Author: Nick Farrell

Print channel starts to wake up

Posted on March 1, 2022 by - News

The print channel is starting to wake up as the pandemic and its lockdowns wind down according to market watcher Context.

The print channel was hammered as offices closed or skeleton-staffed, now things appear to have been picking up.

According to market watcher Context, revenue sales through the distribution of business printers across Europe were higher than consumer device sales last month.

Laser single function (SFP) printers were driving those sales, with the performance of inkjet hindered slightly by the shortages that have swashed around that market in recent months. Price increases have also bled into entry-level business and consumer printer prices, and that has also seen revenue improvements year on year.

Lemongrass teams up with Microsoft on SAP

Posted on March 1, 2022 by - News

Microsoft campusLemongrass has joined Microsoft in a partnership designed to help large and midmarket enterprises modernise and simplify their SAP environments.

The agreement will focus on the co-development of SAP-centric services that take advantage of the capabilities of Microsoft Cloud and help maximise the value of customers’ SAP investments

Lemongrass specialises in working with SAP in the hyperscale cloud, from planning and migration to operation and automation. With 6,000 SAP servers and 300,000 SAP users under its management, the firm helps customers extract value by moving and running their SAP systems in the cloud.

Vole said it’ll act as a distinctive innovation partner, providing Lemongrass with the opportunity to collaborate with the tech giant on design and engineering initiatives for SAP customers. 

Cybersecurity leaders are burnt out, overworked and ‘always-on’

Posted on February 28, 2022 by - News

Gartner has warned that cybersecurity leaders are burnt out, overworked and in ‘always-on’ mode and the role evolves as accountability for cyber risk moves outside of IT and because of the “increasingly distributed ecosystem”.

According to the market research firm, security and risk management (SRM) leaders are investing “significantly more effort into evaluating and influencing the cyber health of external parties”.

It claims that employees are making “more decisions with cyber risk implications” and that executive committees are being “established outside the scope of the cybersecurity leader”.

Gartner warns partners that this is likely to lead to an environment where cybersecurity leaders will have “less direct control over many of the decisions that would fall under their scope today.”

Pulsant snaps up cloud services provider Amito

Posted on February 28, 2022 by - News

It’s M&A time yet again! Cloudy Pulsant has written a cheque for Reading-based data centre and cloud services provider Amito.

The acquisition is the latest move in Pulsant’s geographic expansion plans and its ambitions to bring edge computing to every business in every region of the UK.

The acquisition is Pulsant’s second within two months, following the acquisition of a Manchester data centre and associated clients from M247 Limited. The deal includes the company’s 15,000 sq ft and 800 rack data centre in Reading which provides 2.9MW of IT load capacity and has been built from the ground up with energy efficiency in mind.

Pulsant operates an established network of 11 regional edge data centres across the UK, delivering secure, scalable and resilient cloud, colocation and networking services. The move further strengthens Pulsant’s presence in the South East of England, adding to existing data centre sites in Croydon, Maidenhead, Milton Keynes and Reading.

Scribetech wants new channel partners

Posted on February 28, 2022 by - News

Scribetech has announced that it is actively looking to broaden its growing portfolio of channel partners in the UK healthcare sector for its speech recognition (SR) technology, Augnito.

Earlier this month, NHS healthcare technology provider, Wellbeing Software announced its adoption of Augnito SR technology into its Radiology Information System.

The partnership is one of several UK signed agreements Scribetech has gained in the last six months and joins the list which includes Fujifilm; a provider of products and services to healthcare.

Augnito is a  portable, cloud-based, and AI-driven clinical SR product suite that captures live clinical data. It turns medical information into clinical documentation to make healthcare intelligence accessible, meaning doctors have more time to focus on delivering vital services inpatient care.

Print channel bottoms out and picks up

Posted on February 25, 2022 by - News

Beancounters at Context are predicting a long term improvement in the print channel after revenue sales through distribution of business printers across Europe were higher than consumer device sales last month.

Laser single function (SFP) printers were driving those sales, with the performance of inkjet hindered slightly by the shortages that have swashed around that market in recent months. Price increases have also bled into entry-level business and consumer printer prices, and that has also seen revenue improvements year on year

SMEs have been buying mid-to high-level products to support office reopening, which has had a positive impact on comparisons with last year’s revenue figures.

Context Analsyst Antonio Talia said that while volume sales for both business and consumer printers were lower over this period compared to a year ago, business volumes fell at a slower rate.

Integrity360 snaps up Caretower

Posted on February 25, 2022 by - News

More M&A action! Integrity360 has acquired cybersecurity MSP Caretower, as part of its cunning plan to create a £70 million-revenue business across the UK and Ireland.

For those not in the know,  Caretower offers managed security services, penetration testing, security consultancy and managed incident response services, working with an array of vendors including Microsoft, Sophos, Kaspersky, Check Point, Forcepoint, Barracuda Networks among others.

The business generated sales of around £28 million in 2021 and has offices in London and Sofia, Bulgaria.

Integrity360 is a Check Point, F5 and Forcepoint partner and claims that the acquisition will bring its group revenues to £70 million in 2022 and boost its headcount to more than 300 employees including 200 cybersecurity engineers, analysts, consultants and specialists.

All of Caretower’s employees will remain with the group.

