Category: Products

Portus Digital issues cheap all-in-one models to rival Dell

Portus Digital is the second company to offer an all-in-one computer powered by the 12th-generation Intel Core processor as it launches the E-Pro.

The E-Pro series includes six all-in-one computers with 24-inch screens that feature chips from i3 to i7, with prices half those of Dell’s equivalent models.

The Portus E-Pro AIO-204 costs £1,049 for an i7 12th-gen Intel Core processor with 512GB solid-state drive and 1TB hard disk drive.

This is nearly half the £2,065 cost of the Dell OptiPlex 7400, which has an i5 processor and only a 256GB SSD.

VOW wholesale signs up Synaxon UK

Channel services group,  Synaxon UK, is taking products available from business supplies distributor, VOW Wholesale on its stock availability and pricing platform, EGIS.

VOW is the latest addition to the stock availability and pricing platform, which gives partners a fast, efficient, and economical way to check current stock availability and pricing from over 40 distributors.

Microsoft cuts OneDrive for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1

Software King of the World Microsoft has cut access to its OneDrive desktop app running on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 and will stop syncing files to the cloud from March 2022.

First launched in August 2007, OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) is a file hosting and synchronisation service operating by Microsoft as part of its web version of Office. It enables Microsoft customers to access their files from the cloud on all their devices, from anywhere.

Vole has been doing its best to make life difficult for those who will not upgrade from earlier versions of windows, but cutting access to the cloud will make life difficult for many users.

Microsoft said it will not provide updates for the OneDrive desktop application running on personal Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 devices systems starting 1st January 2022.

In a blog post on its Tech Community forum, the company announced that the move will ensure that the company focuses its resources on new technologies and OS, providing users with the most up-to-date and secure experience.

Belfast City Airport halves IT costs with Nutanix

Nutanix claims that George Best Belfast City Airport has halved IT operational costs in the data centre as well as enhanced performance, security and availability to cope with rapidly escalating post-Covid business demand by migrating its legacy IT infrastructure to Nutanix Enterprise Cloud.

With the job of enhancing the airport’s IT services to cope with growth whilst, at the same time, cutting escalating costs, newly appointed Director of Information Technology Brian Roche realised the need for a lot more than a simple hardware upgrade.

Roche said: “It wasn’t just a matter of replacing the infrastructure we needed to move away from the existing managed service model as it was no longer delivering value for money. We also identified significant opportunities to enhance our backup and disaster recovery processes.”

Tech Data launches new Amazon programme

Tech Data has launched an AWS Trusted Partner Programme (TPP) to enable its AWS resellers to fast track their progress.

The outfit said that resellers who join the programme will be recognised with official Tech Data AWS Trusted Partner status and will access additional resources, expertise and bespoke business growth planning.

The company said that the programme is aimed at partners who have already made a clear strategic commitment to invest in and grow their AWS business. Invited partners will complete a Tech Data cloud maturity assessment, which provides insight into the current capabilities and future AWS growth objectives. Tech Data’s expert, in-house AWS team will use the information gathered in this assessment to create a tailored growth path for each participating partner business.

Datto releases two new cloud-based security offerings

Datto has kicked off its DattoCon NOW, MSP-centric event, with the launch of two new cloud-based security offerings — Datto SaaS Defense and Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure.

The virtual DattoCon attracted more than 6,000 registrants from 69 countries who provide technology services and support for small and medium businesses (SMBs) worldwide.

Datto CEO Tim Weller said the value of companies increasingly lies in their digital assets — both applications and data — and those assets are moving to remote and cloud environments, which means a rapid growth in attack vectors.

“Securing the digital assets of their clients is the primary mission of MSPs. The new world of work brings complexity which creates massive MSP opportunities.”

Infor offers an industry cloud for the public sector

Cloudy Infor has launched Infor Public Sector – a dedicated multi-tenant cloud offering for the UK public sector.

The product mixes Infor CloudSuite Public Sector, Financials and Supply Chain Management (FSCM), Infor People Solutions (HR & Talent) with the dedicated public sector enterprise asset management capabilities of Infor Hansen, all of which run on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The company said that the solution ensures that local and central government and arms-length bodies remain on the most up-to-date software releases to provide robust, secure and easily managed services.

Infor Public Sector can be deployed via AWS in London. As part of the offering, Infor will build on more than two decades of experience with UK public sector organizations such as South West Water, Borders College, London Fire Brigade and Viewpoint Housing;  and many global customers including the City of Coral Gables in Florida, USA, Ras Al Khaimah Wastewater Agency (RAKWA) in UAE and the City of Franklin in Tennessee, USA.

Tech Data now offers security as a service

Just when you thought that aaS acronyms could not get any longer Tech Data has launched a security operations centre as a service (SOCaaS) offering.

SOCaaS is being billed as a “flexible, efficient, and affordable foundation on which partners can build their managed security business”. It can be white-labelled and presented as the partner’s own service offering and includes a comprehensive audit, preparation of an incident plan, 24/7 monitoring with response capabilities and regular reporting.

