Author: Nick Farrell

Half of organisations struggle with data management

Posted on June 25, 2020 by - News

Rubrik, the Cloud Data Management Company, today announced the results from an IDC White Paper study it commissioned to evaluate the magnitude of the data sprawl problem and how IT organisations are prepared to deal with it.

The white paper with the catchy title The Data-Forward Enterprise: How to Maximise Data Leverage for Better Business Outcomes said that more than 80 percent of IT leaders surveyed by IDC identify data sprawl as one of the most critical problems their organisations must address today. Given that the volume of data companies need to manage is expected to more than double every two years, IDC analysts predict that the challenge of managing data sprawl will only grow increasingly complicated.

GDPR worked but has a few kinks

Posted on June 25, 2020 by - News

The European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been assessed as an overall success in terms of meeting expectations and objectives, but a two year progress report suggests that there are still a few kinks which need to be ironed out.

The European Commission (EC) said it would be premature to draw definite conclusions as to the application of the GDPR, and to provide for proposals for any revisions, but said it had identified a number of areas where improvements could eventually be made.

It said that the GDPR had made EU citizens feel more empowered and aware of their enforceable rights and protections – according to the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, 69 percent of those aged over 16 have heard of the GDPR, and 71 percent have heard about their national data protection agency. In general, it said, people feel they can play an active role in controlling their data.

Vonage scores Mindful Chef contract

Posted on June 25, 2020 by - News

Vonage has announced that healthy recipe box company, Mindful Chef, has chosen the Vonage Contact Center to better serve its customer-base following a 452 percent increase in customers.

With more than 123,000 customers, Mindful Chef delivers pre-portioned ingredients and fresh meat, fish and produce sustainably sourced from small British farms. Mindful Chef lets customers cook nutritious meals in under 30 minutes with a weekly recipe booklet, it is claimed.  The increase in customers since the end of March 2020 in the recipe box market saw unprecedented demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following a market evaluation, the UK-based company selected the Vonage Contact Center to help manage its increase in enquiries and enhance engagement with customers, driving a better overall experience.

Cloud migrations to increase

Posted on June 24, 2020 by - News

A LogicMonitor study of 500 global IT decision makers examines the future of cloud workloads and the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on IT organisations in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Though the full picture is still evolving, the survey suggests that COVID-19 has become a powerful catalyst for rapid cloud migration.

LogicMonitor’s Cloud 2025 study  found that 87 percent of global IT decision makers agree that the COVID-19 pandemic will cause organisations to accelerate their migration to the cloud. Specifically, nearly three quarters (74 percent) of respondents believe that, within the next five years, 95 percent of all workloads will be in the cloud. Many IT decisions makers around the world are even more optimistic than that, with 37 percent of respondents in the APAC region saying 95 percent of workloads will reach the cloud by 2022, compared with 35 percent of US/Canada respondents and 30 per cent of UK respondents.

Threatscape gets Microsoft gold status

Posted on June 24, 2020 by - News

Cyber-security service provider Threatscape announced that it has been awarded the coveted Gold Security Partner designation by Microsoft.

Gold status  recognises  Volish partners who have demonstrated the skills and expertise to design, deploy and manage security solutions to protect enterprise-scale clients against sophisticated cyber threats.

The award acknowledges Threatscape’s continued investment in its Microsoft Security Practice, which has completed projects around the world using its team of consultants who have all been accredited to the highest level by Microsoft including M365 (MS 500) and Azure (AZ 500) security certifications.

Only half of business leaders are ready to face security threats

Posted on June 24, 2020 by - News

The UK’s vulnerability to cyber security attacks has again come under the spotlight, with only half of business leaders ready and prepared to counter digital threats they’re currently facing – or are likely to confront in the future, according to a new survey

A worrying key finding of the survey of over 750 business leaders conducted by online pioneer Esme Learning Solutions, who is collaborating with Saïd Business School in the development of the Oxford Cyber Futures programme, was that although businesses have woken up to the threat of poor cyber security practices, they are not yet walking the walk.

Lockdown measures that forced the majority of businesses worldwide to work remotely in response to COVID-19 have raised a number of cyber security concerns and issues. The number of attacks against organisations grew to reach a four-month high at the end April resulting in the NCSC and CISA issuing an advisory about cyber criminals exploiting COVID-19 on April 8th 2020.

Agilitas partners with ITEC

Posted on June 23, 2020 by - News

Global channel services provider, Agilitas IT Solutions, has partnered with ITEC so that it can offer its partners Agilitas’ expertise across IT inventory management, and ITEC’s wide range of IT services to its partners, alongside inventory management.

ITEC said that there was a growing demand in the number of partners looking for additional service offerings, mainly global inventory and logistics services. By collaborating with a specialist partner such as Agilitas, it meant that ITEC customers can take full advantage of this end-to-end service offering by using Agilitas’ expertise across complex IT inventory management.

ITEC and Agilitas decided to build a strategic alliance to expand both companies’ service offerings. This means that ITEC can offer its partners Agilitas’ Inventory-as-a-Service solution, and make use of its knowledge in complex international IT inventory management.

