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Meta to lay off Additional 10,000 staff soon

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Facebook parent company, Meta, has confirmed it will cut 10,000 jobs in coming months, after 11,000 layoffs in December.

The Chief Executive Officer of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, announced this via his Facebook page on Tuesday, sharing the internal memo he sent employees.

Here is what he wrote,

“I just shared this update on our Year of Efficiency with Meta employees…

Meta is building the future of human connection, and today I want to share some updates on our Year of Efficiency that will help us do that. The goals of this work are: (1) to make us a better technology company and (2) to improve our financial performance in a difficult environment so we can execute our long term vision.

Our efficiency work has several parallel workstreams to improve organizational efficiency, dramatically increase developer productivity and tooling, optimize distributed work, garbage collect unnecessary processes, and more. I’ve tried to be open about all the work that’s underway, and while I know many of you are energized by this, I also recognize that the idea of upcoming org changes creates uncertainty and stress. My hope is to make these org changes as soon as possible in the year so we can get past this period of uncertainty and focus on the critical work ahead.

Here’s the timeline you should expect: over the next couple of months, org leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening our orgs, canceling lower priority projects, and reducing our hiring rates. With less hiring, I’ve made the difficult decision to further reduce the size of our recruiting team. We will let recruiting team members know tomorrow whether they’re impacted.

We expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May. In a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes. Our timelines for international teams will also look different, and local leaders will follow up with more details.

Overall, we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired. This will be tough and there’s no way around that. It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success. They’ve dedicated themselves to our mission and I’m personally grateful for all their efforts. We will support people in the same ways we have before and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve.

After restructuring, we plan to lift hiring and transfer freezes in each group. Other relevant efficiency timelines include targeting this summer to complete our analysis from our hybrid work year of learning so we can further refine our distributed work model. We also aim to have a steady stream of developer productivity enhancements and process improvements throughout the year. As I’ve talked about efficiency this year, I’ve said that part of our work will involve removing jobs — and that will be in service of both building a leaner, more technical company and improving our business performance to enable our long term vision. I understand that this update may still feel surprising, so I’d like to lay out some broader context on our vision, our culture, and our operating philosophy.

Building a Better Technology Company Every day Meta builds new ways for people to feel closer. This is a fundamental human need that may be more important in today’s complex world than ever. One day we hope to enable every person to feel as strong a sense of connection as you feel when you’re physically with someone you love.We do leading work across a wide range of advanced technologies and then distill that into inspiring products that improve people’s lives. We do this with AI to help you creatively express yourself and discover new content, with the metaverse to deliver a realistic sense of presence, with new media formats to create richer experiences, with encryption to let you communicate privately in more and more ways, and with business tools to help reach customers, create opportunity and grow the economy.

Simply put: if you want to invent the future or apply the best ideas to reach people at the greatest scale, then Meta is the best place to do that.With that in mind, here are some of the cultural principles that are guiding our efficiency work towards making Meta an even stronger technology company: Flatter is Faster It’s well-understood that every layer of a hierarchy adds latency and risk aversion in information flow and decision-making. Every manager typically reviews work and polishes off some rough edges before sending it further up the chain.In our Year of Efficiency, we will make our organization flatter by removing multiple layers of management.

As part of this, we will ask many managers to become individual contributors. We’ll also have individual contributors report into almost every level — not just the bottom — so information flow between people doing the work and management will be faster. Of course, there are tradeoffs. We still believe managing each person is very important, so in general we don’t want managers to have more than 10 direct reports. Today many of our managers have only a few direct reports. That made sense to optimize for ramping up new managers and maintaining buffer capacity when we were growing our organization faster, but now that we don’t expect to grow headcount as quickly, it makes more sense to fully utilize each manager’s capacity and defragment layers as much as possible.Leaner is Better Since we reduced our workforce last year, one surprising result is that many things have gone faster. In retrospect, I underestimated the indirect costs of lower priority projects.

It’s tempting to think that a project is net positive as long as it generates more value than its direct costs. But that project needs a leader, so maybe we take someone great from another team or maybe we take a great engineer and put them into a management role, which both diffuses talent and creates more management layers. That project team needs space, and maybe it tips its overall product group into splitting across multiple floors or multiple time zones, which now makes communication harder for everyone. That project team needs laptops and HR benefits and may want to recruit more engineers, so that leads us to hire even more IT, HR and recruiting people, and now those orgs grow and become less efficient and responsive to higher priority teams as well. Maybe the project has overlap with work on another team or maybe it built a bespoke technical system when it should have used general infrastructure we’d already built, so now it will take leadership focus to deduplicate that effort.

