Author: Tamlin Magee

Microsoft turns to channel in Surface catastrophe

Posted on August 15, 2013 by - News, Opinions

redmondMicrosoft will be reeling after top manufacturers dropped Windows RT as a platform one after the other with more rumoured production stoppages on the way.

Asus, Lenovo, and HTC have all ditched RT while Samsung is rumoured to quit production soon, and Toshiba and HP have not made clear any plans to push the operating system, as PC Advisor reports.

In the oversaturated tablet market where Android and the iPad are king, it is not particularly surprising RT failed to woo customers as a ‘cheap’ watered down alternative to Windows 8, that was actually anything but affordable. Microsoft’s none-message advertising campaign spectacularly flopped and while reviews were OK, the tech press was baffled by Ballmer’s insistence to keep the price tag high.

Even with a more recent price cut, the Surface RT is not particularly alluring.

The numbers in Microsoft’s inventory were staggeringly poor, with the company losing $900 million to its bet on the Surface RT sitting shipped but unsold in warehouses everywhere.

When even Windows 8 was not persuading potential customers to jump ship from Android or iOS with their smart devices, it was an expensive experiment for Redmond to insist on the viability of RT, and considering the company’s track record in hardware, even crazier to build and brand the Surface RT itself.

Now Microsoft hopes the channel will be able to convince business owners to cover its bad bet.

Today the Surface team announced the channel availability of both the Surface RT and Surface Pro in 17 new markets – including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. Resellers will be able to offer device recycling, data protection, custom imaging, onsite service, and more.

But these resellers will have to persuade businesses that the Surface or Surface RT are actually useful devices. There may be a few bloated budgets channel players will be able to extract some cash from, but overall, the move stinks of Microsoft trying to dump as many of the tablets as far away as possible.

Here is the official line: “We continue to be committed to bringing business channel availability to all markets where Surface is currently sold. As Forrester analyst Tirthankar Sen noted in his blog commentary, extending from our initial U.S. commercial channel roll-out on July 1, this measured approach helps us to quickly gather feedback and improve while we grow our geographical reach in the business channel.

“This availability in international markets, along with the updates coming to Surface RT with Windows 8.1 are all important milestones for our customers”.

The blog post concludes: “We know that people who use Surface love it!”

IBM to buy Trusteer

Posted on August 15, 2013 by - News

ibm-officeIBM has coughed up the readies to acquire IT security company Trusteer, which it hopes will help boost its portfolio in advanced threat management and application security.

Big Blue is putting together a cybersecurity software lab in Tel Aviv, Israel comprised of over 200 IBM and Trusteer researchers, in addition to the company’s existing R&D in Israel. Together, they will focus specifically on mobile and application security, advanced threat, counter fraud, malware, and financial crime.

IBM security will take advantage of Trusteer’s knowledge in security as a service through the cloud, as well as counter-fraud and advanced persistent threat protection. Additionally, Trusteer points out in a statement, that half of the top 25 US financial institutions offer mobile finance management, meaning advanced security needs to be in place to protect the institutions and their customers.

IBM wants to roll Trusteer’s expertise into its own range of software and services, such as QRadar, i2, SPSS, InfoSphere, and Enterprise Content Management.

In a statement, Trusteer’s CEO Mickey Boodaei said the way organisations are protecting data is quickly evolving. “As attacks become more sophisticated, traditional approaches to securing enterprise and mobile data are no longer valid,” Boodaei said, adding that Trusteer already has large banks as customers.

Boston signs distie deal with Mellanox

Posted on August 14, 2013 by - News

bostonskylineBoston Limited has just signed a distribution deal with Mellanox Technologies to sell the latter’s Infiniband and Ethernet Interconnect kit, as well as rigging it up with Boston’s own server and storage tech.

Boston hopes the contract will help its growth and development in offering high performance server and storage, especially as enterprises are after scalable options running with high performance and efficiencies.

Mellanox increases efficiency, the company says, by offering the highest throughput with the lowest latency to deliver data, quick, as well as using a system to the best of its capabilities. Interconnects like adapters, switches, software and silicon will all be on offer to optimise HPC, enterprise data, cloud, storage and financial services.

Mellanox’s Darrin Chen said adding Boston Limited as a distie partner will help the company “better address customers looking to achieve their performance”.

“Across EMEA, organisations are increasingly demanding new systems with the scalable and high performance interconnect products to increase application performance and business productivity,” Chen said.

The Mellanox products are available to buy from Boston now.

Dell grabs 1st place in notebook education

Posted on August 13, 2013 by - News

Michael DellDell has been approved under all three National Desktop and Notebook Agreement framework lots, meaning the company will once again be able to sell its  gear to consortia-affiliated universities and colleges.

Dell is now certified in six National Framework Agreements for universities, further education, and the UK’s Research Council, the company points out.

