It is spend,spend, spend on the cloud

banner_220x220Cloud channel members should be rubbing their paws with glee at the news that cloud spending is on the increase

IDC has increased its forecasts for the amount of cloud infrastructure sales that will be sold globally this year on the back of a solid showing in the second quarter.

The analyst house has charted a 48.4 percent increase in the sale of infrastructure products, including servers, storage and Ethernet switches, sold by vendors and fulfilled by the channel in Q2. As a result, the forecasts for the full year are now coming in a $62.2 billion, an increase of 31.1 percent on last year.

Spending is increasing in public and private cloud areas, up by 58.9 percent and 28.2 percent in Q2 respectively, with the combined investments in cloud infrastructure now accounting for almost half of all the infrastructure spending globally.

IDC is forecasting that spending in cloud environments is going to grow by double digits this year.

Non-cloud IT is dying, and it still accounted for  just over half of the total infrastructure market in Q2 and came in with 21.1 percent growth, but it is markedly lower than cloud-related spending.

Natalya Yezhkova, research director, IT Infrastructure and Platforms at IDC said that as the share of cloud environments in the overall spending on IT infrastructure continues to climb and approaches 50 percent, it is evident that cloud, which once used to be an emerging sector of the IT infrastructure industry, is now the norm.

“One of the tasks for enterprises now is not only to decide on what cloud resources to use but how to manage multiple cloud resources. End users’ ability to use multi-cloud resources is an essential driver of further proliferation for both public and private cloud environments”, she added.

The top three regarding market share were Dell, HPE and Cisco. But the shining star regarding revenue growth year on year in Q2 was Lenovo, which delivered a 223.5 percent increase putting it in fourth place.

Hills Components shuts down

banner_220x220After 45 years in business Hills Components has ceased trading.

The Watford-based firm described itself as a trade and educational supplier, primarily offering IT hardware and accessories to its clients. It flogged Acer, Dell and Epson gear and hired 20.

It  went into liquidation on 13 September, appointing Mercer & Hole accountants on the same day. Apparently the outfit had acquired too much debt and had an inventory of outdated stock.

The e-tailer reported assets of £2 million in its financial 2017, a lot of that stock was outdated and was removed from the company’s catalogue, causing it to sit unsold.

This sort of problem is typical issue for many channel players who become significantly overstocked and the price comes down. The only way to turn the product into cash is to  lose money on it.

 

Cisco names new Channel supremo

banner_220x220Cisco’s German boss Oliver Tuszik has been named as the outfit’s new head of global channel sales.

Tuszik replaces Wendy Bahr who resigned in August after 15 years.

According to Cisco, Tuszik is an “accomplished leader” who has led its German team in delivering five years of successive growth and two years of double-digit sales growth.

Before joining Cisco in 2013, the new channel boss was CEO of Computacenter’s German business for almost 10 years having previously led the reseller’s networking arm.

Tuszik began his new role as of yesterday to lead Cisco’s channel business, which accounts for around 85 per cent of the vendor’s overall sales.

The new appointment at the top of Cisco comes just a day after the vendor announced a new EMEAR head following the promotion of Edwin Paalvast to a global role. Wendy Mars previously led Cisco’s EMEAR channel business before taking the new position.

Alaris creates new deals for channel

banner_220x220Alaris has enhanced its S2000 Scanner Series with the launch of the new S2040 desktop scanner and has a new software subscription model, providing resellers with the opportunity to secure a new recurring revenue stream, and access to professional services capabilities.

Designed for efficiency and backed with a three-year warranty, it’s claimed that the Alaris S2040 Scanner delivers all the embedded image processing power of the S2050 and S2070 Scanners at a competitive price. Available now at an RRP of £576, this new desktop device is aimed at vertical markets including healthcare, logistics, banking, education and government.,

Alaris offers a subscription model.

Professional Services are designed to extend the advantage of owning a scanner from Alaris. Resellers can tap into a team of Alaris analysts, consultants and trainers who know their stuff.

 

Birmingham sees the meaning of PureLif

PureLiF  has been showcasing how LED lights are being used to form wireless networks to access the internet and transfer data at high-speeds in Birmingham.

At the WiredScore Birmingham launch,  the international rating scheme for digital connectivity in commercial real estate will reveal Birmingham’s first Wired Certified buildings. WiredScore’s innovative product, Wired Certification, provides landlords and developers with an independent, trusted benchmark, promoting greater transparency around connectivity and digital infrastructure.

Harald Burchardt, Chief Commercial Officer of pureLiFi, will then provide the keynote speech entitled “Are your buildings future ready?” – discussing how LiFi technology can address businesses’ evolving digital needs.

