Author: Nick Farrell

BT Wholesale goes hybrid

BT Wholesale is offering hybrid work options through Microsoft Teams and wants to get its Channel onboard.

The firm is launching WHC Teams Direct Connect, which means users can access external calls on Teams using Wholesale Hosted Communications (WHC).

The company is looking to the channel to take the solution out to market, with it being quick and easy to deploy without the need for onerous IT support.

The move will enable the channel to offer combinations of hosted PBX, Hosted SIP Trunking and Teams, as well as pointing out that simple solutions save time and money in training and roll-out.

VMware and Broadcom deal goes through

In a move that will put a chill in some of VMWare’s partners, the Broadcom takeover bid has been given the nod.

Broadcom will pay $61 billion and acquire all of the outstanding shares of VMware in a cash-and-stock transaction.

Raghu Raghuram, chief executive officer of VMware, said: “VMware has been reshaping the IT landscape for the past 24 years, helping our customers become digital businesses. We stand for innovation and unwavering support of our customers and their most important business operations and now we are extending our commitment to exceptional service and innovation by becoming the new software platform for Broadcom.

Zoom still goes boom

It looks like the end of COVID lock-downs does not mean an end for video-conferencing outfit Zoom.

According to its latest results Zoom’s three-month period ended 30 April 2022 saw the core conferencing solution complemented with the launch of Zoom Contact Center, Zoom Whiteboard and Zoom IQ for Sales, a conversation intelligence service for sales professionals, as well as Zoom Events and Webinar functionalities such as Backstage and Webinar session branding.

These offerings are designed to put engagement at the centre of the experience and transform the way users work, connect and collaborate. The company said the products demonstrated its focus on enhancing the customer experience and promoting hybrid work.

Nvidia expects slowdown

The chipmaker Nvidia has warned of trouble ahead and that it is pulling back on new hiring.

The move lines up with its comments during its latest earnings release when it said that it expects sales of GPUs for gaming consoles and PCs to decline in the current quarter.

CEO Jensen Huang said that while Nvidia had a solid previous quarter, with revenue up 46 per cent over last year to $8.29 billion and was “gearing up for the largest wave of new products in our history” with new GPU, CPU, DPU and robotics processors coming online in the second half of the year, it is expecting to see lower revenue.

Word on the street is that the company appears to be bracing for a slowdown and the leaders want to want to take a pause to onboard the “thousands of new hires we’ve recently made”.

Nvidia is not the only one – Lyft, Uber and Snap, have announced hiring slowdowns. Nvidia was expected to weather events due to continued strong demand in the GPU market that has kept prices high and supply short.

Firms investing in quantum top cats

Salaries in quantum computing are now starting at £50,000 and are expected to increase to more than £90,000 in five years as the industry takes off.

According to a report by Quantum Futures, provided to TechUK, in the US salaries are reaching $250,000 (£192,000) with five years’ experience in the industry.  However, this is terrible news for the UK as it is murder for the UK to keep pace with this level of investment and growth.

The report warned that it is unsustainable to develop a talent pipeline where everyone working in quantum needs a PhD. The authors of the report pointed out that, at the moment, it can be difficult for those without a PhD to find technical roles within the quantum.

Bites does well

Bytes has seen its gross  income increase by 26 percent for the 12 months ending 28 February 2022 to £1.21 billion.

CEO Neil Murphy (pictured)said that Bytes Revenue surged by 13.8 percent to £447.9 million over the same period.

The company has reported operating profits meanwhile jumped by 57 percent year on year to £42.2 million, while adjusted operating profits, which are based on its underlying operations and ignores one-off costs, soared by 23.6 percent.

Datatec sees double digit revenue rise

Datatec has posted a double-digit rise in both revenue and profits for the year as both Westcon and Logicalis aced their results.

Revenues for the technology group were up 12.8 percent to $4.6 billion while EBITDA climbed 30.3 percent to $154.5 million.

Datatec CEO Jens Montanana said the group delivered a strong operational and financial performance across all divisions during FY22 despite global semiconductor shortages and ongoing supply chain constraints which have resulted in a growing backlog.

“While we see continued demand for our products and services across the world, and have positioned our operations to take full advantage of this, the supply chain headwinds compounded by various factors, including the war in Ukraine, lockdowns in China and global inflationary pressures will impact our performance in 2023”, he said. 

Microsoft promises to be good with cloudy promise

Microsoft has promised to change its licensing practices and overall principles to “level the playing field” for local cloud providers in a bid to see off European anti-trust watchdogs.

