Acronis Partners with Roborace to Provide Cyber Protection Support for the AI-Powered Motorsport Championship

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, today announced its partnership with Roborace to provide easy, efficient, and secure AI-powered cyber protection solutions to the world’s first autonomous electric racing car competition. The company also announced the launch of a new Roborace team in partnership with the Schaffhausen Institute of Technology (SIT).

Acronis SIT Autonomous became the newest team to join Season Beta, a full twelve-race schedule of the 2020 Roborace Championship, initially postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The new season will add new excitement to the autonomous racing events, including the integration of the mixed reality world Metaverse and an update for Roborace’s autonomous overtaking algorithms, further challenging teams and pushing the boundaries of autonomous mobility.

While the racing will take place on actual race tracks, during the COVID-19 travel restrictions Acronis SIT Autonomous will monitor progress remotely through the Roborace Race Control platform.

“Sport accelerates the development of mobility technologies,” said Ilya Shimchik, Team Principal of Acronis SIT Autonomous Team. “We are proud to push the limits of autonomous driving with its AI and machine learning solutions designed to produce extremely accurate, calculated results. Winning in Roborace often comes down to who has the best and latest technology, and we are confident that together with Acronis we have the world-class technologies we need to compete against the best in the world.”

Acronis will also provide direct support to Roborace, providing the series with a full suite of cyber protection solutions, including backup, disaster recovery, and secure file sync & share. These cyber protection solutions are developed based on the Five Vectors of Cyber Protection: Safety, Accessibility, Privacy, Authenticity, and Security (SAPAS). This ensures that these solutions provide the highest level of safety and security to users, while ensuring that data is both tamper-free and easily accessible for smooth day-to-day operations.

One of these solutions includes Acronis Cyber Protect, an AI-powered integration of data protection and cybersecurity built to protect today's businesses and organizations from modern threats. Its capabilities include fast and reliable backup and full-stack, AI-based protection against malware, with all aspects of protection manageable from a single, easy-to-use console.

“Acronis solutions are a perfect fit for our high-speed, data-driven, and technologically-advanced race series, said Chip Pankow, Chief Championship Officer of Roborace. “Our data is of critical importance to us, and we have full confidence that the Acronis solutions will not only help us protect our data, but also help us optimize our data flow for smoother day-to-day operations.”

Acronis' founder and Executive Officer, Serguei Beloussov, said: “We're excited to be entering two new partnerships with the Roborace series. The world of AI Racing is the perfect testing ground for brand-new technologies like AI and machine learning, and we are happy to be helping the Roborace series get #CyberFit with our cutting-edge cyber protection offerings.”

To find out more about Acronis SIT Autonomous, please visit https://sit.org/sit-autonomous/

To find out more about Acronis #CyberFit Sports, please visit www.acronis.sport

About Acronis

Acronis sets the standard for cyber protection through its innovative backup, anti-ransomware, disaster recovery, storage, and enterprise file sync and share solutions. Enhanced by its award-winning AI-based active protection technology, blockchain-based data authentication and unique hybrid-cloud architecture, Acronis protects all data in any environment – including physical, virtual, cloud, mobile workloads and applications – all at a low and predictable cost.

Founded in Singapore in 2003 and incorporated in Switzerland in 2008, Acronis now has more than 1,500 employees in 33 locations in 18 countries. Its solutions are trusted by more than 5.5 million consumers and 500,000 businesses, including 100% of the Fortune 1000 companies. Acronis’ products are available through 50,000 partners and service providers in over 150 countries in more than 30 languages. Learn more at acronis.com.

About Roborace

ROBORACE is the world’s first racing series for autonomous driving systems. It was created to accelerate the development of autonomous software by pushing the technology to its limits in a range of controlled environments, and to educate and inform the world about autonomous driving. In 2019, the series held six events that drove over 36 million multi-channel video views. 