Indirect costs compound and it’s easy to underestimate them. A leaner org will execute its highest priorities faster. People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling. We will become an even greater magnet for the most talented people. That’s why in our Year of Efficiency, we are focused on canceling projects that are duplicative or lower priority and making every organization as lean as possible.Keep technology the main thingWe are a technology company, and our ultimate output is what we build for people. Everything else we do is in service of that.As we’ve grown, we’ve hired many leading experts in areas outside engineering. This helps us build better products, but with many new teams it takes intentional focus to make sure our company remains primarily technologists.As we add different groups, our product teams naturally hire more roles to handle all the interactions with those other groups. If we only rebalanced the product teams towards engineering, those leaner product teams would be overwhelmed by the volume of interactions from other groups.

As part of the Year of Efficiency, we’re focusing on returning to a more optimal ratio of engineers to other roles. It’s important for all groups to get leaner and more efficient to enable our technology groups to get as lean and efficient as possible. We will make sure we continue to meet all our critical and legal obligations as we find ways to operate more efficiently.

Invest in tools to get more Efficient We’re focused on the long term. That means investing in tools that will make us most effective over many years, not just this year — whether that’s building AI tools to help engineers write better code faster, enabling us to automate workloads over time, or identifying obsolete processes that we can phase out.Our developer tooling work is underway and seeing good results. For example, Buck2 is our new open source build system that compiles builds around 50% faster so engineers can spend more time iterating and less time waiting. Our analysis found that engineers whose builds were sped up by Buck2 often produced meaningfully more code.In-person time helps build relationships and get more Done We’re committed to distributed work.

That means we’re also committed to continuously refining our model to make this work as effectively as possible.Our early analysis of performance data suggests that engineers who either joined Meta in-person and then transferred to remote or remained in-person performed better on average than people who joined remotely. This analysis also shows that engineers earlier in their career perform better on average when they work in-person with teammates at least three days a week. This requires further study, but our hypothesis is that it is still easier to build trust in person and that those relationships help us work more effectively. As part of our Year of Efficiency, we’re focusing on understanding this further and finding ways to make sure people build the necessary connections to work effectively.

In the meantime, I encourage all of you to find more opportunities to work with your colleagues in person.Improving Business Performance in a Difficult Economic Environment In addition to helping us build a better technology company, our other goal for the Year of Efficiency is to improve our business performance given the new economic reality. Profitability enables innovation. Operating our business more efficiently will give us the resources and confidence to achieve our long term vision by delivering sustainable financial results that make us an attractive company to work at and invest in. When I wrote my first letter to investors during our IPO, I described a basic principle that is still true today: “we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”For most of our history, we saw rapid revenue growth year after year and had the resources to invest in many new products. But last year was a humbling wake-up call. The world economy changed, competitive pressures grew, and our growth slowed considerably. We scaled back budgets, shrunk our real estate footprint, and made the difficult decision to lay off 13% of our workforce. At this point, I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years. Higher interest rates lead to the economy running leaner, more geopolitical instability leads to more volatility, and increased regulation leads to slower growth and increased costs of innovation. Given this outlook, we’ll need to operate more efficiently than our previous headcount reduction to ensure success.In the face of this new reality, most companies will scale back their long term vision and investments. But we have the opportunity to be bolder and make decisions that other companies can’t. So we put together a financial plan that enables us to invest heavily in the future while also delivering sustainable results as long as we run every team more efficiently.

The changes we’re making will enable us to meet this financial plan. I believe that we are working on some of the most transformative technology our industry has ever seen. Our single largest investment is in advancing AI and building it into every one of our products. We have the infrastructure to do this at unprecedented scale and I think the experiences it enables will be amazing. Our leading work building the metaverse and shaping the next generation of computing platforms also remains central to defining the future of social connection. And our apps are growing and continuing to connect almost half of the world’s population in new ways. This work is incredibly important and the stakes are high. The financial plan we’ve set out puts us in position to deliver it.Looking Ahead I recognize that sharing plans for restructuring and layoffs months in advance creates a challenging period.

But last fall, we heard feedback that you wanted more transparency sooner into any restructuring plans, so that’s what I’m trying to provide here. I hope that giving you a timeline and principles for what to expect will help us get through the next couple of months and then move forward as we implement these changes that I believe will have a very positive impact on how we work.In terms of how we should operate during this period, I encourage each of you to focus on what you can control. That is, do great work and support your teammates. Our community is extremely resilient. Change is never easy, but I know we’ll get through this and come out an even stronger company that can build better products faster and enable you to do the best work of your careers.

