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X-Men 97 season 2 episode 4 has landed on Disney+ — and, once you've picked up your jaw off the floor, I suspect you'll have two major questions about where things go from here.

So, if you're searching for answers after the Marvel TV show's latest chapter, titled 'Rise of Apocalypse: Part II', I'm here to provide them. Or, at least, give my take on what'll happen next following the episode's emotionally devastating finale and end-credits scene.

It goes without saying, but full spoilers immediately follow for X-Men 97 season 2's latest entry. Turn back now if you haven't watched it yet.

Does Magneto die in X-Men 97 season 2 episode 4?

Eriiiiikkkkkk! (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney+)

In a nutshell, yes. You don't take a extremely powerful arm-cannon blast to the chest — one that completely obliterates you, no less — from the immortal, super-mutant called Apocalypse and live to tell the tale.

That said, comic book character deaths are never permanent. Whether it's on the page, or in a movie or TV adaptation, superpowered beings are regularly brought back to life via time travel or multiverse shenanigans.

While Magneto certainly perished at the hands of Apocalypse in X-Men 97's latest installment, then, it's incredibly unlikely that he'll be gone for good. He's too popular and important a character to kill off, especially in this Disney+ animated series, so I'll be shocked if the metal-manipulating mutant who goes by the name Erik Magnus Lehnsherr never returns.

Now, who's going to tell Rogue that she's a second love interest in as many seasons...

Does X-Men 97 season 2 episode 4 have an end-credits scene?

Good to see you again, bub (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney+)

Yes — and it sets up the storyline that'll see James 'Logan' Howlett, aka Wolverine, get his adamantium skeleton back.

Remember, in season 1 episode 8 of this Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) adjacent project, Wolverine had the indestructible metal ripped from his body by Magneto. And, while Logan survived that ordeal thanks to his self-healing ability, he's since had to make do with using his brittle bone claws to attack his foes.

Logan won't have to do that for much longer, though. In a mid-credits scene, we see Wolverine meet Captain America and Black Widow on a rooftop. After some brief small-talk, Cap hands a top secret file to Logan that bears the name 'Weapon X'.

Weapon X will be incredibly familiar to X-Men diehards (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney+)

Long-time fans and/or those who've seen certain live-action X-Men films — by the way, find out how to watch the X-Men movies in order once you're done here — will understand the significance of this.

However, for those unfamiliar with Weapon X: essentially, it's the name of a clandestine US Government research facility and military program that turned unwilling individuals into living weapons with the view to conducting covert missions, such as assassinations. Wolverine, Deadpool, Sabretooth, and X-23 are counted among its rare success stories.

So, will Wolverine reacquire his adamantium skeleton in this Marvel Phase 6 TV series' next chapter? It's possible, especially as next week's entry is titled 'Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs'. But — spoilers for the comics notwithstanding — if X-Men 97 continues to follow and authentically adapt this specific storyline from its source material, this subplot might not be resolved until later in the season.

Do you think we'll see Magneto again? And when will Wolverine get his adamantium skeleton back? Let me know in the comments!

After almost 30 hours sailing the high seas in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, one of the series’ best games has its hooks in me all over again, and I can’t wait to play another 30 (or more) and complete every single activity a second time.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5 (on PS5 Pro)
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: July 9, 2026

Embarking on a journey to remake one of the series’ finest entries and to ensure the story of one of the best protagonists stays true to its original, Ubisoft has largely succeeded with Resynced. The experience feels fresh and modern, but also has me feeling the same pirate-y feels that only the original ever could.

It’s not without flaws, though. Some particular bits of Black Flag remain that inject some unwanted repetition; some of the cut content is a little disappointing, and there are some rogue bits of oddness in the new additions, as well as overall balances of features.

But those are not huge complaints, and only apparent with close comparison to the original. Zoom out just a tiny bit, and it’s easy to appreciate what Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is: a fantastically fun version of a brilliant game.

One of the best to ever do it

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Revisiting the story of Edward Kenway, chancer and dreamer turned privateer and then assassin — perhaps the only protagonist who can hold a candle to series legend Ezio Auditore da Firenze — Resynced has largely kept the core narrative, characters, and experience as it was with the original. Which is the right approach, as all were excellent.

Bouncing from Caribbean island to Caribbean island with Kenway and his crew on the Jackdaw is the backdrop for a time-enduring Assassin’s Creed story that still holds up today and makes for a great swashbuckling adventure. There’s a certain satisfying way that the game’s narrative weaves living in the golden age of piracy and core characters within that with its own lore of the enduring Assassin’s vs Templar battle.

Exploring mysterious, overgrown islands searching for hidden treasures or hunting down stashes from messages in a bottle, traversing the high seas in the Jackdaw ship, and taking on huge ships from the Spanish and British navies, and following Kenway’s desire for fortune and experiencing him tracking down age-old secrets is all still fantastically fun and ensures the core experience remains exquisite.

The most tangible and clearest way that this core experience has been elevated is naturally the visuals. I said that Assassin’s Creed Shadows was the best-looking game in the series when I reviewed it last year, but now there's a new kid on the block. Resynced is simply wondrous, verdant, gorgeous, and incredibly detailed in its presentation of the Caribbean, and my eyes can’t get enough of it.

Being a new version of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, it’s still an absolutely fantastic video game and is the same brilliant original under the surface. But “not all treasure is silver and gold, mate”: it’s not just the impressive visual upgrade which makes the remake a success, as there have been loads of improvements, and a few notable changes or omissions which really make up the meat and potatoes of the differences Resynced offers over its original.

A modern assassin

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Each change itself isn’t huge, but when you factor them all in, there’s a huge collection of improvements that paint a bigger, better picture are aesthetic or functional changes, whereas others are much-needed modernizations that bring the game forward a decade and a half.

At their most basic, the changes to menus, controls, and the inventory screen are almost all welcome alterations and bring the game up to speed with the likes of Mirage and Shadows in the modern Assassin’s Creed pantheon. Everything is slick and smooth. The use of the newer Anvil engine and what that allows, such as dynamic weather, a day-night cycle, and so on, is also put to great effect.

In-game minigames like Kenway’s fleet have been overhauled too, and even with the removal of that fun and cartoon-y one in the original, these changes are largely slick and well done. There are also dedicated locations to interact with such things in Kenway’s manor and base of operations on Great Inagua, which has been expanded to include dedicated spots for upgrading the manor or interacting with the fleet.

