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Panzura and XtndNet need partners to fight for justice
A couple of vendors with good intentions are looking to build up their channels
Reaching out to the channel is always a way to grow the business, and a couple of vendors have indicated that they are in reseller building mode. XtndNet helps the under-connected, while Panzura saves the unprotected.
Sensitive data protector Panzura has invented a backup plan for victims of ransomware attacks, empowering them by depriving the criminals of their leverage. The developer of this crime-fighting service, CEO Jill Stelfox, said the company’s mission is to build a system that will make ransomware obsolete. Now it’s looking for UK partners so that ransom gangs can no longer take prisoners.
Its story seemed to go over well at the annual Amazon Web Services show, AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas.
Researcher Gartner predicts that 85% of global companies will embrace the cloud faith by 2025, committing to plans that expose them to risk as they use cloud-native designs and technologies. Panzura is one of the first companies to recognise a flaw that leaves them vulnerable to someone hacking into their system. Companies that hyperscale can’t secure themselves at the same speed. You can spin up a server in a few clicks, but correcting all the settings can take slightly longer.
As a result, companies can be hijacked and their data held to ransom. But if and when they are, the data can now be restored before the hackers have typed up their delivery note. Panzura’s service takes snapshots of data blocks and can reassemble uninfected files, which in effect renders the data “immutable”.
The Panzura global file system would, logically, enable mobile operators to shrug off any attempts to grab them by the data assets, because the data managers who mastermind the telco cloud could then wriggle free of the attempted hold by the ransom demander.
With the help of AWS, Panzura can restore the telco cloud of the affected victim within minutes, developing data safety strategies for public and private enterprises that needed to move their workloads into the cloud. “We’ve never lost a file, and we share a common goal to make the world safe for data,” said Stelfox.
Howard Wright, VP and global head of startups at AWS, said: “Security continues to be paramount for us.”
Panzura is for those who require this level of data protection, said Wright. Cloud security was a talking point at AWS’s annual show.
Another startup seeking to improve the state of the world is XtndNet, which was founded by a group of internet, satellite and telecom professionals from the US, the UK and Europe. They united around a cause – to solve the longstanding challenge of under-connectivity. Travis Mooney-Evans designed the project, was the principal consultant for developing its infrastructure and serves as XtndNet’s CEO.
The firm addresses a problem that is often overlooked. The UK has struggled to deliver rural broadband for years, and the government estimates that more than 500,000 properties cannot currently reach the universal service obligation standard of 10Mb download.
Mooney-Evans’s mission is to lift the tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of people in the UK out of broadband poverty before 2025. It is only two years until all the legacy network infrastructure – such as the copper cabling BT often uses for its 5Mbps broadband services – are discontinued.
“This isn’t a project where I’ll be able to retire on the profits,” said Mooney-Evans – but it’s a mission with a purpose.
