Category: News

Microsoft admits partners are more cloud savvy

Ominous Clouds over Dublin CityMicrosoft has admitted that it has not kept pace with the speed that its partners have moved to the cloud.

The software king of the world has revealed more details of its newly formed One Commercial Partner business, which brings together all partner-facing teams across the organisation.

One Commercial Partner was first announced in January, as Microsoft revealed plans to bring together its enterprise and SMB teams, and more details have now been announced.

Ron Huddleston commercial vice president of One Commercial Partner, said the new business will incorporate Microsoft’s offerings in technical, marketing, business development and programmes. He declared that the new team is “not just partner led, it’s partner first”.

Microsoft is appointing dedicated channel managers for the first time, which Huddleston claimed will help to fit the right customer with the right partner.

“We’re investing $250 million in connecting partners to customers,” he said. “We’re starting with one new role, globally – the channel manager who specialises in connecting partners to customers. This will feel very different. This is not a partner account manager, they’re focused on customer success.”

Gavriella Schuster, Volish corporate vice president, said that Microsoft has in the past been guilty of asking its partners to ready themselves for digital transformation but, from a sales point of view, had not done so itself.

Schuster realised Microsoft was falling behind its partners and had innovated its engineering, services and business models, but had lagged in the innovation in our sales model and it shows.

She realised that partners had changed and Microsoft had not kept up, and now we were getting in their way.

Microsoft has committed to giving its internal sales teams 10 per cent commission on an Azure solutions that are co-sold with partners. Microsoft account teams will also, for the first time, be aligned by industry – to develop specialisations in specific fields.

Global IT spending will grow to $3.5 trillion this year

consultoracleOracles at Gartner have been shuffling their tarot cards and claim that new disruptive technology like the Internet of Things (IoT) will mean that worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.5 billion in 2017.

The projection is a 2.4 percent increase from 2016. After consulting the liver of a particularly fat ram, Big G predicted that the declining US dollar for the growth rate is up from the previous quarter’s forecast of 1.4 percent.

Gartner vice president and analyst at John-David Lovelock said that digital business is having a profound effect on the way business is done and how it is supported.

“The impact of digital business is giving rise to new categories. For example, the convergence of ‘software plus services plus intellectual property.”

Lovelock said impactful industry-specific disruptive technologies include IoT in manufacturing, blockchain in financial services and other industries, and smart machines in retail.

The worldwide enterprise software market is forecast to grow 7.6 percent in 2017, up from 5.3 percent growth in 2016.

Gartner explained that as software applications allow more firms to grab revenue from digital business channels, there will be a stronger need to automate and release applications.

The increased adoption of SaaS-based enterprise applications, will see an increase in acceptance of IT operations management tools that are also delivered from the cloud, Lovelock predicted.

“These cloud-based tools allow infrastructure and operations organisations to more rapidly add functionality and adopt newer technologies to help them manage faster application release cycles.”

Gartner found worldwide spending on devices — PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones — is projected to grow 3.8 per cent in 2017, to reach $654bn.

Nuvias buys Benelux

Three-Musketeers-The-1973-1605x903The acquisition mad distribution brand that’s backed by Rigby Group has made another purchase.

Nuvias has acquired security VAD DCB to bolster its presence in the Benelux, where it already operates advanced networking and unified communications practices.

With offices in Veldhoven in the Netherlands and Zaventem in Belgium, DCB shares several vendor franchises in common with Nuvias, including WatchGuard and Kaspersky Lab. It also works with the likes of Trustwave and Centrify.

Nuvias is the recently created distribution brand of Rigby Private Equity, and is based on a trio of acquisitions in the form of security VAD Wick Hill, in July 2015, networking and storage VAD Zycko in December 2015, and unified comms VAD SIPHON the following October. It has since expanded organically into various countries, including Switzerland.

Successful MSPs need to add more services

Workers are pictured beneath clocks displaying time zones in various parts of the world at an outsourcing centre in BangaloreMSPs who want to be successful will have to add a lot more services to their portfolios.

Beancounters at 451 Research have penned a report which says that the managed services market is continually evolving and the appetite from customers for more services is rising as they roll out more changes across their organisations.

As more users take steps to increase digital transformation they are looking for MSPs that can take more of the burden out of running their infrastructure, the report said.

The research firm is pointing to “Everthing-as-a-Service” as the next big cloud opportunity with those able to offer automated technology with high-touch delivery the most likely to succeed.

MSPs that want to take advantage of the next wave of growth will be expected to deliver a range of services – IaaS, PaaS and SaaS – and go beyond that to deliver emerging options, like managed cyber disaster recovery and networking services.