The island’s upgrades — your Harbourmaster, general store, etc — all have more depth and levels of upgrade to invest in. It’s not as comprehensive as the base-building systems in Shadows, but it’s still very satisfying and drives you to plunder more to unlock the best for your island and ship.

Best Bit

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Taking on a powerful enemy ship with the Jackdaw and planning your attacks while simultaneously navigating the open waters is an absolute thrill — and the sense of satisfaction and relief in pulling off a difficult encounter with a fraction of health left is mighty.

Combat and parkour are both areas with substantial changes as well. Parkour doesn’t look or appear brand new — and once again not as transformative as the change that came after Black Flag with Unity, sadly — but it does genuinely feel smoother and more fluid than before; where there once would have been brief pauses or stutters mid-run, there now aren't.

Combat has definitely taken inspiration from Mirage and largely works as a new style for Kenway. It’s a shame to see some omissions, as Kenway sticks only to cutlass weapons (which sometimes feel a bit messy and button-mashy) but the heavy and light attacks and parries combine to make something more engaging than the parry and finish of the original games. Even so, after a while, it can drag a bit and get repetitive — especially when you’re having to board and take ship after ship after ship to farm upgrade material — and lacks the dynamism of the original at times.

Opening up more of the world has been a success in Resynced, at least. The ability to dive anywhere and swim everywhere in the ocean opens up more areas for discovery and exploration, and the simple addition of a crouch button means that you can explore enemy compounds and warehouse locations rather than just murder your way through them.

A balancing act

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

More substantial changes to content are more mixed, though, and in the face of so many great updates, upgrades, and enhancements, Resynced has to walk a tightrope of new additions and working with — or avoiding — the original source material.

I really enjoy the new endings that some of the best characters in the game get through new side quests, for example — and there are even new lines, scenes, and actions back at Kenway’s headquarters after those too, which is a nice touch.

The new officer recruitment missions are also good fun; as well as offering a tangible benefit for new ship features or weapons, these are some quite good contained missions. However, the pacing sometimes feels a little odd as you successfully recruit the new officer, midway through their story, and even when they seem unconvinced about joining you.

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The most noticeable change to content, however, has been unsuccessful, in my view: entirely removing the modern-day sections is a shame and a missed opportunity. I find myself longing for these bits where you are deep-diving into Desmond’s DNA and scoping out the modern-day Templar offices; the change of pace worked with the original game and played its own robust part in the lore and narrative of the series. While removing tube content was largely welcomed by many and may have seemed like a good idea, in the context of playing the game, it feels a bit of a shame. With Resynced being positioned by Ubisoft as a remake that semi-reinterprets but also modernises and improves parts of the original, it’s a wasted opportunity not to give the modern-day segments the same treatment as other areas of the game and to instead jettison it entirely.

This remake is a blast, and I cannot wait to seek out every corner of the Caribbean and solve every mystery all over again

Some 2013-isms remain in this 2026 game, too. Notably, the AI and enemies are as dumb as ever. Being able to whistle and attract a whole heap of guards to a single stalking location and murder all of them in one big bloody pile is still too easy. And while the tailing missions have been changed to be less punishing, you can now just murder your target, loot the info, and scarper just like any other objective in the game.

Despite the drawbacks, though, as a long-time Assassin’s Creed fan, this remake is a blast, and I cannot wait to seek out every corner of the Caribbean and solve every mystery all over again. Those of us who yearn for more from the stories of the Assassins in every game will be extremely happy, I’d wager, with Resynced’s re-look at one of the best games in the series, with the extra story beats for some of the best characters being such examples.

Despite a few creases here and there that raise the eyebrow, this is a solid remake and a wonderful game, and could offer an interesting insight into Ubisoft’s future approach to its older games, which is very exciting.

Should you play Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced?Play it if...

You want an enhanced and modern version of a classic AC game
Resynced is a fantastic new experience for a classic and top-tier entry in the series and will provide an engaging and satisfying modern way to play the game for new and returning fans.

You’re looking for a fantastic pirate action-adventure game
Complete with the same excellent naval combat from the original, Edward Kenway’s assassin-pirate all-action adventure is still swashbucklingly excellent in Resynced — remake or not — so it's a brilliant game in its own right in 2026.

You’ve enjoyed the modern feel of the most recent AC games
If you’ve liked the overhauls to combat and traversal in particular that the more modern games have offered in the Assassin’s Creed series, then you’ll likely find a lot to love in both ways in Resynced.

Don't play it if...

You really disliked the repetition in earlier games in the series
Sadly, you’ll still be seeing a lot of the same activities and engaging in repeated encounters in Resynced despite all the modernizations and improvements. If these are a big turn-off for you (such as the same fights when boarding enemy ships), then Resynced won’t win you over.

You know you’ll miss the modern-day content
While some hated it, a lot of people loved and were invested in the modern-day sections in Black Flag’s era of Assassin’s Creed games, and to have it totally and utterly removed may well disappoint many fans — especially in the face of so many other improvements in the game.

Accessibility features

Ubisoft has done another great job of offering a whole host of accessibility options in its latest flagship game. You can easily alter difficulty settings with a number of sliders affecting different factors such as stealth, naval combat, and activities, and a number of playstyle assists are also present, such as aim assist, parkour assists, camera settings, and even unlimited oxygen to make swimming in the game easier.

The dedicated accessibility menu is broken down into five categories of accessibility presets: Motor (affecting number of actions or precision and timing), Motion & Camera (to reduce motion and camera effects like screen shake), Colors (text colors and so on, but also setting for Red-Green color blindness and Blue-Yellow color blindness), Vision (for changes to the HUD, and subtitles etc), and Hearing (volume, speaker names, etc). All offer substantial options, and accessibility needs are very well served indeed.

How I reviewed Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

I played nearly 30 hours (and counting) of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced on a PS5 Pro teamed with an Acer X32QFS gaming monitor and SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni headset for this review. I used a standard DualSense Wireless controller, and I also spent many hours playing the game on my PlayStation Portal.

I tested the game thoroughly in all its graphics modes and found that the balanced mode (offering high graphical fidelity and a targeted 40 frames per second) was by far the most enjoyable and my personal preference.

Having followed the Assassin’s Creed series for years and years, and playing a whole heap of them straight for a year a short while ago, I am very familiar with the games and what makes a good one, a great one, and a less good one, so I am well placed to cast an opinion over Resynced.