Voot Select – Home to the Most Engaging Thrillers of 2020, Reveals its Sixth Original – Crackdown

India’s one-stop destination for the best thrillers that digital entertainment has seen this year, Voot Select is all set to reveal their latest Original – Crackdown.  Home to critically acclaimed shows like Asur, Raikar Case, The Gone Game, Voot Select will now have ace Bollywood Director Apoorva Lakhia making his directorial web debut with this action-packed espionage thriller. Crackdown boasts of a fantastic ensemble cast including Saqib Saleem, Iqbal Khan, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Waluscha De Sousa, Rajesh Tailang, and Ankur Bhatia amongst others. The 8 part series goes LIVE  on Voot Select on 23rd September 2020. A slick, high-octane thriller, Crackdown, revolves around a covert operations wing that tries to crack through multiple smaller decoys, to uncover a larger conspiracy that threatens national security. In the process, they find an able ally in a girl whose identity remains a mystery. As seen in the trailer, B-town was buzzing with excitement as the first look of the show that was announced by none other than Superstar and the ‘Shehenshah’ of Bollywood, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. Brimming with high octane action sequences, powerful visuals, and a spectacular cast,  Crackdown boasts of the grandeur and scale that Apoorva Lakhia’s directorial web debut one would expect will offer.

On the launch of the sixth original Ferzad Palia, Head – Voot Select, Youth, Music, and English Entertainment, Viacom18 said,  “Voot Select has in a very short span of time, become synonymous with great quality Originals & curated content. Now we are all set and extremely excited to launch our sixth Original – Crackdown. Apoorva is known to make the most stylish and slick thrillers and has created magic with what he has done in the show Crackdown. It’s an edge of the seat thriller with lots of action which is sure to be nothing short of a big Bollywood blockbuster experience brought to the OTT world.”

Commenting on the release of his digital directorial debut, Apoorva Lakhia said, "I have always loved making action thrillers. It gives me an adrenaline rush just being a part of those sequences and locations. Needless to say, when I read the script written by Chintan Gandhi & Suresh Nair, I was extremely excited. The storyline is great, its action-packed, with great locations and a stellar cast and it is going to stream on one of the biggest digital platforms in the country, Voot Select. What more can one need? Although this is my directorial debut for an OTT platform, the treatment of Crackdown is exactly like a Bollywood blockbuster and I am sure the audience is going to love it as much as we enjoyed making it.”

“Crackdown is like a tribute to the unsung heroes of the nation and I am so proud that I have been given an opportunity to headline a show like this. Apoorva is a fantastic director and he made sure that our preparation for this show was top-notch, whether it was our physical fitness, costumes, or even the locations that we shot in. I am really enjoying being a part of the digital entertainment world as I get a chance to prove my versatility as an actor. I really hope that the audience likes the show and my performance in it.” Saqib Saleem said.

Iqbal Khan said, “After doing a variety of roles on television, working on an action thriller like Crackdown was a different but fantastic experience for me. Apoorva sir is a genius to work with. His working style forces you to become a perfectionist yourself, which was extremely important for this role. This is also my first experience with Voot Select and I have enjoyed working with the entire team. The show looks great, we have all worked very hard in making it look the way it does, so I am really hoping the audience enjoys it as much as we did making it.”

Expressing her joy over her second stint with VOOT Select Shriya Pilgaonkar commented," "This is my second show with Voot Select and I am really happy to be working with the team again. The Gone Game was a fantastic experience and I am thrilled with the response we got for it. And now I'm looking forward to Crackdown which is my first time doing action and a completely different character. Working with a director like Apoorva Lakhia has been an absolute pleasure as well as a huge learning experience. For The Gone Game I was shooting remotely from my house, doing everything by myself and with Crackdown it was exactly the opposite. Real locations, huge sets, a lovely ensemble cast, and of course performing action scenes. I can't wait for the audience to watch the show that was so much fun to shoot and work on. I hope the audience enjoys watching it."