The report, with the catchy title, “Voice of the Enterprise: Hosting and Cloud Managed Services study “showed that managed and security services were attached to roughly half of the total hosting and cloud opportunity, and that is set to increase year-on-year.

There is also an indication that those service providers that decide to concentrate on a specific geography or vertical market will also be more successful because customers are looking for high-touch delivery. The market is moving away from cloud construction to cloud consumption and those channel players that recognise that shift and emphasise services rather than tin will be in a stronger position.

The report said that there was a significant opportunity for technology vendors to partner with service providers to offer higher-value, niche and vertical offerings as these services rapidly emerge.

Security vendor Symantec has inked a distribution deal with Exclusive Network

symanteclogoSecurity company Symantec has confirmed that its products will be distributed through Tech Data, Arrow, Exclusive Networks and Ingram for the “high volume, low revenue” business.

What this means is that Symantec’s deal with Westcon, which distributes its Blue Coat line of products, might be history.

Exclusive Networks has put together a team in advance of the Symantec appointment and will start making a strong marketing push in the pipeline.

It also says it will set about “demystifying the confusion” around Symantec and Blue Coat products in the wake of last year’s acquisition.

Westcon is not saying anything about the deal or its future relationship with Symantec and the security outfit is only talking about its new deal with Exclusive Networks.

A spokesman said that Exclusive has a proven track record of taking technologies to market with an in depth understanding of a broad mix of channel partners.

There’s money where there’s immunity

creditcrunchcoinsmoneyvicewatersmay2014-580x358UK cybersecurity vendor Darktrace has raised $75m in funding, taking its valuation to $825 million.

The Cambridge-based seller is subsidised by Autonomy founder Mike Lynch and is based around its Enterprise Immune System product, which uses AI to identify cyber-threats.

The funding more than doubles Darktrace’s formerly suggested valuation of $400m from the time of its fundraising final year.
Insight Venture Partners, which has formerly invested in Cylance, Mimecast and Veeam apparently came to the party.

Nicole Eagan, CEO at Darktrace, said that Insight Venture Partners has a tested record of partnering with tech-centered firms. Its Darktrace backing is a validation of the fundamental and differentiated era that the Enterprise Immune System represents.

Businesses were turning to Darktrace’s AI method to make themselves more resilient to cyber-attackers.

Darktrace has raised around $180 million in funding, and claims its general contract cost has reached $200 million which is a 140 per cent growth in a year. Jeff Horing, handling director at Insight Venture Partners stated: “In just four years, Darktrace has established itself as an international leader in AI-powered safety.

HyTrust writes cheque for DataGravity

shut-up-and-take-my-moneyData management outfit DataGravity has been bought by HyTrust.

HyTrust focuses on VMware/cloud security, compliance and control. Its backers include Cisco, VMware, Intel and Intel Capital.

Terms of the DataGravity acquisition were not disclosed, but some DataGravity team people will be joining HyTrust. Using DataGravity for Virtualisation, HyTrust expects to identify and classify data, and tag workloads to ensure policy enforcement for data access, encryption and key management and applying boundary controls.

Eric Chiu, HyTrust’s co-founder and president said: “The acquisition will accelerate the expansion of HyTrust’s platform capabilities and capitalise on the high-growth cloud security market. DataGravity’s data discovery and classification capabilities support HyTrust’s mission to deliver a security policy framework that provides customers with full visibility, insight and enforcement of policy across workloads.

4K telly market booms

television-exploding-biz-2015-billboard-650The global 4K TV market is expected to reach $380.9 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research.

The beancounters claimed that the evolving nature of the consumer electronic industry, advancements in graphic engines of televisions, increased pressure on manufacturers to reduce prices, and popularity of the ultra-high definition technology and its advantages have fueled the demand for UHD televisions in the past few years.

Latest graphic processors permit advanced technical image formats and have improved the content quality significantly hence, they are widely used in production and distribution of UHD content. Customers are getting accustomed to using such contents, which is further anticipated to spur the market growth.

The 52-65 inches’ segment dominated the global 4K TV market in 2016 since this segment has a wide range of product offering at different price points. Moreover, the adoption of novel technologies, such as Quantum dot LEDs (QLEDs) and Super UHD (SUHD) and decreasing prices of 4K TVs are expected to catapult the segment demand over the forecast period.

Televisions belonging to this range have high penetration rates as compared to the others. However, the above 62 inches’ screen size segment is expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period owing to the declining price trend of 4K TVs coupled with increasing disposable incomes of individuals globally.

