Author: Nick Farrell

Barrie Desmond comes out of hibernation to catch salmon

Posted on January 10, 2020 by - News

After a year away, Barrie Desmond has returned to Exclusive as part of a cunning plan to spruce up the channel player’s executive team.

Desmond will become SVP of marketing and communications, and Gaerard Allison takes up the SVP  EMEA role. At the same time, the distributor has introduced Brad Gray as SVP of APAC and Scott Lewis as SVP of the Americas.

Desmond said that the channel player had lots to do to disrupt the market and introducing technologies that would put resellers in a position to meet evolving customer needs.

Cancom CEO quits

Posted on January 10, 2020 by - News

Cancom CEO Thomas Volk has quit the company over “differing opinions on the future strategic development of the company”.

The company’s supervisory board will replace the outgoing CEO with COO and member of the executive board Rudolf Hotter as of 1 February. Volk’s duties will be split between Hotter and the firm’s CFO Thomas Stark.

Volk took the reins of the company some 15 months ago when  CEO of 26 years, Klaus Weinmann, stepped down. The dark satanic rumour mill manufactured a hell on earth yarn that Cancom was weighing options for a sale – with reseller giants CDW, NTT and Bechtle in the frame to buy the company.

Government about to damage IT investment with tax reform

Posted on January 10, 2020 by - News

The government’s  IR 35 reform is going to seriously damage the IT industry according to Simon Winfield, UK and Ireland MD at global recruitment firm Hays.

The government has refused to delay the April start date of the reforms and is only going through token London-centric consultation exercises which it appears keen to ignore.

Winfield warned: “If they are undertaking additional consultation now until mid-February and the reforms are coming into effect from April, there simply isn’t enough time to give this the attention it so desperately needs,” he said.

He said that introducing the new laws on 6 April will counter any investment in this area. A number of industries are suffering from niche skills shortages and these reforms could worsen these gaps. The IR35 reforms will hit technology harder than any other market and introducing them will counter any investment in this area.

WannaCry was the most common crypto Ransomware Attack in 2019

Posted on January 9, 2020 by - News

More than 23 percent of all encryption ransomware attacks during 2019 were based on the WannaCry virus, making it the most ordinary type of hack in the last year.

According to PreciseSecurity.com research, Wannacry caused $4 billion damage globally

The number of ransomware attacks against government agencies, organisations in the healthcare, energy sectors, and education continues to rise. While some simple ransomware may lock the system in a way that is not difficult for a knowledgeable person to reverse, more advanced malware exploits a technique called crypto-viral extortion.

Stanhope becomes Unitas Global new Chief Marketing Officer

Posted on January 9, 2020 by - Moving People, News

Hybrid cloud solution provider Unitas Global appointed Mary Stanhope as its Chief Marketing Officer.

Walker, who heads to Unitas Global from iMarket2, and brings more than two decades of experience in leadership positions in marketing, product, and channels at technology and services companies.

Her previous work has included Global Capacity, Sidera Networks, Atos Origin, and SchlumbergerSema. She also has been named CRN’s Top Women in the Channel, Global Telecom Business’s 50 Women to Watch in Communication, and Fierce Telecom’s Top 10 Wired Women.

Calligo snaps up DC Networks

Posted on January 9, 2020 by - News

Global data optimisation and privacy specialist, Calligo announced it has acquired DC Networks, a Dublin-based IT managed services provider, specialising in IT support, telecommunications and networking and managed Microsoft Azure services.

In the last three years, Calligo has completed six acquisitions – three in Canada, one in Guernsey, one in Luxembourg and now DC Networks.

UK supply chain could be damaged by US/Iran tensions

Posted on January 8, 2020 by - News

The US assassination of Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani could have a knock-on effect on the UK IT supply chain.

Jake Olcott, VP of Government Affairs at BitSight and former lawyer at the House Homeland Security Committee, said there was an increasing cyber threat to the UK supply chain as tensions in the Persian Gulf escalate.

Olcott said: “With the current international climate surrounding Iran, the need for British agencies and critical infrastructure operators to remain vigilant is crucial. Organisations need to ensure their basic security hygiene is kept up-to-date through updated software and patching. Organisations need to ensure that risks in their supply chain, which are a huge concern for critical infrastructure are monitored against threat actors.”

