Category: News

40 percent of UK businesses fail to protect their server

Posted on March 28, 2019 by - News

UK Businesses are risking a potential data breach due to a lack of adequate server security, new research has revealed.

A survey of 1,050 UK workers in full or part-time employment, carried out by technology services provider Probrand.co.uk has revealed that a shocking 44 percent of businesses are failing to properly protect their client and employee data by not adequately securing their server.

Ruckus Networks teams up with Glide to connect students

Posted on March 27, 2019 by - News

Ruckus Networks announced a strategic partnership with Glide, the leading provider of managed internet services for students. The partnership will help connect thousands of students across the UK, taking Glide’s innovation to the next level with tailor-made connectivity products and services.

UK student populations continue to grow with nearly 1.9 million full-time students — approximately 1-in-3 people — according to the ONS. In addition, Gartner estimates that there will be 20.4 billion connected “things” by 2020. This represents a challenge for the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) market since students demand constant Wi-Fi connectivity for their multiple devices.

Glide offers fibre-to-the-flat connectivity. It has deployed Ruckus’ specialist switching infrastructure into a number of its refurbished student housing locations to complement the Ruckus H510 indoor wireless access points installed in each room.

Intel chip shortages to end soon

Posted on March 27, 2019 by - News

The PC market will return to growth in the second half of this year as the Intel processor shortage begins to ease,

Beancounters at the analyst outfit Canalys has been gazing into the office crystal ball and reached the conclusion that PC shipments will rise 0.4 per cent year in the second half of the year.

Chipzilla’s chip supply shortage in the first half of the year will result in an overall decline this year.

Canalys thought that 57 per cent of the 270 channel partners it surveyed expect a “medium to severe” impact to their business this year as a result of the Intel shortages.

Data gap between IT managers and employees

Posted on March 26, 2019 by - News

There is a gap between IT leaders and employees over data security and ownership that is undermining attempts to stem the growing tide of insider breach incidents, according to new research.

Data security company Egress announced the results of its first Insider Data Breach survey, examining the root causes of employee-driven data breaches, their frequency and impact.

The research was carried out by independent research organization Opinion Matters and incorporated the views of over 500 U.S. and U.K.-based IT leaders, and over 4000 U.S. and U.K.-based employees. The survey also explored how employees and executives differ in their views of what constitutes a data breach and what is acceptable behavior when sharing data.

GDPR didn’t solve data security problems

Posted on March 25, 2019 by - News

Ten months after GDPR came into force there are still issues using and protecting data, according to a Veritas report.

Analysts at Veritas have discovered that customers continue to struggle to find, manage and use their data continues to be a concern with some in the industry blaming it for causing productivity and revenue losses.

Users are unable to get their hands on data quick enough and it slowed productivity, with some wasting up to two hours a day looking for information they needed. The net results were that UK organisations could be losing £1.2 million annually.

There were various reasons why employees could not find data, including the lack of tagging, wading through large volumes of material or they didn’t have access.

Jasmit Sagoo, senior director, Northern Europe, Veritas, said that the introduction of GDPR has not had impact on many firms, partly because so far there seemed to be little consequences for those that failed to abide by the rules.

“My observations are that a lot of organisations have done the bare minimum. GDPR hasn’t solved the problem. Customers haven’t seen any big fines or faced the wrath so organisations are a bit relaxed about that.”

“There has been a carrot and stick approach and if you don’t see the right results then you might see the stick coming out soon. Something has to happen to provide a catalyst for it to be taken more seriously,” he said.

He added that there was an opportunity for the channel to go out pitching tools like intelligent automation to support more precise data management practices.

“There is an opportunity. The future of our society and businesses will become even more data driven,” he added “People are not harnessing its value and protecting it properly and they need to.”

“Organisations have access to a wealth of data that can create significant opportunities if they use it intelligently. Unfortunately, employees waste precious time searching for useful, and potentially business-critical, data in fragmented IT environments,” he said.

HP getting tough on counterfeiting partners

Posted on March 25, 2019 by - News

HP saw its EMEA sales fall nine per cent and it has been swift to blame partners trading in ‘imitation and counterfeit’ print supplies as the main reason.

HP’s business model depends on the sale of expensive printer ink and consumables and it feels that some of its channel partners have betrayed it by offering cheaper knock-offs

It has issued a warning that it will aggressively combat partners trading in counterfeit, cloned and imitation print cartridges.

HP’s EMEA print general manager David Ryan has told the press that he is taking a zero-tolerance approach as it looks to stem the bleeding in its print supplies business.

He said that some partners don’t realise that these cartridges are violating intellectual property, and that is something we will tackle vigorously.

HP will work with “loyal partners” to take all the action we can where illegal trading practices are being engaged.

He said imitation cartridges that HP has tested have “high failure rates and poor print quality”, while many fail Blue Angel tests (a German certification for environmentally friendly products) or can damage the printer.

