The export agency of the Irish government responsible for development and growth of Irish enterprises in overseas markets, Enterprise Ireland, held a one-day technology forum in Riyadh last month, providing a platform for Irish and Gulf business communities to network and share best practices.

Beneath the surface
Submarine cables are the unseen lattice that make communication across the globe possible. Their impact is felt by Internet and mobile users everywhere. How will this network of cables grow in the future?

Yahoo acquires ad platform BrightRoll for $640 million
Yahoo is acquiring the video advertising platform BrightRoll for $640 million, in a move that could help to offset declines in its traditional display ad business.

Gartner identifies top strategic 2015 tech trends
Gartner has released its predictions for the top 10 technology trends that will be strategic for most organisations in 2015. …

Microsoft phases out Nokia brand
Microsoft is officially phasing out the Nokia brand name, following a post on Nokia France’s Facebook page saying that the account will soon change its name to “Microsoft Lumia.”

Microsoft relaunches ‘productive’ MSN
Microsoft has unveiled its revamped MSN portal that combines access to personal productivity tools and content from a large number of providers.

The problem with e-mail
Research has highlighted the increased danger of phishing scams from travel and banking websites as well as social media. Agari highlights the banks and industries that are most and least trustworthy.

Gartner: EMEA server sales rise again
Server shipments and revenue grew for the first time since 2011 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, a trend likely to continue in the second half of the year, according Gartner.

5 unanswered questions about massive Russian hacker database
There’s still much that’s unclear about Tuesday’s revelation that a small group of hackers in Russia have amassed a database of 1.2 billion stolen …

Twitter acquires image search firm Madbits
Madbits, a year-old company that uses deep learning technology to assign relevant information to raw images, has sold itself to …

Why Amazon should widen focus
Ashish Panjabi, CEO, Jacky’s Electronics, discusses the online retail scenario across markets.

UK rushes data retention bill
The U.K. government has pushed through a new surveillance law to replace one a European Union court said interfered with fundamental privacy rights – but, say civil rights campaigners, the new law is worse than the one it replaces.

Lot of smoke, little Fire
Online editor James Dartnell gives his take on Amazon’s much-anticipated entry into the smartphone market.

Dell introduces mid-size and software-defined storage arrays
Dell plans to expand its storage lineup with a series of mid-sized SAN arrays and a portfolio of software-defined storage systems, furthering two prominent industry trends.

Up to capacity
As companies adopt technologies such as cloud and virtualisation, the practice of planning for network capacity to meet the bandwidth and application performance needs must also change. Network capacity planning and management has long been considered the black magic of the IT industry. How does one predict the future? How can you prepare for the additional demand for resources while avoiding over-provisioning?

The growth of Google
So the word’s out. By the end of May it emerged that Google will invest between $20-30 billion in acquisitions of non-US-based companies, following its 2013 disclosure to the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission of the plans.

HTC unveils its new Desire 310
With a navy blue design with a quad-core processor, HTC BlinkFeed, and HTC Video Highlights, the latest addition to the Desire family makes some of the HTC One series’ most features available in a more affordable handset.

Amazon enters smartphone market with ‘Fire’
Amazon unveiled its highly anticipated entry into the smartphone market Wednesday, a handset called “Fire.” The phone, announced by CEO …
RME crowns channel stars at Partner Excellence Awards
Amid much fanfare, Reseller Middle East (RME) celebrated its fifth annual Partner Excellence Awards, at Emirates Towers, Dubai.

Iranian hackers create fake news organisation
A suspected Iranian hacker group seeded Facebook and LinkedIn with bogus profiles of women and created a fake online news organisation to get digitally closer to more than 2,000 people whom it wanted to spy on.