Commenting on her digital debut Waluscha De Sousa said, “I am making my digital debut as an actor with Crackdown, so this experience will always be extremely special to me. I am very thankful to Apoorva and Voot Select for giving me this opportunity. It has been an amazing learning experience for me and I will forever be grateful for that. This show ticks all the boxes from an entertainment quotient and I am sure that the audience will love watching it.”

Commenting on his role, Ankur Bhatia said, “I play the role of one of the antagonists in Crackdown and it has been one of the most challenging roles in my life, because the character trait is completely the opposite of what I am in real life. In the past few years, digital entertainment platforms have been setting huge benchmarks in terms of the content that they are putting up and with Crackdown, Voot Select has pushed those boundaries to a great extent. Apoorva has done such a fab job with not only the show and how it looks but has also got out the best performances from all of us. Needless to say that working with the entire crew was a fantastic experience. Crackdown is an out and out entertainer and I cannot wait for the audience reaction after seeing this one.”

“The role I portray in Crackdown has been a great opportunity for me to explore and showcase my versatility as an actor. Shot on a huge scale at multiple locations with a big cast and crew, definitely made it challenging but a lot of fun as well. Overall a great experience for me. Having worked with Apoorva before, I know firsthand how he pushes everyone to give their 100 percent and brings out their best. But Crackdown has gone a few notches higher and I am really looking forward to the audience reaction to the show.”, said Rajesh Tailang.

Gunshots, chase sequences, blasts, and the constant hand combat, Crackdown is packed with all the right elements that should put it on the top of your binge-watch list.

“Voot Select’s action-packed espionage thriller, Crackdown – Streaming Now.

Tech-Enabled Influencer Marketplace – ClanConnect. ai’s Raises 5 Crores in Seed Round

ClanConnect.ai, a self-serve influencer marketing startup for brands, has successfully closed its seed round of Rs. 5 crores. The funding round was led by Venture Catalysts along with several marquee entrepreneurs including Samrath Bedi, Managing Director of Forest Essentials, Sandeep Aggarwal of Droom.in, Aakrit Vaish, Co-Founder of Haptik, and Haresh Hingorani Chief Creative Officer of Redchillies VFX.

The AI-driven influencer marketing platform is founded by Kunal Kishore Sinha (Co-Founder of Value 360 Communications - one of the fastest-growing integrated PR & communications firms in South Asia), Sagar Pushp (Former Head of Digital Media at Cheil India), and a notable filmmaker Anshai Lal. ClanConnect.ai aims to provide an AI-driven Influencer Marketing platform that helps brands in making their influencer marketing campaigns more data and result oriented. 

ClanConnect.ai is an AI-enabled platform that allows brands to scale their influencer marketing efforts by bringing discovery, management, and performance analytics all in one system. Through targeted searches and customizable analytics, marketers are able to identify and partner with more relevant influencers. ClanConnect.ai offers 30 different parameters to quantify the suitability and reach of each influencer. ClanConnect.ai has introduced a structured process of selecting influencers for brands. It simplifies the interaction between all stakeholders through instant analytics, progress reports, campaign ROIs, and so forth to help everyone derive the necessary learnings.  

The platform further empowers smaller influencers to engage with larger brands, thereby democratizing the process for everyone. Setting the competitive aspects aside, ClanConnect.ai - the influencer marketplace- seeks to collaborate with all stakeholders, including individual influencers, talent hubs, agencies, and brands by bringing them onto a single platform.  

Speaking on the investment, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-Founder and President, Venture Catalysts, said “The Global Influencer Market is valued at 9 billion USD and expected to touch 24 Billion USD by 2025. With pandemic giving boost to digital adoption, we are confident that people-to-people marketing will become a mainstream marketing tool. We are excited to become a part of the ClanConnect.ai’s journey into a fiscally disciplined SaaS business that will solve fundamental problems of this growing industry.”

