Category: News

Barracuda snaps at inflexible Cloud licensing pricing

Posted on March 28, 2018 by - News

Barracuda-1Barracuda has snapped at a failure by suppliers to provide customers with a menu of payment options for cloud services.

In new research, Barracuda found that if pricing and licensing models were not flexible enough they risk being a factor that can hold back further adoption in cloud services and  41 percent of organisations felt that firewall pricing and licensing was inappropriate for the cloud and that was an issue.

More than 73 percent felt that they wanted flexible pricing options that included pay-as-you-go and metered. Only 23 percent were happy paying for cloud-based security tools in the same way they had always paid in the past.

Barracuda director business development EMEA Chris Hill said that it looked closely at licensing models to make sure it could provide customers with choices.

“We are an on-premise firewall provider as well, and the cloud is very different so a lot of our time and research has been digging into why that is and what the customers are thinking and you can’t do the same thing in the cloud as you do on-premise,” he said.

“There are different ways of buying your stuff in the cloud, and we make sure that we can adapt to the different consumption models that there are in the cloud,” he added.

Hill said that bring-your-own licenses, meter billing and other models were emerging and vendors needed to keep a close eye on the way users wanted to pay for services.

When cloud first emerged most vendors tried to use their traditional licensing approaches but that had come under pressure, and more flexible methods had been needed.

“The thought process has gone from not paying for the physical box anymore but for what they use and that allows, in turn, the chance to utilise some of the features of the cloud, with the chance to deploy more than you could on-premise in a distributed world”, he said.

“Pricing models have helped the users with flexibility, and we have adapted to make sure we can sell that way. One of the biggest bottlenecks is people worried about the licensing models in the cloud. They have the technology they love on-premise and want to be able to do the same in the cloud but realise they can’t afford to do what they are doing there if they follow the same model and that is a blocker”, he added.

 

IP House signs up to EcoStruxure IT

Posted on March 28, 2018 by - News

IP-House-Backboneconnect-5Data centre start-up IP House has selected EcoStruxure IT to come up with its next generation cloud-based Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) platform.

IP House Operations and Commercial Manager Vinny Vaghani said: “During the planning stages we chose to use software from an industry-leading vendor.

“One of the biggest drivers for selecting EcoStruxure IT was its vendor-neutrality and ability to integrate with different products to provide detailed data in a single dashboard. As a colocation provider, we have to adhere to the highest standards of uptime and resiliency, monitoring and management is an absolute necessity for our customers.”

IP House’s carrier-neutral data centre has been built to Tier III standards on the edge of London’s financial district. It contains 14,000 Sqft. of white space across two technical suites and will be operational later this month. The facility also uses critical components from Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure for Data Centers architecture, including Power Distribution (PDU), Switchgear, NetShelter Racks and Symmetra PX UPS.

P House Data Centre Manager Sean Hilliar said: “Our clients depend on both uptime and 24/7 connectivity to business-critical applications hosted within the data centre. Having the ability to proactively monitor all elements of the infrastructure with an advanced software solution like EcoStruxure IT will reassure customers that we’re providing them with a secure, competitive and resilient colocation service, which safeguards them against downtime.”

EcoStruxure IT is a  vendor-neutral Datacentre Management as a Service (DMaaS) architecture, purpose-built for the hybrid IT and data centre environments. It provides global visibility from anywhere, at any time on any device and data-driven insights into critical IT assets, which helps customers mitigate risk and reduce downtime.

 

Skills shortage to hit most businesses

Posted on March 28, 2018 by - News

skills-shortage-delays-building-25-11-2002A lack of skilled infrastructure and operations staff is going to cause problems for the majority of businesses over the next couple of years.

Analyst outfit Gartner has hinted that there is a major opportunity for technical channel partners to can help struggling customers trying to roll out digital transformation projects.

Big G is warning that 75 percent of firms will experience visible business disruption by 2020 because of skill gaps.

