Author: Tamlin Magee

Red Hat EMEA channel conf details announced

Posted on July 4, 2013 by - Events, News

redhatOpen source profiteer Red Hat has announced dates for the fifth Red Hat Europe EMEA Partner Conference in Madrid this year.

The event will run from 29 September to 2 October 2013 and will open with keynotes from top executive veep in sales and services, Arun Oberoi, and CTO Brian Stevens. Veep of partners for Red Hat EMEA, Petra Heinrich, will also be speaking about general partner strategy.

There will be a series of panel discussions on current and future trends in open hybrid cloud, middleware, platform offerings and product strategies. As is expected from this sort of thing, there will also be breakout sessions and talks on best practices about enterprise IT, specifically focusing on using open source tech and making the shift from physical to virtual and cloud platforms.

Red Hat is calling on distributors, ISVs, OEMs, system integrators and other partners, potential or existing, to discuss with each other and gain access to Red Hat’s top execs. Platinum and gold plus sponsors, IBM and HP respectively, will also be attending.

The company asserts, in a tone which would not sound out of place read by Genesis P Orridge over an abrasive and menacing tape loop: “The Red Hat EMEA Partner Conference will be comprised of three pillars. Pillar one is built on datacentre integration with the key themes of partner enablement and IT modernization. Pillar two is built around middleware and the requirement to migrate legacy applications in an open environment. The third pillar focuses on solving the new workload challenges inherent in open hybrid cloud and big data environments.”

HP Software UK in channel push

Posted on July 4, 2013 by - News

HPHP’s channel director for UK & Ireland has said the channel is crucial to expanding business in the territory – while also handing ten percent of direct sales over to resellers.

HP Software has lofty plans to double its size and this will mean a slight strategic shift in how the division operates.

Speaking at an HP event, CRN reports Toffis acknowledged the channel business share is leaning on direct sales.

Toffis pointed out that partners are key to the company’s aggressive growth strategy, not just in the UK, but worldwide. “We know we can’t do that without partners,” Toffis said. “We need partners to help support us in the growth and we’re investing to be able to do that”.

Recently, HP tinkered with its Partner One T&Cs, slashing the amount of certifications required by half, in a bid to bring in more channel partners.

At the moment, HP’s UK, France and German operations mostly run through direct sales, but here in Britain over half of all sales do involve a partner on some level.

Last year, HP announced its intentions to introduce a One HP strategy across the board – that is, to unify the operations of its many, many divisions and simplify the way each of these engages with partners. HP execs, speaking with ChannelEye, have individually confirmed this is on track, and so we could expect to see similar movements across other UK&I market segments.

IBM to invest $1bn in flash R&D

Posted on July 3, 2013 by - News

ibm-officeIBM has announced it will invest $1 billion into flash R&D as well as launching a series of SSD based systems.

Flash will be integrated into all IBM server and storage systems as well as a new flash only storage system.

Not only is flash a “key tipping point”, according to head of IBM software and systems, but eventually data centres will be completely comprised of solid state drives, reports Solid State Technology.

IBM has also announced plans to open 12 centres worldwide which will allow its customers to test flash products in various scenarios. They will be able to test flash performance in various scenarios that require heavy workloads like in stock exchange transactions and credit card processing.

Data Memory Systems has taken the announcements to mean all enterprise Tier 1 storage should be totally flash based, reasoning that the shift toward cloud and big data makes processing data quickly a necessity. Because traditional HDDs have not increased phenomenally in speed over the last years, flash can potentially increase processing speeds by 90 percent for certain tasks, for example in banking and trading where speed is critical.

It is not the end of traditional hard disks yet, as they still offer cost benefits now, but IBM’s decision to invest so much in flash storage shows the direction the industry is headed.

Logicalis scores Juniper Network Elite status

Posted on July 3, 2013 by - News

JuniperLogicalis has nabbed itself Elite Partner status for Advanced Security at Juniper Networks’ partner advantage programme, the top level for partners.

Logicalis has got itself Firewall/VPN & IDP and Policy and Access Control authorisations, which the company hopes will score it some more brownie points with companies thinking of hiring it.

MD at Logicalis UK, Mark Starkey, said the company had worked with Juniper Networks for quite some time, so getting the Elite status should help it sell itself to businesses concerned with advanced security in emerging trends like mobility and cloud.

“This accreditation provides us with access to the latest technologies and advanced training at Juniper,” Starkey said.

Darryl Brick, director of partners UK&I at Juniper, said that Logicalis is now offering advanced security from data centre through to small and medium enterprise, so customers can “take advantage of some of the most advanced security technology and services in the market”.