The global UHD TV market is expected to witness a CAGR exceeding 20 percent  from 2017 to 2025 owing to the changing consumer preference from HD to UHD technology along with increasing demand for high-end home products

Moreover, increasing penetration of ultra-high-speed internet, particularly in developed regions including metropolitan cities are expected to favorably impact the 4K TV market growth over the coming years.

The 52 – 65 inches’ segment accounted for the largest share in 2016, which is accredited to increasing penetration of 4K TVs in the higher economic class; however, with decline in TV prices the above 65-inch screen size segment pose high growth opportunities

The Asia Pacific region accounted over 40 percent  of the overall revenue share in 2016 and is also expected to dominate over the forecast period owing to the huge adoption along with declining prices of 4K televisions

A few key players who captured a significant market share in 2016 were Samsung, LG Electronics, Sony, Hisense, and Sharp.

 

Microsoft claims hybrid cloud infrastructure is the winner

grandpa_simpson_yelling_at_cloudSoftware King of the World, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has been insisting that the private versus public cloud debate is over and hybrid infrastructure is the ultimate winner.

Nadella said that the battle between private cloud and public cloud has ended with neither emerging victorious.

Talking to the assembled throngs at the Microsoft Inspire partner conference in Washington, Nadella said that the hybrid infrastructure was the only winner in the private versus public cloud duel.

Vole announced more details of its Azure stack – with integrated systems on hardware from Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Lenovo set to start shipping from September.

Nadella said: “It’s clear as day that what is needed is more distributed computing infrastructure – that true hybrid computing fabric – so that you can manage your smart city, smart factory, smart car as well as take advantage of the public cloud.”

Nadella said that Microsoft will reshape everything it does into four solution areas: modern workplace, business applications, applications and infrastructure, and data and artificial intelligence.

He also opened up on the partner benefits of Microsoft 365, which rolls up Office 365 with Windows 10 and other enterprise products.

“When it comes to partner opportunity, it’s tremendous for you to be able to really serve the needs of these customers across the entire depth and breadth of the employee base, and hopefully you even caught that it’s not just about the knowledge worker, it’s even about these first-line workers in retail and other industries,” he said.

Amazon partners fear sleeping with the “frenemy”

200_sA new report published by SLI Systems finds many retailers view Amazon as both friend and foe.

In this second quarterly 2017 E-commerce Performance Indicators and Confidence Report, SLI Systems provides survey findings from 213 e-commerce professionals around the globe. Respondents represent mid-size retailers, with a mix of business models, including pure e-commerce, as well as omnichannel merchants.

Retailer forecasts for online and mobile revenues continue to be strong worldwide, despite declines in confidence this quarter compared with Q1 2016. Also a good sign, far more omnichannel retailers plan to increase, rather than decrease, the number of stores in 2017.

SLI Systems CMO Chris Brubaker said that this quarter SLI took a different look at the relationship between Amazon and online retailers.

He said: “We asked those who sell via Amazon why they do so, as well as the extent to which they view Amazon as a competitive threat. While consumers are shopping Amazon Prime Day with glee, for merchants, the perks of leveraging the online giant come with some concern.”

“Nearly 70 percent  of the retailers we surveyed that sell on Amazon reported being somewhat or very worried that Amazon will use their sales data to compete with them, indicating they view Amazon as more of a ‘frenemy.'”

E-commerce Revenue: 86 percent  of respondents worldwide expect their e-commerce revenue to increase this quarter compared to Q2 2016. UK retailers appear the most optimistic with a third predicting growth at 21percent  or more.

More than 81 percent  worldwide expect revenue from mobile sites and apps to increase in Q2 2017 compared to Q2 2016; 22percent  expect a boost of 21 percent  or more.

More than 39 percent  worldwide expect an increase, with 14 percent  expecting a decrease; in Q1 2017, 46 percent  of respondents expected an increase.

More than 45 percent  of UK retailers surveyed expect to add websites or brands and 90percent  (highest among regions) expect to add products or product lines during Q2.

More than 41 percent  of UK respondents plan to hire new employees in Q2 (down from 55percent  in Q1 2017), lowest among regions and compared to 57 percent  worldwide.

Only 24 percent  of UK respondents will begin selling on a new marketplace (lowest among regions). 28 percent  of UK retailers expect to begin selling to new geographic markets during Q2 2017 (compared to 40percent  in Q1 2017).

Customer Experience (CX) remains king in Q2 despite declining as the top choice worldwide compared with Q1. Replatforming climbed to the second top priority worldwide with 17 percent  in Q2, up from 11percent  in Q1.