Adding further Sagar Pushp, Co-Founder & CEO, ClanConnect.ai said, “India has a thriving community of influencers, wherein digital natives are joining from all parts of the country. I strongly believe that this community has an enormous potential that is still untapped. It will do considerably well if provided the right push and proper industry support. A dedicated AI-driven Influencer Marketing and Collaboration Platform is our take to offer the same.”

ClanConnect.ai extends tailor-made solutions for different sectors including Automobile, Fashion, Travel, Fitness, Food, Technology, Lifestyle, and Entertainment, alongside others. It adds tangible value with an automated system that eliminates manual follow-ups and creates detailed reports, measurable goals, and automated matches. Check out the ClanConnect.ai platform now!

About ClanConnect.ai:

ClanConnect.ai is India’s first and only AI-driven smart platform for influencer marketing. It is a one-stop platform for influencer marketing campaign management for both influencers and brands. ClanConnect.aI facilitates seamless collaboration between content creators and marketers to optimize the value of their branded content. The platform is backed by industry veterans and co-founded by Kunal Kishore Sinha, Sagar Pushp, and Anshai Lal.

Zee Live Partners with Zee Studios to Launch ‘Supermoon Drive-In’ this October

Enhancing the movie-viewing experience for audiences in the new normal, Zee Live, the live events vertical of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. in partnership with Zee Studios has announced ‘Supermoon Drive In’, a first of its kind drive in theatre experience following the global standards of safety, social distancing measures and sanitization, keeping in mind the utmost safety of viewers. The drive in will also have a contact-less ticketing process along with contact-less F&B to ensure a safe environment for the movie goers.

Supermoon Drive-In will offer the finest moving-viewing experience for audience within the safety of their cars, following all the required hygiene and safety norms as advised by the Government of India. With limited out of home entertainment options available over the last six months, movie goers have been missing the excitement of catching the latest flick at a movie theatre. To cater to this need gap, Zee Live & Zee Studios will host the premieres of the Bollywood romance action film ‘Khaali Peeli’ and the Tamil drama ‘Ka Pae Ranasingam’ at its first drive-in movie festival.

To be hosted from October 2-4, 2020, Supermoon Drive In will feature 11 shows over 3 days in 2 cities. Audiences can catch their favourite films on the below mentioned location & dates:

·         *Gurgaon:  Backyard Sports Club, sector 59 | 2nd -4th Oct Khaali Peeli

·         *Bangalore: Phoenix Marketcity, Whitefield | 2nd-4th Oct Khaali Peeli & Ka Pae Ranasingam

Tickets available on BookMyShow and Insider.com

Speaking on the launch of the initiative, Swaroop Banerjee, COO and business head, Zee Live said, “We are excited to launch ‘Supermoon Drive In’ at a time when there is an existing dearth of authentic theatre-viewing experience. A movie outing has always been one of the most common forms of outdoor environment which the audiences were missing owing to the lockdown. We are delighted to associate with Zee Studios to bring in two very exciting movies with a talented star cast. With this partnership we aim to give our audiences the freedom to step out of their homes while maintaining the necessary safety and hygiene standards of the whole experience from the comforts of their car.”

Shariq Patel, CEO, Zee Studios added, “We are exhilarated to host the largest outdoor movie premiers in the country with the release of ‘Khaali Peeli’ and ‘Ka Pae Ranasingam’. Both these movies with its stellar cast and engaging story lines are sure to strike a chord with our viewers who were missing the grandeur of cinema experience. The entire event is going to serve as an exciting and much-needed experience for all movie aficionados.”

