Category: News

IX Reach teams up with Evoque Data Centers Solutions

IX Reach and data centre operator Evoque Data Centers Solutions has announced a partnership enabling Evoque’s “tenants” to directly use IX Reach’s full portfolio of solutions, including its SDN platform, One Portal.

Evoque and its enterprise customers can now form what’s claimed are secure, reliable, and resilient connections to global destinations and to extend private network connections to cloud providers, SaaS services, and other enterprises from Evoque data centres in Amsterdam, London, Paris, and Hong Kong with more markets expected in the near future through the IX Reach network.

Security spending soars

Worldwide spending on security products and services will enjoy solid growth over the next five years according to beancounters at IDC.

According to the (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Security Spending Guide, worldwide spending on security-related hardware, software, and services will be $106.6 billion in 2019, an increase of 10.7 percent over 2018. This amount will reach $151.2 billion in 2023 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4 percent  over the 2019-2023 forecast period.

London is the number two for tech upstarts

The Financial Times fDi Intelligence division said that London was beaten by Vilnius as having have attracted the most greenfield Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects of tech startups per capita during the years 2016-2018.

The outfit  announced the list of 30 cities with Vilnius ranked as the leading city and London, which came in second.

The Tech Start-up FDI Attraction Index 2019 measures at the city level the number of greenfield FDI projects made in the software and IT services sector per 100,000 inhabitants.

Foehn joins Network Services 2 framework

 

The Crown Commercial Services has confirmed that Foehn has been listed as an accredited supplier on the Network Services 2 (RM3808) procurement framework that authorises supply of telecommunications and network services to the whole of the UK Public Sector, associated bodies and agencies.

Foehn is listed in two categories, ‘IP Telephony Services’ and Contact Centre Services’.

Phoenix47 buys Guardian – no, not the newspaper

Phoenix47 has bought Guardian Technologies, a privately held company that specialises in a range of security services. The acquisition will complement Phoenix47’s ever-growing security consulting practice.

Providing security consultancy, Guardian Technologies delivers a range of security services which apparently are designed to strengthen business applications and protect IT infrastructure.

The buy is seen as part of Phoenix47’s cunning plan to invest in and create next-generation cybersecurity services to help protect clients’ “end to end” business. That’s from top to bottom, it seems.

Finance sector cyber incidents soared by 1000 percent

The finance industry needs to spruce up its security act, according to Joe Collinwood, CEO at CySure (pictured).

Collinwood cited the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with incidents increasing from 69 in 2017 to 819 in 2018 – an increase of 1000 percent and said that in the technological age no business could afford to be underprepared when it comes to cybersecurity.

The finance sector regulator, the FCA, has recorded a ten-fold increase in cyber-crime incidents (i); however, across all sectors, more businesses are reporting being impacted by a cyber incident year-on-year. According to a recent report conducted by Hiscox (ii), there has been a sharp increase in the number of cyber-attacks this year, with more than 60 percent of firms have reported one or more attacks, up from 45 percent in 2018.

Zyxel introduces IP reputation filter

Zyxel released its cloud-based security service that, it claims, provides businesses with protection from an array of network threats.

Dubbed an IP Reputation Filter it comes with multiple layers of defence, user-friendly design, and access to an expanding database of malicious IPs from Webroot.

Nutanix makes changes to back-end rebates

Nutanix has overhauled how it issues back-end rebates and says its new system is more predictable and less complicated than before.

Nutanix EMEA channel and OEM lead Cyril VanAgt said: “The percentage of rebates we were offering our partners were not on par with what our competitors are doing. And some of our rebates were too complicated and unpredictable.”

Ransomware is a major MSP concern

A survey of more than 1,400 MSP decision-makers that manage the IT systems for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) found that ransomware remains the most common cyber threat to SMBs.

Datto announced the findings from its fourth annual Global State of the Channel Ransomware Report.

The report found that Ransomware attacks were pervasive. The number of ransomware attacks against SMBs is on the rise. More than  85 percent of MSPs reported attacks against SMBs over the last two years, compared to 79 percent of MSPs who reported the same in 2018. In the first half of 2019 alone, 56 percent of MSPs reported attacks against SMB clients.

Nutanix digitally transforms Science Museum Group

Nutanix has completed the UK’s Science Museum Group (SMG) has e first phase of its plans to build a hybrid cloud infrastructure, based on its Enterprise Cloud software.

SMG includes the Science Museum in central London, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, Yorkshire, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, the National Railway Museum in York and Locomotion in Shildon, County Durham.

Infinigate signs agreement with iboss

Infinigate UK, a specialist IT security, cloud and MSP distributor, has signed an agreement with iboss to distribute its range of cloud-based internet security solutions across the UK and Ireland.

Murray Pearce, Managing Director of Infinigate UK, said the decision to partner with iboss was an easy one as the outfit had “developed a disruptive cloud platform to secure internet access from any device, from any location, in the cloud”.

Cloudy Puzzel gives Rob Wiles a channel booster

Cloud-based contact centre software provider, Puzzel, has appointed Rob Wiles as Partner Channel Director.

In this role, Wiles will build a brand-new partner programme across Europe, to fuel the company’s glorious three year growth plan.

Wiles has held a variety of roles covering high touch sales, distribution and vendor channel management. He joins Puzzel from Unify, part of the Atos group, where he was VP Channel Sales – UK & Ireland. Prior to Unify, he spent time at ShoreTel before becoming Head of Channel at unified communications and managed service provider APSL.

Zuckerberg slams Amazon’s sky-high cloud price

Social networking king Mark Zuckerberg slammed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Amazon Web services (AWS) for its soaring costs in cloud computing and data storage.

Zuckerberg’s remarks came during his speech at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, his philanthropic organisation that organised a seminar on the challenges in scientific research.

During the live-streamed discussion, Zuckerberg said one of the new challenges with cutting-edge research and start-ups is the high cost of computing services.

German Cancom snaps up Novosco

German reseller Cancom has written a cheque for Belfast-based MSP Novosco.

Cancom said the deal for Novosco would strengthen its UK presence and open up direct market access in Ireland for the first time.

Cancom, which has over 3,500 staff, said the “volume” of the acquisition is “approximately” £70 million.

Novosco was this year hit revenues of £55 million and has an EBITDA margin of around 17 percent.