Author: Nick Farrell

Cloudy OpsRamp appoints Bonser to EMEA sales

Posted on February 7, 2020 by - News

OpsRamp has expanded its sales leadership team with the appointment of George Bonser to Vice President of European, Middle Eastern, and African (EMEA) Sales. Bonser has been added to the executive roster to help with the increasing worldwide demand of the OpsRamp platform.

Bonser is a 20-year veteran of technology sales, most recently serving in senior leadership roles at Okta. Prior to that, he served in similar roles for Nimble Storage, Data Domain, Acopia Networks, and others. He will be located in the OpsRamp EMEA headquarters in London, England.

MSPs shut security door after horse has bolted

Posted on February 7, 2020 by - News

More than half of IT Managed Service Providers (MSPs) admit to investing in cybersecurity products only after being hacked, according to research by ESET.

The research surveyed 400 MSPs to uncover their attitudes and future plans around cybersecurity.

With the frequency of cyber-attacks growing year-on-year, the findings suggest that many MSPs still have their heads in the sand over the gravity of the threat. The study did, however, find that some MSPs are more proactive than others, with 41 percent of respondents saying that they invest in cybersecurity whenever they purchase a new device. Additionally, over a third said they have been prompted to protect themselves by reading stories about hacking in the news.

Samsung phones about to lose 35 percent of their value

Posted on February 7, 2020 by - News

Research from musicMagpie reveals that old Android devices – in particular, Samsung handsets – can lose up to 35 percent of their value following a new release. So, with the imminent launch of new Samsung gizmos, customers are encouraged to sell now if they want to secure the best deal.

Customers trading in a Samsung Galaxy S10 can expect to earn up to £382 if they sell now, while those with a Samsung Galaxy S10+ could get up to £431. This value is set to decrease once the new Samsung models are on the market, so by trading-in early, customers can ensure they’re getting the most money for their old handsets.

Security channel needs to better educate SMEs

Posted on February 6, 2020 by - News

Kaspersky research has found that the security channel has its work cut out for it convincing SMEs about the need to improve their data protection.

In a report, Kaspersky revealed that 47 percent of UK businesses expected to be attacked at some point in the next two years and more than found that 65 percent were prepared to admit that their organisations were complacent about protecting customer data.

That left users in various states of vulnerability with the risks that they could be breached higher than they should be. The costs of a problem were not only financial but would include longer-term brand damage that would be a major problem for SMEs.

CAE jumps £130 million barrier

Posted on February 6, 2020 by - News

CAE Technology Services saw revenue pass the £130 million threshold a year after its management buyout.

Sales for the 12 months ending June 2019 climbed 28 percent to £132 million, while international sales shot up 184 percent to £13.7 million (10.3 per cent of total turnover).

Operating profit was up 69 percent to £3.9 million.

IT transformation causes outages and brownouts

Posted on February 6, 2020 by - News

Global IT decision-makers hold their own IT transformation initiatives — including cloud and artificial intelligence — responsible for outages and brownouts.

LogicMonitor’s latest research, the IT Downtime Detection and Mitigation Report examined the impact of digital transformation on availability for organisations in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. 

LogicMonitor chief product officer Tej Redkar said: “The pressure is mounting for IT leaders to prepare their organisations for the future, but the impact and cost of these transformation initiatives are far greater than anyone realised.

“Our research finds that the very initiatives that are supposed to be helping modernise global organisations are in fact contributing to an initial spike in outages and brownouts, costing organisations time and money.”

Dell EMC EMEA enterprise channel boss moves to Europe

Posted on February 5, 2020 by - News

EMEA enterprise channel at Dell EMC boss Sarah Shields has been appointed Dell’s VP of central and northern Europe.

Shields’ new role will see her run Dell’s channel across Austria, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Shields had previously headed up the UK channel for Dell EMC and Rob Tomlin, formerly of Tech Data, stepped in to take on the UK role.

She lists the position as making her “responsible for developing strong relationships and enabling partners to achieve amazing growth across the Dell Technologies portfolio”.

The changes come as the vendor gears up to consolidate its commercial and enterprise sales units, which was started when CCO Marius Haas announced his retirement late last year.

 

 

Tech industry venture financing deals total $242.62 million in December

Posted on February 5, 2020 by - News

Total technology industry venture financing deals in December 2019 worth $242.62m were announced in the UK, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

The value marked a decrease of 26.5 percent over the previous month and a drop of 48.9 percent when compared with the last 12-month average of $474.62 million.

