Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

EMC Global Data Protection Index: Key Results & Finding for the Philippines

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IT disruptions are a common and costly business experience. Even Cloud computing, big data and mobile devices are putting additional pressure on IT’s ability to protect data. Organizations need to develop a trusted data protection strategy that creates a bridge between today’s and tomorrow’s workloads.

EMC investigates the data protection strategies and capabilities of enterprises in 24 countries. The research surveyed 3,300 IT decision-makers from companies that employ over 250 employees.

Mr. Ronnie Latinazo, EMC Country Manager, revealed the results of their survey last December 4, 2014 at Society Lounge located at the Atrium in Makati during the EMC Data Protection Landscape Media Briefing. A Thanksgiving Party followed immediately afterwards to thank the members of the media for their year-long support.

The Global Data Protection Index: Key Results and Finding for the Philippines was shared to us that day. The survey says 62% of the respondents said that at least one of the mega trends (big data, hybrid Cloud, mobility) is difficult to protect and one important thing we need to know is that there is a trend happening in the market. Companies are moving from a physical into a more agile world swamped with high digital growth largely due to these trends.

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There's really no stopping the popularity of mobile phones as everyone seems to have more than one already. Add the other gadgets like tablets and phablets, the usual laptop has been overthrown as the most popular working gadget next to the desktop computer.

More and more of these mobile devices have become powerful processors of data or information that even wearable tech gadgets, that are both functional and fashionable, are starting to surface in the IT and lifestyle market.
In my case, I have two mobile phones, two tablets, one laptop and a desktop. All of these I use at my work and find them still not sufficient to provide me with enough resources when I test on new apps, or need to engage on social media, check on my emails, blog, and all sorts of other work-related stuff.

Your friendly neighborhood pambansang blogger of the Philippines, a gadget lover too, was invited to attend the Torque Royale press launch held last December 3, 2014 at the One Esplanade located at SM Central Business Park, Seaside Corner Bay Boulevard in Pasay City.

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The Christmas season becomes even better as lots of companies will be offering holiday season promos and discounts for many of their products and services including travel and leisure activities related tourism. We are definite that many have already planned in advance which destination they would want to go this December - the right time discover so many celebrations worldwide may it be locally within the country or outside at some foreign lands.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) of the Philippines is aiming to achieve 10 Million tourists every year until the end of 2016. This target is aided by the major improvements in International Airports in Manila and secondary airports in Cebu, Clark, Iloilo to mention a few.

The rise of budget fares led to significant growth in foreign tourists and domestic travels. This increased led to major hotel players investing in the country. Fairmont, Raffles and Tune Hotels are some of the brands that increased their presence in the country.

In the coming year, the Department of Tourism launched the “Visit the Philippines” Campaign. Already some of the notable international events that will take place in the country for the year 2015 are the Papal Visit, APEC Summit, Madrid Fusion, Asia Pacific Retailers Convention and Exhibition, 40th Kiwanis Asia Pacific Convention to name a few.

Amidst these positive developments in the tourism industry, the 2nd International Travel Festival (ITF) slated this December 18-20, 2014 at SMX Convention Center aims to support the momentum the tourism industry is experiencing.

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The ASEAN integration augurs well to prepared Filipino Companies. As collaboration between ASEAN companies become a commonplace, Filipino small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is poised to benefit from this set-up.

However, the belief that “build and they will come” set-up that many Philippine SME companies hold may not jive with the opportunities that the ASEAN Integration offers.

Marketing and Promotion of these companies at the same time working hard to find the right partners are the keys to realize the benefit of this economic set-up.

The 11^th Megabalikbayan OFW Expo (MBOX) set this December 18-20, 2014 at SMX Convention Center is a longest running business expo targeting the OFWs and Balikbayans and encouraging them to go into business.

SME companies that want to find their portfolio attractive to ASEAN SME neighbors must tap this big market.

At a press launch held last December 2, 2014 at The Blackboard by Chef Michel located at The Podium in Ortigas Center in Pasig, many of the sponsors, exhibitors, stakeholders, including the awardees all gathered together to provide some background about the event and to answer the inquiries of the guests and members of the media.

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Own a piece of Tagaytay. Crown Asia has a new leisure residential condominium development in Tagay tay called Crown Asia Pine Suites. "Discreetly located away from the main road along Bonifacio Drive, close to the vibrant restaurant area in the city. Here the duality of nature and activity emanates just steps away from your door."

Next to Baguio, Tagaytay is a favorite tourist attraction primarily because of the famous view of the Taal Volcano, and a vacation sanctuary especially for those who wants to escape the hot and humid weather in Metro Manila.