Tech Data, UK & Ireland, director, security, Advanced Solution said Alison Nixon said: “Customers of all sizes now need to shift to a viable and proactive threat detection posture in order to fully protect their systems against cyberattacks. SOCaaS has been highlighted as a huge opportunity by analysts, but many small and mid-market partners just don’t have the skillset, or the investment capability to build and offer a managed security service quickly enough to address the immediate opportunity.

“With our SOCaaS offering, they can offer a comprehensive and reliable service right away, without having to make the significant up-front investment, time and effort that would be required to establish their own SoC and managed service. It increases their ability to support their customers’ digital transformations and lowers risk for both the end customer and the partner. Crucially, it also means partners can extend and enhance the range of services and value they offer to their customers.”

People stop taking their tablets

Beancounters at IDC have noted that tablet market shipments in EMEA have declined year-on-year for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Shipments reached 11.8 million units in EMEA during the second quarter of 2021, representing a 1.7 percent year-on-year decline which the IDC puts down to “a slowdown in consumer demand”.

But volumes still remain significantly above the pre-pandemic period, up 22.4 percent compared with 2019, which the IDC claims indicate an increase in the total addressable market

IDC Associate research director, Nikolina Jurisic said that market performance was affected by the unfavourable YoY comparison, as 2Q20 witnessed an avalanche of shipments to address home learning and entertainment.

“Slate tablets lost popularity as social restrictions eased, whereas detachable tablets continued on a strong positive trajectory, gaining from the notebook-like experience, new product launches, and versatility that supports hybrid working and learning.”

Arcserve offers new MSP product

Channel-based data security outfit Arcserve has improved its StorageCraft Cloud Services Basic so that MSPs can offer best-in-class cloud backup and disaster recovery services to a broader range of customers with unprecedented ROI and profit potential.

StorageCraft Cloud Services Basic now comprises 500GB backup per machine, annual retention points, and cloud portal management at a GBP18 per machine price point which also includes an on-premises data protection licence for either ShadowXafe or ShadowProtect.

The company tells us that the product means  MSPs can service a wider range of customer use cases, including small businesses and data protection for small physical and virtual workstations. Thanks to StorageCraft Cloud Services Basic, these use cases are now economically viable.

WorkPad partners with Flexi Offices

London based flex office provider WorkPad has added to its suite of tools to service its rapidly expanding business with a partnership with Flexi Offices.

The partnership means the Smart Viewing platform can enter the property market.

Whilst the technology is being used in the residential sector with great success, it has not yet been employed in the commercial office market. WorkPad claims to be the first to partner with the platform provider Flexi Offices to roll it out.

Smart Viewing is an interface which combines a two-way video link and a presentation screen serving 360 degree virtual tours, videos, floorplans and static images. Viewings can be conducted from a desktop, tablet, laptop or phone. 

Juniper Networks spruces up SD-branch management

Juniper Networks has expanded its Contrail SD-WAN cloud package, in a move to spruce up its software-defined branch management and switch options.

Contrail SD WAN now includes support for SD-LAN operations, incorporating the ability to manage branch office LANs and provision new devices.

It means that customers can now easily provision Juniper Ex Series switches to manage LAN fabrics and configure LAN virtualisation and security from one cloud-managed portal, in the same way they operate their SD-WAN environments. This unified approach will help organisations reduce costs, streamline workflows and leverage the WAN and LAN network for connected security, Juniper Networks said.

The same revamped portal can also be used to show Mist wireless access points and launch Mist cloud for WLAN provisioning, troubleshooting, management and other day-to-day operations, including the vendor’s wired/wireless assurance capabilities.

Flashpoint expands Risk intelligence

Flashpoint has expanded its Business Risk Intelligence capabilities for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), helping them to meet the growing demand for more proactive, value-added services.

Flashpoint’s extensive ability to safely track adversaries across multiple types of online communities and collections from the open, deep and dark web sources, makes it an indispensable resource for MSSPs wishing to extend those capabilities to clients.

With access to Flashpoint’s technical data, vulnerability information, and finished intelligence reports, analysts can safely conduct research within threat actor communities and bring meaningful context to threats, allowing organisations to take informed actions and mitigate risk.

The company’s data and finished intelligence expand the MSSP partner’s capabilities, adding context to threat information and informing decisions that proactively mitigate risk. The following capabilities are a crucial complement to critical services core to MSSPs, such as network and log monitoring, vulnerability management, incident response, and threat hunting. 

Mist Systems releases first AI-driven self-driving network

Juniper off-shoot Mist Systems announced that the first AI-Driven Self-Driving Network for the enterprise has been released to its partners.

The system uses Mist’s AI engine and microservices cloud to streamline IT operations, simplify troubleshooting across wired/wireless domains for network users.

Mist is expanding its platform with a new cloud subscription service for Wired Assurance. This new feature brings data from Juno’s switch telemetry into the Mist microservices cloud and AI engine for simpler operations, shorter mean time to repair and better visibility into end-user experiences. With the following capabilities.