Category: News

How to manage a Brexit warehouse crisis

Posted on December 5, 2019 by - News

Continued uncertainty surrounding Brexit is causing widespread pressure on warehouse space as businesses stockpile to mitigate supply risks. But a data process expert believes simple maths can help companies reduce stock, making space for Brexit risk mitigations.

In a post-Brexit environment, it will also make stock management leaner, releasing cash and warehouse space on business as usual stock.

Matt Allison, founder and MD of Vensis is challenging businesses to think differently about the planning process.

It’s part of Allison’s lean data approach and follows repeated warnings from the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) about the squeeze on space as companies seek to hold more inventory in their supply chain.

Flashpoint expands Risk intelligence

Posted on December 5, 2019 by - News, Products

Flashpoint has expanded its Business Risk Intelligence capabilities for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), helping them to meet the growing demand for more proactive, value-added services.

Flashpoint’s extensive ability to safely track adversaries across multiple types of online communities and collections from the open, deep and dark web sources, makes it an indispensable resource for MSSPs wishing to extend those capabilities to clients.

With access to Flashpoint’s technical data, vulnerability information, and finished intelligence reports, analysts can safely conduct research within threat actor communities and bring meaningful context to threats, allowing organisations to take informed actions and mitigate risk.

The company’s data and finished intelligence expand the MSSP partner’s capabilities, adding context to threat information and informing decisions that proactively mitigate risk. The following capabilities are a crucial complement to critical services core to MSSPs, such as network and log monitoring, vulnerability management, incident response, and threat hunting. 

Hybrid most talked about cloud tech

Posted on December 5, 2019 by - News

The world is all a twitter about Hybrid Cloud according to research from GlobalData

‘Hybrid Cloud’ has garnered the highest percentage 48 per cent of Twitter mentions among the discussions of world’s leading cloud computing experts during the third quarter (Q3) of 2019, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

In terms of intensity of discussions, Hybrid Cloud technology was followed by Multi-Cloud with 36 per cent share of discussions, Public Cloud (13 per cent) and Private Cloud (three per cent).

Brad Shimmin, Service Director at GlobalData, says: “Within the rapidly evolving market areas like digital transformation, the cloud is no longer seen as a final endpoint or destination; rather it is but one aspect of a broader resource continuum that combines private, edge and public cloud workloads into a seamless, optimised and reliable whole.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Cloud Computing Influencer Platform, which tracks more than 250 global cloud computing experts and their discussions pertaining to emerging trends, pain areas, new fields of innovation and other popular areas on Twitter, reveals that ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) and ‘Internet of Things’ as two of the most significant trends in Hybrid Cloud related discussions.

Digital Reality boosts EMEA channel with new hires

Posted on December 4, 2019 by - News

Digital Reality has made some senior appointments to boost its EMEA channel.

Christine Rawlinson (pictured) takes the role of director of Partner & Alliances for EMEA North, while Gudrun Schnell joins as director of Partner & Alliances for EMEA Central & East, which incorporates the DACH region and the Netherlands.

Both come from Equinix and are tasked with building and driving the expansion of Digital Reality’s channel ecosystem into their respective areas, the firm said.

Consumers more influenced by social media

Posted on December 4, 2019 by - News

UK consumers are 79 percent more likely today to discover new products on social media than they were just two years ago, new research reveals.

A study of UK shopping habits shows this shift is largely driven by Instagram, which has seen a 64 percent increase in shoppers finding inspiration on this platform. More than one-third of UK consumers surveyed said they visit a brand’s social media feed explicitly for the purpose of being inspired by the products and content featured there.

Neri opens HPE’s GreenLake Central

Posted on December 4, 2019 by - News

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) today announced its cunning plan deliver its entire edge-to-cloud portfolio as-a-Service.

Dubbed HPE GreenLake Central the kit and kaboodle is a software platform that provides customers with a consistent cloud experience for all their applications and data, through an operational console that runs, manages and optimizes their entire hybrid IT estate.

Ridgewall buys QDOS SBL

Posted on December 3, 2019 by - News

MSP Ridgewall Group has completed its fourth acquisition in just a year, snapping up hospitality-focused QDOS SBL at the same time as it revealed Inflexion as its new private equity investor.