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IASP Luxembourg: Chinwe Okoli Speaks on Soludo’s Innovation Agenda

By SANDRA ANI

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SID In IASP Luxembourg
Chinwe Okoli speaking at IASP in Luxembourg

“We want Anambra to be known as a destination for innovation, the next Startup State, home for digital Talents, the home of the smart digital tribe”

Ms Chinwe Okoli, the Special Adviser to the Governor of Anambra State on Innovation and Business Incubation addressed the global innovation ecosystem leaders at the 40th IASP World Conference on Science Parks and Areas of Innovation took place at the European Convention Centre, Luxembourg.

SID In IASP Luxembourg
Chinwe Okoli and other world ecosystem leaders at IASP in Luxembourg

The conference with the theme, “𝐌𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐓𝐏𝐬 & 𝐀𝐎𝐈𝐬?” was an exceptional gathering of global innovation stakeholders from over 55 countries. The three-day conference presented an opportunity for the best innovation districts, science parks and areas of innovation in the world to connect and exchange best practices.

Solution Innovation District, Anambra State was prominent in the conference as Ms Okoli addressed the conference on the topic: “𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐚 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞: 𝐀 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬.”

She shared the transformative power of the Anambra State Government’s innovation program and highlighted the aspirations of Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the Governor, and efforts in nurturing a robust innovation ecosystem in the State to unlock new opportunities and drive technological progress towards making Anambra the digital and creative capital of Nigeria.

Solution Innovation District (SID) is driven by the Anambra State Government, dedicated to fostering the growth of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Ms Okoli restated the commitment of the administration of Governor Soludo towards building the one -of -a kind district in Anambra State, stated the key and ambitious goals of grooming one million Anambra Digital Tribe, startups and digital entrepreneurs and in the end, she called for global partnership.

“Our Mantra in Anambra State is Everything Technology and Technology Everywhere

“At SID, we are activating and developing a dynamic and inclusive ecosystem of the future, Our focus is that in a very short time, Anambra becomes the go-to place for the supply of skills/talents on deep technology -Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, robotics, blockchain, Data science, Software Engineering, IoT, Cloud Computing etc.

“Let’s impact the world from the light of the nation, in the biggest country in Africa, let’s do digital magic with the Anambra Digital Tribe”.

SID In IASP Luxembourg (4)
SID In IASP Luxembourg

IASP, the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation, is the leading association of innovation ecosystems worldwide.

This organization actively unites and empowers a network of managers overseeing areas of innovation, science parks, research parks, innovation districts, knowledge cities, and various other innovation spaces. It’s the driving force behind the exchange of cutting-edge knowledge and best practices, propelling innovation on a global scale.

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Sophos Launches Wi-Fi 6 Access Points

Sophos supports shift to hybrid environments with new generation of remotely managed, reports SANDRA ANI

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Sophos wireless launch -

Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today announced the Sophos AP6 Series to support the shift to hybrid environments with a new generation of remotely managed Wi-Fi 6 access points.

The new offering adds another component to Sophos’ secure access portfolio, which includes Sophos Firewall and Sophos Switch.

“With cloud-managed Wi-Fi, Sophos is addressing the need for more scalable, remote-managed Wi-Fi solutions that support the increasing number of connected devices and the proliferation of IoT systems,” said Daniel Cole, vice president of product management at Sophos. “This combination of our Sophos AP6 Series and Sophos Switches provides channel partners with a consolidated single vendor access solution strategy, easing the burden and overhead cost of managing multiple disparate systems from different vendors. Many access layer networks are still operating at 1 Gigabit speeds. With the significant performance enhancements in Wi-Fi 6, the industry has a great opportunity to review and modernize the network ecosystem that wireless is deployed into. Sophos’ solution dissolves a common bottleneck at the physical layer and can boost the total network performance of a company’s Wi-Fi infrastructure.”

Sophos AP6 models – including 420E, AP6 840, AP6 840E and the outdoor AP6 420X – have at least one built-in 2.5 Gigabit interface for faster LAN connectivity. 

When combined with the Sophos multi-Gigabit switches, which also support 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, companies can unlock faster speeds across the entire network. With the AP6 420E and 840E devices, which support Wi-Fi 6E, companies can additionally use the 6 GHz band, which is a newer, less congested space, offering high performance for the latest devices. 