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Launches Its Much-Awaited Compact SUV in India - The All-New Toyota Urban Cruiser

Features

 ·         All-new compact SUV is powered with new powerful K-Series 1.5 litre, four-cylinder Petrol Engine with choice of seamless Manual Transmission (MT)/Automatic Transmission (AT)

·         All AT variants equipped with Advanced Lithium-Ion Battery with Integrated Starter Generator (ISG) comprising Torque Assist Function, Idle Start Stop Function, Brake Energy Regeneration Function for enhanced fuel efficiency

·         Distinct and dynamic Two-Slat Wedge Cut Front Grille with Chrome Surrounds & Grey Finish with trapezoidal bold fog area and R16 Diamond Cut Alloy Wheels for a wide and strong SUV presence

An LED light package comprising dual-chamber LED Projector Headlamps with dual-function LED Daytime Running Lights (DRL) cum indicators, LED Fog Lamps, LED Rear Split Type Tail Lamps and LED High-mounted Stop Lamp to provide great looks and safer drive

·         Dual Front Airbags, Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD) and Advanced Body Structure for ensuring the utmost safety of passengers

·         Alluring and plush dual-tone Dark Brown Premium Interiors, ergonomically laid out and wide spacious cabin for added comfort

·         Complete entertainment and connected experience with Smart Playcast touchscreen audio with Android Auto/Apple Carplay and Smartphone-based Navigation and reverse parking camera

·         Rain Sensing Wipers, Cruise Control and Electrochromic Inside Rear View Mirror (IRVM) to add to amazing comfort and convenience

·         In addition to top-end features, smart entry with an engine push start and stop button and Auto AC are standard features across all variants

·         All-new Urban Cruiser available in exclusive to Toyota mono-tone colour of Rustic Brown and special dual-tone colours - Rustic Brown with Sizzling Black Roof and Groovy Orange with Sunny White Roof

·         Also available in a range of other eye-catching mono-tone colours - Suave Silver, Groovy Orange, Iconic Grey, Spunky Blue and Sunny White and exciting dual-tone Spunky Blue with Sizzling Black Roof

·         Price ranges from Rs. 840,000 to Rs. 11,30,000 (Ex-showroom, Delhi)

·         Dual Tone, available only in the premium variant of both MT & AT options, are priced at Rs. 998,000 and Rs. 11,55,000 respectively

·         The best-in-class Petrol fuel efficiency of 18.76 kmpl for the Automatic variant

·         The Urban Cruiser is backed by a superior warranty of 3 years or 1 lakh km, whichever comes earlier

Key Features of the All-New Toyota Urban Cruiser

Performance Features:

·         All-New K-Series 1.5 L, 4 Cylinder Gasoline Engine

·         Choice of MT or AT on all grades

·         All AT variants equipped with advanced Lithium-Ion Battery with ISG comprising Torque Assist Function, Idle Start Stop Function, Brake Energy Regeneration Function for enhanced fuel efficiency

·         Superior Fuel Efficiency of 17.03 kmpl (MT) and 18.76 kmpl (AT)*

·         Advanced Body Structure to ensure superior crash resiliency, higher rigidity and better Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) performance

Exterior Features:

·         Dual Chamber LED Projector Headlamps with Chrome Accents

·         Two-Slat Wedge Cut Front Grille with Chrome Surrounds & Grey Finish

·         Dual Function LED DRL & Turn Indicator in Headlamps

·         Split LED Rear Combination Lamps

·         Front LED Fog lamps with Chrome Accents

·         16-inch Diamond Cut Alloy Wheels

·         Gun Metal Grey Finished Roof Rails

·         Stylish Dual Tone Exterior

Safety & Security Features:

·         Dual Front Airbags

·         ABS with EBD

·         Advanced Body Structure

·         Electrochromic IRVM

·         Hill Hold Control

·         Reverse Parking Camera with Display in Audio

·         ISOFIX Child Seat Restraint System

·         Anti-Pinch Driver Side Power Window

Interior Features:

·         Dual Tone Interior

·         New 17.78 cm Smart Playcast Touchscreen Audio (with Android Auto/Apple Carplay) and Smartphone-based Navigation

·         Premium Dark Brown Fabric Seats

·         4 Door Speakers and 2 Tweeters

·         Front Centre Sliding Armrest with Storage

·         Combimeter Vibe Lights (5 colours)