Nearly a quarter of UK respondents expect to increase the number of stores in 2017; 33 percent  will keep the same number of stores.

In European countries, outside of the UK, growth is expected by a full 50 percent .

Across both the UK and Europe, only six percent  expect to shrink their brick-and mortar presence.

BAE invests in Semarchy xDM

Avro_748_HS_748_BAe_748.2BAE Systems has bought Semarchy’s xDM platform to take control of the enormous amount of the outfit’s operational and engineering data.

BAE said that Semarchy was a disruptive solution which we guess means that it will be kept after school and be required to write lots of lines.

BAE Military Aircraft & Information (MA&I) Tony Croughan said that the system provides a greater consistency of data for the back-office systems at a level of granularity which dusty legacy MDM solutions are incapable.

He said that BAE was undergoing a major transformation of its back-office systems which necessitates data consistency to assure proper integrations between many different systems.

“Semarchy hands control from IT over to our business users and data stewards, which is extremely appealing and like nothing we had seen on the market.”

BAE Systems put Semarchy through months of rigorous testing to meet the high expectations of quality and security. The Semarchy Proof-of-Value approach allowed for a much faster implementation once it passed all testing. Rather than give BAE Systems a demo version, BAE personnel could see a live working model of the solution, and then iterate from that starting point to catapult it to a fully-functional system.

Semarchy VP and GM UK Richard Branch said: “When we first approached BAE about our Intelligent MDM solution, we knew this would be a huge undertaking. We are honored that xDM surpassed expectations in speed, ease of use, and accuracy. We are looking forward to a continued relationship, demonstrating our smart, agile and measurable approach to managing master data.”

OneView scores Carhartt as customer

ac0560c11589a1c306f01a2983bee6c7--workwear-detroit (1)POS outfit OneView Commerce has scored a client with clothing maker Carhartt.

OneView’s Digital Store Platform will provide Carhartt store associates with customer information, enabling them to fully engage customers and foster greater loyalty. The platform includes integration adaptors to OneView’s partner network for expanded connectivity to a broad range of applications including Carhartt’s IBM Commerce, enabling a shared basket and other omnichannel methods within Carhartt stores.

Carharrt’s  retail manager, Jamie Millar, said his company had spent more than 128 years evolving and changing to best serve its hard-working customers.

“OneView’s capabilities, including endless aisle and shared basket, are intuitive and efficient, which supports our vision for the business and addresses the way our customers want to interact with our brand.”

OneView CEO Stuart Mitchell explained, “We are pleased to have Carhartt join the growing list of retailers globally who are embracing digital transformation and cloud-based point of sale. OneView will enable Carhartt stores to become the digital hub of customer experience and engagement in the very the heart of retail –  the store.”

Retailers that opt for a software as a service (SaaS)-based POS solution have gained traction for expediting implementation and upgrades, as well as optimising solution costs and lowering total cost of ownership (TCO). In addition to being cost effective, an enterprise solution delivered in this manner easily keeps pace with company growth and technological innovations, extending software availability to all locations and devices without burdening the retailer’s IT resources, he said.

OneView’s cloud-based Digital Store Platform is a single, unified platform that breaks down siloes and enables retailers to share all valuable commerce data across the retail enterprise. Lightweight, full mobile deployment of the platform extends POS and unified commerce capabilities to virtually anywhere-store associates, pop up stores, and retail apps that allow customers to use their own device.

IT professionals have outdated view about security

galleryreconstructiondrawinghadrianswallwalltowncragsj940488Despite the increasing number of data breaches and nearly 1.4 billion data records being lost or stolen in 2016 the vast majority of IT professionals still believe perimeter security is effective at keeping unauthorised users out of their networks. However, companies are under investing in technology that adequately protects their business.

According to the findings of the fourth-annual Data Security Confidence Index released today by Gemalto businesses feel that perimeter security is keeping them safe, with most (94 percent) believing that it is quite effective at keeping unauthorized users out of their network. However, 65 percent are not extremely confident their data would be protected, should their perimeter be breached, a slight decrease on last year (69 percent). Despite this, nearly six in 10 (59 percent) organisations report that they believe all their sensitive data is secure.

Many businesses are continuing to prioritise perimeter security without realising it is largely ineffective against sophisticated cyberattacks. According to the research findings, 76 percent  said their organisation had increased investment in perimeter security technologies such as firewalls, IDPS, antivirus, content filtering and anomaly detection to protect against external attackers. Despite this investment, two thirds (68 percent) believe that unauthorised users could access their network, rendering their perimeter security ineffective.