Brad Smith, Microsoft president, outlined the changes after the Financial Times pointed to the potential for new antitrust action against the company in Europe. Critics said the company was tying Windows and Office to Azure to fuel its cloud growth.

The changes include the ability for European cloud providers to offer Windows and Office on a hosted basis as part of their own solutions, independent of Microsoft’s cloud platform.

Fujitsu partners with AWS on digital transformation

Fujitsu is teaming up with AWS to accelerate the “digital transformation” of the finance and retail industries.

Under the move, the Japanese technology giant creates new offerings that are a new part of the FUJITSU Hybrid IT Service which is Fujitsu’s cloud service.

The company says it will use AWS Professional Services to develop and operate new systems as well as modernisation and in-house development of support services for existing systems.

Gelsinger shocked by Broadcom’s VMware plans

Former VMware CEO [Kicking] Pat Gelsinger said he has mixed feelings about the outfit’s potential merger with Broadcom.

Gelsinger left VMware to take control of the Intel executive drinks cabinet after making VMware what it is today.  He said that he hopes the deal will make VMware a more “compelling, innovative growth story”.

However he said:  “I’m sort of mixed on the current thinking. If it helps VMware be a more compelling, innovative growth story, then it’s good – if it does not, then it’s not good.”

Broadcom is in talks to buy VMware, the latest in a string of software acquisitions for a company that made its early money in semiconductor chips and hardware. Gelsinger who now helms Intel Corp. was speaking in Davos, Switzerland to Bloomberg TV when he was asked about the deal.

More than 9.3 million homes on high fibre gigabyte broadband

Ofcom’s December 2021 annual report has found that there were more than 19.3 million homes with gigabyte broadband.

This figure was 66 per ent up from 13.7 million (47 percent) since the last update. Much of the large increase was attributed to Virgin Media O2’s December 2021 announcement that it had made its network gigabit-capable.

A third (9.6 million) of all homes can now get full-fibre packages that offer faster and more reliable internet. This is up from the 21 per cent  Ofcom reported in May 2021, and up from 28 percent  in the four months between September 2021 and January 2022, with just under 9.6 million homes now covered.

Ofcom said that the boost was due to deployments by the larger fibre infrastructure operators but supported by a number of smaller providers across the UK serving individual communities and regions.

19 Oracle companies bust $15.4 billion from cloud

Gartner’s 2022 Magic Quadrant For Oracle Cloud Application Services show that 19 Companies Generate $15.4 billion between them

Big G said that demand for Oracle Cloud application services continues to increase as total annual cloud revenue for the company currently stands at over $11 billion, growing at a double-digit clip year after year.

A big chunk of the cash in Oracle cloud sales growth accruing for many large channel partners including the likes of Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), according to Gartner’s new 2022 Magic Quadrant for Oracle Cloud Application Services, Worldwide.

Just 19 vendors who made Gartner’s Magic Quadrant cleaned up earning $15.4 billion in total revenue from Oracle cloud application services last year, up from $12.5 billion year over year.

Barracuda warns that digital transformation requires better security

Barracuda president and CEO Hatem Naguib said that his outfit’s moves in the digital transformation industry have been validated over the lat two years.

He said that digital transformation made customers realise that traditional security was not cutting the mustard and they needed a much more elevated level of security. ”

Speaking to the gathered throngs at Barracuda Discover22 Naguib said that the market has “fundamentally changed”.

“Customer’s environments have become far less centralised and far more distributed. Now they have to worry about cloud access, individuals being at home and having an online presence. Nobody buys on-prem software anymore’ and there is a proliferation of SaaS and SASE,” he said.

Arctic Wolf dances with sales teams

Cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf is aiming to ramp up its sales team in the UK.

For those not in the know, Arctic Wolf launched in EMEA in April 2021. Since then, the company says its partner programme has seen “significant growth”, reaching 35 partners, while experiencing increasing demand for its Security Operations Cloud.

The firm has also sealed partnerships with Formula One’s Oracle Red Bull Racing and Premier League football club Wolverhampton Wanderers, adding to its roster of partnerships with over 30 professional sports teams worldwide.

Exertis sees profits increase

Exertis’ profits have increased over the course of a year as demand fell.

The distributor has posted its financial results for the year ending 31 March 2022, saying it had revenues of £4.6 billion which was up 3.6 percent increase from the year before. Operating profit was  £81.7 million up 12.8 percent from the previous 12 months.

Exertis said its growth was driven by contributions from acquisitions completed during the year, with strong performance being seen in North America.

The UK business experienced a “significant level of supply constraints and reduced demand for consumer products as the pandemic eased”.