Author: Eternity Lab

Zen Internet and Sky Business Wholesale have announced a strategic partnership that will see the former’s partners and direct business customers gain access to Sky’s Ethernet-enabled exchange footprint.

Headquartered in Rochdale and employing 650 people, Zen offers a range of broadband, data, voice, hosting and infrastructure services to homes and businesses across the UK. It claims to be the largest B Corporation certified telecommunications and network connectivity provider in the UK.

With a network spanning over 2,800 exchanges, with more than 80% enabled for 10 Gb services, Zen also provides what it describes as “complex” network and cloud services for a range of large businesses and corporate customers through its strategic partnerships with Amazon Web Services and Cisco.

Sky Business says its mission is to keep firms connected and customers entertained with a “next-generation network and unrivalled live sport and entertainment”. The company says it’s guided by three premises: always innovating; making customers’ lives easier with next-level support; and continually investing in business.

Zen regards the collaboration as marking a “significant” step forward in delivering high-performance, scalable connectivity services to businesses across the UK. It adds that the partnership lays the foundations for a long-term strategic relationship, with growth and innovation at its core.

The partnership is also designed to further strengthen Zen’s partner portal, The Fibre Hub, after its launch in May. This offers access to a full-fibre footprint of nearly 20 million premises via infrastructure providers Openreach, CityFibre, ITS and Freedom Fibre, with products from Trooli coming soon.

By aligning application programming interface strategies and automation capabilities, both providers aim to accelerate quoting, ordering and service delivery, bringing greater speed and efficiency to its partners and direct business customers.

David Barber, strategy director at Zen Internet, regarded Sky’s network reach as a strong strategic fit for his company. “This partnership expands choice and flexibility for our channel and UK businesses we serve directly, enabling us and the channel to compete more effectively on price, coverage and service,” he said. “It is another significant step in bringing genuine infrastructure competition to the UK market.

“As we continue to build relationships with more key network providers, we’re on track to offer the widest geographic reach and the best commercial advantage for the channel, and for direct business customers.”  

Sky Business Wholesale managing director Damian Saunders added: “We’re excited to partner with Zen, a business that shares our focus on innovation and customer choice. This is just the beginning of a broader collaboration that will bring real value and better outcomes for the channel and business customers alike.”

Going forward, Zen says it will also provide its channel partners and direct business customers access to Sky Business Wholesale’s Ethernet-enabled exchange footprint and 10GB Ethernet services. This builds on Zen’s offering of Ethernet over fibre to the premises and business-grade connectivity products from CityFibre and ITS.

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After noting an increase in private 5G network deployments by household names in the telecoms industry and industrial giants across vertical industries, research shows investments in such networks are set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 41% between 2025 and 2028, with annual spending projected to reach $5bn by 2028.

Outlining the fundamentals of private 5G communications following its study, SNS Telecom & IT’s Private 5G market: 2025-2030 report states that private mobile networks based on LTE communications have been a well-established market and have been around for more than a decade, albeit as a niche segment of the wider cellular infrastructure segment.

However, the analyst emphasised how private cellular networks, or non-public networks (NPNs) based on 3GPP-defined 5G specifications, are just on the cusp of becoming a mainstream technology, with a market potential exceeding that of private LTE.

Additionally, on a technological basis, explaining why 5G private networks are a considerable improvement, SNS Telecom & IT noted that compared with LTE technology, private 5G networks can address far more demanding performance requirements in terms of throughput, latency, reliability, availability and connection density.

In particular, the report cited 5G’s Ultra-Reliable, Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) and Massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC) capabilities. These, along with a future-proof transition path to 6G networks in the 2030s, have positioned private 5G as a viable alternative to physically wired connections for industrial-grade communications between machines, robots and control systems, said the analyst.

Furthermore, the report highlights that 5G’s wider coverage radius per radio node, scalability, determinism, security features and mobility support have stirred strong interest in its potential as a replacement for interference-prone unlicensed wireless technologies in industrial internet of things environments, where the number of connected sensors and other endpoints is expected to increase significantly over the coming years.

Looking at the financials, the study projects that total annual investments in private 5G networks for vertical industries will grow at a CAGR of approximately 41% between 2025 and 2028, eventually surpassing the $5bn mark by the end of 2028.