First reviewed July 2026

Marketed for longevity and wellness benefits, the unproven therapies are sold through a grey market online. Compounding pharmacies say they should be able to make them legally to meet demand.

(Image credit: George Frey/Bloomberg)

• Ultrahuman hits Ring Pro production problems
• Kickstarter backers are left wondering when they'll get their ring
• August 10 is the new expected date but it's far from guaranteed

Ultrahuman is no stranger to producing some of the best smart rings, but not even that could protect them from the outpouring of disappointment and frustration that came its way after informing Ring Pro Kickstarter backers that shipments were being delayed yet again.

Customers took to Reddit to share their annoyance after u/enzolecorbeau started a thread by sharing a screenshot of the official Ultrahuman message. In it, Ultrahuman states that shipments were now "expected to begin from August 10 onwards".

Kickstarter backers were expecting to receive their orders in June, and this latest delay isn't the first. A single delay is one thing, but now it has happened several times, backers are starting to get vocal about the continued delays to the fitness tracker.

One Reddit user was annoyed that the unit had been sent to "influencers" and not to "people who paid money". Others report that they've requested cancelations but without success.

It's not all negative, though, with one Reddit user hoping the delay is down to the battery "because that would mean they may actually be looking to improve it."

(Image credit: enzolecorbeau)

Ultrahuman doesn't mention the battery but instead attributes the delays to issues experienced during the scaling of production. Ultrahuman says they are "taking extra care to ensure every Ring PRO meets the quality and experience standards we've set for it."

Their commitment to quality is no bad thing. They go on: "Each ring is individually crafted with a high level of precision and care – from the finishing to the final quality checks – and this process is taking slightly longer than originally anticipated."

Ultrahuman has always delivered before

Ultrahuman ran Kickstarter campaigns for both their Ring and Ring Air devices and faithfully fulfilled orders of both.

(Image credit: Ultrahuman)

In reality, crowdfunded projects are often subject to delays. For Ultrahuman, the challenge of manufacturing a titanium unibody with a cutaway safety feature en masse is no doubt contributing to the delays — the last thing Ultrahuman will want is to ship a ring with issues, especially as smart ring problems can prove dangerous.

Customers are more likely to forgive the brand for a delayed shipment than they are for receiving a device with issues. A botched product release could damage customer trust and mean the end of the wearables brand.

None of this will appease the community of people who were expecting to receive their ring back in June and are still left waiting. Only time will tell when Ultrahuman will start fulfilling these orders.

We've contacted Ultrahuman and will update this story when we hear back.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus blocks malware, ransomware, and phishing for $19.99 a year without slowing your PC down.

The post This Popular Antivirus is on Sale for $19.99 appeared first on TechRepublic.

• ExpressVPN has grown to 214 'distinct, app-selectable server locations'
• The 214-location count across 113 countries does not mean 214 cities
• ExpressVPN now covers around 196 cities, up from 189

ExpressVPN has rolled out the biggest network in its history, expanding to 214 distinct, app-selectable server locations across 113 countries.

It's a significant step up for a provider TechRadar last clocked at 189 locations, and it arrives as the fight to top our best VPN list increasingly turns on where you can connect, not how many servers hide behind the app.

The fresh additions reach places the network had not touched before, including Nuuk in Greenland, Lagos in Nigeria, Doha in Qatar, Valencia in Spain, and Manchester in the UK. The move builds on ExpressVPN's rollout to all 50 US states earlier this year, bringing that same local-first approach to the wider world map.

It's worth noting, however, that what the provider refers to as a "server location" is a connection option in the app, rather than a guaranteed unique city. For example, ExpressVPN's UK entries bundle multiple London-area spots that each count separately toward the total.

If you strip those duplicates out, the real coverage is narrower. By TechRadar's own tracking, ExpressVPN now reaches roughly 196 cities, up from 189. It's a definite upgrade, but it still trails NordVPN, which covers around 224 cities and leads on country count, too.

A bigger, more local network

(Image credit: EpressVPN)

ExpressVPN is pitching this as a local-first expansion rather than a raw server-count boast. The new connection points span Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and North America, while established markets have been deepened rather than simply widened.

The UK line-up now runs from Docklands and Tottenham to Manchester and the Midlands, Australia stretches from Adelaide to Woolloomooloo, and Japan covers Osaka, Shibuya, Tokyo, and Yokohama.

More nearby options can cut latency, give you a backup when a route is busy, and let you match a specific city, state, or region to whatever you are doing, from streaming and gaming to banking or working while travelling.

Every new location runs on ExpressVPN's RAM-only TrustedServer tech, which wipes data on each reboot, alongside its no-logs policy and its record of independent audits.

How to switch to the new locations

Getting to the new spots is simple. Update to the latest version of the ExpressVPN app, open the location picker, and browse the expanded country and city list.

If you would rather not choose, Smart Location will pick the fastest option for you automatically, based on speed, latency, and distance.

You can preview the full network on ExpressVPN's server locations page before you connect. And if precise city-level control is what you are after, it is worth checking if the list covers the exact places you need, rather than trusting the headline figure alone.

President Trump said he believes the current ceasefire with Iran is over following an exchange of attacks between the U.S. and Iran in the latest escalation straining the agreement to end the war.

(Image credit: Abdullah Guclu)

The teams that recover best from incidents are not always the ones with the fastest ‘in-the-moment’ responders. It’s those that know how to learn and grow stronger once the immediate pressure has passed.

In most organizations, that learning is still too informal and risky: passed between colleagues, buried in chat threads, or carried only by the people who happened to be there.

Recent research found that, while all respondents agreed post-incident learning needs to improve, only 48% said their organization turns incidents into structured improvement cycles. In other words, the majority of organizations at risk from ill-managed events turning into repeat critical incidents.

More than just technical disruptions, major incidents are business events with financial and reputational consequences. Faster incident recovery creates competitive advantage.

The post-incident review cannot remain an optional team habit spread by happenstance. It should be a defined operational policy within a no-blame culture of investigation and improvement, linked to business outcomes.

Post-incident reviews

The strongest post-incident reviews do more than document what went wrong. Reviews should create a shared account of what happened, what decisions were made, what signals were missed, what worked under pressure, and what needs to change.

The value of the process lies in building a coherent narrative and keeping the review blameless so that teams can understand how failure happened without reducing it to individual fault.