Cloud spend increasing but so is traditional computing

Posted on February 25, 2022 by - News

Most organisations plan to increase their use of public and private cloud infrastructure over the next two years but almost half of organisations will boost the use of traditional computing.

Beancounters Aptum penned a Cloud Impact Study 2022 which found that 78 percent of IT decision-makers plan to increase their organisation’s use of public cloud infrastructure while 72 percent plan on increasing private cloud infrastructure over the next 18 to 24 months.

The survey asked 400 senior IT professionals from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom across industries including financial services, technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, public education and the commercial sector about their approach to cloud technology.

Lenovo hits $20 billion revenue

Posted on February 24, 2022 by - News

Lenovo has made $20 billion in revenue for the first time ever in a single quarter.

Revenue rose 17 percent for the third quarter compared with the same period last year to $20.1 billion, while net income surged by 62 percent to reach $640 million.

It was the sixth consecutive quarter with net income growing at a rate of over 50 percent.

Lenovo chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang said: “Lenovo continued to embrace the opportunities driven by accelerated digital and intelligent transformation, and our new IT architecture prepared us well with client-edge-cloud-network-intelligence capabilities. With another record quarter, we delivered the sixth quarter of more than 50 per cent net income year-on-year growth, and the first $20 billion revenue quarter in our history.”

He said the company was on track to double both our net margin and R&D investment in three years from 2021.

Tech Data boosts power protection services

Posted on February 24, 2022 by - News

Tech Data has revamped its range of power protection services to streamline partners’ ability to offer installation and maintenance services on power protection solutions.

The IT distribution giant is offering multiple different options for service and maintenance, for its partners. These range from single-room systems to large-scale data centres and multiple sites.

Tech Data provides the installation of backup generators, cooling system and fire suppression equipment, as well as UPS battery replacements, it said.

AVI-SPL snaps up Sonics

Posted on February 24, 2022 by - News

Audiovisual reseller AVI-SPL has written a cheque for the Dublin-based AV integration specialist Sonics.

Sonics partners with the likes of Zoom, Sennheiser, Logitech, NEC, Polytech and LG.

AVI-SPL claims it sees “tremendous growth opportunity with Sonics in its local market” and hopes to bolster its operations there, while it also plans to “significantly strengthen its capabilities in Europe and beyond”.

AVI-SPL  MD Michael Kellaway said: “Both companies have led the way in creating customer success with leading-edge AV and unified communications deployments and exceptional day-two services to support them. I’m thrilled to welcome Sonics to our team.”

The acquisition is expected to close next week and will see Sonics become an extension of the existing AVI-SPL UK team.

HP seizes shedloads of fakes

Posted on February 23, 2022 by - News

HP says it has seized more than 3.5 million fraudulent print products, parts and components during the past year.

The maker of expensive printer ink said that counterfeiters are increasingly protected by selling their goods online which makes them harder to catch.

HP’s Anti-Counterfeit and Fraud team confiscated 646,000 counterfeit print products across EMEA, an additional 400,000 across the Americas, and a further 2.5 million across the APAC region. While that seems a lot most of the products seem to be ink and toner cartridges.

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Cisco puts ThousandEyes into the channel

Posted on February 23, 2022 by - News

Cisco is converting its ThousandEyes arm into a channel proposition.

Cisco channel leader Oliver Tuszik said it had got to a point where the company wanted to put the network visualisation tools into the hands of its partners so they could react to growing demand from customers for greater visibility and improved security.

He said: “We are helping our partners further deliver on their commitment to customers by announcing that Cisco ThousandEyes is moving to a full channel sales model.”

“I am thrilled about this and the work our teams are doing to support partners’ needs in adding this capability to their Cisco portfolio. Delivered as a SaaS [software-as-a-service] solution, ThousandEyes is another important Cisco component in driving more subscription-based annual recurring revenues – an important shift we know is just good business for our partners’ bottom line.”

Intel wants ARM now

Posted on February 23, 2022 by - News

While it is unlikely to happen, it seems that Intel is considering snapping up British chip manufacturer ARM.

Nvidia officially announced the termination of its $40 billion acquisition from owners SoftBank Group (SBG) earlier this month due to “significant regulatory challenges”.

Shortly after its collapse, ARM confirmed it was preparing for an IPO within the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.

Now, Intel is weighing up its own offer for ARM. Kicking Pat Gelsinger has said Intel would be interested in participating if a consortium emerges to own the UK semiconductor company.

Exclusive Networks has record breaking fourth quarter

Posted on February 22, 2022 by - News

Exclusive Networks has announced a record-breaking quarter in its fourth-quarter and full-year results, which ended December 31, 2021.

The distribution giant logged gross sales of €1 billion, a spike of 31.4 percent year on year. For its FY2021, the group’s gross sales were also up double-digits rising 29.5 percent to €3.3 billion.

CEO Jesper Trolle said the distributor’s latest financials amounted to a “symbolic milestone” for the channel firm. “For the first time in its history, Exclusive Networks exceeded €1 billion of gross sales in a quarter”, he said.

“This is not just a symbolic milestone in our journey and demonstrates our success addressing the compelling demand for cybersecurity solutions and offering the optimal go to market platform to guide customers in the ever-changing environment with best-in-class solutions. ”