Archive for March 25, 2026

Hammerspace Data Platform Wins 2026 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Award

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 25, 2026 by itnerd

Hammerspace today announced it has been named a winner in the 2026 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards in the Internet and Technology category. Presented by the Business Intelligence Group, the award recognizes organizations, products, teams, and individuals that are applying artificial intelligence in ways that drive real, measurable impact.

At a time when AI infrastructure is constrained less by compute than by data bottlenecks, the Hammerspace Data Platform redefines how unstructured data is accessed, orchestrated, and delivered to GPU-intensive workloads – without requiring proprietary clients, new storage silos or disruptive data migrations.

Hammerspace provides the foundation to activate unstructured data at scale, wherever it lives. Instead of forcing enterprises to copy data into yet another AI storage silo, Hammerspace creates a unified global data environment that orchestrates data across existing infrastructure. The result is less manual effort, fewer unnecessary copies, lower operational drag, and a much faster path to production AI.

Built on standard Linux NFS and pNFS v4.2, and advanced through years of upstream kernel innovation, Hammerspace delivers true parallel performance and linear scalability using the native clients already deployed across most GPU environments. That means high-performance data access without proprietary software, infrastructure lock-in, or the operational drag of introducing another specialized storage stack.

Hammerspace also extends performance further with Tier 0, which turns underutilized NVMe inside GPU servers into a shared, ultra-low-latency data tier. Combined with topology-aware data placement, Hammerspace aligns data with compute automatically – keeping GPUs fed faster, reducing bottlenecks, and increasing the efficiency of existing infrastructure.

Together, these outcomes demonstrate that Hammerspace delivers tangible business value: faster AI pipelines, higher utilization of costly GPU resources, lower infrastructure spend and reduced operational complexity – while maintaining flexibility across on-premises and cloud environments.

The Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards spotlight organizations advancing AI into practical, accountable deployment. The 2026 program recognized winners across 36 industries and more than 15 countries.

Learn More: Hammerspace Data Platform Overview

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SAP Showcases New AI, Integrated Travel and Expense Enhancements, and Global Partnerships at SAP Concur Fusion 2026

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 25, 2026 by itnerd

At SAP Concur Fusion 2026, we’re bringing together finance and travel decision-makers, customers, and partners to explore how AI-enabled innovation is transforming integrated travel, expense, and invoice management.

New innovations and new and expanded partnerships announced at the event reflect our focus on smarter automation that drives efficiency and compliance, deeper visibility that supports better decision-making, and solutions that help organizations control costs while improving employee experiences.


Joule Integration, New Agents and Innovations Streamline Travel and Expense Workflows

Building on the integration between Joule and Microsoft 365 Copilot, SAP Concur is bringing AI-enabled travel and expense management directly into the Microsoft applications employees use every day. Available now, employees can create and submit expense reports, track expense status, ask policy-related questions, upload receipts, book travel, and more without having to leave the application they’re working in to log into Concur solutions. With this enhanced organizational context, Joule introduces greater business intelligence into the flow of work, helping employees complete travel and expense tasks more easily, offering guidance, and reducing manual effort while maintaining compliance. Bringing Concur experiences into the tools employees already use regularly removes friction, streamlines workflows and improves productivity.

Existing Joule Agents from SAP Concur focus on intelligent receipt analysis and expense report validation, automatically enriching expense data, detecting errors, and guiding employees to submit accurate, compliant reports. Now, two new Joule Agents join the SAP Concur lineup to further streamline expense compliance and reporting.

  • Expense Automation Agent: A Joule Agent that acts as a virtual delegate creating the expense report and automatically adding transactions, including populating custom fields based on contextual details and user history. Employees can simply review and refine the report before submitting, reducing manual data entry and saving considerable time. This agent delivers a modern expense management experience – the expense report that practically manages itself.
  • Expense Pre-Submit Audit Agent: A Joule Agent that provides accurate, relevant receipt checks early in the expense report process. It proactively flags discrepancies in receipts before submission, helping address inaccuracies early, reduce report rejections and review cycles, and shorten reimbursement timelines. Drawing on decades of expertise and innovation in expense report auditing, SAP Concur delivers an agent that ensures receipt validation is robust and precise.