That is how institutional memory is built. Not through folklore passed from person to person, but through repeatable disciplines: consistently reviewing incidents, capturing evidence, assigning ownership for follow-up, and making lessons visible beyond the people involved.

It’s a continuous learning cycle where each incident becomes an opportunity for better decision making, and consistently stronger operations over time. This becomes even more important as operational environments are only becoming faster and more complex with every technology generation.

Organizations at the sharp edge of operations management are already using AI in operational workflows, but leaders are also pairing AI with human oversight and continuous learning, rather than treating incident management automation as self-sufficient.

As systems become more interconnected, teams need a more structured way to preserve environment context, identify patterns, and apply lessons from one incident to the next.

That last point is critical. The digital enterprise environment has become incredibly complex with architectural sprawl, the shift from monoliths to microservices, from quarterly to continuous deployment, and from on-prem to multi-cloud architectures. There are more services, more dependencies, more deployment events, and more places where something can behave unexpectedly.

All of this stresses resilience and makes the institutional task of learning the ropes more challenging for teams. That’s compounded further by fragmented tooling, the siloed knowledge of ‘folklore’ and ad hoc manual workarounds. Not to mention the AI-specific dependencies layered on top of existing systems.

Integrated operations with learning capabilities unlock resilience

Those with AI-first operations increasingly recognize the importance of systematic learning from operational incidents. Post-incident learning and improvement are key to achieving operational resilience, and for the ‘AI pioneers’, this is an especially urgent requirement.

Many AI outputs, particularly generative AI, are not 100% predictable or controllable. There are still big risks as the technology is yet to fully mature. Platforms will ideally enable such context, learning, and the ability to improve teams and tech environments together.

Codify, write, learn, test, repeat

The practical case is straightforward. If incident learning is left to memory, culture or pure good intentions, it will remain inconsistent. A serious post-incident review policy should define which incidents require review, who participates, what evidence is captured, how actions are tracked, and how lessons are shared across teams.

Those practices turn response into resilience.

Resilient teams are not distinguished only by how they handle failure in the moment. They are distinguished by what they remember afterwards, and by whether they are disciplined enough to make that memory usable the next time systems break.

That skill, plus automation, is making ‘AI pioneers’ manage the complexity and sophistication of their digital operations to maximum advantage.

We've featured the best AI tool.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

The Tower Plus' understated design hides capable internals, but there's still room for improvement when it comes to upgrades.

A GE Appliances plant in rural northwest Georgia was short hundreds of workers amid COVID-19. A flexible work option where some workers can sign up for shifts through an app has eased the pain.

(Image credit: Julie Holder for NPR)

As heat waves intensify, manufacturers are betting you'll buy the fan with the biggest airflow claims. Our testing shows why that's a mistake that could cost you money.

For the past year, enterprise AI conversations have focused on what the technology can do — build agents, automate workflows, generate content, and transform how work gets done.

But as many organizations move from pilots to enterprise-scale deployment, a different reality is emerging: AI-first approaches can create new complexity when the operational foundation underneath them isn’t designed to support intelligence at scale.

Early pilots often deliver promising results. The challenge comes later — when companies try to scale AI across functions, geographies, and business processes.

That’s when the hidden constraints begin to surface: fragmented data, inconsistent processes, unclear ownership, governance gaps, and environments that become harder to manage and maintain over time.

The issue is rarely the AI itself. More often, it’s the lack of a strong operational foundation underneath it.

The real constraint: a fractured operational core

The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. Many AI strategies are colliding with the same enterprise realities: disconnected systems, inconsistent data, unclear process ownership, and controls that were never designed for increasingly autonomous technologies.

These challenges become more visible as organizations scale AI.

AI can accelerate decision-making and automate complex work, but it cannot compensate for fragmented operating models or conflicting sources of truth. In many cases, AI simply exposes weaknesses that already existed within the enterprise.

That is why a strong operational core matters more than ever. Whether anchored in ERP software, finance platforms, supply chain systems, enterprise data platforms or broader governance capabilities, AI depends on environments where data, processes, and controls are consistent enough to support trustworthy execution.

AI does not eliminate operational complexity. In many cases, it amplifies it.

Acceleration without alignment creates risk

When organizations move too quickly toward AI-first architectures without strengthening the underlying foundation, the long-term costs can add up quickly.

Systems become harder to scale. Governance becomes harder to enforce. Teams spend more time managing exceptions, validating outputs, and reconciling inconsistent data across platforms.

What starts as speed and flexibility can eventually create operational drag.

ERP: from system of record to system of execution

That is where many AI strategies begin to break down — not because the technology is immature, but because the operating model underneath is not prepared to support it.

And that is where ERP re-enters the conversation.

For years, ERP software has been described primarily as a system of record. In reality, it serves a much broader role. It is where the business runs — where transactions are executed, roles and controls are enforced, workflows are managed, and business rules are applied consistently across the enterprise.

That consistency is not a limitation. It is what makes execution reliable.

As AI becomes embedded into core business processes, organizations need systems capable of turning intelligence into action while maintaining accountability, traceability, and control.

ERP itself is evolving

This does not mean ERP remains unchanged.

Modern ERP platforms are rapidly evolving from transactional systems into intelligent execution platforms that embed AI directly into business processes. Leading organizations are increasingly integrating agents, predictive capabilities, workflow automation, and real-time decision support into their operational environments.

The objective is not to choose between ERP and AI. It is to combine the adaptability of AI with the discipline, governance, and scalability of enterprise platforms.

The future belongs to organizations that can bring both together.

AI and ERP are complementary, not competitive

ERP systems are designed to operate predictably. They help execute processes consistently, enforce controls, and create auditable outcomes across the enterprise.

AI systems are fundamentally different. They learn, adapt, identify patterns, and introduce new forms of interaction, decision support, and automation.

These are not competing models. They are complementary.

AI introduces new layers of interaction, intelligence, orchestration, and productivity. But execution still requires a governed environment. Decisions still need defined processes. Controls must evolve alongside AI-driven workflows. And organizations still need systems capable of translating insight into action.

The greatest value is created when AI and ERP work together—combining the adaptability of AI with the operational discipline, scalability, and governance that enterprise platforms provide.

In that model, AI becomes the intelligence layer. ERP becomes the execution layer.

Together, they create a foundation that allows organizations to scale AI with greater confidence, consistency, and business impact.

Why execution still matters

Without a strong foundation, AI lacks a clear framework for how work should be done or what constraints it must operate within. This becomes especially clear beyond simple use cases.