NDNA is a significant procurement path for selling products to the higher education sector, with the majority of institutions subscribing to the framework.

The company can provide desktops, notebooks, and services, marking an approximate combined value of roughly £310 million for the up to four years of the framework.

Dell grabbed first place in the notebook lot, meaning the consortia can contract Dell without bids from the competition.

The company cited its existing relationships with universities like Aberdeen, Cambridge, and UCL, and that it has supplied over 40 percent of UK unis with desktops or notebooks.

If universities so want, they can buy Dell kit without lengthy tender processes, as well as consistent pricing across desktops, workstations, thin clients, services, and tablet hardware – though the latter may not be particularly appealing to date. Dell also has a technical pre- and post- sales team dedicated to higher education.

Director for education at Dell UK, Kenneth Harley, said that IT is a “vital component” for education institutions to maintain their competitiveness and attract top students. “To do this, the provision of a personalised learning experience supported by best in class, affordable IT is crucial,” Harley said.

Academia expands portfolio

Posted on August 12, 2013 by - News

salamancaEducation technology group Academia is launching a new commercial business team within Academia Technology Group as a reseller for enterprise customers.

Leading the team will be Richard Faucher, who has previously worked at PC World, Misco, Insight, and Computacenter, and has 20+ years in the IT sector. It will be branded Academia for Business.

Academia hopes to built on its reputation as an existing Apple, Toshiba, Adobe, HP, and Microsoft supplier but to expand with mainstream server and storage to help business customers.

In a statement, Faucher said account managers will focus on different markets, including publishing and media, telecoms and technology, law and finance, and sports and leisure.

IDC: EU printer market returns to growth

Posted on August 8, 2013 by - News

inkjetIDC figures have noted that the printing market in Western Europe has returned to growth with commercial markets leading the charge, and laser shipments grew yearly by 11.6 percent.

Inkjet shipments remained flat, increasing a smidgen at 0.1 percent for Q2 2013 compared to the same time last year. Multi function printers impacted on the inkjet market.

Overall, the market increased 4.3 percent to 4.69 million units in Q2 2013 compared to the same time last year, but strong competition meant a 3.3 percent drop in dollar value for the market. Most market growth can be attributed to laser products, and IDC believes this demonstrates a returning confidence on spending in business markets. Laser printers and MFPs experienced double digit growth.

Colour products enjoyed the most growth at 17.3 percent, with share in A4 and A3 segments for both printers and MFPs increasing.

Monochrome printing did grow 10.1 percent but the A3 market here continued a decline.

Business inkjets increased yearly by 22.5 percent but inkjets for plebs contracted. High speed inkjets grew a formidable 57.1 percent.

The British market declined overall year on year by three percent, with continued declines in consumer inkjets. But there were signs of hope in the laser markets, increasing 16.9 percent year on year, and apart from A3 products there was growth across all segments.

Businesses were buying inkjet printers in the UK too, growing at 25.6 percent – compared to consumer inkjet spending which declined 11.3 percent.

Juniper increases partner services offerings

Posted on August 6, 2013 by - News

JuniperEnormous company Juniper Networks has announced the Juniper Partner Advantage Services scheme, in addition to the 2012 launch of the Partner Advantage Program. The idea is to give partners a way to differentiate their brands and offer incentives for market performance.

Partner Advantage Services will bring in two new specialisations. These are Partner Support Services, which offers partners different tools and services to improve their businesses, and Partner Professional Services, which places an emphasis on helping partners expand their services segments.

Those specialising in Partner Support Services will get access to new course offerings like the troubleshooting cert, Juniper Networks Certified Support Professional, for enhancing practices in the routing, switching, and security markets. They will also get access to advanced support engineers from Juniper’s technical assistance centre.

Partner Professional Services seeks to boost Juniper and its partners’ capabilities in the professional services sector, offering help for generating more revenue and improving customer services.

Emilio Umeoka, senior veep for worldwide partners at Juniper, said the offering “amplifies” the company’s investment in partners and services “by providing unique tools and opportunities that will help drive growth, increase profitability and reward partners that deliver a truly remarkable customer experience”.

Channel cautious on Ivy Bridge notebooks

Posted on August 6, 2013 by - News

Intel-logoSome channel retailers are expected to switch away from Ivy Bridge based notebooks and back to the classic desktop, on the back of weak industry demand.

Plenty of channel retailers, according to Digitimes, are struggling getting rid of their Ivy Bridge notebook interviews and are taking a cautious approach to placing new orders for the classic back to school period of September and October. This is traditionally serves as a boost for notebook sales, but the economic outlook is having varied depressive effects on the industry in general.

Intel Haswell desktops could account for as much as 30 percent of all desktop shipments for the third quarter, above the 10-20 percent in notebooks, so Digitimes believes channel retailers are pinning their hopes on the former.