The study notes that, initially, much of the growth will be driven by highly localised 5G networks covering geographically limited areas for Industry 4.0 applications in manufacturing and process industries. In these areas, sub-1GHz wide area critical communications networks for public safety, utility and railway communications are anticipated to accelerate their transition from LTE, GSM-R and other legacy narrowband technologies to 5G towards the latter half of the forecast period.

Over the past 12 months, organisations in the US, Canada, Germany, the UK, France, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Brazil, and other countries ramped up their digitisation and automation initiatives. Private 5G installations have progressed to a stage where practical and tangible benefits – particularly efficiency gains, cost savings and worker safety – are becoming increasingly evident.

It reported that there has been a noticeable increase in production-grade deployments of private 5G networks by industrial giants such as Airbus, Aker BP, Boliden, Coal India Limited, Equinor, Etihad, Ford, Hutchison Ports, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, John Deere, LG Electronics, Lufthansa, Newmont, POSCO, Tesla, Toyota and Walmart. Such investments, said the analyst, were paving the way for Industry 4.0 and advanced application scenarios.

Examples of such scenarios included Tesla, LG Electronics and Hyundai eliminating connection-related stoppages since migrating automated guided vehicle (AGV) and autonomous mobile robot (AMR) communications from unlicensed Wi-Fi systems to private 5G networks at their production facilities in the US and South Korea. The French city of Istres has also reduced video surveillance camera installation costs from $34,000 to less than $6,000 per unit by replacing fibre-based connections with a private 5G network.

Elsewhere, China Huaneng Group is relying on a tri-band (700MHz, 2.6GHz and 4.9GHz) 5G-Advanced network to safely coordinate a fleet of 100 unmanned electric mining trucks at its Yimin open pit coal mine in Inner Mongolia.

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It’s been impossible to miss the headlines that have popped up over the past couple of years, but many of them have had the same message: AI is coming for our jobs. While it’s easy to get lost in the doom and gloom of the “AI revolution” we’re currently experiencing, many have stood fast on the fact that while AI might replace some jobs short-term, humans will ultimately find other places to apply their skills.

No matter where you fall on the scale of believing the headlines or not, though, it’s hard to argue with the fact that some jobs are likely to be completely replaced by AI at some point in the future. In fact, we have already seen the Godfather of AI himself argue that AI will replace some jobs. And now, it looks like Microsoft is jumping on the bandwagon.

The tech giant has been pushing AI experiences since the revolution began, and according to a new yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study that researchers at the company have published to arXiv, the jobs most likely to be replaced by AI include teaching jobs, advising jobs, and writing jobs.

AI can’t replicate human feeling and soul

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More specifically, the list of occupations with the highest AI applicability scores included interpreters and translators, historians, passenger attendants, sales representatives, writers and authors (gulp), and customer service representatives. Employees in these fields should be paying especially close attention to AI’s rise in the days ahead.

Of course, that’s a very broad list of potential industries that could be affected by the ongoing advancement of AI. However, it’s worth noting that even if AI does replace some of these jobs — it’s extremely likely, especially at big tech companies like Microsoft — the outcome is always going to be work that lacks human feeling and soul.

That’s one of the biggest issues with AI replacing human jobs. It may be able to learn and pick up on the technical aspects of our skills. But AI will never be able to replace what human workers bring to their jobs. There’s also the whole hallucination issue, but that’s another topic altogether. The point is, AI still has a long way to go before it replaces all of our jobs. And the good news, I guess, is that if AI does replace our jobs, we can still count on manual labor to pay the bills — at least until the robot butlers take over.

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It’s not always easy to tell if an Android device is locked to a cellular/wireless provider, but there are methods to retrieve this information. If your device is locked, it will only take SIM cards from a specific carrier, whereas something unlocked can be used with virtually any provider. A locked device may also prevent you from accessing all of your device’s features. 

There’s multiple ways to check if your device is locked: through the device’s IMEI information, switching out the SIM card, or checking via the device’s mobile settings.

Checking through the Settings menu is easy, though menu names may change depending on your device. Simply open the Settings app and select Network and Connections or Connections. Select Network Operators to see if there are multiple network options. If there are, that means your device is likely unlocked. If not, tap More connection settings and select Network unlock, which allows you to view what carrier your device is locked to, or possibly your carrier may provide the option to unlock the device from this menu. 