In finance, AI can identify anomalies or predict cash flow—but acting on those insights requires systems that enforce approvals, maintain audit trails, and support compliance. The same applies across supply chain, procurement, and operations.

Intelligence alone is not enough. Execution and control are what turn that intelligence into outcomes.

Why ERP is becoming more important — not less

ERP provides the operational structure, process discipline, and control framework that helps organizations govern how AI operates across the business. It helps establish consistent data models, embeds business rules and controls, and makes decisions traceable and auditable.

In short, it creates the conditions that allow AI to scale more reliably across the enterprise.

Rather than replacing core enterprise systems, many organizations are pairing AI investments with ERP modernization efforts designed to improve data quality, process consistency, and governance. As AI adoption accelerates, the value of a strong operational foundation is becoming increasingly apparent.

The strategic shift for technology leaders

Many AI strategies still start with tools — what models to deploy, what agents to build, and what use cases to prioritize.

That approach can generate momentum, but not always sustained impact.

A more effective approach starts with outcomes: What decisions matter most? What processes drive value? and What metrics does the organization need to improve?

From there, the focus shifts to how AI supports those outcomes — and what kind of operational environment makes that support reliable.

In most cases, that environment depends on a strong operational ERP core.

The bottom line: AI is ready. Most foundations aren’t.

The organizations that succeed with AI will not necessarily be the ones that deploy the most models, build the most agents, or adopt the newest tools first. They will be the ones that build AI on top of operational foundations designed to support scale, governance, and continuous execution.

AI is moving fast. But without a reliable operational core underneath it, even the most promising AI initiatives can become difficult to sustain.

AI does not eliminate operational complexity—it exposes it.

Organizations with strong foundations can use AI to accelerate performance, improve decision-making, and unlock new sources of value. Those without them often discover that AI scales complexity just as quickly as it scales capability.

Because ultimately, the greatest risk in AI may not be the technology itself. It's trying to scale AI on foundations that were never designed to support it.

We list the best Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

Trump says ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is over, pressure mounts for Graham Platner to drop out of Maine Senate race, IOC opens door for Russian athletes to compete in 2028 Games.

• Ofcom issues £28 million fine to Virgin Media over cancellation worries
• Millions of customers had to jump through hoops to cancel their contracts
• Virgin admitted fault and cooperated, reducing the value of the fine

Ofcom has issued Virgin Media to pay a £28 million fine after an investigation found it repeatedly made it "unreasonabl[y]" difficult for customers to cancel their broadband, TV and phone contracts.

The investigation covered nearly two years between January 1, 2022 and September 11, 2024, making it the largest fine Ofcom has ever imposted under its consumer protection rules.

According to the announcement, millions of customer calls likely faced delayed or were prevented from switching to rival providers – a figure Virgin Media largely disputes, arguing the data was extrapolated from 649 core complaints.

Virgin Media fined for blocking customer cancellations

Ofcom found that Virgin Media deliberately disconnected customers, made excessive and unnecessary transfers between departments, kept customers on hold and forced them to make multiple cancellation requests before action was taken.

These hurdles were likely caused by the company's two-tier retention system – with frontline workers unable to process cancellations, customers have to be transferred to specialist teams – however this applies to a previous customer service setup that has since been improved.

Since the 2022-2024 period, the company has gone on to secure the top spot, receiving half the number of broadband complaints that TalkTalk received in the fourth quarter of 2025 (per Ofcom data). Those record-low complaint levels also mark a major 89% reduction compared with 2023.

"We have completely redesigned our customer services in recent years, addressing the historic shortfalls identified by Ofcom through a number of improvements, and have resolved all formal customer complaints from this period providing redress where appropriate," a Virgin Media spokesperson told us.

Under last year's turnaround plan, the company reduced the number of call transfers by more than 1.3 in 2025.

"Today, we are sending a clear message that any provider who wilfully acts against the interests of their customers will pay a heavy price," Group Director for Infrastructure and Connectivity Natalie Black said. "And by introducing the One Touch Switch Process, we‘ve put in place further safeguards to prevent this from happening again."

Virgin Media admitted fault and cooperated with Ofcom, granting it access to a 30% discount on the fine. The company also noted that all formal complaints from this period have since been resolved.

It is the second fine it's received within 12 months, having received a £23.8 million hit in December 2025 for "putting vulnerable customers at risk" during its landline migration program.

For the last few years, most AI infrastructure conversations revolved around the massive scale of AI training.

The AI training factories that leading AI companies have been building to develop frontier models and lead the AI race are nothing short of impressive: hundreds of thousands of GPUs, power consumption comparable to a medium city, and tens of petabits per second to scale training across multiple campuses.

But, as AI adoption accelerates and its applications expand, a larger infrastructure challenge is set to grab the spotlight. The new, real, and sustained pressure on networks is coming from the demand side of AI: inference.

Inference is what happens every time someone asks a chatbot a question, drops a file into a productivity tool for analysis, or relies on an AI-generated summary inside their inbox or search results. On a per-query basis, the traffic generated is lightweight, nothing comparable with a massive training run.

Now multiply that by the number of people interacting with AI across the globe – and consider that each time more it involves video, images, and supporting files – and you can see where the next major network demand driver is emerging.

With inference, the growth curve is steeper, global, and widely distributed, and it is now reshaping how data center connectivity is designed and the broader network ecosystem that connects cloud regions, metros and continents.

The inference inflection point

Even more powerful than users actively embracing AI faster than any technology before is the compound effect of AI features being injected into platforms that already serve billions.

Just take a look at your technology ecosystem and no doubt you’ve got AI capabilities now embedded in your search engine, email, office software, maps, social feeds and your smartphone. Embedding AI into those products is ensuring instant, global access and inevitable overwhelming usage.

The result is staggering growth in inference volumes. Take Google, for example, which reported the number of AI tokens it processes monthly increased 50 times year over year in early 2025… and then doubled it again just two months later and continues to grow at breathtaking pace, as seen on the 60 percent quarter-over-quarter token growth announced on April 2026.

Efficiency gains at the hardware and algorithmic level help attenuate the demand for additional resources, but nowhere near all of it. Delivering this increased inference volume requires the accelerated deployment of new GPU capacity and in a quickly growing number of inference data centers distributed across more geographies.

That geographic distribution is the first reason inference is not just a compute story but, at its heart, a networking story.

