Author: Nick Farrell

Chillblast product manager jailed for stealing hardware

Posted on December 11, 2023 by - News

A UK-based System Integrator Chillblast product manager stole nearly £200,000 worth of PC hardware over several years and then flogged it on Gumtree and eBay.

Matthew Hudson (pictured) and his chum Daniel Key sold up to thirty laptops, ten desktop systems, 50 graphics cards, and shedloads of storage drives and monitors.

Prosecutor Tom Nicholson told Bournemouth Crown Court how Hudson exploited the trust of his colleagues due to his position and access to inventory checklists and customer returns. He has been doing it from 2013 until 2019. Daniel Key helped Hudson sell these stolen goods and split the profits from their sales.

Hudson was good at hiding his tracks on paper by manipulating stock levels, stealing items from custom returns, and making new items in the inventory unavailable by showing items as returned and credited.

Zoom and Five9 have another stab at acquisition

Posted on December 7, 2023 by - News

Zoom is having another stab at buying Five9 more than two years after its failed $14.7 billion bid.

According to a Bloomberg report, Zoom, the California-based communications tool vendor, has held acquisition discussions with Five9, which is working with advisers.

Five9, a contact centre software vendor based in California, will likely attract other potential buyers.

Five9 has about 950 channel partners worldwide and 700 in North America. More than 32 per cent of Zoom’s overall sales come through the channel. In 2022, the company said it had over 8,500 partners worldwide.

In 2021, Zoom’s $14.7bn offer for Five9 was voted down by the its shareholders.

 

Microsoft wants to build UK AI infrastructure

Posted on December 7, 2023 by - News

Microsoft campusMicrosoft has promised to spend $3.2 billion (£2.5 billion) in a bid to create a large AI infrastructure in the UK.

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said the plan was to create “a major AI infrastructure and skilling investment supported by a new partnership on security” in the UK.

Vole plans to support AI’s growth and progress without compromising public security. The company’s goal also includes helping the economy and providing jobs.

In line with this, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently announced GBP29.5 billion of private funding for new UK projects that would create 12,000 jobs in various sectors including tech, life sciences, renewables, housing and infrastructure.

Global semiconductor revenue growing

Posted on December 6, 2023 by - News

According to Gartner bean counters, global semiconductor revenue is projected to grow 16.8 per cent in 2024 to total $624 billion.

This figure is much better than this year, where the market is forecasted to decline 10.9 per cent and reach $534 billion.

Big G analyst Alan Priestly said: “We are at the end of 2023, and strong demand for chips to support AI workloads, such as GPUs, is not going to be enough to save the semiconductor industry from double-digit decline in 2023.”

“Reduced demand from smartphones and PC customers coupled with weakness in datacentre/hyperscaler spending is influencing the decline in revenue this year.”

However, 2024 is forecast to be a bounce-back year where revenue for all chip types will grow, driven by double-digit growth in the memory market.

The worldwide memory market is forecast to record a 38.8 per cent decline in 2023 and will rebound in 2024 by growing 66.3 per cent, Priestly said.

Blancco has sold itself and is off the share market

Posted on December 6, 2023 by - News

Private equity firm, Francisco Partners has completed the all-cash acquisition of Blancco for representing an equity valuation of £175 million and taken the company off the share market.

For those not in the know, Blancco provides products for organisations to protect end-of-life data against unauthorised access, safely redeploy data storage assets, and comply with increased data protection and privacy requirements.

Blancco CEO Matt Jones said that since its founding 26 years ago, it has created and delivered innovative solutions, focusing on building a world-class data eraser and diagnostic software platform.

“We are pleased to partner with Francisco Partners, who are committed to continuing to build upon the company’s strong foundation and achieve its full potential. I want to thank each employee for their dedication to Blancco and contributing to our continued success,” he said.

AWS gets three year cloud contract with Home Office

Posted on December 5, 2023 by - News

The Home Office has signed a three-year cloudy deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) valued at £450,281,369.

The contract falls under the G-Cloud 13 framework and is to provide public cloud hosting services to the Home Office. T

This latest agreement follows a series of collaborations between the Home Office and AWS, which are becoming increasingly controversial.

Last year, a report from the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR) and think tank TaxWatch revealed that AWS has secured UK public sector contracts exceeding £600 million since 2017.

The report also highlighted concerns about tax payments, with AWS allegedly avoiding £84 million in taxes during the same period.

Insight Enterprises snaps up SADA

Posted on December 5, 2023 by - News

Insight Enterprises has snapped up six-time Google Cloud Partner of the Year SADA for $410 million.

Insight claims the deal puts it in the same class as Accenture and Deloitte as one of Microsoft and Google’s three biggest cloud players.

Insight said the additional earnout for SADA owners has a target of $210 million based on SADA’s three-year performance after the close of the acquisition. Insight expects the deal to add 20 to 30 cents per share to its adjusted earnings per share in December 2023 and 55 to 75 cents per share in 2024.

SADA delivered net revenue of $251 million in 2022 and gross profit of $200 million.

SADA  has Google Cloud specialisations, including security, infrastructure, cloud migration, data analytics, application development, location intelligence and machine learning. Insight has 22 Microsoft specialisations.

Insight said the deal extends its AI capabilities across two leading generative AI platforms.

 

Palantir’s NHS data sharing deal faces court action

Posted on December 4, 2023 by - News

Campaigners have launched legal action to halt a data-sharing deal between the NHS and Palantir.

