By now you’ve probably seen or read Sir Keir Starmer’s speech on the Government of the United Kingdom’s AI Opportunities Action Plan.
We’re excited as many are with the potential that AI can bring. In the Prime Minister’s speech his opening remarks were on the diagnosis of a stroke patient who’s blood clot was identified in three minutes using AI. It’s a fine example of how AI can be used to make excellent, meaningful analysis of data quickly and accurately with the overall effect on improving human life.
As with any technological development though we do feel that it’s only appropriate to consider what issues may arise. For example AI systems can be used to generate false or misleading media, harbour biases against certain population demographics that impact quality of life, and not to mention the increasing power draw that these systems require just for the computational power required.
We welcome a slower and more considered approach to AI whilst balancing against ethical considerations. Whilst we agree that AI has huge potential for society and that the UK should strive to be at the forefront of the technological revolution we are also very much aware that it may bring terrible consequences if not handled with ethics in mind. The AI Safety Institute’s safety tests will undoubtedly be closely monitored in the ongoing effort to ensure the considered development of AI technology.
With the announcement also came commitments to relaxing planning permissions to build new data centres in “AI Growth Zones” and support STEM subjects in the education system. Again, we welcome such moves in support of the UK’s IT industry.
As a company Digital Incite and Matter Ltd will be closely following new announcements and developments with AI. For our consultants it forms a core aspect of CPD activities in view of augmenting skills in a variety of sought after IT capabilities. Whether this be for making your organisation’s data available for analysis or further deployment of IT infrastructure we’re here to help as always so do get in touch to discuss your requirements.
What do you feel about the speech? Please let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear from you.
We hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year. At Digital Incite and Matter Ltd we’re back for 2025 and ready to take on some fresh challenges.
Some of the IT trends we’re predicting and will be discussing in 2025:
The Role of Generative AI
Nobody can escape the discussion on the role that generative AI is playing out in the workplace. We may still not have the golden goal of general AI but generative AI has done enough to transform society already. Whilst we’re proud to say that all our blog posts to date are all human written we also need to be prepared for a future where AI can do significant things in place of a human.
There are a number of environmental and social issues to deal with here. We’re concerned about over-dependence on such technologies and the massive amounts of energy and hardware needed to make it work. We’re also looking closely about the impact generative AI may have on our society. It’ll be very difficult or even impossible to tell an AI generated story, image or even a video apart from a human made one very soon. With our social and democratic systems already tested to their limits we’ll be paying close attention to generative AI’s impact to balance massive potential with unforeseen dangers.
Who’s Prem is it Anyway?
We’ve noticed a trend whereby cloud contracts signed during the pandemic are being reviewed and considerable issues found with skyrocketing costs and under-delivered services. Frequently we are hearing about workloads being “repatriated” back to a private datacentre with significant cost savings, more reliable service and no issues with vendor lock-ins.
In 2025 we’ll be undoubtedly working with clients that will be carefully considering their choice of datacentre. To keep on premise, move to co-location or re-architect for cloud? Our goal for 2025 will be to make sure we help clients reach the right choice that balances security, environmental and cost efficiency whilst never compromising on data availability.
Continuing Full Fibre and 5G Rollout
It’s hard to believe it’s been around 25 years since BT first launched their “Openworld” ADSL service in the UK. Available to around 30% of UK households when initially launched for £39.99 per month way back in the year 2000. Inflation wise we think that would be around £74 per month in 2024! Subscribers could look forward to a 512 kbps download speed with 256 kbps upload. Often described as a whopping 10 times faster than the pinnacle that was 56k dial-up. Not to mention you didn’t clog the phone up when surfing the net.
25 years later and the market for broadband is now significantly different. Technologies such as XGS-PON that enable speeds of up to 10Gbps not just for businesses but also for households were unthinkable back at the turn of the millennium. Meanwhile mobile operators have been busy building 5G networks that enable low latency internet access of speeds nearing the gigabit mark.
