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Western Digital, Qumulo Enable Massive Capacity & Scale for IHME COVID-19 Health Analytics and Vaccine Roll Out

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Architecting how data enables the world to solve its biggest problems, Western Digital Corp. has announced that the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), in partnership with Qumulo, a breakthrough leader in file data management for hybrid cloud environments, is employing Western Digital’s Ultrastar DC HC550 18TB HDDs and Ultrastar DC SN640 NVMeTM SSDs for ongoing COVID-19 research and vaccine rollout.

IHME, based at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, is an independent global health research organization.

Their mission is to improve the health of the world’s population by providing the best freely available public health information to policymakers and healthcare institutions. By providing this data, organizations can make informed decisions critical to saving lives.

“When the World Health Organization officially announced a pandemic, requests from hospitals, state governments and other countries started pouring in for models of data and forecasts,” said Serkan Yalcin, director of IT Infrastructure at IHME.

“Teaming up with Qumulo from the beginning and utilizing Western Digital drives has enabled us to distill hundreds of millions of data points into a single visualization which allows policymakers to easily view results and communicate them with their teams.

“Now, as vaccines are rolling out around the world, we have been able to further extend projections with even more data to give decision makers the most robust information possible.”

Capturing and analyzing large data sets requires top-of-the-line storage infrastructure. Qumulo provides file data platforms to help organizations easily store and manage file data.

The C-432T offers a cached- performance hybrid storage system for data center, private and public cloud environments. This high-performance system yields a dynamically scalable architecture and real-time visibility of data imperative to organizations like IHME with massive amounts of data.

Qumulo’s system includes Western Digital’s Ultrastar DC HC550 18TB HDDs with HelioSeal® technology for their high capacities, low power and high reliability. Ultrastar DC SN640 NVMe SSDs are leveraged to provide extreme performance with six times improvement in sequential read compared to SATA SSDs, which allows for faster data analysis.

With Western Digital’s vertically integrated storage devices, Qumulo’s C-432T provides 432TB of raw storage capacity in a 2U configuration.

“Partnering with Western Digital helped us to deliver a fast, reliable file data platform to IHME that analyzes up to 20x more data every day than previous solutions,” said Ben Gitenstein, vice president of product at Qumulo.

“Our software-driven platform offers enterprise-level capabilities that radically simplifies analytics of massive data sets which is critical for customers to be successful with unstructured data.

“This partnership with Western Digital allows customers like IHME to simplify the complexity of their infrastructure, accelerate innovation and unleash the power of their data, wherever it resides.”

“Scaling for increased data demand is a common hurdle organizations face. In this case, the increase of data was sudden and exponential,” said Andrew Dorian, vice president of data center hard drives at Western Digital.

“We’re honored to work with Qumulo to provide the storage foundation to help IHME create data-driven, science-based, actionable plans to combat COVID-19. In partnership with Qumulo, we were able to quickly provide a scalable on-premises file storage system with high-capacity HDDs and high-performance NVMe SSDs to address a surge in data that benefits people everywhere.”


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General News

NIMC Disowns Fake NIN Portal

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National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has warned Nigerians to disregard a viral online flyer claiming that a free portal has been opened for the correction of National Identification Number (NIN) data.

NIMC Disowns Fake NIN Portal

In a statement posted on its official X (formerly Twitter) handle, the commission described the flyer as fake and cautioned the public against using any links associated with it.

“The public is hereby advised not to use the above for modifying their NIN data. All modifications should only be done via the official channel,” NIMC stated, directing users to its authorised self-service portal.

The misleading flyer, which has circulated widely on social media, carries the logos of NIMC and the federal government, falsely claiming that authorities had launched a special correction portal in response to a “high level of complain.”

It lists services such as name, gender, and date of birth corrections, and provides links redirecting users to a suspicious “gvly.xyz” domain—an address the commission says is not affiliated with any government platform.

NIMC noted that the flyer has since been marked “FAKE” in red, indicating it is being recirculated as part of efforts to debunk the misinformation.

The Commission reiterated that all NIN data modifications can only be carried out through its official self-service platform, urging Nigerians to remain vigilant and avoid falling victim to online scams.


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Moniepoint Acquires Orda Africa to Transform Africa’s $50Bn Restaurant Sector

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Moniepoint Inc. (“Moniepoint” or the “Company”), Africa’s all-in-one financial ecosystem platform for individuals, businesses and their customers, today announced the acquisition of Orda Africa (“Orda”), a leading cloud-based restaurant management platform operating in Nigeria.

Moniepoint Acquires Orda Africa to Transform Africa's $50bn Restaurant Sector

Moniepoint

Under the terms of this acquisition, Orda will become part of the Moniebook platform, Moniepoint’s all-in-one Point-of-Sale (POS) and business management platform. Since launching its business management tools product in 2025, Moniebook has rapidly become the go-to platform for thousands of African businesses seeking integrated financial and operational tools, seamlessly unifying payments and bookkeeping in one platform.

With Orda, restaurant owners can now gain access to this proven ecosystem that creates unprecedented opportunities to scale operations, optimize performance, and access credit, as well as the extensive reach of Moniepoint which has powered growth for millions of African businesses.