·         Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel

·         Upper Cooled Glove Box

Comfort & Convenience:

·         Smart Entry with Engine Push Start/Stop button

·         Rain Sensing Wipers

·         Auto AC

·         60:40 Split Rear Seats and Rear Seat Flip and Fold

·         Cruise Control

·         Driver Seat Height Adjust

·         Outside Rear-view Mirror Electric Adjust / Electric Retract & Auto fold on Lock

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today launched its youngest SUV, the all-new Toyota Urban Cruiser to fortify its offerings in the segment and further cater to its growing number of young customers. The Toyota Urban Cruiser is the second model to be launched in India under the global Toyota-Suzuki alliance following the emphatic success of the premium hatchback, the Toyota Glanza.

The #UrbanCruiser is designed for today’s young achievers who are aspirational and believe in the concept that #RespectStandsTall. The much-awaited compact SUV was launched in a stellar event today graced by TKM Managing Director Mr. Masakazu Yoshimura, Mr. Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales and Service and Mr. Tadashi Asazuma, Vice President, Sales and Marketing. The special guest of honour, youth icon and popular Indian superstar and singer Mr. Ayushmann Khurrana, also took part in the launch event and spoke about his inspiring journey from being a Radio Jockey to a successful actor.

The all-new Urban Cruiser will feature the new powerful K-Series 1.5 litre four-cylinder Petrol Engine and will be available in a choice of Manual Transmission (MT) and Automatic Transmission (AT) with a superior fuel efficiency of 17.03 kmpl and 18.76 kmpl respectively. The compact SUV offers all the high-end features that customers today seek in their cars. Moreover, it offers an early entry into the Toyota SUV family for the young and comes with Toyota’s famed global standards of sales and after-sales service. As always, safety is a top priority for Toyota – the Urban Cruiser offers Dual Front Airbags, ABS with EBD, Advanced Body Structure, Electrochromic IRVM, Hill Hold Control, Reverse Parking Camera with Display in Audio and ISOFIX Child Seat Restraint System.

Sharing his views on the launch of Toyota Urban Cruiser, Mr. Masakazu Yoshimura, Managing Director, TKM said, “Our entry into the compact SUV space comes at a time when the segment has gained much popularity due to its body type and superior road presence thereby garnering greater connect and appeal among today’s youth. At TKM, the focus is always on delivering the best products and services to our customers who have remained loyal to the brand over the years while looking for ways to welcome more customers, particularly the youth, to the Toyota family. The launch of the all-new Toyota Urban Cruiser is an important step in that direction. It is our ambition to enable more people to buy and experience a Toyota vehicle and our renowned after-sales service, which is a differentiator for us in this segment. We will continue to emphasize on introducing ever-better cars, better technologies and environment-friendly products and services. Our alliance with Suzuki allows us to surge ahead on that path while building a self-sustaining local ecosystem of suppliers and partners.”

Speaking on the new offering, Mr. Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales and Service, TKM, said, “We are truly humbled by the faith reposed by the customers who made the bookings without even knowing the price points and the full list of features. To demonstrate our gratitude and provide an early-movers advantage for customers who pre-booked the Urban Cruiser, we recently announced the ‘Respect Package’, no-cost periodic maintenance for up to two years (or 20,000 kms whichever is earlier), that our customers are appreciating. Further, we are confident that the all-new Toyota Urban Cruiser will exceed their expectations and delight them in every aspect, be it performance, comfort and convenience or safety. We are glad to bring our new offering in time for customers to make their festive season purchase decisions. We are anticipating increased demand for SUVs in the coming months and years ahead.  The Toyota Urban Cruiser will play an important role in catering to this demand particularly from first-time Toyota buyers who are brand conscious and want to experience an international brand.”

Bookings for the Toyota Urban Cruiser are open. Customers can either book the car online (www.toyotabharat.com) or visit their nearest Toyota dealership.

