Google gets a per-second cloud

Posted on September 28, 2017 by - News

Ominous Clouds over Dublin CityGoogle has extended per-second billing to a range of services on its Cloud Platform, after Amazon Web Services (AWS) moved to the same system last week.

Paul Nash, group product manager of Compute Engine at Google, played down the significance of the new billing model saying that Google has offered per-second billing for its Persistent Disks storage service since 2013. He said that the difference between per-minute and per-second billing is very small anyway.

“On the other hand, changing from per-hour billing to per-minute billing makes a big difference for applications – especially websites, mobile apps and data processing jobs – that get traffic spikes. The ability to scale up and down quickly could come at a significant cost if you had to pay for those machines for the full hour when you only needed them for a few minutes.”

Google said  its per-second model will be available on a range of operating systems including Windows, which AWS said would be excluded from its own per-second offering.

Staff start exiting Tintri

Posted on September 27, 2017 by - News

42BE314500000578-4737070-image-a-47_1501179802781While Tintri has refused to say much about its company wide decimation plans, it appears that some top managers are already clearing out their desks and sticking their personal positions into old photocopy paper boxes.

The vendor said last week that it would be cutting over 10 per cent of its workforce by the end of October to “drive efficiencies” in its sales organisation. The cuts were understood to be worldwide.

Tintri’s former senior channel manager Mark Hughes has since confirmed his departure in a LinkedIn post.

The vendor first confirmed the redundancies in a filing with the US Securities and Exchanges Commission last week, revealing that the board of directors approved the cuts on 18 September.

“The restructuring is part of an overall plan to drive efficiencies in the company’s sale organisation and other business units,” the filing stated.

Tintri’s went public earlier this year and its share price tanked by 50 percent since its first day of trading.

In its most recent quarterly filing Tintri recorded a 27 percent year-on-year revenue jump for the three months ending 31 July, up to $34.9 million. Its operating loss however doubled to $49.1 million.

Tintri shareholders are furious and several law firms have announced plans to take action against Tintri on behalf of shareholders over “possible violations of federal securities laws”.

Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz have filed a class action which alleges that Tintri made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose material information in connection with its IPO.

On September 7, 2017, Tintri announced its second quarter results, reporting revenue at the low end of analysts’ expectations and weaker than expected third quarter guidance. The Company projected revenues to increase just slightly quarter over quarter to $36-$37 million compared to expectations of $42.5 million, the lawyers said.  Following this news, Tintri’s stock price dropped over 31 percent to close at $4.55 per share on September 8, 2017, which caused investors harm.

Microsoft wants AI everywhere

Posted on September 27, 2017 by - News

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kinopoisk.ru

Software King of the World Microsoft has said that you can never have too much AI.  It has been short of ordinary intelligence for years so I guess it could do with a little injection of nous.

CEO Satya Nadella told the assorted throngs at its Ignition event in Florida that “a little bit of machine learning here and there” was not enough.

He said that AI needs to become a more integral element of IT.

“It’s no longer about deploying one AI system or doing a little bit of machine learning here and there,” he said. “It is about, in fact, changing the culture inside our organisations so that we understand very deeply what it means to create these digital feedback loops across all these outcomes.

“These new virtuous cycles between our products, their usage, their creation of data and the business model, that’s what we’ve got to get intuitively.

“In fact even for us at Microsoft, that’s the process of transformation we’re going through as we change the nature of our products, we change the nature of how we engage with you as our customers and partners.”

At Ignition, Vole  introduced a range of AI-driven updates for Dynamic 365, as well as a new set of machine-learning tools for developers working with Microsoft Azure.

 

 

Apple sticks spanner in Toshiba sale

Posted on September 27, 2017 by - News

apple-disney-dreams-snow-white-Favim.com-142405The fruity cargo cult Apple is holding up the sale of Toshiba’s memory chip business.

An agreement worth over $18 billion for Toshiba was announced last week, with the winning bidder a consortium led by Bain Capital and including Apple and Dell.

However Tosh has been telling its banks that Apple is stalling and apparently one of the failed bidders, KKR, is now trying to tempt Apple to switch sides.  Apple had previously opposed KKR’s bid because its consortium included Western Digital, which is a joint investor in TSMC’s flash memory facility.

Apple, which is the biggest consumer of the memory chips, feared that Western Digital’s involvement would consolidate the market too much and lead to less competitive pricing, Bloomberg said.

Western Digital has since pulled out of the consortium and is seeking to block Bain Capital’s bid.

If KKR is able to persuade Apple to switch sides at the last minute, it could upset a deal that had looked like it would end months of twists and turns in finding a buyer for Toshiba’s family jewels.

Tosh needs cash to shore up a balance sheet destroyed by a failed foray into the nuclear power equipment industry and is facing a deadline in March to complete a deal or be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

PCM buys a Liverpool cloud

Posted on September 26, 2017 by - News

Liverpool-X2US reseller giant PCM has written a cheque for Liverpool-based cloud service provider Stack Technology.

PCM entered the UK by starting a local operation from scratch in May, but hinted at the time that it may look to back this up with an acquisition.

Stack bills itself as a specialist in cloud, security, virtualisation, data services, unified communications and infrastructure, and has two accredited cloud datacentres.  It is worth about £2.9 million.

PCM said the acquisition will speed its efforts to pick up vendors in the UK and boost its managed services prowess.

PCM CEO Frank Khulusi said: “The acquisition of The Stack Group is a key milestone for our new UK segment to further support our clients’ needs in the services and solutions market.

“As a leading provider in North America, we continue to look for ways to accelerate market share gains and this acquisition will allow us to expand on our offerings not only to new customers in the UK and European markets, but also to our global customers based in North America. We are pleased to welcome The Stack Group team to the rest of the PCM family and look forward to jointly providing world-class services and solutions to our clients across the globe.”

Stack will add the following vendors Cisco, Citrix, Dell EMC, Fortinet Meru, NetApp, Nutanix, Sophos, Veeam, VMware, Ubiquiti Networks and Zerto.

Fintech awareness increasing

Posted on September 26, 2017 by - News

fintech_shutterstock_502994557Fintech awareness is growing among UK businesses, according to a survey by business finance company MarketInvoice.

The survey found that 77 percent of UK businesses are aware of fintech products and services and 65 percent have adopted at least one fintech application, with 19 percent taking on four.

Those who adopt it claim to be saving more than £5,500 a year as a result of using fintech products and services and 23 percent of them are using fintech products and services for banking transactions, while 16 percent are using it for foreign exchange services.

Meanwhile, 24 percent reported using cloud-based software for their accountancy functions and 32 percent used online lenders for business loans or invoice finance.

MarketInvoice claimed the £4.6 billion saving for US businesses is based on FSB statistics which show there are 5.5 million businesses in the UK, of which 1.3 million are employing businesses. The £4.6bn is achieved by multiplying 65 percent of 1.3 million businesses by £5,500 – the average annual savings by adopting fintech services.

Anil Stocker, CEO and co-founder of MarketInvoice said that the expansion of tech-driven digital services has been remarkable over the past five years.

“We know that consumers have been adopting tech applications into all parts of their lives, but our research shows that UK businesses are now also becoming tech-savvy.”

Stocker said fintech applications are revolutionising the way business is being done, from how employees report their expenses to the way businesses report their financial performance.

 

NTT Com and Dell EMC build Azure lab

Posted on September 26, 2017 by - News

cloud1NTT Com has teamed up with Dell EMC to provide a Microsoft Azure application testing lab for non-production virtual workloads at limited scale.

NTT Com claims to be the only global service provider to offer a choice of on premises or hosted services in one of its 140 data centres via fully managed private cloud solutions using Microsoft Azure Stack.

The Proof of Concept to test applications on Azure Stack will run on a single node server in one of NTT Com’s data centres. The low PoC fee includes the necessary Azure Stack qualified engineering services to load and test the application, rented time on the test server and fully documented objectives and reported outcomes. With the cost of the Proof of Concept being refunded if the customer opts to take out a managed Azure Stack solution from NTT Com.

Azure Stack is designed to bring many of the features of the Azure cloud computing platform into the enterprise data center, providing hybrid cloud customers with the flexibility and innovation capabilities designed to meet the business objectives of those adopting a data transformation strategy. Azure Stack is now available to order on dedicated server hardware from Dell, however testing your application compatibility before making the move to Azure Stack is highly recommended.

Jay Snyder, Senior Vice President, Global Alliances, Dell EMC said his outfit was delighted to be collaborating with NTT Communications.

