Category: News

Beware the shadow IT

Posted on October 9, 2019 by - News

Mendix has warned about the rise of “shadow IT” digital transformation initiatives.

For those who came in late, Shadow IT is when business teams pursue tech solutions on their own, independently of IT — to deal with the persistent shortage of software developers1 and inadequate budgeting to meaningfully advance a digital agenda.

The research, conducted by California-based Dimensional Research, surveyed more than a thousand business and IT stakeholders in medium and large companies in the United States and Europe.

Vendors team up on security interoperability

Posted on October 9, 2019 by - News

IBM Security and McAfee have been joined by 14 other firms to form the OASIS consortium to tackle interoperability .

Under the OASIS banner the firms will work on the Open Cybersecurity Alliance (OCA) to try to increase the interoperability between products to reduce those problems and share information around threats and the best responses.

Carol Geyer, chief development officer of OASIS said: “Today, organisations struggle without a standard language when sharing data between products and tools, We have seen efforts emerge to foster data exchange, but what has been missing is the ability for each tool to transmit and receive these messages in a standardised format, resulting in more expensive and time-consuming integration costs. The aim of the OCA is to accelerate the open sharing concept making it easier for enterprises to manage and operate.”

Manchester is best for IT

Posted on October 9, 2019 by - News

Trade association CompTIA has named Manchester as the best place in the UK to work in IT.

Its inaugural index ranked more than 200 UK cities based on the IT employment opportunities available, taking into account factors such as the number of IT postings locally, projected job growth and reported cost of living in travel to work areas.

Manchester was the top due to the “broad scope” of opportunities it offers, including career progression options and high quality of living, based on cost of living and job demand.

Halpenfield merges with SDG Group

Posted on October 8, 2019 by - News

Milton Keynes based Halpenfield, a services and solutions consultancy company has merged with the SDG Group.

Halpenfield will now be known as SDG Group UK.

SDG Group is investing in and expanding throughout the European and international markets, and this latest merger with Halpenfield demonstrates how the company is seeking to strengthen its presence in the UK market further, a representative said. In addition to the current offices based in Milton Keynes and Newport Pagnell, the company has opened a new central London office to spearhead UK activities.

Sophos gives MSPs options

Posted on October 8, 2019 by - News

Sophos has launched a threat discovery and response service, which allows channel partners to identify and remedy problems targeting their customers.

Sophos manager of the UK and Ireland channel, Martyn Brownlie, said his outfit was committed to its partners and had developed MTR because the majority of current offerings only identified problems and did not remedy them. That left those without the expertise unable to solve the issues for their customers. 

UK scaleup businesses rising

Posted on October 8, 2019 by - News

The increase of scaleups in recent years has seen the UK make great advances in support of high-growth businesses.

Instant Offices’ Scaleup Index reports that the number of visible scaleups in the UK has increased by more than 500 scaling businesses since 2017, and that the sector “added billions of pounds to the economy and is responsible for hundreds of thousands of jobs”.

Ingram Micro adds ITagree to cloudy offerings

Posted on October 7, 2019 by - News

Ingram Micro added ITagree to its UK Cloud Marketplace, which will provide partners with comprehensive legal agreements tailored to their unique business needs.

The cloud solution provides all the legal agreements that MSPs use with their customers, helping to manage client expectations and reduce the overall time spent addressing their issues.

Resolve announces new global partner programme

Posted on October 7, 2019 by - News

IT automation and orchestration provider Resolve has announced the launch of its new global partner programme and bought in Russell Eddleman has been brought in to support the revamp

The freshly expanded programme provides new service opportunities for managed service providers, systems integrators and consulting partners, whilst simultaneously extending Resolve’s global customer reach.

Lenovo targets mid-market

Posted on October 7, 2019 by - News

Lenovo executives have decided that the mid-market is a crucial segment where its data centre business and channel can make a pile of dosh.

Lenovo’s UK Data Centre boss Ian Hume said the outfit had been investing in its Data Centre Group (DCG) back-end capabilities with teams to support partners as well as identifying fresh customers for resellers to target in the mid-market space.

Nuvias wants new partners

Posted on October 4, 2019 by - News

Security outfit Nuvias has embarked on a campaign to encourage new partners to sign up.

The #TrueValueAdd campaign is running in the UK and across other European countries until Christmas with the aim of providing partners with a number of rewards, including training and consultancy.

Nuvias is looking to make its expertise around solution building available to partners so they can build a more compelling pitch. It is investing in its own systems and has launched the campaign because it feels it is now in a position to help partners identify more ‘valuable opportunities’.

Smartphone sales drop down the loo

Posted on October 4, 2019 by - News

Beancounters working for analyst outfit Gartner say that global shipments are pretty pants at the moment but it is hoping that 5G could turn things around

Global shipments of smartphones are set to decline by 3.2 percent in 2019, the latest report from Gartner predicts, leaving the category facing its worst decline to date.

ANS buys Canadian Alithya

Posted on October 4, 2019 by - News

Manchester’s ANS has bought the UK operation of Canadian publicly listed consultancy Alithya.

It bought the UK portion of the Microsoft partner to boost its digital service and will result in 15 Dynamics experts being added to the ANS workforce.

CEO Paul Shannon: “We believe the two organisations are a perfect fit across many areas including culture, customer centricity and technology expertise, to name a few.

Spiceworks plays matchmaker

Posted on October 3, 2019 by - News

Spiceworks has previewed a new service that matchmakes IT service providers with customers.

The firm said Account Intelligence will allow MSPs to create a profile that advertises their specialisations, skills, services and geography, and then artificial intelligence (AI) will help matchmake them with potential customers.

Adept4 swallows CloudCoCo

Posted on October 3, 2019 by - News

Managed service player Adept4 has snapped up CloudCoCo.

The deal valued at £6.1 million will be put to a shareholder vote on 21 October, with the name being changed to CloudCoCo Group.

CloudCoCo was set up by former sales directors from Redcentric. Once the deal is given the thumbs up from shareholders, the plan is for Andy Mills, current chairman of CloudCoCo would join the board of Adept4 as CEO. Mark Halpin (founder and current CEO of CloudCoCo) will lead the business development activities, with Robert Speight and Graham Collinson (respectively CloudCoCo’s chief sales officer and chief operating officer).