These findings suggest a lack of confidence in the solutions used, especially when over a quarter (28 percent) of organizations have suffered perimeter security breaches in the past 12 months. The reality of the situation worsens when considering that, on average, only eight percent of data breached was encrypted.

Businesses’ confidence is further undermined by over half of respondents (55 percent) not knowing where their sensitive data is stored. In addition, over a third of businesses do not encrypt valuable information such as payment (32 percent) or customer (35 percent) data. This means that, should the data be stolen, a hacker would have full access to this information, and can use it for crimes including identify theft, financial fraud or ransomware.

Gemalto’s  , Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Data Protection Jason Hart said that it is clear that there is a divide between organizations’ perceptions of the effectiveness of perimeter security and the reality.

“By believing that their data is already secure, businesses are failing to prioritize the measures necessary to protect their data. Businesses need to be aware that hackers are after a company’s most valuable asset – data. It’s important to focus on protecting this resource, otherwise reality will inevitably bite those that fail to do so.”

With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becoming enforceable in May 2018, businesses must understand how to comply by properly securing personal data to avoid the risk of administrative fines and reputational damage. However, over half of respondents (53 percent) say they do not believe they will be fully compliant with GDPR by May next year. With less than a year to go, businesses must begin introducing the correct security protocols in their journey to reaching GDPR compliance, including encryption, two-factor authentication and key management strategies.

Hart said, “Investing in cybersecurity has clearly become more of a focus for businesses in the last 12 months. However, what is of concern is that so few are adequately securing the most vulnerable and crucial data they hold, or even understand where it is stored. This is standing in the way of GDPR compliance, and before long the businesses that don’t improve their cybersecurity will face severe legal, financial and reputational consequences.”

 

Vlocity Insurance and Salesforce score Vlocity client

Ominous Clouds over Dublin CityCloudy outfit Vlocity has announced today that the UK’s Azur has chosen Vlocity Insurance and Salesforce to further improve customer engagement and satisfaction for brokers and their clients.

Vlocity Insurance is built on the Salesforce platform and Azur wants the tech to engage with policyholders across multiple environments.

Azur cuts transaction chain inefficiencies by using technology solutions that disrupt expensive, inflexible legacy systems. By using Vlocity Insurance’s industry-specific and omnichannel capabilities built on the Salesforce platform, Azur can tailor broker and policyholder management processes.

Azur founder and CEO Graham Elliot said that Azur wanted to change the broker and policyholder experience by pushing outside of industry norms and bringing in new technology to disrupt the status quo.

“With Vlocity Insurance and Salesforce, we have a more complete picture of how we are measuring against this goal because all the necessary systems are in one easily navigable platform built on insurance industry standards.”

Salesforce Global Head of Insurance Jeff To said that the partnership between Vlocity and Salesforce provides agility and insurance industry depth to the customer interactions that Azur requires.

Using Vlocity’s industry cloud software, Azur has configured a multi-line underwriting system that enables content marketing engagement, broker on-boarding, quote and bind, documentation, claims handling, mid-term adjustments, and core system of record functions with all of the data in one place. Vlocity Insurance also eases the transition of legacy insurance systems and historical documentation to the cloud by connecting and integrating with current systems of record.

Sophos XG Firewall named industry best

20b7df6ac4126abec881b06f11863252--westminster-dog-show-winnerNSS Labs has rated the Sophos XG Firewall as one of the highest performing firewalls in the industry in its most recent Next-Generation Firewall Group Test Report.

The XG Firewall was “Recommended” as one of the top three products for security effectiveness. It passed all stability and reliability tests, offering some of the highest levels of protection and performance at great value.

The NSS Labs evaluation included 11 market leading next-generation firewalls which were rated for security effectiveness, performance, stability and reliability, and total cost of ownership (TCO).

The Sophos XG Firewall out-performed many other market-leading products across the stringent test criteria, placing it amongst the top-ranks of the seven products that also earned the NSS Labs ‘Recommended’ rating.

NSS Labs Thomas Skybakmoen said: “We continue to develop and maintain rigorous testing standards to reflect enterprise defenses that are constantly being challenged by attackers and adopting new evasion techniques at a record pace. The Sophos XG Firewall has executed well in this evaluation with high levels of security effectiveness and zero false positives.”

A copy of the NSS Labs Next-Generation Firewall Test Report for the Sophos XG-750 Firewall and the associated Security Value Map (SVM) graphic, which plots all vendors included in the evaluation are available from the Sophos website.

Released in December 2016, the latest version of the next-generation Sophos XG Firewall added significant new features including: