Author: Andrea Petrou

Avnet partners with IBM SmartCloud

Posted on April 9, 2013 by - News

avnettsAvnet has chosen IBM SmartCloud as its platform for its Cloud Solutions programme in India.

The move is said to allow Avnet to offer small and medium business in India a selection of services in the cloud sector including storage capabilities in a utility model and customised services such as disaster recovery and managed services.

Avnet has a strong presence in India and it hopes that the cloud offerings will allow it to make more railroads into sectors such as retail, logistics, manufacturing, banking and financial services, public sector and education.

Its partnership with IBM SmartCloud will also mean that its partners benefit offering customers   access to enterprise-level IT at affordable price points without additional investment in infrastructure, security, back-up, upgrades and maintenance.

Avnet said the partnership would help those customers garner benefits by adopting a robust cloud architecture and service model, leapfrogging the traditional investment in enterprise IT and allowing them to focus on specific needs.

Canon touts compact imaging

Posted on April 8, 2013 by - News

Canon logoCanon is helping its partners make the most of the increasing demand for compact imaging products.

It has launched two new compact black-and-white multifunctional devices (MFDs) as part of its  ImageRunner Advance range, which it claims will create new revenue opportunities in the desktop capture and output market.

According to the company’s recent Office Insights report, value and cost of MFDs were found to be the most important factors in the purchasing process for 34 percent of decision makers, followed closely by reliability – 20 percent and output quality – 18 percent.

Canon said its new devices helped bridge this gap and also added to its partner’s portfolio.

The new ImageRunner Advance 400i and 500i A4 devices have output and capture capabilities in a compact design claimed to provide users with smarter ways of working.

End-users can print from any Google Cloud Print enabled web-connected device, or scan to and print from the iPad, iPhone and Android mobile devices. The Uniflow platform is said to offer configurable document workflows to larger organisations or more demanding environments.

Uniflow also provides a secure platform for users to print from any device to any networked MFD.

The ImageRunner Advance 400i and 500i devices will be available across the UK & Ireland from 1 May 2013.

Labour wades into high street debate

Posted on April 8, 2013 by - News

highstreetLabour has put its oar into the “how to fix the high street debate”.

Ed Miliband, Labour leader,  said that he wants to see payday lenders and betting shops that “engulf” people in debt, as well as take-away food chains, banned from the high street.

The Labour leader is speaking out against the way these shops are allowed to open up at the drop of a hat – sometimes next to each other – at the launch of his party’s local election campaign.

He proposes changes to planning laws, allowing councils to refuse permission for certain businesses.

He is expected to say councils should be allowed to prevent shops opening, such as payday lenders and bookmakers, which do not have a community’s backing as he believes in “local solutions to local problems”.

Miliband says that too many councils are finding that they don’t have the real power to stand up for local people. He said that if a bank or store closed down there is currently nothing that can be done to prevent a payday lender or betting shop opening up.

Last year 1,800 leisure, retail and services shops closed in England. Many were replaced by pay day loan shops, which saw a 20 percent increase in openings.

Embotics goes Microsoft Hyper-V

Posted on April 8, 2013 by - News

Hands across the waterEmbotics has released its Embotics V-Commander for Microsoft Hyper-V.

The virtualisation and cloud management software company claims that the new platform, with a new multi-tenant cost model capability, will help deliver IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) with support for multi-hypervisor environments, as well as help customers make the right economic decisions for their virtualised data centres.

Whilst the channel has done a great job of helping their customers to virtualise their IT environments, some customers have traditionally found it difficult to cut through the tough-talking and hyperbole from Microsoft and VMware about which vendor offers the most cost-effective hypervisors.

The new cloud management platform is said to change this offering easy-to-use rapid provisioning, self-service, service catalogues, IT costing and charge back, workflow automation, resource optimisation and lifecycle management capabilities and will now also give users a cost comparison functionality.