The analyst house is forecasting a five percent drop in the number of IT specialist hires in the next 18 months and increasing pressure on those in-house people that remain to hold multiple roles.

One of the problems is that although it’s relatively clear that the infrastructure and operational (I&O) skills of the past will not be required in the same way in the future, most staff are not ready to deliver anything different.

Gartner research director Hank Marquis said that what made I&O leaders successful in the past is not what will make them thrive in the future.

“Instead of focusing on the ‘what’ of I&O jobs — such as technical knowledge, education and training — I&O leaders need to shift their focus to the ‘how’ — the behavioural competencies required.”

In some ways IT departments can learn from the channel and move from being technology providers to business partners that can help shape the future destiny of the organisation.

Until businesses plug the emerging I&O skills gaps, there is plenty of opportunities for channel partners to step in and remedy problems.

“Corporate digital business universities will eventually emerge to close the skills gap. Experience-based career paths with formal mentoring for and within I&O will become standard for individual development,” said Marquis.

“In the meantime, I&O leaders should work hand-in-hand with HR to shift away from position-based development, develop a tactical skills gap analysis, and use tools and methods for improving I&O skills in-house,” he added.

Gartner suggests outfits look AI and virtual assistants to help deal with incoming enquiries from staff looking for help with their IT problems.

Dancing Dell spins and IPOs Pivotal

Posted on March 27, 2018 by - News

61275a35f34cd5218929e2ca03610d36Dell’s Pivotal Software has filed for an initial public offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The cloud outfit provides a platform for software development and wants to raise $100m by floating.

Pivotal was spun out of EMC and VMware in 2013 before the merger in 2016 brought EMC and all of its subsidiaries under Dell’s ownership.

GE, Ford and Microsoft have each made a “major investment” in Pivotal over recent years, according to Pivotal’s website, giving each a stake in the vendor.

Pivotal reported revenues of $259 million in 2018 up 22 per cent on the previous year.  However, it is still making a  net loss of $163.5 million.

Dell is currently the majority shareholder and will retain its controlling stake after the IPO via its subsidiaries, the filing said.

 

Equity firms queue for Daisy bouquet

Posted on March 27, 2018 by - News

margarite-daisies-for-sale-at-fete-norfolk-england-b0xgj3Private equity firms are gearing up to buy out Daisy as its current owners are giving up and want to flog it.

CVC and Providence Equity Partners are likely to express their interest next month. This is not the first time that Daisy’s sale has been talked about. The Financial Times last month claimed that Daisy had appointed UBS and Oakley Advisory to lead the sale.

A deal with a private equity house is more likely than a sale to another comms firm, with the price likely to be lower than the £1.5 billion reported last year.

A figure between £1.1 – £1.2billion is likely  even if Daisy founder Matthew Riley has ruled out such a low figure.

Riley founded Daisy in 2001 and floated the business on the London Stock Exchange in 2009. He took the business private again along with a group of investors in January 2015. Daisy has since made a number of acquisitions.

Altify signs up for Salesforce Quip

Posted on March 27, 2018 by - News

indexAltify, whose customers include BT, GE and Sage, is using the integrated collaboration platform system Salesforce Quip in a cunning plan to enhance  collaboration and productivity of sales teams worldwide. Automation, AI and chatbots have transformed sales.

Altify is available on the Salesforce App Exchange, is empowering human front-line sales managers, enabling them to identify potential risks on upcoming deals, Deliver coaching notifications, Drive best practices created from centuries’ worth of sales experience.

Altify’s CEO, Anthony Reynolds said that Britain has suffered a steady decline in productivity since the Brexit referendum. Some are looking to technology to improve this. As always, sales teams are particularly focused on productivity and it is their sales productivity which ultimately will help the UK win or lose in the post-Brexit world.