Soon there will be three modern Danish architecture-inspired mid-rise, five-storey buildings amidst a lush resort-like community built in more than one-hectare of land within a serene mountain setting where nature dominantly sets the mood. You'll feel being more out of the country in a mountain side resort where the natural flow of air and the sound of nature permeates inside the atrium of the condominiums bringing in the cool, pine-scented Tagaytay air all throughout the day.

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Christmas is happening in just a few days. Everyone has the holiday season spirit running in their veins and are all ready for the upcoming long Christmas vacation.

But before the season ends, you may want to take your friends or family out to visit the Magical Winter Tale Christmas-themed display at Crown Asia Valenza located in Sta. Rosa Laguna.

There's a magnificent structure that resembles the ice castle that can be seen on the Disney movie Frozen. Though the management of Crown Asia would not like to advertise it specifically as the actual ice castle, seeing images of familiar characters, such as Olaf the comic-relief snowman that can also be seen in the movie, are there to remind us where they got the inspiration to setup this multi-colored light display.

The Frozen movie, with its famous characters like Elsa and Anna, has been a worldwide sensation that it seems all with access to the Internet, radio or television has one way or another is either singing or humming the two soundtracks from the movie - "Let It Go" and "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman."

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We are sharing with you a blog entry by Sasa Marinkovic, Head of Software Marketing for AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

The blog entry discusses about the recently launched AMD Catalyst Omega driver which was engineered to take full advantage of the advanced technologies built into AMD’s products that feature GCN Architecture, and help make them more powerful and capable.

The entry is posted at AMD Blogs. Here's the link for your reference.

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Two weeks ago, WeChat launched its official account with Buzzfeed! You can now get hilarious, viral and interesting articles that you can read on WeChat. There are several “share-worthy” content on WeChat as its first international messaging app partner.

BuzzFeed, the it-place for “share-worthy” content, has just announced its partnership with WeChat to bring news and entertainment to WeChatters around the world. The partnership is the media company’s first major collaboration with an international messaging app – a big step in broadening the perception of messaging apps as content platforms.

"As we start to see an increase of readers share content via private messaging, coupled with the rapid growth of mobile, we're looking for new ways to distribute news and entertainment to our thriving international audience,” said Scott Lamb, VP of International at BuzzFeed. “WeChat’s innovative technology and strong international user base is a natural fit for our first major partnership with an international messaging platform.”

BuzzFeed currently has a readership of 175M globally with 50M readers each month outside the US and 50% of traffic from mobile. WeChat, the fastest growing mobile social communications app, has also seen significant growth this past year with a user base of over 468M monthly active users and young demographic who already enjoy BuzzFeed content.

Aquabest Joins 4th QCIM Night Run

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Aquabest recently joined thousands of runners and Quezon City residents in celebrating the city's 75th anniversary by supporting the 4th Quezon City International Marathon (QCIM).

The company set up hydration stations along Quezon Avenue where it offered free water to the marathon participants. It also gave away awesome prizes to the 21k runners at the Quezon Memorial Circle. The QCIM is being held to honor and celebrate the 75th founding anniversary of Quezon City.

The event gathered 9,000 professional and amateur runners and marked the first time the global marathon event was held at night.

The TechBox Mega Sale is On at the Mega Gadgets Sale

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Techbox Philippines, the fastest growing gadget retail chain in the country, is giving a treat to its customers with its Mega Gadgets Sale from December 12-15 at 2299 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati.

Techbox is a retail chain that offers original handsets, tablets, and accessories. Techbox offers superior handset brands such as Apple, Lenovo, Nokia, and LG, as well as cellphone accessories in over 25 stores in NCR and Luzon. It is a subsidiary of Tao Corporation, a company which focuses on supply-chain services. Founded in 1995, Tao Corporation is among the Philippines’ Top 500 Corporation with annual revenue of PhP30 Billion.

With over 4,440 employees, Tao aims to provide innovative ways of making the latest in mobile phone technology readily available through Techbox.

The Techbox Mega Gadgets Sale will feature staggering discounts of up to 80% from sought-after brands such as Apple, Lenovo, LG, Nokia, Sony, and others.

Techbox Philippines is known for selling original gadgets at a lower price. The last Techbox Mega Brands Warehouse Sale happened last June 13-15 and grossed over P10million on the first day alone.

Nurture Wellness Village: Going Back to the Basics to Promote Health and Wellness Tourism (Part 1)

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Life in the city can be so stressful and time-consuming that we often sacrifice our health and wellness just to get through the tedious and challenging tasks of the corporate world. We often forget to take care of our bodies and personal well-being in exchange of a better career or to become financially stable enough to provide well for ourselves or our family.

