At AWS re:Invent, NetApp Named 2021 AWS ISV Design Partner of the Year – US; Spot by NetApp Simplifies CloudOps with new portfolio updates

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 2 December 2021 – NetApp^® (NASDAQ: NTAP), a global, cloud-led, data-centric software company, today announced new innovations in its product portfolio as well as award recognition from Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its achievements as an AWS Partner. Together, these announcements demonstrate how NetApp’s investments and vision are enabling any organization using AWS to access world-class cloud operations (CloudOps) and maximize the value of their investment.

At AWS re:Invent this week, NetApp was named the 2021 AWS Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Design Partner of the Year – US, for the jointly engineered and natively integrated Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP service. This fully-managed, multi-protocol storage service from AWS allows organizations to extend on-premises data onto AWS for enhanced data protection, migrate enterprise workloads without refactoring, and set the stage to run stateful Kubernetes applications. The award recognizes NetApp’s work in helping customers enable innovation and build solutions that drive digital and cloud transformation on the AWS Cloud.

“AWS Partners are critical to our customers’ success, and we are pleased to recognize NetApp as a 2021 AWS Partner of the Year US winner,” said Rachel Mushahwar, Head of Channel and Partner Sales – Americas, AWS. “I continue to be impressed by the commitment and innovation that NetApp offers our customers and how they are uniquely positioned to help accelerate our customers’ digital transformation journey. I look forward to working together and a great 2022.”

“We are proud to be named the AWS ISV Design Partner of the Year in the US,” said Anthony Lye, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Public Cloud Services at NetApp. “For nearly a decade, NetApp and AWS engineers have worked together to create industry-leading cloud services, so it’s incredibly exciting to see our joint innovation be recognized onstage at this year’s re:Invent. Together, NetApp and AWS are delivering the best of cloud to our customers and partners to deliver immediate business value, whether in the form of cost efficiency, compliance, data protection, or performance.”

NetApp also announced important milestones in the growth of its Spot by NetApp product portfolio for CloudOps, including:

Spot Ocean for Apache Spark

Part of the Spot Ocean suite of products, Spot Ocean for Apache Spark combines the infrastructure automation and optimization of Spot Wave together with Data Mechanics, recently acquired by NetApp, to give data infrastructure teams the power and flexibility of Apache Spark on Kubernetes without the complexity of managing and tuning infrastructure and workloads. Ocean for Apache Spark is now available in preview for AWS customers.

Spot Ocean Continuous Delivery (CD)

Also, part of the Spot Ocean suite, Spot Ocean CD extends Spot by NetApp’s core technologies with a solution for easy, reliable delivery of cloud-native applications on Kubernetes. Available for private preview with AWS customers in mid-December, Spot Ocean CD makes it easy to quickly and reliably execute deployments with integrated and automated continuous verification to give developers full confidence in their deployments.

Together with Spot Ocean serverless infrastructure, these products make up the expanded Spot Ocean suite, bringing intelligent automation and optimization to cloud-native infrastructure and workloads on Kubernetes.

CloudCheckr Well-Architected Readiness Advisor

CloudCheckr, recently acquired by NetApp, complements the Spot product portfolio to expand Spot by NetApp’s financial operations (FinOps) capabilities. Spot by NetApp today announced the release of CloudCheckr Well-Architected Readiness Advisor, which helps managed service providers (MSPs) streamline the process of delivering AWS Well-Architected Reviews and helps to ensure that AWS customers are in compliance with the AWS Well-Architected Framework for optimization of cloud cost, security, operations, performance and reliability.

The Well-Architected Readiness Advisor is available on the CloudCheckr CMx platform.

Spot Security

Spot Security enables customers to quickly detect, prioritize and help mitigate the most serious security threats and risks within cloud infrastructure. Spot Security is now available in private preview, starting with AWS customers.

“Getting applications to the cloud is only the first step in the cloud journey,” said Amiram Shachar, Vice President and General Manager of Spot by NetApp. “Realizing the promise of cloud requires a holistic approach to operating within the cloud, an approach that addresses cost, resource management, optimization and security. Our growing portfolio delivers a compelling suite of solutions for cloud operations that let organizations focus on their applications rather than on infrastructure.”

