Author: Nick Farrell

Chip shortage was worse than COVID-19 for car makers

Posted on August 4, 2021 by - News

The global semiconductor shortage could have a greater impact on the automotive industry than the COVID-19 pandemic.

Software provider VNC Automotive CEO Tom Blackie said that talking to clients and suppliers, it’s become clear that the effects of the semiconductor shortage will long outlast the pandemic, and will potentially have a far more serious impact on sales and future development.

“Some of our suppliers are seeing prices for chips that are more than 30 times higher than before, and at that level, their use is no longer sustainable. We’re even seeing vehicle buyers and fleet operators having to consider purchasing models that aren’t on their preferred lists because that’s all that’s available. At a time when the industry is asking people to consider making the switch to EVs, supply restrictions are leaving them frustrated”, he said.

IBM and Tech Data get booted and suited job

Posted on August 4, 2021 by - News

The UK Fashion & Textile Association (UKFT) is working with IBM, Tech Data, and the Future Fashion Factory to design, prototype and pilot a new technology platform to help the UK fashion and textile industry dress up the supply chain and make it more environmentally friendly.

Retailers Next, H&M, N Brown, New Look, COS and yarn manufacturer Laxtons will be part of the initial pilot.

The Sustainable Supply Chain Optimisation project has been awarded £1.4 million funding by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, on behalf of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) Manufacturing Made Smarter Challenge.

Nutanix shakes the management tree

Posted on August 3, 2021 by - Moving People, News

Cloudy Nutanix  has announced a number of organisational changes to its EMEA senior leadership team.

Sammy Zoghlami will resume his role as Senior Vice President of Sales for the EMEA region. In this job, Zoghlami will continue to lead sales and customer support, strategic business development and strategy, management of Nutanix’s offices and operational teams in each EMEA country, as well as the company’s partnerships, alliances and channel activities.

Zoom pays millions to make privacy suit go away

Posted on August 3, 2021 by - News

Online conferencing outfit Zoom has agreed to pay $85 million to settle a lawsuit that claims the video communications platform violated the privacy of its users.

The lawsuit claimed that Zoom handed over data of users to Facebook, Google and LinkedIn. It was alleged that Zoom misled users by claiming it offers end-to-end encryption in its video calls and that it failed to prevent hackers from ‘Zoombombing’ calls, which sees them enter meetings they were not invited and includes cases of indecent images being streamed to participants.

NTT Data carries out major reorganisation

Posted on August 3, 2021 by - News

NTT Data has brought its Everis business and its EMEA division under the same umbrella to create EMEAL.

The new outfit will have  38,000 employees across 25 countries and a revenue of €3 billion.

NTT Data claims the move is a “fundamental step towards operating as one NTT Data globally”.

Everis CEO Fritz Hoderlein, will take over as the CEO of the newly created division.

Check Point warns of more cyber shenanigans

Posted on August 2, 2021 by - News

Check Point Research (CPR) has released its ‘Cyber Attack Trends: 2021 Mid-Year Report’, which shows how cybercriminals have continued to exploit the global shift to hybrid working and target organisations.

Organisations have experienced a 29 percent increase in cyber-attacks globally. The EMEA region showed the highest growth with 36 percent, followed by the Americas with an increase of 34 percent, with APAC witnessing a 13 percent growth in attacks. This year has also seen a new ‘Triple Extortion’ ransomware technique emerge. While there have been successful international operations targeting cyber-crime, such as the take-down of the notorious Emotet botnet, threat actors launched sophisticated attacks which exploited organizations’ supply chains to cause widespread disruption.

Savings to be had by improving “endpoint visibility”

Posted on August 2, 2021 by - News

Tanium claims that public and private sector European organisations could realise by improving endpoint visibility and control across their IT estates.

While you might expect an endpoint management and security software company to say something like that, the company has found some interesting numbers to justify its claim.

In a report, Tanium said that UK organisations that fail to implement comprehensive endpoint management technology risk losing out on significant cost savings. UK organisations are estimated to save on average a total of £995,120 in their first year of using endpoint technology, followed by an additional £343,463 in year two and £517,817 in year three.

Displaylite supplies Philips in the UK

Posted on August 2, 2021 by - News

Touchscreen and display specialist Displaylite is to supply the latest Philips touch monitors in the UK.
The agreement with MMD covers Philips Touch Glass, In Cell and Open Frame monitors. With a 70,000 MTBF, 3-year warranty and 48-hour onsite swap-out warranty, the touch monitors are suitable for a variety of applications including Point of Information, Point of Sale and Kiosks and Industrial Control Rooms.
Key features include SmoothTouch technology, an articulating stand and an optional bracket for securing a mini-PC.

