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COMPUTERWORLD, 20 April, 2017 – The boards of many Australia’s biggest companies lack sufficient understanding of cyber security, according to the ASX Cyber Health Check Report which was published today.

The Australian Securities Exchange – with backing from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission – invited the 100 largest listed companies to participate in a voluntary assessment of their cyber security posture late last year.

Of the 76 companies that opted to respond, the leadership of 20 per cent were found to have limited understanding of cyber security and had no plans to include such expertise on the board.

More than half (51 per cent) had a board with a “moderate” understanding of the area, while 29 per cent had at least one “well versed” board member.

Nevertheless, 12 per cent of Australia’s richest listed companies said they were “doing enough” to protect themselves against cyber threats. The majority (80 per cent) said they were doing enough but had more to do.

Boards were found to be better at understanding the potential impact of the loss or disruption of data assets. Most had a “clear understanding” of the impacts, although 45 per cent had only a reasonable or limited understanding. Four per cent of boards had never been presented with an impact assessment.

In his foreword to the report, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull noted: “For every board that talks about cyber security as a real and pressing business risk, there are many more yet to take that step.”

Responses to the survey remain confidential, and the participating companies are not named in the report.

The majority of boards were found to receive management reports on cyber security incidents (88 per cent) with more than a fifth establishing this procedure within the past year. However, the quality of reporting can be improved, the report found, with 54 per cent of directors saying that the description in the corporate risk radar of cyber risks is basic.

A significant number (63 per cent) also say they don’t yet have a set of standard cyber security metrics or don’t know if they do.

“Giving directors the information they need to monitor key risks and make wise decisions is critical,” the report states.

Increasingly, the C-suite was recognising cyber security to be a significant issue to their organisations. More than two-thirds of directors (68 per cent) consider cyber risks to be extremely important. Almost 40 per cent of directors rate cyber risk in the highest category relative to other business risks.

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(2017), Boards don’t get cyber security (but fear the risks), ASX health check finds, Computerworld, viewed 20 April 2017, <https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/617971/boards-don-t-get-cyber-security-fear-risks-asx-health-check-finds/>.

CRN, 12 April, 2017 – Worldwide IT spending is set to top US$3.5 trillion in 2017, a 1.4 percent increase from 2016, while Australian IT spending is forecast to grow by 3.5 percent to hit nearly $87 billion.

However, the global growth rate is down from a forecast of 2.7 percent, which the analyst firm attributed in part to the rising US dollar.

John-David Lovelock, research VP at Gartner, said that the strong US dollar has cut US$67 billion out of its 2017 IT spending forecast. “We expect these currency headwinds to be a drag on earnings of US-based multinational IT vendors through 2017,” he said.

The analyst house predicted that the data centre system market is expected to grow 0.3 percent in 2017. While this is up from negative growth in 2016, it is experiencing a slowdown in the server market.

“We are seeing a shift in who is buying servers and who they are buying them from,” said Lovelock. “Organisations are moving away from buying servers from the traditional vendors and instead renting server power in the cloud from companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft. This has created a reduction in spending on servers, which is impacting the overall data centre system segment.”

Driven by strength in mobile phone sales and smaller improvements in sales of printers, PCs and tablets, worldwide spending on devices (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) is projected to grow 1.7 percent in 2017, to reach US$645 billion. This is up from a 2.6 percent decline in 2016.

Mobile phone growth in 2017 will be driven by increased average selling prices (ASPs) for phones in emerging Asia/Pacific and China, together with iPhone replacements and the 10th anniversary of the iPhone.

The tablet market continued to decline significantly, as replacement cycles remain extended and both sales and ownership of desktop PCs and laptops are negative throughout the forecast, said Gartner. Over the course of this year, business Windows 10 upgrades should provide underlying growth, although increased component costs will see PC prices increase, added the analyst firm.

The global IT services market is forecast to grow 2.3 percent in 2017, down from 3.6 percent growth in 2016. The analysts said that modest changes to the IT services forecast this quarter can be “characterised as adjustments to particular geographies as a result of potential changes of direction anticipated regarding US policy — both foreign and domestic”.

Services marked the largest segment in Australia in terms of yearly spend and is expected to reach $30.6 billion in 2017, up from $29.8 billion in 2016.

Gartner added that business-friendly policies of the new US administration are expected to have a slightly positive impact on the US implementation service market as the US government is expected to significantly increase its infrastructure spending during the next few years.

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(2017), Global IT spending creeps up, CRN, viewed 12 April 2017, <https://www.crn.com.au/news/global-it-spending-creeps-up-458008>.