Concur Expense will soon support new capabilities to submit receipts via text message, offering another easy way for employees to capture receipts without manual data entry.

Expense Pre-Submit Audit Agent, Expense Automation Agent, and receipt texting capabilities are currently in the SAP Early Adopter Care program, with general availability expected later this year.

Expense Automation Agent will be available as part of Joule Premium for Travel and Expense.

Additionally, leveraging the power of the SAP Business Suite, the SAP Sales Cloud solution now integrates with Booking Agent to streamline workflows and enhance productivity for sales teams. Salespeople can use Joule within the SAP Sales Cloud solution to book travel for planned client visits. Joule recognizes key details of the client visit and presents personalized travel itinerary options for the salesperson to choose from for quick, seamless booking within the existing workflow. This eliminates the need to manage separate workflows for client visits and trip bookings, as Joule connects planned visits directly with easy booking options. The integration is planned for general availability in Q2 2026.

Simplified Administration, Stronger Compliance and Increased Automation Across Travel and Expense Processes

New AI-based rule creation tools simplify the complex process of managing policy rules in Complete by SAP Concur and Amex GBT, Concur Travel, and Concur Expense, especially for administrators without a technical background. These tools help customers automate enforcement of even the most nuanced policies using natural language or company policy documents as the input. Now, administrators can manage rule creation efficiently and confidently. Administrators can upload a travel policy document, and the travel rules will automatically be created or modified, saving time and strengthening policy compliance. This capability will be available as part of the SAP Early Adopter Care program in Q2 2026. Concur Expense administrators can create and manage audit rules using natural language starting in Q2 2026. The ability to create rules from uploaded policy documents is planned for later in 2026

Additionally, SAP Concur is strengthening two key financial industry partnerships to further streamline expense reporting and compliance.

SAP Concur and American Express (Amex) are deepening their partnership to enable joint customers to create and manage American Express Virtual Cards in Concur Expense. An American Express Virtual Card features a uniquely generated card number and security code associated with an employer’s Amex Corporate Card account, reducing the burden of out-of-pocket expenses by supporting online payments and transactions on-the-go through a digital wallet.

American Express Virtual Cards with SAP Concur enable employees to make purchases in just a few clicks, while providing organizations with enhanced visibility, stronger controls, and greater efficiency. They also can be used as a payment method within Concur Travel. This capability is available now to select U.S.-based American Express® Corporate and Business customers using Concur Expense with availability for all such customers planned for Q3 2026.

Last year, SAP Concur and Amex launched a real-time notification (RTN) capability that automatically generates and categorizes eligible business expenses from Amex Corporate Card purchases in Concur Expense. Enrolled cardholders will get real-time notification via the Concur mobile app when making a purchase, so they never miss key details like uploading a receipt or adding attendees for a meal.

SAP Concur teams up with Visa to drive greater integration between Concur Expense and Visa through the Visa Commercial Integrated Partner program. The first integration milestone will be for Concur Expense to enable real-time notifications to automatically create expenses from Visa card swipes and reduce the risk of lost receipts or duplicates. The capability will be available as part of the SAP Early Adopter Care Program in Q3 2026.

SAP Concur will now support RTN from all major credit card networks.

Corporate Travel Experience Enhancements and New AI-Enabled Capabilities

SAP Concur is advancing the corporate travel experience with new capabilities, expanded global availability, and enhanced partner integrations designed to support travelers and travel managers worldwide

SAP Concur and American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) are announcing new innovations to Complete, an AI-enabled, co-developed solution for booking, servicing, payments, and expensing. New capabilities include AI-enabled travel support with hand-off to a live travel counselor and a specialized home page for travel managers. Concur Expense also integrates with Amex GBT Egencia for customers worldwide. For more about these co-innovations, visit the Concur blog.

For all customers using the new Concur Travel experience, it now fully supports guest bookings, offering an improved reservation workflow for hosting guest travel. Enhanced booking capabilities provide a streamlined experience, allowing guest profiles to be created quickly without having to establish new profiles for recurring visitors each time.

