Author: Nick Farrell

Cisco sees its highest product order growth rates

Posted on August 20, 2021 by - News

Cisco has ended its fiscal 2021 with its highest product order growth rates in more than a decade, after having a really mixed year.

Revenues for the three months ending 31 July reached 13.1 billion, an increase of eight per ent year on year. GAAP operating income meanwhile swelled by 10 percent to $3.6 billion. Cisco’s sales for its full fiscal 2021 increased by one percent to $49.8 billion.

Cisco’s EMEA business grew revenues by six percent to $3.3 billion for the quarter. Sales in the Land of the Fee grew by eight percent to $7.73 billion

Product revenues grew by 10 percent in Fourth Quater to $9.71 billion, while services enjoyed 2.6 percent growth to $3.4 billion.

Rubrik takes Volish shilling

Posted on August 20, 2021 by - News

Microsoft has made an equity investment in the Zero Trust data management company Rubrik as part of a push towards ransomware protection.

The deal aims to better tackle the increasing ransomware threat and deliver enhanced data protection, as well as develop co-engineering projects to deliver Zero Trust data protection solutions built on Microsoft Azure.

That means customers and partners gain additional data protection, Rubrik says, so that critical Microsoft 365 data is secure and accessible in the event of a cyber attack.

Big Data demand increasing

Posted on August 19, 2021 by - News

IDC expects spending on big data and business analytics (BDA) to increase 10.1 percent over 2020.

The beancounters have a theory that as the global economy picks up spending on BDA will reach $215.7 billion this year, an increase of 10.1 percent over 2020.

In an update to its Worldwide Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide, the research firm has tipped BDA spending to gain strength over the next five years as the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between the 2021-2025 period will be 12.8 percent, IDC said.

IDC Vice president Jessica Goepfert said: “As executives seek solutions to enable better, faster decisions, we’re seeing relatively healthy BDA spending across all industries.”

IDC cites businesses in the professional services industry that are utilising big data and analytics to support their 360-degree customer and client management efforts, as well as project management initiatives.

The channel, it is a’changing

Posted on August 19, 2021 by - News

Most executives believe the channel is “rapidly changing” according to CompTIA’s International State of the Channel 2021 report.

The report discovered that 56 percent believe change is accelerating, compared to just 38 percent who said it was “holding steady”.

But more than 90 percent said that the channel maintains its relevance in the IT industry, with CompTIA claiming respondents were “cautiously optimistic” about the growth opportunities.

Increasing investments in marketing and improving the effectiveness of their marketing efforts were identified as a top priority among execs, but despite the feeling that customer spending would increase, they acknowledged that customers may still be reluctant to buy.

UK businesses can save the world by moving to public cloud

Posted on August 18, 2021 by - News

UK businesses are being told to accelerate cloud adoption in an upscaled effort to tackle climate change, the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has advised.

The big idea is that it will help curb carbon emissions by making changes to their technological habits.

Businesses are also being encouraged to join the BEIS-backed UK Business Climate Hub initiative, which challenges its members to become net-zero entities by 2050.

Cloudy Babble increases national footprint with spending spree

Posted on August 18, 2021 by - News

Babble has increased its national footprint with acquisitions of Concert and 5 Rings.

The deals – which are the fifth and sixth completed by Babble in 2021 are designed to add scale across the North-West and the South Coast as the outfit carriers out a buy and build a strategy for its cloud technology business.

As one of the earliest adopters of UC technology, Concert has quickly grown to become a comms partner to businesses across Cheshire and the North-West. The deal further cements Babble’s presence and customer base across the region.

Companies need to sort out digital communications, warns Tata

Posted on August 17, 2021 by - News

Tata Communications has warned that companies need to sort their digital communications out or not face a good future.

The outsourcer has released its Leading in a digital-first world: enabling success with the right mindset, ecosystem and trust report with the headline findings indicating that there is a long way to go for most firms with their digital transformation journeys.

The report found that 90 percent of enterprises have not hit their digital-first goals, with some suffering a productivity drop during the pandemic because of connectivity issues. Just under half of the users quizzed also put security at the top of the list of current concerns.

Cisco buys up Epsagon

Posted on August 17, 2021 by - News

Networking giant Cisco has acquired application monitoring firm Epsagon with a view to putting its tech under the bonnet of Cisco’s products and services.

Epsagon will be integrated into Cisco’s Strategy, Incubation and Applications division and will expand Cisco’s advanced full-stack observability strategy.

Rydal expands its IT support with Agenda buy

Posted on August 17, 2021 by - News

Comms outfit Rydal Group is acquiring Leicestershire-based Agenda IT to further expand “the strength of its IT support team”.

