Author: Nick Farrell

Nutanix and ET Works brings the cloud to the Royal Opera House

Posted on July 9, 2021 by - News

Nutanix has installed its cloud software into the  Royal Opera House (ROH) in London. Go compare.

Following a £50 million makeover and building upgrade at its headquarters in London’s Covent Garden, the ROH wanted to modernise its IT infrastructure. Whilst its relatively modern systems were functional, the lack of flexibility in the stack meant that it was ‘ticking over’, rather than delivering added value to the business.

With a large number of performances and plans to expand its digital streaming offering – the fastest-growing part of the business – it evaluated all available options, the ROH chose the Nutanix Prism Pro multi-cloud management console and Nutanix Calm, along with Rubrik backup and recovery-as-a-Service.

Cloud outfit Pax 8 snaps up Resello

Posted on July 9, 2021 by - News

Cloudy Pax8 has acquired Resello — a cloud services distributor specialising in, it claims, making as-a-service easy to understand, sell, and manage.

The acquisition lets Pax8 expand to more than 40 countries across Europe and jazzes up its its partner base to accelerate digital transformation worldwide.

Pax8 CEO John Street said that the acquisition enables it to continue to expand its presence into international markets, add localised support, and accelerate and scale cloud adoption worldwide.

Sharp UK gets Intuitive tie in

Posted on July 8, 2021 by - News

Sharp UK today announces that it has partnered with data visualisation tools provider, Intuitive, to resell the Intuitive for PaperCut MF Dashboards.

The pre-integrated BI solution enables users of print management platforms to gain insights into their device usage, cost reduction policies and environmental impact.

The option of a cloud-based print management platform has become attractive to many businesses as they adapt to a hybrid working style and look to support a workforce spread across multiple locations.

The partnership with Intuitive will enable Sharp to support its print management customers by offering access to its data visualisation dashboards.

Digital skills crisis hits post-pandemic UK

Posted on July 8, 2021 by - News

While the English football team might be winning, it is not a sign that all is well in Blighty, according to a new report out by IDC and Salesforce.

The report shows the scale of the UK’s growing digital skills crisis and calls on government and businesses to prioritise reskilling to boost post-pandemic recovery.

As the UK economy looks to post-pandemic recovery in a new, digital-first world, the changing nature of jobs poses challenges for workers in every industry.

According to IDC, one in six UK workers have low or no digital skills. By 2030, nine out of 10 workers will need to learn new skills to do their jobs, at the cost of £1.3 billion a year.

Sophos takes Capsule8

Posted on July 8, 2021 by - News

Security outfit Sophos has bought Capsule8 which provides runtime visibility, detection and response for Linux production servers and containers covering on-premise and cloud workloads.

Sophos chief product officer Dan Schiappa said that Sophos was already protecting more than two million servers for over 85,000 customers worldwide. In addition, the Sophos server security business is growing at more than 20 percent per year.

“Comprehensive server protection is a crucial component of any effective cybersecurity strategy that organisations of all sizes are increasingly focused on, especially as more workloads move to the cloud. With Capsule8, Sophos is delivering advanced, differentiated solutions to protect server environments, and expanding its position as a leading global cybersecurity provider.”

Cloud infrastructure spending growing like topsy

Posted on July 6, 2021 by - News

Global spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud infrastructure, including dedicated and shared environments, increased 12.5 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2021 to $15.1 billion.

Beancounters from IDC have added up some numbers and reached the conclusion that investments in non-cloud infrastructure grew 6.3 percent in the first quarter to $13.5 billion.

The analyst’s data also found that spending on shared cloud infrastructure climbed 11.6 percent year on year in the first quarter, reaching $10.3 billion.

Babble completes its biggest cloud deployment yet

Posted on July 6, 2021 by - News

Cloud Comms, Collaboration, Contact Centre and Cyber solutions outfit, Babble, has finished its biggest digital transformation yet for WebBeds, the B2B division of Webjet Limited.

The project involved taking 22 isolated pieces of technology and amalgamating them into one global solution, the migration was successfully completed within just 24 hours, allowing 1,500 staff to access the new solutions as morning broke in their respective time zones across the globe.

The major project has transformed the leading travel wholesaler’s contact centre and telephony solutions, through the introduction of UCaaS and CCaaS solutions across 22 sites in 16 countries, eight of which were in challenging locations due to their local telco regulations.

Pixel Holdco snaps up Cyphra

Posted on July 6, 2021 by - News

Pixel Holdco, which is the cloudy Perfect Image parent company has written a cheque for Cyphra Northern Ireland’s provider of cybersecurity solutions to large public sector organisations, government agencies and private enterprises.

Founded in 2014, Cyphra supplies, implements and supports specialist technical solutions to help customers mitigate risk and protect themselves against the exponential growth in cyber threats, such as ransomware.

Through its partnerships with global cybersecurity vendors, including Palo Alto Networks, F5, Fortinet, CyberArk and Checkpoint, Cyphra provides enterprise-grade cybersecurity architecture and solutions, cloud security and managed security services, including Next-Generation Firewalls, Identity Federation and Access Management, Web Application Firewalls, Managed SIEM and SASE (Secure Access Services Edge). These are underpinned by Cyphra’s strategy-led assurance based consultancy and cybersecurity maturity assessment services.

