Author: Nick Farrell

Vendors leaning on distributors more

Posted on June 16, 2023 by - News

Vendors and solution providers are looking to IT distributors for guidance, support and resources,  the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) EMEA summit was told.

GTDC CEO Frank Vitagliano said that innovation was a key sales driver and rising value proposition for the channel as businesses struggle to keep pace with increased labour costs, global competition, and regulatory compliance.

“While organisations rely on IT solutions and technology providers to address those concerns and meet other critical objectives, distributors are a force behind the scenes. They deliver more technology options, services and support capabilities than ever before,” he told the gathered GTDC throngs.

EPAM partners with Google Cloud on AI

Posted on June 16, 2023 by - News

EPAM Systems has announced a strategic, global partnership with Google Cloud to develop and deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Through this partnership EPAM will expand its global, cloud-native engineering and integration services and introduce targeted vertical solutions and managed services around Google Cloud AI solutions, including Vertex AI, Generative AI App Builder, Model Garden and more.

EPAM Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer Elaina Shekhter said: “We are excited to expand our partnership with Google Cloud to bring the power of AI to our clients. Today’s technology transformations are built on the foundation of digital and cloud-native developments, many of which we’ve been working with Google on since the mid-2000s.”

MSPs should invest in smart locker tech

Posted on June 16, 2023 by - News

Managed service providers should invest in smart locker technology to better serve their customers, according to Velocity Smart Technology CEO Anthony Lamoureux.

Lamoureux said that despite being part of a billion-dollar industry, not much has been made of using smart locker technology to help MSPs improve client service level agreements. He said 28 per cent of businesses would consider implementing smart lockers, and yet MSPs have yet to seize this clear competitive advantage.

Smart lockers provide 24/7 access to IT assets and can help to provide a rapid service to end users when an IT asset fails or needs to be taken offline for further investigation. CIOs are being pushed for cost reduction, and cost savings are apparent from the get go when an MSP switches to a smart locker.

Capita gets another government security contract

Posted on June 15, 2023 by - News

Outsourcing supremo Capita has been awarded a £50m contract, alongside PwC, to replace the Action Fraud cyber crime reporting service.

The irony of this news will not be lost as Capita is facing possible regulatory investigations over its cyber security stuff-ups after 90 of its customers, including pension funds and well-known brands had their customer and staff data stolen from its systems in a ransomware attack.

The replacement of Action Fraud comes after the service was slammed for its multiple failings. In 2021, a Work and Pensions Committee report on pensions scams and fraud outlined multiple concerns with the body, many of them stemming from a 2019 investigation by The Times which alleged staff malpractice and inadequate resourcing at the service, which the City of London Police oversees.

Capita will provide contact centre resources and the underlying technology to enable the public to make reports. PwC, meanwhile will provide technology services for the crime and intelligence management underpinning the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), which assesses and analyses the reports currently received by Action Fraud. The new service is scheduled to become operational by the end of June 2024. Action Fraud’s existing services and systems will remain in place until that time.

 

Asigra teams up with Direct 2 Channel

Posted on June 15, 2023 by - News

Secure backup and recovery outfit Asigra is partnering with distributor Direct 2 Channel (D2C).

The partnership means that Asigra will make its Tigris Data Protection software available to the hundreds of channel partners in the D2C network.

D2C is a global, value-added, cybersecurity-focused software and hardware distributor that provides services to channel partners and Managed Service Providers by becoming an extension of their team. The company’s mission is to create a synergy between Asigra and its channel ecosystem.

D2C managing partner Carlos Zevallos said that a crippling cyberattack was the number one concern for customers and the solution providers served by the.

“We are helping our partners minimize that threat significantly by providing best of breed security solutions from industry specialists like Asigra,” he said Carlos Zevallos, Managing Partner,

“With layers of security covering nearly every aspect of business computing, it is surprising that so many overlook one of the single most important environments, their data backup infrastructure. This is often left exposed to malicious attacks, but Asigra blankets this sensitive data with aggressive technologies that screen, root out and defend against these attacks.”

Asigra CEO Eric Simmons said: “We are excited to announce our partnership with Direct 2 Channel (D2C), a leading distributor of technology solutions, as it opens up new avenues for the expansion of Tigris Data Protection software. Through this collaboration, we are bringing secure backup and recovery to D2C’s extensive channel ecosystem.”

 

 

Nokia helps operators make more cash out of 5G

Posted on June 15, 2023 by - News

Former rubber boot maker Nokia has successfully trialled a new solution that enables Android smartphone users to purchase and activate network slices on-demand from their operator.

The solution enables operators to monetise 5G slicing services, for example, by offering premium network slices that can be purchased in selected areas based on customer demand.

The trial took place at Nokia’s network slicing development centre in Tampere, Finland, using Nokia’s end-to-end slicing product portfolio, including its IMPACT entitlement and policy control servers and UE Route Selection Policy (URSP) technology implemented in Android 14.

EU gives billions to chipmakers

Posted on June 14, 2023 by - News

The European Commission is giving £6.95 billion to the semiconductor supply chain.

Dubbed Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI), the funding is on microelectronics and communication technologies. The EU hopes that it will trigger £11.8 billion of private investments so that the industry will have £18.9 billion sloshing around.

This IPCEI will fund 68 projects from 56 companies from 19 Member States (plus Norway), involving 600 indirect partners. It could potentially create more than 8,700 direct jobs in Europe.

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Cloud use continues to increase in hospitals

Posted on June 14, 2023 by - News

Health executives expect to increase the number of cloud use cases, according to a survey conducted by Healthcare outfit Redox and Sage Growth Partners.

