Author: Nick Farrell

William Jarrod Partnership sold to Marathon

Posted on October 18, 2021 by - News

Marathon has acquired Horsham-based William Jarrod Partnership as the business continues a “period of rapid growth”.

William Jarrod Partnership is a cybersecurity-focused outfit that was founded in 2011 and offers services including security awareness training, disaster recovery and backup recovery, mobile device management and email security. Its staff will join Marathon as part of the acquisition.

Marathon has been doing well this year – it became a Microsoft Gold partner and Co-Sell accreditation as well as ISO 27001 certification companywide. It also moved into a new company headquarters in Chessington.

Microsoft pees off its partners

Posted on October 15, 2021 by - Gossip, News

Software princeling of the world, Microsoft, has managed to get its channel partners hot under the collar over changes to its billing which will see them made responsible for their customer’s debts.

Vole has decided, in its ineffable wisdom, to suggest that its partners should take on financial responsibility if their customer becomes unable to pay for their O365 licence, after all, someone must and it is certainly not going to be Microsoft.

The idea is part of something dubbed a New Commerce Experience (NCE) which includes a number of changes for its “partners”. Under the new agreement, partners claim that they would have to take on the financial risk of paying the rest of a subscription if a customer was no longer able to due to insolvency or another reason.

If a company takes out a three-year Office 365 on CSP and they go bust in year two, then the reseller still has to pay the remaining two years. If it’s a big licensing agreement and they go bust, they still have to pay Microsoft the remainder of that contract.

Tanium teams up with Exclusive Networks

Posted on October 15, 2021 by - News

Tanium has expanded its partnership with Exclusive Networks in the EMEA region. They make a perfect couple.

The move means that Exclusive Networks will give resellers the ability to address the challenges faced in the hybrid-working world, providing customers with real-time visibility and control across their endpoints – whatever endpoints means.

The increases in remote work adoption, distributed operations and multi-cloud deployments, combined with device proliferation has made managing and securing IT environments incredibly complex. To add to these challenges, mid-size businesses are at greater risk of ransomware and other malware threats than ever before, but are struggling with keeping on top of cyber hygiene basics that help to protect them.

Synaxon adds UFP to distie list

Posted on October 15, 2021 by - News

Synaxon UK has added another name to its growing list of distributor partners – the specialist provider of print and IT products, UFP.

UFP’s portfolio is available to resellers through Synaxon EGIS online procurement platform.

UFP has a pan-European presence and annual sales of over €1.26 billion (£108 million). It employs 750 people, 125 of them at its UK base in Bradford. UFP is an authorised distributor for Apple, Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, HP, IBM, Kyocera, Lenovo, Lexmark, Logitech, NETGEAR, OKI, Samsung, Xerox, and other leading vendors. As well as print devices, it offers networking, peripherals, data storage, mobile accessories, and other tech products for delivery throughout the UK.

Datto releases two new cloud-based security offerings

Posted on October 14, 2021 by - News, Products

Datto has kicked off its DattoCon NOW, MSP-centric event, with the launch of two new cloud-based security offerings — Datto SaaS Defense and Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure.

The virtual DattoCon attracted more than 6,000 registrants from 69 countries who provide technology services and support for small and medium businesses (SMBs) worldwide.

Datto CEO Tim Weller said the value of companies increasingly lies in their digital assets — both applications and data — and those assets are moving to remote and cloud environments, which means a rapid growth in attack vectors.

“Securing the digital assets of their clients is the primary mission of MSPs. The new world of work brings complexity which creates massive MSP opportunities.”

Channel should be training a quantum workforce

Posted on October 14, 2021 by - News

Research from Classiq has found that there is a dramatic need for a trained quantum workforce, without which accelerated adoption of quantum computing is not possible.

The study found was based on a survey of more than 500 US professionals – ranging from C-level executives to managers – who said that they are very or familiar with quantum computing.

Classiq co-founder and CEO Nir Minerbi said that quantum computing will provide competitive advantage for forward-thinking businesses. But there were challenges – including a quantum skills shortage and the need for better development platforms.

IoT investment about to overtake the cloud

Posted on October 14, 2021 by - News

illustration: elenabsl/adobe stock

Research by Inmarsat reveals that investment in the Internet of Things (IoT) is set to overtake cloud computing, next-generation security, big data analytics and other digital transformation technologies soon.

Respondents drawn from multiple industries reported plans to invest the greatest proportion of their IT budget on IoT projects over the next three years.

The report found IoT has reached a high level of maturity across most organisations, with businesses across all industry sectors now planning to spend an average of $2.8 million on their IoT investments through to 2024. While IoT accounted for an average of seven per cent of an organisation’s IT budget between 2017 and 2020, businesses are planning to spend 10 percent of their IT budgets on IoT projects over the next three years.

Planned investments in IoT are notably higher than those earmarked for other Industry 4.0 technologies, including cloud computing (9.0 percent), next-generation security (7.5 percent), big data analytics (7.3 percent), robotics (5.3 percent), machine learning (4.8 percent) and virtual reality (4.3 percent).

Sophos signs two new disties

Posted on October 13, 2021 by - News

Sophos has partnered with Tech Data and Giacom as part of an expansion of its UK operati0n.

The security vendor’s new partnership with Tech Data will see the distributor deliver Sophos’ full range of products and services and will provide channel partners with the “staffing and tools, such as in-depth sales, technical and renewal support, that they need to accelerate business growth”.

Sophos now has three distributors in the UK with Tech Data and Giacom sitting alongside an existing partnership with Arrow ECS.

