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CIQ Ascender Pro Gives Enterprise Linux Automation the Power to Proactively Fix the Underlying Infrastructure

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Ascender Reaqt watches a fleet of inventory and fixes problems the moment they happen, Ascender Registry gives teams control over collections, containers and cross-environment automation, Federated Inventories speeds up routing of jobs to the right inventory, and a newly open sourced Galaxy Proxy brings that same caching speed to the wider Ansible community.

RENO, Nev., July 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CIQ, the founding commercial sponsor of Rocky Linux and the company behind the Ascender Pro automation platform, today announced that Ascender Pro now closes the loop between detection and remediation across an entire Enterprise Linux fleet, automatically routing the right fix to the right host in the right environment. Operations teams get one system that watches for problems, decides what to do about them, and acts without a person in the middle, no matter how many environments they run. That same investment extends to the collections and containers teams depend on, and reaches beyond Ascender Pro entirely, with CIQ open sourcing the caching layer behind it for the wider Ansible community. Ascender Reaqt, Ascender Registry and Federated Inventories are available now for Ascender Pro customers, with Ascender Galaxy Proxy released today as open source.

Most operations teams generate far more signal than they can act on by hand: a disk filling up, a service that won’t restart, a configuration drift no one caught. Closing the gap between that signal and a fix has traditionally meant a person in the loop, watching dashboards, triaging alerts and logging in to fix each incident one at a time, environment by environment.

Ascender Reaqt closes that gap. Each rule set gets its own endpoint and its own authentication token, so a credential tied to one integration never exposes any other, and a companion web application gives administrators a full UI and API for managing users, teams, permissions, providers, rule sets and listeners, backed by dashboards and metrics. Built as independent Go services and written from scratch rather than adapted from an existing open source project, Reaqt gives CIQ full ownership of the codebase and lets the product evolve on its own roadmap.

Ascender Registry lets administrators create repositories, pull specific collections and versions down from Ansible Galaxy, and host them locally, restricting exactly which collections and versions users are allowed to run. Teams can publish their own private collections the same way, and Registry doubles as a container registry for execution environments, all served through the same API structure as upstream Galaxy, so existing Ansible tooling works without changes.

Federated Inventories solves a problem most teams have learned to work around by hand: a ticketing system, a monitoring tool or a vulnerability scanner typically knows a hostname, not which of a dozen inventories that host lives in. Federated Inventories groups existing inventories together while preserving each one’s own variables and instance group assignments, then automatically determines which underlying inventory a target host lives in when a job runs, splitting one request across as many environments as necessary with no extra setup.

“Enterprises running Linux at scale have been stuck choosing between an automation platform that does everything and one they can actually own and trust. That’s the problem we set out to solve with this release. Ascender Pro gives operations teams a way to detect a problem, control what’s running in their environment, and get the fix to exactly the right host, automatically, all built from the ground up on our own roadmap. Galaxy Proxy solves a problem the entire Ansible community shares, so we’re giving it back as open source. It’s the same principle behind everything we build at CIQ: own your infrastructure, control your own destiny and never be at the mercy of somebody else’s roadmap. Full ownership where it matters, real contribution back to the community that got us here, that’s what building infrastructure the right way looks like,” said Gregory Kurtzer, CEO and founder of CIQ and founder of Rocky Linux.

Ascender Galaxy Proxy started as a fix for a real problem: public Ansible Galaxy responses can be slow or unavailable, and that drags down CI/CD pipelines and project syncs that depend on them. Galaxy Proxy sits between Ansible and Galaxy and caches every response, not just collection downloads, cutting typical wait times by as much as 75 to 80 percent. CIQ is releasing it as open source for any Ansible user, including those running AWX or another Ansible-based platform, while Ascender Pro customers get the full Registry application on top of it.

“For our customers, this release isn’t about matching a feature checklist; it’s about giving operations teams their time back. Federated Inventories alone removes a routing problem that used to require its own tooling or a manual step, and paired with Reaqt’s automatic remediation, a single alert can turn into a fix on exactly the right host without anyone standing in the middle,” said Bjorn Hovland, President of CIQ.