Embotics V-Commander is also said to help users integrate Hyper-V into their data centre environment for rationalisation via reclamation, optimisation and workload migration through multi-hypervisor adoption. Apparently data centres can implement Embotics V-Commander and accelerate cloud maturity without simultaneously accelerating costs or complexity.

Embotics V-Commander return on investment (ROI) is gained later through automation and the standardising of services for the best fit.

Additionally, by examining the historical view of the environment and how it grows, Embotics V-Commander can retrofit the environment to achieve ROI. It can also identify waste and help recycle, migrate and reclaim that waste on the Microsoft Hyper-V platform.

HMV to be aquired by Hilco

Posted on April 5, 2013 by - Gossip, News

hmv-administrationTroubled HMV has grabbed a lifeline from Hilco buying it out.

The store, which went into administration earlier this year, putting thousands of jobs at risk, has been rescued by specialist restructuring firm Hilco in what is believed to be a £50 million deal.

Hilco now has 132 HMV stores, and nine branches of the Fopp chain. It is expected up to 2,500 jobs could be saved.

The chain is expected to be run by a combination of HMV and newly-appointed Hilco executives, while suppliers are also rumoured to have gone running back to the company offering new terms and given a positive nod to the deal.

HMV could be in safer hands with Hilco already having experience with the brand in Canada, which it bought two years ago.

The purchase rumours emerged a after Jessops was saved by Peter Jones.

Ingram Micro strengthens UC position, Avnet bows out

Posted on April 5, 2013 by - News

IMIngram Micro is continuing its investment into the unified communications (UC) market announcing that it has partnered with Sangoma.

The distie has said the new partnership will add Sangoma’s NetBorder Lync Express, which it claims is the only All-In-One Lync Server appliance with built-in Gateway/ SIP Connectivity,  to its growing portfolio of products and services in support of Microsoft LyncTM.

It has now developed a bundle around Lync Express including an on-boarding tool for new resellers wishing to learn about deploying Lync, with training and professional services options.

In addition to Lync Express, Ingram Micro will also bring Sangoma’s VoIP Media Gateway and Session Border Controllers in to the rapidly growing SIP Market.

Jon Bunyard, Director of the Advanced Solutions UK Division at Ingram Micro said the  addition of Sangoma to the company’s lineup, combined with proposition being developed through  partnerships with ShoreTel, Microsoft LyncTM, Cisco, OAISYS and Jabra, leant “significant weight to [the company’s] value proposition in the Unified Communications space.

“We consider UC a growing market and will be showcasing our existing vendor ecosystem at this month’s Convergence Summit North in Manchester where we look forward to talking to resellers about the opportunities these partnerships represent in the voice space,” he added.

The disties further moves into the UC market are a contrast to its rival Avnet, which last month announced that it had decided to shut up shop in the this sector.

At the time it said it would cease taking orders for these products in the UK by the end of March, shunning resellers such as Avaya, Lifesize and Audiocodes who it had worked with to bring these items to market.

Avnet decided to make the moves claiming that UC technology was not core to its overall strategy. However, it promised that it would be working with its partners and suppliers to ensure the transition runs smoothly.

SAS to hire 94 Scots

Posted on April 5, 2013 by - News

Flag_of_Scotland.svgSAS has said that it will be generating 94 new Scotland jobs within its new Advanced Analytics lab and its expansion of  its Scottish Research and Development Centre for Public Security.

The project is supported by £1.3 million from Scottish Development International (SDI), a partnership between the Scottish government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Island’s Enterprise.

SAS has said as well as creating the new job opportunities it will also safeguard the current employee base of 126.

The partnership was announced during a Scotland Week meeting with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond who was visiting New York as part of his programme to boost investment and employment in Scotland.

If follows the news yesterday with Daktari, an American life sciences company, also announcing it too would be creating 126 new jobs as a result of locating its global manufacturing base in Inverness.

Speaking from New York, Mr Salmond said the move by SAS was a “significant feather in Scotland’s cap”.

He added the new facility would position Scotland as an “international centre of excellence for big data analytics” and create a “substantial number” of highly-skilled, high-value jobs.

