Category: News

Silicon Valley Bank crisis averted

Posted on March 14, 2023 by - News

The UK has seen off a crisis after the HSBC bank bought Silicon Valley Bank for a pound.

SVB used by thousands of tech start-ups, including many smaller vendors was shut down on Friday and many tech firms who bank with SVB feared they could go bust.

US regulators agreed a plan to protect customer deposits on Sunday, while in Blighty it was  announced that HSBC is buying SVB’s UK arm.

HSBC CEO Noel Quinn stressed that SVB’s UK customers would be able to bank as usual with deposits safe.

Channel parterns said that the Bank of England and HM Treasury deserve significant credit for the private sale of SVB UK to HSBC and made sure that deposits were secured with no cost to the taxpayer.

The UK budget is delivered on Wednesday. Last week Rishi Sunak was in the press regarding making the UK a ‘tech superpower’, so many UK SVB customers not being able to process payroll would not have been a good look.

Generative AI could have a role in insurance

Posted on March 14, 2023 by - News

Generative AI could help the insurance industry improve its processes and better protect its customers, according to Zelros.

While Generative AI like ChatGPT is hitting the headlines for helping kids write essays, it could find a more productive home in insurance according to Zelros Chief Growth Officer Linh C. Ho.

“Generative AI like what we’re seeing with ChatGPT can be a critical tool in our arsenal to reimagine the insurance experience for customers, transforming it from a transactional, reactive model to a proactive, and more personalised,” he said.

Linh adds: “This technology can unlock new possibilities and opportunities for growth that we haven’t even begun to explore. The industry as a whole needs to continue to invest in AI and build a culture that embraces innovation, so that we can continue to provide truly transformative solutions for our customers.”

Founded in 2016 by Christophe Bourguignat and Damien Philippon, Zelros is using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technology to help insurers provide policyholders with the right coverage for their needs in real-time with hyper-personalized policy recommendations.

 

Microsoft layoffs hit supply chain

Posted on March 13, 2023 by - News

Microsoft’s third wave of layoffs are hitting employees supply chain, artificial intelligence and internet of things (IoT) roles.

Vole announced that it would be laying of 10,000 employees in three waves and this wave is across various levels, functions, teams and geographies.

The tech giant said that 689 employees have been permanently laid off in Redmond, Bellevue and Issaquah offices.

Epicor swallows DSPanel

Posted on March 13, 2023 by - News

Cloud financial planning and analysis outfit Epicor has snapped up one of its existing independent software vendor (ISV) partners.

DSPanel gives Epicor access to a firm that has developed a cloud-based financial planning and analysis tool, Performance Canvasl, offered as Epicor Financial Planner.

The DSPanel offering is fully integrated with the Epicor ERP Cloud and supports those seeking financial, supply chain and workforce support.

IT departments ordered to stretch their budgets

Posted on March 13, 2023 by - News

SoftwareOne research claims that more than 93 per cent of  IT leaders are under pressure to make budgets stretch.

While the world+dog is told to focus on improving cloud cost management and driving down increasing technical debt, 72 per cent of CIOs felt they needed to catch up.

A lot of the issues with cloud costs stem from some of the rushed decisions made during the pandemic, with a number of users admitting they needed more time to optimise workloads before migration, with many miscalculating the budget needed and dealing with an overspend since.

Babble snaps up TechQuarters

Posted on March 10, 2023 by - News

Babble has just written a cheque for Microsoft partner TechQuarters, as it pushes into the comms space.

The MSP yesterday announced it had acquired TechQuarters to bolster its expertise across Office 365, Sentinel and Azure.

It claimed that the deal would “accelerate Babble’s move from being the UK’s leading cloud comms player to the leading cloud service provider in comms and IT.

MSSPs promote CrowdStrike’s growth

Posted on March 10, 2023 by - News

CrowdStrike is seeing huge growth through managed security service providers (MSSPs) as it increasingly targets small and medium-sized businesses with its cloud-native cybersecurity platform.

CEO George Kurtz told investors that annual recurring revenue generated through MSSPs more than doubled in the company’s fiscal 2023, which ended January 31, and CrowdStrike now generates 83 per cent of its overall revenue through channel partners.

Sophos expands security portfolio

Posted on March 10, 2023 by - News

Channel-focused security outfit Sophos has expanded its portfolio of endpoint security offerings with adaptive active adversary protection, Linux malware protection enhancements, account health check capabilities, integrated zero trust network access (ZTNA) agent for Windows and macOS devices and more improve frontline defences.