Starting in Q2, India joins more than 150 countries with access to the new Concur Travel experience. With expanded content from Cleartrip that supports all fare brands, seats, bags, and ancillaries, combined with new One-Way Faring capability and mobile user experience, travelers can shop IndiGo and SpiceJet, as well as new supplier additions including Akasa Air and Air India Express.

TripIt by SAP Concur is also enhancing the travel experience with new intelligent, on-device capabilities that help travelers organize plans effortlessly while staying informed about potential disruptions in real time.

  • TripIt Pro Image to Plan with Apple Intelligence: Travelers can turn photos or PDFs—including tickets, reservations, event flyers, and receipts—into organized TripIt plans in just a few taps. Using Apple Intelligence’s on-device foundation models, TripIt Pro securely extracts key details such as dates, times, locations, confirmation numbers, and costs, all without leaving the device.
  • Expanded TripIt Pro Risk Alerts: Based on the address entered with a trip plan, TripIt Pro monitors breaking news that may disrupt the itinerary. Travelers will now receive proactive, timely alerts about incidents that could affect lodging, car rental, rail, activities, and other plans, in addition to flights, airlines and airports.

These new capabilities in TripIt Pro are generally available now.

To learn more about announcements at SAP Concur Fusion, or to join the virtual event, visit here.

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LiteLLM supply chain attack compromises PyPI package

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 25, 2026 by itnerd

According to researchers at Endor Labs, a supply chain attack has compromised the widely used LiteLLM Python library on PyPI, with malicious code introduced into versions 1.82.7 and 1.82.8, which have since been removed. The package is used in AI and developer environments and is estimated to see approximately 95 million downloads per month, significantly expanding the potential impact.

The malicious releases contained credential-stealing malware, including a .pth file that executes automatically when Python starts, allowing attackers to collect SSH keys, cloud credentials, API tokens, and environment variables from affected systems. In some cases, the malware also attempted to access Kubernetes secrets and deploy persistent backdoors on compromised machines.

The incident has been linked to the TeamPCP threat group, which previously targeted software supply chains, and is believed to be connected to earlier compromises involving developer tooling. Researchers reported that the attackers used compromised publishing credentials to distribute the malicious packages, with claims that data may have been collected from hundreds of thousands of affected devices.

Jacob Krell, Senior Director: Secure AI Solutions & Cybersecurity, Suzu Labs:

   “Every third-party dependency is a trust decision. The LiteLLM compromise demonstrates what happens when that trust is granted by default and at scale.

   “TeamPCP did not need to attack LiteLLM directly. They compromised Trivy, a vulnerability scanner running inside LiteLLM’s CI pipeline without version pinning. That single unmanaged dependency handed over the PyPI publishing credentials, and from there the attacker backdoored a library that serves 95 million downloads per month. One dependency. One chain reaction. Five supply chain ecosystems compromised in under a month.

   “The pattern is instructive. TeamPCP has exclusively targeted security adjacent tools. A vulnerability scanner, an infrastructure as code analyzer, and now an LLM proxy that handles API keys by design. These tools run with broad access because that is how they function. Compromising one hands the attacker every credential and secret that tool was trusted to touch.

   “This incident forces a broader conversation about how organizations treat their dependency graph. Zero trust has been applied to users, devices, and networks. Dependencies deserve the same scrutiny. Every imported library, build tool, and CI plugin carries implicit trust that is rarely evaluated with the same rigor applied to a new network connection or user account. At enterprise scale, this creates compounding technical debt where a single compromised package can cascade across the entire environment.

   “The cost of building capability in house has dropped significantly. Organizations have more options to reduce their dependency surface than they did even two years ago. Dependencies that were once unavoidable are now choices. Where a third party library handles sensitive credentials, routes API traffic, or runs inside a build pipeline, organizations should be asking whether the risk of importing that dependency outweighs the cost of building and maintaining the capability internally. For the dependencies that remain, strict service level agreements, continuous verification, and the same zero trust posture applied to any other external input are the minimum standard.