COMPUTERWORLD, 7 April, 2017 – The federal government will fund a broadband performance monitoring scheme run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, communications minister Senator Mitch Fifield announced today.

Some 4000 volunteer households will have hardware installed to monitor the performance of their fixed-lined National Broadband Network services.

This year’s budget will earmark $7 million over four years for the new Broadband Performance Monitoring and Reporting (BPMR) program.

The ACCC’s proposal to the federal government was based on a three-month pilot the organisation run in Melbourne in 2015.

End user performance on NBN connections depends on a variety of factors. The type of fixed-line access technology — fibre to the node (FTTN) or fibre to the premises (FTTP), for example — can affect the maximum potential speed of a household’s connection, but so too can factors such as the distance of a building from a node if FTTN is employed.

One key speed constraint can be the capacity provisioned by a retail service provider (RSP — the term for ISPs that sell services to end users over the NBN) at NBN’s Points of Interconnect (POIs). RSPs pay for capacity through a charge known as the Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC).

NBN has previously indicated it believed some speed complaints by consumers related to under-provisioning by RSPs. Telcos have criticised the CVC for the hit it can have on their margins. NBN earlier this year announced a new discount scheme for CVC, which cuts CVC prices for RSPs if they provision more capacity per end user.

NBN has also expressed concern that some consumers are not aware that different speed tiers are available on its network.

The BPMR program will “allow the ACCC to determine if issues are being caused by the performance of the NBN, or by internet service providers (ISPs) not buying sufficient capacity,” ACCC chairperson Rod Sims said in a statement.

“It will also provide ISPs with independent performance information from which to draw when making speed claims.”

“This program will see the ACCC test and report on the typical speed and performance of broadband plans provided over the NBN,” Sims said.

“This information will assist consumers in comparing and shopping around, and checking that they receive what they are paying for,”

“We would look to construct the volunteers into reporting classes such that we could then generate reports that could then show performance by different access technology, by different RSP, different geographic regions,” Sean Riordan, ACCC general manager, industry structure and compliance, last month told parliament’s NBN committee.

“The data, provided that we’re successful in recruiting that spread of volunteers, would give insights into a range of different policy issues plus giving an insight into how RSPs perform comparatively and could also give a good sign-posting as to where issues may be systemic to the access component and more specific to an individual RSP,” he told the hearing.

The ACCC said the program is set to begin next month and it hopes to provide comparative information on RSPs’ performance in the second half of this year.

Although most participants will have NBN connections, the ACCC said a number of households will be connected to “NBN-like” networks and “legacy networks”

The telco industry has previously expressed a lack of enthusiasm for the ACCC’s proposal.

“Although the ACCC has told industry today that it doesn’t yet know how many service providers will be included in the regime, it has previously indicated that it expects this will be limited to something like the five largest players,” Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton said in a statement issued today.

“Smaller ISPs are worried that being out of the limelight of the published results will cost them customers and damage their businesses,

“The regulator, which exists to promote competition, needs to ensure that it does not engineer the opposite outcome.”

The ACCC recently released guidelines for RSPs on making speed claims. The guidelines state that RSPs should provide consumers with accurate information about typical busy period speeds that the average end user on a particular broadband plan can expect to receive, rather than theoretical speeds based on the specifications of a particular technology.

Labor said it backed the new ACCC program.

“The real question is why has this sensible step taken so long?” acting shadow communications minister Mark Dreyfus said in a statement. “Quite simply, this government does not care about consumers. They never have, and they never will.”

Dreyfus said that the decision to employ copper-based technologies such as FTTN for the NBN was helping drive up complaints from end users on the network.

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Pearce, R (2017), ISPs to be named and shamed: ACCC to monitor NBN speeds, Computerworld, viewed 7 April 2017, <http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/617334/isps-named-shamed-accc-monitor-nbn-speeds/>.

NBN, 5 April, 2017 – Retailers are signing Australians up for fast internet over the nbn™ network at the quickest rate ever, with two million homes and businesses now connected and more than 4.5 million premises able to order a retail service over the nbn™ network.

The rollout of the nbn™ access network sets the scene for the biggest transformation to Australia’s telecommunications industry involving retail service provider network upgrades and the establishment of a network to bring fast broadband to all Australians.

With the two millionth premises activated, nbn is now one quarter of the way towards its goal of connecting eight million homes and businesses to the national network of broadband services by 2020.

Currently retailers are connecting more than 28,000 end users to fast internet services over the nbn™ network each week, up from 12,000 per week this time last year.