PureLiFi has over 100 deployments in industrial and commercial buildings worldwide. LiFi technology enables LED light bulbs to provide a secure wireless internet connection using light waves. By using light waves rather than radio frequencies used in Wi-Fi, LiFi offers unprecedented bandwidth, which significantly enhances the connectivity of the office – easing the competition for bandwidth that has resulted from the significant expansion of internet-enabled devices.

Harald Burchardt said: “We are delighted to be bringing LiFi technology to Birmingham and to be participating in this discussion on how local organisations can capitalise on the city’s digital potential. We congratulate all the landlords that are receiving Wired Certification today and who are leading the way in digital connectivity. LiFi can be a part of enhancing your building’s connectivity and enable the smart office.

“We look forward to engaging with forward-thinking property owners and developers on exploring our technology.”

Cryptomining malware is booming

banner_220x220McAfee has warned that cryptomining malware has seen a “stunning” growth this year.

The security vendor claimed that the number of crypto mining malware samples grew 629 percent to 2.9 million in Q1 this year, before growing a further 86 percent in Q2.

Raj Samani, chief scientist at McAfee, said: “Cybercrime is a business; and market forces, such as the rise in cryptocurrency values, will continue to shape where adversaries focus their efforts. Exploiting crypto mining malware is simpler, more straightforward, and less risky than traditional cybercrime activities – causing these schemes to skyrocket in popularity over the last few months. Crypto mining malware has quickly emerged as a major player on the threat landscape.”

He said businesses must find the right combination of people, process and technology to effectively protect their assets, detect crypto mining threats and when targeted, rapidly correct systems – across both cloud and on-premise.

McAfee said that this form of malware predominately targets PCs, but new strains have started to target Android smartphones and other internet-connected devices.

The vendor also claims that the success of the WannaCry and NotPetya attacks has seen an increase in malware targeting software exploits, with new samples of these increasing 151 percent in Q2.

Dynama gets onto UK G-Cloud

banner_220x220The maker of organisational design, resource management and workforce optimisation software Dynama  has been accepted onto the latest iteration of the UK Government’s Digital Marketplace, G-Cloud 10.

Dynama currently supports some of the most challenging operations in the public sector including the UK’s Royal Fleet Auxiliary, NATO, US military and the Australian Defence Force. Most recently, the Dynama OneView application has been successfully deployed as NATO’s new Automated Personnel Management System (APMS) providing organisational structure management, HR and logistic support to personnel across 29 Member Nations in Europe, North America and Allied Partners around the world.

Dynama is also currently working in partnership with Andromeda Systems Incorporated and the US Department of Defense (DoD) to provide Dynama OneView, to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme. This is used to aggregate and visualise data for the entire programme, which encompasses over 2,700 aircraft, with their associated personnel and support equipment.

It’s been busy then.

Andrew Carwardine, Managing Director of Dynama said: “We are proud to be accepted onto the Government’s latest G-Cloud framework and to have the opportunity to share the benefits of our technology with those who keep us safe and secure on a daily basis. These vital service providers share the common challenges of deploying appropriately skilled staff to the right place often at short notice and within budget constraints. With our fully automated solution which has been accepted by the Government’s Digital Marketplace, public sector organisations can create resource management and workforce optimisation strategies to boost efficiencies and control costs in a highly flexible way.”

 

PC sales about to pick up

The seven years of lean times in the PC industry will be over next year as Windows 10 adoption increases, according to technicolour dreamcoat analysts at Canalys.

The analyst claims that a “slight recovery” next year will see shipments of desktops, notebooks and two-in-ones edge up 0.3 percent. Hardly time for the seven fat cows, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Canalys chief analyst Alastair Edwards said: “Windows 10 refresh will continue to be the main driver of commercial demands for PCs in 2019.

“This will be buoyed by strong economic performance and business spend in the US, the largest PC market in the world, as well as a continued global push to upgrade on the back of heightened IT security concerns. Furthermore, 2019 is likely to bring about an easing of component supply constraints that have recently plagued the industry. Intel and its partners have admitted that slight supply of 14-nanometer processors will delay PC shipments this year, while DRAM shortages will start to ease towards the end of 2018, with the effects to be felt next year.”

Canalys said that the channel will see the success it has found with Windows, both through sales and services, continue for a period of time.

However, it warned that this will not last forever, claiming that the spell could come to an end in the first half of next year. Canalys added that the most “successful partners” will be the ones that build out managed desktop and subscription services.

This trend has been supported by two recent vendor announcements, with both Microsoft and HP launching desktop-as-a-service offerings.

Azure Virtual WAN gets Barracuda support

banner_220x220Barracuda Networks is supporting Microsoft Azure Virtual WAN service through its CloudGen Firewall, extending enhanced networking security to organizations looking to deploy Azure Virtual WAN.

“Customers want choice and flexibility in the cloud, but they can’t sacrifice security,” said Tim Jefferson, VP Public Cloud at Barracuda. “By using our integration with Azure Virtual WAN, customers can have the best of both worlds — large-scale branch connectivity over Azure Virtual WAN with enhanced network security via the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall.”