Meanwhile, the Giacom partnership will see its full suite of services offered, as well as providing partners with cloud software solutions available in their cloud market management portal and giving access to “highly-trained and certified sales, technical support and customer service teams and a wealth of sales, marketing, technical and training resources”.

Supply chains are biting according to IDC

Posted on October 13, 2021 by - News

Rusty chain - Wikimedia CommonsThe global PC market has been tiggered by supply chain challenges during the third quarter of 2021, according to IDC.

IDC added up some numbers and divided by its shoe size to discover that shipments of PCs, including desktops, notebooks, and workstations, reached 86.7 million units, up 3.9 percent year on year.

It marks the sixth consecutive quarter of growth for the PC market, IDC claims, as the onset of the pandemic has led to a surge in demand while also contributing to component shortages and other supply challenges.

IDC’s Mobile and Consumer Device Trackers re, Jitesh Ubrani said that the PC industry continues to be hampered by supply and logistical challenges and unfortunately these issues have not seen much improvement in recent months.

“Given the current circumstances, we are seeing some vendors reprioritise shipments amongst various markets, allowing emerging markets to maintain growth momentum while some mature markets begin to slow.”

Arcserve names Brannon Lacey new CEO

Posted on October 13, 2021 by - Moving People, News

Data protection outfit Arcserve has named Brannon Lacey as its CEO.

The appointment comes as Arcserve wants to rapidly expand on its global top five data protection vendor position following the merger with StorageCraft in March of this year. Arcserve brings, it’s said,  much-needed data and business certainty to organisations of all sizes globally.

Dave Hansen, Arcserve’s Chairman of the Board said: “Brannon is an exceptional business leader. He brings a tremendous track record in leading fast-growth global companies and achieving strong and sustainable growth in highly competitive markets. His deep experience with channel-driven organisations from both vendor and customer perspective will be of immense value to Arcserve as a 100% channel-centric company.”

Infor offers an industry cloud for the public sector

Posted on October 12, 2021 by - News, Products

Cloudy Infor has launched Infor Public Sector – a dedicated multi-tenant cloud offering for the UK public sector.

The product mixes Infor CloudSuite Public Sector, Financials and Supply Chain Management (FSCM), Infor People Solutions (HR & Talent) with the dedicated public sector enterprise asset management capabilities of Infor Hansen, all of which run on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The company said that the solution ensures that local and central government and arms-length bodies remain on the most up-to-date software releases to provide robust, secure and easily managed services.

Infor Public Sector can be deployed via AWS in London. As part of the offering, Infor will build on more than two decades of experience with UK public sector organizations such as South West Water, Borders College, London Fire Brigade and Viewpoint Housing;  and many global customers including the City of Coral Gables in Florida, USA, Ras Al Khaimah Wastewater Agency (RAKWA) in UAE and the City of Franklin in Tennessee, USA.

Hiber and Inmarsat team up on low-power IoT network.

Posted on October 12, 2021 by - News

IoT as a service outfit, Hiber, has teamed up with Inmarsat to provide it with a satellite connectivity backbone on which it will continue to build Hiberband, its low-cost, low-power network for Internet of Things (IoT) products.

The agreement pairs Inmarsat’s recently unveiled ELERA network, the global satellite network for IoT, with Hiber’s IoT-as-a-service ecosystem to provide low power IoT solutions and services to transport, logistics, agriculture, mining and other industries worldwide.

Hiber will continue using its own proprietary protocols that allow for ultra-low power and low-data consumption levels to connect to Inmarsat’s ELERA network and power its IoT solutions.

Coronavirus brought cyber breach to half of businesses

Posted on October 12, 2021 by - News

SecureAge Technology, a global data and endpoint protection company, announced the release of its 2021 COVID & Cybersecurity Study. Polling 200 employers and 400 employees from around the UK business world during Q3 2021, the study examined key cybersecurity topics and trends.

A survey conducted by SecureAge has found that 48 percent of businesses have experienced a cyber breach during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another eight percent thought they might have and 16 percent of employees said they had personally had to deal with a cybersecurity incident during the same period.

SecureAge Technologies technical director Nigel Thorpe said that COVID-19 created one of the most challenging periods ever for businesses, their staff and IT departments.

QCI offers quantum software-as-a-service (SaaS) quantum partner programme

Posted on October 11, 2021 by - News

After launching a software-as-a-service (SaaS) quantum computing solution earlier this year, Quantum Computing (QCI) has rolled out a new partner programme for the scheme for those who want their cats dead and alive.

Qatalyst makes quantum computing resources readily accessible to users on classic computer systems, reducing related costs and deployment time. The new Partner Program seeks to take this a step further, extending Qatalyst’s benefits to partners’ customers.

The Qatalyst platform offers what QCI calls a “seamless quantum bridge” that connects classical and quantum computers. Instead of working in binary bits like conventional devices, quantum computers operate on qubits, which can represent both 0 and 1 simultaneously. As a result, quantum computers can process far more possibilities at once, solving more complex problems faster. For businesses looking to crunch more and more data, quantum computing could be an important breakthrough.

Aabyss stares back after snapping up Netcom

Posted on October 11, 2021 by - News

MSP Aabyss has acquired Netcom Technologies as part of a cunning plan to strengthen its North of England presence.

Sheffield-based Netcom Technologies offers IT support, cybersecurity, business continuity and modern workplace services to customers in sectors including engineering, medical, manufacturing and services.

All of Netcom’s staff will be retained as part of the acquisition and will work within the Aabyss Group.

Aabyss CEO Andrew Allen said that Netcom’s reputation as a trusted managed services provider was well earned, and is an essential part of our plan for continued regional expansion.