We’re excited to see the applications of both “full fibre” and 5G products as enablers of the future workspace. Internet connections that are faster, far more reliable and consume less energy in operation will make doing business anywhere in the world no just possible but indeed the default. Gone is the world of centralised operations. Your office is truly anywhere. We’re also excited about the green aspect of such technologies which can reduce the need for travel as well as making digital distribution even more possible.
SQL Server 2025
Last but by no means the least is SQL Server 2025. The next iteration of Microsoft’s tried and tested RDBMS solution. We’ve already covered some of the main additions and changes we can expect from SQL Server 2025 in our earlier write up.
We’re looking forward to testing SQL Server 2025 out sometime soon. Upon its release we also will be supporting the business and charitable communities out with upgrades and new builds from day one.
If you choose to remain on an earlier version of SQL Server we’re also here to help. We can offer troubleshooting, health checking and maintenance on your existing SQL Server instances too.
What Else?
Of course we’re expecting some surprises throughout the year. Technology always has the ability to bring in unexpected twists and turns. Regardless of what 2025 brings Digital Incite and Matter Ltd are here to help you and your organisation in 2025.
For a free, no-obligation initial remote consultation please contact us today to discuss your requirements.
Please also feel free to drop us some ideas, questions or even points you disagree on the above in the comments section!
Last week I attended a discussion in Leeds hosted by Optimo on the subject “Sustainable Bytes: Green Machines”. Of particular interest to the discussion was the upcoming end of support for Windows 10. What this exactly means is that the OS will continue to function but will no longer receive security updates. Without patching against vulnerabilities those Windows 10 PCs will require removal from an organisation as they will pose an unacceptable risk to security. I have seen and heard various statistics but it’s estimated that between 200 – 600 million PCs won’t be able to support the upgrade and as a result will get disposed of. Somehow.
Globally e-waste is an increasingly problematic issue that needs desperate attention. Although many of us will go to the effort to recycle devices at the end of their useful life to us it’s not always the case that IT waste is recycled completely. Not all components can be “economically” separated from each other, some components will contain toxic materials and sometimes e-waste is shipped to faraway places where it’s just dumped anyway. That’s regrettably just the start of the problems too.
As a company Digital Incite and Matter Ltd are committed to finding solutions that address the mountain of e-waste humans are leaving behind. So as there’s one year left until Windows 10 is no longer supported by Microsoft here are some strategies that can be used to prevent your otherwise working devices from ending up as scrap.
The first thing you should do is check the upgrade report in the settings app to see what the exact reason you can’t upgrade to Windows 11 for. It may be as simple and straightforward as the TPM hardware is disabled in the firmware settings. In which case check with the PCs documentation for assistance getting to the firmware settings and which setting to enable. You should then check Microsoft’s list of supported Intel or AMD CPUs for Windows 11 to confirm your device is supported.
You can install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware by various means but we’re assuming that your organisation requires official support without complications either from the device manufacturer or Microsoft. We’ll leave you with the idea surrounding that though.
Purchase Extended Security Upgrades (ESU)
An immediate solution without having to do much is to invest in Extended Security Upgrades. The cost of which is $61 per device for year 1. The cost increases each year but there is a discount of 25% if you use Microsoft’s cloud management tools such as Intune. Anyone using Windows 365 receives this for free as well and we understand that educational establishments will also be given a significant discount.
The downside to this solution is that it incurs a significant cost especially in organisations that have many Windows 10 devices. You should also double check with your software vendors as to their support policy for their apps. You may find they drop support for Windows 10 anyway. It also needs to be noted that this solution is for security updates only. There are no bug-fixes, design changes or additional technical support given through this.
We recommend this solution sparingly as the investment can be substantial. If your organisation has a handful of devices nearing the end of service (circa 10 years we try to aim for) then this might prove a good choice in the short-term as opposed to purchasing new devices straight away.
Replace with an Alternative OS
Windows is a favoured choice of many organisations but it’s not the only OS out there. Linux distributions like Ubuntu are increasingly popular and viable in the workplace. Such operating systems are not just trusted, reliable and secure but are also free of cost. This makes it an economical solution for replacing Windows.