In public preview since July, Microsoft Azure Virtual WAN service provides optimised, automated, and global-scale branch connectivity, Vole reckons. Azure Virtual WAN brings the ability to connect customers’ branches to Azure with SD-WAN and VPN devices (i.e. Customer Premises Equipment or CPE), with built-in ease of use and automated connectivity and configuration management.

The Barracuda connection to Azure Virtual WAN is automated: Users need to fill out authentication information and click “connect”. Barracuda uses dynamic routing protocols in the background to make sure new routes to new locations are automatically picked up and made available, the company claimed.

“We’re pleased that customers looking to simplify branch connectivity and extend application workloads on Microsoft Azure now have access to the Barracuda integrated Azure Virtual WAN solution”, said Ross Ortega, Partner PM Manager, Azure Networking, Microsoft. “The integration between Azure Virtual WAN and Barracuda provides ease of use and simplification of connectivity and configuration management, hence providing optimized and automated branch-to-branch connectivity through Azure.”

 

Ruckus launches Dogfather Technical Community

banner_220x220 Ruckus Networks has launched its Dogfather Technical Community in EMEA.

The programme gives partners a series of educational initiatives with the idea of giving Ruckus partners  a competitive edge and solutions.

Ruckus claims that partner enablement is the cornerstone of its channel ethos. The Dogfather programme comprises several components, each with their own dedicated and focused resources such as easily accessible technical training via monthly-webinars, seminars, workshops, events and social media, all available in 15 different languages.

Matthew Ball, Principal Analyst at Canalys, said that the channel was experiencing constant disruption, with technology innovation firmly at the forefront of partners’, and  their customers’ minds.

“Enabling partners to stand out in such a competitive market is key to making a real difference as a vendor and to drive loyalty. Giving partners the knowledge and skills they need to deliver and meet their business goals is a huge differentiator and shows real commitment to the industry.”

Following the launch of the Ruckus new two-tier partner programme at the end of 2017, channel growth has become paramount. As a channel-first company, Ruckus recognises the need to serve its partner community and provide them with the tools to be profitable, competitive and win–and Ruckus’ superior technology is driving this.

“With the introduction of our Dogfather programme, we expect to see a much closer-knit partner community,” said Massimo Mazzeo-Ocello, director of systems engineering, EMEA, Ruckus Networks. “The best partnerships are based on the simple principle of making each other’s businesses better–sharing the risk and the reward. As vendors, we need to invigorate partners, not hold them back. The channel cannot just survive, but must be allowed to thrive, in a world with technology at its core.”

 

The Dogfather Technical Community Programme consists of:

Big Dogs: Ruckus’ annual EMEA sales and technical event for senior partner executives
Mini Dogs: regional partner roadshows for regional sales and technical teams
Dogfather remote enablement: monthly webinars and tech-newsletters on select topics open to all partners and available in 15 languages
Dogfather Days: Ruckus- driven live events with technical engineers, available in 15 countries
Distributor Days: Distributor-supported, live Ruckus-driven technical events with their relevant partners
Social Media: easy to use, with pre-written blogs, social posts and spotlight promotion
The benefits of the Dogfather Community are available to Ruckus’ Elite and SMB partners immediately. For more information please visit:

 

Lee Walker joins Sherpa

banner_220x220Channel Marketing agency Sherpa is expanding its global operations outreach by hiring a new Client Services Director.

Lee Walker, former Business Development Director for Stylus, has joined Sherpa as the Client Services Director and will head up the operations team.

Lee brings extensive marketing expertise from previous agency roles and his experience of managing numerous, successful teams throughout his career will be integral in his role as Client Services Director and ensuring Sherpa’s customers continue to be fully supported.

Lee said he was delighted to be joining Sherpa as the business looks to continue its successful growth.

“Sherpa already has a strong client focus, as evidenced by its long-standing relationships and recent business wins. I am joining a remarkable team who are extremely experienced across the full marketing mix, from data management, strategic planning and ABM to content marketing, SEO and paid traffic. The skill set is incredibly diverse, and I am confident that through our combined efforts our global operations will not only become more efficient but also develop stronger and more valuable business relationships with our clients.”

Sherpa CEO, Tom Perry added: “Sherpa has a wide range of clients, made up of some of the largest companies in the tech space at present and as our client base grows and the marketing landscape continues to change, so do the required skillsets of our core team. I am a big believer in championing our team and investing in them, ensuring the right person stepped into the role of Client Services Director has been paramount. I do not doubt that we have found someone in Lee who can actively lead our expansion and grow our operations teams as we take on more global marketing programmes.

“Our vision of creating the world’s best channel marketing agency requires people of Lee’s calibre, and I’m delighted he has joined Sherpa at this time of rapid expansion”.

 

Microsoft shows off its new things for the Cloud

banner_220x220Microsoft today announced a plethora of new Internet of Things-focused updates to its Azure cloud computing platform.

Some of today’s announcements are relatively minor. Azure IoT Central, the company’s solution for helping you get started with IoT, is now generally available and there are updates to Microsoft’s IoT provisioning service, IoT hub message routing tools and Map Control API.

Microsoft said that the Azure IoT platform will now support Google’s Android and Android Things platform via its Java SDK.

What’s more interesting, though, is the new services. The highlight here is probably the launch of Azure Digital Twins. Using this new service, enterprises can now build their own digital models of any physical environment.

It is the virtual counterpart to a real-world IoT deployment and the idea is that as IoT deployment in the real world changes, so does the digital model. It will provide developers with a full view of all the devices they have deployed and allows them to run advanced analytics and test scenarios as needed without having to make changes to the actual physical deployment.

Writing in its bog, Vole said: “As the world enters the next wave of innovation in IoT where the connected objects such as buildings, equipment or factory floors need to be understood in the context of their environments, Azure Digital Twins provides a complete picture of the relationships and processes that connect people, places and devices.”

Azure Digital Twins will launch into preview on October 15.

Jane Ashworth takes over from Andy Bass at Lenovo

banner_220x220 as its channel director taking over from Andy Bass who cleaned out his desk last month.

Ashworth worked as UK MD at SMART and has the job of upping sales in Lenovo’s UK SMB business.

She said: “I am thrilled to be joining Lenovo which is such an innovative company and at a pivotal time in its performance journey. I’m very much looking forward to working with our channel partners to strengthen partnerships and support them in their delivery of tomorrow’s technology today. Lenovo is a strong, dynamic company with an excellent product portfolio and talented team. The refreshed channel programmes are helping to streamline processes for channel partners, and I’m excited about joining the company and supporting Lenovo’s ambition to grow the business alongside our channel partners.”

It looks like she means it.

Before her time at SMART, Ashworth was commercial sales manager role at the original Hewlett Packard and was a Sony general manager .

Of Ashworth’s appointment, Lenovo’s UK general manager Preben Fjeld said: “Our channel partners are fundamental to our continued growth plans and Jane’s strong background in channel sales, channel development and product management will further propel and energise the relationship with our partners in the UK and Ireland.”

InfinityQS bolsters its global channel partner programme with Tata

banner_220x220InfinityQShas announced that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is to join the InfinityQS channel partner programme in a new strategic alliance.

The new partnership with TCS – it’s said – will enable its blue-chip industrial clients to use the  InfinityQS Manufacturing and Quality Intelligence platform, Enact. It’s claimed it will enable InfinityQS to use TCS’s expertise in IT, business & technology services, and engineering, to support existing partners within the InfinityQS partner network.

For those who came in late, Tata Consultancy Services, is part of India’s largest multinational business group and helps manufacturers monetise connected products, operations and customers.

Speaking about the partnership Regu Ayyaswamy, Vice President and Global Head IoT & EIS at Tata said: “Increasingly, we’re seeing demand from our clients for greater flexibility across their plant IT solutions and because of this, it was the right time to bolster our services portfolio by becoming part of the InfinityQS partner program. Doing so enables us to integrate our solutions and offerings with Enact easily and seamlessly while leveraging its global support. Now our clients can capture data streams from a variety of plants and can significantly improve their production processes globally.”

Jason Chester, Director of Channel Programmes for InfinityQS, said: “Tata Consultancy Services is, without doubt, a revered global advisory company. We have successfully worked with TCS in the past on major projects with some of the world’s most recognisable manufacturing brands. To formalize this relationship through a new strategic alliance is a major opportunity for both our clients and prospects. Combining our best-in-class Enact solution with their exceptional services pedigree will be a transformative opportunity for the manufacturing industry.”

BuilderStorm partners with Conkers

banner_220x220Cloud-based BuilderStorm announced a partnership agreement with rugged tablet maker Conker to offer its solutions to BuilderStorm clients.

Conker’s rugged devices claim to provide the purpose-built functionality construction companies need to manage resources and operations via the BuilderStorm platform. The software can be used on any device with a browser, but in construction, it’s hard to recommend hardware that’s up to ‘the job’.

David Lawrence, CEO of BuilderStorm said: “We aim to have many joint customers who use our products alongside each other. We are regularly asked the best hardware to run the BuilderStorm Platform on on-site, in the past our advice has always been ‘for your site based team nothing too expensive, anything with a browser can support us’, now we have a product that can stand up to the Construction Industry we can pass on that value to our clients.”

Conker said it is continually listening to the feedback of the industry and further developing its product. It’s claimed  Conker’s Android devices perform well, hold their charge, and are IP68 rated, dustproof, water-proof and all integrated within a durable handset.