From text to video: multimodal models’ impact on the network

Until recently, AI's contribution to overall internet traffic has been limited. A text prompt and a text response amount to a few kilobytes — negligible next to a single minute of video streaming.

That’s changing quickly.

Multimodal models analyze and generate images, audio, video and 3D content. A user uploading a short HD video clip for analysis or editing pushes several megabytes upstream in seconds.

Researchers, students, and workers are increasingly pumping collections of documents into models to summarize key findings and generate detailed reports. Cloud-based video analytics that process camera feeds to provide insights and alerts are finding their way into viable business models.

Multiply those interactions by hundreds of millions to billions of users and inference traffic becomes a major driver of distributed and pervasive traffic flows.

Reasoning models add a second stressor. Rather than producing an instant response, they break problems into multiple internal steps, often pulling in supporting information in real time. A single user-visible answer can sit on top of dozens of background retrievals, sending megabytes of data between models, storage systems and external sources, much of it crossing data center boundaries.

And more pressure on the network comes from context window expansion. Frontier models can now ingest enormous prompts: think entire document sets, conversation histories, retrieved knowledge bases and more. Retrieval-augmented generation has become a widely adopted technique for many enterprise AI applications, and it involves injecting contextual knowledge into the model prompt on every query.

All told, these trends mean inference is no longer a lightweight workload from a network perspective. It is becoming a dominant driver of traffic growth, both between data centers and between users and the AI infrastructure.

How the DCI focus needs to shift

AI models are now distributed across regions, and usage signals and reinforced learning feedback must flow back to the centralized intelligence.

Multi-step and disaggregated inference workflows are increasingly spanning sites with complementary capabilities; think one for prefill focused on high-compute, large context processing, another for decode centered around low-latency token generation and memory and cache efficiency.

And sovereign AI requirements are pushing workloads into specific jurisdictions, multiplying the number of facilities that need to be tied together with high capacity and reliability.

Typical inference DCI links already operate at multiple terabits per second per route. The number of routes is growing alongside the capacity of each one, driven by more resilient and diversified interconnect topologies combined with a surge in the volume and geographic distributions of emerging inference-driven AI data centers.

Interconnecting inference data centers is just one side of the equation. The other involves connecting users, agents, things, and organizations to run their inference workloads across this meshed infrastructure.

Multicloud onramps are evolving to enable the movement of large enterprise datasets across AI platforms. More symmetric broadband access and scalable aggregation will be needed support widespread cameras to upload video for analysis on the AI cloud. The entire networking ecosystem needs to adapt.

So how do network operators keep up with demand and service providers take advantage of these trends?

Connecting the Dots – or Tokens

Network operators are already responding with planning centered on scalability, flexibility, efficiency, and security. To maximize capacity of every fiber pair—a resource that has never been more valuable and sought-after—they are adopting coherent optical platforms and systems capable of 1.6 Tb/s per wavelength.

Lumen Technologies, for example, is one such network provider that is building for tomorrow. It’s expanding its network at incredible speed, and to do so is leveraging a high-bandwidth 1.6 Tb/s coherent transceiver.

Additionally, the variable and diversified nature of inference traffic patterns make static networks less than ideal. Many operators are thus turning to AI-assisted multilayer network control to shift capacity and optimize performance in near real time.

Again, Lumen is a prime example of this; by leveraging a rich control suite the provider is gaining comprehensive visibility and maximizing usage and performance of its fiber assets from one point of control.

And to tie it all off, as inference traffic often includes sensitive data, network operators are baking in encryption at the optical layer within any new DCI deployment.

Inference workloads are evolving faster than any forecasting model can keep up. The networks best positioned for the next five years are the ones designed to scale in capacity, reach and intelligence without requiring major upgrades each time the workload spikes.

Training defined AI's first wave of infrastructure buildout. Inference is shaping its second – one much more globally distributed and intricate that will transform the networking landscape.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

Public Wi-Fi can expose your data. NordVPN locks it down across 10 devices for a year, and it's $40 off today.

The post NordVPN, 1-Year Subscription for 10 Devices is Only $30 With This Code appeared first on TechRepublic.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen says she'll run for the French presidency next year despite being sentenced Tuesday to wear a court-ordered electronic monitor for embezzlement.

(Image credit: Aurelien Morissard)

Fan technology has made huge leaps in recent years, with more powerful and quieter motors, misting attachments, and AI-powered person-tracking all promising to keep you extra cool when the weather warms up. But which fans actually deliver, and actually keep you feeling refreshed on sticky summer days?

We test dozens of new fans every year on TechRadar, and to help you pick the best one for you, I've rounded up the five that have really impressed me over the first half of this year, from brands including Shark, Dyson, and Dreo.

Dyson HushJet Mini CoolFutureFutureFutureFutureFuture

Release date: April 2026

Score: 5/5

It's a lot pricier than your average handheld fan, but the Dyson HushJet Mini Cool is also a lot more powerful, and unlike flimsy plastic devices, it's built to keep you cool for many summers to come. Despite its small size, the HushJet Mini really packs a punch, even on its lowest setting, and the highest options feel like a cold hairdryer blowing in your face. It's comfortable to hold, can stand on its end for use as a desk fan, and comes with a strap that lets you wear it around your neck. You can twist the angled nozzle to aim the airflow directly at your face and neck for quick relief on sweaty days.

Dyson claims battery life of up to six hours, but in my tests it continued running for almost exactly six and a half, which is impressive for such a compact device that shifts a lot of air even on its lowest setting. It's not quite as quiet as the Shark ChillPill below, despite Dyson's HushJet nozzle, but that's understandable considering it's basically a portable tornado.

Read our full review

Shark ChillPillFuture / Becca CaddyFuture / Becca CaddyFuture / Becca CaddyFuture / Becca CaddyFuture / Becca Caddy

Release date: March 2026

Score: 4.5/5

Another excellent handheld fan, the Shark ChillPill has a unique twisting design that lets you place it on a desk and angle the airflow at your face, plus three different cooling attachments: a regular fan, a misting fan (with a small reservoir for water), and a metal cooling plate that you can press against pulse points. The misting feature is my personal favorite, with continual and intermittent options — the spray is fine enough to evaporate on contact so it won't make your hair and clothes wet.

It loses half a star compared to the Dyson fan due to its higher price tag and less powerful motor — the ChillPill can reach up to 25,000rpm, while the HushJet Mini Cool can reach 65,000rpm — but the Shark is quieter. During my tests it ranged from 46dB on its lowest setting through to 67dB on the highest, making it a more discreet option in public.

Read our full review

MeacoFan Sefte Pro 10in Table Air CirculatorFuture / Becca CaddyFuture / Becca CaddyFuture / Becca CaddyFuture / Becca CaddyFuture / Becca Caddy

Release date: May 2026

Score: 4.5/5

Air circulators are designed to move a large volume of air around a room rather than direct a focused stream in your direction, and the 10-inch version of the MecoFan Sefte Pro does this extremely well. You can run it directly from the mains, or from its rechargeable battery, so you can carry it around the house with you. This works particularly well when paired with the Sefte Pro's Eco mode, which adjusts the air circulator's power depending on the temperature.

I used the MeacoFan Sefte Pro during the last heatwave, and it was a real life-saver at night. Its sleep mode is almost silent, and its remote control means you don't need to get out of bed to activate it, and it's also available as a pedestal fan if you prefer. The biggest drawback is that it's not currently available outside Europe.

Read our full review

Dreo Smart Misting Fan 516SFutureFutureFutureFutureFuture

Released April 2026

Score: 4/5

The Dreo Smart Misting Fan 516S is another fan that keeps you extra cool with a super-fine spray of water, and our reviewer Harry Padoan said that "it added a nice degree of coolness without making any mess or feeling too intense". The 1.3-liter tank is large enough to keep misting for hours on end, and it's easy to switch to fan-only mode once you've had enough.

It's very reasonably priced too, coming in at $99.99 / £99.99 (about AU$140). That's not bad at all for a misting fan with app controls, and compatibility with both Amazon Alexa and Google Home, so you can operate it using voice commands.

Its lowest mode is quiet enough to avoid disturbing your sleep, though Harry found the turbo option loud enough to break his concentration, so it's best reserved for exceptionally sticky days when you want to just slump on a chair and do nothing.

Read our full review

Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool FutureFutureFutureFutureFuture

Release date: June 2026:

Score: 4.5/5

As you can guess from the name, this fan's key selling point is its ability to detect motion and follow you around the room, so you're never beyond range of its refreshing jet of air, even when you're doing chores, working out, or pottering about the kitchen — all of which are usually extremely unpleasant in hot weather. Paired with its extra-wide range of motion, this could make it the only fan you need.

It has Dyson's signature bladeless design, and our reviewer John McCann said it "delivers smooth air flow that feels like a natural breeze moving through your home, rather than the harsh buffeting you get from some other propeller and tower fans." It's extremely quiet at night (dropping to as low as 20dB), but delivers real cooling power as well.

It's the most expensive fan in this roundup (indeed, it's one of the priciest fan/air purifier combos on the market) but it's hard to argue with its sheer performance. If you've got the budget to spare, it's packed with premium features that really work. I only wish it offered vertical oscillation as well as horizontal.

Read our full review

ExpressVPN, one of the best VPNs around today, is a highly trusted brand in the online privacy and security space.

Naturally, then, it’s worth digging into its dedicated password management solution to see whether it works only as an extra integrated feature bundled with the VPN subscription or if it can hold its own against the best password managers around – especially now that ExpressKeys is available as a dedicated app for iOS and Android devices, along with browser extensions.

It offers unlimited password storage with security and encryption protocols in line with modern market standards. You can autofill credentials, generate strong passwords, and even generate 2FA codes, all from within its dedicated app.

ExpressKeys: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Right off the bat, you should note that ExpressKeys is not available as a standalone product – there’s a standalone app, yes. But you will have to get a full bundle of security products from ExpressVPN, which includes ExpressKeys. The bundle starts at $4.49 per month (Advanced plan) for a 24-month commitment, and you get four additional months free.

Along with access to all ExpressKeys features, you also get ExpressVPN, with 12 simultaneous connections and thousands of servers in 105 countries. There's also ExpressMailGuard with six email domains and five dedicated subdomains, as well as three days of unlimited daily data with holiday.com eSIM access.

Agreed, the price may seem a bit steep when compared with alternatives like Keeper, which costs $3.58/month, or Bitwarden at $1.65/month. However, those prices only include a password manager. ExpressVPN, on the other hand, offers a full suite of security products, including a VPN, password manager, and a secure email provider.

You can also upgrade to its Pro plan, starting at $7.49 per month for 28 months, with expanded ExpressMail Guard features and additional ExpressAI access with 500 credits per day.

ExpressKeys: Features

ExpressKeys packs all the basics and, simply put, gets the job done for most users. You can store an unlimited number of passwords, credit cards, and secure notes in your vault, with the option to import passwords from other password managers you may have used previously.

There’s also a handy temporary one-time password generator (TOTP), which removes the need for multiple authenticator apps. You can securely generate temporary codes for services such as social media logins or banking applications.

Once you have added or imported your passwords, you’ll also find ExpressKeys’ password health feature quite useful. It can quickly assess your vault to identify weak, reused, or exposed passwords, then alert you to update them before they become a security risk.

ExpressKeys also follows a zero-knowledge architecture, meaning your data is encrypted on your device before being stored on the provider’s servers. As a result, not even ExpressKeys can read or decrypt your information, which can only be accessed using your master password.

However, ExpressKeys still does not support password sharing, which may be a deal breaker for users who regularly need to share credentials securely. Similarly, there is no passkey support yet.

ExpressKeys: Interface and in use

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Up until recently, ExpressKeys functionalities were bundled with the ExpressVPN app on mobile devices. However, a dedicated ExpressKeys app is now available for Android and iOS, making the initial setup process much easier than before.

Once you download the application, you need to log in with your email account and enter the six-digit verification code sent to your email.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Next, you have to set a primary password. It should be strong yet something you can remember easily. That’s because if you lose the master password, you could lose access to all the passwords stored in your ExpressKeys Vault. Note that you will also receive a recovery code, which you should store securely offline.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Once the initial setup is complete, you can start adding passwords by clicking the plus icon in the top-right corner and creating new logins. If you want to use ExpressKeys on desktop, you’ll need to rely on the official browser extensions available for Edge, Chrome, and Safari. Unfortunately, there is still no Firefox extension.

The setup process for the browser extensions is fairly similar. After installing the extension, click on it to open ExpressKeys in a new tab.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Click “Set up ExpressKeys,” choose a primary password, and save your recovery code. After that, you will be required to verify your account using the six-digit code sent to your email.