IT workplace diversity is still a challenge

Posted on June 23, 2020 by - News

A Kantar study for Global Workplace Providers Instant Offices shows more than a quarter of women (27 percent) across the world still report being made to feel like they do not belong in their workplace.

Employees who are part of an ethnic minority often face daily struggles, with 13 percent feeling excluded at work and 11 percent  saying they are treated differently in the workplace due to their ethnicity.

In the UK, tech employees are five times more stressed than the average UK worker, with 14 percent per cent of people saying their ethnicity has negatively impacted their career progression. In addition, 31 percent of Asian and South East Asian and 40 percent of Afro-Caribbean employees in tech have experienced discrimination because of their ethnicity. Within the UK tech industry, 78 percent of people are under 45 years old, 69 per cent are white and 88 percent are heterosexual.

Cisco says its channel strategy has accelerated “like hell’

Posted on June 23, 2020 by - News

Cisco claims that its channel strategy has “accelerated like hell” during the COVID-19 crisis.

Cisco’s Oliver Tuszik said that Cisco has not changed its messaging to the channel to transform their business even during a time of huge economic uncertainty for channel partners and their customers.

He added that Cisco’s has seen a huge acceleration among its partner community towards software and services selling over the last six months as a direct result of the COVID-19 crisis.

Cancom returns to form, but a little worried about the shut down

Posted on June 22, 2020 by - News

Cancom is reporting quarterly revenue growth above 20 percent, preliminary figures show.

The reseller’s first quarter numbers show revenues were up 27.3 percent year on year to €453 million, which means it is back in business.

It has often exceeded 20 percent growth in its quarterly financials, however, that rate slowed in its final quarter of 2019, when sales grew by 18.9 percent.

Rotherham NHS uses Microsoft Teams for speech therapy

Posted on June 22, 2020 by - News

Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust (FT) is using Microsoft Teams to deliver speech therapy sessions to people in their own homes, reducing the need to leave the house during the coronavirus pandemic.

Rebekah Davies, a Speech and Language Therapist and Health Informatics Digital Clinician at Rotherham NHS FT, said it was using Teams in a pilot project to deliver speech therapy sessions remotely. The pilot involved 17 patients and was so successful that the sessions continued.

“When COVID-19 emerged, we had already been using Teams, so we were in a really strong position to set this up and continue helping people,” Davies said.

Her patients say they feel much more comfortable taking part in speech therapy sessions from home, without the need to travel to and enter a clinical environment.

No end in sight to IT vendor layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs

Posted on June 22, 2020 by - News

There has been widespread evidence of layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs at IT vendors, and there is more economic pain on the horizon, according to bean counters at GlobalData.

GlobalData reports that, as of the end of May, the number of active jobs in the technology and telecommunications field was down 36.2 percent as compared with the same time last year.

Steven Schuchart, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, said: “Times are tough for enterprise IT vendors. The economic downturn as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit them hard. Some IT vendors, particularly the ones involved in cloud or collaboration, have seen great increases in business, but the traditional vendors and startups are taking a beating.”

mMTC could, just could be the next big thing

Posted on June 19, 2020 by - News

Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) designed to provide a cheap and robust simultaneous connection to billions of devices and modules over wired or wireless networks without overloading the network, could be the next big thing according to global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research.

Writing in their 5G mMTC Overview, Devices and Use Cases application analysis report, the researchers think that devices like monitoring sensors, execution control units, connected home appliances, smart lights, basic wearables, smart clothing, headsets, drones, Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR), and sensors will soon take advantage of mMTC using the 5G network to collect data which will automate systems and improve efficiency, taking advantage of the increased speed.5G  mMTC module shipments and revenue began its first year in 2020 in 2020 and will ramp up quickly to reach more than 1 billion units and module revenues over US$3 billion in 2024.

Cloud security spending increasing

Posted on June 19, 2020 by - News

Divination experts at analyst outfit Gartner have been observing the flight of birds, taken out the kidneys of live animals as auspices and are predicting that cloud security spending will increase by a third this year.

Information security spending is set to grow 2.4 percent to hit $123.8 billion in 2020, down from the 8.7 percent growth Gartner projected in its December 2019 forecast update.

Firewalls and network security devices  are expected to endure spending declines this year, the mass shift to remote working and cloud will drive gains elsewhere.

Helium launches peer-to-peer wireless network

Posted on June 19, 2020 by - News

Helium  has announced the European launch of its Helium Hotspots. The business, which was co-founded by Helium CEO Amir Haleem and Napster’s Shawn Fanning, has seen exponential uptake of its devices in North America and creating ‘The People’s Network’ across more than 1,000 cities.

The Hotspot, it is claimed,  lets people to own and operate a wireless network that will support the Internet of Things (IoT) technology surrounding them. The technology supports both smart home and IoT devices from smart pet collars and home delivery systems, to smart bikes and scooters, medical transport and tracking devices, cooling systems, smart lighting systems, and more, it is claimed.