Author: Eva Glass

Eva Glass first rose to prominence in The INQUIRER. She continues to work behind the scenes to dig out the best stories.

Apps ain’t heavy, they’re by Brother

Posted on November 12, 2013 by - News, Products

ipad3Brother said it has created a series of apps intended to help its reseller community and its salesforce.

And to that end, it has given its entire sales force iPads with 3G access intended to help them put the message across about their products to resellers when they’re on the road.

David Peters, who heads up strategic development at Brother UK, said: “Access to our bespoke iPad apps means that our salesforce can easily access our online corporate resources, including those on our partner programme Brother Network, and as a result, provide better answers and a higher level of service.

“Brother UK is living and breathing an agile working culture, which increasingly typifies the working style of many of our partners and product end-users. By investing in the latest technology, we are not only improving our service to our partners, but also showcasing the progress we are making as a forward thinking solutions provider.”

5i woos resellers with cloud proposition

Posted on November 12, 2013 by - News

cloud 1ICT resellers are ready to jump on the cloud bandwagon and firm claims it can help them do just that.

Richard Brown, channel sales director at 5i, said that cloud technology has plenty of benefits but is also a big threat to businesses.

“Resellers are quick to recognise the complexities of deployment,” he said. “Resellers know that full cloud deployments are rare and they are turning to us for our complete suite of services.”

So 5i has created a partner enablement programme which includes marketing, sales, pre-sales and technical support.  That. Brown claims, will help partners to get to market quickly and there’s less risk than “going it alone”.

5i is a channel services company.

Financial services sector is ready for cloud

Posted on November 11, 2013 by - News

aircloiudsA report said the consequences of the credit crunch in 2008 has concentrated the minds of the financial sector and helped them to understand the benefits cloud services can bring.

According to the report, UK Financial Services Sector SITS Market Trends and Forecasts, from Tech Market View, the crash prompted “draconian cost cutting measures and rapid withdrawal from marginal business areas”.  But returning confidence in investment markets and other factors including more conservative ambitions have lead companies to concentrate on transforming costs.

The authors of the report said it is now clear to both customers and vendors that the last 18 months has seen a change in attitudes towards cloud services.

Their opinion now is that the sector will use cloud services to make the changes to costs. “Earlier concerns about security have moderated somewhat and… many companies have developed working practices and systems to limit the threat.”

And large customers now seem to be convinced of the benefits of private clouds. The report points to Lloyds Banking Group creating a cloud system for Unix and Windows servers.

Nevertheless, use of the cloud in core banking and transaction processing “is a long way off”.

Brits just want to keep taking the tablets

Posted on November 11, 2013 by - News, Products

Santa CalusIn the buildup to Christmas it seems that the hot item for Santa’s stocking are tablets.

That’s according to nevouchercodes.co.uk, which today reports there’s an 18 percent increase for people searching for tablets.

But the white box buys may not fare so well, because the company says most of the searches are for iPads, Samsung Galaxy tablets and Amazon Kindles.

MD of the company Steve Barnes said that whiole people are searching they’re not buying yet.  Tesco and Argos entering the fray makes tablets more affordable as a gift, he said.

People are also searching for deals on Xbox360s and PlayStation 3s because they’re expecting older models to be discounted in advance of the release of new consoles.

White box tablets make the grade

Posted on November 11, 2013 by - News, Products

ipad3A report said that shipments of unbranded tablets amounted to 25 million in the third quarter of this year.

Digitimes Research said that figure is up by 56.3 percent sequentially and up 40.4 percent year on year.

Most of the shipments went abroad and seven inch screens accounted for most of the growth.

Yet the research outfit believes it won’t be all plain sailing for the white box suppliers because big brands will, and are, offering Android units at prices that compete with the white box units.

Mediatek continues to make progress in the sector, with its chips accounting for 70 percent of application processors.

Sales in Europe and the US of white box units often accompany other bundling deals, but the Chinese manufacturers of the tablets can expect to make headway in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America, according to the research.

You’re hired! By social networking

Posted on November 11, 2013 by - News

crowdsA survey of over 7,000 HR managers, recruiters, and recruitment companies has revealed that social networking is playing an important role in hiring.

According to oilandgaspeople.com, which is a jobs board for the oil and gas industry, 82 percent of employers check out candidates on their social networking sites. And, be careful what you stick on Facebook or Linkedin, because 64 percent rejected applications after examining people’s profiles.

A staggering 88 percent of recruiters use Linkedin, while 25 percent used Twitter and 33 percent industry based boards.

The reason for using social media, according to 77 percent of those surveyed, is that it gives better access to more candidates.  But cost comes into the equation too – 33 percent said using social networking was cost effective, and 41 percent it gave them better insight into job candidates.

Over 63 percent said social media is more effective than print ads for advertising jobs.

Datacentres continue to be outsourced

Posted on November 8, 2013 by - Events, News

gigabyte-haswell-motherboardA market research company believes that by 2016 as many as 28 percent of UK datacentres will be outsourced.

DCD Intelligence said that companies now believe that outsourcing mission critical IT to a colocation provider is a viable alternative to having their own datacentre.

The company said that as the trend to outsource datacentre grows, it is adding a current to upcoming conference DatacenterDynamics Converged, in London.

The conference takes place at London Excel on the 20th and 21st of November.

Huawei, HGST intro 6TB systems

Posted on November 7, 2013 by - News, Products

huawei-liveHitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) and Chinese comms company Huawei said that they will deploy the Ultrastar He6 terabyte helium filled hard drives.

Huawei said that it is one of the first vendors to use the helium filled hard drives.