Additional Resources:

• Spot Ocean Suite Blog
• Spot Ocean for Apache Spark Blog
• CloudCheckr Well-Architected Readiness Advisor Blog

About NetApp

NetApp is a global, cloud-led, data-centric software company that empowers organizations to lead with data in the age of accelerated digital transformation. The company provides systems, software and cloud services that enable them to run their applications optimally from data center to cloud, whether they are developing in the cloud, moving to the cloud, or creating their own cloudlike experiences on premises. With solutions that perform across diverse environments, NetApp helps organizations build their own data fabric and securely deliver the right data, services and applications to the right people—anytime, anywhere. Learn more at www.netapp.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

NETAPP, the NETAPP logo, and the marks listed at www.netapp.com/TM are trademarks of NetApp, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

#NetApp

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 2 December 2021 – Chubb announced today that Tulio Puente has been appointed as Division Head of International Personal Lines (IPL) in Singapore, effective 22 November 2021. Mr. Puente will report to Scott Simpson, Country President for Chubb in Singapore.

In his new role, Mr. Puente will be responsible for the overall growth and management of Singapore’s IPL division which includes the following lines of business: Personal Risk Services which provides coverage for fine homes and valuables, Residential insurance, and Specialty coverage such as personal cyber and gadgets protection. He will continue to deepen existing and forge new affinity partnerships, as well as drive multi-channel distribution opportunities.

Mr. Puente joined Chubb in 2014 and has held various roles with increasing responsibility and in Latin America and the Asia Pacific. His career with the company includes experience in underwriting, portfolio management and business control for Consumer Lines, data analytics for the Direct Marketing team and most recently, underwriting for Speciality Personal Lines.

Prior to joining Chubb, Mr. Puente worked as an Economist for the Central Bank of Mexico, and in the telecommunications industry in China.

On Mr. Puente’s appointment, Mr. Simpson commented, “Tulio is a highly strategic and forward-thinker, focused on customer-centricity to deliver tailored solutions and best-in-class service to our partners and customers. Given his rich experience in the Consumer Lines business coupled with his keen business acumen, I am confident in his capabilities to propel our IPL business forward and value-add to our local team, business partners and their customers”.

About Chubb Singapore

Chubb is the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurer. Chubb Insurance Singapore Limited, via acquisitions by its predecessor companies, has been present in Singapore since 1948. Chubb in Singapore provides underwriting and risk management expertise for all major classes of general insurance. The company’s product offerings include Financial Lines, Casualty, Property, Marine, Industry Practices as well as Group insurance solutions for large corporates, multinationals, small and medium-sized businesses. In addition, to meet the evolving needs of consumers, it also offers a suite of tailored Accident & Health and Personal & Specialty insurance options through a multitude of distribution channels including bancassurance, independent distribution partners and affinity partnerships.

Over the years, Chubb in Singapore has established strong client relationships by delivering responsive service, developing innovative products and providing market leadership built on financial strength.

More information can be found at www.chubb.com/sg.

#ChubbSingapore

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 2 December 2021 – Empty office buildings, hotel rooms and shopping malls – these are the facts of life in the post-pandemic new normal. They are also the results of social distancing measures as well as government-imposed lockdowns implemented around the world to lessen the spread of COVID-19, the effects of which have rippled across real estate markets in Asia. It is with this in mind that a recent study found that property prices in the overall market for much of the Asian Pacific region remained stable. However, within the different segments of the real estate, the market witnessed a refocusing from some investors towards strategies involving deployment of capital towards sectors of industry that actually benefited from COVID-19.

Source: iStock

The study The COVID-19 Pandemic and Commercial Property Rent Dynamics was co-written by Dr. Ervi Liusman and Prof. Desmond Tsang, Lecturer and Associate Professor, respectively, in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School. Based on data from global real estate consultancy JLL, the study examined rental figures and property prices of 38 cities in 12 countries and jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur. The property sectors included office, retail, industrial and residential. They then analysed the trends in rents and property prices in the regions.

According to the study, rents of properties across these sectors fell approximately 15 percent on average across the Asia-Pacific region in the first six months of 2020, coinciding with the beginning of the pandemic. Office rentals recorded moderate declines of approximately 14 percent. However, the most significant and continued declines in rent was found in retail properties, such as shopping malls, which fell over 30 percent in the period. The study found a negative relationship between the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths and market rent in the region. Interestingly, property prices in the overall market did not fall despite the drastic drop in rents.

Flight to Quality

According to the study results and anecdotal evidence, overall property prices in the Asia Pacific remained strong despite the surge in COVID-19 cases with less focus on retail investment and more and of a focus into the residential and industrial properties sectors.

At the start of the pandemic, the researchers say the social distancing measures and lockdowns implemented in response to the pandemic forced people to stay at home and consequently led to a boom in e-commerce at the expense of demand in physical retail stores. Many stores also had to close down and without stable rental income, and landlords or investors became more likely to sell retail properties in their portfolios. This simultaneous movement in both sides of supply and demand meant retail real estate prices saw a significant drop.

