Category: News

Crayon draws in £160 million and eyes AI domination

Posted on February 19, 2024 by - News

Crayon has smashed its fourth-quarter results with a whopping 27 per cent growth in gross profit and a staggering £160 million in cash flow.

The tech firm’s boss, Melissa Mulholland, said the figures show the huge demand for software and cloud services and vowed to keep boosting the company’s efficiency and profitability.

She said: “With the rise in cloud spending and demand for AI, we are in a prime position to grab the market by the horns.”

Crayon revealed its impressive performance in the first half of 2023, with a massive 23 per cent growth in gross profit, reaching over £110 million.

Lenovo to launch its own OS and take on Windows 11

Posted on February 19, 2024 by - News

Maker of ThinkPads Lenovo is set to unleash a bombshell on Microsoft by launching its own artificial intelligence (AI) operating system (OS) later this year.

The tech giant’s top boss, Liu Jun, said the new OS would be “built around multi-terminal products, focusing on AI PCs and personal agents”.

Lenovo announced its latest range of AI PCs, which will hit the shelves in the first half of this year. The company said it will show off its cutting-edge AI devices at MWC, the largest event for the mobile industry, in February.

VeUP in chaos as bosses quit and staff sacked

Posted on February 16, 2024 by - News

British AWS-focused consultancy VeUP is in trouble as bosses leave and reviews slam the firm’s “revolving door” culture.

According to LinkedIn and Companies House records, ex-CEO James Campanini quit the firm in August 2023, and several other top dogs followed him in the last months of 2023.

Ex-COO Owen Knowles and CFO Suzanne Clarke, who worked for VeUP as contractors, also walked out recently. Knowles left in February this year.

Sources inside the company say workers are being dumped and even faced with legal action without warning.

There have been shedloads of senior exits across finance, HR and sales at the start-up, which came to the UK market in early 2023 with Campanini in charge and Alexander Dick as its chairman.

Sophos boss quits as cyber firm booms.

Posted on February 16, 2024 by - News

Cyber security as a service outfit Sophos said that Kris Hagerman has packed it in as its CEO and will be an advisor to the firm until April 1, 2024. Joe Levy will be Sophos’s President and acting CEO.

Hagerman has been CEO of Sophos since 2012 and has seen the firm grow. The firm has tripled its revenue to over $1 billion. It has more customers, from about 150,000 to over 580,000 worldwide, making Sophos one of the top next-generation leaders in the cyber security business. Hagerman made Sophos go public on the London Stock Exchange in 2015 and sold it to Thoma Bravo in 2020.

Hagerman said he was happy with the company’s achievements over the last 12 years as it became a true next-generation cybersecurity leader and an industry pioneer in making cybersecurity a service.

“I am happy to hand over to Joe Levy as President and acting CEO to lead Sophos into the future. Joe and I have worked well together for over nine years, and he has been key in leading our product, services, and technology, which have made Sophos grow. He has my full and keen support.”

Flotek snaps up Welsh web firm

Posted on February 15, 2024 by - News

Cloudy Flotek has bought most of OES, a web and print firm from North Wales.

OES has grown fast and made £3.1 million a year, with a name for its service and bespoke plans, especially for the legal market.

The deal boosts Flotek’s reach in the region, along with the Chester office it got last year, and makes the Welsh MSP rake in more than £10.5 million.

The buy adds 22 OES staff to Flotek’s team, taking it to over 80 people.

SMEs turn to MSPs as economy bites

Posted on February 15, 2024 by - News

UK small businesses are flocking to MSPs as they struggle to cope with the economic turmoil.

A new report by JumpCloud claims that nearly two-thirds of SMEs are using an MSP for some or all of their IT needs, up from just over half in the previous report.

JumpCloud’s top tech boss, Greg Keller [pictured], said MSPs are a bargain for cash-strapped firms.

“MSPs are much cheaper than hiring your IT staff.  They are a game-changer for small firms, start-ups and scale-ups that are the backbone of the SME sector. They don’t have the money or the budget to recruit and train IT staff themselves,” he said.

Nvidia’s CEO Declares War on AI Costs

Posted on February 14, 2024 by - News

In a high-stakes battle for supremacy, Nvidia’s Chief Executive Officer, Jensen Huang, has predicted that reducing the costs of AI chips using faster chips could shake up the industry.

Huang, who presides over the self-proclaimed “world’s most advanced AI platform,” told the World Government Summit in Dubai of his cunning plan to harness technology’s relentless march and slash the cost of AI development.

Huang warned that companies could not just throw money at AI and expect miracles.

He said that the secret lies in faster and cheaper chips.

Amazon’s Valentine’s Day Massacre

Posted on February 14, 2024 by - News

Amazon’s workforce staged a Valentine’s Day revolt yesterday, leaving the e-commerce giant reeling. The battle lines were drawn as employees demanded fair wages and weren’t alone in their fight.

