KPN partners with Iland

Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company KPN has teamed up with iland, a global cloud service provider of secure and compliant Infrastructure (IaaS), disaster recovery (DRaaS) and Backup-as-a-service (BaaS).

The partnership is part of a cunning plan to put iland’s DRaaS solutions on the shelves for KPN business customers. KPN stated that the partnership was motivated by the security and scalability of iland’s solutions and its rapid implementation capabilities, while iland cited the alliance with KPN as being evidence of its concerted and strategic approach to a more channel-focused direction across EMEA.

Amazon Web Services makes half the company’s dosh

Amazon Web Services (AWS) made up half of the vendor’s overall operating income in its first quarter of the year.

Cloudy services grew its operating income by 59 percent to $2.2 billion which was an increase from $1.4bn in the same period in 2018.

Amazon’s net sales grew 17 percent to $59.7 billion in the first quarter its slowest since 2015.

2019 will be the year of AI and IoT as top supply chain trends

Bean counters at Gartner have added up some numbers and divided by their shoe size and worked out that AI, IoT and automation are the areas businesses must adopt if they are to boost the efficiency of their supply chains.

Gartner research vice president Christian Titze seems somewhat inevitable that AI will play a vital role in enabling business leaders to automate processes such as demand forecasting, planning production volume needs and equipment maintenance predictions to ensure the production line can cope with demand.

Don’t use Brexit as an excuse for a business slowdown

Big snail in Old TaipeiFirms should not be allowed to use Brexit as a reason to slow down according to PCM boss Frank Khulusi.

Speaking to the assembled throngs on an earnings call, Khulusi said UK management has been talking more about Brexit but claimed that the political saga should not be considered as a justification for any slowdown.

PCM made £13.4 million for the quarter ending 31 March, up 50 per cent on the previous year in the UK.

Nadella claims Microsoft leads in cloud security

Blue sky and white cloud with sun light and rainbow

Software king of the world Microsoft claims that it is beating everyone with its Cloud Security packages and Volish results on the Cloud are looking pretty good.

For the three months ending 31 March 2019, Microsoft saw revenue increase 14 percent year on year to $30.6 billion and growth in Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud and More Personal Computing.

KCOM going private

Telco specialist KCOM  said it is taking an offer from a significant pension fund outfit to take the business into private hands

It could be the end of a difficult period for the telco specialist. KCOM issued a profit warning last year and asked BT executive Sutherland CEO Graham Sutherland come up with a cunning plan to get the outfit out of trouble. Instead, it seems the firm is taking a £504 million offer from Humber Bidco Limited a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited.

Ideagen supplies Canadian aviation services company

Ideagen, the UK-based software firm, is to supply a Canada-based global aviation services company with software for safety, environment and quality management.

The Inland Group of Companies – comprised of Inland Technologies, Integrated De-Icing Services (IDS) and Quantem Aviation Services (QAS) – will implement Ideagen’s Coruson software across its growing operations in Canada, USA and Europe.

Coruson will be used as part of the Group’s strategy to standardise, streamline and continuously enhance several areas of its safety, environmental and quality management systems, including;

David Deveau, VP Environment Health & Safety at Inland said: “We are delighted to be working with Ideagen and believe that Coruson will not only meet but exceed our expectations for supporting our safety, environmental and quality management systems. When it comes to excellence in operations, environment and health & safety, The Inland Group strives to be the industry leader. Therefore, where Ideagen and its Coruson software are also regarded as leaders in aviation safety and quality, we feel they are an ideal partner. We are pleased to join some of the largest organisations in aviation in using Coruson.”

The Inland Group of Companies is a provider of a variety of aviation services to many of the world’s largest airline, airport and other customers. These services including aircraft de-icing, glycol collection and recycling, wastewater management, ground and cargo handling, and much more. Inland Technologies is a full-service airport environmental compliance and ground support specialist. IDS carry out safe and efficient delivery of de-icing and anti-icing services while QAS specialises in aviation support around ground handling, cargo and mail operations and passenger handling.

Steven Cespedes, Head of Aviation at Ideagen, said: “I am excited that the Inland Group of Companies will be joining our Coruson customer base. This an exciting time for the product and I am looking forward to the Inland Group providing valuable insights into the use and future development of our Coruson software across the aviation domain.”

