Category: News

Hutchinson exits PCM UK

PCM UK’s managing director Donavan Hutchinson is clearing out his desk after creating a business with sales of over £35 million.

Posting on LinkedIn, Hutchinson (pictured) said he has slung his hook after PCM’s acquisition by US reseller Insight.

“With the recent acquisition and the combined efforts of the two organisations coming together, I am confident that the newly joined companies under the Insight brand will together succeed in their goals and strategy”, he said.

“After working endlessly as a team to build the PCM UK brand, we have accumulated a number of key accolades while building a reputable brand delivering bespoke solutions for our customers and helping them on their digital transformation journey”, he wrote.

Mainframe skills crisis looms

A sudden wave of retirements has left the mainframe industry suffering from a skills shortage, according to figures compiled by LzLabs

Mainframe migration specialist LZLabs has carried out a global survey to get a clear picture of what is happening at a customer level and discovered that just shy of half of those responding saw the loss of skills to support applications as the main concern. 

Fortinet snaps up enSilo

Fortinet has completed its acquisition of endpoint security provider enSilo.

The cybersecurity firm will integrate enSIlo’s endpoint detection and response (EDR) technology with its own FortiSIEM product, FortiInsight user entity behaviour analytics (UEBA) features, as well as its FortiNAC network access control offering.

Intel unveils unified Partner Alliance

Chipzilla has announced details of its new Intel Partner Alliance, which it claims has been designed to enable and empower businesses to connect, and grow.

Launching in the second half of 2020, the Partner Alliance programme will unify the firm’s multiple existing initiatives into a single, integrated platform to help enhance the value, relevance and experience it delivers to partners.

Sharp teams up with BITVU on Screenspace

Sharp Business Systems UK announced a partnership with BITVU to resell its Screenspace digital signage solution.

Screenspace is a small form factor, Wi-Fi enabled Freedom media player, a CMS built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows content to be easily uploaded, customised and displayed remotely from a computer or the Screenspace App for iOS and Android. Screenspace will be available on all of Sharp’s Professional Display models.

Shift in IT buying behavior

Research from Arcserve has found a shift in IT buying behaviour and the resulting evolution of UK channel providers to keep up with on-demand environment and prolific threat landscape.

Cloud transformation and cyberattacks have become commonly discussed topics within the IT community as more business leaders push for digital transformation and ransomware soar to epidemic proportions.

Check Point warns channel of ransomware rise

Israeli security company and maker of firewalls, Check Point, is predicting a rise in the use of ransomware in 2020.

It warns that the ransomware, but will not be the standard type of random attack, with it becoming more targeted.

Writing in its bog Check Point is forecasting more sophisticated ransomware attacks coming next year across the business and the public sector: “Attackers are spending time intelligence-gathering on their victims, to ensure they can inflict maximum disruption, and ransoms are scaled up accordingly.”

Rubrik and NetApp team up

Cloudy outfits Rubrik and NetApp have announced a merger between their two products.

Rubrik Cloud Data Management’s technology will be integrated with NetApp’s proprietary SnapDiff APIs, creating data services and orchestration product for enterprises. Rubrik and NetApp claim it will provide business continuity via data mobility across the data centre and cloud, decrease time to market for new feature development, increase ROI with smarter data usage, all the while supporting ever-increasing data privacy regulations and compliance.

Agilitas IT Solutions pulls off Greensafe partner accreditation

Agilitas IT Solutions announced the launch of a new partner accreditation scheme.

Dubbed Greensafe, Agilitas’ secure IT recycling and Workplace Support partner, has signed up as its first accredited partner. More specialist partners are expected to join in the next twelve months.

Greensafe has been selected as Agilitas’ first partner to receive accreditation for their assistance in helping Agilitas to deliver its workplace and ITAD offering.

EBI.AI becomes Google Nest reseller

Warwick based EBI.AI has been awarded authorised reseller status of Google Nest smart home devices.

EBI.AI’s most recent collaboration is with Get Living, an operator in the UK’s build-to-rent sector and best known for East Village E20, the former London 2012 Olympics Athletes’ Village.

Google Assistant is a new addition to the EBI.AI communication portfolio. 

Resellers like IoT, 5G and AI margins

A CompTIA channel study has found that resellers are clearly aware of the benefits of getting involved with technologies like IoT, 5G and AI because of the margins.

The report found that many are already selling in those categories or internally testing to make sure they can provide them to customers soon.

Agilitas launches partner scheme

Channel services outfit, Agilitas IT Solutions  announced the launch of a partner accreditation scheme.

It has also named Greensafe, Agilitas’ IT recycling and Workplace Support partner, as its first accredited partner, and aims to accredit a number of other specialist partners over the next year.

Greensafe has been selected as Agilitas’ first partner to receive accreditation for their assistance in helping Agilitas to deliver its latest workplace and ITAD offering.

Miss Group scores HSBC UK cash

Manchester-based web hosting business, Miss Group, has secured an increased £20 million debt funding commitment from HSBC UK to support its ambitious international growth strategy.

Miss Group has completed four acquisitions this year and alongside strong organic revenue growth, has increased revenues by 200 percent in the first nine months of 2019, it said.

Espire picks up Quadient

Customer Communications Management (CCM), company Quadient has announced a reseller partnership with digital and customer experience transformation outfit Espire.

The deal lets Espire resell and support Quadient’s stuff to banking, insurance, travel, education, telecoms and utility sectors across the UK & Ireland, Nordics and Benelux.