Author: Nick Farrell

Infinigate pledges to buy out more companies

Posted on June 1, 2022 by - News

Infinigate Group has posted ‘record results’ for its financial year ending 31 March, claiming that it plans to continue an aggressive M&A strategy.

The distributor’s annual revenues were €813 million which was 26 percent up on last year and means the group is well on the way to making its €1.5 billion revenue target for 2024.

The Swiss VAD started the year strongly with its acquisition of French distributor D2B Informatique.

It said the buy was a “significant step” in its “aggressive” expansion strategy across EMEA as well as its plan to extend its market reach and consolidate its position as the “leading” distributor of cybersecurity solutions and subscriptions in the region.

F5 appoints Berry director of channel sales and Wiktander as new VP

Posted on June 1, 2022 by - Moving People, News

F5 has appointed Carl Berry as its new Director of Channel Sales for the UK and Ireland.

He will report to Nasser El Abdouli, VP for EMEA Channel Sales at F5.

After 20 years in the industry Berry joins F5 from Fortinet, where he was the Regional Sales Manager for the UK and Ireland. He has also held leadership positions at Avnet Technology Solutions.

Unified communications partners with GammaCommunications

Posted on May 31, 2022 by - News

Unified communications, network, data, wifi, and audio-visual solutions distie Nuvola Distribution has announced a new partnership with GammaCommunications to expand Microsoft teams..

For those not in the know, Gamma provides Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) in the UK and Europe, and is apparently the UK’s “No.1 SIP Trunk provider”, if you are ever looking for an SIP trunk for your number ones.

OGL offers customers digital advice

Posted on May 31, 2022 by - News

MSP OGL Group has opened a new advisory services division.

The division is being run up by Nick Johnson, who becomes head of advisory services. His CV includes time as a software engineer at BAE Systems, and as director of group IT at GKN before leaving to join OGL. The division aims to aprovide more support for customers going through digital transformation

Johnson will be working with customers to help them drive efficiencies while keeping on top of compliance requirements and regulations that cover security. The envisaged customer for the advisory service will be a mid-market sized operation that is looking for help in devising and developing a digital strategy, but lacks all of the expertise to support that aim in-house.

Analysts warn about Broadcom VMware merger

Posted on May 31, 2022 by - News

Gartner and Canalys are a little concerned about Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware .

Canalys chief analyst Alastair Elms warned that Broadcom had no experience in merging  VMware with existing software and security assets from CA and Symantec and success will depend on how Broadcom executes against this plan.

“Integrating the different parts of the business will be complex, with some parts overlapping and others lacking clear synergies.”

Elms said the benefit of the deal is it will give VMware “true independence” from Dell, with Michael Dell selling his 40 percent stake, allowing it to pursue its goal of being the ‘Switzerland’ of the IT industry, and strengthen its alliance partnerships.

Daisy communicates its Communicate Better plan

Posted on May 30, 2022 by - News

Daisy Communications has acquired Communicate Better in a move which will drive it closer to Microsoft and give it new telephony and telematic offerings.

Communicate Better offers IT support, telephony and telematics solutions. The company employed 36 staff in 2021.

Daisy says the acquisition expands its existing telephony business and secures it a telematic offering which will “strengthen and diversity” its portfolio. It’s the third acquisition for Daisy Communications in the last 12 months.

Daisy CEO Dave McGinn said: “This is a promising partnership to add to our flourishing portfolio, increasing our footprint in telephony products, enhancing our Microsoft relationship, and accruing telematic products. I am excited to welcome our new colleagues and customers to the Daisy family and to continue our journeys together”.

Dell records record profits

Posted on May 30, 2022 by - News

Dell saw growth in its Infrastructure and Client Solutions Groups as it announced a first quarter record in its latest trading update.

The computer behemoth has revealed its financial results for the first three months of its fiscal 2023 year, with revenue up 16 percent from the previous year to $26.1 billion.

The company also generated a record first quarter operating income of $1.6bn, a 57 per cent increase on the year before, and a non-GAAP operating income of $2.1 billion, up 21 percent.

“We followed a record FY22 with a record first quarter FY23”, said Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and co-chief operating officer of Dell Technologies.

Broadcom says VMWare channel has nothing to fear from takeover

Posted on May 30, 2022 by - News

Broadcom Software Group’s president has said that VMWare’s channel has nothing to worry about following his outfit’s $61 billion takeover.

Tom Krause [No really] has said the company is ready to “embrace” the channel having learnt its “value” from previous acquisitions, with the company wanting to “continue to support” it.

Broadcom’s deal with Symantec sparked some concern from the channel after rumours spread that Broadcom wanted to take Symantec’s top 1,500 customers direct, disties also feared Broadcom’s channel strategy after buying Symantec.