Cloud print growing

Posted on July 30, 2021 by - News

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated a move to the cloud in the print industry, according to industry analyst firm Quocirca.

The report found 75 percent of those it surveyed had already used marketplaces including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, and just over half had been on platforms such as Amazon Business. Only 30 percent said they were still buying direct from a channel partner.

The trend towards cloud marketplaces is set to continue, with 88 percent of customers expecting further growth in the next couple of years.

Red Hat teams up with Nutanix

Posted on July 30, 2021 by - News

Open saucy Red Hat has coupled with the cloudy firm Nutanix to build, scale, and manage cloud-native applications on-premises and hybrid clouds.

The collaboration brings together different technologies, enabling installation, interoperability and management of Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Nutanix Cloud Platform, including Nutanix AOS and AHV.

Under the plan, Red Hat OpenShift is the preferred choice for enterprise full stack Kubernetes on the Nutanix Cloud Platform. In addition, customers looking to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift on hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) will be able to use an industry-leading cloud platform from Nutanix, which includes both Nutanix AOS and AHV.

Nutanix Cloud Platform will be the preferred choice for HCI for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift. This will enable customers to deploy virtualised and containerised workloads on a hyperconverged infrastructure, building on the combined benefits of Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud technologies and Nutanix’s hyperconverged offerings.

Google Cloud expands SAP alliance

Posted on July 30, 2021 by - News

Google Cloud and SAP have expanded their strategic partnership claiming it will help customers execute business transformations, migrate critical business systems to the cloud, and augment existing business systems with Google Cloud capabilities in AI and machine learning.

Under the new deal, Google Cloud will be a strategic cloud partner for the RISE with SAP offering. The two companies will partner to accelerate customers’ cloud migrations and business process migrations.

This means that clients get global availability of multiple SAP services and products on Google Cloud’s reliable, scalable cloud infrastructure and high-speed network, including the SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud solutions within SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).

Tech Data expects increased demand for Click to Run cloud services

Posted on July 29, 2021 by - News

Tech Data said it is ready to support partners in anticipation of increased demand in its four most popular Click to Run cloud services.

During the first half of the year, sales of these services accelerated with a resulting triple-digit growth. In addition, Tech Data has allocated additional technical resources to support partners in taking these solutions to market and driving significantly more.

Tech Data said sales of its top four Click to Run solutions – for Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD), the Secure Score risk assessment framework; and for both Backup and Disaster Recovery solutions built upon Veritas and Veeam – Tech Data is targeting a significantly higher triple-figure sales growth for these solutions for the overall calendar year. In addition, sales of these solutions have been robust over the past six months, and Tech Data is providing additional support for partners to help them develop their go-to-market plans.

HP sharks Teradici

Posted on July 29, 2021 by - News

Maker of expensive printer ink HP has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy Teradici, a specialist in remote computing software that lets users to securely access high-performance computing from any PC, Chromebook or tablet.

The tech giant says the purchase will enhance its capabilities in the Personal Systems category, helping it deliver new compute models and services tailored to hybrid work.

HP president of Personal Systems Alex Cho said Teradici’s cutting-edge technology has long been at the forefront of secure, high-performance virtual computing.

SAP projects kick off again

Posted on July 29, 2021 by - News

Enterprises in the UK have been restarting SAP projects slowed or suspended during the pandemic and modifying their SAP platforms to adapt to Brexit-related changes, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens SAP HANA Ecosystem Services report for the UK found  companies in the country had temporarily halted or slowed SAP implementations as they focused on maintaining operations and controlling costs early in the pandemic. But since the second half of 2020, many stalled projects have gained momentum and the outlook for SAP in the region is positive, ISG says.

ISG Provider Lens Research partner Jan Erik Aase said: “SAP S/4HANA transformations and cloud implementations are now gaining speed in the UK. Digital transformations are helping enterprises meet new challenges from the pandemic, and service providers are adjusting to new realities.”

Communicate wins key contract thanks to OPPORTUNI’s AI

Posted on July 28, 2021 by - News

IT, telecoms and cybersecurity outfit Communicate Technology have secured a lucrative contract with Kent Innovation Centre thanks to its association with tech start-up, OPPORTUNI. Why it’s all in upper case is a marketing mystery we can’t resolve.

OPPORTUNI worked with the team at Communicate to diversify and grow its customer base through its tender as a service platform, resulting in a contract win for the firm.

OPPORTUNI’s AI-powered tender portal service connected Communicate with relevant contracts by identifying the most appropriate tender opportunities as well as providing a community of bid writing experts to further support the team’s successful submission.
Communicate, established in 2011, has offices in Wynyard, Leeds in Yorkshire and Kent, and its existing customer base in the private sector sees it specialising in networking and connecting business parks, and multi-tenanted, office spaces on a national level.