The speed of connection offered by Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN) technology has helped increase activation rates with more than 670,000 premises connected to services over nbn’s FTTN and Fibre-to-the-Basement network just 18 months since launch.

At the same time the deployment of the nbn™ network continues to gain pace with retailers able to offer services to more than 4.5 million premises over the nbn™ network – up by 1.3 million premises since March last year.

nbn expects to reach the halfway point of the network build around the middle of this year and within a further 12 months, it expects to be three quarters of the way towards its 2020 goal.

Millions of people are already enjoying the benefits of fast broadband right across the country, and while any large scale change will present its challenges, nbn is working hard with industry retailers and providers to ensure a positive experience for all Australians.

nbn Chief Executive Officer Bill Morrow said:
“In May last year we had one million consumers and business owners connected to services over the nbn™ network; now less than 12 months later, we’ve activated another one million.

“This great achievement is a testament to the hard work of our people and delivery partners building the network at pace. Importantly, the two million activations milestone has been made possible through the support, marketing and customer focus from retail service providers.

“We are proud to be building critical infrastructure that enables nationwide access to fast broadband which supports business opportunities, provides access to leading education and healthcare services, and is changing the way we as Australians work, live and play.”

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nbn Media (2017), nbn: 2 million activations and counting, nbn, viewed 5 April 2017, <http://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/media-centre/media-releases/nbn-2-million-activations-and-counting.html>.

ITNEWS, 6 March, 2017 – NBN Co is starting to abandon future FTTN deployments in favour of newer fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) technology.

Updates of its online maps – captured by iTnews as part of a full reconstruction of the company’s three-year plan – show how FTTC is to be used outside of the Optus HFC footprint for the first time.

The scale of the proposed FTTC rollout points to a bullish outlook for the technology in NBN Co’s multi-technology mix.

A week ago, NBN Co put at least 470 cities, suburbs, and towns in six states and territories on the FTTC rollout schedule.

Most are in NSW (150) and Victoria (132), and are concentrated in metropolitan areas, although there is some planned FTTC presence in regional Australia.

While most focus to date has been on the 450,000 or so premises in the Optus HFC footprint that are first in line for FTTC, NBN Co has always said it would target at least 700,000 premises.

Where the remaining 250,000 premises would come from was unknown.

It can now be revealed that a significant number of FTTC connections will occur in areas that – up until now – were slated to receive FTTN.

However, it is difficult to scope with a high degree of certainty exactly how many premises will get this upgrade.

It is at least 83,700 – which is the number of premises in FTTN areas that appear to have been wholly converted to FTTC.

The total number is far greater, but somewhat difficult to determine, for several reasons.

First, many former FTTN areas will now receive a mix of FTTC and FTTN. What the split of FTTC and FTTN premises in each suburb or city can’t accurately be determined, because NBN Co has never published data to that level of granular detail.

Second, new rollout areas have been added to NBN Co’s construction schedule and are to be given FTTC or a mix of FTTC/N. The number of premises in these areas is unknown.

And third, the quantum of NBN Co’s shift to FTTC is hard to determine because there is only one weeks’ worth of data and it is presently incomplete.

For example, while the full Optus HFC footprint will receive FTTC, it is not yet all on the map. Many Optus HFC suburbs remain listed as being destined to receive HFC rather than FTTC; iTnews understands this is an error related to incomplete data, and that there is no change in NBN Co’s commitment to put the entire Optus HFC footprint on FTTC.

Counting the cost effectiveness

While FTTN has enabled NBN Co to scale the reach of its network quickly and at low cost, it is seen in some quarters as unfavourable owing to the speeds that can be achieved, especially for those located some distance from the street cabinet.

FTTC, by contrast, has been favourably received as an NBN access technology because it increases the amount of fibre – and decreases the length of copper – used to service the connection.

FTTC is also known as fibre-to-the-distribution point (FTTdp) or fibre-to-the-driveway.

The extent to which FTTC is able to replace FTTN will come down to the cost-per-premises to deploy it.

NBN Co claimed commercial in-confidence on these costs in recent responses to a Senate committee.

However, the fact the company is now converting planned FTTN areas in part or in full over to FTTC is likely to reignite interest in just how well the two access technologies compare when it comes to their respective cost effectiveness.

It is early days, and there are few patterns in the way FTTC is being allocated outside the Optus HFC footprint.

What is clear is that FTTN areas that were delayed in a pre-Christmas update to NBN Co’s maps had a blessing in disguise, as these areas mostly now appear converted – at last partially – over to FTTC.

