Category: News

Innovation Park CEO warns European tech at a crossroads

Posted on May 11, 2023 by - News

The EU’s tech sector is now at a crossroads, with some experts predicting an increased focus on homegrown innovations and a shift in investment priorities, according to Innovation Park CEO Julia Vorontsova.

“The challenges faced by global tech firms are opening up new opportunities for European companies to lead the way in technological advancements. It’s time for the EU to capitalize on this momentum and foster a thriving innovation and investment ecosystem,” she said.

Vorontsova warned that several factors contribute to the uncertain future of tech firms ranging from regulatory crackdowns, political tensions, local competition, shifting investment priorities and privacy concerns.

Software supply chain cyberattacks are up

Posted on May 11, 2023 by - News

Hacker typing on a laptop

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the total cost of software supply chain cyberattacks to businesses will exceed $80.6 billion globally by 2026, up from $45.8 billion in 2023.

This growth of 76 per cent reflects increasing risks from absent software supply chain security processes, and the rising complexity of software supply chains overall.

The new study, Vulnerable Software Supply Chains Are a Multi-billion Dollar Problem, highlights the need for greater emphasis on the software elements of the supply chain as a critical security vulnerability.

The study analysed how both shifts in wider cybersecurity processes, and the mindset around the management of the software supply chain are needed to address these risks.

Informatica releases new partner programme

Posted on May 10, 2023 by - News

Informatica announces early release of Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partner programme.

Cloud data management platform Informatica has announced early access for its next-generation Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partner programme at Informatica World 2023.

Dubbed ISV Innovate, Informatica claims the platform provides ISV channel partners with more opportunities to develop and showcase their products and solutions to global enterprises through the vendor’s platform – Informatica’s Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC).

Troubled Wandisco taps Kelly to sort out its woes.

Posted on May 10, 2023 by - News

Big data specialist WANdisco has appointed Stephen Kelly as its interim CEO to sort out the mess caused by fraud allegations.

The Sheffield-based Microsoft partner’s shares were suspended due to allegations of potential fraud by a “senior sales employee”, and co-founder and chief executive David Richards and CFO Erik Miller have stepped down.

WANdisco says Kelly will serve as permanent CEO when the company’s share suspension is over.

Kelly has considerable experience working at start-ups to large organisations in private and public sectors in the USA and Europe.

He has worked at vendor Oracle and was CEO of Chordiant between 2001 and 2005 and MicroFocus between 2006 and 2010.

Westcon International sees good trade from its cloud marketplace

Posted on May 10, 2023 by - News

Westcon International CEO David Grant said that his outfit had seen a good take up from its PartnerCentral programme, which started six weeks ago.

He said PartnerCentral had an opportunity to deploy in more territories and engage with more partners.

Grant said: “We’ll have 17,000 users on the platform – about half of our global customer base, but we’re only deployed in English-speaking business language countries. We’ve seen, since launch, six weeks ago, a 20-25 per cent increase in activity.”

Adobe says hybrid working exposed SME weakness

Posted on May 9, 2023 by - News

The channel needs to do more to help SMEs improve their technology before they risk alienating staff who become frustrated with the IT on offer.

Research from Adobe has shown the pressure to deliver hybrid working has exposed the weak position of many SMEs on the technology front.

The vendor’s The future of digital work report found that being more productive was an ambition for small businesses, but many were hindered by legacy IT and antiquated processes.

Most of the SMEs quizzed by Adobe (85 per cent) viewed technology as playing a critical role in helping them work faster and smarter. But a similar number admitted poor IT was limiting their ability to deliver that outcome.

More than half of SMEs were still using paper for at least half of the company’s work processes. The result is wasting time, with slightly more than half of the respondents calculating that they lost between two and four hours a day in productivity.

Given the SME customer base is the target for most channel businesses, there is a clear opportunity for partners to remedy the situation.

Claire Darley, senior vice-president of worldwide field sales, customer support and digital media at Adobe, said there was a clear role for partners to play.

Fortinet sees strong growth in first quarter

Posted on May 8, 2023 by - News

Cybersecurity outfit Fortinet said it saw a 32 per cent growth in total revenues in the first quarter.

Revenues hit $1.26 billion, while product revenue reached $500.7 million, which is an increase of 35 per cent compared to $371 million for the same quarter of 2022.

Service revenue was $761.6 million for the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 30.5 per cent compared to $583.8 million for the same quarter of 2022.

Fortinet also reported a GAAP operating income of $273.5 million, up 81 per cent year over year.

Fortinet CEO Ken Xie said the company was gaining market share while being a leading product revenue company in the cybersecurity industry.