Ascender Reaqt, Ascender Registry and Federated Inventories are available now to existing Ascender Pro customers. Ascender Galaxy Proxy is available today as an open source project.

To see the full platform in action, CIQ is hosting a live webinar, “How to run your whole Ansible lifecycle on one platform,” on July 30 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT, featuring Brian Rieb and the engineer who built Ascender Pro, Jimmy Conner. The session walks through what the integrated platform looks like in practice: a fix launching in seconds before a small problem becomes an outage, every action recording itself so the proof exists before anyone asks, and one launch running across the whole estate. Registration is open now.

About CIQ
CIQ is the founding support and services partner for Rocky Linux and a leading provider of enterprise Linux infrastructure. CIQ delivers commercially supported Linux offerings, high-performance computing solutions and AI infrastructure to enterprises, government agencies, research institutions and supercomputing centers worldwide. CIQ’s products include the Rocky Linux from CIQ (RLC Pro) family of operating systems, Ascender Pro for IT automation, Fuzzball job-based container orchestration, Warewulf cluster provisioning and Apptainer, the leading container system for high-performance computing. For more information, visit ciq.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Cristin Connelly
Cathey Communications for CIQ
cristin@cathey.co

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SOURCE CIQ

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U.S. Consumers Received Just Over 4.25 Billion Robocalls in June, According to YouMail Robocall Index

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2026 Volume Down Roughly 13% Year Over Year

IRVINE, Calif., July 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — U.S. consumers received just over 4.25 billion robocalls in June 2026, according to the Robocall Index from YouMail, the robocall protection app that tracks U.S. robocalling behavior. This volume increased approximately 3.4% from May, but declined 4.6% compared to June 2025.  

June averaged 141.8 million robocalls/day and 1,642 robocalls/second, compared to May’s 132.8 million robocalls/day and 1,537 robocalls/second.

This was the highest monthly robocall volume since July 2025. Despite that, over the past 12 months, total robocalls reached 48.7 billion, continuing the lowest 12-month total recorded since November 2022.

“Monthly robocall volumes have been slowly creeping upward, and we’re now roughly 15% above the lowest levels we saw last October,” said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. “While overall robocall activity remains relatively low compared to historical levels, consumers must continue to stay vigilant and protect themselves with robocall-blocking apps like YouMail.”

These latest figures are provided by YouMail, a totally free app that protects consumers from unwanted or dangerous calls, texts, and voicemails. The figures are based on extrapolated data from robocall traffic targeting YouMail’s active user base.

June’s Robocalls Patterns Remained Similar to May

There was little change in the breakdown of robocall activity from May to June, with payment reminders increasing by 6% and unwanted calls rising slightly.

Type of

Robocall

Estimate June

Robocalls

Percentage June
Robocalls

Notifications

1.60 billion (flat)

38% (flat)

Payment Reminders

0.64 billion (+6%)

15% (+1%)

Telemarketing + Scams

2.02 billion (+1%)

47% (-1%)

Unfortunately, consumers continue to receive roughly 2 billion unwanted robocalls every month.

June 2026’s Most Annoying Robocalls

June’s most problematic robocall campaigns once again centered around pre-approved debt consolidation loans. One particularly large campaign placed calls using the name “Silver Oak Loans.” The campaign delivered substantially similar messages from tens of thousands of phone numbers,  like this one

This is Brittany with Silver Oak Loans. I’m reaching out because based on your credit profile, it looks like you’ve been pre-approved for a debt consolidation loan. This type of loan can be used to pay off credit cards, personal loans, medical bills, collection accounts, or any other outstanding balances you may have, and roll everything into one single monthly payment at a lower interest rate. We’d love to go over the details and your options with you. If you’d like to speak with a representative, press 3 now, or if you prefer not to receive updates, press 7.

This robocall campaign generated well over 30 million calls in June. Consumers report these calls as spam, saying they get these calls over and over, despite never applying for a loan and never providing consent to be contacted. At best this is illegal telemarketing at scale; at worst this behavior is indicative of a scam.