In response, investors redistributed their capital allocation strategies within the overall property market, taking more defensive strategies amid the pandemic, according to the researchers. That is, they reallocated funds to sectors that can better withstand the uncertainties brought by the pandemic, such as by investing in data centres, factories and warehouses. Given the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, it was natural for many investors to have concerns about the eventual prospect of the retail property market, which is why they chose to put their money in other property sectors.

“What we are seeing could be a ‘flight to quality’ phenomenon, where investors are abandoning risky assets such as retail properties and choosing to invest in safer options, like data centres or warehouses,” says Dr. Liusman. “Demand for real estate is a derived demand, which means it’s based on demand for something else, and people still need space for production and consumption. With consumers shifting their purchases to e-commerce, online companies will need space to run their businesses as well as for logistics, hence the rosier prospects for industrial as well as other types of non-retail property.”

She adds that supply within the industrial property sector has remained tight with robust demand. E-commerce platforms, technology and telecommunication companies, food and drinks operators and pharmaceutical companies – all of which require industrial warehousing and factory space to run their operations – were likely to have been the driving force for the strong demand witnessed in this sector.

Government Intervention

To deal with the unprecedented crisis brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have implemented different support programmes to restore their economies, as shown in a report published by the International Monetary Fund.

The researchers investigated the fiscal stimuli packages carried out by governments in the Asia-Pacific countries. For instance, China announced an estimated 4.9 trillion Chinese yuan in fiscal measures, including tax relief and reduced social security contributions. The researchers examined how different stimuli affected different markets in the Asia Pacific region.

They found that government fiscal stimuli had a positive effect on reducing declines in property rents. However, they also discovered that this positive effect had already worn off by the time the announced measures got around to being implemented. They explained that government fiscal stimulus packages seem to be effective in mitigating the negative impact of the pandemic but this seemed to work at least as much through helping to restore confidence in the property market as the financial aspect of the measures themselves.

“It would seem that it is the announcements of those grand schemes of fiscal stimuli that weakened the fall in rents. What this means is that the governments’ initial response may be what matters more in restoring investor confidence than what the governments actually do to help the economies,” Prof. Tsang says.

Hunting for Bargains

The researchers believe that their research findings can provide valuable implications on how the pandemic has affected the global property environment. “Due to the diverse nature of real estate, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic varied significantly across different regions and sectors. While some property sectors like retail and hotels may have been negatively impacted by the pandemic, other sectors were relatively stable,” Dr. Liusman says. “As an investor, it is important to examine the market demand for a particular sector when selecting the investment portfolio.”

Dr. Liusman notes that while periods of economic crises generally presented good opportunities for investors to bargain-hunt, during the current pandemic property owners in the overall market shied away from slashing prices to offload their assets. She explains that one reason may be due to the government fiscal stimulus packages helping to restore investor confidence. Another possibility is perhaps because those building owners had deep pockets and did not feel an urgency to sell their properties.

Commenting on future research directions, the researchers said further research could be focused on how the property market has reacted to the recovery from the pandemic. Additional research may also consider looking into any potential relapse in the property market due to the discovery of variants of the COVID-19 virus.

Reference:

Allan R, Liusman E, Lu T, Tsang D. The COVID-19 Pandemic and Commercial Property Rent Dynamics. Journal of Risk and Financial Management. 2021; 14(8):360. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14080360

This article was first published in the China Business Knowledge (CBK) website by CUHK Business School: https://bit.ly/3oU8fiG.

About CUHK Business School

CUHK Business School comprises two schools – Accountancy and Hotel and Tourism Management – and four departments – Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics, Finance, Management and Marketing. Established in Hong Kong in 1963, it is the first business school to offer BBA, MBA and Executive MBA programmes in the region. Today, CUHK Business School offers 9 undergraduate programmes and 18 graduate programmes including MBA, EMBA, Master, MSc, MPhil and Ph.D. The School currently has more than 4,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students from 20+ countries/regions.

In the Financial Times Executive MBA ranking 2021, CUHK EMBA is ranked 19^th in the world. In FT‘s 2021 Global MBA Ranking, CUHK MBA is ranked 48^th. CUHK Business School has the largest number of business alumni (40,000+) among universities/business schools in Hong Kong – many of whom are key business leaders.

