Author: Nick Farrell

Avast couples with RiskIQ to share intelligence

Posted on July 22, 2021 by - News

Security outfit Avast is forming an intelligence partnership with RiskIQ. Under the agreement, the companies will use their specific areas of expertise to develop combined threat intelligence that will be offered to their customer bases to enhance their security practices.

Avast Senior Vice President Nick Viney said that no one security company can see the whole picture and it was important to form alliances.

“Our global threat intelligence will contribute to RiskIQ’s understanding of the global threat landscape, and Avast will leverage RiskIQs intelligence to enrich our own data and further scale our threat hunting and response capabilities for companies and consumers.”

Computacenter says it is still growing like Topsy

Posted on July 22, 2021 by - News

Computacenter says that its 16-year growth streak will continue despite the pandemic.

While analysts think it unlikely that the company could continue its streak of uninterrupted earnings per share growth after 2020 which saw profits rocket by 46.5 percent to £206.6 million the company thinks otherwise.

But a trading update this morning said that it is “highly likely” the firm will continue to grow its earnings per share this year given a strong pipeline of business for the second half of the year.

Channel is the answer to security threats

Posted on July 22, 2021 by - News

Rubrik co-founder and CEO Bipul Sinha said that the channel is the key to making sure that the world’s networks are more secure.

Sinha said that the channel is a key success factor for scaling and building something epic. The channel approach has the answers to the customer’s three main concerns – rapid recovery from ransomware; automation of data operations including backup/recovery and accelerating transition to the cloud.

Node4 makes its largest ever acquisition

Posted on July 21, 2021 by - News

Derby-based Cloud MSP Node4 has acquired Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner TNP.

It is the outfit’s largest acquisition after it was bought by Providence Equity partners from PE firms Bowmark Capital and LDC.

TNP flogs dynamics 365 Business Central, Power Apps and Power BI gear and bills itself as the “largest pure-play Microsoft partner in the UK”.

CEO of Node4 Andrew Gilbert said that everything from its leadership and team to culture and capabilities resonates with Node4’s approach.

Tech Data helps Cisco partners quote for subscriptions

Posted on July 21, 2021 by - News

Tech Data is making it easier for Cisco partners to quote for subscription payment options on smaller orders by offering Cisco easy lease payment plans through its Tech-as-a-Service portal.

Under the system any Cisco partner can now log on and explore subscription payment options that enable customers to spread the cost of new Cisco equipment, from a single switch to multiple devices, over a period of up to three years, instead of funding the full investment upfront.

Tech Data UK and Ireland’s Tony Nevill said: “Cisco solutions can be complex and partners may have found it a little challenging and time-consuming to provide a Cisco easy lease quotation, especially for deals of a lower value. With the automated process that Tech-as-a-Service takes partners through, it is quite easy to give end-user customers the option of switching from capex to opex. At a time when many organisations are looking to update their infrastructure, but are also keen to retain financial flexibility, that’s a powerful sales tool.”

Big Blue sees a three percent revenue rise

Posted on July 21, 2021 by - News

Biggish Blue posted a three percent year-on-year revenue rise for its second quarter thanks mostly to sales gains across cloud, global business services and its software business Red Hat, despite net income falling marginally overall.

Total revenue for the quarter stood at $18.7 billion for the three months ending 30 June, up from $18.1 billion the year before, with global business services revenue up 12 percent and cloud revenue rising 13 percent to $7 billion.

Meanwhile, Red Hat revenue grew 20 percent in the quarter, despite net income falling slightly from $1.36 billion to $1.32 billion.

Security partners better look a bit confident

Posted on July 20, 2021 by - News

Channel outfits who want to flog security to customers need to have bucketloads of confidence, according to a new survey from Canalys.

Canalys, which has been working with Trend Micro and Tech Data to use its Cybersecurity 360 online skills assessment tool has worked out that successful security partners have a wide knowledge of the market from a technology standpoint, offer managed services and have confidence selling to senior managers.

Canalys vice-president Alex Smith. “Cybersecurity skills in the channel are in high demand and are hard to find. Those that were the most successful and displayed traits associated with market leaders  were enjoying double-digit growth that was outpacing an already very buoyant market.”

Unified communication market slowing down

Posted on July 20, 2021 by - News

The unified communications (UC) market slowing down after triple-digit growth in some areas over the past year.

Beancounters at Context said that with European distribution of products up by 76 percent so far this year, compared to 2020.

But that growth will slow over the course of the rest of this year, particularly when compared directly to some of the coronaviruses fuelled spending in the second lockdown period in 2020.

UC technology covers a lot of products that would be required buying during the lockdown including collaboration headsets, cameras, speakers, microphones, room systems, hubs, IP phones and display systems.

OCF pairs with Clarifai to strengthen its AI offering

Posted on July 20, 2021 by - News

HPC outfit OCF  has teamed up with Clarifai to support its increased investment in AI and enhanced AI compute power.

For those who came in late, Clarifai’s deep learning AI platform uses machine learning to understand unstructured image, video, text and audio data. Data scientists, developers and researchers working with OCF will, it is claimed, benefit from the easy integration of Clarifai’s AI platform to identify and analyse images, videos and text significantly faster.