For those who came in late, Palantir scored a £330 million contract with the NHS to create and operate a Federated Data Platform (FDP) to streamline information sharing among health service trusts and integrated care systems.

The FDP aims to improve service efficiency and address the 7.8 million patient backlog of care hospitals face, enabling them to discharge patients more efficiently.

However, the contract award is a little bit risky as it is giving a ton of UK data to a company which is rather too friendly with the US military.

While Palantir won’t own the data and requires NHS permission for access, campaign groups, including legal organisation Foxglove, are sceptical of the company’s track record.

Softcat’s annual survey talks up cyber security

Posted on December 4, 2023 by - News

Softcat’s annual survey of more than 4,000 reseller customers across 2,900 organisations in the UK and Ireland has revealed that cyber security is a top priority for more than half.

It is the second consecutive year cyber-security has emerged as the dominant focus, with 56 per cent of respondents pinpointing it as their top priority.

Softcat’s chief technologist for cyber-security, Kieron Newsham, said it was important for organisations to not only recognise the importance of cyber security but also use new technologies for recovery and normalisation after cyber incidents.

Digital workspace claims the spotlight as the second most prioritised area.

The survey found that a third of organisations (39 per cent) emphasise devices and end-user computing for the upcoming year.

FourNet swallows 01T

Posted on December 1, 2023 by - News

Woodridge, IL, USA — Great White Shark Opening Mouth — Image by © Denis Scott/Corbis

Digital transformation outfit FourNet has acquired global network MSP, 01T.

FourNet said the acquisition gives its critical infrastructure customers end-to-end, fully resilient network connectivity. This includes the Prime Minister’s Office, ambulance services, and large enterprises.

It also removes the need for FourNet to use third-party network aggregators.

For those not in the know, 01T specialises in designing, building and managing high-speed global networks. It delivers connectivity and wide area network (WAN) services to organisations that rely on resilient networks.

2024 will be a big year for cybersecurity

Posted on December 1, 2023 by - News

A cybersecurity expert predicts 2024 will be a big year for cybersecurity as the world integrates some key tech.

NordLayer’s Carlos Salas said that in 2024, we will see such trends as the growth of remote work, human firewalls, the impact of AI, and the demand for cybersecurity specialists.

He said: “Besides standard cybersecurity topics like the seriousness of ransomware attacks, data leaks, and emerging business exploitation apps, from expert knowledge sharing and conversations with clients, we predict what other topics will keep businesses on edge next year.”

Research on the US workforce revealed that 40 per cent of the workforce capable of working remotely has moved from working full-time on-site to either a hybrid or fully remote work arrangement between 2019 and 2023.

Cloud computing will be compulsory by 2028

Posted on November 30, 2023 by - News

Fortune tellers at Gartner group have been shuffling their Tarot cards and concluded that cloud computing will shift from being a technology disruptor to being compulsory for firms by 2028

Big G says that IT spending on public cloud services remains unabated. In 2024, worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to total $679 billion and exceed $1 trillion in 2027.

Gartner analyst Milind Govekar said that organisations are actively investing in cloud technology for its potential to foster innovation, create market disruptions, and enhance customer retention to gain a competitive edge.

“While many organisations have started seizing the technical advantages of the cloud, only a few have unlocked its full potential in supporting business transformation. As a result, organisations use the cloud to launch a new wave of AI-driven disruption, enabling them to unlock business value at scale.”

Crowdstrike crosses $3 billion ARR

Posted on November 30, 2023 by - News

Cybersecurity outfit CrowdStrike’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) has exceeded $3 billion in its latest financial results for the first time.

Revenue was $786 million, a 35 per cent increase in its third quarter of fiscal year 2024, which ended October 31, 2023.

Non-GAAP net income attributable to CrowdStrike rose to $199.2 million, compared to $96.1 million in the same period last year.

Subscription revenue grew 34 per cent to $733.5 million, while revenues for professional services surged 58 per cent to $52.5 million.

Hexaware opens Birmingham-based facility

Posted on November 29, 2023 by - News

Global IT and digital solutions outfit Hexaware Technologies has opened a new Birmingham facility, aiming to create 250 jobs.

The facility was officially opened by West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, who participated in a ribbon cutting and traditional Indian lamp lighting ceremony.

Mumbai-based Hexaware said that since then, a surge in demand for applications operations, end-user computing services, and ServiceDesk support has convinced it to step up its growth in the West Midlands while diversifying its portfolio of services.

The expansion plan forms a vital part of the business’ UK growth strategy, which is focused on establishing itself as a trusted partner for innovative IT and digital services.

Microsoft prepares to add GPT-4 Turbo to Bing Chat

Posted on November 29, 2023 by - News

Microsoft campusSoftware King of the World Microsoft is to add GPT-4 Turbo to Bing Chat, which the Redmond-based tech giant recently renamed Copilot.

Vole abandoned the Bing Chat branding for its generative AI-backed chatbot earlier this month. The company now uses Copilot to refer to the service.

Regardless of the name Microsoft uses for its widely popular chatbot, the company is sparing no effort in a bid to improve it. In line with this, Bing AI (A.K.A. Copilot) is slated to get GPT-4 Turbo soon despite some unresolved issues around the implementation.

Now, an exchange on X between a Bing AI user and Microsoft’s head of Advertising and Web Services Mikhail Parakhin has shed some light on the transition to GPT-4 Turbo.