I also found it quite easy to add passwords within the ExpressKeys app. All you have to do is click the plus icon in the bottom-left corner and enter your login details. If you need a new password, you can select the “Need a new password” option, and ExpressKeys will automatically generate a strong one for you.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Once your passwords are saved in the vault, you can use ExpressKeys’ autofill feature to automatically populate usernames and passwords on supported websites. A small ExpressKeys icon appears on login pages – simply click it and choose the account you want to use.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Overall, I found ExpressKeys easy to set up and use. The interface closely resembles the ExpressVPN app, with minimal lag or delays. Most features are easily accessible from a single menu across both the mobile app and browser extensions, making it a beginner-friendly option.

ExpressKeys: Support

ExpressVPN offers a vast library of how-to and help articles, with detailed step-by-step guides for tasks like setting up your account, saving passwords, or importing them from other password managers. I found this especially useful, as it can quickly resolve common queries without the need to contact a support representative.

However, if you run into an issue not covered by these articles, you can contact customer support through the 24/7 live chat feature. Although the platform lacks direct email or phone support, the knowledge base and live chat should be sufficient for most users.

ExpressKeys: The competition

Since ExpressKeys isn't a standalone password manager, it lacks some of the advanced features you'll find in high-end password managers like Dashlane or Bitwarden.

For instance, Dashlane allows users to create passkeys on websites that support the technology. Passkeys work by creating two cryptographic keys for each account: a private key stored in your password manager and a public key stored on the website. Whenever you log in, the password manager authenticates your account using these keys instead of traditional usernames and passwords. ExpressKeys currently lacks this feature.

That said, Dashlane is on the more expensive side, with plans starting at $4 per month. In comparison, ExpressVPN gives you a password manager, VPN, and secure email service for just $4.49/month (2-year plan), which makes it a compelling overall package.

ExpressKeys also lacks shared vaults, a fairly standard feature offered by many competitors. For example, Bitwarden provides shared vaults for teams, allowing multiple users to securely store, manage, and share credentials collaboratively. It is also highly affordable, with plans starting at just $1.65 per month.

ExpressKeys: Final verdict

ExpressKeys is a solid basic password manager aimed at users looking for an all-in-one security bundle. It includes essential features like password generation, autofill, unlimited vault storage, zero-knowledge architecture, and 256-bit AES encryption to keep your credentials secure. However, these are features you can expect from most modern password managers today.

Where ExpressKeys falls short is in more advanced functionality, particularly secure password sharing and passkey support. Still, many individual users may never feel the absence of these features in day-to-day use.

To put it simply, if you’re looking for both a VPN and a password manager, ExpressKeys is easily out as one of the better bundled offerings available. But if you already use a VPN and simply want a feature-rich standalone password manager, alternatives like Dashlane, Bitwarden, or Keeper Security may be a better fit.

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Businesses have spent years being told that data is their most valuable asset.

They have invested heavily in cloud storage, data warehouses, cybersecurity, access controls, compliance teams and governance frameworks. They have built sophisticated systems to store and protect first-party data.

Then, when they want to use it, they have to move it somewhere else.

That is the contradiction at the heart of today’s data strategy. Companies work hard to keep their data safe, only to export it into third-party platforms when they need to activate it for advertising, analytics, monetization or customer engagement.

The issue is that too much of the ecosystem still ignores ‘data gravity’. To put it simply, data gravity refers to who owns the data and where it lives. If customer data sits inside a brand’s platform or another controlled cloud environment, the starting point should always be respect for that environment.

Forcing the brand asset outside of its own atmosphere invites a leakage problem. As with every movement or duplication, there is risk.

Expectations of data movement

The industry has become resigned to the fact that data has to travel in order to be useful. Want insight, activation, measurement or personalization? The default answer is almost always to export it to a third party and then pay them for the privilege of analysing your own data.

But every export, upload, sync, copy or transfer creates a risk opening. It means another vendor to trust, another contract to manage, another access policy to audit. Put simply it means another place where something can go wrong.

The issue is not whether businesses should use their first-party data. Of course they should. It is direct, proprietary and built from real customer relationships. The issue is that using it should not require constantly duplicating it or shipping it away.

Every transfer is a new risk

When large volumes of first-party data leave a company’s controlled environment, the risk increases. Data that is protected inside carefully managed IT infrastructure is suddenly passing through another system with completely different permission structures and potentially more lax security.

That does not mean third-party platforms are careless, as we know most are highly sophisticated. But network and internet security is not only about the strength of one organisation. It is also about how many places the data exists, how many systems must be trusted and how many people can access it.

For cybercriminals, sensitive customer and commercial data is incredibly valuable. The more copies that exist, the more targets there are - and the more opportunities to intercept, compromise, ransom or otherwise misuse that data. A business may have excellent internal controls, but once the data leaves its environment, it is relying on someone else’s controls too.

This is also where governance has to move upstream. As data activation and interoperability become bigger priorities, organizations need to bring legal and InfoSec teams into the design of the solution.

Far too often, any work in the data activation journey has been built around workarounds and that simply does not scale. A better model is to use those governance functions as enablers, so that activation can become usable and auditable from the start.

Leakage and corruption

When people hear “data leakage”, they often think of a major breach. But one of the more common risks is quieter: data corruption caused by constant movement between platforms, warehouses and third-party systems.

Every time data is exported, reformatted, matched, duplicated or re-imported, something can change. Fields can be mapped incorrectly, definitions can shift, permissions can be misapplied and outdated versions can keep circulating.

After enough movement, businesses can lose confidence in which dataset is accurate, who has touched it, where copies sit and whether the analysis of this data represents anything remotely valuable to the company.

That matters because first-party data is valuable precisely because it is accurate and collected with user consent. Keeping it in one controlled environment is safer for consumer privacy and better for data integrity. The more it is moved and manipulated, the greater the risk that businesses turn a trusted asset into a liability.

Bring the software to the data

For years, businesses have accepted constant data movement as the cost of progress. But that model is starting to look outdated. First-party data is more valuable, regulation is tighter, cybercrime is more sophisticated and customers are more privacy-conscious.

The future should not require businesses to choose between using their data and protecting it. The smarter model is to respect data gravity and activate data where it already lives.

That requires bringing software to the data by building activation around governance and control from the onset. It’s more than an ideal, it's a necessity and the businesses that benefit most will be those that respect the needs of data owners. As ultimately the asset belongs with them.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit