Apotheker didn’t read Autonomy accounts

Former HP supremo Leo Apotheker didn’t even read the Autonomy accounts before signing off on the $11 billion deal.

Apotheker made the admission in cross-examination in the London High Court. HPE, HP’s successor company, is suing former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch and the company’s chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, for $5 billion claiming that the pair had been responsible for masterminding an accounting fraud.

Azure Stack becomes “hyperconverged”

Microsoft campusSoftware King of the World Microsoft has expanded its Azure Stack family with new HCI offerings, designed for customers looking to run virtualised applications on modern hyperconverged infrastructure.

The new product will be offered through 15 of its hardware channel partners and is geared towards lowering costs and improving performance.

Sparta Global gets new head office

Technology and business consulting services outfit Sparta Global opened its new Head Office at 125 London Wall in the heart of the City of London. The new location will offer a single site for the sale, support and development of Sparta Global’s consultancy business.

In August 2017 Sparta Global raised more than £4 million from private equity house, Key Capital Partners (KCP), to support the company’s continued growth and expansion. The opening of Sparta Global’s Head Office at 125 London Wall marks the latest step towards delivering a steady and reliable supply of trained technologists to UK companies.

Miller Heiman’s Scout integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Sales performance through training, consulting, technology and research, Miller Heiman Group has integrated its sales analytics platform with Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Scout by Miller Heiman Group, powered by the Strategic Selling with Perspective and Conceptual Selling sales methodologies, uses data and analytics to coach and support sellers to take actions that will improve win rates, it’s claimed.

There’s more spending on private clouds

Beancounters at IDC think that spending on private clouds is about to increase as the world starts to lose interest in public cloud offerings.

IDC said that Cloud IT infrastructure revenues fell below the volume that headed into more traditional environments in the fourth quarter of last year.

The channel has already encountered many customers that have become disillusioned with the public cloud, mainly because they failed to foresee the costs involved, and has been providing ‘unclouding’ services to get user data and applications back into an on-prem environment.

LG and Ricoh make pact for European partnership

LG and Ricoh have formed a  European partnership that will give businesses access to the tech giant’s range of display devices through a single trusted partner.

Effective from 1 April, companies of all sizes and across all sectors will have access to LG technology through Ricoh’s Communications Services portfolio, including market-leading products such as LG’s UHD IPS displays.

Security world going subcription

The security world is moving ever closer to a subscription-based model, according to the analyst outfit Canalys.

In a report, the analysts noted that although the vast majority of cybersecurity sales remain traditionally delivered, this is starting to change to something more subscription based and  Canalys expects it to speed up over the next couple of years.

Cyber security spending topped $10 billion for the first time in the fourth quarter of last year.  It thinks that by 2020 $42 billion will be spent annually worldwide on products and services.

TP-Link uses channel to hit SMEs

Networking maker TP-Link is leaning on its channel in its push to drive its SME business.

The firm has seen its channel business increase  by a third last year and has already rolled out products that have been designed to be delivered by partners to the SME customer base.

The outfit has created an SMB Forum community site for resellers to share best practice and is continuing to expand the headcount on its internal channel team.

Ben Allcock, commercial director for B2B at TP-Link, said that the channel had grown in importance to the firm and it now a 50/50 split between the consumer and business markets.

Brexit and trade tensions will slow tech market

Donald Trump’s trade war with China and Brexit will make for much misery in the tech market, according to bean counters at Forrester.

After a “stronger than expected” 2017 and first half of 2018, analyst firm Forrester has predicted that the effects of global trade frictions, political uncertainties such as Brexit and erratic oil prices will hamper the UK and other key markets.

Although the US looks set to ride out the storm, economic weaknesses in Europe, China and emerging markets will result in tech market growth slowing to 4.5 percent in 2019 – down from five percent in 2018 – before declining further to 3.8 percent  in 2020.

IPC signals push into Greece

Network outfit IPC has announced a partnership with one of the largest IT and telecommunications companies in Greece and Cyprus, Cosmos Business Systems, to extend IPC’s product suite into the region.

The collaboration is set to capitalise on the upward trajectory of the Greek financial sector. S&P’s recent EMEA Financial Institutions Monitor views the economic risk trend in Greece as positive. The global rating agency expects Greece’s GDP to grow around 2.4 per cent from 2018 to 2021, and that stable economic growth coupled with improving investor confidence in Greece could translate into a more supportive environment for the banking sector.

Zombie assets may cost UK businesses £280 billion

UK businesses could be wasting as much as £280 billion a year by failing to have adequate asset management strategies in place.

Research based on 500 UK businesses commissioned by Troostwijk found that a third of businesses haven’t appointed a manager in charge of asset management. As a result, assets are left to zombify, instead of much needed capital being released from them which can serve as an alternative growth stream.

40 percent of UK businesses fail to protect their server

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.

Armour launches new flagship

Secure communications outfit Armour Communications is launching the latest version of its flagship product Armour Mobile at Cyber UK 2019 – the premier annual cybersecurity event run by the UK’s NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre).

Armour will be demonstrating full integration with Secure Chorus standards, to a live audience, with Leonardo, BAE Applied Intelligence and DSTL (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory). The interactive workshop, hosted by NCSC and Secure Chorus takes place on 24 April at 14.00 and is part of Stream G.

Armour Mobile v3.0 introduces new features including biometric authentication (fingerprint and facial recognition), and rapid ‘auto’ provisioning of new users using secure QR codes or encrypted links within emails. There is a host of additional improvements, including sending a secure voicemail or text note when a user is unable to accept a voice or video call; accessibility options such as user-defined text sizes; and MessageBurn has added sophistication – for example, a marker to alert the user if they failed to read a secure message before it has been ‘burned’.

Ruckus Networks teams up with Glide to connect students

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.