Consumers who receive these calls should report them to sites like directory.youmail.com or spamreporters.com. Reporting helps reduce harm to others by ensuring these numbers can be immediately blocked not only by the YouMail app, but across a variety of carriers. It also helps aggregate valuable data that can be shared with regulators and law enforcement to support investigative efforts.  

The Source of This Data

These data points are provided by YouMail, a free call protection app for mobile phones. YouMail won the American Business Awards’ Gold Stevie Award for Technical Innovation of the Year, and the YouMail app was named the nation’s best robocall-blocking solution in a competition organized by Geoffrey Fowler formerly of the Washington Post.

YouMail blocks unwanted robocallers by making sure the user’s phone doesn’t ring, and then plays an out-of-service message that leads them to think they dialed an invalid number. YouMail identifies problematic numbers and robocalls using a combination of its recently patented audio fingerprinting technology, call patterns, and consumer feedback.

YouMail provides the YouMail Robocall Index to estimate robocall volume across the country and for specific area codes every month. This estimate is formed by extrapolating from the behavior of the billions of calls YouMail has handled for its users, and these statistics are regularly cited by the FCC as a definitive source for national data trends.  

For a full ranking of cities, states and area codes, as well as details on the behavior of robocallers in each area code, please see http://robocallindex.com. To listen to actual voice messages left by robocallers or report spam calls or texts, please visit the YouMail Directory. To join the YouMail Robocall Index mailing list, please write to RobocallIndex@YouMail.com.

About YouMail, Inc.

YouMail protects consumers, enterprises, and carriers from harmful phone calls. YouMail provides US and UK consumers app-based call protection services through the YouMail, Another Number, and HulloMail apps. These solutions answer over a billion live calls per year from well over 20 million phone numbers, powering America’s most robust telephone sensor network in identifying and providing zero-hour protection against illegal calling campaigns and cyberattacks. YouMail Protective Services leverages this sensor network to protect consumer-facing enterprises by detecting and helping shut down imposter traffic that can lead to financial or brand damage, as well as to protect carriers with robocall mitigation services that detect and help stop bad traffic originating, traversing, or terminating on their networks. This sensor network is also used to provide the YouMail Robocall Index™ is the nation’s definitive source on telephone network activity and attacks. YouMail, Inc. is privately funded and based in Irvine, California. 

Contact:

Gabriella Troiani for YouMail
Lumina Communications
YouMailPR@icrinc.com

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SOURCE YouMail Inc.

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GBS outperforms the higher education sector across all seven themes in National Student Survey 2026

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LONDON, July 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Global Banking School (GBS) has once again outperformed the UK higher education sector across all seven core themes of the 2026 National Student Survey (NSS), highlighting its continued commitment to delivering an outstanding student experience.

Published today by the Office for Students (OfS), the latest NSS results reflect GBS’s continued focus on high-quality teaching, academic support and student success, with consistently high levels of student satisfaction and strong year-on-year performance.

The 2026 results for GBS are based on 6,488 published student responses – an increase of 1,087 responses compared with 2025, providing an even stronger and more representative picture of the student experience at GBS.

The results come at a particularly significant time for GBS, as it celebrates its 2026 graduation ceremonies this month across Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester and London. Six thousand graduates are marking the successful completion of their studies, including in sectors vital to the UK economy, such as construction management, digital technology and health and social care.

GBS outperformed the sector average across all seven NSS themes, with the highest satisfaction scores were achieved in Teaching on my Course and Academic Support, both recording 92.9% student satisfaction.

James Kennedy, CEO of GBS, said: “We are incredibly proud of these results and what they represent. They reflect the dedication of our students, the commitment of our academic and professional services colleagues, and our shared focus on providing an outstanding student experience.

“As we celebrate our graduation ceremonies across Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester and London this month, it is particularly rewarding to see our students recognise the quality of their experience at GBS. While these results are something to celebrate, they also inspire us to keep listening to our students and continually enhancing every aspect of the education and support we provide.”

