Joseph Lubin, CEO of ConsenSys.
Providing a more decentralized option
Infura launched its service in 2016 with the goal of reducing friction for Web3 developers and simplifying access to the Ethereum and IPFS networks. Since then, Infura’s Ethereum API has enabled over 430,000 developers to build products ranging from blockchain-based games, decentralized finance applications, NFT marketplaces, and DAOs. Infura provides the core infrastructure backend for popular Web3 products such as MetaMask, the Ethereum Name Service, and Layer 2 scaling solutions. The Web3 developer community started on Ethereum, but it has expanded to several new and complementary networks. Infura recognizes the rise of a multi-chain world is inevitable and this is why Infura supports an increasing variety of blockchain APIs.
“Infura was founded on the belief that the Web3 developer community can create a world where economic freedom, shared truth, and digital security are guaranteed to everyone on the planet. Today we’re announcing an important evolution that aims to underscore these values and affirm our commitment to being the world’s leading blockchain development suite for Ethereum and other networks. A Decentralized Infrastructure Network was always an inevitable part of our future,” added Eleazar Galano, co-founder of Infura.
Infura provides the critical infrastructure behind leading DeFi applications, sustainable Layer 2 networks, and other creative use cases being built on Ethereum and other networks. Infura’s infrastructure backend has been battle-tested with years of experience managing high-throughput requests for thousands of customers, but as a single service provider, it will never be perfect.
The future launch of a Decentralized Infrastructure Network will complement its current service, offering the possibility of increased resilience and greater collaboration in the ecosystem.
A long-term vision to help create a new public good with new network roles
The new decentralized protocol will be implemented in incremental stages, and over time, it will help ensure:
A robust community of infrastructure operators who will be able to handle high-throughput requests similar to a multi-cloud database – without a single point of failure.
The long-term viability of Web3 through scalable collective governance and data sovereignty that meets the needs of the demanding, digital-native users, while ensuring ownership, security, and transparency.
Qualified infrastructure providers can now apply to an early access program to be a test operator on the new network through this link.
ABOUT CONSENSYS
ConsenSys is a leading Ethereum and decentralized protocols software company. We enable developers, enterprises, and people worldwide to build next-generation applications, launch modern financial infrastructure, and access the decentralized web. Our product suite, composed of Infura, Quorum, Codefi, MetaMask, MetaMask Institutional, Truffle, Diligence and our NFT platform, serves millions of users, supports billions of blockchain-based queries for our clients, and has handled billions of dollars in digital assets. Ethereum is the largest programmable blockchain in the world, leading in business adoption, developer community, and DeFi activity. On this trusted, open-source foundation, we are building the digital economy of tomorrow.
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HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE, APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE
Code42 | September 16, 2022
Code42 Software, Inc., the Insider Risk Management (IRM) leader, today announced its Incydr product fully supports all major Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments. The Code42® Incydr™ product detects when valuable and sensitive files are moved to untrusted locations, including personal email and cloud accounts, and removable media – and allows security teams to quickly respond in order to stop data leaks and theft.
According to a recent survey of IT professionals published by Citrix, nearly 70% of organizations are planning to implement VDIs to accommodate hybrid or remote work strategies, with just under 60% accelerating the adoption of cloud tools. Though DaaS and VDI solutions help security teams better protect against vulnerabilities, malicious actors and other external threats, they do little to reduce the risk from insiders, as virtual environments inherently depend on cloud tools.
“We’ve seen a notable uptick in the number of teams that have deployed DaaS and VDI solutions throughout their environments. Given the continued popularity of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and remote work, coupled with an unstable hardware supply chain, we absolutely expect this trend to continue,” said Rob Juncker, CTO of Code42. “In virtual-first organizations where there is pervasive use of cloud collaboration tools, such as Git, Salesforce, GDrive, OneDrive and iCloud, Incydr wraps a layer of protection around data put at risk by insiders, complementing solutions that focus on external threats and malicious actors.”
Learn more about Code42’s Insider Risk Management Offering
Code42 Incydr: The Industry’s Leading Data Security Product for Exfiltration Detection and Response
Incydr is an Insider Risk Management solution that provides the visibility, context and controls needed to stop data leak and IP theft. Organizations utilize Incydr to detect and respond to data exposure and exfiltration from corporate computer, cloud and email systems. It deploys in hours so security teams can address material risk to the business in a matter of days and drive the secure work habits needed to decrease how often employees put data at risk in the future.
Code42 Instructor: Education-Led Insider Risk Response
The Code42 Instructor™ micro-learning solution improves Insider Risk awareness by focusing on the creation of holistic, security-oriented cultures. The solution delivers actionable, hyper-targeted and bite-sized video lessons to end-users when they’re needed most, helping to change security behavior for the long term. The Instructor solution helps organizations rapidly mature their Insider Risk Management programs by incorporating data-driven Insider Risk behavioral guidance for end-users.
Combining the Power of Incydr and Instructor
Instructor works in tandem with Incydr, allowing security, compliance and education teams to immediately send corrective video lessons triggered by employee actions that create risk for the business. For example, when Incydr flags file movement to an untrusted location, like an unauthorized cloud application, an Instructor video specifically explaining the correct activity is sent to educate the employee in real-time through the Incydr solution.
Code42 Services: Measure, Manage, Mitigate
IRM technology is simpler and faster to deploy than other technologies, such as DLP and CASB, but it does require a strategy and mindset shift. Insider Risk Management isn’t only about data – it’s about a company’s employees and culture. Code42 IRM Services are designed to help organizations establish an efficient and effective IRM program rooted in transparency, training and technology. Code42’s services take a collaborative approach to helping organizations develop, operationalize, and mature an end-to-end IRM program.
Additional Resources
Visit our Incydr and Instructor solution pages to learn more about our offerings.
Join the conversation with Code42 on our blog, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.
Read our book, Inside Jobs: Why Insider Risk is the Biggest Cyber Threat you can’t Ignore.
Learn more about insider risk at the Insider Risk Summit™ event, taking place Sept 27-29, 2022. Register now for the free virtual community event.
About Code42
Code42 is the leader in Insider Risk Management (IRM), offering end-to-end data loss detection and response solutions. The Code42 Incydr product is native to the cloud and rapidly detects data exposure, loss, leak and theft as well as speeds incident response – all without lengthy deployments, complex policy management or blocking employee productivity. Accelerating the effectiveness of Insider Risk programs are the Code42 Instructor microlearning solution, and Code42’s full suite of expert services.
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