He said it would provide a powerful application testing facility focused on the Azure Stack. These capabilities will enable customers the ability to migrate existing applications efficiently as they establish their long-term strategy for hybrid cloud.

The Dell EMC hardware platform delivers an automated, Azure – consistent experience on a single hybrid cloud platform for both traditional and Cloud – native applications, which, when coupled with managed services from NTT Com, provides customers with a credible choice when seeking a viable solution partner to this new cloud product in the market.

Roger Vilà, SVP Enterprise Services at NTT Europe said: “Azure Stack is the backbone of Microsoft’s new Cloud strategy. By utilizing this PoC facility, organizations can help ensure they are harnessing all of the power offered by Microsoft cloud and unify the disparate systems that may be running across their business effectively from the onset.”

NTT Com is a  member of the Microsoft Early Adopter Initiative for Azure Stack for over eight months and is providing global managed services through NTT Com Managed Services, delivering a one-stop shop for managed hybrid cloud services. NTT Com already has numerous large customers on the managed Azure platform and is fully prepared for Microsoft Azure Stack’s release.

Brexit harms PC prices shock horror

Posted on September 25, 2017 by - News

are-we-afraid-noUK PC prices have suffered from the UK’s stand against foreigners coming over here and doing all the jobs we don’t want to do at reasonable rates.

Britain might be great again and have full employment, rule the waves etc since it stood up to Brussels, but Brexit has caused a spike in the price of various goods, ranging from computers to coffee and wine, with the channel having to pass on the bad news to customers.

According to Which? magazine,  the consumer watchdog asks questions about the impact of Brexit and details the range of price increases that have hit customers.

Apple MacBooks, which in some cases have increased by just shy of 20 percent, along with Microsoft Surface models that have gone up between 11-15 percent. But those are not the only two vendors that have been forced to increase retail prices. Ever since the referendum result slightly more than a year ago there have been movements in the prices of goods because of the slump in sterling.

Which? tech expert Jack Turner reckoned that some vendors had been quicker than others to pass the price rises on but exchange rates had caused a huge impact across the sector.

Nearly all of the major hardware vendors have been forced to bow to currency pressure and put up prices. So far since the Brexit vote the likes of HP, Dell, Lenovo along with Apple and Microsoft have raised hardware prices between 10-15 percent and software prices by 20 percent.

Context, which monitors the ASPs being offered through distribution, has seen rises over the course of the last year, which have continued into Q3.

Distributor ASPs for PCs were up 17 percent year-on-year across Western Europe, from €486 in July and August 2016 to €567 in early Q3 this year.

Currency fluctuations have been driving PC ASP increases since Q3 2016 but Context has also noted a move towards more high end gaming systems in the consumer segment, which has had an influence on prices.

Still at least the lot of the common man is better since Brexit… oh

HPE to decimate staff again

Posted on September 25, 2017 by - News

legionnaires Hewlett Packard Enterprise is planning to cut 5,000 jobs or 10 percent of its workforce, as part of its HPE Next restructuring initiative.

HPE has already begun notifying executives impacted by the restructuring, with the company announcing this week the new management teams within each of the 11 regions.

HPE is officially not saying anything about the moves. The company has been restructuring for years no and it is surprising that there are still staff to decimate.

The HPE Next initiative is aimed at rearchitecting and simplifying the structure of the company with as much as $200 million to $300 million in cost savings in the current fiscal year. HPE is aiming for $1.5 billion in cost savings over a three-year period.

HPE CEO Meg Whitman told her unfortunate employees that the news of the restructuring was just media reports speculating about employee reductions.

“As you know, we have been aggressively moving forward with our HPE Next program, which is focused on positioning the company for the future. And, I can assure you that our employees are the heart of that strategy. We are looking at a variety of options as we think about the cost structure of the company, and they include both reductions and investments,” Whitman said in the memo.

However, Whitman said it is critical for the company to put “the right resources behind areas that will drive our profitable growth, while rebalancing our cost structure in others”.

Whitman said HPE is committed to “transparency” and will communicate decisions as soon as they are made.

As part of the next restructuring, HPE has already announced that it is flattening its channel organization eliminating layers of management by combining its channels and alliances groups under a single organization headed by Global Channel Chief Denzil Samuels.

The restructuring also includes a new North America management team led by North America Sales Chief Dan Belanger, CRN reported Friday.