SAS said it was pleased to be spreading its wings in Scotland, claiming the investments allowed it to see the real “Scottish potential” with access to a pool of talent from Scottish universities.

Brits fail to secure their mobile devices

Posted on April 4, 2013 by - News

ipad3Despite many of us treasuring our mobile devices, we’re not taking precautions to keep them, and their content safe, a study has found.

In its latest report Norton by Symantec Brits are now living various aspects of their work, social and online lives through their mobile devices, surfing online, downloading apps and making payments through them.

In fact we’re so attached to our mobiles that 40 percent of those queried admitted that they could never give up their mobile device, and close to a quarter of adults even indicated that it would be one of the top two personal items they would save if their house was on fire.

A large majority – 63 percent – of mobile users indicated they also stored and access sensitive information on their mobile devices. However, they don’t seem to be guarding this with their lives with almost a half admitting to not using a password to help protect their personal data.

Norton said that this could prove detrimental in the event of theft or loss, giving thieves “a treasure trove of personal information” stored on the device, which can potentially be accessed. This includes personal emails, which could pave a potential gateway to other sensitive information such as work correspondence and documents, passwords for other online accounts, and bank statements.

The study also reveals that losing a mobile device is common, costly and stressful for consumers.

Around one in four adults have had a mobile device lost or stolen, costing individuals an average of £73 for the replacement or temporary use of a mobile phone, and double the money to replace a tablet.

However, it’s not security that comes to their minds when they lose a mobile phone with 39 percent of those asked claiming they were most worried about incurring costly bills due to telephone calls.

And it seems our keenness to get online is also letting us down with over a third
admitting to not always downloading applications from trustworthy sources, and 28 percent claiming that they do not use secure payment methods when making purchases from their mobile device, leaving their sensitive information such as credit card details vulnerable.

According to the survey, seven percent of UK mobile users have already fallen victim to mobile cybercrime.

Most adults also admitted to using free or unsecured public Wi-Fi hotspots, and half of them were concerned about the potential risks of using free or unsecured public Wi-Fi hotspots, but yet still go ahead.

Just over a third said they used free public Wi-Fi spots to check their personal emails and 16 percent of respondents said they accessed their bank details online through free, unsecured Wi-Fi connections, exposing their sensitive financial details to mobile sniffers.

XBox 360 gamers best in bed

Posted on April 4, 2013 by - Fun Stuff, News

buttonsXBox 360 owners are the the best in bed, a spurious new survey has found.

In its research VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, which asked 1,747 gamers’ partners about  their skills between the sheets, found Xbox 360 owners accounted for the highest percentage of partners rated as ‘good’, ‘very good’ and ‘excellent’.

However, ChannelEye’s own quick research suggested that Playstation 3 gamers were slicker in the bedroom, with 15 out of a panel of 20 women claiming that these gamers were more likely to push the right buttons in the bedroom.

One woman also pointed out that allowing her other half to have both consoles made her “very lucky indeed” if the research was correct.

After establishing  that their partner played videogames in their leisure time, Voucher Codes Pro asked respondents ‘Which games console does your partner play on most frequently?’ and asked them to choose from a list of options. The most common answer was the Xbox 360 with 31 percent of the vote. The Playstation 3 was next at 26 percent. Just 12 percent played on the Wii. Only 10 percent of respondents’ partners were PC gamers.

Nearly half of gamers were voted as being only ‘average’ or below.

Of those asked, 21 percent of partners also said they wanted more sex and less gaming.

When broken down proportionally between the most frequently played consoles, it emerged that Xbox 360 owners were the best in the bedroom, with 54 percent of them being described as ‘good’ or above.

Only 22 percent were regarded as ‘excellent’ by their partner.

In contrast, the smallest percentage of gamers scoring an above average mark in the sex stakes were PC gamers, with only three percent being described as ‘excellent’ and eight percent regarded as ‘very good’.

IT budgets stay the same for SMEs

Posted on April 3, 2013 by - News

Ishut-up-and-take-my-moneyT software budgets have increased or remained the same for most SMEs over the past five years, research from SolarWinds has found.