Druva Delivers Industry’s First SaaS-Based Data Protection for Kubernetes

Druva, Inc., the leader in Cloud Data Protection and Management, today announced beta support for Kubernetes workloads which delivers complete application protection that is accessible by all teams, including the central IT team and DevOps. Offered through Druva Cloud Platform, users can quickly recover, migrate, or clone Kubernetes workloads, alongside existing data center, and cloud workloads from a unified  interface. Combining the simplicity and savings of a cloud-native architecture, companies can now unify data protection for emerging applications, traditional workloads, and hybrid environments.

Kubernetes, the dominant container orchestrator with more than 89 percent market share according to a recent report from Sysdig, allows users to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications with a highly modular open-source architecture. However, users still lack an easy-to-manage enterprise data protection solution to secure the entire application, including dependencies on external storage and databases. Teams also need to protect their Kubernetes workloads against threats including user error, site outages, and ransomware attacks. Now, instead of adopting yet another point backup tool specifically for Kubernetes, businesses can protect Kubernetes applications and their underlying infrastructure within Druva alongside their existing workloads.

As the industry’s first SaaS-based data protection for Kubernetes, users can expect features including:

Application consistent data protection

Comprehensive application protection, including resources inside and outside Kubernetes clusters

Secure SaaS management, with a platform built on AWS for global control

Centralized protection, management, and compliance with self-service recovery for DevOps and application owners

Unified protection for Kubernetes, data center, cloud and device workloads

"Businesses are expanding their use of containers and Kubernetes to stateful applications, but existing protection tools are siloed and do not meet enterprise protection requirements,” said Stephen Manley, Chief Technologist, Druva. “With Kubernetes usage on the rise, too many production workloads lack adequate data protection. Now, central teams can securely and seamlessly incorporate Kubernetes protection into their existing policies, while enabling application owners to recover, migrate, and clone applications when necessary.”

Druva’s application-centric solution identifies and protects critical resources both inside and outside Kubernetes deployments. As application owners build and update their environment, Druva automatically and securely stores snapshots of the entire environment, so applications or operations teams can quickly and easily recover their applications. Moreover, these snapshots can be restored to a new location for migration, cloning, or troubleshooting of production workloads. Finally, the central team can fulfill compliance requirements with retention of backups in offsite locations, all through Druva's intuitive user interface.

“Now that Kubernetes has become the major container orchestration framework, IT and application development teams are embracing enterprise container platforms to help build new apps and modernize existing apps on distributed Kubernetes clusters,” said Phil Goodwin, Research Director, IDC. “In the race to adopt containers, unfortunately, protection often gets left behind. Druva aims to offer a singular solution that can fold Kubernetes protection to an existing data management system, offering a compelling option for businesses expanding their use of container workloads.”

Availability

Druva customers can protect production application deployments by choosing the “Kubernetes” option in CloudRanger. Early access will be available in Q4, with wider availability expected in the first half of 2021.

Druva at VMworld 2020

Watch our live session on Kubernetes with Stephen Manley on Wednesday, Sept. 30 and Thursday, Oct. 1, and learn more about Druva’s data protection capabilities for VMware here.

Additional Information

Read more about DevOps with Kubernetes in the cloud on the Druva blog

Listen to our latest podcast episode, where we dive into Kubernetes and data protection

Learn why the Druva Cloud Platform is the data protection solution for your data center, cloud, and endpoint workloads

About Druva

Druva delivers Data Protection and Management for the cloud era. Druva Cloud Platform is built on AWS and offered as-a-Service; customers drive down costs by up to 50 percent by freeing themselves from the burden of unnecessary hardware, capacity planning, and software management. Druva is trusted worldwide by over 4,000 companies at the forefront of embracing the cloud. Druva is a privately held company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and is funded by Sequoia Capital, Viking Global Investors, Tenaya Capital, Riverwood Capital and Nexus Partners. 