A potential downside to using a Linux distro is the software support. Not all application vendors offer support for Linux. Microsoft Office for example does not have support for Linux. Alternatives such as LibreOffice or Collabora office are widely but not completely compatible with Microsoft Office document formats and as such may not 100% fit in with your workflow.
Replacing Windows 10 with a Linux distribution is a great solution as it will allow continued use of the hardware. Organisations that use a browser based workflow should strongly consider this
Reworks
If the only reason you can’t get Windows 11 installed is hardware limitations and alternative OSes aren’t possible then another avenue to explore is the possibility of upgrading or replacing the internals of the device to address whatever incompatibility that has arisen.
If the issue is a lack of support for a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) then the chip can usually be attached to the motherboard header of a desktop PC and can be acquired for around £20. Do check to see if your device just needs firmware based TPM enabled in the settings first however.
Alternatively if the CPU is not supported then looking at upgrading hardware is a nearly last resort. It should be noted that Windows licences are tied to the motherboard (the licence is stored as a firmware variable). As there would be almost certain to have to upgrade the system motherboard to gain a supported CPU (particularly Intel CPUs which generally change socket every generation) you may find having to acquire another licence for Windows anyway. Despite this potentially chassis, power supply, memory, and storage devices can be reused. This would effectively make your device a “custom build” which may still be a good option for higher end devices. Otherwise you may find some of the parts – particularly storage devices, GPUs, and sometimes memory – as useful spares or upgrades for other PCs.
This option is unfortunately a little bit trickier than the others given often limited options particularly around finding compatible upgrades but it’s still worth consideration.
Conclusion
Although the end of Windows 10 means that some hardware becomes “obsolete” it’s definitely not the end of the line.
We call upon Microsoft and their hardware partners to support devices for as long as possible instead of planned obsolescence. The needs of the planet and human society need consideration when an OS becomes “unsupported” rather than shareholder first marketing plans to sell new hardware when the ecosystem struggles to deal with the disposal of the hardware already in circulation. Some models of laptop and unfortunately PCs are becoming harder to upgrade & repair and we don’t agree with that principle at all.
Digital Incite and Matter Ltd are here to help when it comes to creating an environmentally considerate strategy around hardware procurement, service and end of life policy for your organisation. Feel free to get in touch with us for help and assistance.
Microsoft have recently announced the availability of the next version of Windows Server. Through retail or channel partners Windows Server 2025 is now ready for deployment in both your own datacentre or in public cloud environments.
There are many areas of new features and improvements in Windows Server 2025 including enhancements to Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS), security, performance, software defined networking, general management, and much more.
As with all previous releases of Windows – server and desktop – it will take some time before applications are certified to run on the new release. That being said it’s well worth evaluating Windows Server 2025 for any near term deployments you may be considering. Although Windows Server 2022 will continue to be generally supported moving towards the latest version of the Microsoft server system is recommended for maximum longevity and taking advantage of the latest improvements.
Whether you’re considering a new deployment, a cloud repatriation strategy to reduce costs or need to move away from older versions of Windows Server that are no longer supported Digital Incite and Matter Ltd have the knowledge and expertise to help. Please contact us today to discuss your upcoming projects.
IT related waste is a growing problem worldwide. In 2022 alone over 62 million tons of “e-waste” was generated. Whilst there has been a number of initiatives worldwide to alleviate this problem such as the EU directives for common power chargers for portable devices and WEEE for device recycling the amount of global e-waste continues to grow rapidly.
Device support policies are a significant cause of e-waste. On October 14th 2025 Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 Home and Pro. Up to and past that important date IT teams across the planet will be replacing devices that will no-longer receive important security updates. This will sadly trigger otherwise worthy devices to be sent for recycling or even landfill if not handled properly.
Not only do important OS end of support dates trigger unnecessary device replacements but also hardware designs that make it difficult if not impossible for a user to replace faulty parts which further contributes to the e-waste problem. For example use of adhesives in bonding together tablets and smartphones can make it a challenge to open a device for repair without shattering a screen.