IDC predicts more digital transformation projects

Beancounters at IDC are forecasting that customers will be splash out on more digital transformation projects.

The analyst outfit said that spending on digital transformation will hit $1.8 trillion this year, an increase of 17.9 percent on 2018.

That growth is set to continue over the next few years and the money will be flowing across all vertical markets.

Tiny growth for IT spending forecast

Analyst outfit Gartner is now predicting slow growth for IT spending this year.

The firm has adjusted its 2019 global IT spending growth forecast to 1.1 percent, down from the 3.2 percent the research firm predicted back in January.

The reason appears to be economic factors such as a stronger US dollar; analysts now estimate that total IT spending will amount to £3.79 trillion – roughly the same as in 2018.

Gartner research vice president. John-David Lovelock said currency headwinds fuelled by the strengthening US dollar have caused Big G to revise its 2019 IT spending forecast down from the previous quarter

“Through the remainder of 2019, the U.S. dollar is expected to trend stronger, while enduring tremendous volatility due to uncertain economic and political environments and trade wars.”

Despite the slight overall growth, Garter said the data centre systems segment would suffer the most significant decline of 2.8 percent, as expected component cost adjustments continue to drive down average selling prices (ASPs) in the server market.

The ongoing enterprise shift from traditional, non-cloud to cloud-based setups, however, will continue to fuel enterprise software growth. In 2019, analysts predict the market to hit $427 billion, marking a 7.1 percent increase over 2018’s total of $399 billion.

While application software has so far seen the most extensive cloud shift, Gartner said it expects increased growth for the infrastructure software segment in the near-term – particularly in integration platform as a service (iPaaS) and application platform as a service (aPaaS).

“Disruptive emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), will reshape business models as well as the economics of public and private sector enterprises. AI is having a major effect on IT spending, although its role is often misunderstood,” Lovelock commented.

“AI is not a product; it is a set of techniques or a computer engineering discipline. As such, AI is embedded in many existing products and services, as well as being central to new development efforts in every industry. Gartner’s AI business value forecast predicts that organisations will receive $1.9 trillion worth of benefit from the use of AI this year alone.”

HP loses print patent battle

HP has lost a long-running court battle with 123inkt.nl  which supplies third-party print supplies.

The maker of expensive printer ink had claimed that supplier infringed patents related to memory chips found in print cartridges by producing cartridges that had too many similarities.

The court agreed with 123inkt.nl that HP’s patents were invalid and designed to obtain a monopoly on the print supplies market.

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Apple has a secret cloud

Fruity cargo cult Apple has made a great deal about the investment it has made in its datacentres but has not mentioned that it is Amazon’s biggest customer.

Apple spends over $30 million a month on Amazon Web Services (AWS), making it one of the cloud provider’s biggest customers.

M2 digested by SCC

M2 the managed print operation that SCC acquired five years ago will now be merged into its core business and “never be met with again”.

The move will create SCC Managed Print & Document Services. Under SCC ownership the M2 business has seen growth and been in a position to tap into a market for managed print services that have been experiencing increasing demand.

Percona apponts Martin James VP of EMEA and APAC sales

Open source database software and services outfit Percona, has named Martin James vice president of sales for the EMEA and APAC regions.

James has more than 25 years of experience building and leading sales teams in Europe, James will be responsible for the entire Percona EMEA sales operation, including direct sales, business development and partner channels.

Slalom opens new Manchester base

Slalom has chosen Manchester as the location for its second UK office.

Partnering with over 200 solution providers including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Salesforce, Microsoft, and Tableau. The company said that its London office, which opened in 2014, has established the firm’s reputation in the UK as helping companies across industries, in the private and public sectors, learn from their data, impress their customers, deliver faster, and transform their organizations.

SAP Group gets new portal

The UK & Ireland SAP User Group, the independent not-for-profit organisation representing all users of SAP software, launched its new Affiliate Member Portal, designed to help SAP users select the right technology partner. The portal will provide anyone visiting the site with an ‘at a glance’ one to five-star rating for each partner. Much like TripAdvisor, registered