ServiceNow Delivers New Native Workflows in Microsoft Teams to Power the Future of Work

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW), the company that makes work, work better for people, today announced the expansion of its partnership with Microsoft to deliver elevated digital experiences that meet employees where they are. At Microsoft Ignite 2020, ServiceNow introduced new workflows embedded in Microsoft Teams to improve employee productivity with seamless self-service and faster case resolution. Powered by ServiceNow’s leading digital workflow platform, the Now Platform, the new capabilities also improve agent productivity by enabling them to more effectively collaborate and complete key tasks in Microsoft Teams.

Teams is Microsoft’s fastest-growing business app to date. This was true in 2018, long before lockdowns started driving up numbers for remote work and learning. As of April 29, Microsoft Teams had 75 million daily active users, up 70% from just six weeks prior. That month, Microsoft saw more than 200 million meeting participants in a single day, generating more than 4.1 billion meeting minutes.

“We're helping customers solve for once-in-a-generation challenges as they capitalize on the promise of digital transformation,” said Chirantan “CJ” Desai, chief product officer at ServiceNow. “We are doubling down on Teams to find innovative ways for workflows to elevate engagement, culture, collaboration, and productivity – no matter where people are.”

“Now more than ever, people need to stay connected and organized together from anywhere,” said Rajesh Jha, executive vice president, Experiences and Devices, Microsoft. “ServiceNow is delivering end-to-end Teams experiences for the new normal. For example, meeting extensibility lets service agents more easily interact with the ServiceNow platform, collaborate in group chats, channels, and conferences, and respond to incidents.”

The new capabilities announced today include:

Employee experiences in Microsoft Teams: Companies want to provide employees with support for whatever tools and devices they choose to use. By embedding ServiceNow natively within Teams, employees can submit requests, receive updates on in-progress requests, take action on notifications, chat with virtual agents for automated assistance, and connect with live agents when virtual agents cannot assist – all without ever leaving Microsoft Teams.

Agent capabilities in Microsoft Teams: Agents spend most of their time in ServiceNow IT Service Management but want to more easily leverage the collaboration functionality in Teams to communicate with employees and collaborate with other agents. Now, agents can use Notify to launch the Teams client to engage with peers directly, push major incident updates to business stakeholders, and open direct chats with employees from an incident or request.  When used with the new Teams Meeting Extensibility feature, ServiceNow workflows enable agents to be more productive by resolving major incidents directly from within a Microsoft Teams meeting. 

The new capabilities are available for select customers as part of the Beta program today. 

“Organizations are relying on collaboration platforms more than ever before. Companies like ServiceNow are creating tools that complement and enhance the Microsoft Teams experience. Accenture is eager to test and deploy this new offering,” said Thomas Bruss, Director of Enterprise Services at Accenture.

Today’s updates come on the heels of the ServiceNow Now Platform Paris release, which features several high-demand Microsoft integrations to help enterprises accelerate their digital transformation journeys. Customers can use these integrations to:

Optimize hybrid cloud spending and usage with Microsoft Azure support for ServiceNow Cloud Insights,

Streamline new hire onboarding with ServiceNow employee experiences and Microsoft Azure Active Directory, and

Gain greater control and visibility into organizational assets with ServiceNow Software Asset Management and Microsoft Azure Active Directory.

Additionally, the ServiceNow Virtual Agent Lite plugin for Microsoft Teams, also released in Paris, offers a limited version of Virtual Agent for IT Service Management standard customers. It launched with three prebuilt conversations for common IT support requests. These keyword-based conversations run in the web chat client and in a virtual agent messaging integration with Microsoft Teams.  

Today’s announcement furthers the companies’ partnership announcement from 2019 to accelerate digital transformation for joint customers. Customers are accessing the value of this partnership with more than 25 joint solutions available between Microsoft and ServiceNow today. The companies have committed to continued ServiceNow-Teams innovation to enable richer employee experiences from anywhere, at scale.