Sophos access points can be remotely managed in the cloud-based Sophos Central platform alongside a broader range of solutions than any other vendor.

This enables partners to oversee all customer installations, respond to alerts, and track licenses and upcoming renewal dates via a single, intuitive interface. Additionally, there is an on-premises interface administrators can take advantage of for on-AP settings.

Availability

The Sophos AP6 Series is available for immediate purchase exclusively through Sophos’ global channel of partners and managed service providers (MSPs). 

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Sophos Launches Incident Response Retainer

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​Sophos Uncovers New Connections Between Hive, Royal, and Black Basta Ransomware
  • Sophos Retainer Cuts Red-Tape, Allowing Sophos Incident Responders to Quickly Investigate and Remediate Active Attacks
  • Shorter Attacker Dwell Times Require Faster Response, as Indicated in Sophos’ New Active Adversary Report for Tech Leaders

Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, has announced its new Sophos Incident Response Retainer, which provides organizations with speedy access to Sophos’ industry-first fixed-cost incident response service that includes 45 days of 24/7 Managed Detection and Response (MDR).

The retainer cuts red tape, allowing Sophos incident responders to quickly jump into active cyberattacks to investigate and remediate them. External vulnerability scanning and critical preparedness guidance are also included in the retainer, enabling organizations to proactively improve their existing security resilience by pinpointing and resolving issues that reduce the likelihood of a breach in the first place. 

At a time when attacker dwell time is steadily shortening, as revealed in a new 2023 Active Adversary Report for Tech Leaders that Sophos published today, time to locate and evict adversaries is critical in limiting damage and completely stopping nefarious endgames, such as data breaches and ransomware. The report indicates that median adversary dwell time continued to plummet, from 10 days in 2022 to eight days in the first half of 2023; for ransomware alone, the time between initial access and impact dropped from nine days to just five. Adversaries also preferentially carried out attacks during targets’ night and weekend hours, with only 9.6% of ransomware incidents taking place during the targets’ daytime business hours.

The single most common attack times were Fridays between 11 p.m. and midnight in the targets’ local time zones.

“Incident response retainers help organizations prepare in advance for the fastest response time possible to defend against active cyberattacks. Due to today’s complex and mixed-vendor computing environments, skills shortages, evolving attacker behaviors, and cyber insurance requirements, it’s critical that all organizations have pre-determined incident response plans in place.

Tangible ‘readiness’ is now a key component for cyber resilience,” said Rob Harrison, vice president, product management at Sophos. “Adversaries will often abuse the same weakness in a single system, and it’s not unusual for multiple, different attackers to go after the same target if there’s potential exposure. Sophos’ goal is to immediately stop active attacks and make sure complete remediation is achieved, regardless of how many hours it takes. We are the only security vendor that offers this caliber of retainer services for urgent security incidents.”

“Sixty-five percent of organizations suffered a significant breach event in the last 12 months despite considerable investments in cybersecurity tools, according to IDC ransomware research,” said Chris Kissel, research vice president, security and trust products, IDC. “Dealing with unexpected cyberattacks is time sensitive, stressful and a large financial commitment. The only way to save time, reduce costs and mitigate the impact of a breach is to have an experienced incident response team in place and lined-up ready to go – before attackers strike.”

The Sophos Incident Response Retainer is available in three tiers through Sophos partners worldwide. With Sophos’ unique ability to threat hunt, respond to and remediate attacks within multi-vendor environments, the retainer is available to non-Sophos customers, in addition to customers already using Sophos’ robust portfolio of innovative endpoint, network, email, and other security products, or Sophos MDR Essentials. Endpoint configuration health checks and device audits are also included in the retainer for existing Sophos customers. Organizations that prefer broader services in one package can purchase Sophos MDR Complete, which automatically includes full-scale incident response.

“The Sophos incident response retainer is the perfect tool for partners to help customers take a proactive approach to improving their cyber defenses, and it will enable us to more quickly respond and take necessary immediate action in a worst-case attack scenario when every minute counts,” said Jonny Scott, vendor alliance manager at Phoenix Software. “Sophos Incident Response’s fixed-cost pricing is genius, especially considering how every attack scenario is different and how quickly costs can rack up. The sheer breadth of resources included with the retainer – from scanning for vulnerabilities to patch and prevent breaches, to having a team of experts on standby 24/7 ready to battle head-to-head with adversaries – make it an absolute must have.”

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