Category: News

HP extends Amplify programme

Posted on September 17, 2020 by - News

HP is extending its Amplify programme to encourage partners to increase diversity and inclusion to make a positive difference.

HPs chief commercial officer Christoph Schell said that HP was asking if we can help drive sustainability and corporate impact in everything partners do.

The outfit’s Amplify Impact programme, focuses on the planet, people and community and HP wants to extend it with a programme called Impact.

“It is the first industry programme that helps partners to assess and train them in a meaningful way around how they can have an impact on diversifying the channel ecosystem. “We believe it is a very bold change for our industry and a change that is overdue”, Schell  said.

Pure Storage buys up Portworx

Posted on September 17, 2020 by - News

Pure Storage has snapped up Portworx, a Kubernetes data services platform for approximately $370 million.

The deal is Pure’s largest acquisition to date and the company’s deeper expansion into the fast-growing market for multi-cloud data services to support Kubernetes and containers.

Charles Giancarlo, Chairman and CEO, Pure Storage said enterprises adopt cloud native strategies to advance their business and the acquisition marks a significant milestone in expanding our Modern Data Experience to cover traditional and cloud native applications.

2020 changed everything for Managed Service Providers

Posted on September 16, 2020 by - News

2020 will be known as the year that changed everything, everyone and every sector – and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are no exception says  Zyxel Regional Director Rachel Rothwell (pictured) .

Rothwell said the MSP’s customers needs virtually changed overnight once the pandemic took hold. Those that were once hesitant to allow remote working had their hand forced and are now more relaxed about allowing employees to work from home. But this also means the network needs to be more robust. Many businesses have put money in place to keep people connected from home, many of which were short term solutions not suitable for long term remote working in the ‘new abnormal’.

SMBs more likely to grow if they have a cloud

Posted on September 16, 2020 by - News

SMBs running clouds are more likely to be growing by more that five percent than those without one, according to a report issued by Amazon Web Services.

The quantitative study was carried out by Public First on the use and benefits created by AWS’s services for SMB organisations across the UK. In order to develop the research, AWS and Public First consulted with multiple leading academic experts. Key findings include:

• Business growth: companies running on the cloud are nearly three times as likely to be growing over five percent a year than those who are not. Moreover, businesses that used more than three cloud tools were twice as likely to be growing as businesses that use none.

Phoenix47 snaps up First Option Technical Support

Posted on September 16, 2020 by - News

IT infrastructure consultancy business Phoenix47 has acquired the white labelled technical support specialist company, First Option Technical Support.

The deal marks the latest milestone for First Option Technical Support who provide support to channel partners with IT support services. The agreement will see Phoenix47 relocate their head office to New Alresford

CEO of Phoenix47, Ed Crane, said that the acquisition demonstrates Phoenix47’s capability, expertise, and confidence in continuing to grow its  channel and vendor services.

The outfit is a channel focused IT infrastructure services business that has experienced very rapid organic growth over the last few years.

With this acquisition, Phoenix47 will bring a fresh approach to the ICT channel and aims to become the number one choice for the provision of white labelled technical support, and technical consultancy services. The company has absorbed employees that were working for First Option Technical Support to be able to take on the larger operations and transactions.

Datto hosts second virtual technology day

Posted on September 15, 2020 by - News

Datto will be hosting its second virtual MSP Technology Day on September 16.

The online event follows its first virtual MSP Technology Day in June, Datto will host its next event dedicated to the tools and technologies that are driving adoption of MSP services through the pandemic.

David Totten, CTO of US Partner Ecosystem at Microsoft, will join Radhesh Menon, Chief Product Officer at Datto, for a discussion on why now appears to be a pivotal moment for the MSP industry.

Totten said: “We are seeing small and medium size businesses more eager to accelerate their digital transformation in the wake of COVID. I am looking forward to a discussion with Datto on how MSPs will play a crucial role in providing the skills and capabilities that SMBs need to succeed, grow, and profit from this transformation.”

Jesper Trolle becomes Exclusive CEO

Posted on September 15, 2020 by - News

Exclusive Networks announced the appointment of Jesper Trolle as CEO.

Trolle joins Exclusive from ECS Arrow Electronics, where he is currently President of the Americas, and will be responsible for driving the next phase of growth at the company and upscaling the business. Trolle takes over from Olivier Breittmayer who becomes a non-executive Board member of Exclusive. The move is part of a planned succession strategy and Trolle will work alongside Breittmayer for the next three months to ensure a smooth transition.

IDC names Sophos a mobile threat management leader

Posted on September 14, 2020 by - News

Sophos has been opening the champers after being named IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Mobile Threat Management Software 2020 Vendor Assessment  mobile security leader.

The report evaluates the product offerings and business strategies of 10 mobile threat management (MTM) vendors and names Sophos Intercept X for Mobile as the top product in protecting Android, iOS and Chrome OS users from known and never before seen mobile threats.

