Monthly Industry Roundup: Cloud Technology News from January 2021
By WatServ
January 31, 2021
Here is a list of our top cloud technology news stories from the industry.
Azure Availability Zones in the South Central US datacenter region add resiliency
January 26, 2021 | John Nisi, General Manager and COO of US Cloud and Enterprise Business
Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure Availability Zones in the South Central US datacenter region. These zones are physical locations that consist of one or more datacenters equipped with independent power, cooling and networking. Providing protection against datacenter failures and unplanned downtime, they offer 99.99% virtual machine uptime.
Targeted Phishing Attacks Strike High-Ranking Company Executives
January 26, 2021 | Ravie Lakshmanan
High ranking company execs in the manufacturing, real estate, finance, government and technology sectors have been found to be a target of a phishing attack that began in May 2020. The attack relies on credential harvesting by sending fake Office365 password expiration notifications.
Azure Cost Management and Billing updates – January 2021
January 26, 2021 | Michael Flanakin, Program Manager, Azure Cost Management
Azure has made a series of updates to Azure Cost Management and Billing to help customers understand where they’re accruing costs, where they’re spending too much, and how they can optimize costs to do more with less… because no one likes a surprise bill.
Microsoft smashes Wall Street’s expectations with $43bn sales bonanza
January 27, 2021 | Thomas Claburn
Microsoft has exceeded all expectations by posting $43.1bn in revenue in its second-quarter fiscal 2021 financial results. This is up 17%, which Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, credits to “a second wave of digital transformation”. Within this, server products and cloud services revenue increased 26%, and Dynamics products and cloud services revenue grew 21%.
Researchers Discover Raindrop – 4th Malware Linked to SolarWinds Attack
January 19, 2021 | Ravie Lakshmanan
Another new malware strain has been discovered as part of the SolarWinds breach, and this one is designed to spread the malware onto other computers in the victim’s network. Being called “Raindrop”, it acts as a dropper for the Cobalt Strike Beacon. Though the names of the organizations impacted have not been released, Symantec reported to have found samples on a victim system running computer access and management software.
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