It’s recommended to talk to a carrier representative as they may have options tailored to your needs, but knowing if your Android is locked can be just as useful as knowing how to block your number when calling people.

Find if an Android is locked through the IMEI number

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Like humans and our fingerprints, your device has a unique identifier, known as the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. Used for ensuring the validity of mobile equipment, this 15-digit number is stored in a database and provides a variety of basic information, including the model name, and whether or not it’s locked. Finding this number can be as easy as checking your Android’s battery health if you know where to look.

To find your IMEI number:

• Navigate to Settings and select About Phone.

• Scroll down until you see the IMEI section. Write the number below the header down.

• Check a third-party website or contact your carrier to provide more information about your IMEI number.

• Certain wireless carriers may also allow you to obtain your IMEI by typing *#06# in the Phone app’s keypad.

After obtaining the IMEI number, one of the most reliable websites for checking your information is imei24.com. Be aware, however, that due to IMEI numbers being tied to a registry, certain third-party websites and even your wireless representative may not have the most accurate information. Even worse, some sites may attempt to charge you money or they can be an outright scam. If you want to check if your phone is unlocked, having your IMEI handy and contacting your service provider will be the most reliable method for obtaining the best information.

Check via your SIM card

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With this method, the steps are easy, but you’ll need access to another SIM card that is on a different network. This can be a card from a family member or friend, or you can use a brand-new SIM card should you have one available.  

Here’s the steps:

• Turn off your device.

• Remove the SIM card. If your device is older and has a removable battery, you should be able to take the back of the phone off and then remove the SIM card. For newer model phones, you will need the SIM ejector tool that came with your device or a paperclip to open the SIM card tray. Refer to the user manual for your device if unsure.

• Insert the second SIM card.

• Turn the device back on. If you are able to text or receive calls, your device is likely unlocked. If you receive a prompt to enter an unlock code or if you are unable to make a phone call, your device is likely locked to your carrier.

If you receive an error code while making a call with the new SIM card, be sure to record this number, as it may be useful when speaking to a representative. It’s possible that other issues, such as hardware problems or account restrictions, blocked the call. Thankfully, Google has you covered with this one Android feature that can make talking to representatives easier.

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Skechers recently made headlines by releasing a line of kid shoes that feature a hidden compartment under the insole where parents can place an Apple AirTag. While this might look like a solid solution to ensure that your child is always safe and you know where they are at all times, you definitely shouldn’t buy these shoes for this specific purpose.

First off, this has nothing to do with whether or not this is a violation of a child’s privacy. However, when Apple released the AirTag in 2021, it addressed several situations in which you shouldn’t be depending on the item tracker. Among the examples: don’t attach it to your dog’s collar, don’t use it to track your kids, and, most importantly, never use it to surreptitiously track anyone.

This is why, over the past few years, Apple has improved the privacy features of the AirTag so that it will start beeping if it is disconnected from the iPhone of its original owner or detects another AirTag in the vicinity for an extended length of time. However, the most important point is that the AirTag can’t provide real-time location data if the tracked item (or person) is on the move.

Why the AirTag works with items but not people

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For the AirTag to work, it needs to be close to a Bluetooth device, such as an Apple product, so the AirTag can connect to the network and send an updated signal. While that’s perfect for finding out if your luggage landed safely at the airport, it doesn’t work as well with moving objects. That’s especially true in the case of young children, many of whom probably don’t own a smartphone.

Worst of all, if a teenager or an adult is with your kid, it’s possible that they will hear the AirTag chime or receive a notification that “an AirTag might be tracking you” from their smartphone as part of the AirTag’s privacy features.

With that in mind, if you want to track your kid in real time, buying shoes with an AirTag compartment isn’t the best option. That said, if you must track your child, there are Apple offers two much more effective (but pricier) solutions.

Use the Find My app or a cellular Apple Watch

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If your kid is old enough to have an iPhone, you can simply set up an account for them, which includes making them part of your Apple Account family and thus adding them to your Find My network so you can track their precise location. Apple also offers another interesting solution, which is a feature called “Apple Watch For Your Kids” (formerly known as “Family Setup”).