The survey of executives and technology decision-makers from over 100 large academic medical centres and multi-hospital health systems uncovered strategic cloud investment priorities for large healthcare organisations, including current and future use cases and desired business outcomes for cloud technology.

Findings are published in their new report Uncovering hidden data roadblocks of Cloud and AI Adoption in healthcare.

Juniper expects private network spend to grow

Posted on June 14, 2023 by - News

A new study from Juniper Research has found that enterprise spending on private networks will near $10 billion globally by 2028; rising from $1 billion in 2023.

Juniper said that there were three areas which were growing:

1. Manufacturing – 35 per cent
2. Energy – 20 per cent
3. Public Services – 16 per cent

An important factor is the need for private networks that can support high device densities and operate over large geographical areas, the report said.

Private networks use mobile technologies to provide a closed network than can be fully managed by enterprises. Private networks cannot be accessed by any cellular connection, only those authorised by the network itself.

Ethernet switch market grows

Posted on June 13, 2023 by - News

The worldwide Ethernet switch market grew revenues 31.5 per cent year over year in the first quarter of 2023 to $10 billion.

According to Beancounters at IDC the entire worldwide enterprise and service provider (SP) router market recorded $4.1 billion in revenue in 1Q23, a 14.1 per cent annual increase.

The Ethernet switch market’s growth of 31.5 per cent in 1Q23 builds on annualised growth of 3.3 per cent in 4Q22 and 19.4 per cent for the full year 2022. In 1Q23, the Ethernet switch market strengthened across the data and non-data centre segments. Revenues in the non-datacentre/enterprise campus and branch segment grew 38.7 per cent yearly, while port shipments rose 14.1 per cent. Revenues in the data center portion of the market rose 23.2 per cent year over year in the first quarter of 2023, while port shipments increased 19.7 per cent.

J.P. Morgan Securities launches its Sustainable Investment Data Solutions

Posted on June 13, 2023 by - News

J.P. Morgan Securities Services launched its Sustainable Investment Data Solutions for institutional investors, available through Fusion.

The solution enables investors to readily extract value from sustainable investment data supplied by providers through technology-enabled normalisation, management, calculation, and screening capabilities.

By partnering with leading data providers, including Bloomberg, Equileap, FactSet, ISS ESG, MSCI, RepRisk, Revelio Labs, S&P Global, and Sustainalytics, Fusion has reimagined the sustainable investment process delivering a highly differentiated and cost-effective solution for investors.

Oracle reports a strong fourth quarter

Posted on June 13, 2023 by - News

Database outfit Oracle reported strong earnings and promised a generative artificial intelligence service.

The database giant reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $3.32 billion, up from a $3.19 billion profit a year earlier. Earnings before certain costs, such as stock compensation, came to $1.67 per share, beating Wall Street’s target of $1.58 per share. Revenue rose 17 per cent from a year earlier, to $13.84 billion.

Chief Executive Safra Catz told analysts on a conference call that she’s looking for earnings of $1.12 to $1.16 per share on revenue growth of between 8-10 per cent. Wall Street had been looking for first-quarter earnings of $1.14 per share on revenue of $12.34 billion, which implies growth of just 7.8 per cent.

European software market grows

Posted on June 12, 2023 by - News

The European software market grew by 15 per cent year on year in 2022 despite economic turbulence and global instability.

According to figures compiled by IDC, this is the highest growth in the last 20 years, demonstrating the resiliency of demand for software in the face of major macroeconomic factors.

IDC said the growth was primarily driven by increased prices of software licenses (reflecting high inflation), customers locked in with existing partners, and contracts signed for longer than in previous years.

In 2023, however, the European software market is predicted to grow at “just” 11.7 per cent owing to general caution across all sectors.

Although the five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for 2022–2027 is expected to 12 per cent for the European software market overall, three main areas are predicted to grow substantially faster.

Artificial intelligence platforms has an expected CAGR of 41 per cent (reflecting a 16 times increase from 2018 to 2027), followed by integration and orchestration middleware with a CAGR of 24 per cent and software quality and life cycle tools with a CAGR of 20 per cent, IDC said..

HashiCorp deletes eight percent of workforce

Posted on June 12, 2023 by - News

Cloudy software developer HashiCorp plans to lay off eight per cent of its workforce as part of a set of cost-cutting measures despite the fact it made record revenues.

The outfit recorded a 37 per cent year-over-year revenue rise and a solid fall in its net loss.

CEO Dave McJannet said that the cull of HashiCorp’s employees also follows the company’s targeted cuts in discretionary spending in response to a difficult macroeconomic environment and pressure from customers’ buying process.

“We are responding to the current customer and economic environment with proactive actions to lower our ongoing costs,” McJannet said.

Before the job cuts, HashiCorp had over 2,000 employees.

Google orders staff back to work

Posted on June 12, 2023 by - News

Search engine outfit Google has reversed its decision on working from home and wants its employees back in the office to listen to its managers in long pointless meetings about moving cheese, kicking the ball running, and leveraging things,

Google was one of the first large tech companies to allow its employees to voluntarily work from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  But now it wants its employees to return to the office at least part-time.

Google updated its hybrid work policy by requiring most employees to physically come to the company’s offices at least three days a week and it will be tracking attendance via office badges, and including office attendance as part of its employee reviews.

As part of its updated hybrid work policy, Google is also requesting those employees who previously had approval to work from home to reconsider coming to the office on a hybrid work schedule to be “better connected to the Google community.”

Employees who were pre-approved to work from home full time may find that approval rescinded.