Free games to lead app downloads

Posted on July 2, 2013 by - News

dandroidFree to play games are set to drive app ecosystems, leading the charge of the 160 billion plus consumer apps Juniper Research expects to be downloaded by 2017.

In Juniper Research’s report, Future App Stores: Discovery, Monetisation & Ecosystem Analysis 2013 – 2018, the analyst house found the majority of downloads will be in the games category. 40 percent or more downloads are expected to come from this segment.

We can expect an increase in social network functions in these games – not only in terms of leaderboards but to promote the apps themselves.

But developers are still working out the kinks when it comes to monetisation. There is a downward pressure on pricing which often means paid-for apps need to be enormous hits to get the pay-off from investment. This will, Juniper thinks, lead to more free to play games as it becomes the most popular option at the point of download among consumers.

The app store model itself, according to Juniper, has already cut out network operators from grabbing their share of the profit.

Report author Siân Rowlands said that it’s still possible to squeeze cash from customers through carrier billing, which can be popular for customers without a bank account. “However, operators must realise they won’t see as great a revenue share as they did during the pre-app store era,” Rowlands said.

It’s predicted that just five percent of apps will be paid for at the point of download in 2017 – less than 6.1 percent this year.

EU firms complacent on data risk

Posted on July 2, 2013 by - News

ironmountainCABusinesses, overwhelmed by an ever increasing surge of data to deal with, are in danger of becoming complacent about data loss.

A survey from Iron Mountain and PwC has determined there is an increasing awareness in information risk, but many SMEs just don’t have the tools in place to deal with the reams of data and in multiple formats. There is also a danger of more sophisticated security threats as well as needing to treat information management as essential to business.

Under half of businesses surveyed in the 2013 Risk Maturity Index said they had a strategy in place for measuring and combating information risk – even as the average number of data breaches increase by 50 percent each year.

Of those asked, over half were so overwhelmed by the threat of data breaches that they acknowledge they’ll never be able to keep up, while 41 percent said data loss is an “inevitable part of daily business”.

Evaluating 600 European SMEs with between 250 and 2,500 employees, across the legal, financial, pharma, insurance, manufacturing and engineering sectors, there was some improvement compared to last year in understanding information risk. Using a set of metrics based on the amount of data protection in place, it rates companies at a target score of 100. This year European companies scored an average of 56.8 compared to 40.6 last year, but clearly there is a long way to go.

PwC Risk partner Claire Reid said that businesses will have to embrance a “new way of thinking” – where data security will be a top priority and also a way to create value.

IT should use XP migration to boost infrastructure

Posted on July 1, 2013 by - News

framedwindowsWith support for Windows XP just around the corner, yet another company is shouting that businesses must have no illusions: sticking with unsupported software could be catastrophic.

Attachmate’s Barry Davis, UK sales director, said in a statement that businesses will be and should be migrating – and when they do they should take the migration as an incentive to evaluate security vulnerabilities in their infrastructure. “They can also reconcile and shrink the sprawl to a level their current IT staff can support,” Davis said.

Attachmate pointed out Accenture research that claims half of UK IT departments have no strategy for applications current running on Windows XP. And it warns that if businesses continue to run terminal emulators made for XP after upgrading, they could still be open to vulnerabilities.

“This is an opportunity to invest in future proofing, streamlining desktop emulation and mainframe access,” Davis said.

Attachmate advises businesses to take step by step best practice approaches to migration, based on standardisation, and starting with an inventory check to get all the data in place.

Kcom invests in Cisco certification

Posted on June 26, 2013 by - News

ciscologoKcom has got some more Cisco certification on its roster that open it up to selling and delivering further Cisco’s cloud products.

The programme gives partners cash rewards for selling cloud services as well as other incentives.

From getting the Cisco Master Service Provider certification, Kcom will now be able to flog at least two Cisco services, that is, managed or cloud services labelled Cisco Powered.

The service designation are in Cisco Powered Hosted Collaboration Solution and Cisco Powered Managed Hosted Collaboration for Contact Center, complementing the company\s existing services.

The idea is to use Cisco Powered services to boost connectivity to boost customer connectivity and take away unnecessary technology to reduce both cost and risk. For their buck they get 24/7 partner and Cisco support plus the sway of a big name.

HP changes partner cert requirements

Posted on June 26, 2013 by - News

HPHP has updated its ParterOne programme, and it looks like a simplified model.

Certification requirements have been tinkered with across the board and in all regions.

Partners will get their compensation depending on membership status as well as regions, plus sales incentives for products and services.

It also looks like HP is going a little more liberal on certifications – with some areas such as the Enterprise Group having their certification requirements halved, from 44 to 22. ChannelEye has asked an HP spokesperson to clarify on other certification requirements.

We have asked HP if this announcement is to do with it changing its T&Cs and are waiting for a response.