Thankfully it’s not all bad news. The right to repair movement is still strong and gaining further momentum. Many devices out there – desktops, laptops and servers – are still designed with upgradability and repair in mind. For the impending Windows 10 end of support date the Operating System can be changed for a Linux OS allowing a device to be continued to use.
When choosing devices we always encourage sourcing from manufacturer’s that have serviceability considered in their product design. This also includes open warranties, spare parts availability and avoiding Operating System lockdown.
Digital Incite and Matter Ltd can provide a variety of servicing, upgrade and repairs for your desktop and laptops. Whether you require an upgrade to storage, reload of the operating system or a device repair we can be of assistance. Not only does this save on replacing devices that would otherwise only need an economical repair it also helps your organisation meet environmental goals by avoiding sending devices to landfill.
Did you know that 25% of users in a World Password Day survey admitted to reusing their passwords across multiple sites? This kind of behaviour poses a challenge for organisations. Should a user’s password be guessed or compromised then an attacker could access multiple systems via that one combination.
Multi-Factor Authentication or MFA is a system by which an additional factor of authentication beyond a password is added to an account. This is done to enhance the security of the account by preventing takeovers if the password is lost, guessed or brute-forced. You may also hear this referred to as Two-Factor Authentication or 2FA which is a term often used interchangeably.
By using MFA for both administrators and users of a system you can prevent account takeovers that result from passwords that have been guessed, reused or compromised. Enabling MFA for any cloud services your organisation subscribes to is also required for schemes like Cyber Essentials in the UK.
Types of MFA could include but are definitely not limited to:
A one-time code sent via: SMS to a mobile phone number, voice to a telephone number or an email account
Response to a notification via an authentication app on a smartphone.
a Time-based One Time Password (TOTP) generated by a smartphone app or physical device.
A hardware authentication device such as a Yubikey. This may support the FIDO2 scheme and/or the older U2F standard.
An example of MFA: a Yubikey.
It should be noted that whilst MFA offers additional security from unauthorised access it does not completely guarantee secure systems. Breaches may still result via other means. Principally you should always be mindful of attackers trying to gain access to an account by social engineering techniques. A common way by which this is happening is attackers calling users to ask them for the one-time codes.
Additional ways of adding security to accounts should also be considered. A password manager can help users avoid password reuse, help them to generate secure & unique passwords per login and also allow an administrator to monitor password use. Securing sites with Single Sign-On (SSO) is also another option to explore. This allows a user to access multiple systems seamlessly via one login. This can help users by avoiding situations where they struggle to remember different passwords and be tempted to reuse the same password. Instead their “primary” account acts as the login which can be secured via MFA and continuously monitored (such as Microsoft’s Conditional Access for Entra ID).
Ultimately the password is indeed quite dead. It’s not uncommon that in our day to day lives across personal and professional accounts an individual person might have to remember 100s of individual accounts. Passwordless schemes along with SSO are the way to go.
In summary MFA is a great way of adding additional security to a system for both administrators and users. It should be an automatic requirement in setting up new accounts – both cloud and privately hosted – especially in Cyber Essentials certified organisations.
Get in touch with us today for further assistance with Active Directory, Entra ID or SQL Server based authentication challenges.
On Friday 29th August Canonical announced the availability of the first point release of Ubuntu 24.04 “Noble Numbat” LTS. If you’ve been running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS this means you will shortly receive a prompt to upgrade. Alternatively you can manually upgrade via Ubuntu’s software updater or via the terminal via running:
sudo do-release-upgrade
There’s a number of worthwhile changes to Ubuntu especially if you are upgrading from the previous LTS release. Not only will you receive kernel 6.8 with the latest improvements there but there are also a number of refinements in the desktop OS such as the redesigned system menu in GNOME 46, a reworked App Centre which is far better than the old one and also updates to the various tools and packages Ubuntu relies upon.
As always make sure your backups are current and tested before opting to upgrade.
Upgrade Issue on Devices Using Secure Boot?