Among the top channel executives leaving HPE as a result of the restructuring are Scott Dunsire, an 11-year HPE veteran widely credited with making broad channel improvements and improving co-selling engagement between partners and the HPE direct sales force and Mike Parrottino, a 30-year HPE veteran who was a passionate advocate for partners and the SMB route to market.
Both Dunsire and Parrottino dramatically increased the percentage of sales going through the channel, initiating a mandate to drive 100 percent of SMB sales through partners.

Microsoft moves close to Apple’s sacred London Turf

Posted on September 25, 2017 by - News

6629255509_1bcb6e1997Software King of the World Microsoft is opening a new store on London’s Regent Street area which is zoned by the Apple Cult as sacred and holy to them.

The Tame Apple Press is furious after Microsoft announced plans for its first UK retail store, just a stone’s throw from Apple’s flagship outlet.

While not revealing when the store will open, Microsoft’s UK boss Cindy Rose said in a blog post: “We couldn’t be happier to be opening a flagship store in the heart of central London at Oxford Circus, where two of the world’s most iconic shopping streets meet.

“We know our customers and fans, whether they are from London, the broader UK or just visiting, will love our bold plans for the space.

“This will be so much more than just a great place to experience all that is possible with Microsoft, but a real hub for the community where we’ll be bringing to life our passion for helping people explore their creativity through an ambitious programme of workshops and training along with moments that work to unite the community.”

This is not the first time that Apple has faced its sworn rival threatening to contaminate its sacred ground with cheaper more reliable products.  Vole has been threatening to open an inner London store close to Apple since 2012.

There are 75 Microsoft stores globally, with two flagship stores in New York and Sydney.

Capita does a U turn

Posted on September 22, 2017 by - News

4e1c55e8ea626edb781355e5ac47ca51--small-cars-naples-italyCapita’s IT services division managed to turn itself round in the first half of this year and get back to black. However, the rest of the company is not looking so hot.

Overall Capita business saw an underlying revenue decline of three percent to £2.07 billion.

The drop in revenue saw Capita’s share price fall by over 11 percent on the London Stock Exchange.

Underlying operating profit however jumped 38 percent to £228.4 million, attributed to “a significant improvement” in the IT services division.

CEO Andy Parker stepped down last week to spend more time with his family just before the news was announced.

Nick Greatorex, interim CEO at Capita, said: “In the first half of 2017, we made good progress on executing the plans laid out at the end of last year to reposition the group.

“We announced the sale of our asset services businesses, completed the disposal of our specialist recruitment business and commenced a number of cost initiatives.

“We remain confident that these actions are making Capita a simpler business, well positioned for the future under new leadership.”

Despite the broader business struggling, Capita was optimistic about the turnaround of its IT services division.

The IT division was held responsible for Capita’s first ever profit warning last year, and was a key factor in Parker announcing his departure in March after the outsourcer’s full-year profits fell £100 million  in 2016.

However in H1 Capita saw revenue for the division up 13.6 percent to £273.9 million

Capita said: “The turn-around of our IT services division progressed better than expected, following restructuring of the management team and operating model, but we continued to be impacted by weakness in a number of discretionary services.

“We improved our major contract win rate in a relatively subdued business process management market in the public sector.”

IoT adopters need systems integrators

Posted on September 22, 2017 by - News

fings-ain-t-wot-they-used-t-be-all-star-studio-cast-recordingEnterprises wanting to build end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) solutions are increasingly turning to System Integrators (SIs) as partners.

ABI Research forecasts that IoT system integration and consulting revenues will grow past US$35.7 billion in 2022 from just under US$17 billion in 2017 at a CAGR of 16.1 percent. SI specialists address the challenges the IoT poses due to their vast experience integrating legacy systems into end-to-end solutions, their knowledge of the IoT landscape and players in the market, and their existing relationships with enterprises and end-users. That’s what it reckons.

“The core responsibility of a system integrator is to fill the gap between solution providers and targeted market verticals”,  said Ryan Harbison, Research Analyst at ABI Research. “As such, SIs have a deep knowledge not only of enterprise pain points and issues, but also of specific applications and the business as a whole.”