Agenda IT provides a host of managed services including VOIP phone systems, Office 365, IT support and security and cloud services to customers across the UK.

The company will operate under the Rydal Group name, which offers a range of telecoms services to businesses, and the existing management team and employees of Agenda IT will integrate into its group structure.

Steffan Dancy, managing director of the Rydal Group, said: “I’m delighted to welcome the Agenda IT team to the Rydal Group family. They have built a fantastic reputation, specifically around support within the surrounding Leicestershire and Northamptonshire area.

“Being part of the Rydal Group will give the Agenda clients wider benefits of our £6 million turnover business while still allowing us to maintain a local and personal service to Agenda IT customers by utilising the commitment and expertise of our staff.”

 

 

Ryde raises £2.5 million for new plans

Posted on August 16, 2021 by - News

Ryde, formerly Ryders, a SaaS platform for last-mile delivery, has raised £2.5 million as part of its cunning plan to become a fully integrated delivery management system.

This seed round was co-led by Forward Partners – which recently announced its IPO –  and Triple Point, with participation from current investors Seedcamp and Swiss Founders Fund.

Alongside the institutional investors, the company continues to build an impressive list of angels, including Michael Pennington (Gumtree), Will Neale (Fonix), Matt Robinson (Go Cardless) and Ines Ures (former Deliveroo CMO).

Ransomware is the enema of the channel

Posted on August 16, 2021 by - News

Beancounters at IDC have warned that ransomware attacks are becoming common and in most cases, customers were left in a position where they felt they had no option but to pay the ransom demanded.

The firm also found that manufacturing and finance were the verticals hit most by ransomware, while transportation, communication and utilities/media industries reported the lowest rates of attack. The average ransomware payout was almost $250,000, but several incidents topped $1 million.

NortonLifeLock is buying Avast to get vaster

Posted on August 13, 2021 by - News

NortonLifeLock has confirmed it is buying Avast for as much as $8.6 billion as part of its cunning plan to create an “industry-leading” consumer cybersecurity business.

The transaction, made up of a combination of cash and new shares, will value LSE-listed Avast at between $8.1bn and $8.6 billion.

The deal represents a 20.7 percent premium on Avast’s closing price of 504.2 pence per share as of 14 July 2021.

Once the acquisition closes, the combined business will be listed the Nasdaq exchange and be headquartered in Tempe, Arizona and Prague in Czech Republic.

Avast’s chief executive Ondrej Vlcek will join NortonLifeLock’s board and will be appointed president of the combined business while NortonLifeLock CEO Vincent Pilette will become chief executive of the combined business.

Apple and Google app stores in trouble over the pond

Posted on August 13, 2021 by - News

There is mounting political opposition to the way that Apple and Google distribute apps through their various stores.

Three US senators introduced a bill to promote competition in the app store space, which Apple and Google currently dominate.

The Open App Markets Act, sponsored by Democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal, as well as Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, aims to set “fair, clear, and enforceable rules” to protect competition within the app market, and to strengthen customer protection.

If the Bill gets through the Senate it will prevent large app stores (with 50 million+ US users) from requiring developers to use their own payment system. It will also prevent them from punishing developers that offer different conditions or prices through alternative app stores.

Accenture denies ransomware attack hurt

Posted on August 13, 2021 by - News

Accenture was the target of a LockBit ransomware attack, but the company insists that it had “no impact” on its own operations or on its clients.

LockBit published more than 2,000 files on the DarkWeb following the attack, including PowerPoints and case studies.

But in a statement, the global IT consultancy firm downplayed down the whole thing.

“Through our security controls and protocols, we identified irregular activity in one of our environments. We immediately contained the matter and isolated the affected servers. We fully restored our affected systems from back up. 

“There was no impact on Accenture’s operations, or on our clients’ systems.”

Green IT Restore snaps up PRM Green Technologies

Posted on August 12, 2021 by - News

Data management and recycling specialist Restore has made good on expansion plans and written a cheque for IT recycling and asset disposal (ITAD) specialist PRM Green Technologies.

Last month the firm revealed it was engaged in more than 25 ongoing acquisition discussions, with several deals expected to be completed in the second half of 2021.

The first of those is IT recycling and asset disposal (ITAD) specialist PRM Green Technologies, with 100 percent of the share capital being picked up by Restore for an undisclosed sum.

PRM is based in Cannock with sites in Carlisle, Taunton and Alton. It has  59 staff, who will remain with the business. The firm has its own e-commerce platform and has built a reputation in the education market, having helped more than 8,000 schools, colleges and universities across the UK dispose of equipment.

It also has an average yearly revenue of £3 million and an average net income of £900,000 achieved over the past three years.