That could mean future delays in the FTTN rollout may also be good news, providing a chance for NBN Co to change access technology.

Given there are still areas on the map that have been promised FTTN services in 2019 or 2020, there is an opportunity for NBN Co to convert more over to FTTC once the technology is proven and the company is able to generate some economies of scale from the build.

NBN Co said in a statement last week that the first area to go live with FTTC “will be Coburg North in Melbourne”, where “trial services with retailers” are expected to be offered “in the second half of 2017”.

“We are expecting to launch commercial services for FTTC in the first half of 2018 at which point NBN Co is expecting to have 100,000 homes and businesses ready to connect to the service,” the company said.

NBN Co also said that FTTC offered users a cheaper upgrade path to full FTTP in future, should they desire an end-to-end fibre connection.

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Crozier, R (2017), NBN Co starts replacing FTTN in network rollout, iTnews, viewed 6 March 2017, <https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-starts-replacing-fttn-in-network-rollout-452443>.

NETWORK WORLD, 21 February, 2017 – The public cloud just keeps on growing, with increases in spending on cloud services and infrastructure easily outpacing overall IT spending. And it isn’t even close.

The latest update to International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Spending Guide projects worldwide investments in the public cloud “will reach $122.5 billion in 2017, an increase of 24.4 percent over 2016. Those are big numbers, obviously, but to put them in full perspective, IDC noted that growth rate is nearly seven times the rate of overall IT spending growth.

Yep, seven times faster!

And that’s hardly some one-year blip. IDC forecasts overall public cloud spending to grow 21.5 percent annually from 2015 through 2020, topping $203.4 billion worldwide.

SaaS still leads the way in cloud spending

Not surprisingly, software as a Service (SaaS) still dominates cloud computing. IDC says SaaS will capture almost two-thirds of public cloud spending this year. And although that dominance will fade a bit over time, SaaS is still expected to account for 60 percent of cloud spending in 2020. That SaaS spending includes both applications and infrastructure, but application purchases will comprise more than half of public cloud spending through 2020.

But IDC also notes that spending on infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) will grow even faster than SaaS. IaaS is expected to grow 30.1 percent annually from 2015 to 2020, while IaaS spending will expand 32.2 percent a year during the same period.

Breaking down the cloud growth

IDC also breaks down public cloud growth by industry, company size and geographic region.

“In 2017, discrete manufacturing, professional services, and banking will lead the pack in global spending on public cloud services,” said Eileen Smith, IDC’s program director of Customer Insights and Analysis in a statement. “Combined, these three industries will account for one-third of worldwide public cloud services spending, or $41.2 billion.”

But through 2020, the industries expanding their public cloud spending most dramatically are slightly different, IDC notes. Professional services tops this list with 23.9 percent annual growth, followed by retail’s 22.8 percent annual growth, media’s 22.5 percent annual growth rate, and telecoms’ 22.1 percent annual growth rate. But overall, public cloud growth is widespread across industries, with 18 of the 20 industries tracked due to enjoy annual growth rates of more than 20 from 2015 to 2020.

Significantly, while some critics still question the public cloud’s role in large companies, enterprises with more than 1,000 employees will account for more than half of cloud spending, IDC predicts, and enjoy the fastest annual growth of any segment: 23.2 percent.

Any way you slice it, this all adds up to systemic, widespread, sustained growth for the public cloud

Catching up to the U.S. public cloud market

Finally, the U.S. is due to remain the largest public cloud market, generating more than 60 percent of total worldwide revenues. The Asia/Pacific region (excluding Japan) and Latin America will grow cloud spending the fastest. However, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) is expected to grow 28 percent annually, while Latin America’s cloud spending will rise 26.6 percent a year, IDC predicts.

Once again, though, the numbers show that cloud growth is widespread, with seven of the eight regions IDC tracks expected to grow more than 20 percent a year. The U.S. is the only laggard, just missing that 20 percent mark with 19.9 percent growth.

“European companies have been slower in the adoption of cloud when compared to their U.S. counterparts,” explained Serena Da Rold, IDC’s senior research manager of Customer Insights and Analysis. “But now the market is maturing, and it is the right time for cloud providers to target and capture the untapped segments.”

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Paul, F (2017), The cloud is growing 7 times faster than the rest of IT, Network World, viewed 21 February 2017, <http://www.networkworld.com/article/3172693/cloud-computing/the-cloud-is-growing-7-times-faster-than-the-rest-of-it.html>.