   “The dependency graph is part of the attack surface. Treating it as anything less is how cascading compromises happen.”

Noelle Murata, Sr. Security Engineer, Xcape, Inc.:

   “The LiteLLM incident is a textbook example of “blind-trust” engineering, where the convenience of a one-line install command outweighs basic cryptographic integrity. The business impact here is a complete loss of environment isolation, as a single unverified pip install can transition an attacker from a developer’s terminal to the core of a Kubernetes cluster in seconds.

   “We should care because the industry’s reliance on public repositories without local hash verification or “lockfiles” has effectively turned the Internet into an unvetted production dependency. This breach succeeded because many organizations treat PyPI as a trusted internal mirror rather than a public, high-risk source of untrusted code.

   “To remediate this, defenders must move beyond reactive patching and enforce the use of signed software bills of materials (SBOMs) and private package registries that require mandatory hash pinning and pre-install scanning. If your CI/CD pipelines are pulling directly from the public Internet without validating a requirements.txt against known-good hashes, you have effectively outsourced your root access to anyone who can phish a single package maintainer.

   “Installing unvetted packages from the Internet is essentially the digital equivalent of eating a sandwich you found on the subway and being surprised when you get food poisoning.”

Rajeev Raghunarayan, Head of GTM, Averlon:

   “The LiteLLM compromise reflects an accelerating pattern: attackers using compromised publishing credentials to inject malicious code into widely used libraries, turning trusted dependencies into distribution mechanisms for credential-stealing malware.

   “What makes incidents like this dangerous is the scope of access they expose. Cloud credentials, API tokens, and Kubernetes secrets don’t just represent a single point of compromise. They create pathways into the broader infrastructure those credentials connect to.

   “This is the pattern organizations need to plan for. The initial compromise is rarely where the real damage happens. It’s where the attack chain begins.”

Ryan McCurdy, VP of Marketing, Liquibase:

   “Incidents like this are a reminder that in the AI era, software supply chain risk is expanding faster than most control models. When widely used developer and AI tooling is compromised, the blast radius can move quickly across credentials, cloud environments, and production systems.

   “The lesson for enterprise teams is bigger than any one package: governance has to extend across how change is introduced, validated, promoted, and audited. Speed without control is not modernization. It is exposure.”

Blind trust in anything is a bad thing. This is example of why that is a bad thing. And why companies need to trust but verify. Or simply not trust at all.

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Global VPN downloads fell in 2025, but adoption in some European and Gulf countries keeps climbing 

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 25, 2026 by itnerd

Global VPN downloads hit an all-time high of 487 million in 2022 — and have been falling ever since. Downloads dropped to 404 million in 2023, partially recovered to 464 million in 2024, and fell again to 412.5 million in 2025, according to the latest iteration of the Cybernews VPN Adoption Report.

The report analyzed download data for the 50 most popular VPN apps from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store across 126 countries, compared against each country’s population to calculate adoption rates.

The Gulf states dominate the top 10

The countries where VPN adoption remains highest are overwhelmingly in the Persian Gulf. The UAE leads the world at 85.5%. The driving forces are state-level content restrictions and VoIP service blocks, as large expatriate populations need to communicate internationally.

Europe is showing consistent growth

Europe is the one region still showing consistent growth in 2025, while adoption rates in most other regions slowed down significantly. Three European countries sit in the global top 10 — the United Kingdom at #7, the Netherlands at #8, and France at #10. France saw the biggest climb of any G7 nation, rising 12 positions since the previous report. Seven of the global top 20 are now European, with the Nordics and Baltics also posting steady gains.

Adoption in G7 countries varies widely

Among G7 nations, the picture is uneven. The UK and France are both in the global top 10, while Italy and Japan remain far behind their peers.

The United States, despite producing the largest absolute download volumes, ranks only #21 — with downloads falling from 63.4 million in 2024 to 54.1 million in 2025.

Where VPN adoption is falling fastest

The steepest single-year declines were concentrated in countries with volatile political or regulatory environments. Myanmar dropped 19.4 percentage points in a single year, Nauru fell 17.1 pp, and Russia declined 12.3 pp.