Starting with the first generation Apple Watch SE, Apple lets you use your iPhone to set up an Apple Watch for a young child or an older family member who might need assistance. In this case, you just need to make sure a cellular connection is established, and you can keep track of that person all the time, and even receive other health-related notifications.

There’s no question that these solutions are more expensive than buying a pair of shoes. However, if the peace of mind is important to you, skip the gimmicky shoes and get a proper device that will keep track of your kids wherever they go.

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Kioxia has launched solid-state drives of 245.76TB (terabytes), making them the largest capacity commodity flash drives currently on the market. The company said the new LC9 will be targeted at artificial intelligence (AI) training, data lakes and hard disk drive (HDD) replacement in hyperscale clouds.

Its capacity of 245.76TB dwarfs the maximum possible from spinning disk, which currently tops out at around 40TB. Pure Storage has promised 300TB capacity flash drives in its proprietary DirectFlash Modules, due out later this year, but they will only work on Pure arrays.

Kioxia’s LC9 will come in 2.5in U.2 and EDSFF E3.S and E3.L form factors. It uses PCIe 5.0, which can be single full channel or two channels at half speed, to allow solid-state drives (SSDs) to be deployed in storage arrays with two redundant motherboards. Capacity runs to 122.88TB in the 2.5in and E3.S formats, with the full 245.76TB in the E3.L drives.

Kioxia LC9 SSDs will use its eighth-generation BiCS chips, which contain 32 quad-level cell (QLC) NAND circuits in place of the 16 of the previous generation.

The Japanese company has effectively doubled the previously possible capacity of 122.88TB by doubling the chip count and making a wider/thicker drive.

Kioxia competes in 122.88TB flash drives with Phison and Solidigm, but differences in how the manufacturers put them together result in varying performance metrics.

Solidigm’s D5-P5336 controller chip can write data at a maximum throughput of 7.4GBps and writes at a maximum of 3.2GBps. Phison’s Pascari D205V also writes at a maximum of 3.2GBps but reads at 14.7GBps with PCIe 5.0.

Kioxia’s LC9 is slower at around 3GBps for writes and 12GBps for reads. Kioxia doesn’t explain why this is the case, which occurs with the same controller used by Phison. It’s possible some economies have been made somewhere, perhaps in onboard random access memory (RAM), so its SSDs can achieve the 245TB capacity.

Kioxia’s LC9 achieves good scores in random writes, which is consistent with a larger number of NAND chips. It supports 50,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS), compared with 35,000 IOPS for the Phison SSD and 25,000 for the Solidigm product.

The Phison product wins out when it comes to random reads, with three million IOPS, then Kioxia with 1.3 million and finally Solidigm with 930,000. These results are nuanced, however, because they are biased by rewrites of data stored in cache by the use of differing levels of firmware intelligence to predict hot data.

The presence of RAM dedicated to cache in the Phison product, but not in that from Kioxia, may also explain this. The Solidigm model, already slower due to the use of PCIe 4.0, has 33% less cache than Phison.

All this is in the context of writes that are always slower than reads on QLC SSDs because the firmware must calculate how to store one bit in a cell that can take four. That involves copying any existing bits to RAM, electrically erasing the cell, then writing the update to the same cell or to another cell to which the firmware has given the same logical address.

The key to the 245TB capacity of Kioxia’s LC9 product is in the format of the drives. Kioxia has coined the idea of a “2T” format for the E3.L drives that comprise two cards of 122.88TB.

E3 formats are 7.6cm high and correspond to the façade of a 2U storage array. The E3.S and E3.L formats differ in depth (11.28cm compared to 14.22cm). This width and length allows an E3.S to offer the same capacity as a 2.5in drive but with the lower thickness of 0.75cm in E3 drives.

In Kioxia’s E3.L 2T format, the width of the SSD is nearer 1.68cm.

That means that while it is usually possible to install 24 E3 SSDs in a 2U array, the number of 2T SSDs possible is 10 units per machine. That means a 2U array full of 122.88TB SSDs makes for around 2.9PB (petabytes) of raw capacity, while an array full of 245.76TB capacity drives stacks up to 2.46PB.