It is high time we remember to always allot a special time to break from all of those hectic, tedious and never-ending work loads, obligations and responsibilities. Life becomes so dull if we sacrifice our personal pleasures too much, and we may not be aware of it, but we often turn into sad, weak and less productive individuals if we continue this routine towards an eventual destruction of our bodies, mind and soul.

Let's take a breather, refresh and go into a journey of health and wellness, even just for the weekend. Living life to its fullest does not mean being able to accomplish a lot of task and endeavors. It should mean being able to enjoy life while we reap the rewards of our success.For me, it's all about being able to reach our full potential, and we could only do that if we are completely healthy and well.

A visit at the Nurture Wellness Village helped us with our search for the real nurturing experience. When we want a satisfying journey into a place where nature surrounds and creativity abounds, there's no other place to go but in Tagaytay where you can start your journey into health and wellness.

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Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, an international upscale hotel management company with over 16,000 staff members, is represented in 25 countries with 82 hotels, resorts and Nile cruisers currently in operation. Around 30 properties are planned or under construction, including Chiang Mai (Thailand), Istanbul Golden Horn (Turkey) and Kochi (India).

Focusing on expansion in its core markets of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts specialises in business and conference hotels, as well as holiday resorts, all reflecting a sense of place and respect for their local communities. Of Swiss heritage and headquartered in Zurich, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts is passionate about delivering premium service and culinary enjoyment – all with a personal touch. Committed to sustainable environments, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has become the most Green Globe certified hotel company in the world. The hotel company is owned by the Mövenpick Holding (66.7%) and the Kingdom Group (33.3%).

The company’s third beach resort in Thailand has opened at Koh Samui island’s most idyllic sunset location.

Relaxing on Koh Samui’s best sunset beach is just one of the highlights at Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts’ latest Thai property. Mövenpick Resort Laem Yai Beach Samui, which opened on 6 December, is a stunning boutique beach resort with 50 rooms, pool villas, beachfront villas and two-bedroom villas.

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Bookassist, the world's leading booking engine technology provider partners with hotels to build their brand online, drive direct business to their branded website, capture bookings with world class booking technology, help them optimize their online distribution and ensure they grow their margin per booking.

It has been recently crowned World’s Leading Booking Engine Technology Provider for a record third successive year at the World Travel Awards, widely viewed as the Oscars of the travel industry. Recognised across the globe as the ultimate accolade, it rewards those brands that are pushing the boundaries of industry excellence.

This third win confirms Bookassist as the only booking engine provider in the world, specialised in hotels, to win three successive titles.

The Dublin-headquartered company with worldwide operations won the prestigious World Travel Award title in 2012 and 2013. They picked up their third successive win on Sunday December 7th at the Grand Finale ceremony in Anguilla as a result of strong voting from the global hotel industry.

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Your friendly neighborhood pambansang blogger was invited to witness the U19s Junior Volcanoes Jersey Presentation hosted by FILA Philippines. The event was held last December 8, 2014 at the 2nds Restaurant located at Bonifacio Global City.

The U19s in their name stands for Under19s which means these juniors are below 19 years of age. They are being groomed as the next generation of Philippine volcanoes. This youth national program is a stepping stone in the right direction for young Filipino heritage rugby players to represent their country on the world stage.

The U19s Junior Volcanoes have had a long standing history of being one of the most dominant Division 2 teams since it s inception back in 2006. The Junior Volcanoes were crowned Champions 2006, 2009 and 2010. With a three year absence, it’s great opportunity to re-ignite the next generation of future Philippine rugby players to one day become Philippine Volcanoes.

Much like the mean's team, the U19s Junior Volcanoes is a mix of homegrown talent and overseas-based players with Filipino lineage. The squad of 30 players that have been selected to participate in the training camp will be reduced to 23 players as the tournament draws near.

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With more than ten years of successfully bringing food, cozy ambience and efficient service, not to mention its reasonable prices and huge servings, Burgoo remains to be a family favorite primarily because they give their customers a feeling of belonging.

A treat at this restaurant gives you so many reasons to thank the person who invited you. You'll have an amazing dining experience once you've tasted their namesake - Burgoo - which is a kind of stew that could soon become your favorite as well.

Our gathering at their Podium branch in Ortigas gave us the opportunity to try out their amazing Burgoo. It was quite an amazing tasty dish that's already heavy as a starter. You'll surely enjoy every bite and sip of this stew.

Carrying the banner "At Burgoo it's always a family treat," I could very well make this a family dining destination immediately after a visit at the mall or a cinema house. My kids will definitely love the sumptuous dishes served here at Burgoo. I could imagine it now as they dig in to the many tempting and delectable meals.