“As seen by the Dropbox, Salesforce integration earlier this month, the lack of collaboration between sales pros using the top-selling Salesforce tool makes closing deals efficiently a bottleneck. To be fair, it is not their fault. Quite simply, salespeople work in silos because data is stored in silos. If only sales teams could access their data as easily as Cambridge Analytica can access Facebook’s, their productivity would soar”,  Reynolds said.

 

People going nuts over AI claims IDC

Posted on March 26, 2018 by - News

Walnut1-940x520Beancounters working for IDC claim that interest in cognitive computing and AI will see global spend reach $19.1 billion in 2018, with retail overtaking banking as the primary sector driving growth.

IDC’s research director of artificial brains David Schubmehl, said: “Interest and awareness of AI are at fever pitch. Every industry and every organisation should be evaluating AI to see how it will affect their business processes and go-to-market efficiencies.”

Retail firms will invest $3.4 billion this year on AI, including automated customer service agents, expert shopping advisors and product recommendations, and merchandising for omnichannel operations.

Banking, meanwhile, will spend $3.3 billion mostly on automated threat intelligence and prevention systems, fraud analysis and investigation, and programme advisors and recommendation systems.

Discrete manufacturing and health are the third and fourth-largest industries for AI spend.

IDC forecasts that across verticals, investment in AI will continue to grow, with 40 percent of digital transformation initiatives using AI services by 2019 and 75 percent of enterprise applications using AI by 2021.

The US will deliver more than three-quarters of all spending on cognitive and AI systems in 2018, with western Europe being the second-largest region.

IDC predicts that Japan will see the most vigorous spending growth over the next five years at 73.5 percent followed by China on 68.2 percent.

There’s no buyer for Maplin

Posted on March 26, 2018 by - News

MI0001562035Maplin’s administrator has failed to find a buyer for the fallen electricals retailer and announced further redundancies at the firm.

While the firm remained “open to interest” to find a buyer, administrator PwC said it would have to make another 66 redundancies at Maplin’s head offices in London and Rotherham.

Maplin has 217 stores in the UK and Ireland, employs 2,335 staff, and boasts an annual turnover of £235.8 million.

It entered administration last month, and the retailer claimed that UK consumers were  paying over the top prices for US made gadgets.

HP, Microsoft and Apple moved to increase their UK prices sharply in the wake of the devaluation of the pound following the June 2016 Brexit referendum.

PwC said it will continue to trade the business as normal while it attempts to find a buyer.

“Given the cash position of the company, the directors resolved to put Maplin into administration”,  it said.

“Our initial focus as administrators will be to engage with parties who may be interested in acquiring all or part of the company. We will continue to trade the business as normal while a buyer is sought.

“Staff have been paid their February wages and will continue to be paid for future work while the company is in administration.”

 

 

Government releases G-Cloud 10 timetable

Posted on March 26, 2018 by - News

Downing_Street-Whitehall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_862190The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has released a provisional timetable for the framework’s implementation.

Earlier this month the government back-tracked on the G-Cloud 10 delay and stated that the £600 million framework would be launched this year.

It has now released a provisional timetable for G-Cloud 10 which starts on 18 April when G-Cloud 10 opens for applications and allows clarification questions.

The deadline for asking clarification questions is 5pm on Wednesday 9 May   and the answers will be published on 16 May.

Answers to clarification questions will be published on the Digital Marketplace on 23 May and     applications for G-Cloud 10 will close on 18 June.

Applicants will be told if their application to G-Cloud 10 was successful between 18 and 29 June and the framework agreement will start on 2 July.

Apparently, the dates are approximate and subject to change.  G-Cloud 9 services will be removed when G-Cloud 10 services go live.

Panasonic wants more rugged tablet partners

Posted on March 23, 2018 by - News

panasonic-toughbook-33-angle-389Panasonic is still looking for more partners to join its Edge channel programme after recruiting 60 partners to sell its Toughbook tablet across Europe.

