E-Business
Why Sustainable Supply Chains are Critical for the Channel
By Bradley Pulford
The need for sustainable business practices is becoming weightier by the moment. With headlines dominated by protesting students and images of plastic waste polluting our waterways and oceans, we now live in a world that is awakened to the necessity for businesses to ensure they are not negatively impacting our planet but helping to reduce their carbon footprint.
As Gen Z enters the workforce with clear purpose and enlightened consumers put pressure on businesses to offer transparency around supply chains, all industries are faced with the same prospect: adapt or be disrupted.
Success is, and will increasingly be, defined by a business’ ability to demonstrate its focus on sustainability.
That means more than just lip service, and for the channel it requires smarter collaboration and shared goals. From energy hungry data centres, to increasingly complex supply chains, the technology sector has a huge role to play. Like all other industries there are environmental, social and economic implications.
In fact, the technology that is set to tighten up sustainable practices will by default be data-centric and lead to further pressure on the channel to build environmentally sensitive, resource savvy supply chains and practices.
By now we all know that a data explosion is on the horizon. According to an IDC report, the Global Datasphere – a measure of how much new data is created and replicated each year – will grow by more than five times over the next seven years. The total amount of new data created in 2025 is forecast to increase to 175ZB from 33ZB in 2018.
The report suggests that nearly a third of the Global Datasphere will be driven by growth of video surveillance, signals from IoT devices, metadata, and entertainment.
One of the top five fastest-growing segments of data creation is attributed to user-created and user-consumed online video like YouTube. We’re on the cusp of an incredibly exciting moment technologically and businesses are looking for trusted advisors to provide intimate knowledge of their environments, to guide them through tailored transformations that enable them to seize the opportunities afoot. And sustainability must be a part of this equation.
Some businesses may still be ‘scratching their heads’ when it comes to truly understanding what the term sustainability means for them.
For example, Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) is a process by which public authorities seek to achieve the right balance between the three pillars of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental – when procuring goods, services or works at all stages of the project.
This is the point at which channel partners could find themselves in a tight spot, when a potential customer asks at the point of tender how their business is working towards minimising its impact on the world? Those prepared with comprehensive and concrete proof-points are more likely to win the deal – and rightly so.
As the IT industry grows and data centres boom, it is important that partners take this seriously. But ultimately, businesses need to be led by example – and that needs to be set by the government. Improvements in sustainability practices can be influenced from the outside in, with the EU Public Procurement Directive of 2014 stating that businesses must consider how sustainable their IT choices are, instead of focusing on competitive pricing, the initiative is there.
But this needs to backed-up by and scaled out with businesses across all industries being held to account under the same guidelines – creating standardised and easily navigable goals.
Take for example, the EU Commission-funded EURECA project, which was set up to help public sector organisations across seven European countries to identify the environmental and financial impacts of their data centres.
In 2018, after three years of work, the project revealed that assessing 350 public sector data centres helped save 45 gigawatt hours of energy a year and €4.5m in cost savings annually.
This calls to attention both the environmental and financial burdens that hidden unsustainable practices and technologies can bring to an organization, as well as the substantial gains that can be made from tweaks to existing process and operations.
With pressure from end-customers and policy-led sustainability requirements and government initiatives raising the bar, channel partners need to look internally, too. After all, trust in a company starts with transparency and customers expect it.
This means creating open, knowledge sharing relationships with partners and peers in order to progress sustainable working practices – and from collaboration, innovation is born. Supporting and empowering those in the supply chain to evolve and align will only bolster transparency and trust.
Ultimately, progressing towards sustainable supply chain goals gives businesses a competitive edge, while contributing to the ongoing innovation set to enable future businesses – in a world where environmental and social resources are gold. But no partner is in it alone, the extraordinary is only achieved together and that includes sustainability.
Bradley Pulford, is Senior Director, Channel Sales, Africa, Dell
A new global survey from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) reveals that 52% of marketing leaders believe generic top-level domains (gTLDs – the three characters or more that come after the dot in a URL) have strong potential for enhancing brand presence online; however, a knowledge gap is preventing many brands from taking advantage of the opportunities that a gTLD can bring.
The research surveyed over 2,000 marketing leaders across eight countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, U.K., and U.S.) with the purpose of creating a picture of the evolving digital marketing landscape and understanding the levels of awareness around gTLDs.
It comes as ICANN prepares to open the next application window for new gTLDs in April 2026 the New gTLD Program: Next Round – the first opportunity in more than a decade for organizations to apply to operate their own gTLD.
Top-level domains are the letters found at the end of an Internet address (with gTLDs including .charity, .menu, .paris and .ceo). Brands can apply to run their own gTLD as a way to indicate the purpose of their organization or to clearly mark a website as being related to their brand.
