Category: News

Microsoft buys cloud start-up Movere

Posted on September 6, 2019 by - News

Software King of the World Microsoft has written a cheque for the cloudy start-up Movere in a bid to boost its cloud migration capabilities.

For those who came in late,  Movere is a software-as-a-service platform vendor that was founded in 2008. It is supposed to provide discovery and assessment services to make cloud migrations easier.

Writing in his bog , Microsoft’s Azure Management partner director, Jeremy Winter, said that the deal highlighted the firm’s commitment to Azure.

“We’re committed to providing our customers with a comprehensive experience for migrating existing applications and infrastructure to Azure, which include the right tools, processes, and programmes. As part of that ongoing investment, we’re excited to welcome the leadership, talent, technology, and deep expertise Movere has built-in enabling customers’ journey to the cloud over the last 11 years,” he said.

The deal marks Microsoft’s 11th acquisition of 2019 so far, with its last M&A move coming last month for jClarity – a Java performance tuning tool.

Imprivata teams up on Ascom on data

Posted on September 5, 2019 by - News

Imprivata, the healthcare IT security company, is partnering with global healthcare ICT provider Ascom to give clinicians speedy, secure access to patient and clinical data, via ‘tap and go’ technology.

Together the two companies will provide access to patient and clinical information on shared mobile devices. Clinical staff will able to access Ascom devices with the simple tap of a proximity badge and can then sign-on to their applications. It removes the need for repetitive manual logins and complex passwords on small mobile keyboards.

Imprivata Mobile Device Access is designed to provide a fast, efficient and familiar system to clinicians that mirror existing workflows on workstations and virtual desktops. It helps keep clinical staff mobile by bringing technology to the bedside, improving the usability of shared clinical mobile devices and applications.

GDPR is defining the biometrics market

Posted on September 5, 2019 by - News

 GDPR is defining the biometrics market according to analyst Frost & Sullivan

Aravind Srimoolanathan, Senior Research Analyst – Aerospace, Defence & Security at Frost & Sullivan said that data protection and privacy had become buzzwords in the European digital ecosystem in the era of GDPR, introduced in May last year.

The Swedish data protection authorities (DPA) recently levied the first fine of approximately $ 20,000 to a high school which ran trials of facial recognition technology among a group of students to monitor their attendance. The school authorities argue that the program had the consent of the students, though that did not soften the stance of the regulator.

The European data protection board was citing the ‘imbalance’ between the data subject and the controller of data. Canvassing the multiple opinions floating on the web, Frost & Sullivan notes numerous cases of violations reported in Bulgaria and Austria post the incident in Sweden. The regulatory breaches have led to similar fines levied by the respective local data protection agencies tasked to enforce GDPR.

Miss Group teams up with 24SevenOffice

Posted on September 5, 2019 by - News

Miss Group has partnered with 24SevenOffice so that it can offer 24SevenOffice AI automation and ERP solution to their approximately 180,000 customers.

24SevenOffice will, in turn, be able to offer web hosting, domain names, and hosting solutions to their customers.

Miss Group was founded in 2014 and offers hosting services such as web hosting, domain registration, VPS, dedicated servers, site builders, SSL, SEO-tools, and web security.

Miss Group COO Fredrik Björklund said: “Most SMB’s still spend 23 per cent of workdays on manual tasks, such as data entry and bookkeeping, preventing them from working on projects or tasks that create value. This is a problem that Miss Group would like to eliminate for its customers, and sometimes that means bringing in a third-party solution.”

Commercial PC sales on the rise

Posted on September 4, 2019 by - News

The commercial PC market had been buoyant in the first half of the year, and there are already indications that trend is continuing in the hardware market in Q3, according to beancounters at Context

According to Context, the start of the third quarter has seen the established pattern of demand in the commercial market remaining strong, but consumer sales are still weak.

In the UK the figure commercial PC sales improved by 10.8 per cent but there was a fall on the consumer side, which was down by 10.9 per cent. Upgrades are driving most of those sales with customers looking to get themselves on a more recent OS before Windows 7 support ends in January.

Desktop sales were up by 25 per cent in July and notebooks also improved 11 per cent. Workstations sales increased too.

On the consumer side, the challenges continued with weak demand leading to a two per cent drop in sales with notebooks being particularly grim. Ultra-slim portables and Chromebooks were popular, but the volumes of those products are not large enough to reverse the overall trend, Context said.

For the rest of this year, the expectation is that the current features of the market will support more commercial sales.

Context senior analyst, Marie-Christine Pygott expects commercial demand will remain active throughout the second half of 2019 as migration to Windows 10 continues.

“While a range of promotional activities during the upcoming back-to-school and Black Friday periods are likely to lead to a temporary improvement in the consumer growth trend, overall demand is expected to remain soft,” she added.

Digital Transformation Projects are still risky

Posted on September 4, 2019 by - News

Despite rising optimism in digital transformation, the vast majority of organisations are still suffering failure, delays or scaled back expectations from digital transformation projects, research from Couchbase has found.

In a survey of 450 heads of digital transformation in enterprises across the US, UK, France and Germany, 73 per cent of organisations has made “significant” or better improvements to the end-user experience in their organisation through digital innovation.

More than 22 per cent say they have transformed or completely “revolutionised” end-user experience, representing a marked increase over Couchbase’s 2017 survey (15 per cent). However, organisations are still experiencing issues meeting their digital ambitions, including:

·        86 per cent said factors including reliance on legacy technology, the complexity of implementing technologies, and lack of resources and skills had prevented them from pursuing a new digital service or another transformation project that their organisation wanted

·        55 per cent said that their reliance on relational databases “somewhat” limited their ability to implement digital transformation projects, while 17 per cent said “severely.”

·        81 per cent have had a digital transformation project fail, suffer a significant delay, or be scaled back in the last 12 months

·        42 per cent said they were behind schedule, or at risk of falling behind, on their most significant digital transformation project

·        73 per cent said that, while the vast potential of digital projects is often talked about, most of the time they fall short of being genuinely transformational or revolutionary – albeit a fall compared to the previous two years

At the same time, transformation is not slowing down. Ninety-one per cent of respondents said that disruption in their industry has accelerated over the last 12 months, 40 per cent “rapidly.” And organisations plan to spend $30 million on digital transformation projects in the next 12 months, compared to $27 million in the previous 12.

Couchbase CEO Matt Cain said that Digital transformation had reached an inflexion point

“At this pivotal time, it is critical for enterprises to overcome the challenges that have been holding them back for years. Organisations that put the right people and technology in place, and truly drive their digital transformation initiatives, will benefit from market advantages and business returns.”

Organisations are aware of the risks of failing to digitally innovate – 46 per cent fear becoming less relevant in the market if they do not innovate, while 42 per cent say they will lose IT staff to more innovative competitors, making it harder to innovate in the future. As a result, organisations are pressing forward with projects, perhaps dangerously. Seventy-one per cent agree that businesses are fixated on the promise of digital transformation, to the extent that IT teams risk working on projects that may not deliver tangible benefits.

One key to delivering tangible benefits is ensuring that digital transformation strategy is set with the needs of the business in mind. The majority of organisations (52 per cent) still have a digital transformation strategy set by the IT team, meaning the C-suite is not guiding projects and strategy that should have a major impact on the business. At the same time, the primary drivers for transformation are almost all reactive – responding to competitors’ advances, pressure from customers for new services and responding to changes in legislation were each reported by 23 per cent of respondents. Conversely, original ideas from within the business only drive eight per cent of organisations’ transformations.

Cain said: “For companies to succeed with their digital projects and overcome the inherent challenges with these new approaches, they have to attack the projects comprehensively and systemically.”

“Transformation is ultimately achieved when the right combination of organisational commitment and next-generation technology is driven across the entire enterprise as a true strategic imperative, not left in the sole hands of the IT team. The best technology will then help companies enable the customer outcomes they desire.”

 

 

 

Altcom gets Customer Data Platform on Gcloud

Posted on September 4, 2019 by - News

UK software development company, Altcom has made its Atonal Customer Data Platform available via the UK government’s G-Cloud procurement service.

Atonal delivers a single customer view of all data from multiple sources, so now organisations can have an integrated look of customer data within a short time frame and with low opex expenditure. The company claims its solution reduces the time spent on data management and integration while providing tailored business reporting and outputs to eCRM systems through standard querying tools.

John Cowles, Director and owner at Altcom, stated, “Atonal is an Azure-based solution that is highly secure, scalable and inexpensive to operate. It can ingest data sources from flat files to live feeds, and because of our ‘infrastructure as code’ approach, it only uses what it needs when it needs it keeping opex costs low.”

Maintel chief executive leaves as profits rise

Posted on September 3, 2019 by - News

Maintel has posted some excellent interim half-year numbers but for some reason its CEO  Eddie Buxton is leaving  by the end of December, by “mutual agreement.”

Revenues fell for the first half, pre-tax profits increased thanks to the focus on higher-margin business, coming in at £1.5 million, compared to a £0.3 million loss in the same period last year. Revenue was down by three per cent to £64.5 million, but gross margin nudged up a couple of percentage points to reach 29 per cent.

The first-half results were used as an opportunity to reveal that after a decade long stint at Maintel its chief executive Eddie Buxton would leave by the end of December, by “mutual agreement”.

John Booth, chairman of Maintel, said: “Performance in the first six months of the year marks continued progress towards our goal of transforming Maintel into a cloud and managed services business and demonstrates the benefits we are receiving from investment in our cloud and software capability, notably improved margins and higher cash conversion.”

He stated that its ICON platform had continued to deliver growth with the number of contracted seats increasing at 32 per cent to come in over 66,000 and data revenues improved by six per cent as more users moved to the cloud.

But there were some issues that Booth wanted to address in the statement to investors, underlining the challenges that were out there in the second half.

