Upcoming articles: ransomware, and integrating SaaS

I am currently researching two features for Computer Weekly, details below:

Integrating SaaS

The popularity of some enterprise SaaS products means that the world of enterprise software is now more complex than ever, with data not only residing across different enterprise systems – but, increasingly, data is held in different cloud-based systems.

In this piece we will speak to organisations that use more than one SaaS product or suite, and look at why and how they chose different systems, how they connect them, how they manage date across suites and how their businesses benefit.

Deadline for leads: 1700hrs, 21 July. Deadline for interviews: 1700hrs, 27th July.

Anti-ransomware functionality in storage products

In this piece we will look at what storage vendors are doing to build ransomware protection into their offerings.

This includes tools such as immutable backups or snapshots, as well as ransomware prevention through techniques such as anomaly detection.

Note that this article is focused on the capabilities for the leading 7 vendors in the market, (see this list), though independent analyst comment is welcome.

Deadline for all input, for leads: 1700hrs, 26 July.

Please email with your suggestions/leads, keeping in mind the different deadlines. Also, it will be a great help to keep pitches for the two pieces separate.

New storage articles for Computer Weekly

I am working on two new feature articles for Computer Weekly. There is some overlap between the two topics, so I am posting them both here.

The topics are:

Key questions to ask suppliers about storage-as-a-service consumption models

5 things you need to know about cloud file services

For the first piece, this is a brief for CIOs and their teams sourcing cloud storage. We will come up with a ranked list of questions IT teams should ask vendors. These could include:

  • payment models
  • how usage is calculated
  • how does pricing change as demand goes up or down
  • how can I upgrade systems
  • minimum contract commitments
  • what is the maximum (or minimum) storage capacity the vendor can offer?

There might be other points that could be added to the list. I cannot use vendor quotes directly but can look at research, and take analyst comments.

For the second piece, we are aiming to distinguish between fully featured cloud file services, including those from the “big three” and file and sync type services such as Box or Dropbox.

The piece will set out the benefits and limitations of cloud-based file services and explain how they are used. And the article will identify the main vendors, both pure play and those that are part of a wider cloud (storage) offering.

The deadline for leads and content is 1700hrs, Tuesday 17th August. These articles will be published in September. If you can help, please submit any ideas or content by email .