Sophos senior vice president of products Raja Patel said that ransomware was one of the most prevalent and damaging cyberthreats to organisations, with Sophos incident responders still consistently remediating ransomware activity worldwide.

UK trying to bring in post-Brexit data protection reforms

Posted on March 9, 2023 by - News

The UK government is introducing a revised version of its oven-ready post-Brexit data protection reforms to Parliament, which it claims will save organisations £4.7 billion over the next decade.

This is a tall order as the EUs Data Protection Act has been one of the few laws from Europe that protected citizens from government and corporate spying. The UK version was expected to be watered down for this reason.

Originally introduced to Parliament in July 2022, the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill was due for its second reading on 5 September – the day the Conservative Party leadership election concluded – but was pushed back so that “ministers time to consider the bill further”.

Rubrik announces points-based partner programme

Posted on March 9, 2023 by - News

Security outfit Rubrik has today unveiled its new points-based partner programme.

Rubrik VP of global partners and alliances, Ghazal Asif said the Rubrik Transform Partner Programme was an update of an earlier version.

She claimed the programme was “redesigned from the ground up.”

Agilitas loses chief marketing officer

Posted on March 9, 2023 by - Moving People, News

Agilitas IT Solutions has announced that its chief marketing officer, Richard Eglon, will leave the firm after eight years.

He will officially leave the company in August 2023 and wants to spend time with his family after many years managing a busy and fast-paced work schedule.

He joined Agilitas in 2015 as marketing director before being promoted to chief marketing officer in 2021. Eglon built Agilitas’ channel services brands, and was responsible for setting and communicating strategic direction and executing go-to-market plans as well as its ESG initiative.

Check Point poaches Criado from TD Synnex

Posted on March 8, 2023 by - News

Security outfit Check Point Software Technologies has poached  Francisco Criado, from TD Synnex who will take up the reins as its new global channel chief.

Criado said he was inspired to come to Check Point by the cybersecurity giant’s “100 percent channel” commitment and the massive opportunity it has around cloud security, secure access service edge (SASE) and other key areas beyond its traditional network security business.

IBM partner goes carbon neutral early

Posted on March 8, 2023 by - News

A global IBM partner has achieved carbon-neutral status two years ahead of its initial goal.

Meridian Group International (MGI), which operates in the UK through its Meridian IT subsidiary, claims to have offset all its greenhouse gas emissions via two carbon offsetting projects. Meridian specialises in managed services and equipment leasing and financing.

MGI CEO Jeff Murray said: “We committed to our employees to be Carbon Neutral by 2025 and I am thrilled that we have been able to accelerate our commitment and announce that we are Carbon Neutral today.”

HPE’s Maher joins Virtana

Posted on March 8, 2023 by - News

Cloudy Virtana announced that Leslie Maher, former Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) channel executive has joined the company as its Vice President of Worldwide Channels & Alliances.

Maher brings more than 20 years of sales and general management expertise from enterprise organisations including HPE, Cisco and Sun. At Virtana, her focus will be to manage and develop all partner routes to market, including Solution Providers, Managed Service providers (MSPs), Systems Integrators, Distributors, OEM and Strategic Alliances.

Her expertise includes delivering data centre infrastructure and as-a-service hybrid cloud solutions, and she has a track record of providing revenue growth and profitability success. Maher has a diverse background in building high-performing teams across enterprise sales, specialised product sales, inside sales and SMB, channels and alliances, and product category management.

Virtana CRO Steve Hershkowitz said: “Maher is respected as a ‘focused and driven sales professional’ and we look forward to sharing that drive with our channel partners and strategic alliances.”

Maher said: “I look forward to jumping in to grow existing alliances and increasing partner engagement, which will create greater value for customers with our hybrid cloud capabilities.”

Kaseya expands dis and Datto

Posted on March 7, 2023 by - News

Kaseya has expanded its Kaseya + Datto Global Partner Programme and jacked up investment in channel partners through doubled marketing development funds (MDF) and establishing a larger team dedicated to the channel.

Kaseya Executive Vice President of Channel at Dan Tomaszewski said the aim was to promote growth.

“With the executives running this program now, we bring the experience of having been MSPs,” he noted. “We’ve been there, we know what’s going on, and all my friends are still MSPs.”