Gartner says governments to jack up security spending

Posted on July 5, 2021 by - News

The global government Internet of Things (IoT) endpoint electronics and communications market will total $21.3 billion in 2022, according to Gartner.

This represents a 22 percent jump from a forecasted total of $17.5 billion in 2021.

Big G’s senior principal research analyst Kay Sharpington said that local governments worldwide are increasingly using IoT technology to monitor their infrastructure and assets more effectively and improve citizens’ safety and living environments, including controlling the spread of Covid-19 and checking quarantine compliance.

“In addition, the falling costs of devices is contributing to the financial viability of projects that utilise outdoor surveillance cameras and city asset tracking.”

Gartner claims more than half of governments endpoint and communications service spending will be on outdoor surveillance to improve public health and safety, totalling $12 billion.

Microsoft office partner AvePoint has gone public

Posted on July 5, 2021 by - News

AvePoint has gone public after completing of its previously announced business combination with Apex Technology Acquisition Corporation.

The company, which claims to be the largest Microsoft 365 data management solutions provider, is expected to begin trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker symbol AVPT for AvePoint common stock and AVPTW for AvePoint warrants.

Fox-Martin is Google’s EMEA Cloud President.

Posted on July 5, 2021 by - Moving People, News

Google Cloud announced the appointment of Adaire Fox-Martin as EMEA Cloud President.

Based in Dublin, Fox-Martin will lead the Google Cloud Sales organisation for EMEA.

Bringing more than two decades of tech leadership to the role, Fox-Martin has built high performing teams across Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Most recently, Fox-Martin was Executive Board Member and President of Global Sales, Services, and Customer Engagement at SAP, where she successfully spearheaded and grew the company’s customer-focused teams. Prior to SAP, she held various leadership roles at Oracle.

Fox-Martin currently serves on the Board of Directors of Equinix, the world’s largest data centre and colocation provider. In 2020, she was named in Fortune Magazine’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women International List for the fourth time running.

Google Cloud has recently announced major partnerships in Europe with companies like Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, LVMH, Nokia, Orange, Renault and SEB to name a few. Alongside the EMEA sales leadership team, Adaire will accelerate Google Cloud’s “growth journey” across Europe.

UK enterprises rushed to adopted hybrid IT solutions

Posted on July 2, 2021 by - News

Enterprises in the UK have accelerated their adoption of hybrid IT solutions and services to prepare for the long-term economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report published today by Information Services Group (ISG)

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens Next-Gen Private/Hybrid Cloud – Data Centre Services & Solutions report for the UK found companies were implementing hybrid IT solutions and IT operations led by artificial intelligence (AI) to optimise IT assets costs productivity and capacity and reduce short-term risks.

This trend is part of an ongoing expansion of outsourcing in the UK, ISG says.

ISG EMEA president Steve Hall said: “UK enterprises are turning to IT outsourcing to maximise both growth and productivity for a transformed post-pandemic economy. As a result, companies have started re-evaluating the balance between the IT resources they keep in-house and those they seek from partners.”

Exclusive adds Sonatype to its EMEA vendor portfolio

Posted on July 2, 2021 by - News

Exclusive Networks has announced the addition of Sonatype to its EMEA vendor portfolio.

The leader in developer-friendly tools for software supply chain automation and security has chosen Exclusive to help expand its footprint with a partnership geared to equipping and enabling resellers, focused on bringing best-in-class digital and cloud-based security products and services to market.

As part of the agreement, Exclusive will focus primarily on opportunities around the Nexus Lifecycle and Nexus Firewall solutions that promise to eliminate risk from third-party open-source software supply chains.

Exclusive Networks VP Global Vendor Alliances and Business Development Denis Ferrand-Ajchenbaum said: “Enterprises investing in innovation and digital transformation are rightly concerned about the security risks inherent in third-party software components. So they’re turning to channel partners to advise on and implement specialised, automated solutions that won’t compromise development velocity or interrupt workflows.

Barracuda acquires SKOUT security

Posted on July 2, 2021 by - News

Cloudy Barracuda Networks has snapped up SKOUT Cybersecurity, which provides cyber-as-a-service software for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and provider of an extended detection and response (XDR) platform and service.

The idea is that Barracuda can enter the fast-growing XDR market with a solution optimised for MSPs. Barracuda recently bought Zero Trust Access provider Fyde and all this adds to Barracuda’s prior integrations with Open XDR platforms.

Barracuda  Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Babineau said: “MSPs must be able to protect their customers’ end users, their devices, and the data they are accessing with these devices against increasingly sophisticated threats. To achieve this level of protection for their customers, and themselves, MSPs are transforming their businesses into ”security-centric” operations.”

QBS goes carbon neutral

Posted on July 1, 2021 by - News

QBS claims it is the first distributor in the UK to become carbon neutral

The firm has been independently verified under the publicly available PAS 2060:2010 specification, which was in accordance with the WBCSD/WRI GHG Protocol Standard.

QBS Technology Group sustainability director Anita Bitard said the company had been carbon-negative for some time, but now we are officially certified and independently verified.

“This achievement is due to the hard work of the team – our carbon footprint has been certified at a modest 34.2 tonnes.”