“Notwithstanding this significant progress, Group revenue in the period was impacted by the continued market transition to new technologies driving both a change in the revenue profile for project implementation and the revenue of our support business. Also, we have seen some delays in the award of public sector contracts as the new Public Sector framework goes live,” he said.

In the interim statement, the board stressed it was keen to thank Buxton for his contribution and wished him well for the future.

“Since joining us in 2009, Eddie has overseen a period of significant growth for the Company and has led the transformation of Maintel into a cloud and managed services business. The Board would like to thank Eddie for his strong leadership during this time and wish him well for the future,” stated Booth.

The hunt for a replacement chief executive has started, and Maintel expects to be in the position to announce one shortly.

Stone Group snaps up gaming specialist

Posted on September 3, 2019 by - News

Stone Group has acquired gaming specialist DinoPC.

For those not in the know, DinoPC is an 11-year-old Intel Partner which flogs components and builds PCs under its brand.

Stone CEO Simon Harbridge said the acquisition would take Stone into the gaming and entertainment biz.

“The gaming sector and e-sports market is a successful and growing part of the UK economy, and a natural area in which our configure-to-order capabilities can provide a level of service consumers are looking for,” he said.

DinoPC turned over £3.5m in its financial year ending 30 April 2017 and will be used as a basis for Stone’s gaming division.

DinoPC founder Vladimir Kuzenetsov will run the new unit.

He said: “I have always been aware of Stone’s strong reputation and capability as an IT solutions provider and manufacturer of devices, which is why I am thrilled that DinoPC is becoming part of the business, and I look forward to my new role.”

 

Tech Data does well, but worried about Brexit

Posted on September 2, 2019 by - News

Tech Data has been doing reasonably well but is seeing some dark clouds on the horizon over the thinks like Trade Wars and Brexit.

The distie delivered a two percent increase in net sales to $9.1 billion year-on-year and net income improved by four percent to $79.3 million. The performance in Europe was down year on year with net sales falling by two percent to $4.4 billion, and as a percentage of worldwide sales, the region dropped from 51 percent to 49 cash flow. The firm reported that servers, software, networking, and PCs, along with security, were the segments that appealed to customers.

Micro Focus conducts strategic review

Posted on September 2, 2019 by - News

Software vendor Micro Focus is embarking on a strategic review after announcing it will miss its revenue guidance.

In a trading update, Micro Focus said that it would not hit constant currency guidance of a year-on-year decline of between four and six per cent in its financial year.

CEO Stephen Murdoch said: “Following the recent disappointing trading performance, we have determined that it is appropriate to accelerate the undertaking of a strategic review of the group’s operations to determine where performance can be improved and how the business can be better positioned to optimise shareholder value.”

Nutanix says software subscription is the business

Posted on August 30, 2019 by - News

Hyper-converged infrastructure outfit Nutanix said that its subscription business is proving to be a winner and wants to go deeper with key channel partners.

Nutanix has nearly completed its move from hardware and software sales to software and subscription billing, and as a result, is changing how it reports its financials.

Dheeraj Pandey, chairman, founder, and CEO of Nutanix said the move to a subscription had changed the way it operated its channel.

When asked by an analyst during the question and answer period of the call whether Nutanix’s move away from a hardware focus means the company will be increasing its presence among new channel partners or go deeper with existing channel partners, Pandey replied that he thinks less is more with any relationship.

Autodesk suffering from UK/ China trade war

Posted on August 30, 2019 by - News

Autodesk says the US-China trade war could hurt its financials in the second quarter, despite reporting revenue of US$797 million in the period to July 30, up 30 percent from the year before.

Autodesk said that so far the company has been disrupted by the trade dispute, which as yet shows no sign of a resolution, but it is taking a cautious approach, due to the current global economic uncertainty.

The company expects annualised recurring revenue for fiscal 2020 of $3.43 billion to $3.49 billion, down from its previous estimates of $3.5 billion to $3.55 billion.

Autodesk is shifting the delivery of its software to the cloud.

iland expands global channel sales programme

Posted on August 30, 2019 by - News

iland is expanding its global channel sales programme to address substantial partner growth and customer demand for its secure cloud backup, infrastructure and disaster recovery solutions in North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Australia and Africa.

Using VMware technology, iland’s solutions are apparently popular among small- and medium-sized organisations that lack the resources and expertise to deploy, test and manage their own cloud-based disaster recovery, backup and infrastructure solutions. iland claims it is now reaching a broader audience of enterprise customers through an expanding partner network of resellers and managed service providers that understand the value of migrating solutions to the cloud.

Juniper partners with Aston Martin

Posted on August 29, 2019 by - News

Juniper has become Aston Martin’s official networking partner.

Aston Martin will work with Juniper Networks to deploy a network able to support its business through projected growth and expansion of its vehicle ranges.

Aston Martin is already a well-established Juniper customer, with deployments across its multiple manufacturing, administration and customer-facing sites. Going forward, the company’s secure networking infrastructure will be underpinned end-to-end by Juniper’s solutions. Aston Martin Racing, the company’s motorsport arm, will also use Juniper’s technology trackside to enable its competitive and R&D communications for events globally.