Despite this, Kioxia said the advantage of the 245.76TB drive lies elsewhere. Namely, that it uses fewer PCIe channels, which means a single array can control more SSDs and use less energy.

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The Apple Watch remains one of the best-selling smartwatches, with multiple models available. It is known for its seamless integration with iOS, intuitive watchOS interface, and reliable health and fitness tracking features. As of July 2025, whether you’re focused on fitness, wellness, or everyday productivity, there’s an Apple Watch out there for everyone.

Whether you’re using the latest Apple Watch Series 10 or an older model, one thing remains true: Apple Watch batteries degrade over time. Like all lithium-ion batteries, the one inside your Apple Watch is subject to chemical aging, which reduces its ability to hold a charge as the months go by. Frequent use, high temperatures, and regular charging cycles all contribute to this gradual decline in performance. 

According to Apple, a typical Apple Watch battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 1,000 full charge cycles. You can monitor your device’s battery health directly through the watch settings to determine if it’s time for a replacement.

Apple Watch battery life depends on various factors including the specific model you own. For example, when new, the Apple Watch Series 10 is rated for up to 18 hours of battery life per charge. The more rugged and premium Apple Watch Ultra 2 offers significantly better performance, boasting up to 36 hours of battery life in standard mode, and up to 72 hours when using Low Power Mode.

How to check your Apple Watch battery health

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While you don’t need to monitor your Apple Watch battery health daily, it’s a smart habit to check it periodically, especially if you’re noticing issues like unexpected shutdowns or your watch isn’t lasting as long on a full charge as it once did. These signs often point to battery degradation, a regular part of any lithium-ion battery’s life cycle.

The key metric to look at is the Maximum Capacity, which indicates how much charge your Apple Watch battery can hold compared to when it was new. For example, if the maximum capacity has dropped significantly below 100%, your watch may not get through a full day on a single charge. This value helps you determine whether your battery is still in good condition or if it might be time for a replacement.

You can check your battery health on your Apple Watch in a few simple steps. Here’s what to do:

• Press the crown to open the Home Screen.

• Tap on the Settings icon.

• Tap on Battery.

• Scroll through to Battery Health.

When you check your Apple Watch battery health, you’ll see a Maximum Capacity percentage. A healthy battery typically reads above 80%, and anything below that may warrant a battery replacement, regardless of how long you’ve owned the watch. While a brand-new Apple Watch should show close to 100% capacity, Apple notes that slight variations can occur due to time between manufacturing and purchase. After regular use, it’s normal to see the capacity drop.

How to optimize your Apple Watch battery

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Apple offers several built-in features to maximize Apple Watch battery life, and keeping your device updated ensures you benefit from the latest energy-efficiency improvements in watchOS. Enabling Low Power Mode (accessible via Control Center or Settings) disables non-essential features, like always-on display, background heart and oxygen monitoring, and cellular connections.

For long-term battery health, Apple recommends using Optimized Battery Charging, available in watchOS 7 and later, which learns your habits and delays charging past 80% when appropriate. Optimized Charge Limit further refines charging patterns to preserve battery life on supported models (Series 6 and later, SE, and Ultra). You can also reduce screen wake-ups by disabling Wake on Wrist Raise, or enabling Theater Mode, and keeping Bluetooth on your iPhone ensures efficient sync and less power drain on the watch.

While working out, you can turn on Power Saving Mode, which will disable the heart rate sensor. All you need to do is go to the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, go to My Watch and select Workout. From here, you can enable Power Saving Mode, just be aware, calorie burn calculations might not be as accurate. 

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By Sai Vsr Aug. 3, 2025 2:17 pm EST Milea/Getty Images

You might think that CD players and DVD players have had their run, but as it turns out, they are absolute goldmines for DIY projects. Pop one open and you’ll find stepper motors, laser assemblies, DAC chips, power circuits, infrared receivers, and precision mechanical parts — components that are still perfectly good even if the device itself is toast.

These parts were built to withstand thousands of hours of spinning discs, reading data, and converting signals, so they’re not flimsy. They’re reliable, over-engineered in the best way, and surprisingly versatile across hobby electronics, robotics, audio mods, or custom control systems.