In its Time and Budget Spent on IT study, the provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, pointed out that despite this, more than three quarters of the 500 companies asked said that on average, 12 per cent of software purchases still go unused.

Just over two thirds of the SMEs asked said they had an IT manager who is principally responsible for addressing IT issues, although in over 30 percent of organisations, the business owner or manager fulfils this role.

Almost one third of respondents said that IT was not their main responsibility within their organization, yet despite this, they admitted to spending up to 30 percent of their time managing IT issues.

Nearly all those asked – 87 percent – also grassed up their IT mates claiming that
that up to half of purchased IT software was not utilised. Of this group, 28 per cent said that up to a fifth of software purchased goes unused.

While budgets increased or remained the same in most industry sectors, companies in financial services and manufacturing were more likely to have reduced IT budgets the most in the last five years. And although IT spending is important to SMEs, budgets are small with one in five companies spending just £1,500 (~$2,000) on IT software each year.

More than a quarter of those in the UK who said that IT budgets had decreased or remained the same, stated that this had a detrimental impact on IT security and uptime. This was in comparison to Germany where less than ten percent felt that flat budgets had a negative impact on IT security and uptime.

Worldwide semi revenue falls

Posted on April 3, 2013 by - News

gartnerWorldwide semiconductor revenue declined in 2012, figures from Gartner have shown.

According to the analyst company revenues hit $299.9 billion in 2012, down 2.6 percent from 2011. It added that the overall semiconductor market decline also had a knock on effect on semiconductor vendors with the top 25 seeing a faster decline at 2.8 percent, than the industry as a whole.

The reason for the industry decline was put down to the disruption of  the computing, wireless, consumer electronics and automotive electronics sectors, which the semiconductor industry relies on, Gartner said.

Steve Ohr, research director at Gartner pointed out that in addition the industrial/medical, wired communications and military/aerospace sectors, “ordinarily less affected by changes in consumer sentiment” suffered severe declines in semiconductor consumption.

Excess inventory levels were also blamed for the profit declines.

Intel recorded a 3.1 percent revenue decline, due to falls in PC shipments. However, it held the top market share position for the 21st year in a row. Intel’s share was 16.4 percent in 2012, down from 16.5 percent in 2011.

Samsung, the second vendor, was held back by weak DRAM growth in 2012, as well as a dilution of the NAND flash market, although its overall revenue increased from smartphone application-specific integrated circuits and application-specific standard products.

Qualcomm’s semiconductor revenue increased 31.8 percent in 2012 to $13.2 billion. The company climbed from sixth place in 2011 to third in 2012 and now trails only Intel and Samsung. Qualcomm was the fastest-growing semiconductor company in the top 25 and continues to benefit from its leading position in wireless semiconductors.

Texas Instruments retained its fourth-place ranking, although Toshiba slipped to fifth place in semiconductor shipments.

Not enough women work in IT: official

Posted on April 3, 2013 by - News

old schoolWomen are still falling behind in the information technology and computing job front, which could have an impact on innovation IEEE has said.

According to the organisation, in 2009 only 18 percent of all computer and information science undergraduate degrees were awarded to women in the US.

It added that research by the National Committee of Women in Information Technology had also suggested things weren’t set to change with predictions that US universities would only produce only 52 percent of the computer science bachelor’s degrees needed to fill the 1.4 million available jobs by 2018.

IEEE pointed out that the lack of diverse perspectives could inhibit innovation, productivity, and competitiveness, and result in the US not having the professional workforce required to meet future needs.

In the current issue of  its Computer Society’s Computer magazine, the organisation  addresses the important challenge of building gender diversity in computing through guest writers in the academic space.

Jane Chu Prey a programme director at the National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education, said: “We face a great challenge, but one that can be conquered if we all work together. We need to recognise that to be successful, we must have a diverse workforce, and we all need to help build it.”