Cisco brings in deferred payment scheme

Posted on May 8, 2023 by - News

Cisco is allowing customers to defer payments for new products to defer all payments until 2024.

Dubbed the Cisco Capital Business Acceleration Programme it means that partners can provide customers with another flexible payment option.

Cisco thinks cash flow is a major concern for its customers and partners and all its solutions will be eligible for this programme, including hardware, software, and services, and select partner services and third-party hardware.

WANdisco lets a third of its staff go

Posted on May 5, 2023 by - News

Troubled data outfit WANdisco has announced plans to cut around 30 per cent of its global workforce as the scandal-hit firm deals with the fallout of recent fraud allegations.

The data firm said it will undertake a “reorganisation and review process” that will result in significant job cuts across its global operations.

The cloud migration specialist has more than 150 employees spread across several regions worldwide, with offices in Sheffield, Belfast, Newcastle, San Francisco, South Korea, and Australia.

Proposed layoffs will apply to “all areas of the company’s operational and geographic footprint” and the firm said that it is talking to affected staff.

Exclusive Networks starts the year well

Posted on May 5, 2023 by - News

Start line on the highway disappearing into the distance concept for business planning, strategy and challenge or career path, opportunity and change

Distributor Exclusive Networks has started the year with great numbers for its first quarter and has continued to tap into growth across all regions.

The distributor delivered IFRS revenue up 25 per cent to €893 million, and the firm produced run-rate gross sales above €1 billion for the fourth consecutive quarter.

Gross sales improved by 27 per cent to €925 million across EMEA. The firm also kept retention rates up, with the vendor level at 126 per cent and customer rates at 123 per cent.

The board said that thee full-year outlook should deliver gross sales above €5,150 million and EBIT in the range of €172-€178 million.

Protecht launches EMEA Partner Programme

Posted on May 4, 2023 by - News

Risk software creator Protecht has introduced its new Protecht EMEA Partner Programme, which it says will enable customers across industry sectors to maximise Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) practices.

The programme launches with LexisNexis, and Fourthline as inaugural partners, with newly appointed Head of Partnerships & Alliances EMEA, Ann Rodley, leading the programme to recruit new partners for continued strategic growth in the EMEA region.

The programme supports partnerships with risk advisory firms and regulatory intelligence providers and is built on three pillars: a simple contracting and onboarding process; a competitive commercial model deal registration; and sales, technical and marketing training and support.

IT spending improving

Posted on May 4, 2023 by - News

Beancounters at IDC have added up some numbers and divided by their shoe size and concluded that overall IT spending will rise 4.8 per cent to $3.27 trillion, which is a slight improvement on last month’s predictions.

IT services growth should hit almost six per cent, driven largely by enterprises remaining committed to long-term digital transformation investments, IDC thunk.

Overall software spending growth will be almost 11 per cent, driven mostly by cloud software revenues which will increase by 19 per cent. This is a slowdown from last year’s cloud software growth of 25 per cent and growth of public cloud IaaS will also slow compared to last year.

Brexit chased Arm off the UK stock market

Posted on May 4, 2023 by - News

Brexit was partly to blame for Arm’s decision to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York rather than London.

Arm co-founder Hermann Hauser told Radio 4’s Today programme that it made sense for Arm owners SoftBank to take Arm to New York, where it aims to raise $10 billion and could be valued between $30 billion and $70 billion.

He said it would have been difficult to raise that amount of cash in Post Brexit Britain.

“Softbank really needs the money to further support the growth of Arm.”

Avaya reborn from bankruptcy

Posted on May 3, 2023 by - News

Avaya has completed its financial restructuring, emerged from the Chapter 11 process, and has $650 million left to sort itself out.

Avaya filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February following months of speculation of a bankruptcy declaration after its 2022 cloud subscription accounting problems that led to substantial earnings and revenue misses.

In its bankruptcy court filing, Avaya listed total assets of between $1 billion and $10 billion and total liabilities of between $1 to $10 billion.

Avaya has been bankrupt before and seems to be immortal. It did all this in 2017.

Government expected to relax fraud rules on tech

Posted on May 3, 2023 by - News

The UK government plans to relax a proposal that would mandate technology companies to reimburse victims in the event of online financial fraud.

The move follows concerns raised by the Treasury and the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology regarding the proposal’s impact on the UK tech industry.

The annual cost of fraud to the UK amounts to billions of pounds. The government wants a new national fraud strategy to foster collaboration between the government, law enforcement and private companies.

It is expected that the measures will introduce a voluntary agreement where the technology sector will commit to tackling online fraud, rather than being held accountable for reimbursing victims. All a technology company has to do is promise that the attack will not happen again and show what steps have been taken to prevent it.