Category: News

Hewlett Packard Enterprise pours on AI sauce

Posted on June 22, 2023 by - News

Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri has sworn that partners will be included in the edge-to-cloud platform powerhouse’s “bold” AI future.

He said that HPE would be making some bold moves but will include partners in that journey because  not everybody will be capable or in a position to be part of it.

Neri told partners that his name started with an A and ended with an I and the thought that was “inspiring!”

He said that HPE’s AI moves will demonstrate that the company has thought about solving problems with AI in an “ethical and sustainable way” that can benefit society.

“I believe we can use data in a different way, at a pace we haven’t seen before,” he told partners in the audience. “But also [we will] bring the partners along that journey. Because obviously supercomputers have not been something many people in the room have solved. The question is how do we make it more consumable for everyone.”

 

Senior IT leaders prioritising AI

Posted on June 22, 2023 by - News

A new survey of more than 500 senior IT leaders reveals that a majority (67 per cent ) prioritise generative AI for their business within the next 18 months, with one-third naming it as a top priority.

The Salesforce Generative AI in IT Survey showed the majority of senior IT leaders (57 per cent) believe generative AI is a ‘game changer.’ They believe the technology has the potential to help them better serve their customers, take advantage of data, and operate more efficiently.

This outlook is echoed even among the sceptics — 80 per cent of those who say the technology is ‘over-hyped’ agree that generative AI will help them better serve their customers.

HPE names 11:11 Systems global provider of the year

Posted on June 21, 2023 by - News

Managed infrastructure solutions provider 11:11 Systems has been named Global Service Provider of the Year by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

The HPE Partner of the Year Award recognises HPE partners who exemplify commitment and success in delivering value to their customers on their digital transformation journey.

This recognition has been given to HPE partners who have achieved exceptional results in financial performance, innovative solutions and meeting meaningful business milestones. The award was announced at HPE Discover 2023, HPE’s annual edge-to-cloud conference.

HPE said 11:11 won the award this year for its Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solutions. 11:11 Systems and HPE combine industry-leading technology and customised and flexible solutions that offer customers the peace of mind that comes from knowing that their data is protected from unplanned events like cybercrime, hardware failure and natural disasters.

Daisy scores multi-year contact with Greene King

Posted on June 21, 2023 by - News

daisy distributionDaisy Corporate Services has announced a multi-year contract with the pub and brewer Greene King to become its primary provider of WAN, LAN, WiFi and voice services.

The fully managed service will cover more than 1,600 Greene King sites.

Daisy will provide a new network to enhance operational performance and customer experience.

Daisy will partner with Fortinet to deliver the project. Fortinet played a key role in supporting Daisy to mitigate global supply chain issues, ensuring delivery kept pace with Greene King’s ambitious roll-out schedule.

The SD-Branch, powered by Fortinet, helped Daisy transform Greene King’s legacy network and telecoms equipment, along with a new cloud Unified Communications (UC) voice solution available at all pubs, providing Greene King with smart call management capabilities.

Customers want more flexible subscriptions

Posted on June 21, 2023 by - News

Market research firm Censuswide has compiled a report on subscription spend and trends across key markets and reached the conclusion that they want more consistency in pricing and loyalty.

The survey, with the catchy title State of Subscriptions: What Consumers Want looked at the preferences of more than 6,000 respondents, including 1,016 UK respondents.

Carried out for Subscription management and billing platform, Recurly the survey found UK consumers’ appetites for subscription services had increased with an estimated 44 million new subscriptions over the last 12 months. Gen Zs (£49) and Millennials (£50) are spending more on average per month than Boomers (£35).

Mobile market continues to tank

Posted on June 20, 2023 by - News

While there are some hopes for hardware sellers, market analysts Context sees only doom for the mobile market

Context analysis of the second quarter indicates that the market has remained on a downward trajectory.

There are two possible scenarios for how the quarter will have gone, with the most optimistic expecting a 23.3 per cent year-on-year decline in the market. The most miserable prediction is for a 32.5 per cent decline. This follows a 21.6 per cent drop in units sold in the first quarter.

Context global managing director Adam Simon said that the gloomiest figure was a belief that the economy will get worse, but the more positive outlook assumes greater sell-out of excess stock.

Apple tries to trademark Apple the fruit

Posted on June 20, 2023 by - News

There might be prior art going back to the Garden of Eden but the fruity-cargo cult, Apple honestly believes that it owns the trademark to all apples everywhere.

In Switzerland, the Fruit Union Suisse uses a symbol of a red apple with a white cross – the Swiss national flag superimposed onto an apple. The group has over a hundred years of history and is now worried it may have to change its logo due to Apple’s insistence on trademarking fruit.

Apple has made similar demands to IP authorities around the world with varying degrees of success because authorities in Japan, Turkey, Israel, and Armenia have previously caved to the tech giant’s unreasonable requests and mighty briefs.

SoftwareOne snubs Bain Capital takeover offer

Posted on June 19, 2023 by - News

SoftwareOne has rejected a $3.2 billion Bain Capital offer to acquire the Switzerland-based company.

The proposed deal, described by SoftwareOne as an “indicative, unsolicited and non-binding offer,” was made by Bain Capital to acquire 100 percent of the company at 18.50 CHF (Swiss franks) per share. At Thursday’s exchange rate, that is about $20.51 per share.

Supporting Bain Capital on the offer are three investors in SoftwareOne who collectively hold about 29 percent of the company’s share capital, including Daniel von Stockar, B. Curti Holding AG, and René Gilli, SoftwareOne said.

von Stockar is the co-founder of SoftwareOne and currently sits on the company’s board of directors. He served as chairman of the board until April. Gilli served on the company’s board of directors until spring of 2022.

