Author: Nick Farrell

Fujitsu invests €3 million in channel

Posted on May 24, 2021 by - News

Fujitsu is putting €3 million into its channel to spruce up its partners’ tools and support.

The outfit wants its Select Partner Programme to deliver more user-friendly tools, improved rebates and better access for its partners.

It said that the enhancements focus on four main areas: data-driven transformation, hybrid cloud, workplace transformation, and infrastructure for SAP environments.

Select partners that focus on those areas will have the opportunity to become recognised as “Fujitsu Champions”. Improved rebates are also on offer for those that deliver against one or more of the strategic areas.

FutureWorkForce snaps up AiSpace

Posted on May 21, 2021 by - Moving People, News

FutureWorkForce has acquired AiSpace, an intelligent automaton service provider, to extend its UK capabilities and use AiSpace’s conversational AI.

The deal brings together outfits that create Intelligent Automation solutions that drive efficiency improvements, increase productivity and fuel workforce innovation.

FutureWorkForceGroup Chief Operating Officer Mihai Balaj said: “We wanted to have a stronger presence in the UK. Our acquisition of AiSpace means our customers will now have greater access to expertise and resources on the ground in the UK, and we will have a more extensive base of UK customers from which to continue our growth.

“AiSpace has a similar culture to ours of putting their clients first, and they also have people with exceptional intelligent automation skills. These two things combined made the company a perfect fit for us”, said Balaj. 

Avaya expands relationship with Westcon

Posted on May 21, 2021 by - News

Avaya has extended its relationship with Westcon after the distie had cracking results in the UK market.

The distributor was signed up as one of the first European master agents for Avaya’s unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) offering in partnership with RingCentral last June. Since then, the firm has been operating as a master agent, selling the UCaaS offering in the UK, Ireland, France and the Netherlands.

However, now the Avaya has named Westcon a master agent for Avaya’s OneCloud contact centre as a service (CCaaS) offering across Europe, after a successful UK pilot.

Avaya said that it was using the master agent approach in the UK last February at its Avaya Engage event, which it hoped would be an entry point for volume partners. The approach has since become more widespread in the UK channel, particularly around comms solutions, and Nickenig said there were positives to the approach.

OCF partners with RONIN

Posted on May 21, 2021 by - News

OCF, a high-performance compute (HPC), storage, cloud and AI integrator, has partnered with the cloudy RONIN to provide its customers with an  application to support and ease the adoption of HPC cloud services in research institutions.

RONIN’s web application allows researchers to launch complex compute resources, while helping to control usage, scheduling and budget management.

The pair are members of the AWS Partner Network (APN), OCF and RONIN will together be able to help research computing take advantage of the benefits of public cloud. Using RONIN, researchers can spin-up environments as needed for short term requirements or assess the usefulness of advancements in co-processors or software frameworks without the onus of large capital expenditure or long lead times.  It also supports those organisations taking their first steps in AI and machine learning, giving them easy access to the latest GPU technology.

 Cinos modernises Bath hospital trust’s unified communications platform

Posted on May 20, 2021 by - News

The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust has announced it is working with Cinos to modernise its unified communications platform.

The Cisco-powered unified communications platform will provide and combine multiple communications channels for the Trust’s 6,500 employees, such as voice, video, personal and team messaging, voicemail, and content sharing.

It will give staff the tools and ability to work more flexibly on-site and when working remotely, including extending audio and video calls to Microsoft Teams.

Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust Chief Technology Officer Liam Abbott, said: “The benefits of the new platform will also extend to patients, as a new centrally managed contact centre will make it easier for them to engage with our clinical services. By improving the quality and efficiency of communications, we’re making our services more accessible to those who depend on them.”

Xerox says SMEs are getting more into automation

Posted on May 20, 2021 by - News

SMEs are planning to invest in more automation and security tools according to a survey penned by copier outfit Xerox.

A Xerox survey of SMEs across the UK, US and Canada has found that as the world starts to mull over exiting the pandemic, 85 percent of customers are now more reliant on the channel for support, using more comms technology and after investing in security hardware and software.

The Xerox State and fate of small and medium business survey adds to a growing number of surveys and anecdotal examples pointing to rising confidence across the SME sector.

Nutanix scores NIS  contract

Posted on May 20, 2021 by - News

Serbian energy giant NIS  has chosen the Cloudy Nutanix to simplify IT management and provide a more scalable and agile platform for future developments.

NIS is involved in a diverse range of activities, from oil and gas exploration, refining and distribution to, more recently, the development of electrical and thermal energy from a mix of traditional and renewable sources. However, progressing and managing those businesses in an era of rapid change was putting increasing strains on its legacy infrastructure. These strains limited the company’s ability to cope with day-to-day demand and prevented it from moving the business forward to stay ahead of the competition.

NIS CIO  Dimitry Shevchenko said: “Like others in our sector, we needed to modernise and do so quickly, moving to a more agile software-defined architecture. For us, that meant hyperconverged infrastructure and, with Nutanix as the clear market leader, it was our obvious first choice.”

ConnectWise helps partners grow their cybersecurity

Posted on May 19, 2021 by - News

Cyberman - Wikimedia CommonsTechnology solution provider (TSPs) ConnectWise, today announced the launch of the ConnectWise Partner Programme, which will focus on helping partners grow their cybersecurity practice.

