In the company’s largest funding round yet, converged software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) and network security provider Cato Networks, which also claims to be the pioneer of secure access service edge (SASE) network solutions, has announced a $77m funding round from the venture capital community and its own senior management.

The round, which takes the total funding above $200m, was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with the participation of Aspect Ventures, Greylock Partners, Singtel Innov8, US Venture Partners (USVP), and Cato CEO and co-founder Shlomo Kramer.

Cato said the key differentiator between its solutions and legacy networks built from multiple point solutions and telco services was that its technology connects and secures an entire enterprise including remote users, sites, applications and clouds with a global service. It has also claimed the first true implementation of Gartner’s SASE framework that converges SD-WAN and network security for all enterprise edges into the

With the completion of work in Albania, Vodafone has finalised its ambition to build a single digital network architecture across all its European business regions and 21 markets.

The reason behind the build, it said, was that operating a reliable, agile network that can be more efficiently upgraded to maintain the quality of coverage has never been more important. It said this was especially the case as customers across Europe relied more on Vodafone to provide critical connectivity and communications services during the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis.

As a result of the build-out project carried out with virtual infrastructure software provider VMware, Vodafone Group said the network virtual infrastructure (NVI) now enables it to design, build, test and deploy next-generation functions more securely, and which internal analysis and reporting in March 2020 calculates to be around 40% quicker. In addition, the infrastructure automation is said to help limit the

Significant reductions in transport usage caused by the coronavirus pandemic are set to negatively impact many industries for an indeterminate period and it will be no different for mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) in 2020 – but there are prospects for the sector to see a rebound next year, says Juniper Research.

The analyst’s latest study, Mobility-as-a-service: business models, vendor strategies & market forecasts 2020-2027, found that despite the expected restricted growth in 2020 of MaaS platforms – which integrate transport services such as buses, taxis, rail and metro into a single app – a dramatic return will be realised from 2021, with revenues generated set to exceed $52bn by 2027, up from $405m in 2020.

One of the key trends of the coronavirus outbreak has been the unprecedented demand for fixed and mobile services. On 25 March, pan-European operator Vodafone said it had seen an increase of 30% in internet

Nordic Tech Startups face cutting staff numbers, with falling sales and a lack of funding amid the Covid-19 pandemic, according to research from Danske Bank.

These job cuts are inevitable as sales slow amid the pandemic and investment capital dries up. For many entrepreneurs, this will be the first time they have faced such financial challenges, said the research report.

“The survey shows that the biggest and most pressing concern [for startups] is declining sales in general, which trigger a lower revenue,” said Danske Bank. “In addition, business owners are particularly concerned about the current and future funding opportunities and the risk of them as founders having to staff down among their employees.”

A total of 468 startups in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Northern Ireland were questioned. Most startups surveyed (81%) expect income loss during the current crisis. Over a third (37%) questioned by the bank expect to lay

The technology priorities of UK businesses are centred squarely on the cyber security challenges presented by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, in particular those related to securing the millions of people around the country who are now working from home during the nationwide lockdown, which is entering its third week.

This is according to data drawn from Google Trends global search history data by Redscan, a City of London-based provider of managed threat detection, incident response and penetration testing services, which served to highlighted the extent to which many organisations have utterly failed to prepare a business continuity plan.

Currently, coronavirus-related phishing scams are more searched for in the UK than scams relating to global brands such as Amazon and Apple, and HM Revenue & Customs-related phishing scams are particularly widely searched for, possibly linked to the introduction of financial support packages for workers and businesses. This coincided

The impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is likely to be with us for far longer than the lockdown – and will bring many changes to our lives. That will start with the way we work. Remote working has been an option for many people for a long time, but has not naturally become the norm or ubiquitous.

However, reports from China suggest that habits formed during its three months of lockdown are already starting to change behaviours as people return to work. So, what impact are we likely to see from Covid-19 on our use of technology in the short, medium and longer term?