GBS offers flexible, career-focused higher education programmes designed to meet the needs of today’s learners, many of whom balance their studies alongside jobs, family responsibilities and running their own businesses. Through industry-relevant courses delivered across its campuses in London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, GBS continues to widen participation to higher education while equipping students with the knowledge, skills and confidence to succeed in their chosen careers.

The 2026 NSS results underline GBS’s commitment to delivering an outstanding student experience and to continually enhancing teaching, learning and student support.

Notes to Editors

The National Student Survey (NSS) is an annual survey that gathers feedback from eligible students across UK higher education providers on the quality of their academic experience.The 2026 GBS results are based on 6,488 published student responses, with a publication response rate of 81.2%.Global Banking School (GBS) is a higher education provider with campuses in London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, delivering career-focused programmes in partnership with respected UK universities.

Infographic – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/3005236/GBS_2026.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/gbs-outperforms-the-higher-education-sector-across-all-seven-themes-in-national-student-survey-2026-302822127.html

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Closed Dollar Volume Increases Across Markets in First Half of 2026, According to New Market Report by William Pitt-Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty

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Strong sales momentum in the second quarter brings markets ahead in volume year to date compared to first half of last year, as inventory improves and median prices continue to rise

STAMFORD, Conn., July 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sales improvements in single family home sales in the second quarter of 2026 were strong enough that many markets finished the first half of 2026 ahead of the first six months of 2025 in closed dollar volume, according to a new report just released by William Pitt-Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty. The report details annual market results in Fairfield, Litchfield and Hartford Counties and the Shoreline in Connecticut, the Berkshires in Massachusetts, and Westchester, Putnam, Columbia, Dutchess and Ulster Counties, New York.

The report stated that the closed volume increases represented a positive turnaround from the more sluggish performance of the first quarter. While closed volume rose year over year, unit sales were still lower than this time last year in most markets served by the firm.

Virtually every market is seeing a disparity between closed volume and units, with the percentage change for dollar volume always an improvement over the percentage change in units, whether it is increasing year over year at a higher rate than units or decreasing at a lower one. The reason for this spread is that the product mix selling continues to favor higher priced properties, while at the same time median sale prices continue to move ever upward in nearly every market.

In addition, properties are typically trading for higher than their asking prices, the report found. The ratio of list to closing price is especially high in mid-tier price ranges. In Fairfield County, for example, properties overall averaged a sale price 3.2% above their initial asking price, but property sales between $1.5 and $2 million saw a list to ask ratio increase of 7.8%. In Westchester these stats were even higher. County-wide, properties sold for an average of 5.3% over their listing price, but that percentage elevated to 9.7% in the $1 to $2 million price bracket.

Competition is the driving force behind this dynamic as the balance of supply and demand remains heavily weighted toward the benefit of sellers. Housing markets remain challenged by an ongoing lack of inventory amidst a backdrop of heightened buyer demand. In a positive sign for buyers and a reversal of the trend from the first quarter this year, total standing inventory rose in the second quarter over the same time last year in most counties.

“The increase in total inventory gives us reason to feel bullish on strong sales momentum in the coming months,” said Paul Breunich, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of William Pitt-Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty. “Economic factors at the macro level remain points of uncertainty, but we do not expect to see much effect on the pace of our markets any time soon. Demand is continuing at a very consistent pace, and inventory increasing again to meet that demand will further facilitate robust sales activity.

The First Half 2026 Market Watch is available on the firm’s website at williampitt.com.

About William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty
Founded in 1949, William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty manages a $5.5 billion portfolio with more than 1,100 sales associates in 29 brokerages spanning Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. The company is one of the largest Sotheby’s International Realty(R) affiliates globally and the 34th-largest real estate company by sales volume in the United States. For more information, visit the website at williampitt.com.

Sotheby’s International Realty’s worldwide network includes 1,075 offices throughout 81 countries and territories on six continents.

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SOURCE William Pitt-Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty

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