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Today’s topics include Dell’s introduction of its Data Protection Secure Lifecycle security product, Microsoft’s release of the Outlook Customer Manager for small businesses, Microsoft’s deal with a wind power generation company to provide renewable energy for its Wyoming data center and how Google is implementing machine learning in its Play Music service.
Dell is expanding its data protection software portfolio with a new encryption tool that promises to help organizations protect data as it moves across devices and companies.
The new product, announced Nov. 15, is called Dell Data Protection Secure Lifecycle, and has some of its roots in data protection software that Dell gained through its 2012 acquisition of Credant.
Internal threats can come from employees or partners that might not have malicious intent, but could still potentially be a risk to inadvertently leak sensitive data. Hansen explained that Dell itself has a real need to maintain a secure data lifecycle as the company builds its roadmaps and collaborates with external partners.
Microsoft today took the wraps off Outlook Customer Manager, a new software tool for Office 365 small business customers that enables them to keep track of their customer communications and engagement directly within the email client.
While viewing an email from a customer, Outlook Customer Manager collects emails, calls, meetings, Office files, deadlines, tasks and other related content into a timeline. It appears as an additional pane in the Outlook interface, right alongside the inbox.
The new tool is being billed as a major time-saver, helping busy entrepreneurs reclaim hours lost to digging up customer information as they go about their workweek.
Microsoft’s quest to build a “responsible cloud” took a gusty turn today. Currently, 44 percent of electricity consumed by Microsoft’s cloud data centers comes from renewable energy sources.
By 2018, the Redmond, Wash. technology giant hopes to bump that figure up to 50 percent, a goal that has become more attainable with a new energy deal announced today.
Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer at Microsoft, announced a 237-megawatt wind energy purchase, the largest deal of its kind for the company. It will allow Microsoft’s Cheyenne, Wyo. data center to run completely on renewable energy.
The bulk of the electricity, or 178 megawatts, is produced at the Bloom Wind Project in Kansas, as part of a 10-year agreement with Allianz Risk Transfer. The Happy Jack and Silver Sage wind farms, both located in Wyoming, are supplying the remaining 59 megawatts.
Google uses machine-learning technologies in multiple applications including Translate, Photos and Inbox by Gmail. Starting this week, the company’s Google Play Music streaming service will begin to use it, as well.
Google’s newly revamped Google Play Music will leverage machine learning techniques to discern an individual listener’s music tastes and preferences. The app will then combine other factors like time of the day, user location, activity and weather to suggest what it judges to be the most appropriate music for that situation.
Google Play Music will serve up different, customized playlists depending on whether the listener is at work, relaxing at home, working out, flying, or in the library.