Ridgewall offers a number of managed services around IT, print, cybersecurity and unified comms.

CBI warns of research slow down

Posted on December 3, 2019 by - News

A CBI report warns technology R&D is not happening fast enough in the UK.

CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn released the report at the opening of Reckitt Benckiser’s (RB) new £105 million Science and Innovation Centre in Hull — marking the biggest single investment in RB’s history.

HelpSystems buys Clearswift

Posted on December 3, 2019 by - News

HelpSystems is to acquire Clearswift, a UK-based content threat protection software company.

Clearswift’s deep content inspection capability enables information to be scanned as it enters or leaves the organisation, allowing sensitive data to be securely transmitted via email or other web-based methods.

Dell suffering from server slump

Posted on December 2, 2019 by - News

Tin box shifter Michael Dell is having difficulty getting rid of servers at the moment.

Dell Technologies reported its third straight quarter of large server revenue declines and the problem appears to be other suppliers coming in with large bids.

Jeff Clarke, vice chairman of Dell Technologies, during Dell’s third fiscal quarter earnings call with media and analysts said: “It’s an aggressive marketplace from a pricing point of view. We’re competing, but those bids are clearly competitive. Probably the other thing that’s important to notice, [server deals] are taking longer to close. The caution that we’re seeing with our large customers is certainly being seen in our ability to close transactions or how long it’s taking to get the order closed.”

Colt gets new CEO

Posted on December 2, 2019 by - Moving People, News

Colt Data Centre Services (DCS) has announced the appointment of Niclas Sanfridsson (pictured) as its new chief executive officer.

The move follows CEO Detlef Spang’s decision to retire at the end of the year. Spang  led the firm since its inception as an operationally-independent business from the Colt network business in 2015. During his tenure, Spang drove the data centre business and accelerated growth of its hyperscale footprint, Colt DCS said, enabling it to realise its vision of becoming the “most trusted and customer-centric” data centre operator.

Origin report into successful media plans is out

Posted on December 2, 2019 by - News

Origin Comms, an information security and technology PR specialist, today announced findings from new research into the media consumption trends of 201 UK-based IT decision-makers.

The research highlights that, since last year, the proportion consuming IT security content via IoT-enabled devices such as smartwatches or Amazon Alexa has leapt from three per cent in 2018 to 11 percent in 2019. Furthermore, for consuming IT content generally it has jumped from seven percent in 2018 to 19 percent in 2019 using the same sources.

SUSE’s partner Centiq gets top tier

Posted on November 29, 2019 by - News

SUSE has announced that its partner, Centiq, has earned the highest partner tier in the SUSE Partner Programme, becoming a Solution Partner for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP.

The move solidifies Centiq’s place as the top UK reseller for SAP HANA and S/4HANA support.

Matt Eckersall, Regional Director, EMEA North at SUSE said more businesses are turning to SAP to unlock data intelligence, drive innovation and deliver agility.

Gloves come off as Xerox gets agressive with HP

Posted on November 29, 2019 by - News

Copy company Xerox has decided to get nasty in its bid to merge with HP and refuses to apologise for “aggressive” tactics.

Xerox said it will approach HP shareholders directly to acquire the firm several weeks after HP’s board rejected a takeover bid in excess of $30 billion.

The company’s leadership has expressed its intent to pursue “aggressive” tactics after initially setting a deadline for 25 November for which it expected HP to engage in mutual due diligence.

Apollo ups Tech Data bid

Posted on November 29, 2019 by - News

Apollo has upped its bid for Tech Data to $6 billion after an unnamed firm made a late bid for the outfit.

Tech Data shareholders accepted a $5.4 billion bid for the firm earlier this month, but it has been revealed that a second, more attractive bid was then received.

Apollo responded quickly, upping its bid to $6 billion, which has now been accepted.

Tech Data said: “The Tech Data board of directors has unanimously approved the amendment and recommends that Tech Data shareholders vote in favour of the transaction.”

The distributor said the rival bid came during a “go-shop” period, which was an agreement as part of Apollo’s initial bid, inviting other parties to propose a takeover.