Delivery drivers, including those from popular food apps like Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Eat, are set to join the fray.

It appears that now is Amazon’s winter of discount tents as they walk out on Wednesday, in a strategic move timed to coincide with the peak demand for swift Valentine’s Day dinner deliveries across Britain.

The GMB trade union has thrown its weight behind the workers, calling for a three-day strike at Amazon’s colossal Coventry facility. The heart of England will echo with their demands, as pay disparities continue to widen.

Nvidia’s mega deal with TD SYNNEX

Posted on February 13, 2024 by - News

Nvidia has struck a UK distribution deal with TD SYNNEX for its full enterprise software and computing range.

Channel partners can now get Nvidia products or platform needs, such as Nvidia AI Enterprise and Nvidia Omniverse Enterprise software licences for developers, through the distribution giant.

TD SYNNEX is one of only two total enterprise distributors in the UK for Nvidia and the company said it will support partners with both technical and commercial help so they can understand where accelerated computing can and is being used today and how they can boost their Nvidia offering.

TD SYNNEX is planning joint go-to-market plans with NVIDIA but with its OEM partners, such as Dell, HPE, Lenovo, NetApp, Supermicro and VMware/Broadcom, to “support resellers finding the right solution with their favourite vendor”.

Cohesity snaps up Veritas in £5 bn deal

Posted on February 12, 2024 by - News

Data security firm Cohesity has spent £5 billion to buy Veritas’ data security business, creating a £10 billion mega-merger.

Reuters revealed the deal, which will see Cohesity take over Veritas’ data protection unit. The unit is valued at over £2 billion, including debt.

Cohesity’s boss, Sanjay Poonen, said the cash and stock acquisition will help the firm boost its growth and profitability and expand into new markets.

He also claimed the merger will create a “profitable growth machine” that will innovate with AI.

However, analysts are not that keen on the deal, which they see as a risky move that could backfire for both firms and their customers.

Atea’s profits plunge as hardware sales slump

Posted on February 12, 2024 by - News

IT giant Atea has admitted its revenues have fallen by a whopping 4.3 per cent to a measly £704.58 million in the last quarter of 2023.

The firm blamed a tough hardware market for the dismal performance, as customers shunned its pricey gadgets and opted for cheaper alternatives.

Hardware sales plummeted by 8.8 per cent compared to the previous year, while the reseller only managed to scrape a 3.2 per cent increase in gross sales to £1.08 billion.

Despite the disappointing results, Atea’s board hiked dividends to £0.52 per share for the 2024 AGM, up from £0.47 last year.

The company claimed its software and services revenues rose by ten and seven per cent, respectively, but that was not enough to offset the hardware slump.

Council slashes jobs and costs with AI

Posted on February 9, 2024 by - News

Derby City Council has axed two jobs and saved £200,000 using artificial intelligence (AI) to run its services. The council revealed the cuts in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

The council has also reduced its number of contractors by introducing automated phone and web chat services called Darcie and Ali. The council says this is part of a plan to make its processes faster and cheaper.

The council’s boss, Paul Simpson, said the job cuts affected only a tiny part of the council’s 3,000 staff. He said AI was not meant to eliminate workers but to make their work more accessible and strategic.

Simpson said contractors and agency staff were only used for extra work, and AI helped the council save money without losing quality.

Cloud firms team up to boost data security

Posted on February 9, 2024 by - News

Two Yorkshire cloud firms have joined forces to offer their customers better data protection.

virtualDCS, a cloud and disaster recovery specialist, is hosting Vapour’s Veeam backups, after striking a deal with the cloud firm. The partnership will give clients more scale, flexibility, and security for their data management.

Jason Fenwick (right), a former Vapour engineer with over 30 years of IT experience, has moved to virtualDCS as part of the deal. He will make sure the service is smooth and the customers are happy.

Lenovo and Blanco pair in data partership

Posted on February 8, 2024 by - News

Computer maker Lenovo has joined forces with data experts Blancco Technology Group to offer a new security service for businesses.

The service, part of Lenovo’s ThinkShield security package, lets firms permanently remove unwanted data from their networks, devices, and old IT gear.

Lenovo ThinkShield Data Erasure by Blancco helps firms cope with the massive amount of data that puts them at risk of cyberattacks, lawsuits, and hefty costs. It also reduces the hassle of keeping track, wiping, and reporting on all IT assets and storage devices.

Digital dummies lose £4.5 million a week

Posted on February 8, 2024 by - News

Digital adoption solutions outfit WalkMe has released a report revealing how clueless companies waste millions of pounds daily by not using technology properly.

Based on a survey of more than 4,000 bigwigs and workers, the report found that failing to use tech rights costs firms on average £900,000 a week in lost productivity, with staff wasting 44 working days a year.

According to the study, which can be found here, some firms have woken up to the challenge, with 70 per cent of them making digital adoption a key goal and boosting their spending on it by 63 per cent year-on-year.