The countries where almost no one uses a VPN

The lowest adoption rates are concentrated in Africa — 8 of the bottom 10 countries are African.

Full report here: https://cybernews.com/best-vpn/vpn-usage-by-country/

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Equinix Expands Investments in Global Data Center Workforce Development

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 25, 2026 by itnerd

Equinix today announced a series of global investments in workforce development to help build the next generation of technical talent for the digital infrastructure industry. Timed to International Data Center Day, celebrated globally on March 25, these initiatives underscore Equinix’s commitment to expanding access to high-quality technical careers, strengthening local talent ecosystems within the communities where it operates, and equipping people with the skills needed to support the rapid growth created by AI and digital transformation.

A cornerstone of Equinix’s workforce investments is the global launch of Pathways to Tech, an early‑career talent program that opens inclusive pathways into data center operations for students ages 14–18. After a successful two‑year pilot reaching nearly 2,000 students in select communities across the Americas and Asia-Pacific, Pathways to Tech is scaling to all Equinix locations worldwide to meet growing workforce needs fueled by AI and digital transformation. Pathways to Tech gives students hands‑on exposure to digital infrastructure through interactive sessions with Equinix professionals, IBX® data center tours and immersive Education Day events. The program creates clear pathways into internships, apprenticeships and early‑career operations roles—creating access to high-demand, well-paying careers many young people may not otherwise discover. On International Data Center Day, Equinix will welcome hundreds of students to Education Days at 20 locations worldwide, providing firsthand exposure to a critical industry that often operates behind the scenes.

Additional Workforce Development Initiatives

Alongside Pathways to Tech, Equinix is introducing additional programs designed to grow talent, including:

  • Global Data Center Technician Training Coalition: The Equinix Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Equinix, Inc., is partnering with Generation, a global nonprofit focused on economic mobility that has supported the economic advancement of over 150,000 people across 17 countries, to expand accessible career pathways in data center operations and technical support. Together, they are launching a groundbreaking global, multi-employer workforce coalition that brings data center and ecosystem companies together with industry partners to invest in IT training, shape curricula and hire graduates. Just as Equinix’s business is built on interconnection, this coalition is built on the idea that the industry’s workforce challenge is too big, and too important, for any single company to solve alone. The coalition’s first program will launch in Brazil—a market seeing rapid data center investment and rising demand for entry-level talent—with initial cohorts beginning in June and co-funding from partner Cisco Systems, Inc. This marks the starting point for a broader global expansion planned for 2026.
  • Global Operations Apprenticeships: Equinix is expanding and relaunching its global apprenticeship, internship and early‑career programs to build a resilient, future‑ready technical workforce. While Equinix has long supported interns and apprentices across its data centers worldwide, the company has now introduced a newly centralized global program with a refreshed curriculum and consistent standards. The first locations to go live include six critical markets: Brazil, France, Germany, the United States, Singapore and the United Kingdom. These initiatives create structured pathways into critical full‑time Operations roles, support knowledge transfer from experienced teams and reduce dependence on constrained labor markets. Working closely with schools, training providers and community organizations—often with support from the Equinix Foundation—Equinix is broadening access to technical careers while strengthening local talent ecosystems. Together, these efforts align business needs with community impact, advancing economic mobility, workforce development and long‑term operational readiness.
  • Learning Labs: Together with industry partners, Equinix is launching a new global training program to develop the next generation of technical talent, debuting across three markets—Dallas, Paris and Singapore. The initiative addresses a dual challenge: supporting a rapidly expanding digital infrastructure sector while creating meaningful reskilling and employment opportunities for individuals seeking new career paths. Designed for early‑career talent with a technical or electrotechnical background, the program aims to deliver hands‑on experience and a comprehensive qualification in data center infrastructure management, equipping participants with essential skills across electrical systems, cooling and climate control, safety practices, and facility operations. Through practical, real‑world training, participants learn how to manage and maintain critical data center environments and ensure their operational reliability.