Alfred C Weaver, director of the University of Virginia’s Applied Research Institute, and a professor of computer science, also pointed out that the problem started from reception age and extended through undergraduate education and on to graduate school and industry.

“There is no easy solution or quick fix. All segments of the pipeline need attention,” he said.

The organisation hopes that by highlighting the problem it will encourage more women to join the technology ranks in the future.

Canon helps the partners out

Posted on April 2, 2013 by - News

canonCanon is helping its channel partners to generate additional revenues with the launch of two new series colour multifunctional devices (MFDs).

According to the company, the i-SENSYS MF8200 and MF8500 both offer high quality and connectivity features and all five new compact laser devices will enable partners to help their small to midsized customers work faster.

Anil Jagpal, European Marketing Manager for i-SENSYS at Canon Europe, said customers were increasingly asking Canon partners to provide office technology products that supported a more connected approach to working and increased the productivity of end-users.

The company also referenced its own recent research that found more than two-thirds of end-users felt that printers or scanners with Wi-Fi connectivity could improve their productivity.

“Our refreshed i-SENSYS range provides our partners with a great business opportunity to convert the strong desire for quality, connectivity and productivity into sales,” Jagpal added.

The new i-SENSYS MFDs are said to be designed to be shared and come network-ready as standard. They are claimed to provide users with the ability to print from a range of mobile and other web-connected devices, using Canon’s Mobile Printing App, Apple AirPrint or Google Cloud Print.

The i-SENSYS MF8280Cw and MF8580Cdw also feature Wi-Fi connectivity, and the i-SENSYS MF8500 series enables users to capture paper-based documents and send them straight from the device to an email address or network folder.

The MF8500 series also support PCL, which allows partners to integrate these devices into their customers’ existing IT and printing environments as well as offering security features that allow partners to meet their customers’ increasing demand for keeping company information safe.

The new i-SENSYS devices will be available from 15 May 2013.

Microsoft rumoured to be building smaller Surface tab

Posted on April 2, 2013 by - News

surface-rtMicrosoft is once again trying to ensure that Surface does as well as it possibly can.

According to Softpedia, the company is apparently working on a smaller sized Surface tablet in a bid to compete with the more miniature devices on the market.

It is thought that the new tablet will have a display around seven or eight inches and run Windows Blue after eagle eyed sources spotted a job ad on Coroflot’s job page asking for developers.

It said the Surface Team focused on building devices that “fully express the Windows vision.”

It hinted at a smaller tab, claiming that a “fundamental part” of its strategy  was having “desirable and powerful devices that enable the experiences people want, and elicit their excitement.

“We are currently building the next generation and Surface needs you,” the ad concluded.

Microsoft hasn’t faced the figures it had desired with its new baby. Last month Bloomberg reported that the company had sold about 400,000 Surface Pro tablets since their debut last month. In addition, it only managed to sell a little over a million Surface RT tablets.

It’s tried to conquer this by making more railroads into China, deciding last month to extend its selling channels for the Surface RT tablets, which it previously only sold through two distributors- its online store and chain store for electronics, Suning.

Previously the giant had not been able to go through further channels as a result of an exclusive distie deal with Suning, but last month sources said that this deal expired in February, paving the way for Microsoft to pick up new channels.

In a bid to boost sales it was rumoured to be turning to four new distribution partners aboard. These included PC Mall, Sundan, One Zero and 360buy.

Tourists bounce through UK stores over Easter

Posted on April 2, 2013 by - News

highstreet South endTourists from across the pond helped boost Easter trading figures in blighty, research has found.

According to the latest figures, tourists flocked to UK stores in a bid to find British gifts for their pals back home, pushing up footfall and finances.

The New West End company, which represents 600 retailers on Bond Street and Oxford Street in London, told the Express that it had seen more feet through doors with a 2.3 percent rise on Good Friday and Easter Saturday compared to last year.

It said people, including those from the US, France and Germany  made the most of exchange rates and splashed around £75 million over the two days, a huge jump of £15 million more than 2012.

And it wasn’t just London which had financial success with coastal towns also raking in the cash over the Easter period.