Ivy Bridge inventories, still reportedly high, will be the main focus for the channel – so Haswell models with touchscreen features may not be promoted until the beginning of 2014.

If correct, a way to read this is Ivy Bridge PC prices could be knocked down for the back to school period, and almost certainly will become cheaper when efforts are concentrated on Haswell next year.

Cash strapped consumers and cautious businesses may not want to upgrade to the highest end gear either, save enthusiast communities. As a result, there will be an effort to popularise low end gear, with cheaper kit coming out like Atoms in Q3 and more affordable Kabini laptops.

High street must evolve or die

Posted on August 6, 2013 by - News

highstreetA retail company is calling out for a change in the way the high street manages and expects upticks in sales.

Powa Technologies CEO Dan Wagner suggested it is ridiculous to rely on the weather for an upturn in sales when the country is in search of wider improvements in economic performance. “There should be a greater emphasis on innovation that engages more directly with consumers to deliver more activity at the tills,” Wagner said.

Online shopping has transformed the way people buy and the high street has struggled to keep up. Of course, high street stores were bound to have a hard time if they clung to old models, which has lead to the death or transformation of what were once givens in any town centre.

Convenience has trumped the bricks and mortar approach for many people. Especially when it comes to delivering content, microtransactions online get that content to whichever device you prefer so much faster than a bricks and mortar shop, it’s unsurprising that many film and music outlets have faltered.

But this won’t necessarily mean the death of the high street.

“New shopping models involve convenient delivery and collection methods, more enjoyable methods of browsing, and quick means of payment,” Wagner said. “We shouldn’t be anticipating the loss of the high street, we should be anticipating its evolution”.

Just where that evolution will go depends on companies being prepared to take risks. One possible model is a hybrid approach, where consumers can buy online and collect in store or vice versa in interactive showrooms.

Avnet wins EU Cisco contract

Posted on August 5, 2013 by - News

avnettsMassive global distie Avnet has won the first EMEA contract from Cisco to supply Cisco UCS servers running SAP HANA, which will let resellers approach SAP customers all over Europe.

UCS lets customers run data analytics and warehousing in real time, quick, as well as providing the base for running other SAP enterprise applications on SAP HANA. The idea is that by using Cisco UCS for SAP HANA, customers will get simplified management, scalability, operational automation, and a range of quality storage options, helping them exercise greater control of critical enterprise applications.

Avnet EMEA veep Miriam Murphy said in a statement that in-memory computing should be expanding rapidly in Europe, as companies look for products that will help them make data driven business decisions quickly and on the fly.

“We can install the SAP in-memory computing platform and ship the rack mounted servers in as little as three days from receiving an order on most models,” Murphy said, “placing our partners in pole position to address new SAP customers”

Cisco’s director of partner operations for EMEA said the company had been working with SAP on HANA since 2010, and chose Avnet for the first European distributor considering its experience with Cisco and capabilities to built to order, plus the company’s logistic strengths.

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Dell vote deal could get Dell Dell

Posted on August 2, 2013 by - News

dellsigTinbox supremo Michael Dell and buyout partner Silver Lake may well be reaching a deal with Dell’s special board committee to increase the price they’d pay – as long as the voting rules are tinkered with to make sure they win.

People familiar with the matter told the WSJ that Dell’s new deal isn’t done yet but if it were to go through, the per-share price would be bumped up from $13.65 to $13.75, as well as include a special dividend for shareholders.

The vote is set for today. But if Dell and Silver Lake successfully convince the committee to modify the voting rules, the shareholder vote could be staggered by as long as one month.

According to the WSJ, the change to voting rules would make it so only shares that are actually voted count. As it stands, abstentions count as a “no”.

It is possible with a change to the rules the deal could well pass. But it will upset top shareholders such as Carl Icahn, himself gunning for control over Dell, who started dragging Dell through the courts as of yesterday about the change.

Google: Pets are most popular passwords

Posted on August 1, 2013 by - News

google-ICGoogle commissioned a survey of 2,000 adults – and one in ten said they could accurately guess a colleague’s password. Probably because the most popular passwords are, according to the research, easy guesses.

Wedding anniversaries, birthdays and kids’ names were all top choices for passwords, while football teams and the word ‘password’ also appeared a fair few times. Indeed – ‘password’ was tenth most popular.

Shockingly, half of web users surveyed admitted to sharing their passwords with other people. Women, the survey found, were more likely than men to share their password, and twice as likely to share it with their children.

But the most chosen password was the name of a pet. Favourite holidays or place of birth were also frequently chosen – the kind of passwords that would also be answers to security questions.

Given that it is often social engineering tricks or the simple human gaffe that leads to compromised security, this is a security nightmare.