Equinix’s new workforce development initiatives, including Pathways to Tech, will begin global rollout in 2026, with planned activations across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. Interested schools, community organizations and workforce partners can learn more here.

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Anker’s Spring Sale Deals Round Up Is Live

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 25, 2026 by itnerd

Here is a curated selection of top offers from Anker Innovations — covering must-haves in charging gear, home tech, audio, and portable entertainment. Deals span up to 40% off across brands including Anker, Eufy, Soundcore, and Nebula, with standout savings on power banks, smart vacuums, sleep earbuds, projectors, and more.

Anker | Charging Essentials & Power Solutions

Eufy Appliance

Robot Vacuums 

  • Eufy C28, $699 (30% off), regular $999
  • Eufy E28, $899.99 (25% off), regular $1199.99

Breast Pump

Eufy Security 

Soundcore

Audio 

Recording Productivity

Portable Projectors

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CData Sync Adds Pipeline Orchestration with Real-Time CDC and Open Table Formats

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 25, 2026 by itnerd

CData Software today announced major enhancements to CData Sync designed to meet the data pipeline demands of modern enterprises. The updates deliver coordinated pipeline orchestration, expanded change data capture (CDC) for mission-critical systems, and native support for open table formats, empowering data teams to operate continuously across legacy and modern architectures.

As organizations race to operationalize AI, they face mounting pressure to keep data fresh, coordinate dependencies across systems, and maintain governance at scale. CData Sync’s latest capabilities directly tackle these challenges by unifying real-time replication, workflow orchestration, and open standards within a single platform.

Pipeline-Based Workflow Orchestration
CData Sync now includes Pipelines, enabling teams to orchestrate multi-step workflows directly within Sync. Data engineers can sequence replication jobs, transformations, and events without external orchestration tools, reducing complexity while maintaining full visibility and control over dependencies.

Programmable Control via API 2.0
The redesigned API 2.0 provides a predictable, automation-friendly interface for managing Sync at scale. Organizations can programmatically configure pipelines, trigger executions, and monitor operations across distributed deployments, making it easier to integrate Sync into internal platforms or enable orchestration through external systems, including AI agents.

Enterprise-Grade CDC for IBM DB2 and SAP HANA
CData Sync expanded CDC support to include IBM DB2 (LUW and iSeries/AS400) and SAP HANA, enabling near-real-time replication from these widely deployed enterprise platforms. Organizations can now stream incremental changes from core systems of record directly into cloud analytics and AI platforms without impacting production workloads.

Open Table Formats for AI and Analytics
With native support for Delta Lake (including Microsoft Fabric via Open Mirroring) and Apache Iceberg, CData Sync allows teams to write data into open, ACID-compliant table formats. This eliminates vendor lock-in and ensures data remains accessible across analytics engines and AI platforms without proprietary dependencies.

Centralized Governance with Workspaces
New Workspaces provide a unified control plane for managing connections, jobs, and transformations across teams and environments. As pipeline counts grow, Workspaces ensure organizations can scale governance, enforce policies, and maintain visibility without losing operational control.

Learn More

To explore CData Sync’s new pipeline orchestration, expanded CDC support, and open table format capabilities, visit cdata.com/sync.

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Bitdefender Research Shows 130% Increase in Attacks Targeting Gulf Countries

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 25, 2026 by itnerd

Bitdefender has released new research revealing that phishing and malware campaigns targeting Gulf countries have surged by approximately 130% on average following the escalation of the war in Iran.

Researchers observed a sustained spike in malicious email activity beginning February 28, with campaigns quickly doubling and peaking at nearly four times pre-war levels.

Key findings:

  • Threat actors are delivering a mix of remote access trojans, spyware, and fileless attacks that execute in memory
  • The attacks rely heavily on business-themed lures, including invoices, contracts, banking communications, and delivery notifications
  • No confirmed state-sponsored attribution; however, phishing is often a precursor to more complex attacks, enabling initial access to targeted environments.

You can read the research here: https://www.bitdefender.com/en-gb/blog/hotforsecurity/gulf-countries-phishing-surge

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