Author: Nick Farrell

Black box named as Juniper’s partner of the year

Posted on April 27, 2023 by - News

Juniper Networks has recognised Black Box as its 2022 Partner of the Year.

Juniper Networks Director of Commercial & Partner Sales for India & SAARC Harshavardhan Kathaley said that Black Box’s proven track record demonstrates its consistent contribution towards the transformational growth of Juniper’s business.

“Its unwavering commitment to enabling businesses in their digital transformation journey has made them an extraordinary partner for Juniper Networks. We extend our gratitude and congratulations to them for winning the 2022 Partner of the Year award.”

TD Synnex gives partners financial and leasing services

Posted on April 26, 2023 by - News

TD Synnex partners in the UK can now access a new range of financial and leasing services, including flexible customer payment options.

TD Synnex Capital will now offer a payment solution – or Tech-as-a-Service option – for any product in the TD Synnex portfolio that can be integrated into a product sale and will be funded for the full term up-front, “eliminating credit risk for the channel partner”.

The US distributor giant says these solutions are available in the UK and will be rolled out across Europe in the coming months.

Transparity Solutions snaps up DataShapa

Posted on April 26, 2023 by - News

Transparity Solutions has written a cheque for data and AI specialist DataShapa.

For those not in the know, DataShapa is a medium-sized consultancy providing strategic consultancy on data, AI and business intelligence solutions for enterprise customers.

Based in South England with customers throughout the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, DataShapa helps companies handle their data strategies .

Managed services deals increase in size and value

Posted on April 25, 2023 by - News

Managed services contact deals fell in 2022 but the average deal size grew by 22 per cent, according to IDC beancounters.

The number crunchers said that there were more than 1,700 managed services deals signed last year worth more than $125 billion in contract value.

The research firm reports that despite indications of a global economic slowdown, IT spending across organisations is steadily increasing.

There was an increase in larger deal signings (total contract value (TCV) above $100 million) in 2022 compared to 2021.

IDC said that as technology is increasingly becoming the backbone of organisational growth strategies, they are seeing more and more organisations upgrading their IT infrastructure leveraging cloud, artificial intelligence, and security.

Channel recruitment growing

Posted on April 25, 2023 by - News

IT channel recruitment will pick up in second quarter of 2023 and reach pre-Covid levels again in Q3 after a period of major culls to the vendor workforce according to new figures from Robertson Sumner.

Robertson Sumner’s Marc Sumner said that “overpaid” and “over-hired” staff who were laid off from vendors are now seeing channel partners as a safe haven.

He said that firms like Microsoft and Salesforce over-hired during Covid and overpaid people. That bubble was going burst.

During the first quarter the market was stagnant, with people re-evaluating salaries that plateaued during the quarter. However, the first two weeks of second quarter saw volumes of more than any week in first quarter, Sumner said.

CDW staff fear layoffs

Posted on April 24, 2023 by - News

IT solution provider CDW appears to be laying off hundreds of employees after the company warned that its first fiscal quarter 2023 revenue would fall below expectations.

The Illinois-based group expects first-quarter net sales of about $5.1 billion, well below analyst consensus estimates of $5.28 billion and significantly lower than the $5.95 billion in revenue the company reported for its fiscal first quarter 2022.

The outfit has 15,100 employees and several of them have complained on social media that they have been let go. The firm is offering a severance package, but laid-off employees are signing non-disclosure agreements.

One area hit by the layoffs is the field services unit which had some redundancies after CDW’s blockbuster $2.5bn acquisition of Sirius, the employee said.

Posts suggest that about a 1,000 employees are being laid off across the company with more coming.

 

 

Hammer time as Exertis expands cybersecurity product across the EU

Posted on April 24, 2023 by - News

Exertis is launching its Exertis Cybersecurity product throughout Europe.

Since the acquisition of Exertis Enterprise (previously known as Hammer) its cybersecurity unit has been boosted and is now looking for further expansion.

It has new vendor signings, including Seagate, eSentire, Progress, Scylla, Seceon and Veeam.

Exertis will be offering its Exertis Cybersecurity product in the Nordics, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, France and Germany after training from UK security directors and managers.

Exertis Cybersecurity director of sales and commercial Dominic Ryles: “We’re delighted to be rolling out our cybersecurity solution stack across our European offices. We look forward to strengthening our relationships with our European colleagues, partners and customers.”

Public cloud has silver lining

Posted on April 24, 2023 by - News

Public cloud service spending will grow 21.7 per cent to $597.3 billion in 2023, according to beancounters and number crunchers at analyst outfit Gartner.