If you have one of these collecting dust in a closet or you are about to throw it out, you may want to hold off. Instead of contributing to electronic waste, you can actually turn these into something useful. Here are five interesting ways you can breathe life back into that old CD or DVD player of yours.

Build a laser engraver

Ever cracked open an old DVD writer? Inside, you’ll find a laser diode, sled mechanism, and stepper motor, which coincidentally happen to be everything you need to build a pocket-sized laser engraver. This Argentine maker named Aoshido figured out how to turn multiple DVD drives into a working engraver. He mounted the sled assemblies from two drives in an XY configuration — one handling horizontal movement, the other vertical. An Arduino running GRBL firmware controlled the steppers, while the laser diode did the actual engraving.

If you want to try building one yourself, you’ll need at least two DVD drives, an EasyDriver stepper shield, an Arduino Uno, a laser current driver circuit, and GRBL firmware plus control software. The process involves disassembling the drives to extract their sled assemblies, mounting them perpendicular to each other on a frame, wiring the stepper motors to the driver board, and connecting the laser diode with proper current limiting. What you end up with is an awesome laser engraver made entirely from old electronics that would otherwise end up in the trash.

Make a CNC plotter or a robotic arm

Those same stepper motors work great for light robotics and pen plotters, too. One Instructables user built what they called an “Arduino-Based CNC Plotter” using three salvaged CD drives, an Arduino Uno, EasyDriver stepper motor modules, and some basic mounting hardware. The build works by positioning two drives to handle horizontal and vertical movement, while the third one moves the pen up and down. You’re limited to whatever travel the DVD sleds give you (usually around 30-40mm in each direction), but that’s plenty of space for small drawings, labels, or even simple PCB layouts.

Drive steppers are usually 20-step motors, which gives you decent precision for this kind of work. Each motor gets connected to an EasyDriver board that takes the digital signals from your Arduino and turns them into the right current levels to move the stepper. The pen holder just clamps onto one of the sleds, and you can feed it G-code commands like any other CNC machine. Plus, it’s a great way to learn how CNC machines work. You’re dealing with real stepper motors, figuring out coordinate systems, and writing G-code – all the same steps you’d encounter on a normal CNC router.

Turn the tray into a secret stash

The motorized tray mechanism in DVD drives makes an excellent hidden storage compartment. Here’s one way to do it: pull apart an old drive, keep the tray motor, and wire it to a hidden push button switch with a USB power adapter. Mount the drive somewhere inconspicuous, maybe under your desk or inside a cabinet, and you’ve got a secret compartment that opens with the press of a button. For even more storage space, you can gut the drive’s internal components — the laser assembly, circuit boards, and metal framework — leaving just the outer casing and tray mechanism. 

This opens up the full interior volume of the drive, giving you a compartment that’s about 5 inches deep and wide enough for documents, cash, USB drives, or other small valuables. The beauty is in the disguise. It looks completely normal sitting on a shelf or mounted under a desk, but a quick press of your hidden switch opens up a storage space that most people would never think to look for. You can even leave the original front bezel intact so it looks like a regular, non-functional old drive.

Turn it into a Raspberry Pi-powered media center

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If your CD player is dead but the case is still good, it makes a perfect shell for a Raspberry Pi media center. The internal space usually fits a Pi 4 or Pi 3B+ with room left over for a small cooling fan and maybe even a portable SSD for storage. You’re going to have to remove all the old electrical parts, save the front button panel and IR receiver. That way, you can wire them up to control power, volume, or assign shortcuts. Then just run a micro-HDMI cable out through the old video ports, install Plex or Kodi, and your dead player is now streaming Netflix and YouTube.

Want to make it look cooler? Throw some LED strips inside or wire up a small OLED screen on the front to display what’s currently playing. It makes it look way more interesting than just having a Pi board sitting around. The big advantage is that you’re working with a proper metal case that already has ventilation holes, mounting points, and a power button that doesn’t look like it came off a circuit board.

Turn your DVD tray into a motorized Lazy Susan

The DVD tray also works as a rotating platform once you strip it down. That tray motor already has a gearbox that keeps things moving smoothly at low speeds. People have turned these into all sorts of rotating displays: Product photography setups where you need smooth 360° shots, Lazy Susans for spice racks, and little stands for showing off collectibles. The motor setup is already there, so you just need to wire in a toggle switch or speed controller to control it.