OCF Sales Director Andrew Dean said: “OCF has been supplying infrastructure for AI and machine learning for a number of years. Clarifai’s comprehensive software platform and pre-trained AI models will integrate with this infrastructure, enabling our customers to develop powerful AI applications using image analysis and natural language processing (NLP), whatever their business or research requirements.

Fujitsu teams up with Amazon on cloudy health

Posted on July 19, 2021 by - News

Fujitsu in the UK has announced its support of the AWS for Health initiative from Amazon Web Services (AWS) by bringing Epic in the Cloud to NHS trusts and UK healthcare providers.

The development means healthcare organisations looking to deploy Epic have the option, for the first time, to run an electronic patient record in the cloud.

By working with Fujitsu and its ecosystem of strategic suppliers, trusts can expect to reduce the cost, minimise the technical risk and minimise clinical and other resources required to deploy, maintain and deliver maximum benefit from their EPR investment.

Fujitsu head of UK healthcare Jamie Whysall said: “We are pleased to support the AWS for Health initiative and to be part of a movement designed to make it easier for health and care organisations to find the right digital partners and the tools they need to address the challenges and opportunities facing them.

Key takeaways from Microsoft Inspire conference aren’t burgers

Posted on July 19, 2021 by - News

Microsoft Inspire 2021, Vole’s partner conference, presented a virtual keynote focusing on the added strength and innovation – yes it’s that word again – of the partner’s egosystem and its commitment to equipping them with the most powerful technologies, tools, and solutions.

Inspire highlighted a list of upcoming benefits for partners, such as Deschutes taking the operating system to the Microsoft Cloud. This will let people stream their applications, tools, data and settings from the cloud to any device.

All Microsoft Teams customers will receive access to Dynamics 365 data in Teams at no extra cost. This implementation will break down barriers to productivity for customers and the “silos” between collaboration and business processes. The cooperation carries on to Microsoft Viva, an integrated employee experience combining communications, learning, “wellbeing”, and knowledge within the flow of work.

Half of world to use digital banking in 2026. Maybe

Posted on July 19, 2021 by - News

A Juniper Research study speculates that 53 percent of the world’s population will access digital banking services in 2026.

This means 4.2 billion digital banking users, from 2.5 billion in 2021. The research identified increased digital transformation efforts as enabling banks to function effectively during the pandemic; justifying the benefits of digital banking and fostering further user growth.

The research, Digital Banking: Banking-as-a-Service, Market Transformation & Forecasts 2021 2026, identified that China will be the largest digital banking market over the next five years; accounting for almost 25 percent of digital banking users in 2026. The research recommends that banks better integrate their many offerings into a single, consistent digital experience, to better compete with the diverse competition. Let’s hope the much vaunted digital thrust in the UK doesn’t turn out to be a chimera.

Veritas launches new Partner Force Programme

Posted on July 16, 2021 by - News

Veritas Technologies  has launched its 2022 Veritas Partner Force Programme.

The new flavour for its programme is designed to foster increased and more predictable earnings for its channel community.  The simplified programme includes further rewards and deeper collaboration, as well as “incentivising” Veritas’ channel to expand the company’s footprint while hardening customers’ resilience against ransomware.

Veritas VP Channel Sales and Alliances Mike Walkey said: “Almost every week, we see cyberattacks against organisations and critical infrastructure around the globe. Hackers are upping the ante and companies need to respond. That’s why we’re empowering our solution providers with the tools and incentives to help their customers protect their data and make their infrastructure more resilient. Whether the threat is data loss, ransomware or downtime, and whether their data resides in the cloud, in containers or on-premises, Veritas and our partners are ready to help.”

Microsoft lowers fees shock

Posted on July 16, 2021 by - News

Microsoft campusSoftware King of the World, Microsoft, has slashed its marketplace transaction fee from 20 percent to three percent in a bid to help partners get to market faster and build apps for every customer need.

Announcing the cunning plan at this year’s Microsoft Inspire, Vole said it wants to demonstrate its commitment to the success of its partners on its platform and help them keep more of their margin to invest in their growth. The reduction in the fee applies to every transactable application published in the commercial marketplace, including its digital storefronts, Azure Marketplace and Microsoft AppSource.

Microsoft Cloud and AI chief operating officer Charlotte Yarkoni said this reduced transaction fee demonstrates its commitment to the success of partners creating value on its platform—and helps partners keep more of their margin to invest in their growth.

Armour Comm dallies with Priavo Security and the 360 Maritime Alliance

Posted on July 16, 2021 by - News

Security outfit Armour Comms is partnering with Priavo Security and the 360 Maritime Alliance.

Priavo Security has added Armour’s secure mobile comms technology to the range of services it provides to clients in the Super Yacht and Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) sector.

The Priavo Security/360 Maritime Alliance provides a range of security services covering Physical, Electronic and Cyber Security. Both Armour Mobile and SigNet by Armour will be available to clients through the partnership.

Priavo Security CEO and a founding member of the 360 Maritime Alliance Pete Murphy said: “Having researched the market, we found Armour’s technology to be the most widely approved and recommended. With its two product streams, Armour Mobile and SigNet by Armour, it is able to cover most of the use cases we encounter when providing bespoke security services to clients in the Super Yacht and Ultra High Net Worth sectors.”