Intel pokes the i out of its Core brand

Posted on June 19, 2023 by - News

Intel has changed its Core CPU brand after more than 15 years beginning with the next generation of Intel Core CPUs, code-named Meteor Lake.

The changes involve poking the “i” out from processor tiers such as Intel Core i7 or Intel Core i5, the removal of the generation in front of the brand (like 13th-Gen Intel Core), and the introduction of the “Intel Core Ultra” name for its “most advanced” processors.

Chipzilla claims to have evolved the brand for its Intel Evo premium laptop program and will now label Evo-verified designs with “Intel Evo Edition.” In addition, Intel plans to dole out new Intel vPro labels for commercial systems using vPro processors.

Vendors leaning on distributors more

Posted on June 16, 2023 by - News

Vendors and solution providers are looking to IT distributors for guidance, support and resources,  the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) EMEA summit was told.

GTDC CEO Frank Vitagliano said that innovation was a key sales driver and rising value proposition for the channel as businesses struggle to keep pace with increased labour costs, global competition, and regulatory compliance.

“While organisations rely on IT solutions and technology providers to address those concerns and meet other critical objectives, distributors are a force behind the scenes. They deliver more technology options, services and support capabilities than ever before,” he told the gathered GTDC throngs.

EPAM partners with Google Cloud on AI

Posted on June 16, 2023 by - News

EPAM Systems has announced a strategic, global partnership with Google Cloud to develop and deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Through this partnership EPAM will expand its global, cloud-native engineering and integration services and introduce targeted vertical solutions and managed services around Google Cloud AI solutions, including Vertex AI, Generative AI App Builder, Model Garden and more.

EPAM Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer Elaina Shekhter said: “We are excited to expand our partnership with Google Cloud to bring the power of AI to our clients. Today’s technology transformations are built on the foundation of digital and cloud-native developments, many of which we’ve been working with Google on since the mid-2000s.”

MSPs should invest in smart locker tech

Posted on June 16, 2023 by - News

Managed service providers should invest in smart locker technology to better serve their customers, according to Velocity Smart Technology CEO Anthony Lamoureux.

Lamoureux said that despite being part of a billion-dollar industry, not much has been made of using smart locker technology to help MSPs improve client service level agreements. He said 28 per cent of businesses would consider implementing smart lockers, and yet MSPs have yet to seize this clear competitive advantage.

Smart lockers provide 24/7 access to IT assets and can help to provide a rapid service to end users when an IT asset fails or needs to be taken offline for further investigation. CIOs are being pushed for cost reduction, and cost savings are apparent from the get go when an MSP switches to a smart locker.

Capita gets another government security contract

Posted on June 15, 2023 by - News

Outsourcing supremo Capita has been awarded a £50m contract, alongside PwC, to replace the Action Fraud cyber crime reporting service.

The irony of this news will not be lost as Capita is facing possible regulatory investigations over its cyber security stuff-ups after 90 of its customers, including pension funds and well-known brands had their customer and staff data stolen from its systems in a ransomware attack.

The replacement of Action Fraud comes after the service was slammed for its multiple failings. In 2021, a Work and Pensions Committee report on pensions scams and fraud outlined multiple concerns with the body, many of them stemming from a 2019 investigation by The Times which alleged staff malpractice and inadequate resourcing at the service, which the City of London Police oversees.

Capita will provide contact centre resources and the underlying technology to enable the public to make reports. PwC, meanwhile will provide technology services for the crime and intelligence management underpinning the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), which assesses and analyses the reports currently received by Action Fraud. The new service is scheduled to become operational by the end of June 2024. Action Fraud’s existing services and systems will remain in place until that time.

 

Asigra teams up with Direct 2 Channel

Posted on June 15, 2023 by - News

Secure backup and recovery outfit Asigra is partnering with distributor Direct 2 Channel (D2C).

The partnership means that Asigra will make its Tigris Data Protection software available to the hundreds of channel partners in the D2C network.

D2C is a global, value-added, cybersecurity-focused software and hardware distributor that provides services to channel partners and Managed Service Providers by becoming an extension of their team. The company’s mission is to create a synergy between Asigra and its channel ecosystem.

D2C managing partner Carlos Zevallos said that a crippling cyberattack was the number one concern for customers and the solution providers served by the.

“We are helping our partners minimize that threat significantly by providing best of breed security solutions from industry specialists like Asigra,” he said Carlos Zevallos, Managing Partner,

“With layers of security covering nearly every aspect of business computing, it is surprising that so many overlook one of the single most important environments, their data backup infrastructure. This is often left exposed to malicious attacks, but Asigra blankets this sensitive data with aggressive technologies that screen, root out and defend against these attacks.”

Asigra CEO Eric Simmons said: “We are excited to announce our partnership with Direct 2 Channel (D2C), a leading distributor of technology solutions, as it opens up new avenues for the expansion of Tigris Data Protection software. Through this collaboration, we are bringing secure backup and recovery to D2C’s extensive channel ecosystem.”

 

 

Nokia helps operators make more cash out of 5G

Posted on June 15, 2023 by - News

Former rubber boot maker Nokia has successfully trialled a new solution that enables Android smartphone users to purchase and activate network slices on-demand from their operator.

The solution enables operators to monetise 5G slicing services, for example, by offering premium network slices that can be purchased in selected areas based on customer demand.

The trial took place at Nokia’s network slicing development centre in Tampere, Finland, using Nokia’s end-to-end slicing product portfolio, including its IMPACT entitlement and policy control servers and UE Route Selection Policy (URSP) technology implemented in Android 14.