For me however it wasn’t all that straightforward. There’s definitely a case for doing fresh installs for any desktop OS rather than upgrades. I found the following error after trying to upgrade my StarBook MK V. This was noted after the upgrade failed then I ran software updater to try again:
The shims are to do with UEFI/Secure Boot and Ubuntu’s implementation of it. For my device this was solved by running the following in the terminal and then trying the upgrade again:
sudo apt-mark hold shim-signed grub-efi-amd64-signed
This effectively gets the apt package manager to hold these packages back. From looking around I think that this perhaps has something to do with running Coreboot and upgrading through various iterations of the firmware.
A TV programme is not usually the subject of this blog. What is occasionally the subject of this blog is the application of IT and the real human impact it has. People like me got into IT with a view to the betterment of society. I am not a TV watcher myself but after being asked many times about the Mr Bates vs The Post Office I decided that I would take the time watch it to understand the content of it.
The programme rightly focuses on the human impact of the scandal. Whilst the technical explanations for Horizon’s failings are not explained in great detail there are some points pertinent to the IT industry.
The Software Is Robust?
This claim is made by the then head of the post Office Paula Vennells in a phone conversation. This is a problematic claim to make; all software has the potential to contain bugs. As above the programme does not go into great depths regarding the technical aspects of the Horizon IT system but issues with multiple POS terminals and a PIN pad are raised.
The IT industry should always assume room for error within a system and the processes by which people use it. Concerns and patterns of issues should have been picked up by both Fujitsu and the Post Office long before this became a national scandal.
Remote Access?
There one particular theme running throughout the programme which is of remote access to systems. Remote access is a normal part of supporting modern IT systems however in the case of the Post Office, Fujitsu and Horizon things went badly wrong.
It is explained in the programme that Fujitsu employees made remote connections to Post Office branch systems and made “corrections” without the knowledge of the sub-postmasters. Under no circumstances should remote access be made to a system be made without consent. The results of the remote access session should be recorded and any corrective action made to a ledger should be made under an administrative or support account so that the action is not logged as the user reporting the fault instead.
It is inevitable that as a result of the programme that the idea of remote access to systems will be challenged more however given the trade off between rapid support and information confidentiality, accuracy and legitimacy I would expect we are in a fully “remote accessible” world.
Non-disclosure Agreements?
The use of Non-disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are brought up at several times in the programme. In the case of the Horizon system they were used by the Post Office to prevent victims of the scandal from discussing their settlements with sub-postmasters. The ethics of NDAs continue to be an issue for the industry. Whistleblowers should always be empowered and protected by law to ensure that they are able to raise issues to their employer or the authorities.
Lack of Training & Support
In the programme one of the victims Jo Hamilton states that she is no confident with either technology or accountancy. There is another lady later on in the series who joins the JFSA group and reports issues with the Horizon system reporting losses when the power is repeatedly going out at her branch.
In the case of both of these victims this highlights the lack of support given to the sub-postmasters for using the system which is supposed to help them run a Post Office. There is also a constant theme raised in the programme over helpline staff telling victims that “they are the only ones having this problem”.
I have often thought that by labelling someone a “user” outside of a design context is problematic. We often use words in IT that dehumanise. In the case of the Horizon scandal this also underlines why effective training and support should always be available to people using the systems.
The Future?
The themes discussed in Mr Bates vs The Post Office should be a wake-up call to anyone in the IT industry – regardless of their job description – that cover-ups and complacency with the truth has real human impact. Sub-postmasters have been wrongly convicted as criminals based on faulty evidence of fraudulent accounting and theft. As a result livelihoods have been lost, and some have tragically taken their own lives as a result. It is only the right thing to do that these people should be compensated.
For further reading I recommend Computer Weekly’s Everything you need to know article. As a publication they first investigated the story after receiving letters from Mr Bates and other sub-postmasters. They have done great work tracking the story for a considerable amount of time.
There is a character in the programme Robert Rutherford – I understand to be a compound character of two Second Sight forensic accountants – who when interviewing Jo Hamilton tells her in response to her asking: “can I ask a stupid question?” responds with “There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers”. Damn right.
