Category: News

Far-reaching IT failures and outages at traditional banks in recent months have triggered a surge in enquiries to banking alternatives, reveals one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations.

deVere Vault, the global e-money app and multi-currency prepaid card, today reports a 35 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase in enquiries.  It follows a series of technical glitches at several major banks, affecting millions of customers.

Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, comments: “People have long been getting fed-up with major banks’ high fees, hidden costs, limited working hours, and less-than-impressive customer service, amongst other things.

“But this recent litany of IT failures has, it seems, prompted many of them to look beyond traditional banking and seek out alternatives, such as deVere Vault.

“Indeed, we’re largely attributing deVere Vault’s 35 per cent jump in enquiries in the last quarter to people being negatively impacted by the chaos within the traditional banking sector.

“By switching to alternative banking solutions users typically enjoy much lower fees, plus on-the-go, 24-hour, hassle-free, borderless access to, and use of, their money. It’s not just the banks’ massive IT disruptions that are driving consumers towards alternative solutions.  Geopolitical factors, such as Brexit amongst many others, are causing exchange rate volatility – but these alternatives are multicurrency, meaning users have the ability to mitigate the adverse impact of currency fluctuations on their cash.

“In addition, the world is increasingly globalised and people are ever-more internationally mobile.  These alternative banking options are ideal for those who frequently travel as they can be used wherever, whenever.”

He added: “It is becoming increasingly evident that fintech [financial technology] firms are filling the gap left between what traditional banks are offering and what clients are now expecting, especially in terms of customer experience.”

Green said: “By providing those who use them with access to, and management and use of their money with no stress, no hassle and no hidden charges, wherever they are in the world, the demand for alternative banking solutions in our ever-more globalised world looks set to continue to soar.”

Axis has been named a full member of Secured by Design (SBD), the national police crime prevention initiative, as a wide range of network video products receive its Police Preferred Specification accreditation

SBD is part of the Police Crime Prevention Initiatives’ (PCPI) group of crime prevention organisations, which operate in support of the Police Service throughout the UK. Membership was awarded after 15 of Axis’ network video products were accredited for achieving SBD’s Police Preferred Specification (PPS) standards for security.

The PPS accreditations include a variety of devices from AXIS Companion, a complete solution that brings the reliability of professional video surveillance to small business owners. This gives SMEs the confidence and reassurance they need to invest in cost-effective networked video technology, and reap the security and business benefits that connected devices offer.

The PCPI SBD was established in 1989 and works with police forces and industry suppliers to create high standards of crime prevention equipment, with the ultimate aim of reducing both the risk and fear of crime. SBD requires products to be rigorously tested or certified independently before it is prepared to consider them for its coveted PPS accreditation.

“Axis is driven by a vision to constantly innovate for a smarter and safer world. Having SBD accreditation provides customers who are procuring security equipment and video surveillance technology with that extra level of knowledge that Axis products are proven and trusted,” says Atul Rajput, Regional Director Northern Europe at Axis Communications. “We have worked hard to ensure that all of our products deliver to the highest standards, for both enterprise and small business.”

The company said that network video is essential for crime prevention and prosecution and can help communities feel safer and more secure. It  has a major role to play in the development of smart city technology. Image data from shopping centres, transport networks and city surveillance is not only used to fight crime, but also to provide intelligence around the movement of people and goods throughout an area.

In addition, while a large part of SBD accreditation focuses on ensuring devices are safe from physical attack, it is equally important that the cybersecurity of new technology is given the same priority.

“Axis has worked hard to ensure it has a safe and secure platform for network video. Axis engineers pride themselves on designs that make device management and issuing firmware updates simple but fully protected against malicious hackers and online criminals. Once IP video is securely installed on the network it can be combined with other data sources to deliver real insights for smarter living,” Rajput says.

“We welcome Axis as a full member to what is a select group of companies that have demonstrated the necessary criteria to meet our strict standards for SBD accreditation,” says Guy Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer, Secured by Design. “The role of network video surveillance is increasingly vital for communities across the UK, and it is important that vendors such as Axis are proving that this technology can be built and deployed responsibly and reliably.”