The use of helium instead of air lets the hard drives reduce shea resistance caused by the platter movement as well as letting standard 3.5-inch drives to include more platters.

Huawei claims that the drives improve capacity density by 87/5 percent, cuts power consumption by 23 percent and reduces temperature by four degrees Celsius.

The advantage of the drives also allows new designs for storage systems and datacentres, Huawei claimed.

Microsoft uses Thales to protect Azure

Posted on November 7, 2013 by - News, Products

clouds3Software giant Microsoft is using Thales’ technology to protect its Rights Management service  – Azure.

Thales said that Microsoft is using its nShield hardware security modules.

Rights management, said Thales, was largely handled by infrastructure within enterprises.  But shifting to a cloud model allows more accessibility and ease of use.

Microsoft thinks that by using an nShield MSM to allow the transfer of individual critical keys more security will be available to companies.

Microsoft partner management Dan Plastina said that because it was working with Thales its customers can generate and upload master keys to a cloud based HSM.

Fujitsu, transtec sign HPC deal

Posted on November 7, 2013 by - News

silicon-waferTranstec and Fujitsu UK are to cooperate to provide high performance computing (HPC) systems.

Matthew Prew, MD of transtec UK, said in a statement that the deal will benefit both his company and Fujitsu.

“From notebooks to high end servers, storage and SANs, both transtec and Fujitu are convinced that they now have all the bases covered,” he said.

Joe Duran, UK director for Fujitsu UK, said: “The team in Fujitsu are delighted to continue with their channel centric approach and to be working with transtec….to help customers meet their future R&D product development challenges.”

Transtec will contribute high quality HPC systems with post sale hardware and application support, Prew said.

Acer down: CEO quits

Posted on November 6, 2013 by - News

acer-logo-ceAfter turning in a net loss for its third financial quarter, Acer’s CEO and chairman JT Wang three himself on his sword.

The company turned in a net loss of NT$12.949 billion and attributed much of the shortfall to its Gateway, Packard Bell and Founder brands, according to a report on Taiwanese wire Digitimes.

Wang will remain as chairman until June 2014 but his job as CEO goes now to Jim Wong, corporate president of Acer.

Acer had a gross margin of 6.81 percent for the quarter. It’s very exposed to the downturn at the consumer end of the PC market.

That is  underlined by the news it shipped 1.4 million notebooks in October, down 10 percent from September. Digitimes again reported that much of that was due to labour shortages in China, where much of its kit is manufactured.

Avnet claims HP enterprise domination

Posted on November 5, 2013 by - News

avnettsMajor distributor Avnet Technology Solutions said it has added HP ArcSightLogger as part of its enterprise security product portfolio.

A log management tool, the ArcSight Logger is intended to provide management across search, reports, security, IT operations, application development and compliance.

Avnet claimed it is the only distributor in the UK to provide the entire HP networking portfolio along with HP enterprise security.

Andrew Stuart, HP business unit manager, Avnet Technology Solutions, UK, said: “Rogue employees, partners or criminal rings engaged in fraudulent activities only have to get it right once to create serious damage to an organisation’s network and reputation.  With access to a broader suite of HP enterprise software products, including enterprise event log management, network intrusion and application security, our partners can competitively differentiate themselves and deliver solutions to enhance threat detection and improve security while driving additional networking sales supported by Avnet.”

“Organisations need comprehensive enterprise security and compliance solutions to effectively manage network and application environments,” said Miles Rippon, manager, EMEA distribution, HP.  “With this extended partnership, Avnet can now include HP ArcSight in its portfolio of solutions for channel partners to deliver cost-effective log management capabilities to protect customers’ hybrid IT infrastructure from sophisticated cyber threats.”

High Street must lean on tech to survive

Posted on November 5, 2013 by - News

highstreet South endMonthly figures released by KPMG and the British Retail Consortium show that growth on the high street showed a 2.6 percent increase in October – up from 2.4 percent in September.

According to Dan Wagner, CEO of Powa Technologies, the outlook is bleak.

He said more shops are closing than opening and the figures might look better than 2012 but last year was a disaster, with 48,000 people laid off, 4,000 shops closed and 54 retailers going bust.

Wagner reckons that traditional shops on the high street need to get to grips with new technology.

“This is a crucial time of year for the retail industry. More than ever before it needs a technology driven resolution to create new ways to engage with customers,” Wagner said.

He thinks mobile point of sale is one way for shoips to engage with the technology, with people able to pick up goods without being crushed to death by the festive throng.

The Itanium lives on in HP kit

Posted on November 4, 2013 by - News, Products

HPWe don’t know how many Itanium microprocessors Intel still manufactures in its wafer manufactories.

The chip hasn’t been an Intel runaway success but today HP said it lives on its mission critical HP Nonstop technology for X86 servers.

According to HP, eight of the top 10 world banks use HP Nonstop and now the company is selling Integrity blade servers based on the Itanium 9500 series.

HP is, it said already developing tech to extend Nonstop to the X86 but it willtake several years before adoption, the company said.

Blade systems NB56000c-cg and NB56000c are already available, with prices varying. Resellers should contact their HP account manager for more information.

Ciena tweaks its channel

Posted on November 4, 2013 by - News, Products

CienaThe BizConnect programme from Ciena is being modified.

That’s the message from Nigel Williams, VP of global channels and strategic alliances.

He said in his blog that Ciena is now letting its solution provider partners offer its branded services directly to enterprise customers.

Ciena will provide support, training, lab equipment, evaluations, certifications, customer upsell and other services to its solution providers.

He said Ciena partners from regional VARs to global system integrators wanted to layer branded services combined with equipment sales, and that was the reason for the change.