In a statement, HP said the programme offers “predictability, simplicity and profitability”, and has been successful at helping partners bring in more revenue. It seems to be part of wider efforts to have each HP group more in common and horizontal.

*Update HP told us it modifies the PartnerOne Ts&Cs every year. Next year, HP says, changes to the program Ts&Cs will be told to partners at the time of the full 2014 program announcement in October 2013.

An HP spokesperson said that cert requirements are important to the PartnerOne Specialist designations “throughout all of HP’s “value” business”, which includes Software, Enterprise Group and parts of PPS.

The idea is that more partners will attend HP training and get certifications to, basically, become accredited to sell more kit across all the business units. It is cutting Enterprise group certifications from 44 to 22.

“We believe these competencies are a real value-add for our partners, as they allow them to differentiate themselves in the market,” the spokesperson said.

Phishing attempts triple

Posted on June 25, 2013 by - News

fishingEvery single day roughly 3,000 UK web users were sent a phishing attack between 2012 and 2013, triple the levels seen between 2011 and 2012.

That’s according to a new Kaspersky Lab’s report, “the evolution of phishing attacks”, revealing what was once a subset of spam has grown into its own category of cyber attack. The most targeted websites were Facebook, Yahoo, Google and Amazon, with Facebook and Yahoo overwhelmingly ahead as targeted sites.

Worldwide, attacks reached an average of 102,100 people each day, with the most common targets being web users in Russia, the United States, India, Vietnam and the UK. Most servers hosting the phishing pages were registered in the USA, the UK, Germany. Russia and India.

Kaspersky discovered that half of all identified attack sources came from only 10 countries, signifying there is quite a small number of preferred regions from which to launch the attacks.

20 percent of phishing attacks were set up to mimic banks or financial organisations.

Kaspersky’s deputy CTO for research, Nikiti Shvetsov, said the enormous increase shows that phishing is not just a subset for spammers. “These attacks are relatively simple to organise and are demonstrably effective, attracting an increasing number of cybercriminals,” Shvetsov said.

Mobile ad spending on the up

Posted on June 25, 2013 by - News

SmartphonesIn the UK alone, it’s predicted the amount spent on mobile advertising will increase by 90 percent in 2013 to reach £1.6 billion according to a report from eMarketer.

Last year the amount spent on mobile advertising was a comparatively tiny £526 million.Because mobile and tablet adoption rates are so high in the UK, advertisers have woken up to the necessity of spending big on the platform.

Digital ad spending – including traditional online and mobile platforms – will also be up from the same time last year, reaching £6.1 billion in 2013, or a 12 percent increase. Spending on digital ads could be as high as £8 billion by 2017, the firm predicts.

Right now advertisers who investing in search, while eMarketer expects display ad spending will make up a quarter of expenditure in 2013, although increased adoption of video advertising should contribute to further growth. Mobile users can expect to be thoroughly annoyed by video advertising more and more in the coming years – considering

All media advertising should reach £13.98 billion this year, eMarketer forecasts, or an increase of 3.7 percent from the previous year. Although the company notes the poor economic backdrop has slowed growth, the strength of the industry –  backed by online and mobile ad investments – kept it healthy. Digital advertising counted for the biggest chunk of all media spending. Major sporting events such as last year’s Olympics also put the advertising industry onto a solid course for 2013 and are expected to help again in 2014 with the World Cup and Winter Olympics.

Western Digital buys sTec

Posted on June 24, 2013 by - News

westerndigitalHGST, a subsidiary of Western Digital, has acquired sTec for $340 million, cash, to boost its position in enterprise class solid state storage.

Western Digital is confident that sTec intellectual property will be a valuable addition to HGST’s portfolio. Existing Stec products will continue to be supported by HGST.

HGST is already established in SSDs but wants to further capitalise on the growing enterprise SSD segment, pointing out that it is committed to continuing its joint development programme with Intel. Current and future SAS-based SSD products will continue to be in partnership with Intel, it said in a statement.

STec’s board of directors unanimously approved the agreement and is recommending the same to sTec shareholders. The acquisition was overseen by Wells Fargo Securities and Merrill Lynch, and is subject to the usual customary conditions – planned for completion in Q3 or Q4 of this year.

CEO at Western Digital, Steve Milligan, said that enterprise SSDs will play a crucial strategic role in the future of the company. In a statement, he said this acquisition is part of the company’s overall strategy to capitalise on changes in the storage industry “by investing in SSDs and other high-growth storage products”.

Vodafone to buy Kabel Deutschland for $10bn

Posted on June 24, 2013 by - News

vodafoneVodafone has agreed a $10 billion deal to pick up German’s largest cable operator, Kabel Deutschland.