The company set up the programme to snatch a share of the rugged handheld market from Honeywell, Datalogic and Zebra.

Panasonic’s handheld gear makes up a third of Panasonic’s rugged mobile device range sales, and make it shedloads of cash as the sector demand has been growing.

It is particularly interested in the transportation and logistics, retail and manufacturing industries and as such, is looking for partners specialising in the field service, supply chain and proof of delivery verticals.

Panasonic’s handheld channel programme offers dedicated marketing, sales and technical support and attractive incentives for businesses that meet its qualification criteria.

Panasonic Toughbook sales director Steven Vindevogel said that new resellers need a history in the delivery of value-added, rugged handheld solutions covering hardware, software and services.

“As the new partners  agree and then achieve sales targets they will be promoted through the three-tier channel programme.”

The outfit said that it would work closely with its new distributor Scansource to find and enrol them into the Edge programme.

 

IoT continues to grow

Posted on March 23, 2018 by - News

fings-ain-t-wot-they-used-t-be-all-star-studio-cast-recordingWorldwide spending on Internet of Things (IoT) security will reach $1.5 billion in 2018, according to the bean counters at Gartner.

A recent Gartne survey found that nearly 20 per cent of organisations had at least one IoT-based attack in the past three years.

Gartner research director Ruggero Contu said that organisations often don’t have control over the source and nature of the software and hardware being used by smart connected devices.

“We expect to see demand for tools and services aimed at improving discovery and asset management, software and hardware security assessment, and penetration testing.”

Contu said organisations would look to increase their understanding of the implications of externalising network connectivity.

“These factors will be the main drivers of spending growth for the forecast period with spending on IoT security expected to reach $3.1 billion in 2021.”

Gartner predicts that through 2020, the most significant inhibitor to growth for IoT security will come from a lack of prioritisation and implementation of security best practices and tools in IoT initiative planning. This will hamper the potential spend on IoT security by 80 percent.

“Although IoT security is consistently referred to as a primary concern, most IoT security implementations have been planned, deployed and operated at the business-unit level, in cooperation with some IT departments to ensure the IT portions affected by the devices are sufficiently addressed”,  said Contu.

“However, coordination via common architecture or a consistent security strategy is all but absent, and vendor product and service selection remain largely ad hoc, based upon the device provider’s alliances with partners or the core system that the devices are enhancing or replacing.”

DoS 3 opens for bids in July

Posted on March 23, 2018 by - News

54538e33fa375a7530c9f15bde5be1d6--big-ben-tattoo-tattoo-meCrown Commercial Service (CCS) will open the third iteration of the Digital Outcomes and Specialists (DOS) framework in July, after initially extending DOS 2 for a year

This follows a similar turnaround with the G-Cloud framework earlier this month. The DOS framework launched initially in 2016 to replace the Digital Services framework, which came in for criticism from suppliers.

DOS 3 will open for bids in July and is expected to go live in September.

Niall Quinn, director at CCS, said: “We have listened to feedback from suppliers and customers and decided to go ahead with re-letting Digital Outcomes and Specialists in line with our original timescales.

“This will give customers access to the very latest services, and ensures that current suppliers and new bidders, including smaller businesses, have the chance to work with the public sector.”

CCS said that £280 million had been spent through DOS since its launch,  with the current version of the framework having 2,000 partners – 94 percent of which were SMEs.

Siemens expands 3D printing machine operation

Posted on March 22, 2018 by - News

history-of-print-16th-century-printing-companySiemens is investing £27 million in a manufacturing facility for its Worcester-based 3D printing specialist Materials Solutions.

A new building, set to open in September, will enable it to increase its fleet of 3D printing machines from 15 to 50 over the next five years.

Siemens acquired an 85 percent majority stake in Materials Solutions in 2016.