Steve Turpie named as DXC senior vice president

Posted on January 8, 2020 by - News

DXC Technology has appointed Steve Turpie as senior vice president and general manager for the company’s region covering UK, Ireland, Israel, the Middle East and Africa.

Turpie reports to DXC President and CEO Mike Salvino. Maruf Majed, who has led the region since DXC’s inception, will retire from the company. He will remain on the DXC senior leadership team to ensure there is a smooth handover.

Silver Peak has new global field operations president

Posted on January 8, 2020 by - News

Silver Peak has appointed Ian Whiting to the role of president, global field operations.

Whiting will lead direct and indirect sales, sales operations and all aspects of the company’s go-to-market strategy for channel and service provider partners. Whiting reports directly to Founder and CEO David Hughes.

Silver Peak was recently recognised for the second consecutive year as a Leader in the Gartner 2019 “Magic Quadrant” for WAN Edge Infrastructure.

Practical Software has new sales head

Posted on January 7, 2020 by - News

London-based Practical Software has appointed a new head of sales.

John Hetherington joined the London-based computer software provider before Christmas after working for ETZ payments as managing director.

“It’s an exciting moment to make a move like this. And I’ve taken it in my stride. The first couple of months have been pretty hectic, and I’ve tried to talk to as many people as possible on a long list of contacts”,  he said.

Xerox gets cash for HP takeover

Posted on January 7, 2020 by - News

Xerox has collected $24 billion to pay for its unsolicited bid to take over printer rival HP.

In a letter to HP’s CEO Enrique Lores, Xerox boss John Visentin confirmed that the vendor has obtained financing to push through a takeover, suggesting that the loan should allay any doubts HP shareholders have over Xerox’s ability to afford the transaction.

Micron supplying tech to Huawei

Posted on January 7, 2020 by - News

US chip manufacturer Micron Technologies has been granted licences to supply some of its products to Huawei providing good news for both.

Micron has been struggling due to a slowing memory market, as well as the ongoing US-China trade disputes while Huawei has been under US pressure for alleged security reasons.

The market has struggled since Washington’s decision to place Huawei, Micron’s largest customer, on an “entity list” in May due to national security concerns – effectively preventing US manufacturers from supplying to it. Huawei has always maintained that its products pose a risk to US security, while a number of US companies have criticised the move due to the impact on their revenue.

Last month, the US began resuming licences to allow businesses to ship to Huawei, with Micron now revealing it has been awarded all those it had requested.

“We applied for, and recently received all requested licenses that enable us to provide support for certain products… as well as qualify new products for Huawei’s mobile and server businesses”, Micron said.

 

Hutchinson creditors might get some cash back

Posted on January 6, 2020 by - News

Defunct reseller Hutchinson creditors have been told they could get some cash back.

For those who came in late, Hutchinson went bust last May, owing £3.6 million to unsecured creditors, including £2 million to trade suppliers.

Arrow was owed £274,000 and Ingram was out of pocket by £617,000.

Administrator KPMG said: “Based on current estimates, we anticipate that unsecured creditors should receive a dividend.

AMD parties like it’s 1999

Posted on January 6, 2020 by - News

Chip challenger AMD has seen its share price reach an all-time high, beating a record it set at the height of the dotcom era in 2000.

Its shares climbing over seven per cent and are now worth $49.10.

AMD was the best-performing S&P 500 company last year, according to Bloomberg, with its valuation climbing over 150 percent.

The growth started around the beginning of 2016, with the vendor’s share price climbing over 2000 per cent since.

Global AI Storage could be a money spinner

Posted on January 6, 2020 by - News

The global AI-powered storage market has been tipped to grow by 27.1 percent by 2024, according to a new report by ResearchAndMarket.

The firm’s analysts think a steady rise in data volumes drives organisations to refresh their storage architecture.

Apparently, the market will expand from 10.4 billion in 2019 to 34.5 billion in five years’ time, thanks to the resulting increase in adoption of cloud-based services, as well as AI in HPC data centres.

The report claims this will present numerous opportunities for the market, along with several challenges.