The UK held a 2.4 percent share of the global technology industry venture financing deal value that totalled $10 billion in December 2019.

Companies fail to monetise their data

Posted on February 5, 2020 by - News

Many organisations are potentially failing to realise the potential value of, or monetise their data, despite 74 percent acknowledging it as a key priority according to research from Coeus Consulting.

The survey found that 80 percent of the large organisations surveyed believe accountability for data strategy rests with technology leaders such as IT Directors, CIOs or CTOs.

Additionally, only a quarter of organisations currently elect to have a Chief Data Officer, and even less place accountability with others in the C-suite. Emphasis is being placed on speed (32 percent), cost (28 percent), and competition (30 percent), but less so on more fundamental underlying value, the insights it offers, or decision-makers’ ability to develop new products and services from those learnings.

Check Point increases subscriptions

Posted on February 4, 2020 by - News

 

Israeli Security outfit Check Point, which launched a global partner programme last week to accelerate customer adoption of cloud security, has been talking up its subscription model.

The firm’s founder and CEO Gil Shwed said: “Over the last decade we introduced our security-as-a-service subscription model, which delivers the most advanced technologies in cyber. In 2019, subscription reached over $600 million in revenues and was driven by cloud, mobile and zero-day advanced threat prevention technologies.”

Fourth-quarter revenues improved by three per cent coming in at $544 million and for the year the improvement was similar at four percent with total revenues hitting $1,995 million.

The global channel partner programme has been designed to encourage resellers to focus on growth areas and help with keeping the growth going for the vendor.

Frank Rauch, Check Point’s head of worldwide channels said that the programme’s new initiatives meant that the outfit was doubling down on our commitment to helping partners win new business and build stronger relationships with existing customers,

 

Ransomware demands increasing

Posted on February 4, 2020 by - News

The average ransom demanded by cybercriminals when committing a cyber attack more than doubled in fourth quarter last year.

Cybersecurity company outfit Coveware said that the average payment increased 104 per cent to $84,116 (£64,408) this was mostly due to an increased focus on larger enterprises, resulting in larger ransom demands.

The firm said that one strain of ransomware, Ryuk, made its owners $780,000.

UK government buys £14.2 billion from SMEs

Posted on February 4, 2020 by - News

The UK government has spent a record £14.2 billion with SMEs over the 2018 and 2019 years – the highest since government records began in 2013.

According to data from the Cabinet Office, this figure is £1.8 billion more than the previous year.

Oliver Dowden, Cabinet Office minister said: “We’re committed to using the power of government spending to support small businesses across the country and this is something I’ve championed in my time as a minister – so it’s great to see these figures heading in the right direction.”

Lenovo hires Channel vet Giovanni Di Filippo

Posted on February 3, 2020 by - News

Lenovo has hired a channel veteran to step into the role of president of its data centre group (DCG) across EMEA with a brief to grow sales across the vendor’s ecosystem.

Giovanni Di Filippo was most recently VP of EMEA for channels, sales & strategic alliances at Riverbed Technology. He held several global vice president-level positions in SAP’s global channel & sales divisions.

Di Filippo said the vendor’s entire “egosystem” has to be involved in driving growth, which should be a benefit for the firm’s channel base.

“For me, technology has the potential to do so much for the digital society if we think more about the people at the centre of it all, and encourage greater collaboration- how technology should work smarter for everyone, how it can truly enable us to make everyday life easier, even how it can help solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges,” he said.

 

Resellers risk Microsoft’s ire

Posted on February 3, 2020 by - News

Microsoft campusMore than 70 percent of resellers might find themselves shunned by the software king of the world Microsoft for failing to sign its latest Partner Agreement.

All cloud solution provider (CSP) indirect resellers were required to accepted Microsoft’s new Partner Agreement by the end of January, or else they will be restricted from transactions through Microsoft CSP programme.

According to SoftwareONE data, more than 70 percent of CSP indirect resellers haven’t completed the agreement or been added to Microsoft’s system.

Getting channel business ready for Brexit

Posted on February 3, 2020 by - News

The new business director at IT software solutions provider, KFA Connect, Richard Austin, says that now withdrawal from the EU is underway, there’s several considerations that businesses need to be aware of, not only with employee regulations but specifically around IT systems, and the buying and selling of products.

“Firstly, if you are a UK-based business buying or selling into Europe you will need to plan for potential changes to VAT.  The reverse charge of VAT may no longer be applicable, so you may need to start paying or charging VAT from businesses that you deal within Europe.