Category: News

Channel needs to educate on SD-WAN

Posted on February 14, 2019 by - News

SD-WAN is supposed to be a big disruption for businesses, but the technology will hit the rocks unless the channel educates  users about it.

Research from Cogeco Peer-1 has indicated that 72 percent of customers do not fully understand SD-WAN and a third worry it will disrupt their business and not far off half concerned about the security issues.

Director of product at Cogeco Peer 1 Tom Adams said that those who have gone down the software defined route have seen OPEX, cost and efficiency savings and the channel will need to get more customers over the hurdle of hesitation to the adoption stage.

Cloud migration is a priority for most companies

Posted on February 14, 2019 by - News

Cloud migration will be a priority investment for 70 percent of business leaders over the next year.

Beancounters at research outfit KCOM have added up some numbers and asked 250 C-level decision makers across several industries, including healthcare, government, and retail what they were thinking about.

About half of respondents said that their top priority in the next year will be digital transformation.

Big Blue announces a wave of channel changes

Posted on February 13, 2019 by - News

A not so mobile X86 PCIBM has been talking through its channel changes with the assorted throngs at Partnerworld.

IBM announced a raft of new storage incentives in April last year, which enabled partner sellers and systems engineers to earn up to $100,000 in stackable rebates. The incentives covered all-flash arrays, Spectrum software and IBM systems deals.

Humans are responsible for printer based hacks

Posted on February 13, 2019 by - News

More than 60 percent of businesses were breached last year as a result of security flaws in printers.

Analyst outfit Quocirca has been adding up some numbers and thinks that the majority of breaches are triggered by an organisation’s employees, despite 70 percent of businesses believing malware to be the biggest threat to them.

TIBCO forms partnership with IHS Markit

Posted on February 13, 2019 by - News

TIBCO Software has entered into an agreement with IHS Markit, a provider of critical information, analytics and solutions for the major industries and markets.

Using TIBCO Spotfire and related technologies, this partnership will deliver analytics capabilities that provide accelerated and meaningful insights, by making vast amounts of energy data more readily available, as well as speeding up the exploration of data.

Firstcom Europe snaps up Telesis

Posted on February 12, 2019 by - News

Cloud comms outfit Firstcom Europe has written a cheque for the  Bolton-based comms company Telesis.

The move is part of a cunning plan to strengthen its UK position and will take Firstcom’s European revenues to the €35 million mark and gives the Luxembourg-based outfit a foot in the door of the UK market.

It wants to use acquisition as a means of increasing the turnover with the sights set on reaching the €60 million by the end of this year.

Asolvi takes Vantage

Posted on February 12, 2019 by - News

European SME service management software company Asolvi has acquired Vantage Computing.

The procurement of Vantage Computing will enable a large number of Asolvi’s customers  to benefit from Vantage Online: Vantage Computing’s cloud-based product, currently providing streamlined and in-depth insights for 150 organisations. Now underneath the Asolvi umbrella, Vantage Computing’s software solution will reach even more small to mid-sized businesses and be further developed for this purpose.

Opportunity knocks for Microsoft’s rivals after Azure direct sale

Posted on February 12, 2019 by - News

Microsoft might have created an own goal with its decision to flog off Azure direct.

Beancounters at Canalys think that partner uncertainty around the deal will allow competitors to exploit the opportunity and gain more share in the cloud market.

The analyst predicted that this year would see partners handle an increasing share of the cloud business, particularly in the areas of services, deployment and integration.

Xerox wants to boost SME growth

Posted on February 11, 2019 by - News

Copy king Xerox is flagging up the importance of its SME market.

Xerox has been telling investors, or anyone who listens, about its glorious three-year plan, with the channel involved front and centre.  The big idea is to increase its SME revenues.

Plans to increase revenues would not only include taking advantage of a perceived opportunity in the SME arena but also to expand services and software, the outfit has said.

Cloud Distribution signs with Securonix

Posted on February 11, 2019 by - News

Cloud Distribution VAD has partnered with Securonix to give its resellers a new SIEM and UEBA platform.

With most companies facing internal cyber-attacks Resellers want packages to help their customers understand user behaviour, study analytics, and stop attacks before they happen.

Securonix, gear uses intelligent machine learning and behaviour analytics, continuously builds a comprehensive risk profile of a user based on identity, IT activity, physical access, and even phone records. These attributes undergo machine learning and AI-based analytics, are analysed against their baseline, their peers and known threat indicators to identify true areas of risk.

Avast teams up with Barracuda

Posted on February 11, 2019 by - News

Cybersecurity outfit Avast and the cloudy security company Barracuda Networks have teamed up.

Under the deal, Barracuda will become a master reseller of Avast Business CloudCare, Avast Management Console and Avast Antivirus Security solutions.

Kevin Chapman, General Manager of Avast Business, said that SMEs are underserved by the market as security systems tend to be targeted to the needs of larger enterprises.

Barracuda will acquire the Managed Workplace business (a Remote Monitoring and Management Solution – RMM) from Avast to continue developing the platform and offer its MSP partners a security-centric RMM solution.

Comms365 helps Arena Flowers avoid a Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre

Posted on February 8, 2019 by - News

Online florist Arena Flowers has selected Comms365 to provide a reliable and fast internet connection to its temporary warehouse, during its peak season.

Based in Milton Keynes, Arena Flowers has been providing floral arrangements for over twelve years and sold online through its e-commerce website and also fulfils orders on behalf of other partner businesses.

PCM might push into Europe after UK sales boost

Posted on February 8, 2019 by - News

PCM has hinted that it may expand further into Europe after its UK business scored £50 million in sales last year.

For the year ending 31 December 2018 PCM reported flat revenue of $2.2 billion, while in the UK sales hit $62.4 million. But its UK business, which launched in 2017, now equates to three per cent of the business’ overall sales.

On an earnings call, CEO Frank Khulusi said that the reseller might look to move further into Europe after Brexit.

Exclusive Group buys Canadian cybersecurity outfit Fine Tec

Posted on February 8, 2019 by - News

Exclusive Group announced the acquisition of Canadian cybersecurity VAD, Fine Tec Canada, to boost its existing US presence and expand global coverage to the whole of North America.

The deal coincides with the appointment of Exclusive Group veteran Laurent Daudré-Vignier as SVP North America to oversee and grow operations across the region. Together this enables vendor, GSI and reseller partners with a complete solution for North American value-added distribution services, and boosts the company’s aggressive global growth trajectory.

QBS acquires Siener Informatique

Posted on February 7, 2019 by - News

QBS has snapped up the small French value-added software distributor Siener Informatique.

Based in Ivry-sur-Seine, Siener Informatique employs ten employees and distributes to  20 software multimedia, development, network and comms  companies.

The company that appeared in 1990 and saw a steady growth for 25 years. It offers services like training, software deployment, installation and migration of mail servers and rest.