More information is available at http://www.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk or by connecting with CUHK Business School on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuhkbschool

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuhkbusinessschool

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/school/cuhkbusinessschool

WeChat: CUHKBusinessSchool

#CUHKBusinessSchool

Pragmatism and pandemic disruptions pave the way for greater acceptance across Fashion, Electronics and Autos categories

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM – Media OutReach – 1 December 2021 – Carousell Group , the leading classifieds group in Greater Southeast Asia, addresses the issue of overconsumption in its inaugural Carousell Recommerce Index 2021, a Carousell Green initiative to highlight the importance of sustainability and recommerce in the Greater Southeast Asia region. The report covers findings from four Carousell Group brands namely Carousell, Chợ Tốt, Mudah and OneKyat, across eight markets – Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam, involving over 3,000 buyers and sellers.

According to the survey on Chợ Tốt in the Vietnam market, secondhand shoppers tend to buy Electronics such as computers, mobile phones, tablets, cameras and TVs, accounting for more than 65% of the total number of respondents. Similarly, pre-owned electronics are also the item which have the most sellers, accounting for 69% of the total number of respondents. Buying, selling and using secondhand goods help bring income to sellers and cost-saving benefits for buyers.

As for motivations for buying second-hand, 83% of Vietnamese respondents who have purchased secondhand items cite “value for money” as the top reason. On the contrary, 17% of Vietnamese respondents who have yet had experience buying secondhand items mentioned authentication or warranty on products will motivate them to buy secondhand —which aligns with Chợ Tốt’s recent efforts in launching the Escrow feature, giving users a secure method of authentication when depositing high-value items.

Overall in the region, Fashion remains the most in-demand category at 29%, with Women’s Fashion dominating the top spot across the region, and Men’s Fashion becoming increasingly popular. However, Vietnam witnessed a slightly different trend. In 2018-2019, Fashion ranks in the top 3 categories with the most active users for secondhand. By 2021, Fashion’s top position has been replaced by Household Appliances, Furniture and Plants due to the upsurge of tables, chairs, drawers, and household plants’ demand. This shows the promising future of Household Appliances, Furniture and Plants in the Vietnamese re-commerce market.

On the contrary, the Vehicles category has consecutively held the top position in terms of the most secondhand listings and the most demand for secondhand from 2018-2020. This category is expected to be the driving force for growth since more individuals look for ways to own private transport without the financial burden.  

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, many social distancing directives have been implemented in Vietnam, causing some interesting changes in consumption trends. Laptops and desktops have become the two top most searched keywords on Chợ Tốt for both new and secondhand items. This was due to the fact that major lockdowns have increased the number of people working from home, leading to the surge of laptops and desktops to support remote working.

Social distancing makes many Vietnamese people adopt a healthier lifestyle. As people can only travel within short distances during lockdown, this has led to a rapid increase in demand for bicycles, which are not only affordable but also a safe way to commute to nearby areas. Besides, items for recreational purposes during lockdown, such as video games and books, grew significantly and entered the list of the most-searched keywords.

In the growing trend of buying-selling second-hand items, Carousell continues to make headway in fostering community while promoting secondhand. This includes Chợ Tốt’s Sharing Market campaign, which was inspired by generous users who listed items for free using the hashtag #chosechia. This campaign is a new initiative of Chợ Tốt during the social lockdown period, calling for donations of unused items to people who are suffering from the pandemic to help spread love and build circular consumption behaviors. In Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines on Carousell, as well as OneKyat in Myanmar, similar campaigns have been devised to promote the Free Items category.

“In the past 8 years, Cho Tot has made the experience of   buying and selling secondhand items more convenient. We are constantly striving to create a reliable and engaging re-commerce marketplace, where everybody can buy second-hand at the first choice and help to reduce the manufacturing waste and the impact on the environment , ” Mr. Nguyen Trong Tan – CEO Cho Tot (Carousell in Vietnam) shared.

The Carousell Recommerce Index (2021 Report) is available for download here.

About Carousell Group

Carousell Group is the leading classifieds group in Greater Southeast Asia on a mission to inspire the world to start selling, and to make secondhand the first choice. Founded in August 2012 in Singapore, the group has a leading presence in eight markets under the brands Carousell, Mudah.my, Cho Tot and OneKyat, serving tens of millions of monthly active users. Carousell is backed by leading investors including Telenor Group, Rakuten Ventures, Naver, STIC Investments and Sequoia Capital India. Visit here for more information.

About Chợ Tốt

Cho Tot (www.chotot.com) is part of Carousell, one of the world’s largest and fastest growing marketplace platforms in Southeast Asia. With more than 50 million visits/month, Cho Tot is the leading online classifieds site in Vietnam with a wide range of products: Property, Vehicle, Electronics, Blue Collar Jobs, Pets, Home Appliances, etc. Visit www.chotot.com for more information.

#CarousellGroup #ChợTốt