Getting it working is straightforward — wire in a toggle switch for on/off control, or add a speed controller if you want variable rotation. Some people connect them to an Arduino for programmed movement, like rotating a few degrees every few seconds for a display case. The tray works as your base. Just glue a circular piece of acrylic or wood on top, and you’ve got a smooth rotating platform. 

Since DVD players had to spin discs smoothly at thousands of RPM, the whole mechanism is already set up to handle the rotating weight properly. From there, you can customize it however you want: LED strips around the base for accent lighting, a nice wooden enclosure, or even use it as a motorized incense holder. The main advantage is that you’re starting with a motor and gear system that already works instead of trying to build one from scratch.

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The warning signs were already there. When VMware customers on perpetual licences began receiving cease-and-desist letters for applying patches while out of support – and audits started to follow – it became clear that “owning” the software was no longer enough to guarantee the right to use it securely.

Recent weeks have seen a wave of new developments and escalations, both legal and operational, in the ongoing VMware saga. These events point to growing uncertainty for customers and channel partners alike. It’s a story not of changing licensing terms but of eroded trust, evading responsibility, and a complete breakdown in predictability. 

The Dutch government steps in

One of the most significant developments came not from a Broadcom announcement but a courtroom in The Hague. After a high-profile dispute between Broadcom and the Dutch government agency Rijkswaterstaat (RWS), a judge ruled that VMware must continue providing support while the agency migrates away from its platform. The ruling made clear that support must be provided at a reasonable cost for up to two years.

Broadcom’s insistence on a sharp pivot to subscriptions and refusal to honour the agency’s request for an extension under its existing model was deemed untenable. In the eyes of the court, forcing an 85% price hike just to keep using the same software was not a reasonable path forward.

It’s a rare moment of legal intervention in what has otherwise been a Broadcom-controlled narrative. And while it does set a precedent, it is by no means a scalable solution. Most organisations can’t rely on a court order to secure the stability they need. And while the ruling has legal force in the Netherlands, Broadcom has given no indication that it will apply the same flexibility elsewhere.

The underlying issue is the same, and it’s not going anywhere – there is no longer a clear or consistent path for perpetual licence holders to retain access to Broadcom’s in-house support. Negotiated renewals, reseller contracts, and patch access – all now fall under Broadcom’s shifting terms.

Shifting the burden onto the channel

There’s also something else at play here. Support pathways that used to lead directly to VMware are increasingly being diverted through distribution partners. In some cases, those partners are expected to absorb the first tiers of technical support, without the depth or direct access required to resolve more complex issues.

This reshuffling of the support model introduces new pressure points. Customers who believed they were paying for VMware-backed assistance may now find themselves relying on channel intermediaries, with longer response times and fewer guarantees.

It’s also bad news for partners, who must now absorb the cost and complexity of delivering technical support at scale, without always having the resources or incentives to do so.

The result is a support experience that varies by geography, partner, and licensing status. It’s less about quality and more about containment. Even for customers who agree to the subscription model, the value of what they’re buying may already be diminished.

Broadcom’s next move – and yours

This is not simply a case of Broadcom asking customers to cough up for more. What’s far more insidious is the balance of power shifting in Broadcom’s favour, with customers having to give up control.

You don’t get to choose when you move. You don’t get to opt out of subscriptions. And increasingly, you don’t get to decide how, or by whom, you’re supported.

The Dutch court decision shows that enforcement is not always the same as execution. But it also highlights how fragile the customer-supplier relationship has become. VMware may comply with the court today, but there’s no guarantee of how that will play out elsewhere. For most organisations, litigation is not a realistic route to stability. This is why more and more are looking for alternatives that de-risk the path forward, whether that’s with or without VMware. Crucially, organisations are looking to achieve this without introducing new uncertainty in the process.

Options remain, but within limits

There are still paths available for organisations that want to avoid a rushed migration away from VMware or a costly subscription agreement. But those paths are narrowing. And increasingly, the decision isn’t about technology, it’s about risk posture.

How much legal exposure are you prepared to tolerate? How confident are you in the clarity of your contracts? How resilient is your current support structure, now that responsibility may fall outside the vendor?

