HP has named Neil MacDonald its new UK&I channel director tasked with “go-to-market” strategy and sales performance of HP’s print, personal systems, services and solutions.
The role also includes looking after the commercial, consumer and distribution sales teams, as well as the relationships with the vendor’s channel partners.
He replaces Neil Sawyer, who left the business late in 2021 to step into the role of UK&I managing director and general manager at Lenovo.
CrowdStrike is shuffling its channel leadership team.
The firm has announced the appointment of Michael Rogers as vice-president of global business development, channel and alliances.
Former channel head Matthew Polly is moving into the role of vice-president of North America mid-market sales, where he will continue to operate in a channel-friendly position.
Rogers is no stranger to the business, having previously been global vice-president, partner and alliance sales at CrowdStrike. His CV, which spans 25 years in the cyber security industry, also includes time in channel and partner roles at McAfee and Sophos.
Rogers said: “The difference with CrowdStrike – and why we’ve been able to bring together such an elite network of partners – is that we’ve always advocated for an ecosystem approach that puts customers at the centre of our programme.”
Computacenter is expanding into new areas of its partner Biggish Blue’s product portfolio.
The pair have been working together since the 1980s but it seems that Computacentre had a look at IBM’s portfolio in areas such as AI, automation and observability solutions and thought it wants some of that.
Computacenter’s director of solutions, John Beard, said the company had been putting a lot of time, energy and effort into the relationships with the public cloud providers, and modernising its “go-to market” around cloud platforms.
Google has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Mandiant, which will join Google Cloud. The deal is worth about $5.4 billion.
Google said the acquisition of Mandiant will complement Google Cloud’s existing security. Mandiant enables Google to enhance its offerings to deliver end-to-end security operations with even greater capabilities to support customers across their cloud and on-premise environments.
The tech giant underlined that Mandiant brings real-time and in-depth threat intelligence gained on the frontlines of cyber security with the largest organisations in the world.
Research firm Gartner has dared to say that treating staff like 19th-century slaves rather than highly skilled staff who companies are lucky to get is probably not a good way to keep them working for you,
It seems that Big G added up some numbers and was shocked to discover that companies that IT workers are more inclined to leave their current jobs than those working in other professions with only 29.1 percent of IT workers having a high intent to stay with their current employer.
Gartner surveyed 18,000 employees globally in Q4 2021, including 1,755 employees in the IT function, and found that only four in 10 IT workers (38.8 percent) have a high intent to stay in their job in Europe.
That figure was much less in other geographies, with only 19.6 percent in Asia, 23.6 per ent in Australia and New Zealand and 26.9 percent in Latin America claiming they had a high intent to stay in their current position.
Focus Group has written a cheque for Derby-based communications specialist Evad.
The move is part of Focus’ “ambitious plans for growth and development into new sectors”.
Evad has expertise in contact centres, PCI compliant platforms, professional services organisations and the healthcare sector.
Rhys Bailey, sales director at Focus Group said: “The acquisition of Evad is a great achievement for Focus Group and we’re delighted to welcome them on board. There is a brilliant cultural fit between the two companies that will create great collaborations and opportunities for geographical reach across the Midlands. Evad, as a dynamic and ambitious brand, will bring extensive experience in contact centres, enterprise business solutions and healthcare expertise. Focus Group will provide Evad with the power to diversify its product portfolio with IT, cyber and connectivity services.”
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is doing rather with its Greenlake product which signed up more than 100 new customers last quarter worth more than $500 million.
Amazon Web Services, the industry’s largest cloud provider, grew at 40 per cent in the most recent quarter, while Google Cloud grew at a 45 percent clip and Microsoft grew its Dynamics products and cloud revenue by 45 percent.
HPE GreenLake channel sales were up 115 percent in the quarter compared to the year-ago quarter, said HPE Worldwide Channel Chief George Hope during a recent partner conference call. “We’re firing on all cylinders from a partner perspective.”
HPE’s annualized recurring revenue increased 23 percent to $798 million even in the face of supply constraints.
Google has seen off rival Microsoft to acquire cybersecurity vendor Mandiant for $5.4 billion.
For those not in the know, Mandiant provides threat intelligence to protect against cyber-attacks and will. Google claims it will play nicely with Google Cloud’s “existing security strengths”.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said that organisations around the world were facing unprecedented cybersecurity challenges as the sophistication and severity of attacks that were previously used to target major governments are now being used to target companies in every industry.
“We look forward to welcoming Mandiant to Google Cloud to further enhance our security operations suite and advisory services, and help customers address their most important security challenges.”
Google says the cybersecurity firm’s offering will now be used to “enhance” its existing cloud security capabilities – including BeyondCorp Enterprise for Zero Trust, VirusTotal for malicious content and software vulnerabilities and Chronicle’s planet-scale security analytics and automation.