The acquisition comes after the company buying out Cable & Wireless Worldwide, signifying an increased emphasis towards cabel services.

Vodafone has said the $110 per share deal will help it offer more competitive TV, fixed line and broadband services to mobile customers, Reuters reports, in one of its most important markets, a significant change of direction for the company that turns it into a quadruple play company.

American billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Global also had its crosshairs on Kabel Deutschland, but it is thought it was outbid by Vodafone.

Liberty Global is planning a push into the European market which it entered earlier this year when it acquired Virgin Media.

Senior analyst at CCS Insight, Kester Mann, believes the acquisition is both “offensive and defensive”. While it will allow it to attack the biggest European market with cable and TV services, it also shores up the company’s defenses from other cable operators like Liberty Global, Deutsche Telekom, and of course, Kabel Deutschland.

“The move reflects the severity of the threat from cable providers offering faster and lower-cost services,” Mann said.

By diversifying the services offered, with this acquisition Vodafone will be more likely to keep customers from straying to multiple providers – and offer benefits for those that use its services across the board.

Across the pond, Mann thinks that if Vodafone is offered a respectable amount for its stake in Verizon Wireless, leaving the US market entirely would be worth consideration. The acquisition of Kabel, as well as an increased focus on the European markets, could give Vodafone ample opportunity to improve EU networks.

Emeka Obiodu, an Ovum analyst, said the buy instantly transforms Vodafone into the biggest pay TV provider in the country – and the second largest fixed broadband provider.

This is the largest Vodafone M&A since the 2007 India acquisition. According to Obiodu, this indicates that Vodafone’s domestic European market is “sickly and requires a good dose of medicine to jolt it back to life”.

Ovum predicts that mobile telecoms revenues in Germany are subject to downwards pressures, so the acquisition is to diversify Vodafone’s product line up in Europe for additional revenue. “The implication,” Obiodu said, “is that if Vodafone becomes Germany’s largest pay TV provider, why would it not want to do the same in the UK, Spain, Italy or the Netherlands?”

Firms face XP migration nightmare

Posted on June 24, 2013 by - News

framedwindowsWindows 8.1 is around the corner – a reshaping of Windows 8, which received a lukewarm reception since its October 2012 launch. However, critics warn that the key question for businesses will be migration from Windows XP, when support for that operating system ends in early 2014.

Considering the poor economic conditions of much of the world, particularly in Europe, there are plenty of companies who simply cannot afford to, or do not want to, upgrade from their Windows XP boxes. But they will have to.

UK based IT efficiency company, Sumir Karayi, believes that Windows 8.1 could well be the post-XP iteration of Windows that businesses will seriously consider.

As support runs out for XP, these organisations will be faced with sky-high support costs or migration to a newer operation system, and as such, most should be planning a migration strategy, Karayi says.

Aside from the daunting financial risk in keeping XP on life support, Microsoft will no longer be patching critical security flaws. As such, companies still running XP could find themselves exposed to disaster.

“Most large enterprises are unaware of all the software applications they already have, let alone how many are actually being used, and how many licences they should pay for during a migration process,” Karayi warns. “The licensing issues surrounding software applications are complicated”.

“There is little consistency in the agreements and businesses are often left paying for far more than they actually require,” Karayi says.

As companies upgrade, then, they should make sure their migration strategies are compatible with their software licences.

The message, then, is “loud and clear” according to Karayi – if IT decision makers are to avoid shooting themselves in the foot, organisations must move away from XP before the deadline’s up.

Distie talks up video conferencing

Posted on June 21, 2013 by - News

telepresenceDistributor Zycko has claimed that a significant amount of resellers are unfamiliar with video conferencing despite thriving demand, but there is ample room in the channel for capitalising on the technology.

In a survey of 204 resellers, 31 percent admitted they didn’t have a clue about video conferencing, although most respondents acknowledged that they and partners could benefit from it. However, 48 percent were familiar with video conferencing and 21 percent claimed to have a solid understanding of the technology.

The reception was largely positive. 84 percent said their experiences had been good or very good.

Almost half of respondents said they used video conferencing themselves with about a third claiming that it is part of their daily or weekly routine. Sales and management were the top users, mostly using the technology for internal communications , followed by customer calls.

Zycko CEO David Galton-Fenzi said that there is plenty of opportunity for capitalising on flexible and remote working in the channel. Distributors should take the initiative to educate partners on the benefits of the latest remote working technologies – if not selling packages themselves, at least utilising telepresence to deliver personable customer service when meeting in person is not possible.

“Now is the time for resellers to align themselves with channel partners able to support them, and help them engage end users with a solution that will continue to grow in popularity as the ROI potential is realised,” Galton-Fenzi said.