These reasons, he claimed, can mean that buying cheaper cartridges is more expensive in the long run.

HP has blocked the use of third-party cartridges in its printers.

In 2016 it pushed a firmware update that blocked the use of unofficial HP cartridges in its printers, claiming it was to protect customers, only to reverse the decision following public outrage.

This time the cunning plan is to educate  channel partners and customers on why its own products are the better option.

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Gradwell scores 3CX contract

Posted on March 25, 2019 by - News

Gradwell Communications has been confirmed as 3CX’s first solutions provider for the UK as the company moves from a traditional box-shifter and software licence flogger to more value-add solutions and services.

Gradwell’s channel community will now have the opportunity to take full advantage of increasing demand for 3CX’s IP PBX, plus the telephony solutions and services that wrap around it.

3CX CEO Nick Galea said that Gradwell was a visionary in the UK business communications market, having been one of the first to launch a SIP trunk service.

“It’s an honour to be able to team up with an established and leading provider in delivering a complete solution for the on-premise and cloud market. Customers and partners will have peace of mind that they are buying a solution fully supported and guaranteed end-to-end,” he said.

“Delivering successful VoIP solutions is about so much more than providing the required number of IP PBX licences, and that’s where Gradwell’s value-add services come into play,” explained Gradwell’s founder and CTO, Peter Gradwell. Gradwell is one of the UK’s fastest growing cloud communications providers focusing on small to medium-sized enterprises.

As well as 3CX’s licences channel partners will now be able to drive new business and revenue generating solutions, from a single supplier, by offering Gradwell’s wraparound solutions including highly-secure hosting, server provisioning, SIP trunks, session border controller (SBC) installation, CRM integration and handsets. The Gradwell team also has extensive expertise with 3CX’s Call Flow Designer so can implement all necessary call routing requirements.

“Gradwell is the only provider to have developed solutions, specifically designed for the channel, which complements the features and functionality of the 3CX IP PBX. For example, with a Gradwell solution, the end user can push call recordings to cloud storage devices, freeing up considerable server space,” the company said.

Other value-add offerings from Gradwell include a team of 3CX accredited engineers dedicated to hosting and supporting 3CX, onboarding resources working exclusively on 3CX and a 20 strong front-line support team to answer and manage any issues.

Jamie Ward is now Gradwell’s newly appointed sales, and marketing director said that the new agreement with 3CX with other channel changes means he has taken the job during interesting times.

“Gradwell wants to provide the channel community with VoIP solutions that give them a huge opportunity to drive new business and increased revenue. The agreement with 3CX does just that. Our complete solution eliminates all the complexity around the deployment of a VoIP solution, not just for our resellers but for their customers. Happy customers, mean happy resellers and happy resellers mean repeat business for 3CX and Gradwell,” said Ward.

 

G-Cloud 11 starts Monday

Posted on March 22, 2019 by - News

 

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has revealed that the application process for G-Cloud 11 will start on Monday,

CCS sent out a tweet today confirming that it will open the eleventh iteration of the framework on 25 March.

Kaleyra appoints new chief financial officer

Posted on March 22, 2019 by - News

Cloud communications outfit Kaleyra has appointed Julia Pulzone as its new chief financial officer to replace Luca Giardina Papa.

Pulzone will lead the company’s finance team as it makes its planned transition from a private to a public company later this year. Pulzone will report directly to Kaleyra founder, CEO and chairman Dario Calogero.

QBS acquires majority share in Zedsphere

Posted on March 21, 2019 by - News

QBS Technology has written a cheque for the majority shareholding in MSP distributor Zedsphere.

It is the outfit’s second acquisition of 2019, since the purchase of French distributor Siener Informatique in February. This latest move adds a further 814 unique resellers to the group, QBS revealed, and a new office in Warrington.

Vectra AI adopted by Ardagh Group

Posted on March 21, 2019 by - News

Vectra, the network detection and response solutions provider, has announced that Ardagh Group selected the Cognito network detection and response platform from Vectra to expose attackers hidden inside its network and perform conclusive incident investigations.

Small businesses need ‘cyber security champions’

Posted on March 21, 2019 by - News

Small businesses should train up “cybersecurity champions” to better protect themselves from the threat of cyber attacks, new government research has suggested.

A report by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) claimed that in the case of more than half (57 percent) of businesses who had suffered a recent breach, the incident had first been spotted by staff rather than by software.

Fat cat CEOs get paid more after cybersecurity breaches

Posted on March 20, 2019 by - News

It would appear that CEOs benefit from cybersecurity breaches and rather than being fired for allowing their companies to be hacked.

Daniele Bianchi, assistant professor of finance at Warwick Business School has found that far from being fired, CEOs of breached firms were found to be more likely to receive an increase in total and incentive pay several years after an incident.