According to the report: “Sophos’ combination of MTM and UEM products is rare among MTM vendors and unique among vendors in this study. This combination gives Sophos a strong advantage in situations where enterprises want a single vendor for both mobile device management and security enforcement.”

Microsoft teams up with Refinitiv

Posted on September 14, 2020 by - News

Microsoft has announced a new strategic partnership with financial data firm Refinitiv which specialises in providing data, insights and analysis tools to financial communities.

The outfit is now creating new products and go-to-market services on Microsoft Azure, and expand its use of Microsoft 365 and Teams.

Microsoft says the strategic partnership will help Refinitiv’s customers to capitalise on growth opportunities, as well as strengthen its own commitment to the financial sector.

Cindy Rose president of Microsoft’s Western Europe division said: “Through the powerful combination of our shared skills, experience and technology, we can help organisations unlock valuable insights from their data and spark a new level of productivity, collaboration and communication.”

Microsoft’s commercial cloud revenue up by 30 percent

Posted on September 14, 2020 by - News

Software king of the world Microsoft appears to be doing better than Amazon and Google in the cloud stakes.

According to the research data analysed and published by StockApps.com, during the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2020 which ended on June 30, 2020, Microsoft had an increase of 30 percent in commercial cloud revenue.

While commercial cloud revenue totalled $14.3 billion, Intelligent Cloud revenue was $13.37 billion. This marked an increase of 17 percent year on year and surpassed analysts’ expectations of $13.11 billion according to FactSet. The Intelligent Cloud segment includes such products as Azure, Windows Server and GitHub among others. More Personal Computing, which includes Xbox and Surface, was up 14 percent. Productivity and Business Processes, whose products include Office and Dynamics, was up six per cent. Overall revenue increased 13 percent year on year to $38.0 billion.

Server market revenue grows

Posted on September 11, 2020 by - News

The worldwide server market revenue grew 19.8 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2020, according to new figures from IDC.

The analyst outfit says revenue reached $24 billion in 2Q20.

Meanwhile, worldwide server shipments grew 18.4 percent  year over year to 3.2 million units in 2Q20.

Volume server revenue was up 22.1 per cent  to $18.7 billion, while midrange server revenue declined 0.4 percent  to about $3.3 billion and high-end systems grew by 44.1 percent  to $1.9 billion.

IDC Senior research analyst, Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies Paul Maguranis said that Global demand for enterprise servers was strong during the second quarter of 2020. 

Channel provided SentinelOne with good growth

Posted on September 11, 2020 by - News

The channel helped Cyber security player SentinelOne to revenue growth.

The outfit’s net new business increase by 105 percent  in its latest fiscal year, and highlighted moves it had made across the Europe, Middle Easter and Africa (EMEA) channel as a major contributing factor, helping it record average deal values increasing by 80per cent  during the period.

SentinelOne vice-president Daniel Kollberg said the recent expansion of the outfit’s EMEA distribution landscape and doubling the number of employees across the region from this time one year ago, are clear signs of hypergrowth in all industry segments.

Blue Orange doing well

Posted on September 11, 2020 by - News

Blue Orange made £4.2 million in revenue for its fiscal year ending 31 March 2020 and is expecting turnover to hit £5 million by the end of its current fiscal year.

The company has a two year target to hit £10 million in turnover

The reseller was founded 13 years ago and  four years ago turnover was at £1 million.

eir Business in security partnership with Exclusive Networks

Posted on September 10, 2020 by - News

eir Business announced an enhanced cybersecurity offering and partnership with Exclusive Networks..

The Managed Security Services are suitable for all size organisations and include a 24/7 Security Operations Centre (SOC), a comprehensive SOC portal for monitoring and alerts. This ensures improved security and faster incident response times, reduced IT security operations costs and skills overheads, the company claims. Real-time, intelligent data means the customers’ security is continually optimised.

eir Business is now offering free trials of the service, to register your interest contact eir Business: (business.eir.ie/corporate-contact-us/( and follow the eir LinkedIn page for details of upcoming security webinars. 

EXANTE stops serving cookies from its website

Posted on September 10, 2020 by - News

International Investment firm EXANTE is removing unnecessary cookies from its website; leading the way for privacy protection and making the internet safer for its users.

Accountancy firm Deloitte says in its Building Consumer Trust report that companies who are willing to give their clients sufficient guarantees that their personal data is going to be dealt with ethically will have a significant advantage.

Whilst other websites typically use third-party solutions (based on cookies) to collect and process visitor data, which can lead to multiple vulnerabilities, EXANTE  only collects the minimum data required in order to help its users. Users can browse the website without revealing their identity. EXANTE will only ask for information when the user chooses to sign-up and register to use the platform or other services which require the user’s information – putting the decision in their hands.

EXANTE’s web analytics service provider, Matomo, ensures that IP anonymisation is implemented by default. This means that each new visitor IP address is stored with the last components removed to protect users’ privacy.