These are operational questions, but they’re also strategic ones. Because even if a system is technically stable, the surrounding environment – support, licensing, enforcement – is anything but.

The case for stability

Third-party support models are often seen as a stopgap – a way to buy time while planning a migration or re-architecting the future. But in the current environment, they’ve become something else: a means of reclaiming control.

With no agenda to drive you into a subscription, no licensing traps, and no hidden enforcement clauses, third-party software providers offer VMware customers clarity. You know what’s supported. And most importantly, you know the rules aren’t going to change halfway through your renewal cycle. When you’re managing critical infrastructure, you can’t put a price on that kind of stability. 

Support isn’t just about resolving tickets. It underpins operational confidence. It shapes planning, investment, and long-term strategy. Without it, even the best-run systems are exposed. Enforcement, pricing, and support models are all moving targets, but stability matters. And right now, stability doesn’t come from Broadcom. It comes from stepping outside that model entirely. 

Iain Saunderson is CTO at Spinnaker Support 

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Driven by an ever-escalating number of high-profile cyber attacks and other emerging risks, worldwide spending on cyber security products and services by end-user organisations continues to rise, and looks set to surpass $200bn (£150bn) during 2025, according to Gartner.

Throughout the forecast period, the expanding use of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) by both internal users and threat actors will be key growth drivers as total information security spend rises from $193.5bn in 2024 to $213bn this year, said the research house’s analysts.

By a comparatively small margin, this surpasses Gartner’s previous forecast from August 2024, which pointed to a high of $212bn. However, it represents a percentage increase of roughly 10%, which compared with last year’s forecasts is a fairly significant slowdown.

Nevertheless, growth looks set to continue into 2026, with Gartner now predicting spending will increase by around 12.5% next year, hitting about $240bn all told.

However, Ruggero Contu, senior director analyst at Gartner, said the headline figures did not necessarily tell the whole story.

“Established security spending will continue as normal, but some organisations are being more cautious with any new security spending in this highly uncertain and challenging climate,” he said.

“Higher defence budgets, rising threats, increasing regulatory pressure and better cyber security awareness – especially among small and medium-sized businesses – will keep cyber security spending strong in the medium to long term.” 

Gartner breaks out its spending forecast into three core categories – network security, security services and security software.

Its analysts found that security software will account for the lion’s share of short-term future growth – rising from $95bn in 2024 to $106bn this year, then heading to $121bn in 2026.

This growth is largely thanks to the transition from on-premise to cloud-based systems, which – as has been well established over the years – increases user exposure to certain cyber risks.

The main drivers powering growth in the security software segment will most likely be cloud security posture management and cloud access security broker (CASB) services.

Gartner predicted that the network security segment will go from $21.3bn in 2024 to $23.3bn in 2025, before heading to $25.9bn in 2026. Meanwhile, end-user spending on cyber security services will go from $77.1bn in 2024 to $106bn this year, then $121.1bn in 2026.

Attendees at Gartner’s annual Security and Risk Management Summit in London – which takes place from 22 to 24 September – can learn more about the research at the event, while the organisation’s clients can download the full report here.

Security draining IT budgets

Separately, SolarWinds’ annual IT trends report, also published this week, has revealed that IT security teams in the UK are investing heavily in operational resilience, with almost two-thirds of British respondents reporting that up to 30% of their total tech budgets are now devoted to his matter.

Across Europe as a whole, SolarWinds reported that 69% of buyers are upgrading their cyber tools, training and playbooks to improve their recovery and response processes should, or more accurately when, the worst occurs.

The SolarWinds study highlighted a worrying gap between how many IT leaders considered their organisations resilient, and the reality on the ground. In the UK specifically, it found that 44% consider their organisations resilient and 52% would say they were very resilient, and yet 32% spend over a quarter of their working month trying to resolve security issues and service disruptions.

“Teams are dedicating real budget and effort to resilience, but many remain trapped in reactive mode,” said Sascha Giese, tech evangelist at SolarWinds.

“Technology alone cannot solve problems – it needs people with the knowledge and expertise, plus investment, to be able to succeed. Organisations must adopt new ways of working in order to shift from firefighting to innovation, without compromising reliability.”

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