“People often leave their information open to online security breaches without even realising it,” director of security for Google Apps, Eran Feigenbaum, told the Telegraph. “Lax attitudes to online security can lead to serious consequences
if strangers access your information.”

Speaking with ChannelEye, security expert Graham Cluley said it’d sadly be no surprise if the research was accurate.

“It never ceases to amaze me how – despite all the high profile hacks and data breaches – people still haven’t learnt the most basic lesson about passwords,” Cluley said. “Of if they have, they’ve decided to ignore it because it’s ‘too difficult’ to remember tricky passwords, let alone different passwords for different websites”.

As with other calls from the UK’s security pundits, companies, consumer action groups, and Cluley himself, he said it’s easy to imagine the positive impact  of a public education campaign.

It could explain that “password management software exists, often for free, which will remember all your passwords for you, and generate new, complex passwords so you don’t end up using ‘Tiddles’ over and over again,” Cluley said.

MS Office appears on Android phones

Posted on July 31, 2013 by - News

redmondMicrosoft has announced Office Mobile will now be available to Microsoft 365 subscribers on Android.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced Office Mobile for iPhone, meaning Office software is now available on Android, iOS, and Windows Phone, as well as on desktops and laptops.

Existing 365 customers will get access to Office Mobile for Android at no extra cost. It opens up Word, Excel and PowerPoint document reading and editing to the platform.

For now, it’s only available in the United States but more regions are promised in the coming weeks, in 33 languages and 117 markets.

Office Mobile for Android can be found on the Google Play Store, but users will need a qualifying Office 365 subscription, including Office 365 Home Premium and Office 365 ProPlus.

The idea is to sync up mobile work with work at the office or at home. Editing documents in Office Mobile for Android will save changes made in the cloud, and these changes will be accessible from whichever other device or platform customers use. A single subscription is available for up to five mobile devices, excluding Windows Phone which has the app pre-installed.

This app is designed for the phone in mind. We have asked a Microsoft spokesperson if tablet optimised versions will be made available, but for now Microsoft is recommending tablet users go to Office Web Apps.

“We built Office Mobile for Android phones to ensure a great Office experience when using a small screen device,” an FAQ reads. “Therefore you will not be able to download and install Office Mobile for Android phones on an Android tablet from the Google Play Store”.

It’s likely the varied screen sizes have something to do with this.

Anyone interested in trying the app out can sign up for a 30 day Office 365 trial at http://www.office.com.

Macro 4 to host UK IBM mainframe open day

Posted on July 29, 2013 by - Events, News

ibm-officeSoftware and services company Macro 4 is hosting an open day for the UK’s IBM mainframe users to discuss plans for the next generation of users.

The open day will be held on 26 September, 2013, for mainframe customers looking to plan strategies around the next generation of mainframe development and support staff.

Panel sessions, demonstrations, workshops, and an IBM keynote are all planned, with Peter Siddell, IBM UK Technical Specialist for CICS Tools on z/OS CICS Tools Development and Dr. Herbert Daly, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science University of Bedfordshire both speaking.

In particular, the event will focus on alternatives to the 3270 green screen interfaces – with a view to making accessing the mainframe platform easier and more intuitive, especially considering how many were brought up on Microsoft and Apple GUIs.

Macro 4 plans to show off mainframe interfaces running on Eclipse IDE, especially looking at how Eclipse can feel more ‘modern’ to the latest crop of developers and support staff, as well as providing gains in productivity and usability compared to the conventional alternatives – for existing and new mainframe users.

The event will be held at Macro 4’s Crawley HQ, a short trip from Gatwick.

Macro 4’s commercial and technical director, Jim Allum, said a key focus for development over the last few years has been providing flexible access to mainframe products, and “in general to the mainframe environment in which they operate”.

 

3D printing market worth $4.45 billion by 2016

Posted on July 26, 2013 by - News

taipeiThe market value for 3D printing could zoom past $4.45 billion as soon as 2016, according to Taiwan’s Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC).

The figure is roughly double its value in 2012 at $2.15 billion – itself 22.2 percent growth from the previous year.

MIC notes that the current picture it’s a long way since the initial rounds of investment into 3D printing in the 80s, including from companies like 3D Systems, Stratasys and Helisys. But an injection of R&D cash in recent years has been progressive for the technology and lead to an expansion in the application market.

Now, thanks to R&D progress, a wide range of materials can be printed, including metals, ceramics, resins, plastics, nylon, PVC, ABS plastic and wax.

Since these developments, 3D printing has found itself being used for the production of metal modules, personalised goods, automobile and airplane parts, medical apparatus, gadgets, consumer goods and jewelry.

MIC points out that governments are expressing their support for advances in 3D printing and other big players, including in the Asia Pacific region, have entered the scene.