A bit of a segue from the usual SQL Server posts this week but I wanted to share a recent challenge I encountered with a VMware ESXi host. I needed to to ensure that all high CVSS vulnerabilities were resolved for upcoming Cyber Essentials compliance. This necessitated an upgrade of a VMware ESXi host as a first step as the version in use had known vulnerabilities.
Post upgrade of the ESXi host what I found however was that this did not fully resolve the security concerns. Our Microsoft Defender for Endpoint dashboard picked up that all the servers on the host were still using a vulnerable version of the VMware tools. Upon further investigation despite that the tools had upgraded to a higher version included with the ESXi release there were still unresolved issues with that particular version. It would be necessary to upgrade to a even more recent version of VMware Tools from VMware’s downloads site to fully resolve the vulnerability findings.
You most certainly could manually logon to each server and perform the tools upgrade manually however if your ESXi host has as many servers as ours then the process to upgrade each one might take some time and cause service disruption. After all this is IT and we pursue the noble art of automation in all areas right?
I have to apologise for the lack of screenshots in this post as this was done on a server I’m not privileged to take screenshots of but hopefully you can make sense of the steps below. Comment below for any clarifications required.
Ensure compatibility of the updated VMware tools using the VMware Compatibility Guide and then test on an isolated server – you don’t want to risk potential downtime by installing a version of VMware tools that has a compatibility problem.
Enable SSH access to the VMware Server – to do this open the Host tab in the ESXi web front-end then go to actions > services > Enable Secure Shell (SSH).
Logon to the ESXI host using an SCP tool such as WinSCP – once in navigate all the way to /vmimages/tools-isoimages. You’ll notice that this contains ISO images and manifests for Windows and Linux versions of the VMware tools. Note that his folder actually is a symlink to a folder at /vmfs/volumes/<GUID>/packages/<version>/vmtools.
Backup the contents of the folder – just in case y’know.
Get a copy of the VMware Tools and upload into /vminmages/tools-isoimages. Make sure you overwrite what’s in the folder and include all the files from the download.
Disable SSH access by repeating step #2 – reducing the ESXi host’s attack surface area is always a good idea.
Shortly after completing the above process the ESXi host will automatically pickup that there’s been a change in the VMware Tools in the store. You can from that point upgrade using one of the following methods:
Right click the VM > Guest OS > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools…
If the option to automatically upgrade tools is selected for a VM then reboot and it will handle things itself.
You should at this point have VMs running the latest VMware Tools which you can check the version in the list of hosts. You can add in the column for the VMware Tools version to check all VMs without logging onto each one.
Extended support for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 expired on October 10th 2023. We’re coming up to November 2023’s Patch Tuesday which means that there’s really, really, really no life in Server 2012 or 2012 R2 any more in case that first deadline wasn’t important enough. Hacking crews out there will highly likely be able to spot a vulnerability in Server 2012 / R2 by checking out the vulnerabilities for Server 2016 and newer. So in other words if you’ve not planned to be off Windows Server 2012 / R2 by now you’re a bit stuffed. That is unless your organisation’s forking out for Extended Security Updates in which case you can breathe easy a bit longer.
If you are in the UK have Cyber Essentials renewals coming up you either need to be shut of the servers or segregate them somewhere off the main network to their own retirement VLAN before the audit starts otherwise you’ll fail it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Don’t Just Move It To Azure!
Yes it’s true that you can move your server to Azure and get an extra three years of security updates included in the price of the VM service. Three years sounds a lot of time but that will run down before you know it. So don’t kick the proverbial can down the proverbial road.
Moving a series of servers from a private cloud or IT infrastructure to a hyperscaler can also be costly in direct costs for the VM (CPU, memory, Operating System, disks, etc) but may also result in hidden fees in terms of having to build remote access solutions bring in consultants and even patch the application. It’s generally cheaper to run VMs in a private cloud if they are needed 24/7 so check costs carefully.
Mark Your Calendars for Windows Server 2016 End of Extended Support
January 12th 2027. It’ll be here before you know it.