The acquisition comes as Africa’s food service industry experiences unprecedented growth, with the sector valued at $50 billion and Nigeria’s market alone projected to reach $19.31 billion by 2030, growing at 11.73% annually. With Orda’s restaurant-focused capabilities now part of the Moniepoint ecosystem, the platform is well-positioned to capture this opportunity.

Founded in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike, today Moniepoint has grown into one of Nigeria’s leading distributors of financial services as well as a trusted platform for many of the country’s MSMEs especially in the informal sector.

The company has considerably expanded its offerings to include digital payments, business and personal banking, credit, cross-border payments, and business management tools with a customer base exceeding 20 million active businesses and personal banking customers and processes over US$250 billion in digital payments transaction value annually.

Tosin Eniolorunda, Co-Founder and Group CEO of Moniepoint Inc., said: “The food industry isn’t just about feeding people, it’s a major source of jobs and daily survival for many Africans. It highlights how vital the informal sector is, not just for the economy, but for everyday life across the continent.

Data has shown us that Africa’s restaurant sector is one of the continent’s most dynamic economic engines, yet the majority of food businesses still operate with manual processes and fragmented tools. By bringing Orda into Moniepoint, we are giving restaurant owners what they deserve: one simple platform that handles everything from managing their kitchen to growing their business. Our goal remains to create financial happiness for Africans, giving them the tools to reach their full potential and that’s exactly what we’ve built here.”

Founded in 2020, Orda was built to give Africa’s small and independent restaurants the tools they need to run more efficiently, providing a purpose-built software to businesses that had long operated without it.

Guy Futi, CEO of Orda, reassured existing customers: “Orda has found the perfect home in Moniepoint. We have spent years building deep expertise in restaurant operations, but we have always known that to truly transform the industry, we needed to connect that expertise with comprehensive financial infrastructure.

“That’s exactly what this integration delivers. For our customers, we are assuring a smooth transition with no disruption to the platform and retained access to the support you are used to. What changes is your access to opportunities.

“Over the coming weeks, being part of Moniepoint means you’ll have more tools, more reach, and more ways to grow your business than ever before”

Combining their respective strengths, Moniepoint and Orda deliver a purpose-built solution that empowers food businesses at every scale to manage orders, track inventory, pay suppliers, and access working capital, all in one seamless experience.

This move represents a demonstrated commitment to building a dedicated financial infrastructure designed around the unique complexity of Africa’s food economy.

For the millions of food entrepreneurs across the continent, from the everyday buka owner to the high-end restaurateur, this acquisition means less time managing multiple tools or carrying out arduous manual work and more time doing what they do best – feeding Africa.


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Tech Firms Sack over 45,000 so Far in 2026

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More than 45,000 jobs have been cut across the global technology sector in the first few months of 2026, according to data from RationalFX, signalling that the industry is still adjusting after a period of aggressive hiring rather than returning to a full growth phase.

Tech Firms Sack over 45,000 so Far in 2026

“In 2025, automation, artificial intelligence, and sustained cost-discipline measures drove much of the downsizing, with entire departments restructured or eliminated in favour of leaner, AI-assisted workflows. This trend has continued full steam into 2026,” said Alan Cohen, analyst at RationalFX.

According to the report, if the current rate of redundancies is sustained, total layoffs in 2026 could surpass the 245,000 recorded in 2025.

The majority of these layoffs have been concentrated in the United States, with major companies continuing to trim their workforce despite stable core operations.

Amazon has announced approximately 16,000 job cuts this year, while Block has also reduced thousands of roles as it tightens operations and shifts focus towards artificial intelligence.

There are indications that further reductions may follow.

Meta is reportedly considering additional layoffs as it increases investment in AI infrastructure, while PayPal and Klarna are reassessing spending and hiring strategies amid ongoing uncertainty.

Established technology firms are also undergoing restructuring. Dell has reduced its workforce by around 11,000 over the past year as part of a broader reorganisation, while Salesforce has cut approximately 1,000 roles in 2026 while aligning its teams more closely with AI-driven products.

Outside the United States, layoffs have been smaller in scale but more geographically dispersed.

Australia has reported around 2,650 job cuts so far this year, followed by Sweden with roughly 1,923 and Netherlands with about 1,700.

Other markets have also been affected. Israel and India have recorded approximately 1,539 and 1,520 layoffs respectively, with Israel’s startup ecosystem particularly sensitive to tighter funding conditions, while in India, both startups and larger IT firms have reduced headcount as global client spending slows.

In Singapore, around 1,016 layoffs have been reported, reflecting a softer hiring environment across Asia’s major technology hubs, where companies are adopting a more cautious approach amid uneven demand.

Across Europe, job cuts have been comparatively limited but still noticeable.

The United Kingdom has recorded around 1,000 layoffs, while Czech Republic and Germany have seen smaller reductions.

The broader trend suggests that technology companies are shifting towards leaner operations and more defined priorities following years of expansion. Increasing investment in automation and artificial intelligence is also reshaping the types of roles in demand.

For employees, the impact is becoming increasingly visible, with hiring slowing and becoming more selective. While opportunities remain, companies are taking a more measured approach to recruitment compared to the rapid expansion seen in previous years.

 

Further credit… .storyboard18.com

 


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