Cloud computing going to drive the next phase of digital business, as organisations pursue disruption through emerging technologies like generative artificial intelligence (AI), Web3 and the metaverse, Big G said.

Gartner VP Sid Nag said hyperscale cloud providers were driving the cloud agenda as organisations today view it as a strategic platform for digital transformation. This requires cloud providers to offer more sophisticated capabilities as the competition for digital services improves.

IBM does better than expected

Posted on April 21, 2023 by - News

A not so mobile X86 PCBiggish Blue has posted better first-quarter results than Wall Street expected thanks mostly to customer demand for its open hybrid cloud platform and enterprise-focused AI.

First quarter revenues remained relatively flat at $14.3 billion — a rise of 0.4 per cent.

IBM chairman and chief executive officer Arvind Krishna said that IBM’s first quarter results demonstrate that clients continue turning to IBM for its combination of an open hybrid cloud platform, enterprise-focused AI, and business expertise to unlock productivity and drive efficiency in their operations.

“This gives us confidence in our current growth expectations for revenue and free cash flow for the year.”

More than half of SMEs killed off by cyberattack

Posted on April 21, 2023 by - News

The US National Cyber Security Alliance discovered that 60 per cent of small businesses cannot survive more than six months following a cyberattack.

The average cost for small enterprises to recover from a cyberattack is $690,000, while it exceeds $1 million for mid-sized companies. IBM reports that 62 per cent of all cyberattacks target small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

The e-commerce explosion has led to increased concern about security and privacy. A survey reports that 34 per cent of e-commerce retailers believe cybersecurity and privacy breaches are the biggest threats.

Noname teams up with Wiz

Posted on April 21, 2023 by - News

Noname Security has partnered with Wiz to help customers improve security by enabling complete visibility, context, and control of infrastructure hosting mission-critical and highly sensitive APIs to minimise and remediate risk.

According to Battery Venture’s March 2023 State of Cloud Software Spending, cloud infrastructure, data warehouse, and enterprise security investments are top spending priorities for CXOs in 2023, followed closely by automation, which has significantly increased in priority from the third quarter 2022 to first quarter 2023. With the rise in enterprise security and automation investments comes a reliance on APIs, that power modern applications and provide the connective tissue to tie the digitised world together. 

Konica Minolta aims for 90 per cent circulated resources

Posted on April 20, 2023 by - News

Konica Minolta aims to use more than 90 per cent circulated resources for its products by 2050.

The outfit admitted that its previous sustainability targets were “no longer appropriate” and a wider overhaul of its sustainability goals was needed. The managed print giant wants to be net zero in scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2050.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe General Manager Environmental Social Governance, Olaf Jonas said that when Konica Minolta published its EcoVision 2050 in 2009, the targets were in line with what were strict standards for that time.

“However, as the climate crisis exacerbates, these are no longer appropriate,” he said.

Econocom sees a double digit uptick in revenues

Posted on April 20, 2023 by - News

Digital services provider Econocom has managed a double-digit uptick in first quarter 2023 revenues.

The VAR said its development was driven by organic growth in technology management and financing and external growth in products & solutions.

Its products and solutions division was up 11.1 per cent to earn revenues of €312 million, driven by the acquisitions.

Organically, the segment posted a slight increase of 1.5 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2022, which Econocom said was a period of sharp growth.

Thatcher CloudCoCo’s new innovation head

Posted on April 20, 2023 by - News

CloudCoCo has appointed Lee Thatcher as its new head of cloud and innovation.

Thatcher has 20 years of tech experience, most recently at Tieva.

With 140 employees and over 1,000 customers nationwide, CloudCoCo is a £25 million revenue IT services and communication reseller, specialising in network connectivity, cloud, collaboration tech and cyber.

Lee is expected to help CloudCoCo evolve into a multi-cloud player and become a cloud agnostic company.

CloudCoCo has already agreed with digital innovation specialist Abstract Tech, based in Leeds and a strategic agreement with distributor Ingram Micro UK.

CloudCoCo’s cloud business will now also be available on Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, including Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google GCP services.

Westcon-Comstor launches multivendor marketplace

Posted on April 19, 2023 by - News

Oxford Covered Market, courtesy of http://www.oxford-coveredmarket.co.uk/content/anna-james-photosWestcon-Comstor has launched a multivendor marketplace where its partners can configure, quote, and order complex hybrid solutions.

The company claims its PartnerCentral portal gives partners the business and customer insights they need to capitalise on new opportunities and market trends.

PartnerCentral is designed to accelerate and simplify the move to cloud and “as-a-service” business models. These can be complex to manage as partners make this transition.

PartnerCentral simplifies the procurement and management of recurring subscription and as-a-service offers at scale, making it easier to provide these services to end customers.