Krause said:”We see a very valuable channel, I think there are some things we have learned relative to the CA and Symantec acquisitions in terms of the value of the channel. We want to continue to support that channel. That’s going to allow us to support a lot more revenues in a cost-effective way. So we see a real opportunity to leverage that.”

BT Wholesale goes hybrid

Posted on May 27, 2022 by - News

BT Wholesale is offering hybrid work options through Microsoft Teams and wants to get its Channel onboard.

The firm is launching WHC Teams Direct Connect, which means users can access external calls on Teams using Wholesale Hosted Communications (WHC).

The company is looking to the channel to take the solution out to market, with it being quick and easy to deploy without the need for onerous IT support.

The move will enable the channel to offer combinations of hosted PBX, Hosted SIP Trunking and Teams, as well as pointing out that simple solutions save time and money in training and roll-out.

VMware and Broadcom deal goes through

Posted on May 27, 2022 by - News

In a move that will put a chill in some of VMWare’s partners, the Broadcom takeover bid has been given the nod.

Broadcom will pay $61 billion and acquire all of the outstanding shares of VMware in a cash-and-stock transaction.

Raghu Raghuram, chief executive officer of VMware, said: “VMware has been reshaping the IT landscape for the past 24 years, helping our customers become digital businesses. We stand for innovation and unwavering support of our customers and their most important business operations and now we are extending our commitment to exceptional service and innovation by becoming the new software platform for Broadcom.

Zoom still goes boom

Posted on May 26, 2022 by - News

It looks like the end of COVID lock-downs does not mean an end for video-conferencing outfit Zoom.

According to its latest results Zoom’s three-month period ended 30 April 2022 saw the core conferencing solution complemented with the launch of Zoom Contact Center, Zoom Whiteboard and Zoom IQ for Sales, a conversation intelligence service for sales professionals, as well as Zoom Events and Webinar functionalities such as Backstage and Webinar session branding.

These offerings are designed to put engagement at the centre of the experience and transform the way users work, connect and collaborate. The company said the products demonstrated its focus on enhancing the customer experience and promoting hybrid work.

Nvidia expects slowdown

Posted on May 26, 2022 by - News

The chipmaker Nvidia has warned of trouble ahead and that it is pulling back on new hiring.

The move lines up with its comments during its latest earnings release when it said that it expects sales of GPUs for gaming consoles and PCs to decline in the current quarter.

CEO Jensen Huang said that while Nvidia had a solid previous quarter, with revenue up 46 per cent over last year to $8.29 billion and was “gearing up for the largest wave of new products in our history” with new GPU, CPU, DPU and robotics processors coming online in the second half of the year, it is expecting to see lower revenue.

Word on the street is that the company appears to be bracing for a slowdown and the leaders want to want to take a pause to onboard the “thousands of new hires we’ve recently made”.

Nvidia is not the only one – Lyft, Uber and Snap, have announced hiring slowdowns. Nvidia was expected to weather events due to continued strong demand in the GPU market that has kept prices high and supply short.

Firms investing in quantum top cats

Posted on May 26, 2022 by - News

Salaries in quantum computing are now starting at £50,000 and are expected to increase to more than £90,000 in five years as the industry takes off.

According to a report by Quantum Futures, provided to TechUK, in the US salaries are reaching $250,000 (£192,000) with five years’ experience in the industry.  However, this is terrible news for the UK as it is murder for the UK to keep pace with this level of investment and growth.

The report warned that it is unsustainable to develop a talent pipeline where everyone working in quantum needs a PhD. The authors of the report pointed out that, at the moment, it can be difficult for those without a PhD to find technical roles within the quantum.

Bites does well

Posted on May 25, 2022 by - News

Bytes has seen its gross  income increase by 26 percent for the 12 months ending 28 February 2022 to £1.21 billion.

CEO Neil Murphy (pictured)said that Bytes Revenue surged by 13.8 percent to £447.9 million over the same period.

The company has reported operating profits meanwhile jumped by 57 percent year on year to £42.2 million, while adjusted operating profits, which are based on its underlying operations and ignores one-off costs, soared by 23.6 percent.

Datatec sees double digit revenue rise

Posted on May 25, 2022 by - News

Datatec has posted a double-digit rise in both revenue and profits for the year as both Westcon and Logicalis aced their results.

Revenues for the technology group were up 12.8 percent to $4.6 billion while EBITDA climbed 30.3 percent to $154.5 million.

Datatec CEO Jens Montanana said the group delivered a strong operational and financial performance across all divisions during FY22 despite global semiconductor shortages and ongoing supply chain constraints which have resulted in a growing backlog.

“While we see continued demand for our products and services across the world, and have positioned our operations to take full advantage of this, the supply chain headwinds compounded by various factors, including the war in Ukraine, lockdowns in China and global inflationary pressures will impact our performance in 2023”, he said.