TSPs, including managed service providers (MSPs), will have access to exclusive offerings, resources and support to help them improve profitability and scale and meet growing market demand for managed cybersecurity solutions.

ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee said the company said that the new Partner Programme was developed to support growth-minded TSPs looking for a strategic partner to help them build, grow and sustain a profitable services practice.

Cybersecurity is an area of opportunity for TSPs who want to attract new clients and improve retention and satisfaction among their existing ones. Recent research on SMBs shows that cybersecurity is the top priority for 42 percent with 89 percent saying it’s one of their five priorities. More than 95 percent of SMBs say they would consider switching to a new service provider if they offered the right cybersecurity solution—and on average, they’d pay up to 33 percent more.

SolarWinds teams up with QBS Software

Posted on May 19, 2021 by - News

SolarWinds has teamed up with distribution outfit QBS Software to deliver its IT operation management solutions to partners and customers.

Charles Damerell, senior director of sales for the UK and Ireland at SolarWinds, said the US-founded firm has been developing and expanding its UK business—building out direct, public sector, and channel sales teams.

“This collaboration further demonstrates our commitment to delivering the best possible solutions through our growing reseller and customer base”, Damerell said.

Avast launches new business security hub

Posted on May 19, 2021 by - News

Avast has launched its new Business Hub to streamline how its channel partners, managed security service providers (MSSPs), and business customers manage their cybersecurity.

The company said that with growing remote workforces, increasing number of ransomware, phishing, supply chain and BEC (business email compromise) attacks, and expanding compliance needs, the risk that end-user devices in business networks face has never been higher.

Avast Business Hub consolidates a number of critical security and availability capabilities for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It consolidates endpoint protection, patch management, backup and recovery, and remote access and support solutions into an integrated security platform that enables organisations to easily manage and protect their devices, applications, data, and networks. The platform combines cloud-based endpoint protection and network security solutions that are easy to deploy and manage, reducing overhead and cost while delivering the most comprehensive protection.

DCMS – that’s a government department – canvasses MSPs

Posted on May 18, 2021 by - News

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is asking MSPs and the Channel their views on protecting the digital supply chain.

MSPs can comment on measures that would increase the security of digital supply chains and how protection could be improved for those in the channel providing services including data processing and infrastructure management.

The consultation period runs until 11 July with the DCMS is keen to hear about best practices and examples of good supplier risk management.

Data sets need faster processing

Posted on May 18, 2021 by - News

Data warehouse and analytics professionals under increased pressure to develop new data sets faster, according to a survey.

Data automation outfit WhereScape has released a report in partnership with TDWI, revealing how organisations can accelerate data warehouse development to meet the demand for new data sets and insights.

The TDWI ‘Accelerating Data Warehouse Development’ Pulse Report said 70 percent of respondents agree agility is needed, in the sense of speed, productivity, flexibility, and innovation.

The vast majority of survey respondents consider DW acceleration important. In fact, almost two-thirds find it extremely important. More than 64 percent of Data warehouse professionals want their data quality issues automatically recognised and remediated and half want automation for data validation and verification.

The report said that just under 20 percent of DW developers are looking forward to tools supporting intelligent assistants that guide developers, possibly based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. A third believe that automation tools are affordable, compared to hiring and consultants.

HYCU hires former Google UK leader

Posted on May 18, 2021 by - Moving People, News

Cloudy recovery outfit HYCU has hired Rajh Das to be its new VP Sales, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA.)

Das has spent the past 20years working for leading industry cloud and enterprise companies including EMC, IBM, Microsoft and Xerox. Most recently, he was at Google UK where he was a leader in the Cloud business running the Manufacturing, Industrial and Life Sciences sector.  He has led sales, pre-sales, customer success and engineering teams.

Midwich opens new training and events centre

Posted on May 17, 2021 by - News

Midwich has opened a new multi-million pound training and events facility in Bracknell.

The 50,000 square feet Innovation House is home to five of the UK’s audio-visual distributors – Midwich, PSCo, Holdan, Invision and Sound Technology – and aims to bring together vendors, resellers, consultants, and end-users across the industry.

The idea is to showcase more than 200 world-leading audio-visual, unified communication and collaboration, broadcast, smart home and rental solutions from 50 world-renowned manufacturers all under one roof, Midwich says.

Raghuram replaces Kicking Pat

Posted on May 17, 2021 by - Moving People, News

VMware’s COO of products and cloud services, Raghu Raghuram, will take over as the company’s new CEO at the start of June.

He has been with the company since 2003 and replaces Pat Gelsinger, who left the business earlier this year to be Intel’s new supreme Dalek.

“VMware is uniquely poised to lead the multi-cloud computing era with an end-to-end software platform spanning clouds, the data centre and the edge, helping to accelerate our customers’ digital transformations/ I am honoured, humbled and excited to have been chosen to lead this company to a new phase of growth. We have enormous opportunity, we have the right solutions, the right team, and we will continue to execute with focus, passion, and agility”, Raghuram said.

Raghuram has helped drive VMware’s direction in areas like its core visualisation business, software-defined data strategy, SAAS transformation and in mergers and acquisitions.