The research shows that increasing brand awareness and visibility is the top priority for marketing leaders (54%) and that over half believe that gTLDs have strong potential for enhancing brand presence online.
However, the research also shows that almost a third (32%) of marketing leaders surveyed are unfamiliar with gTLDs, which suggests that operating a new gTLD may be a strategic opportunity that many organizations are currently overlooking.
Key findings from the research include:
- After defining a gTLD, 92% of marketing leaders responded that they could see the potential benefits to gTLDs, with enhanced brand differentiation (46%), improved customer trust (45%), better control over online presence (44%), and improved SEO (44%) topping the list.
- 19% of marketing leaders work for organizations that have previously applied for a gTLD.
- Cost concerns (31%), knowledge gaps (27%), and insufficient resources (24%) were identified as the main barriers to application.
- The research revealed notable regional variations, with Nigerian (74%) and Indian (61%) marketing leaders showing the strongest belief in gTLDs’ potential for branding and online presence. In contrast, marketers in China expressed more mixed views, with 50% seeing strong potential but 49% considering gTLDs an unnecessary investment with unclear Return On Investment.
The findings come at a time when marketing leaders are facing significant challenges in standing out from competitors (53%), attracting and engaging the right audience (52%), and keeping pace with digital trends (47%).
A new gTLD can be an innovative tool for commerce and communication. They allow businesses in specific countries, sectors, or niche markets to create an exclusive, descriptive, and memorable label on the Internet.
An entity operating a gTLD can provide its users and customers with an extra measure of confidence in its security and legitimacy online. This can be valuable in today’s environment, where users often don’t know whether they can trust the source on the Internet.
Theresa Swinehart, SVP, Global Domains & Strategy said: “The New gTLD Program: Next Round presents an opportunity for businesses, communities, governments, and others to apply to operate their own secure space online, tailored to fit their organization, community, culture, language, and customer interests.
Now is also the moment for brands to consider applying for a gTLD, and this research tells us there is still a lack of awareness. ICANN can help provide information and raise awareness of the Next Round and the opportunity it presents for global communities, organizations, and businesses, including brands.”
To help address the knowledge gap, ICANN is developing resources to help organizations understand the application process and potential opportunities for gTLDs ahead of the 2026 application window. ICANN also offers the Applicant Support Program (ASP), which provides financial and non-financial assistance to eligible applicants.
Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) experts at the 10th annual Cyber Security Weekend – META 2025 held recently, talked about supply chain attacks and reported that by the end of 2024 a total of 14,000 malicious packages were found in open-source projects, a 48% increase compared to the end of 2023. 42 million versions of open-source packages have been examined by Kaspersky throughout 2024 in search for vulnerabilities.
Open-source is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. Popular open-source packages include GoMod, Maven, NuGet, npm, PyPI, and others.
These are tools that power countless applications and help developers easily find, install, and manage pre-built code libraries, making it simpler to build software by reusing code others have written. Attackers take advantage of the popularity of these and other packages.
In March 2025, the Lazarus Group was reported to have deployed several malicious npm packages, which were downloaded multiple times before removal. These packages contained malware to steal credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, and deploy backdoors, targeting developers’ systems across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The attack leveraged GitHub repositories for added legitimacy, highlighting the group’s sophisticated supply chain tactics. Kaspersky’s GReAT also found other npm packages related to this attack. Malicious npm packages could have been integrated into web development, cryptocurrency platforms, and enterprise software, risking widespread data theft and financial losses.
In 2024, a sophisticated backdoor was discovered in XZ Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, a widely used compression library in Linux distributions. Inserted by a trusted contributor, the malicious code targeted SSH servers, enabling remote command execution and threatening countless systems globally.
Detected before widespread exploitation due to performance anomalies, the incident highlighted the dangers of supply chain attacks. XZ Utils is integral to operating systems, cloud servers, and IoT devices, making its compromise a threat to critical infrastructure and enterprise networks.
In 2024, Kaspersky’s GReAT discovered that attackers uploaded malicious Python packages like chatgpt-python and chatgpt-wrapper to PyPI, mimicking legitimate tools for interacting with ChatGPT APIs.
These packages, designed to steal credentials and deploy backdoors, capitalised on the popularity of AI development to trick developers into downloading them. These packages could have been used in AI development, chatbot integrations, and data analytics platforms, endangering sensitive AI workflows and user data.
“Open-source software is the backbone of many modern solutions, but its openness is being weaponised. The 50% rise in malicious packages by the end of 2024 shows attackers are actively embedding sophisticated backdoors and data stealers in popular packages, which millions rely on.
“Without rigorous vetting and real-time monitoring, a single compromised package can trigger a global breach. Organisations need to secure the supply chain before the next XZ Utils-level attack succeeds,” comments Dmitry Galov, Head of Research Center for Russia and CIS at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
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