SIs are becoming essential partners in many IoT partner program ecosystems due to their expertise in integrating IoT solutions across specific vertical markets and regions. SIs range from global system integrators (GSIs) and consultancies like Accenture, Deloitte, and PricewaterhouseCoopers to IT service system integrators like IBM and HP. GSIs like Accenture have stayed ahead of the curve in IoT primarily by addressing client demand for connected solutions and by understanding the value behind enterprise digital transformation and technology convergence. Technology services providers such as Altimetrik and Leverege have delivered value to their clients by offering extensive knowledge and expertise within particular vertical market segments.

“End-users are less concerned with the features of a various device or software platform and are more concerned with how their IoT solutions work as a whole to truly become a system of systems,” concludes Harbison. “Enterprises looking to develop IoT solutions may not contact hardware or software vendors and instead rely on the advice of a SI to navigate the marketplace to find solution components that deliver a full solution. Moving forward, it’s crucial for software and hardware providers to develop deep relationships with a range of SIs that provide vertical-specific solutions to end-users.”

These findings are from ABI Research’s Role of System Integrators in M2M and IoT report. This report is part of the company’s M2M, IoT & IoE research service, which includes research, data, and analyst insights.

Microsoft larging it in Manchester

Posted on September 22, 2017 by - News

934604c61e26727fe609989426d9af77--car-parks-manchester-englandMicrosoft has opened a new office in Manchester, in a move which it says will give it a “strong base” to work with northern partners.

The office in Charlotte Street will be occupied by 100 Microsoft Voles and used as a collaboration space for partners and customers, Microsoft said.

Derrick McCourt, general manager of Microsoft’s UK customer success unit said that Manchester was  important to Microsoft.

“We have a long-standing relationship built on common values, including industry, creativity and caring about people.

“We see the region as a core part of our strategy. This office is a commitment to the area and our customers, business partners here and in the north. It’s also a commitment to the UK economy, and we are passionate about the role that technology plays in this country.”

The new office becomes Microsoft’s fourth in the UK, adding to its current bases in London, Edinburgh and its headquarters in Reading.

Gemalto finds bigger breaches on the rise

Posted on September 21, 2017 by - News

hqdefaultSecurity vendor Gemalto claims that more data was stolen in the first half of this year than in the entirety of 2016, but the number of reported European breaches dropped 35 percent.

According to Gemalto research, over 1.9 million data records were nicked compared to just under 1.4 million in all of 2016, representing an increase of 164 percent.

The report said that the numbers of data records pinched will grow significantly, especially as government regulations in the US, Europe and elsewhere enact laws to protect the privacy and data of their constituents by associating a monetary value to improperly securing data.

“Security is no longer a reactive measure but an expectation from companies and consumers”, the report said.

Gemalto’s research found identity theft to be the leading type of data breach, accounting for 74 percent of all breaches in the first six months of this year. The number of records exposed as a result of identity theft jumped 255 percent.

North America maintained its position as the number one attack target, making up over 86 percent of both total breaches and total records stolen.

Gemalto said that North America has always seen the most declared data breaches, but said it expects that to change once the General Data Protection Regulation comes into effect next year.

In the first of half of this year European companies reported 49 data breaches, reflecting just five percent of the global total and a decline of 35 percent on the previous six months, Gemalto said.

Veritas does not think Dell’s EMC mash up was a good thing

Posted on September 21, 2017 by - News

 

img287110241024-580x358Dell’s merger with EMC sparked much mirth at its rival,  Veritas.

The wags at Veritas mashed up a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and celebrity Kim Kardashian in the process to have a dig at Michael Dell’s efforts.

Mike Palmer, executive vice president and chief product officer at Veritas, used his keynote address to talk about “data monsters” and displayed six such ‘monsters’ on the big screen: Mike and Sully from Monsters, Shrek, Frankenstein’s monster, Stripe from Gremlins, the Night King from Game of Thrones and finally an image which blended the faces of Kim Jong-un and Kim Kardashian.

He said that it had created each ‘monster’ to demonstrate a different type of data threat. For Mike and Sully, Palmer said: “Some monsters learn how to add value in society, such as these guys who eventually created energy through laughter”, while the likes of Stripe transformed into something evil and were “not as well intentioned”.

The Jong-un-Kardashian mash-up was all about Dell and EMC. “I got this from Dell EMC. They went to the Kim Jong-un school of sales training, realised that sort of dictatorial hardware image isn’t what they wanted, so they mashed it up with Kim Kardashian and that is what we got.”