Siemens UK CEO Juergen Maier said:”This significant investment underlines our belief that there is huge potential for innovation and growth within the additive manufacturing sector,” said Siemens UK CEO Juergen MaieJuergen Maier,

“It is also the next step towards achieving our ambition of pioneering the industrialisation of 3D printing and demonstrates how we are leading the way for the fourth industrial revolution.”

Maier said if the UK’s manufacturing sector is to grow and thrive, the industry must embrace digital technologies and build new industries based on them.

Materials Solutions GM, Phil Hatherley, said: “Our Worcester-based team are specialists in using additive manufacturing technology to solve complex engineering challenges for our customers across a range of sectors including aerospace, automotive and power generation.

“Our new facility will give us space and scope to continue to innovate for these specialist and demanding industries and achieve a shift in the perception of 3D printing from being a technology associated with prototyping to a viable option for the serial production of additively manufactured parts.”

CIOs no longer just want cost reductions

Posted on March 22, 2018 by - News

creditcrunchcoinsmoneyvicewatersmay2014-580x358CIOs are looking at business value or benefits realisation, rather than the most significant or fastest cost reductions, according to research by Gartner.

Big G’s survey of CIOs found that after a focus on business optimisation, lowest operational risk and then price and performance benchmarks are the primary IT cost-optimisation focuses.

Gartner research vice president Stewart Buchanan said that the survey findings highlight how cost optimisation has become a business-focused, continuous discipline that drives spending and cost reduction while maximising business value,.

“It’s not enough to simply reduce IT spending; CIOs must reinvest in growth and transformation to deliver more value. Those who fail to engage in optimisation risk having savings decisions imposed on them by an advisory organisation with less understanding of IT or digital technology opportunities.”

Larger and more successful organisations plan to give the business greater budgetary control over the savings it achieves. This way, business controls how it spends these savings on digital solutions development.

“Giving the money back to business leaders to reinvest in IT demonstrates faith in the maturity of business decision making and the strength of IT’s business relationships,” said Buchanan.

The survey found that there are two and a half times as many IT organisations gaining financial control than there are losing it.

Respondents were asked about who manages the selection and approval of cost-optimisation ideas. Those with visibility of both the IT shared services budget and all digital spending across the organisation reported that, on average, nearly half of their digital technology spending is paid for by the business. A quarter is paid for out of the IT budget, with chargeback to the business.

“As you would expect, CIOs have the most influence over the selection and approval of cost-optimisation opportunities within IT shared services,” said Buchanan.

“Interestingly, CIOs who focus on digital business opportunities have greater responsibility for cost optimisation than those who don’t. This suggests that CIOs are starting to exert influence over selecting and approving digital business ideas to optimise business costs.”

Computacenter likely to hatch cloud deal with Google

Posted on March 22, 2018 by - News

cloudbustComputacenter is considering a deal which would see that would see it using Google’s cloud.

Chief technologist Paul Casey has said that the move is part of the firm’s multi-cloud strategy in helping customers shut their datacentres and reduce the cost of their workloads.

According to Channelnomics Europe, Computacenter’s recent announcement that it will be only one of two UK partners offering VMware on AWS is part of the firm’s commitment to a multi-cloud strategy which will likely see it work with Google in the future.

“It is a matter of allowing us to do a good enough job with each of the vendors we have been focusing on before we start to bring others on.

Google would give the outfit great coverage across all the target destinations, and it allows us to differentiate from rivals

“We have the capability to take them to the different cloud providers and land them safely on the cloud provider. The key part is: we are the only partner I see that can help them shut their datacentre… Computacenter has a track record of doing this already.”

Google, along with other public cloud giants Microsoft, Amazon and Alibaba, has been aggressively expanding across Europe in the last two years. Google announced plans to build eight new datacentres in October 2016 and opened a new region in the Netherlands this year.

Casey believes that the future of the enterprise market in which Computacenter operates will see customers move to multi-cloud environments, spreading workloads across public clouds like AWS and Azure, as well as on virtualised platforms such as VMware.