Cloud-based SaaS products have streamlined BCP and disaster recovery, argues Tarek Meliti, CEO and founder of TDM Group
For those not in the know, a BCP (Business Continuity Plan) outlines how a business will continue operating during an unplanned disruption in service. It’s more holistic than a disaster recovery plan because it details contingencies for business processes, assets, human resources, and partners – providing an enterprise-wide view of recovery.
A 2019 LogicMonitor study reported that 96 percent of organisations have experienced at least one outage in the past three years and 95 percent had experienced at least one brownout. Although data loss is by no means the only risk that highlights the importance of a thorough BCP, it is stats like this that should bring business continuity planning into sharp focus for IT decision-makers.
SoftwareONE has posted an increase in gross profit in its full-year 2021 results to €849 million in 2021.
EBITDA fell a percent year to €217 million, with a margin of 25.7 percent from 30.6 percent in 2020.
SoftwareONE CEO, Dieter Schlosser said: While we are aware that margins fell below expectations, we believe the strategic investments underpin our strong growth and support long-term shareholder value. As organisations continue to embrace the cloud, the demand for services is expected to grow significantly. In order to capitalise on this market opportunity, we have continued to invest in talent and capabilities. ”
The Swiss outfit’s total adjusted operating expenses increased 25.8 percent to €631 million.
It claimed the development of its cost base reflected higher personnel costs as a result of investments in sales & marketing and delivery capabilities to support the company’s continued growth, as well as incremental operating expenses of acquired companies.
Cloudy CloudCoCo has reported revenues of £8.1 million for the 12 months ending 30 September 2021, up £100,000 from the previous year.
CEO Mark Halpin described the 12-months as “significant progress” for CloudCoCo.
“FY21 was a landmark year for the Group and we are now a very different proposition in terms of scale and opportunity, which will be reflected in our FY22 financials. With an exceptional team in place, improving market conditions and having demonstrated our ability to overcome challenges as and when they arise, we remain confident in our ability to continue making good progress towards our growth ambitions”, he said.
CloudCoCo claims that it will financially benefit from its acquisitions this year, claiming that it will put in place “corrective actions” to stem losses in the former IDE business and push it to turn a profit in the second half of this year.
The MSP said that it added 35 new customer logos during the year and renewed key multi-year contracts with clients such as Vantage Motor Group, Kings College London and Boohoo [no really. ed]
“With an enlarged Group serving circa 1,000 customers, we now have the ability and impetus to provide a broader range of services to a broader range of customers. We have made an exceptional start to the new financial year – our best ever quarter by sales – and have made excellent progress in integrating the acquisitions, with the actions taken to get Connect from loss-making to anticipated profitability later in FY22 a particularly noteworthy achievement,” added Halpin.
Xperience has snapped up MSP Riverlite in a bid to improve its East of England experience.
For those not in the know, Riverlite offers cloud, cybersecurity and managed services to education, charities, hospice and private sector customers. It is run by managing director Paul Oggelsbt and chairman Mark Shields.
Xperience claims the deal creates “one of the biggest managed IT service providers in the East of England”, adding to its existing operations in Peterborough and Bury St Edmunds.
It is Xperience’s second acquisition within six months, having previously acquired Bury St Edmunds-based MSP Green Duck in October 2021.
The company’s headcount will grow from 42 percent to 150 staff, and increase its turnover to roughly £21.5 million and claims to support more than 1,150 clients across the UK and Ireland.
Red Hat has pledged to run its Training and Certification courses to its partners for no extra cost.
The outfit said that it really needs hybrid cloud skills at the partner level so will be offering its self-paced online courses for free to help build knowledge around technologies such as cloud computing, containers, virtualisation, and automation.
The curriculum consists of 17 courses that are available in eight languages and can provide the foundational knowledge needed to develop skills in hybrid cloud computing. These can then be used to pursue further accreditation and certification away from Red Hat.
Economic sanctions against Tsar Putin will have a significant impact on the IT channel, according to analysts at Context.
According to a report cross-border payments are extremely challenging if not impossible for channel players and their customers now that major banks are locked out of the SWIFT system. The EU and US have banned the supply of hi-tech goods including semiconductors, computers, telecoms and information security equipment. Russian aircraft are banned from European airspace, and Boeing/Airbus have stopped servicing the Russian aviation industry, which will further restrict transport flows.
Room has teamed up with Zoom and HP to launch of ‘Room for Zoom’ in the UK and Ireland to help businesses better connect remote employees with those who have returned to the office.
The video collaboration suite provides a physical, tailored video conference space for Zoom users, which the firm says bridges the gap between in-person and remote working for the hybrid workplace.
Room for Zoom offers up a soundproof, modular architecture solution that comes complete with built-in VC lighting, a monitor, webcam, skylights, connected power sources, ventilation, and more.
Room co-founder Morten Meisner-Jensen said the ability to connect colleagues in this way will help improve employees’ working life.
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