Axis products that have achieved the PPS accreditation include devices from the AXIS Companion range of indoor and outdoor cameras, as well as thermal and radar imaging equipment, and the Axis Network Horn Speaker. This gives Axis’ partners the ability to provide businesses of all sizes and needs with full solutions and externally certified equipment.

Open source outfit Cloud Foundry has announced its the Cloud Foundry Certified Systems Integrator programme.

The programme is  designed to help Systems Integrators (SIs), consultancies and professional services organisations highlight their expertise working with the Cloud Foundry family of technologies.

These organisations have demonstrated contributions to the Cloud Foundry community through contributing code, hosting meetups, public marketing of the platform, Foundation membership and more.

• Cloud Foundry Certified SIs will receive the following benefits:
• Top-level visibility in The Foundry, the largest open source marketplace in existence
• An official Cloud Foundry Certified SI badge to use in their marketing material
• Reseller discounts for Cloud Foundry Certified Developer exams

The Foundation also announced two new projects — Eirini and CF Containerisation — have been accepted as incubating projects by the Project Management Committees (PMCs), which oversee platform engineering of the open source projects, to further the interoperability of Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes.

Vertiv has announced the appointment of Joachim Fischer as channel sales director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The company said that Fischer brings significant channel experience having previously worked as general manager sales for NEC in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH), leading substantial channel development programmes.

Fischer will lead the creation of an enhanced product portfolio specifically designed for the channel, along with a competitive commercial policy and a series of marketing initiatives and programmes to support resellers. Moreover, his role will be essential in supporting new product developments for this segment, as well as bringing edge computing solutions to the market.

Vertiv EMEA vice president Karsten Winther said the company had been working intensively to develop a comprehensive list of value propositions – a sophisticated channel dedicated product portfolio, additional investments in reseller recruitments and further investments in channel marketing programmes.

“This is with the ambition to attract partnerships based on trust and significant mutual growth in our channel distributors and resellers, as part of our broader go-to-market strategy. We have incredible potential – paired with Fischer ’s expertise in driving both projects and run rate business with the channel and all of our new initiatives; we can make substantial progress to become more attractive to channel partners and help expand our reach into this ever-changing, dynamic and critical market area.”

Fischer said: “I am very excited to join Vertiv and to help shape the company’s new channel programmes in EMEA. This market has its own particular dynamics, and I look forward to applying my experience and knowledge to match its needs.”

Cloudera and Hortonworks have announced plans to merge, creating an organisation valued at $5.2 billion.

The pair claims the merged outfit will be “the world’s leading next-generation data platform provider”.

The new firm will have a revenue of around $720 million and will save 125 million a year.  There is no word at this point how those savings will be made, but we suspect more than one person will be cleaning out their desk and leaving the building.

Cloudera CEO Reilly is set to helm the new business, while Hortonworks CEO Rob Bearden will join the board of directors.

Bearden said: “This compelling merger will create value for our respective stockholders and allow customers, partners, employees and the open source community to benefit from the enhanced offerings, larger scale and improved cost competitiveness inherent in this combination. Together, we are well positioned to continue growing and competing in the streaming and IoT, data management, data warehousing, machine learning/AI and hybrid cloud markets. Importantly, we will be able to offer a broader set of offerings that will enable our customers to capitalise on the value of their data.”

Metaphor IT is confident that it is going to break the £10 million barrier within the next three years.

Founder Richard Callis expects the company to generate a turnover of £7 million by the end of its current financial year on 31 March 2019 and to hit the magical 10 million barrier it will use a combination of acquisitions and organic growth.

Acquisitions have been a critical part of Metaphor IT’s growth so far but the company has not found any which are the right fit, yet.

Metaphor has Rackspace, Citrix and Microsoft among its vendor partners acquired in September 2016, with the purchase of Surrey-based Teagen, but Callis admitted that it will acquire only companies that meet a set of rules.

Acquisition targets must fit in with Metaphor’s existing three pillars of cloud and virtualisation, security, and managed services, and must have revenues of £5m or below, he said.